Cannot equip a shield
Whether leather, wood or steel. It cannot be done. With such a hole in her/his defenses, an archer...
Uses "distance" as their "shield"
You may occasionally see 3 - 4 swords standing on the same spot (stacking) with the archers at a safer distance away. Please understand that the lack of a shield makes stacking difficult/impossible, even with the full available armor. This is made more difficult because archers...
Often set their stats very differently
Some archers are also mages, so how stats are set differs. But a successful archer will raise Dexterity far higher than any other stat. My stats were almost exclusively Dexterity as I was leveling (however, try other combinations... these were mine). I would only add a bit to Vitality or Agility if I could not raise Dexterity another point. That's because the bow's rate of fire is much slower. And accuracy is key. And Dexterity is an archer's accuracy. With defenses weaker, archers...
Often run away from approaching enemies
This frustrates some sword users. Please be patient with archers. Imagine a standard battle in real life. The warriors advance while the archers remain behind them, firing a shower of arrows.
Advantages of Archery
- More fire power. An archer's hits do have much more fire power than a warrior's who is at the same level.
- Leveling happens quicker. Archers kill their prey far quicker than warriors.
- Arrows must be purchased. 5 GPs per iron arrow, and 3 GPs for standard arrows. Often racks of 2K to 5K arrows are very convenient.
- Ammunition can run out in mid battle. Depending how long you fight with other players, you will sooner or later find yourself getting a merciless message saying: "Equip arrows first". This happens more often with impromptu battles and the archer has less than 300 arrows in the quiver.
- Slow reload. The warrior's repeat rate for hitting their targets is much faster. It takes time to put an arrow to the string. Even with raised Agility the bow is a slow weapon.
- Frequent death. My stats had high Dexterity and very little set aside for Vitality, the ability to take and recover from damage. And in tight situations (snake pit, for example) it is easy to be overwhelmed and die.
* The game's initial focus is sword-based.
The player's first quest is Sandra, who rewards players with a basic bow and 100 arrows. So it would appear balanced. Allow me to illustrate how this fails.
- Player is given sword-like tool (knife) when s/he starts.
- To complete Sandra's quest, the Player must adjust stats for her/his current non-bow weapon (knife, sharp knife, dagger and possibly the short sword).
- Once the bow is received, the Player's stats are probably not balanced for the bow. Stats are likely applied evenly to Str, Agi, Vit, Int, Vit and Luck, being (often) uninformed how to apply stats in general, and for the bow specifically. The player likely knows nothing about Malivox, what Malivox does... and probably can't afford to pay Malivox. So the players' stats cannot make the bow effective.
- 100 arrows are too quickly lost to misses (badly set stats). 500 or 1000 arrows would probably be a better reward, but the current amount is simply better sold to Neko than actually used as weapons.
* The sheer lack of choices for bows.
- The warrior has 7 options: Knife, Sharp Knife, Dagger, Scythe, Short Sword, Bone Knife and, ultimately, the Setzer.
- The archer has 3 options: the basic bow, the Short Bow and the Forest Bow.
>> Different from the Bone Knife/Setzer quests, the Forest Bow can be bought in Nivalis for 20K GPs like any other Nivalis souvenir. I am unaware of any NPC that sells Setzers for 20K.
Some Archery Strategies
2 archers
When targeting aggressive animals (red slime, black scorpions, various snakes, spiders, etc.) it is best for the archers to target the same prey and to keep a good distance between the archers. Aggressive enemies seem to attack the player that either does it more damage, or has done it the most recent damage. If archers do the opposite of "stacking" it seems to confuse the target and fighting in teams is more successful.
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archer archer
D D
target
SSimilar to two archers, 3 can form a triangle with the enemy in the middle. With more targets the enemy does less movement and dies even faster. Again: "stacking" for archers is bad. They form a single target for the enemy.
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archer archer
D D
target
S
archer
DWhen a warrior attacks a target (Step 1) and an archer gets a shot in, the prey often leaves the warrior making a direct path for the archer (Step 2). If the warrior follows, this can be annoying for her/him. I tend to loop around (avoiding the target) and get behind the warrior. The target, drawn to the archer, heads right to the warrior (Step 3):
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Step 1:
archer target warrior
D S X
Step 2:
archer target warrior
D <- S X
Step 3:
target warrior archer
S -> X DThese are my observations, being a lvl 71 archer. They are by no means complete. If you have ideas, suggestions, improvements, I welcome them. You can either PM me, or add to this thread. Any changes/additions will be added directly to this post for convenience, and credited to you.
Either way, I will return and add comments, correct spelling/grammar, etc.
I get tired of having to chase around pressing walk, attack, walk, attack... it gets old, and when lag sets in... forget it and just leave!
encouraging archery must include ways to work with those who use other fighting methods. so, yeah! i thank you for your kind words!
and right now it seems each distinct group works a bit too independently of the other. so, indeed! archers should and can collaborate respectfully with warriors.
) is not feasible, and I understand. Just as long as we know you try, it's the thought that counts! 
