Archer and Bows, worth it? Options

[Jon Irenicus]

I was wondering, it is worth it having an archer kit using a bow in IA? I mean, there's no bow upgrades, and bows are not the best damage dealers , and with many enemies having some resistances to phsysical dmg, having an a character dedicated only to bows won't it be kinda useless?

[lroumen]

I cannot say that I have used the archer kit, but I do have all my casters equipped with ranged weapons. Whenever they cast a spell they can immediately attack with a ranged weapon and they do hit quite often for decent damage. I've also used Mazzy with her shortbow and she does really well with it (although I use her melee capabilities versus tough monsters such as dragons).

I can envision an archer performing decently as damage is concerned. Using arrows that deal elemental damage (fire, ice, etc) can also be very advantageous at times to bypass mages.
I do think that he will be limited by the amount of enchanted arrows you find. Some IA foes do require a certain enchantment to hit them. If you have a few battles before you find some new arrows you may find yourself running out of the right kind. In such a case, it's a good idea to focus on summons with arrows of lower enchantment, or spend your time fighting hand to hand or using some spells.

If I were to pick, then I would do it like this:
- I would take 2 stars in crossbows early game. The light crossbow of speed and heavy crossbow of accuracy are easy to find. Crossbows do fire less, but do more damage... early game it may be good to go for higher damage.
- I would place 2 stars in short bows early game and max it later. Short bows are hard to find, but when you do get them, then the Gesen Bow, the Tuigan Bow and the Darkfire bow are just solid weapons.


Does the two-handed weapon fighting style increase the critical hits and speed factors for ranged weapons too? I keep forgetting...
Anyways, it is always a good idea to take a star in two-handed sword OR halberd OR staff (OR spear) as well in case you're force to go hand to hand. Eventhough it's better defense-wise, I probably wouldn't go sword and shield since you cannot wear high armor anyway and the little AC bonus of shields will not matter much in such a case.

[rbeverjr]

The biggest cheese of the archer is stat killing the enemy. However, I have heard that some of Sikret's improved monsters are immune to that. IA5 makes ranged weaponry a much more viable option than in IA4.2, but I just think that melee is still a more efficient way of dealing damage.

Iroumen makes some good points, too. IA really should have the Weapon Item upgrade of case/quiver/bag of plenty +3 because there are so many important enemies that require +3 weapons to hit (and it is the ammo that counts for this with archery). Of course, you will still need a +4 ammo occasionally. I think that the Gesen bow does that. Finally, I also use the cast-and-attack, but the attack is usually a miss or does minimal damage (slings/darts).

This post has been edited by rbeverjr: Mar 19 2008, 01:05 PM

[Vik]

well u all have forgoten about arrows of piercing which hit as +4.
but i dont see any practical usage of archer .because he bacames very useless class very early

[Moongaze]

Does the two-handed weapon fighting style increase the critical hits and speed factors for ranged weapons too? I keep forgetting...

No, I don't think so...

[Raven]

That's right, it doesn't.