Make Archers More Viable

[psymun]

It's great that rangers have the Arcane Archer ability to imbue slaying arrows, but there are 2 major issues with it...

1. Archers are most useful in large areas where they are free from melee attacks. However, there are very few large areas other than slayer areas.

2. Attack speed with a bow is way to slow. Great, I can roll a 20 and do a bunch of damage with my slaying arrows. Umm... I hit about 1/4 of the speed of anyone else. How is this fair?

Don't get me wrong, I've never play PnP so I'm not sure if this is how it's supposed to be, but I'm the type that likes to play lots of different classes, and it makes it less inciting to play other classes, and particularly other Prestige classes if there's no appeal to them.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

The attack speed is definately slow and needs to be increased.
Even more so for the average char who is not specialised with a ranged weapon.

The open area thing is not a problem though. You just can't be the only guy using a ranged weapon and expect to have unlimted room to run from things that try to melee you.

There is plenty of room in almost all dungeons to use ranged weapons. But just like real life, it is more useful in some places than others. And you have to learn how to use the terrain to get the advantage that you want out of it.

You can't expect that a ranged weapon will always serve you. Just like you should not expect that a melee weapon will always be the best choice.

DDO offers many different combat environments. And obsticles in those environments.

You just need to find out how to use those to your advantage.

That same rock that you keep backing up into, can be used to slow down the guy chasing you as well.

Use those dungeon obsticles to shield you from attacks while ranging your target from relative safety.

But a char that never puts his bow away is just as boring as one who never puts his greataxe away.

Archers rule explorer areas. And quests like Kobold Assault. Extremely advantageous in one raid. Useful in several more....at least for short time.

I like archers, but I am perfectly happy with the design of most dungeons/quests/areas in this game.

I want to see more variety actually. I want to see dungeons and monsters that require players of all classes to change weapons and tactics from those that they normally use, to overcome.

But part of that is making ranged combat a meaningful option for all classes/characters as well.
Which would be most easily addressed by speeding up ranged combat for everyone.

Variety is the spice of life!

[Timethief]

just to dig this out again.

1. Make rangers decide at lvl2 which combatstyle they go. ranged OR melee, not both (this should be exchangeable by just changing 1 feat)
2.The vanilla attackspeed of a bow should be at least the same of a 2handed weapon.
3.Multishot in pnp is treated like power attack, to hit bonus for additional arrows. optional a reduction in the cooldown/lasting time of multishot would be nice. (propaly linked to the arcane arrows of AA representing the hail of arrows ability)
4.raidbosses try to hide from the party sometimes (vod,abbot,shroud). melee weapons may not reach em, ranged should be able to hit em, either doin dmg or disrupting the rest (abbot)

-AAonly-
make stances like monkstances: not dispellable.
AA not aviable to all elves by default.

[rimble]

It's great that rangers have the Arcane Archer ability to imbue slaying arrows, but there are 2 major issues with it...

1. Archers are most useful in large areas where they are free from melee attacks. However, there are very few large areas other than slayer areas.

I find archers are most useful in tight confined spaces where they can Improved Precise Shot things easily in a line.

[Dysmetria]

My mechanic archer rocks. +8 damage to each bolt at level 10 from his 26 INT is wicked.

Planning to finish out with Kensai II for +6 more damage per hit and another +4 damage from INT upgrades by level 20.

But I won't complain if they buff archers some more...

[Icculus3k]

My mechanic archer rocks. +8 damage to each bolt at level 10 from his 26 INT is wicked.

Planning to finish out with Kensai II for +6 more damage per hit and another +4 damage from INT upgrades by level 20.

But I won't complain if they buff archers some more...

The issue isn't the damage per hit but rather the number of hits.

[supp3nhuhn]

...
AA not aviable to all elves by default.

No ty.

[Chai]

I agree that it needs that attack rate increased to that of a two handed weapon. There should also be many shot cooldown time decreasers in the PRE pool for AA, to get it to one minute or so. This would make it so it still would not be an "always on" effect, but would be alot more useful to those sacrificing melee damage to get better with a bow.

[Zuldar]

The problem with just a flat increase in attack speed is that ranged doesn't synergize well with melee. If they changed it so ranged caused less aggro then melee, then it work out pretty well.

[salmag]

The problem with just a flat increase in attack speed is that ranged doesn't synergize well with melee. If they changed it so ranged caused less aggro then melee, then it work out pretty well.

I think range could synergize well with melee. As long as you work as a group.

Some examples:

a. Melee forms a wall, archer fires from behind the wall (gets aggro), mobs charge, run into wall, melee kills while aggroed on archer (archer continues to fire).

b. Archer stands behind melee, lets melee intimidate and get aggro, archer fires away, while melee swings away.

c. Archer uses paralyzer, cursespewer, and destruction bows, melee has their way with mobs (this works well even with zerging meleers). Paralyzer works best for this scenario, imo.

That being said...

Archery NEEDS to come in line with melee. Same speed, as S & B, or THF. And Manyshot should be fixed.

[dragons1ayer74]

A scaling +2% speed increase per full BAB would be a nice start. Plus x-bows (not repeaters) need some type of big adjustment...higher damage and improved crit threat range would be good, and yes I know the mechanics get to add int bonus to damage now.

[supp3nhuhn]

The problem with just a flat increase in attack speed is that ranged doesn't synergize well with melee. If they changed it so ranged caused less aggro then melee, then it work out pretty well.

Most archer types have enough sp to pick up a cc skill which doesn't even lower dps on ranged weapons.
Just diplo em off when they're close, no need to annoy the rest of the party by kiting and screaming look at me while draining the healer.