Returning with a Bow - Phoenix Freeshard

Played awhile back, made a ranger, got temped and ran around speced as melee. Although others seemed to have great success with this spec at the time, I on the other hand felt it was like playing a Night Shade but without the perks of poisons and perf. I created a bow char because I like the bow, picture myself quietly drawing back my bow in the lurky shadows. So my question is, has there been any buffs to the bow damage within the last year? Making it worth while to re-temp and re-spec.

ALSO, does the game still have lag spikes if you haven't rolled back your graphic drivers?

Tue 16 Mar 2021 8:29 AM by Astaa

Archery has been nerfed into the ground...because it did too much damage or something or other *looks at casters, shrugs*

Tue 16 Mar 2021 4:36 PM by Magesty

If you want to play a ranger you are going to need to accept that you'll have to add on fights or group to generate a meaningful amount of RP. Archery damage is good enough to be hitting for 250-350 fairly quickly, but that doesn't really translate to 1v1s where you will get interrupted/blocked and be absolutely murked by almost anything in melee.

"Good" archers on this server play like little shit heads. Add as soon as you've engaged in melee and then turn tail and run from anything that gets within 500 range. They do enough damage with bow to be a threat when adding, but not really enough to be able to solo. The few "successful" solo archers that don't play this way lean on IP4+ and a melee spec to win any sort of 1v1 as they literally need two health pools to compete with normal classes. You can find some videos of that playstyle if for some reason you're interested in watching it...

The biggest disservice Mythic did to archers was giving them the same type of permanent stealth that they gave to assassins. It is so powerful when coupled with potent ranged attacks they can't really have power applied to other parts of their kit without it making them either too powerful or straight up anti-fun. A world in which the archer classes received temporary stealth, reduced stealth, or no stealth at all would see them having a much larger design space for exciting kits and playstyles.

As for the drivers-- I don't have a Nvidia card, but I'm still seeing people asking about it in /advice so I assume it is still an issue.

Tue 16 Mar 2021 5:40 PM by stewbeedoo

Unfortunately Rangers have to be very choosy with their targets.

Preferred targets are Casters and other Sneaks. At higher RR you can take on <=RR4 tanks/light tanks/hybrids. You will still lose a bunch of these fights, but it won't be a total drubbing. If you make the mistake of hitting a Merc then kite until Dirty Tricks expires or you have no chance. In all cases, I don't even bother attacking anything without Purge and IP up.

I also keep the Herald open on my secondary monitor and when I see the incoming targets name type it in to see their class, RR, deaths, solos, etc. You won't always have time to do this of course, but it helps.

Cheers!

Thu 18 Mar 2021 1:43 PM by Lefreak

I have more fun playing melee than bow style. When you hit rank 8 it's more efficient. There is one thing Mythic should improve on, and that is the number of poisoned weapons an assassin can have in his possession and the cheating way they automatically change them when you purge the first set.

Tytyty