Archer Training Questions

[Beldonn]

Gotta ask this of folks. I have never BEEN an archer before, I've played for over 15 years. Heh. So I need help. I have a mid 40s ranger, archer, CoL.
So I have two concerns. Is there ANY way to feasibly hunt undead ranged-style? THat's the easy question, the second question is - am I doing this right? Do I need more perception? I donno. You tell me. Help me out if you can please. Thanks!

Training is as follows:
XXXXXXXXXXX (at level 43), your base skill bonuses, ranks and goals are:

Skill Name | Actual Actual
| Bonus Ranks Goals
Armor Use..........................| 145 45 45
Combat Maneuvers...................| 145 45 45
Ranged Weapons.....................| 190 90 90
Ambush.............................| 152 52 52
Physical Fitness...................| 145 45 45
Dodging............................| 145 45 45
Harness Power......................| 145 45 45
Survival...........................| 145 45 45
Stalking and Hiding................| 190 90 90
Perception.........................| 145 45 45
Climbing...........................| 90 20 20
First Aid..........................| 145 45 45
Spell Lists
Minor Spirit.......................| 7 7
Spell Lists
Ranger.............................| 40 40

[Davenshire]

Most peope suggest 3x ing in ambush and perception, i.e.

2x Percept
1x Ambush
-or-
1x Percept
2x Ambush

Cman training has no bearing on your AS or ability to target with ranged weaponry.

Your not looking to shabby over all, I am surprised you can fit that all in your training plan. I like a lot of tertiary skills myself. Ranged is extremely viable vs undead, although hidden sniping is somehting Id be surprised you could pull off. Every undead I have come across is freaking crazy for sniffing me out.

Most archer rangers I have come across do Voln Fue with archery and completely forgo the hiding.

Regardless I don't see anyhting wrong with your ful blown archer build. especially with your signs you should easily be taking down any undead you come across. Just make your own faewood arrows/vultute heads and slap a bless on them.

What Cmans do you have?

[Beldonn]

I haven't Cmanned at all yet. I honestly never have. /shrugs. And I am considering removing the extra ambush ranks and putting em in perception, cuz I'm told you need that to aim.

And why do Combat Maneuvers not work in my favor? Curious.

And as to how I managed all this...UGH. I was growth as a kid /grin. It panned out at low 30s, and now I have a LOT of extra training points to toy with. Thank god.

And as for the undead thing, I didn't quite mean that. My friend's Shaukal, a capped cleric, 400 swing bless...he blessed a stack of 19 arrows... BAM. 4 shots later. a bless wears. Sort of...annoying. Any way to bypass? single blesses on each arrow? Annoying, but doable?

[SayGoodbye]

I 1.5x perception and ambush and do pretty well myself.

And I never touch undead.. I hate dealing with blessed arrows unless I have to.. Same goes for e-blading. A waste of time.

[Beldonn]

Is there any way to get around the blessing arrows problem? And the rest of the questions still stand, thanks for your input on your training regimen bud!

[Davenshire]

Not that I am aware of. UNless you wanna drop a crap ton on an elemental bow???

The best route is selfmade perfect arrows for the +25. To get a little more mileage out of your bundle of arrows split it up while yer having it blessed. You have a pal that doesnt mind it, do em in bundles of 5.


you start with 60 arrows

get 5 arrow from my quiv

guy 304's yer arrows

put em in yer cloak

get another 5 arrow from your quiver.


that way lets say he gives you 200 blessings a cast, rather then a stack of 60 arrows with 200 charges you'll have a stack of 60 arrows with 2400 charges.

You won't be hassling a cleric for charges anytime soon hauling a stack around liek that, althougu I have no clue if there is a max on blessings per bundle.

Might wanna look into picking up one or more of the following to either, hide better-not get yer bow disarmed- better TD.

-----------------------

>cman help disarm
Skill Name: Disarm Weapon
Mnemonic: disarm
Hostile: Yes
Stamina Cost: Base 12 (-2 Rank 3, -4 Rank 2, -6 Rank 1)
Other Requirements: A weapon to disarm with (Rank 5 masters may disarm bare-handed).
Available to: Warriors, Rogues, Wizards, Clerics, Empaths, Sorcerers, Rangers, Bards, Savants, Monks, Paladins.
Prerequisites:
None
CMP Cost:
Rank 1: (Squares) 2 (Semis) 3 (Pures) 4
Rank 2: (Squares) 4 (Semis) 6 (Pures) 8
Rank 3: (Squares) 6 (Semis) 9 (Pures) 12
Rank 4: (Squares) 8 (Semis) 12 (Pures) 16
Rank 5: (Squares) 10 (Semis) 15 (Pures) 20
Description: Attempt to knock a target's weapon to the ground.

