Teach me to kill an archer.

[Splup]

I'm a veteran PvP mage player, but I gotta admit I need help now.

In open areas (where most of PvP takes place except Spawn areas where you can try to block ur opponent with fields) I just can't take down an archer without getting really lucky.

My mage has 120 eval, 120(5 from talisman) magery, 120 wrestling, 120 resist, GM scribe, 110 medit (10 medit comes from my scrappers) and 45 chivarly.

My suit has 65 DCI (without shield), 35EP, 2/6 casts, 25 SDI (capped to 15), and ofc MR, LRC, LMC. With G str pot I have 145 hitpoints, and with Bless 141 intelligence. So I'm pretty well geared also.

On my shard there's very few PvP mages left tbh, most are archers and there's few melee players and some tamer-archers. I think many have PvP mage also but they don't want to play em anymore. I quess they have same problem as I do.

So basically when I face archer 1on1, what I do is I usually summon a demon (if no GZ), curse him and start banging him with both large and small spells (if I get the chance from healing myself). Getting him damaged is very hard, since he's being extremely offensive and defensive at the same time: Shooting me with huge dmg and using 4sek bandies. I can try to block his bandies with poison but they are pretty good at timing their cure potions before bandies take place so it's usually useless, and they are still shooting me at the same time.

What makes the situation tricky is that I can't be both at the same time, I need to choose if I'm offensive or defensive. To make damage I need to cast large offencive spells which leaves me vulnerable since I can't heal at the same time I'm making damage.

Almost only way I can get one killed is if you get them like 60% - 70% health (At this point most of them don't run yet). Then get their bandies blocked, and get explo FS through without getting disturped and be lucky that the demon does the same at the same time, and archer doesnt run before I get to target my flamestrike (which they usually do), and that I get to shoot one small spell to finish him. Other way is to get him block with some wall but it's kinda hard since if you stop to cast a wall he's long gone.

If I can't manage to finish him off with one combo before he gets the change to run, there's nothing I can do. I can't make damage while Im running. He starts running and using 4sek bandies at the same time till hi's 100% health and then he tries again to take me down.

If I get low health trying to run away is basically a suicide. I can't heal myself while I'm running, but he can make damage while he's running (moving shot), so basically I will run till he makes enough damage with moving shot and I'm dead. Moving shot takes so little mana on human 40% LMC characters (jack of all trades gives so many combat skill points) that these archers regen more mana then they use shooting moving shot with every shot. So I have no way to escape, so I haveto stand still and try to manage to stay alive.

Situation is bit different in dungeons/towns where I can teleport to roof or something, even thou most of archers carry teleport scrolls and with human 20 magery they succeed 100% so it's kinda useless also. In choke points I can use fields, it's kinda only place where I get benefit.

Could someone please tell me how to kill a well geared archer 1on1 with a pure mage?

I tried parrying mage without inscription but there was no I way I could manage to make enough dmg to kill one.

 

[Arch Magus]

This will be a difficult fight for you.
Very difficult indeed...
Only tougher matchup I can think of is a Disarm spamming Concussion Macer. Or the Dismount tamer, take your pick.

One suggestion I have would be a slight change in template.

Try stoning Gm Scribe, pick up Gm Spirit speak or higher.
Drop Chiv. Pick up 60 Necro.
This allows 100% cast Evil Omen, Corpse skin, Pain spike and Blood oath. Those are the main spells that will enhance the damage in your template.

Blood oath works wonders, ...IF.. you can get those greater heals off in between arrows.
Oath>prep Gheal>heal after arrow
The archer just did a nice chunk of damage to himself.
Try to follow up with a Evilomen>poison, Pain spike.
Mix in Vas ort Flams.
Stay healed.

The toughest part is just timing your heals. As soon as he hits you, cast that heal.

I hope this gives you some good ideas. Good luck.

 

[Fox (Europa)]

Max bandage speed is 4s, not 3s. Chances are that if you cursed your opponent they are 5s.

Fox

 

[WarUltima]

Just like I've been saying. It's not you, its the template. You are playing a mage so you are more than likely have much better player skill than any archer in UO. UO is no longer my skill > you so you lose.

You are one of the few who is still running pure mage template, which basically means "you do not have the killing power to take out dexer". Even if you pick up necromancy and SS you would still have a tough fight. And most archer/dexers are running pot script its not their timing they use script to keep them as safe as possible. He is using balanced bow and it altomatically drinks cure pot the second they got poisoned and it drinks health pot if their HP goes below certain point, its all automated (most likely). Even if they do it by hand it has no delay for drinking cures and your poison spell has casting time... casting poison means you are not dealing damage + you are standing still= they hit you for free.

