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  1. #1
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    Default An Example of Solo Arcane Archer Play (Video)

    Here's a little video I threw together of some basic circle-strafing/sprinting/Improved Precise Shot kiting in the Vale.

    It might prove helpful for those thinking of making Arcane Archers or considering what the Update 3 material brought to the table.

    I'll post another video soon of some group play when I'm not swamped with school so you guys can see the contrast.

    For those curious:
    20 Pure Ranger Arcane Archer
    Bow used in Video: +3 Frost Holy Longbow of Greater Lawful Outsider Bane (the Frost is ignored on these enemies, only Hellhounds and Hell Cats aren't immune/resistant)
    Slayer Imbue
    34 Str (With Rage from Bloodrage Symbiont Trinket)
    Black Dragonhide Armor

    Here's the Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93oY1PP589o

    Feedback and comments appreciated (but for once maybe we can try to avoid complaining about ranged and simply discuss solo viability till I can upload a group or Shroud video).

    Questions are welcome.

    -Rivenstar, 20 Ranger Arcane Archer, Khyber-

  2. #2
    Bwest Fwiends Memnir's Avatar
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    Having Camouflage on really made it hard to follow what you were doing - or trying to show. I ceased watching just after you popped Multishot, because it was frankly annoying to watch for that reason.

    If you make another vid, I'd suggest foregoing the Camo buff.
    Exit, pursued by a bear. ~ William Shakespeare (stage direction from The Winter's Tale)

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  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Memnir View Post
    Having Camouflage on really made it hard to follow what you were doing - or trying to show. I ceased watching just after you popped Multishot, because it was frankly annoying to watch for that reason.

    If you make another vid, I'd suggest foregoing the Camo buff.
    Alright, noted, though I didn't really think seeing the graphic for my toon was terribly important, I mean I would have just been covered with Barkskin otherwise..

    Was just trying to give lower level Arcane Archers an idea of what to expect.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by AnsharDarkangel
    It's Hard to Argue Against Solo Arcane Archer Viability
    A level 20 character killing a bunch of monsters that are appropriate for level 12 individuals is not positive evidence of viability.

  5. #5
    Bwest Fwiends Memnir's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AnsharDarkangel View Post
    Alright, noted, though I didn't really think seeing the graphic for my toon was terribly important, I mean I would have just been covered with Barkskin otherwise..

    Was just trying to give lower level Arcane Archers an idea of what to expect.
    I understand that - but being able to see your character helps give a visual cue on what you are doing and why. Since the vid was to show technique... it's a good idea to be able to see the character in action - and not just a hard to follow and indistinct blob.

    That's just how I see it, anyways. Other folks' mileage may vary.
    Exit, pursued by a bear. ~ William Shakespeare (stage direction from The Winter's Tale)

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  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Angelus_dead View Post
    A level 20 character killing a bunch of monsters that are appropriate for level 12 individuals is not positive evidence of viability.
    I was showing the tactic, Angelus. I can do another vid of me doing the exact same thing in Shavarath. It works just as well and things die equally quickly. It stops working when I have 4 other people in the party and the monsters start having much more health, as anyone would expect. This is of course a thread about Solo play, though. I'll post a Group video soon. I'm sure you'll have plenty to dismay at there.
    Last edited by AnsharDarkangel; 03-09-2010 at 02:44 AM.

  7. #7
    Community Member Dark-Star's Avatar
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    The camo was no bother for me, fwiw.

    How does he do solo in the Amrath quests like Sins, Bastion, New Invasion and Genesis Point?
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  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dark-Star View Post
    The camo was no bother for me, fwiw.

    How does he do solo in the Amrath quests like Sins, Bastion, New Invasion and Genesis Point?
    I solo'd Iron Maw/Bastion of Power with a Hireling yesterday. It took me roughly an hour and a half (I had never done it before). Was a nasty surprise when the second red named boss came out but I kept kiting and switched from Silver to Cold Iron arrows and got through it at about 3/4th health with no mana left to spare. Unfortunately the hireling lasted only about 20 seconds in the boss room before eating it, so I had to be creative. Got a Priest Belt and a Large Sulfurous Stone for my trouble. Did the quest on Normal.

    Keep in mind that Riven is my first 20, so I don't know the Higher level content super well yet. I can update more as I run more. Thanks for the interest.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by AnsharDarkangel View Post
    I was showing the tactic, Angelus.
    So why did you use it to make claims about solo effectiveness?

    Quote Originally Posted by AnsharDarkangel View Post
    It stops working when I have 4 other people in the party and the monsters start having much more health, as anyone would expect. This is of course a thread about Solo play
    A solo-viable character can defeat those monsters without the benefit of Dungeon Scaling and without being +5 levels above them.

