Open Archery - thoughts and spell path ideas

[Terzl]

I'm considering FIXSKILL'ing into an open archer and wanted to hear from those at higher levels on the recommended spells needed to stay alive out in the open.

If I omit picking/tertiary skills, I can squeeze in:

2x Ranged
2x Perception
2x Ambush
2x Physical Fitness
1x CM
3x Dodge

And I can stay in full plate. CoL Master, for now.

Being in the open, the concern is warding attacks. Crunching the numbers, I can learn ~20 spells by Level 75 (25 by 81). Since I've never been "out in the open" before, I'm not sure if 101/107/120 would be better than 401/406/414/425 at that stage in the game.

If there is anyone having fun with open archery I'd love to hear your ideas. I'm being VERY cautious about stepping out of the shadows (and giving up VANISH) but I think that trading out picking/tertiary skills may have free'd up points to make this build viable (and fast, and fun).

Thanks for reading.

[Asha]

There's no question that that build IS viable.
Personally I'd go the 425 route because of the nice mix of offensive DS and TD along with AS enhancement.
120 is nice but something you should look at for the long term.
You're really going to miss Vanish.

[prance1520]

I'm OTF with no know spirit spells myself (I went to 425), I cannot ward spirit spells with any sort of reliability. Its fine when I snipe, but I die often if I'm in the open.

If you want to load up on spellburst abilities and have someone light you up, you might be ok, but I like being self reliant, and I can't get open archery to work.

[Terzl]

There's no question that that build IS viable.
Personally I'd go the 425 route because of the nice mix of offensive DS and TD along with AS enhancement.
120 is nice but something you should look at for the long term.
You're really going to miss Vanish.
I know. VANISH is so close to not fair (in a good way) that it seems silly to give this up.


I'm OTF with no know spirit spells myself (I went to 425), I cannot ward spirit spells with any sort of reliability. Its fine when I snipe, but I die often if I'm in the open.

If you want to load up on spellburst abilities and have someone light you up, you might be ok, but I like being self reliant, and I can't get open archery to work.
Ugh. I was afraid of this. Hmm.. back to the sheet.

[Asha]

Surely since you know so many spells you can get someone to spell you with 101 103 and 107?
Or imbed whatever. Easiest spells in game to come across.

[Terzl]

2x Ranged
2x Perception
2x Ambush
2x Physical Fitness
1x CM
3x Dodge

Given this advice, and after playing with the numbers, I could keep the same basic plan with the following modifications:

Drop all spells.

Tweak:
3x Dodge into 2.7x Dodge
2x Physical into 1x Physical

Add:
2x Hiding
2x Ambush
2x Edged

The idea would be ranged sniper with the option to switch to an axe or falchion for things in plate. The cost of this versatility would be no spells (till 75ish) and no picking.

Anyone have any particular opinion on the utility of ranged+edged combination vs. sniping from the shadows with spells?

[m444w]

>
Ondreian (at level 71), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 130 35
Combat Maneuvers...................| 173 73
Edged Weapons......................| 244 144
Ranged Weapons.....................| 246 146
Ambush.............................| 171 71
Physical Fitness...................| 171 71
Dodging............................| 296 196
Magic Item Use.....................| 40 8
Harness Power......................| 99 23
Stalking and Hiding................| 242 142
Perception.........................| 246 146
Climbing...........................| 120 30
Swimming...........................| 102 24

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 25

I do alright... Ranged gives me first-strike capabilities versus anything, as well as for taller creatures I can immediately go for eyes.

A lot of other stuff I just ambush with a dagger and it dies. Ewave for crowd control is probably the best thing about my build.

[Terzl]

>
Ondreian (at level 71), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:

I do alright... Ranged gives me first-strike capabilities versus anything, as well as for taller creatures I can immediately go for eyes.

A lot of other stuff I just ambush with a dagger and it dies. Ewave for crowd control is probably the best thing about my build.

How often do you find yourself using the dagger vs. the bow?

[m444w]

just depends. I use the dagger a lot for bandits, currently I've been hunting minotaurs, which are tall creatures so I just shoot them.

When I hunt fire mages I only use ambush.

[Gizmo]

Open builds now are a bit tougher to do IMO if you also wanna lean more towards magical but not worry about getting beat on.

Alot of Open archery builds will flat out use plate, but then of course you will have spell hindrence issues if you wish to cast out hunting.

Although, it's purely viable if you pick up some MIU for ewave imbeds and use them. The majority of spells a rogue uses while hunting, is 410, mostly followed by 117 which of course is found in the crystals.

I suggest, for an open build, looking more into MIU as well for offensive magical capabilities and using plate.

Then, whenever you spell yourself up, do it in a Sancted room.

Not only will you not suffer the hindrance by doing so, but with this build and the MIU, you will help your spellburst also.

But frankly, as many mentioned, VANISH is really the bread and butter for sniping builds.

I used it with my ranged build, and it basically means you NEVER will be seen, with the exception of being sniffed out or what not. But anything RT induced and you are fine.

My macro for ranged was get 1 arrow\r fire\r vanish\r

This allowed me to vanish while hidden, which of course if i stayed hidden would never use stamina, but also allowed me to hide instantly the moment I came OUT of hiding from firing if and when I did.