At current state, while fighting a dexer it's very hard to get any spell higher than lighting off during the fight, and unfortunately lighting is not powerful enough to cause "finger slip". Their bandids heal for 40-50 once every 4-6 seconds even if you get 3 lightings off they will be healed back to top. On top of pots auto curing + chiv 4/6 super fast heals and remove curse you only have magery spell damage so you have to be really lucky to win or the archer has to really suck hard to get killed.

There's almost no alternative viable mage template unless you include necromancy and spirit speak. It's not that you suck or the archer has skill. It's your template. You may not die but you simply dont have enough to kill them.

 

[Arch Magus]

Max bandage speed is 4s, not 3s. Chances are that if you cursed your opponent they are 5s.

Fox

There you go, some pro-help.

Must be an archer.

 

[aarons6]

not bashing your temp, but why not drop inscription and wrestling (stone it for later), make it archery to 120 and tactics to 100.. get your dex to 80 and find a spell channel magic shorty with 35ssi and shoot him back. id also drop chiv for necro
you wont do much dmg, but when you get a few spells off and he runs away you can chase him shooting..

 

[Clarifier]

Not the most dignified way but try to get and keep the upper hand with dismount and disarm. Try to keep them debuffed and low on mana if you can and invis if you get into trouble. If you have a buddy that's a skilled archer a few friendly games of mortal kombat can help you sort out what may or may not work.

 

[JoO]

go necro. Evil omen mana vamp evil omen mind rot are your friends. An archer that can't use specials is alot less dangerous. I use evil omen before any duration spell simply because its super fast to cast and it lowers their magic resist thus making it last longer.

 

[Dragkiris]

Very hard to kill a archer with good gear on any mage template. Archers are way overpowered so good luck but i would get necro and ss bloodoath works wonders if they dont have resist or apples.

 

[5% Luck]

Why not drop magery to 105(no fail 7th lv) resist to gm all chiv med to gm(90) and wrestling to gm for 90 tactics to wrestle disarm?

 

[Dragkiris]

Dont need tactics for wrestle disarm. And the archer can just run and shoot and heal while he runs unlike a mage who has to stop to do anything

 

[5% Luck]

See when mages were king(long ago) i decided to build my pvp template vs mages. I went full necro archer.

Now mages are drawn back to a lower caste. Ive always been a fan of the underdog and have been doing some thinking on the mage. eval/anat works good in place of the wrestling. Add in healing and alot more dex and you theoretically can out heal any damage save for a tamer. in mani +aids equals unkillable(i think)

I might try this soon and give ya a report!

thinking 95/80/80 str/int/dex

 

[Dragkiris]

Ok so to do that you will have no mana pool or have low dex so 8 second heals or something like that. Theres a reason people dont run with that template.

 

[5% Luck]

Well with stm over 120 thats what 4 sec aids not to bad a lot of mr means lvl 1 spells dont take ANY mana leaving your pool completly for nuking then a nice -20 mage repeater/shortbow for minimal damage seting up for a timed nuke it might just work in a skilled players hand

 

[Rix/\]

as a vet archer, I'll tell you my worst enemy are necros.

 

[Kiss Of Death]

How to kill an archer....it's simple if you got the skills. Your mage is a pure mage ok... I suggest you to put Parrying instead of inscribe... you will never die to archers anymore and to dexers in general.

Btw if you wanna kill 1, 2, 3 dexers when you're solo , you should know that a GREAT PKER can trap anybody and can kill tons of ppl even if outnumbered.

You must go among houses if in yew or in tunnels if in dungeons (see despises tunnels, thera, deceit etc etc etc ) and trap all the archers u want.

If you know how to play a mage, you've the most powerful template in game.

this archer for example follows me till a little peninsula in Yew gate... and I trapped him like that...I teleported over...and he died while insulting me

or I was outnumbered 5vs1 , you go among houses where there is just one tile of space, drop a para field, if somebody tries to enter, u make a wall of stone behind, and pwn the archer that entered inside:

or (and this it the best thing u can ever do tbh) you go among 2 houses that have just one tile of space among each other and u drop , while you keep running, an energy field.

This way , since of the delay of the field, ppl behind you gets STUCKED in the energy field and you can finish them off easily and laughting at them. Here 4vs2 , I killed 2 (a bushido dexer and an archer...) in this way:

use your imagination with a mage, you can do tons of things .

Anyway , put PARRYING , you gonna be SOLID.