    That was a standard thing for level 15 characters to do immediately after Vale of Twilight was released. Even today, level 13-16 characters will run split-slayer where each of 4 people clears one sector of the map.

    Quote Originally Posted by AnsharDarkangel View Post
    Edit: By the way, I solo'd Iron Maw with a Hireling yesterday. It took me roughly an hour and a half
    If you have ranks in Hide and Move Silently, you should be able to get it down to 35 minutes (unless there's a bed lever). The hireling slows it down.
    Last edited by Angelus_dead; 03-09-2010 at 02:49 AM.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Angelus_dead View Post
    So why did you use it to make claims about solo effectiveness?
    Because with sprint, monsters simply cannot hit you, even red named bosses. It doesn't matter if they're mobs in the Vale, Shav, the Dragons in Tor, they won't touch you. Kiting can be pretty powerful, I'm sure you of all people know this. The only point that I've ever seen you argue is that Ranger Arcane Archers have underwhelming damage per second, and I can certainly agree outside of Manyshot. The video even substantiates that point. As far as survivability goes, being able to kite and hit multiple mobs at once with ranged attacks is pretty darn solo friendly. When you get to grouping, that tactic has to stop completely (and those that don't tend to get kicked after frustrating the hell out of other players).

    Quote Originally Posted by Angelus_dead View Post
    A solo-viable character can defeat those monsters without the benefit of Dungeon Scaling and without being +5 levels above them.
    What I was showing is that even if I was hitting for 5 damage at a time I still could have killed them and they would have barely touched me. I didn't think we disagreed on them being solo viable. I thought the point of contention was that they were group unfriendly and not high level viable in groups and raids due to underwhelming DPS. Are you adding that they can't solo to your list of points? I probably can't touch the DPS claims but that one I can stomp out pretty heftily. I have no problems soloing at all.

    Quote Originally Posted by Angelus_dead View Post
    That was a standard thing for level 15 characters to do immediately after Vale of Twilight was released. Even today, level 13-16 characters will run split-slayer where each of 4 people clears one sector of the map.
    I was clearing the Vale with the tactic shown in the Video when I was the minimum level for the zone. Same thing with the Orchard. Circle Strafe kiting works perfectly when solo. What I'm sure we can both agree on is that the problem starts in groups and raids when the Arcane Archer is standing in one spot and shooting without Manyshot up. That's when that underwhelming DPS problem we discussed ad nauseum here starts to take effect.


    Quote Originally Posted by Angelus_dead View Post
    If you have ranks in Hide and Move Silently, you should be able to get it down to 35 minutes (unless there's a bed lever). The hireling slows it down.
    Yea, unfortunately I had never done the quest before; keep in mind that Rivenstar is my first level 20 Character. I didn't know if stealthing and then porting the hireling to the end (or no hireling at all) would be effective or wise. I took that long because I killed EVERYTHING in the mission. Didn't move to the next zone transition until the map was completely clear each time. If I were to run it solo again I would most likely take advantage of stealth, as you said.

  11. #11
    Community Member Delt's Avatar
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    I want to be nice... He's just so enthusiastic about his AA, I'm pulling for him.

    *watches video*

    Egh... Well, you could have pulled out a pair of banishing rapiers...or hell, dps rapiers and handled that solo Vale content 50% faster. Not the best video to showcase your point

    But, you perhaps showed something that is true. If you want to solo at a slower pace, ranged works. In fact, every quest has unintended perch spots and most quests allow you to bug out mob AI in various ways (provided you arent trapped via barriers). You can even solo certain Epic content (again, sloooooowly and ultimately a waste of time).

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Delt View Post
    I want to be nice... He's just so enthusiastic about his AA, I'm pulling for him.

    *watches video*

    Egh... Well, you could have pulled out a pair of banishing rapiers...or hell, dps rapiers and handled that solo Vale content 50% faster. Not the best video to showcase your point

    But, you perhaps showed something that is true. If you want to solo at a slower pace, ranged works. In fact, every quest has unintended perch spots and most quests allow you to bug out mob AI in various ways (provided you arent trapped via barriers). You can even solo certain Epic content (again, sloooooowly and ultimately a waste of time).
    Keep in mind I have no frame of reference, this is my first 20. I thought I was doing alright but apparently even with mass pulling my damage is underwhelming visually. I was hoping that wasn't the case but I suppose I knew.

    Thanks for the feedback.

  13. #13
    Community Member Qzipoun's Avatar
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    "Run Baby Run" would have been a more appropriate song for the video [For any Garbage fans out there...]

