78 replies to this topic

[-PenguinFetish-]

Video Link. Threatening difficulty as usual.

 

Abilities

 

- Leaping Shot (Evade Ability. 12 Projectiles at 50% weapon damage each. 12s cooldown. 35 Stamina cost. Upgrade gives your next shot a 200% damage bonus and knocks the target down)

 

- Long Shot (200% weapon damage with +600% at 15+ meters. 8s cooldown. 50 stamina cost. Detonates incapacitated foes. Upgrade lets you hit multiple targets with bonus damage that are behind your first)

 

- Full Draw (800% weapon damage + 800% if target is at full health. 24s cooldown, 65 Stamina cost. Upgrade puts target to sleep for 20s)

 

- Mark of Death (Stores 100% damage while active, then deals it when activated again (effectively doubling all damage for 8s). 32s cooldown, 10 stamina cost. Upgrade grants 20% armor reduction.) 

 

Passives

 

- First Blood (15% damage to enemies with more than 80% of their health remaining. +3 dexterity)

 

- Cheap Shot (Critical hits sunder armor for 6s. +3 cunning)

 

- Bloodied Prey (10% damage bonus to all enemies who have less health than you. +3 cunning)

 

- Strafing Shots (100% Speed Bonus when firing. +3 Dexterity)

 

- Pincusion (Each consecutive hit on a target does 5% more damage each time for 10s. +3 dexterity)

 

- Gaps in the Armor (25% Armor Penetration. +3 dexterity

 

- Fury of the Storm - (10% damage bonus when under 50% stamina. +3 constitution)

 

- Cripple - (slows enemies hit from behind by 50% for 3s. +3 dexterity)

 

- Dance of Death (+50 stamina on kill. +3 dexterity)

 

Unlock Order

 

Get Leaping Shot and Long Shot upgraded first (level 5), then go straight to Full Draw, then Mark of Death (level 11). Get Dance of Death (level 14), then Pincusion. Then fill out the rest of your points as you desire. I also upgrade MoD, but not full draw.

 

Strategy

 

Lead the fight with Full draw to immediately take out the highest value target (dual wield rogues, Fear Demon, Brutes, Templar Knights), then target the ranged units with Long Shot. If melee units get too close then just pop a Leaping shot and knock them down with the follow up. Leaping Shot is also great vs Shield Bearers and Demons (as they cannot block). When the Demon Commanded uses his Fear attack, Leaping shot will clear you of its radius. I use this skill while Long shot is on cooldown. 

 

Long Shot will ricochet off enemies and hit ones behind them. For long shot to hit multiple enemies, the 2nd hit does not need to be directly behind the 1st. Long shot deals progressively higher damage for each successive target, meaning you can kill several enemies with 1 shot this way. 

 

For Pride Demons, Behemoths, Guardians and Bosses, Mark of Death will help take these guys down incredibly quickly. Lead the fight with one, follow up with Full Draw and some auto attacks, then when the boss drops below 50% health, activate MoD again and watch your target die. For Bosses, just let it run out. You won't be able to kill them in 1 cycle of course, so its best to have them absorb as much damage as possible first.

[III Poison III]

I can do a much easier to read version. Stand at the back, hold basic attack and win, finish top with over a hundered kills and be happy

[SicMirx]

You could have just said "Get nothing from the rightside branch."

This also relies on a decent bow.. Starting out, I hated useless Archer teammates. Door openers. That's all they were good for.

[Tang McGame]

What are the stats on that bow you're using?  Good build.  I had the gist of it right with my build, but you helped answer a few questions I had remaining.

[-PenguinFetish-]

You could have just said "Get nothing from the rightside branch."

This also relies on a decent bow.. Starting out, I hated useless Archer teammates. Door openers. That's all they were good for.

 

Except I do get 3 passives from the left side. 

[SLooPPy JOE]

If anyone had a similar experience to mine in their first week playing multiplayer then they probably also branded archers as that useless class that:
1. Dies quickly
2. Can't revive the team without dying

... And archer was probably my least favorite class to have join the lobby, until I saw a high level archer with a decent bow use the same build as Penguin. Archer is pretty much only good for damage, so the bow really makes it. I look forward to having badass archers with level 20+ bows on my team in the future.