-----------------------

>cman help smas
>
Skill Name: Shadow Mastery
Mnemonic: smastery
Hostile: No
Stamina Cost: 20, with a 5 minute cooldown period during which the reactivation cost triples to 60.
Other Requirements: None
Available to: Rogues, Rangers, Monks.
Prerequisites:
None
CMP Cost:
Rank 1: (Squares) 3 (Semis) 4
Rank 2: (Squares) 5 (Semis) 7
Rank 3: (Squares) 7 (Semis) 10
Rank 4: (Squares) 9 (Semis) 13
Rank 5: (Squares) 11 (Semis) 16
Description: Bonuses to hiding and sneaking for 3 minutes (refreshable). All ranks provide incremental bonuses to Hide and Sneak success rates. Roundtime bonuses are available at the following ranks:
Rank 3: -1 RT to Sneak
Rank 4: -1 RT to Hide
Rank 5: -1 RT to Sneak (Unlike the other bonuses, this benefit is always present, regardless of whether Shadow Mastery is activated or not)

---------------------------------

>cman help focus
>
Skill Name: Combat Focus
Mnemonic: focus
Hostile: No
Stamina Cost: 5
Other Requirements: None
Available to: Warriors, Rogues, Rangers, Bards, Monks, Paladins.
Prerequisites:
None
CMP Cost:
Rank 1: (Squares) 2 (Semis) 3
Rank 2: (Squares) 4 (Semis) 6
Rank 3: (Squares) 6 (Semis) 9
Rank 4: (Squares) 8 (Semis) 12
Rank 5: (Squares) 10 (Semis) 15
Description: +2 per rank to generic TD for 3 minutes (refreshable).

[SayGoodbye]

yeah.. If you bless smaller bundles and then bundle them together, they stack.

I still say don't bother with undead.

As far as CMAN's, there are none that add to a ranged AS. As far as I know. Multifire is fun for a little bit but unnecessary. Simply put the points would be better spent on doubling ambush or something.

Oh right.. what he said..

[Beldonn]

Was wondering if MFire is worth a fuck, got conflicting answers on that

And it seems that I was right, by your math, if you bless 1 arrow with a 400 bless charge, you'll have that bless for quite a long while versus losing it in 4 shots blessing a bundle. Fuckin mentally rejected but still whatever.

Okay, and Combat maneuvers? Why do I not need these?

Other than that, rest was answered. I am going to detrain some skills and max perception, and put the rest in ambush.

[Davenshire]

Was wondering if MFire is worth a fuck, got conflicting answers on that

And it seems that I was right, by your math, if you bless 1 arrow with a 400 bless charge, you'll have that bless for quite a long while versus losing it in 4 shots blessing a bundle. Fuckin mentally rejected but still whatever.

Okay, and Combat maneuvers? Why do I not need these?

Other than that, rest was answered. I am going to detrain some skills and max perception, and put the rest in ambush.


Most cmans blow ofr a ranger archer. A lot of folks drop the cmans to pump more points into ambush and percption for extra AS. I believe after 40 ranks you get +1 AS for 4 ranks of each.

Mfire is really show. it has a pretty large RT for using it. I always liked hitting the same target with three shots form hiding, or if yer in a gorup mfiring at all the monsters in the room (up to three) more of a fluff cman perk that you are proabbly better of single shotting, and not falling out of hiding with 10-14 seconds of rt.

The main reason to have cmans is because you have ranks in combat manuevers. If you aren't going to use them, might as well lose them. Right now you are sitting on 45 points that are doing nothing.

cman disarm is a good example. a square mob goes to disarm you, you have very little defense offered from just having combat manuever ranks. now if you pick up say 3 ranks of cman disarm, I htink you are pretty much protected from any like level mobs from disarming you. RANKS in the cman skill being used against you is usually proof against that cman being used on you by like level mobs.


Saygood has a good point. You were asking about undead so I was anwering, but if yer a COL sniper only, you are probably better off avoiding them. It isn't hard to have two bundles in your quiver though. I have one bundle of twilight grey faewood arrows (+25) that I have blessed for undead.

macros-

F1 stance off \r fire \r
F2 get 1 twi arrow from my quiv \r
F9 gather twi arrow \r put twi arrow in twi arrow in my quiver \r

then I have a set of stormgrey arrows I get e bladed for living with the same macros just storm arrow rather then twilight.


Everyone has their own way of doing things. If oyu are going to be in an area with undead and dont want to avoid em Id suggest getting a bundle with a different descriptor blessed. it isn't difficult to aquire, and you won't be running form undead constantly in mixed hunting grounds.

[thefarmer]

Make sure you're bundling the arrow you fired into the same bundle (20's a good number) that was originally blessed/bladed. Four shots seems extremely low for someone with Shaukal's trainings. Also get a Paladin to cast purify before the bless.

[Stanley Burrell]

Most peope suggest 3x ing in ambush and perception, i.e.

Wait, what? The rogue part I got.

I've played GS since the dinosaurs and haven't trained an archer, so it's about time here too. Make suggestions people. Archery-related, plz.

I want to make a bard archer for absurdity purposes as well. Can I sonic a crossbow?

[thefarmer]

Bards can't sing ranged weaponry as far as I'm aware

[Stanley Burrell]

Fuck.

[Stanley Burrell]

What about an arrow?

[thefarmer]

Nope, don't think so.

Which makes some sort of sense, I guess. Then again, I never liked the whole singing sword spell either.

[Stanley Burrell]

Oh snap: https://www.play.net/gs4/info/spells/spelllist.asp?circle=10#1025

Just four trains away with my bard, omg, the sexiness calls.

[thefarmer]

Well.. I guess I was wrong then.

Though I still think a floating, sung-up ranged weapon is stupid as hell.

[Stanley Burrell]

Well.. I guess I was wrong then.

Though I still think a floating, sung-up ranged weapon is stupid as hell.

I'm thinking opera tickets and LSD were involved. I was going to suggest warcries could muster up their rally effects without being joined in a group, but that would just be silly.