    I hope you only solo though, because your tactics would **** off quite a lot of people, just pull out a real weapon and kill the stuff already

  14. #14
    Community Member Ginetti's Avatar
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    One cool thing about this vid is the fact that the Arcane archer takes very little or no damage. My barb, while hitting for more damage per swing, could not hope to go in there vs all those mobs and come out as unscathed as the ranger.

    Yes, there are pots available, wands, spells, healers etc. But this vid was to show solo ability.

    To the person that said "just pull out your melee and kill already". Well, sure you may have killed them slighty faster, but you would also have sustained much more damage.

    Wait until you have a Lit2 Longbow with Terrior inbued arrows, or an epic bow with terror inbued.

    Also, remember, as you TR a ranger, in your next life you have +2 to all ranged damage (translating to +6 on a crit).

    A better boost than most. If someone actually had the patience to stack that 3 times, that's +6 damage per normal hit and 18 per crit.

    Per multishot hit (lets say just a single target, and not a row of mobs) that's 30 extra damage per multi shot at 20.

    Yes, ranged is still behind. Not useless tho. And lots of fun.
    Last edited by Ginetti; 03-09-2010 at 07:47 PM.

  15. #15
    Founder ghale's Avatar
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    Default and the point is?

    So at level 20 you're finally able to solo an explorer area for...?

    Wouldn't it be more viable to show how this would work in a quest with limited space on elite or epic?

    I don't really see what the accomplishment is here or how this gives a realistic expectation of what arcane archers can look forward to at level 20...unless the realistic expectation is all they will be good for is soloing way under level content, with scaling.

  16. #16
    Community Member Creeper's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AnsharDarkangel View Post
    Feedback and comments appreciated (but for once maybe we can try to avoid complaining about ranged and simply discuss solo viability till I can upload a group or Shroud video
    It would have been so refreshing if you had ranged then pulled out a banishing rapier, or any other high-crit melee weapon, during the first few minutes of that video instead of kiting. Those devils would have been done and over with in seconds.

    In the meantime, I look forward to the group videos of a reasonable level, especially on elite.

  17. #17
    Community Member grodon9999's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Creeper View Post

    In the meantime, I look forward to the group videos of a reasonable level, especially on elite.
    It would be a very boring video to watch.

  18. #18
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    Oh come on, he did say it's an example... it's obviously not to show e-peenness

    Good work, sometimes a video will demonstrate things better than words.

    he did mention it's for solo play too, in the end he's just trying to 'teach' other rangers who's learning what range play could do

    side note on other things rangers could do... tumble in circles while kiting... the better you get the smaller the circle you can make and the tighter the group of mobs you can round up.

    Jumping and running in circles is common practice for kiting, since run speed sideways and forward is the same, the trick is to keep track of where the mobs are...

    I had been taught when i first played a range ranger, about tumbling backwards while shooting, how to judge the aggro range of mobs, done properly you can even seperate individual mobs out of groups... and the business of circle kiting, always (1st person shooter view) aim a little further ahead of the mob and the arrows will land.

    promoting range play doesn't mean said ranger will ONLY use a bow... in fact it does help a group when they learn the timing when to pull out two weapons in mid air and jump over a whole group and slash them from behind... or with enough tumble skills able to directly tumble behind a charging mob for that sneaky attack bonus

    but I do agree that, rather than a solo video a group video with commentory would be even better to help the rising rangers to appretiate their bows beyond many shots.

    The AA got nice imbues that compliment nicely on group support, many consider acid imbue to be weak.. but starting a fight running towards a group of intimidated mobs landing a melf on each before pulling out a pair of rapiers in mid air slashing away is quite possible to make your ranger just that little more lethal... lets not forget about the dreadful terror arrow which is all that useful in combination of improved cursespewing + paralysing + shattlemantle.

    Con damage lowers fortitude saves, dex damage reduces reflex save and AC... str damage makes a cleric happier when damage isn't high... you get the idea...

    On another note, we're kind of forgetting about our deepwood sniper cousins, I suppose turbine will eventually make them the 'top burst' range damage... AA is about group support as it seems, not high burst damage.

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Qzipoun View Post
    "Run Baby Run" would have been a more appropriate song for the video [For any Garbage fans out there...]
    Born to run - The boss.
    Hump? What hump?

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by koshkoo View Post
    Oh come on, he did say it's an example... it's obviously not to show e-peenness
    Demonstration videos are great and all.

    But when you stick in text claiming to have won some argument about the effectiveness of the class, then you're overreaching to beyond what the video evidence supports. The wise course would be to leave out those comparative claims and let the results speak for themselves (at least until you have comparative experience to go by).

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