Archer: Hard hitter / Fast runner / 2hSpecs
Level 31 (8 892 403 xp)
Strength: 18
Agility: 21
Hit points: 53
Skills to attributes: 6
Ironflesh: 0
Power Strike: 6
Shield: 0
Athletics: 7
Riding: 0
Horse Archery: 0
Power Draw: 6
Power Throw: 0
Weapon Master: 7
One Handed: 1
Two Handed: 93
Polearm: 1
Archery: 150
Crossbow: 1
Throwing: 1
Short verbal explanation
This build gives you maximum damage / maximum speed / maximum close combat damage simultaneously. With this build it is easy to get a positive kill/death-ration in battle servers.
With the latest archery restrictions it has become two things: On the offensive archery became a close combat skill and on the defensive it became crucial to effectively soften up the opponent.
Concerning levelling
As archer you cover a support role while levelling on cRPG battle servers. In fact neither your archery nor your close combat skills will have great impact on the teams outcome until level 24. At level 26 you will be able to get mediocre to excellent results. Reaching level 28 you re archery build feels complete. Level 31 is for higher athletics (7) and higher accuracy. Concerning accuracy level 28 is enough already.
How to use the specialization?
in general
- for skirmishes and fights in bottleneck roads: lower your mouse sensitivity, go in close (5-8m), hit and avoid immediate close combat with your nike shoes
- in bigger and open battles: hit everything which hasnt its guard up on 3 or stay a bit back taking archers down
vs. archers
- you are able to take any enemy archer down in 2,5 hits
- you have the same accuracy
- you outrun incoming arrows better
vs. 1h/shield
- athletics will do the trick: dirty running foot-work
- hit them from the sides
vs. 2h
- piece of cake
- you outrun a lot of them (except ninja and 2h-spammer)
vs. cav (your natural predator, cavalry is mostly archivore)
- hard and accurate horse hitter
- athletics help in avoiding lance attacks
- follow pikes and spears, crawl on buildings, use the map (hills, fences, etc) (actually cavalry has the most influence on your positioning around the map. with cavalry around your paths on the battlefield is bound to a lot of restrictions. avoiding cavalry is the hardest part to learn.)
weapons of choice
there are only four bows of use: longbow, rus bow, horn bow and tatar bow. horn bow and tatar bow can be used in the same role by your own preference.
longbow
the main characteristics of a longbow is that it slows you down, down and down.
use it to dish out damage from a static, defensive position against high armor targets. the longbow has quite a punch.
120 wpf / 6 pd / no armor at all / no close combat weapon: you get a mediocre accuracy using the longbow at short and middle distances
140 wpf / 6 pd / no armor : longer distances and very good general accuracy
150 wpf / 6 pd / low armor (pilgrim stuff): still good accuracy
rus bow
close combat, lots a movement and high damage against mid armored targets. this is the choice to get some frags before level 27-31
120 wpf / 6 pd / no armor : better than longbow, first time you can use a bow with good results
horn bow / tatar bow
for big battles with three slots full of arrows and accurate counter-archering. it works for close combat, but you wont get that many frags. you are able to spam enemy defensive positions too with the inherent shooting speed.
LevellingConcerning levelling there are three core targets which you aim for.
1. 140 wpf (accuracy with rus bow)
2. 6 PD (hard hitting) / 6 ATHL (ability to run)
For maximum amusement do the following order
1. 120 wpf
2. 6 PD
3. 5 ATHL
This should be doable within level 26.
Important: Only invest up to 5 PS. You need this 6th point to get ATH/WM to 6 once you reach it. So save it.
Do some research at
http://infinitum.dyndns.org/crpg/calc.htmwhile levelling you get a lot more of kills if you take a long spear and stab already engaged opponents. another thing is that "practicing" your bowery skill at low levels doesnt help you anything for late level rus bow and long bow. thats because rus bow and long bow will be completely different and a lot easier to use than those crappy early level bows.
Additional pieces of information:- use Tatar arrows. Bodkin arrows are nearly double the price, +~15% the damage improvement.
- get at least 55 wpf in 1h or 2h or pole, to have some close combat fun and to save money when picking up weapons. even without any PS, with basic blocking and low armor weight, you re able to take down those softened-up melee guys
- get accustomed to horn bow (strat battles). In battles people tend to provide horn bow instead of tatar bow. if theres enough money, battle starters provide you with rus bow every time.
- tatar bow is imo better for standard crpg server-levelling (lower cost => more money saving, more accuracy than horn bow, damage can be ignored because the damage difference isnt neglectable compared to horn bow)
- major upset: in strat battles where nomad bow and lower are provided, you can take any 2h-weapon and spam. although 0 PS you still be more useful. because it takes 6-8 hits to take a middle-armored target down.
- concerning general levelling: joining a server team 2 is always better for an archer. then learn to take team 1 as an exception to the rule.
- make use of small ladder, ladder and medium ladder. in several occasions the ladder-difference is the straw that breaks the camels back in your teams favor.
- xp-wise as a loner its best to play in servers in the following order:
A) Battle > Siege > DTV
B) many players > few players
- fun- and practice-wise join servers in this order
a) siege > battle
b) few players > many players
- other players avoiding your arrows
once most seasoned and experienced players know that you could be aiming at them. they know how to dodge your arrows. literally it is easy and unrealistic. they are like Neo in the matrix, except that the matrix is readable for everyone since the missile speed patch. what to do? pick left or right and shoot on the spot where Neo is going to be.
- mouse sensitivity
like for all 3D-shooters theres this general rule:
a) 100% your mousepad distance (left to right) is 180-270° turning in the game.
b) no mouse acceleration => faster learning-curve in accomodating to your mouse settings and for your prefered bow
it depends of your real-life aiming-/movement-style too. generally it should be equally balanced between wrist, forearm and arm aiming. though i ve got the feeling that the mount and blade-engine focuses mainly on wrist and forearm- screen resolution:
the higher the better. my personal experience is that with 1024x768 i have big problems to hit anything. with 1900x1200 it gets easy compared to the lower setting. go the highest without cutting your fps.
- neither take 1h nor polearms. why? 2h weapons are just faster. picking up one after running with 6 athl, then block once and spam with good movement usually does the trick on your close-combat-hunter. pole is too heavy and too slow. 1h is slower and has less weapon reach in average than the average 2h-weapon.
- as archer you can cope with a high percentage of cavalry players. but if the enemy team has a high percentage of archers, archery gets very hard. usually the own you with higher armor, higher range and higher damage. facing a lot of xbowers means to adapt your playing style again.
- fun factor no. 1:
use high to extreme high armor and take a 2h spammer weapon: there you are as a 2h-melee fighter (fast movement speed / swing speed / hard to kill).
starting equipment level 26:general2x tatar arrows
longbow or rus bow
static / camping position (house, wall, tower)long bow
more movementrus bow
losing teamtatar or horn bow
2h weaponmace
or langes messer (its a 1h weapon used in secondary mode)
this should cover all the basic stuff concerning this build. i hope you re having more fun with your archer and never forget 1h/shielders and polearm-guys do the dirty work
Berlusconi
