Disco Archer - need advice please

[RazicGL]

He will be running the following template. I will list current and final skills!

Archery 120
Tactics 115.9 (120)
Anat 84 (90)
Healing 58 (90 - just started training last night)
Music 97.1 (will be 120 but locked until disco is done)
Discord 88 (will be 120 but is going soooo slow)
Chiv 71 (will be drpping to 60 real and boosting up a bit with jewels)

Now I took him out for a tset run last night to riktor with a group.... I have a resonable imbued suit but its by no means good... I was using a comp bow with Max HML (only displayed 30+% though as I had SSI i believe that the intensity is the same as the calculation is based on both SSi and HML??) 45% hit energy area and 45% Hit fireball ans the rest on SSI and damage increase.

With my current suit I have around 90 mana 175 stam and 110 hp.... my suit will be getting a major rework over the weekend but I am just posting so you can see what I was working with.

for the prespawn I had no trouble at all until it popped Knight errants and Justicars... I could take a few at once but any more than 3or 4 and I was running off screen to heal up ect... As my discord is low I was surprised to find out how much difference it made when discording regular dragons/drakes and the orphs. it made managing the crowd a little easier I just made sure that as the timer was up I was targeting the next mob. I will have a play around with bows as I remember the lightning arrow special being fairly awesome on low lvl spawn.

When Rikki popped I swtiched out to a 100% energy damage Dragon slayer comp bow with 43% velocity, Maxed HML and some HCI as well as SSI/remaining in damage inc.

His earthquake hurt me pretty bad but again I found that although my mana went down I did have enough to be spamming AI's... I was hitting for around 200dmg on an AI with EoO and DF. I got the feeling though that had I been the sole focus of his attention I would have struggled to keep my mana at a level where I could keep myself healed and buffed...

I get the feeling from previous posts that this is going to be a mana intensive template... I really like the idea of having disco and have worked it really hard the last few days to get where I am now. I know that once masteries come into play the mana game will be a whole new level.

can anyone suggest any ways to improve the template or suggest mods that I should be aiming for on my suit and stats!

If I have to drop some skills to swap things around I am ok with this but I want Music/disco in there as well as archery

Thanks guys and gals

 

[Obsidian]

So if I read this right your going for this template:

120 Archery
120 Music
120 Disco
120 Tactics
90 Anatomy
90 Healing
60 Chiv

My recommendation is to tweak to this:

120 Archery
120 Music
120 Disco
100 Tactics
100 Anatomy
100 Healing
84 Chiv

84 chiv gets you to the 50% bonus for EOO. Pair that with a super slayer and you are at the damage cap. I tweaked the tactics because your healing skill is essential to keep you alive and there is a damage bonus at 100 anatomy. IMO disco is hard to train (though try training with the new masteries) so I would put +12 Disco on both your ring and bracelet. As for your suit, you are going to need 40 LMC and 40-45 HCI. I would aim for 180+ stamina and 45 SSI as you'll fire your comp bow at 1.5s this way. Dex will need to be atleast 140 to get 4s bandages. It would be cool if you could run 4/6 FC/FCR for chiv in addition to HPI and Mana Inc but that would be pushing it.

Have you thought about using a garg for throwing instead and running the same template? The Soul Glaive is my favorite ranged weapon. It is the same speed as the comp bow, also has AI, but hits harder and is one handed (which opens up pots as an option for you).

Just some stuff to think about.

 

[sirion]

The key issue here is your HP. You are mostly relying on bandages to heal, and it is very slow for spawn. Unless you have Life Leech on weapons.

So, while Disco/Music is fun to have, you can try replace them with 100 Necro, 100 Bushido (or Spirit Speak). In vamp form, you dont worry about HP so often, and you will kill mobs FASTER. Disco is also not "needed" when fighting lvl 4, coz you kill the mobs straight faster. And when facing the boss, with a faster and effective bow, you can still kill it just as efficient without Disco. (but if you rely on Disco: you will need to re-disco when you run away to heal.)

 

[CorwinXX]

Well, you can be an archer if you are going to get high-end woodland armor. In other case IMHO it's better to be a thrower.
Throwing weapons are better than bows. Gargish leather armor has more resists than human/elf leather armor.

 

[CorwinXX]

You need to decide how are you going to do damage. If you don't use special moves or/and skills your damage will be low.

 

[RazicGL]

You need to decide how are you going to do damage. If you don't use special moves or/and skills your damage will be low.

I will be intending to use special moves... was thinking of running with switchout set up for comp bow and magical short bow... Comp bow for AI and the chain lightning special on the magic short bow... To be honest after reading the posts on here the Archer seems to be dwindling away and being replaced with throwers.... I am unsure as to what to do as to be fair when running this character against anything other than mediam rated mobs he takes a dirt nap fairly quickly.....

I am thinking obsidians tweaks may be an improvement but in all fairness I don't know if I would just be better sticking to my sampire for hunting/spawning. I guess this guy would kick ass against Navery and other High end critters.... as long as there are just 1 or 2 of them hehe as in situations where there are groups he struggles a little... IMHO though this is probably due to my playstle and ability with the character rather than his skills... I guess I will have to play him more and get a real feel for how an archer should be played....

When you get using a sampire often its all too easy to think that any char can stand toe with mega monsters and not drop much health hehe.

 

[CorwinXX]

I will be intending to use special moves... was thinking of running with switchout set up for comp bow and magical short bow... Comp bow for AI and the chain lightning special on the magic short bow....

With skills above (84 chivalry, no bushido) you hadly can use AI very often.
- Withoud FC/FCR and with low chivalry you often will not be able to re-cast EOO in time. Few feazles when you urgent need take off EOO may be fatal.
- Without bushido your bonus to damage will be low (just 50%) when you haven't slayer or can't use slayer (for example, daemons + elems combo). This means even less oppotunity to use AI.
- To be able to fight vs crowds you need 45 DCI (but without Momentum Strike you will not be so effective).

But you can easily get a pretty good suit 45/45 + 50 EP (gargish) suit (with reforged hci on armor)... but without 24 skill points on jewels. And don't forget you also need 15 SSI.

 

[RazicGL]

I will be playing around with runics and reforging over this weekend, need to figure out how to get HCI through reforging, I am doing the same for my sampire. Once i get tinker legs my sampire suit will be insane, I will then try to build a similar suit for the archer only mods may differ a little.

 

[CorwinXX]

need to figure out how to get HCI through reforging

Check this topic:
[Imbuing] - Reforging. How to | Stratics Forums

To a quick test how are your archer or thrower is doing do a minispawn with fire ants in Abyss dungeon.

 

[RazicGL]

Check this topic:
[Imbuing] - Reforging. How to | Stratics Forums

To a quick test how are your archer or thrower is doing do a minispawn with fire ants in Abyss dungeon.

Having been the inspiration behind my new found crafting ability can you suggest useful mods for my bows? I am currently running a comp bow with SSI/DI/HML/Hit fire area and a little fireball action.