Archer War Mages - Pros and Cons?

[Chaotic Tempo]

Anyone with experience using an archery-based warmage give me a run down of what was good and what was bad about it? I assume it's all open aim shots. Do you disable a room and blow out all their eyes thereafter? Is 2x perception sufficient to regularly land eye shots?

Thanks!

[Rimalon]

No.

[Sheikh]

The only person I know to do it at cap is Dionket, and he has rather nice gear to help him out.

There could be more, I just don't know about them, but I know he uses a pile of goodies to make it viable.

[audioserf]

Without toys it's really not worth doing it, and by toys I mean maxed Ranged + DEX enhancives and a great bow. Your AS will, quite simply, be too low.

[Asha]

Khistian only had a piece of crap 5x bow and we hunted OTF to maximum effect. I used a sorc archer.
The difference of AS was only like 80 compared to a ranger or rogue.
I say go for it. Deck the entire room with 410. Aim for the eyes. Mix in a few spells for ultimate fun and devastation.
Then again I had about 8m exp back then, I wouldn't bother unless I was capped.

[audioserf]

It's doable. Shit, nearly anything in GS is doable. But without the gear it's certainly not optimal. If it's fun, do it.

[DaCapn]

It seems to me like getting a 5 second lance swing and hasting that down to 1 second combined with cman precision set to puncture would be WAY better.

[Chaotic Tempo]

Hmm.

So I wanted him to be a giant.

He was going to be a sort of shamanic archer dude.

You honestly think the AS is the biggest hindrance? Even if I floor the room and plink them all down?

[Drew]

Go half krolvin. My wiz archer is that and it's the best race for them.

[Whirlin]

Halfling Wizard here, thought I'd drop in my 2 cents...
Currently level 67, so I can't speak about level capped stuff yet... sadly.

Been playing since before archery was released, and way before runestaves were released, like so many of you, I'm sure. Racially, I dunno, Half-Krolvin may be better, really haven't looked into it since I've been on this guy forever now. But even with halfling strength, I'll be getting down to 1 second RT with a Longbow with haste (once I get the 51 MjE ranks).

You end up having the training points to be a hybrid Bolter/Archer. My current training regiment contains:
1 Ranged, 1 PF, 1.5 AS, 1.5 MIU, 1 HP, 2 SA, 1 EMC, 1 Lore, 2 Perception, 2 spells.
With some points left over for things like climbing/swimming.

My Spell Bolt AS is 380, with a 353 Archery AS. It's low across the board, but I just came back and only have +3 DEX for relevant enhancements. Given the growth rate going forward, I can see the gap increasing between the two AS values. Given what I've heard about hunting at cap, and the recommendation for Immolation builds, I'm not sure about the viability at cap.

I'm currently using a 7x +3STR, +3 Dex enhancive Longbow, shooting at 2 seconds RT. My DS in offensive is supposedly higher than Runestaff users, defensive it becomes a little more debatable.

Playstyle, it's immensely enjoyable and versatile. Typically, I'll burn my mana to about 50% with spell hunting, then swap to a more mana efficient archery tactic of opening with 505s until they're knocked down, and keeping haste up. Having the physical alternative is also great for critters that have high spell bolt DSs (ie: emaciated heirophants).

Keeping 402 and 404 active make open aiming viable. I tend to hit the eyes 40-60% of the time.


Comparatively, if you were to go with a pure build, you'd likely have more mana, with a higher AS and CS (from spell ranks). However, hunting would be limited by your mana pool. I don't know if a pure's CS is high enough to always rely on 516 in new hunting grounds when you're just starting a new hunting ground. But with the lack of the ability to AIM a spell like you can a bow, I found that critters could take anywhere from 6 to 60 mana to kill depending on the random number generator.

Hope this helps! Feel free to find me on Lich if you have any additional questions.

[Asha]

You honestly think the AS is the biggest hindrance? Even if I floor the room and plink them all down?

Critter ranged DS is way low so you'll be ok just stay clear of wall shields and plate.
The other thing you need to keep in mind is your ranged / hurled / bolt DS. You may be vulnerable there.

[audioserf]

With 516 being A Thing, anyone level 50 or above with at least 1x HP who is having mana issues is doing it wrong. Every area has at least one "battery" creature, and if you're a true pure, you'll have plenty of CS to use it.

[audioserf]

I fixed to pure (from THW and then briefly archer) at 57 and have not once run out of mana. 1x HP, 1x EMC, 1x MjE. Mana Leech is the fucking bomb.