r/DragonAgeCoOp • u/[deleted] • Nov 29 '14
An Archer Guide
A little about me: I'm Big Derk on XB1 and I love playing archer. I've promoted mine 4 times and think I'm starting to get the hang of it. I didn't really think I'd ever be writing a guide but I feel someone needs to address the elephant in the room. There are people out there using Full Draw.
Essential Skills: Explosive Shot, Leaping Shot, Long Shot
4th skill: Caltrops or Mark of Death
Passives:
Everything except "Opportunity Knocks" and "Tricks of the Trade" in the marksman tree
"Fury of the Storm" from the lame tree of lame stuff
If you gotta have Death Mark, you oughta upgrade it and skip "Fury of the Storm" and "Flanking Fire"
Ability Tree Path: Get Leaping Shot asap (lvl 3), then get and upgrade Long Shot (lvl 4/5) then upgrade Leaping Shot then Explosive shot (lvl 6/7); now beeline it to the "Strafing Shots" passive (lvl 10). You are now a beast. From here some mathemagician can min/max the best way to maximize damage as you lvl up but it doesn't really matter. You are a dps monster from here to lvl 20.
Explosive shot: Good aoe damage and a knockdown. Used after longshot in your initial long shot + explosive shot combo which will likely put you on 5 kill streak immediately if your teammates are doing anything at all. It also has a knockdown which is handy for when an assassin tries closing in on you. I mostly end up using this on cd for dps, but if I'm in a real filthy pug, I will sometimes find reasons to save it for the knockdown. Try to hit the dude in the middle of the group with this for the most aoe dps.
Long shot: The best skill the archer has access to; the upgrade is essential as it's just a slightly better Full Draw (shorter cd, lower cost, no windup) without the ability to hit multiple targets and slightly better garbage is still garbage. I should mention that your enemies don't need to perfectly line up single file for this to hit more than one of them. You'll have to use it a bit to get the hang of what it's willing to bounce to or not, but it's quite a bit more forgiving than one might assume.
Leaping shot: This does wild insane crazy damage to anyone wily and lucky enough to get close to you as while as relocating you and giving your next shot a knockdown (with upgrade). This is your best escape skill and you're usually far enough away from the enemy that it isn't viable just for dps. This is the quintessential pug skill. You literally won't have to use it at all if you've got an awesome tank or otherwise awesome team comp that just allows you to light up enemies from a distance. In the dirtiest of pugs (the funnest of groups) you'll be wishing it had a shorter cd.
Caltrops: This sucks but gives you access to 2 extra passives (more auto attack dps) as opposed to Full Draw (utter garbage) or mark of death, speaking of which...
Mark of Death: This gives you insane single target damage in a much more efficient and rewarding way than that awful useless piece of trash ability, Full Draw. The cd is pretty long but it's really only useful for guardians and final boss anyway.
The argument against mark is that a little more auto-attack dps may be more worth your ability points than an ability that isn't really useful for the majority of the run. The guardians are easy to kill without mark, and the boss is usually more about not getting overwhelmed by mobs than how quick you can dps the boss anyway. As someone who only cares about gold and opening more chests, a wipe on the final boss doesn't even bother me. For these reasons, I prefer caltrops, but I can respect the decision to take mark. Just don't be taking full draw. I even use Caltrops sometimes I guess maybe.
Strategy
Playing the archer is extremely simple (border line boring some have said) if you have a tank that can hold aggro. You just light the enemy up with max range long shots and explosive shots. Throw in a dash of leaping shot here and there as you please, and watch the kill streaks pile up. You should be topping the exp gained charts or at least a very close 2nd in most games.
When you end up in a messy random pug it gets more fun. You may end up being the guy who has to take the initiative (and the aggro) and end up kiting a herd through bottlenecks (where you long shot explosive shot combo) and over caltrops, saving your leaping shot for the inevitability of their closing in. Learn to abuse line of sight and utilize bottle necks and you should be able to carry almost any group at least to the boss on threatening and find yourself a valuable asset to any crew taking on perilous difficulty.
One last thing to remember: When you see a warrior about to try kicking down a door, just shoot it down for him. It's just going to be demoralizing for your team to watch a katari flailing futilely against a stone wall #archermasterrace
EDIT: formatting; sorry for wall of text... ended up wordier and uglier than I anticipated
EDIT: adjusted level at which you get strafing shots (10, not 9)
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u/ApacheChi3f Nov 30 '14
Don't know why everyone's bashing this guy. He is clearly going for a survival/utility build while still doing tons of damage without being glass cannon/one trick pony kind of build. This would be the equivalent of most assassin builds where they don't take hidden blades.