[Naitaka]

The more I play Archer the less I find Full Draw useful. 90% of the time you don't even get to cast it before enemy gets hit by your team rushing forward non-stop not to mention you really shouldn't be the one taking the first shot making all the enemies run all over the place. Sure you can use it with Mark of Death, but the 2 second cast animation just mean you've wasted 2 of the precious 8 seconds to cast that one ability. You're probably better off just firing of Long Shot right away so you can recast it before the timer's up for Mark of Death. (My Long Shot on 6.8 second cooldown with 15% cooldown reduction amulet)

[SicMirx]

Long Shot, Mark, Evade and Leaping Shot is how I run it. I, too, find Full Draw lacking in versatility over Long Shot.

[xlm1994]

Don't really like full draw either.  If your want to do massive damage to single target you should use hunter.  And long shot is so much better.  Sometimes when I just see the first target in a boss fight and take a long shot, I easily get a kill streak 4 or more.  That is much more useful than 4000 damage on the boss.

[Scorpio989]

1. You can dodge ranged attacks with "Strafing Shots" by moving left and right while firing.

2. The ability "Opportunity Knocks" can halve your cooldowns with the right party.

3. A sleep build is actually very powerful since Archers have two Knockout grenades with almost no downtime.

4. Aside from getting instant kills at the beginning of fights "Full Draw" is rather lack luster in the DPS department. 

5. If you aim your explosive shot at a wall and the AoE hits an enemy the cooldown will still not trigger.

[Volcanthe]

Thanks for this, I've been running my Archer with Knockout Powder (now have Knockout Bomb though), Leaping Shot, Long Shot and Explosive Shot, but wasn't sure what other options were viable. It's super fun, but steamrolls Routine with the right party. I love how Knockout Powder works on the Red Templar Commander, even if my team mates have a habit of whaling on him as soon as I put him to sleep, instead of paying attention to the mooks.

 

I might give this build a shot once I prestige, Archer is one of my favourite kits.

[Vishimtar]

With the unique bow that makes your target explode for 75% damage when you kill it, full draw is extremely powerful.  Otherwise it seems kind of meh.  I can kill a full group of enemies in threatening with 1 full draw with the explode bow.  It appears to do 75% of your kill shot's damage rather than 75% bow damage tooltip is misleading.

[Drogonion]

I use Long, Leaping, Explosive and dodge.  Without dodge, you are demon commander fodder.  Full draw is nice, and fun, but not as important to my mind as the others listed.  

[Pureshadow69]

I use Long, Leaping, Explosive and dodge.  Without dodge, you are demon commander fodder.  Full draw is nice, and fun, but not as important to my mind as the others listed.  

 

i was using roll earlier against demon commander.  you still take damage when he pops out but no knockdown.  higher difficulties the damage kills u anyway.

[Tony208]

Fallback plan is great for survival.

[SectiplaveB4]

I have a question on the Leaping Shot upgrade "Upgrade gives your next shot a 200% damage bonus and knocks the target down" does this only apply to a regular attack, or can it be used on a follow up skill?

 

I'm using this build currently and it's doing the job very nicely even with a crappy bow.

[Ashmomo]

Full Draw is situational, sure, but that situation comes up a lot (every trapped treasure room and every boss fight). Being able to mark and double Full Draw a Revenant or Arcane Horror from 100-0 is pretty helpful.

[Jugger nuggss]

*point sharp stick at enemy, release, get kill streak, profit

[Treacherous J Slither]

I use:

 

Explosive Arrow

Long Shot

Evade 

Leaping Shot 

Passives

 

Full Draw may do a lot of damage but it has a too long wind up and isn't spammable. Not worth it in my eyes.

[VilniusNastavnik]

No Mark of pain love?

[Catastrophy]

How do you cycle targets? Tab pressing or mouse clicking?

[-PenguinFetish-]

No Mark of pain love?

I use the upgraded mark of death yes.

[-PenguinFetish-]

How do you cycle targets? Tab pressing or mouse clicking?

Both. Tab will snap to a target faster. I use mouse if i want to pick out an enemy in a group.

[VilniusNastavnik]

I use the upgraded mark of death yes.

Yeah, was more referring to the comments, everyone opting out of the boss killing ability. I use Mark of death, Don't ask me why I said Mark of pain, I don't even know myself.. Leaping shot, explosive shot and long shot. Find Full draw way too situational. Could also sub in evade for Leaping shot.

[DxWill103]

Yo penguin thanks for making your guides.

 

Just snagged myself longbow of the griffon last night.  Hadn't been using archer hardly at all (still don't think I've even promoted him) So I suppose it's time to change that now.

 

With that bow in mind, is this build still pretty good?  Or did you have any other ideas?  Just curious since how unique LBotG with it's 3 shots and all, was wondering if you, or anyone else, has had any experiences where a specific build works better with this bow.  Thanks.