Starting Archery

Recommended races: Elf

 

I recommend aspiring archers to do refining while dex is low. Thankfully reducing dex is a lot easier than reducing CP for windmill training, and refining doesn’t really use that much AP. Elf archers grow quite fast once you get refining done, and their fast firing rate should be able to destroy mobs very quickly. Early on, since archers don’t get a windmill-like skill that easily crits, you may have to sacrifice damage in order to get more critical.

 

Recommended ages for archers:

• Human: Age 12-13 for best stat gains. At those ages, you get maximum Str/Dex/Will/Stamina growth which are all relevant to archery. You also get to keep a bit of luck growth for more criticals. Only downside is you get 0 Int at those ages but if you don’t play with magic it’s no big deal.
• Elf: Age 10-13 for best Dex gains. Age 10 and 11 also have the best mana and luck growth which is good for crits and Crash Shot spam. Age 12 give more HP and age 13 gives maximum Will gains at the cost of reduced luck growth. It’s up to you.
• Giants: lol

 

Note about crash shot: A lot of players seem to be confused by crash shot, so I’m adding this in. The damage that crash shot deals is dependent on the number of enemies hit by splash. To provide an explanation using rank 1 Crash Shot:

At rank 1 Crash Shot, it deals 250% fragment damage to splashed mobs (the main target you clicked on does not take this damage). Rather, the main target takes damage initial target fragment damage which is 150% at rank 1, multiplied by the number of splashed mobs, which is a maximum of 6 at rank 1. In short:

 

1 mob splashed: 150*1=150% damage

2 mobs: 150*2=300%

3 mobs: 150*3=450%

4 mobs: 150*4=600% (At this point, the damage surpasses magnum shot)

5 mobs: 150*5=750%

6 mobs: 150*6=900% (almost 2 magnums worth of damage)

 

This is also why crash shot max fragments reforge on live Mabi is so broken. It can add 5 extra fragments, bringing up the maximum mobs splashed up to 11. 150*11=1650% that’s like 3 magnums right there. This server doesn’t have reforges though, so don’t worry about it.

 

TL;DR If your crash shot cannot splash on to at least 4 enemies then you are better off spamming magnum.

 

Recommended titles for archers:

• The Skillful: The most basic archery title, gives 20 Dex.
• Master of Range: Easy 20 Dex, gives a nice HP/stamina boost as well, but subtracts str and will.
• Master of Magnum Shot: Also gives 20 Dex as well as 20 luck, allowing you to keep your crit despite the will loss. The -10% protection makes you squishy, however.
• Master of Final Shot: 30 Dex title only for elves. Slightly discourages melee, however.
• Master of Tailoring/Blacksmithing: raceless 30 Dex. Good luck.
• The Wyvern Hunter: 20 Str/Dex for hybrid characters. 1000 wyvern claws will take a while, though.
• Master of Shock: 15 max damage, someday someone will manage to get this.

 

Skills that need special consideration: Arrow Revolver in this current generation is weaker, dealing 79/83/87/91/150 for 490% total damage across 5 shots. It doesn’t get buffed until G15S1, where it deals 110/120/125/145/190 for 690% damage across 5 shots. The buffed version also consumes less stamina (values used are for rank 1).

 

Leather Long Bow

The 190 LLB boasts good damage and decent balance for beginning archers, although the crit isn’t exactly the best. Also offers 2100 range for sniping.

Composite Bow

The 114 Composite Bow is for people that are lacking in critical rate. You can also switch the last upgrade for an artisan if you’re feeling lucky, a max luck roll will give you 70 luck.

Guardian Bow

Guardian Bows are elf-exclusive, and they don’t lose extra durability from firing two arrows at once, meaning your bow won’t die twice as fast. The 159 path trades critical rate for damage. The 235 path trades damage and some range for massive critical, boasting a 48% critical rate. However the reduced range means you have to be up close to fire it.

Elven Long Bow

ELBs are meant for long-range sniping, the 149 path has middling stats at 10-37 damage and 10% critical. However it boasts 2200 range, which lets you fire from very far away.

Ring Bow

Ring Bows appear as a rare prize from hot air ballooning. Ring Bows have the highest max damage of all the bows mentioned above, but it comes with middling range and is a normal speed weapon. It won’t carry as much stun as a longbow type weapon but it can fire faster. It can also get a critical upgrade path, but it trades away a lot of damage and I don’t recommend using that path considering that this bow is built for damage. I consider this weapon an ego-worthy bow.

Wing Bow

Sooner or later people are going to be getting their hands on this weapon (some people already have due to the current gachapon, don’t bother trying to get one from gacha, it was removed). This weapon was made to crit, it will feed you enough critical that you probably won’t need any from your other gear.

This weapon also has monstrous range and fast weapon speed, boasting 2000 range with an upgrade that can increase it to 2300. Unfortunately this weapon has terrible damage, you will have to compensate for damage by using damage enchants, however this bow will crit like no other. Humans will be able to spam AR all day with this bow. This is one of the few weapons that I consider to be better off as a spirit weapon, despite the fact that it can get special upgrades (the poor damage on this bow is really something).

This is one of the few weapons that I don’t recommend max damage on.

Crossbow

Crossbows are for humans that deal damage mainly through Arrow Revolver, as you can load and run around with AR up with crossbow-class weapons, although you have to remember that it also forces you to stay still once Magnum Shot is loaded. I do not recommend crossbow weapons for elves at all. All crossbows have high balance and critical rate, I won’t be recommending any of those upgrade paths since between your own stats and Crossbow Mastery, critical and balance should never be an issue. Note that basically all of the meaningful upgrade paths destroy this weapon’s already poor effective range, making this a poor weapon to use outside of dungeon and shadow mission rooms.

Arbalest

Arbalest is the one true crit god ranged weapon, you won’t need much base critical at all with this thing. The same mobility rules on the Crossbow apply to this as well. Although the critical rating is off the charts, the damage is rather subpar. As such, I consider this weapon an alternative to the normal Crossbow instead of a direct upgrade over it. It does have one advantage over the regular Crossbow in that the upgrades won’t destroy its effective range.