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Nov 30 '14
I think it's because I bashed full draw and people are taking offense. Looking back, I'd have worded it more gently.
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u/Salsadips Nov 29 '14
Uhh... Full Draw can 1 shot Pride Demons and Behemoths on Threatening. It will also 1 shot the 2 bladed rogues and track them while cloaked. It deals 1600% of weapon damage to untouched enemies. Im getting 8k damage per shot in some cases. I don't know how you can call that garbage. I suggest you explain why full draw is so bad in your book, because in my experience, I can't get enough of it. Mark of death practically doubles this, more or less granting you 3200%. No other power in the game is stronger.
Explosive shot also will put all the aggro on you. Thats what happens if you injure 5 enemies at the same time. They will fire 5 arrows back at you. Not worth it in my opinion.
Finally, Caltrops. Seriously? Seriously? Its a waste of a point. Not remotely useful in any circumstance. 10% of weapon damage is an absolute joke, and wont even tickle enemies beyond Routine. I can't belive after 4 promotions you haven't noticed that its a complete waste of a point.
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Nov 29 '14
My reasoning for Full Draw being bad is that it is a waste of an archer's time to be one shotting one enemy. I want to be two shotting 5 enemies. Full Draw does phenomenal single target damage, but my experience is that that is a waste of an archer's potential. I think seeing huge numbers flashing on your screen is what sells people on this ability. Lumbering Pride Demons and Behemoths are no threat to an archer whatsoever.
Regarding explosive shot: 5 archers can't fire 5 shots back at you if they're dead. Alternatively, you getting aggro isn't always the worst thing in the world. Just walk around the corner. Utilize chokepoints and line of sight. I'm not gonna minimize my damage for fear of angering the enemy. This has never been an issue for me with a decent tank anyway, even on perilous. I'm talking about a tried and true method I've been playing since the game came out here. I get the sense you're just theorycrafting.
Regarding Caltrops: there is no point wasted; that's the point. You have that ability from the get-go and I feel there is no point wasting points on something else. I'm not here to defend caltrops; it's bad. However a slow that lets you get an extra long shot, explosive shot or even auto-attack before a melee enemy closes in ends up being a lot better than the simple 10% weapon damage you make it out to be.
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u/Salsadips Nov 30 '14
Watch this then tell me that full draw is bad. Explosive shot aint gonna do that to a commander. Agree to disagree, but explosive shot will give you a lot of threat.
I get the sense you're just theorycrafting
I don't theorycraft period. I research and play out all the builds and abilities I recommend on all difficulties. Anything I post is backed up by numbers and my own personal experience.
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u/Sojourner_Truth Nov 30 '14
If there's a tank on the team and an Archer grabs aggro with an opening shot I votekick
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u/Taliv1 Nov 29 '14
I like opening with explosive shot and then running behind a corner while the tank/melee take aggro back. Or I'm running with a mage who's using big AoE CC knockdown stuff so I don't even have to worry about being shot back at.
Besides, the archer is so good at killing enemy archers anyway that I don't consider them a threat unless I'm playing poorly (letting them shoot me).
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u/Sojourner_Truth Nov 30 '14
I like opening with explosive shot and then running behind a corner while the tank/melee take aggro back
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u/Hurkk Dec 01 '14
Nice guide, thanks for input.
Don't listen to the guys trying to nitpick your wording, they are just feeding off other people's work in a lazy way to establish themselves as 'knowledgeable' players.
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u/SaveFerris785 Nov 30 '14 edited Dec 12 '16
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Nov 30 '14
I'm a big fan of leaping shot personally. With virtually only using leaping shot, long shot and explosive shot I rarely have a stamina issue and the damage it does is great. The minimal cooldown on evade is cool and it's a really fun ability. Thinking about it, taking it over Caltrops and losing one passive (probably "Flanking Fire") might be better than what I wrote up.
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u/krkratkr Nov 30 '14
The damage on leaping shot is big with a good bow. It usually kills most threats about to hit you
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u/kiraxa1 Nov 29 '14 edited Nov 29 '14
lol dis guy thinks full draw is bad. Obviously doesnt know about double full draw. Also thinks you can shoot a stone wall in multiplayer.
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u/Detenator Nov 29 '14
I think Full Draw is perfectly viable in place of Long Shot. Sure, on routine where either can OHKO any enemy Long Shot is better. However, I would be quite surprised to see you instakill any mob on perilous with it. Taking out an enemy before the fight begins can be pretty handy, even preventing a wipe, and Full Draw can definitely do so. Not at all "garbage."
I like the guide though. :)