Originally posted on TaleWorlds forum November 30, 2010, 08:50:55 PM Information is not updated for most recent patch!!! Please note that effects of Power Draw now function very differently!There seem to be a lot of questions and confusion about all the different elements of playing an archer in cRPG, and when I first got into archery I found it extremely difficult to find all the pertinent information, so Ive decided to try and explain just about all of it in one comprehensive post thats easy to find and refer to. Most of this information will be based on empirical data, some of it will be opinion, some may even be conjecture, and some could even be just plain wrong. Use discretion and know that I welcome input. I will try to update, correct, embellish, etc.
Okay, lets get started. First things first, lets define some terms:
Strength- Strength (STR) is needed to increase Power Draw and use better armor. It also improves melee damage, if you archers care about that. Finally each point of STR provides one more Hit Point.
Agility- Agility (AGI) is needed to increase Weapon Mastery and Athletics. It also increases weapon speed by 0.5% per point.
In both cases, the maximum level of an archers skills is their corresponding attribute divided by three. Example: for level 6 Weapon Mastery you need 18 Agility.
Power Draw- Henceforth known as PD, this skill is one of two fundamental abilities of any archer. Each skill point of PD increases all damage dealt with bows (NOT crossbows) by 14%, and to use any given bow,
a player must have a PD level of at least the difficulty rating of the bow in question. Be aware that each point of PD applies a penalty to your Archery Proficiency. More on this later.
Archery Proficiency- The other of two crucial abilities, this weapon proficiency (WPF) basically affects every single aspect of using a bow (NOT crossbows). You increase it by spending Weapon Proficiency Points (WPP), and it costs more WPP to increase the higher it gets. Heres what it does:
1. Increases damage with bows, though to a lesser degree than PD (Keshian states 100 modified WPF = 15% more damage).
2. Improves draw speed AND reduces the tiny little delay between releasing the mouse button and the actual release of the arrow (which can matter a LOT).
3. Affects your reticule in several ways, the reticule being the little aiming crosshairs.
a. The reticule settles more quickly from a wild shot to a controlled shot.
b. The point at which it settles becomes more precise.
c. The reticule will stay settled for longer before arm fatigue causes it to lose precision.
Weapon Mastery- Another skill thats very important, though only as a means of improving Archery WPF. Each point spent in Weapon Mastery (WM) provides an increasing amount of WPP. Each point put into WM gives WPP equal to 20 + WM level x 10. Example: Level 5 WM will give 70 WPP : 20+5x10
Athletics- Many archers swear by it, others ignore it, its most often increased when you can afford to after dealing with PD and WM. This skill increases your run speed by 5% per point. That doesnt sound like much, but its very helpful when you need to run from a huge knight in plate armor who wants your thigh bone for the soup hes cooking.
Pure Archer Build- This is entirely subjective, but for the purposes of this guide, any reference to a pure archer implies the following:
1. STR is only as high as is needed for the appropriate level of PD.
2. Skill points are only spent on PD, WM, and Athletics.
3. WPP are only spent on Archery.
Whew! Now lets look at one of the major concerns of any archer. The equipment they can use.
Bows- Yes. An archer uses bows. Seven of them actually. Ill let you get the specific info off of your character sheet, but heres what the different traits of a bow mean and the general trend from cheaper to more expensive.
1. Price- Hopefully I dont need to explain this one.
2. Weight- Your weapons weight will reduce your run speed VERY slightly, and only while its actually in your hands. Unused weapons go in your magical holster of weightlessness. Increases with cost (generally).
3. Difficulty- As stated before, the level of PD required to use the bow. Increases with cost.
4. Spd Rtng- The base speed of the bow, meaning how long it takes to notch an arrow, draw, and let fly. Decreases with cost (generally).
5. Shoot Speed- The speed at which an arrow travels from this bow. Very handy. A faster arrow requires less leading of a moving target and less accounting for gravity drop of the arrow over distance. Simply put, it will be easier to hit what youre aiming at. Increases with cost (generally).
6. Thrust Damage- The base damage the bow deals. Note that its pierce damage as opposed to blunt or cut. This is good. Pierce does quite well against armored targets. Increases with cost (generally).
7. Accuracy- The base accuracy of the bow. I welcome input on how this specifically applies, but obviously, more is better. Mtemtko's screenshots can give you a little idea. Thanks Walt for cropping them. Increases with price.
Here is a side-by-side version of Mtemtko's images to make the comparison more straightforward.
With 255 WPF and 6 PD, the strong bow and long bow aiming reticule appear to be identical, and both are smaller than the hunting bow.
Anytime I said generally, its because the Long Bow is sort of a freak in the line-up. The timeless question of What bow should I use? is already discussed extensively in other posts. All I will say is that it depends heavily on the relationship between PD and Archery WPF, and how accurate you like to be versus how much damage you want to do. I've included my opinion on this topic in the quote further down.
Arrows- Four options here. Some would argue only one real one though.
1. Price- Weve been over this.
2. Weight- Same.
3. Abundance- Useless stat that applies to the likelihood of this item being in a merchants inventory. Like I said, useless. Unless you plan on a merchant build.
4. Weapon Length- Also useless, the length of the arrow. Useless. Even to merchant builds.
5. Thrust damage- Hey! A useful stat! Added to the base damage of your bow.
6. Max Ammo- The other one that matters. The number of arrows in a quiver.
Most people use Bodkins, some prefer Khergit for the extra arrows. Youll want one or the other. Easy extra damage without any added difficulty, which is great. Heirlooming them gets you 3 more to max ammo, which is frequently done to Bodkins. Youll either carry two quivers of these into battle, or youll get pretty good at picking up stray ones lying around mid-battle, or both. (There's no such thing as a merchant build.)
Armor- Armor is of great concern to the archer, and opinions on what armor to wear vary widely. For the record, you need STR of at least the difficulty rating of any armor to wear it. The main issue with armor for the archer is weight. Heavier armor applies an increasing penalty to your Archery WPF, which is bad. But it also protects you and keeps you alive, which is good. How the total weight of your armor is calculated for the purposes of an armor penalty is as follows:
Total Armor Weight = Head Weight x 3 + Hand Weight x 2 + Body Weight + Leg Weight
If Total Armor Weight is less than 6, you receive no penalty at all. Notice the multipliers for head and hand weight. This is why so many archers go without helmets of any kind. Also note that weapon/arrow weight does not apply at all. So carry those two Swords of Cookies without concern.
Melee Weapon- This is strictly a matter of taste. For a pure archer, you wont be any good with a melee weapon anyway, so something that lets you parry quickly is probably best. Some like carrying a Pike to stop charging horses, others a Katana for its speed, others a great big sword for its damage, and still others a Bar Mace to crush through blocks. Pick something that tickles your fancy. Again, STR is needed for difficulty.
Heirlooming archer equipment is another largely opinioned topic. I will say that unlike melee players, an archer is unlikely to heirloom their primary weapon (some disagree). An heirloomed bow's increased difficulty means a higher required PD and a bigger penalty to WPF (more below). Instead, most common heirloomed items for archers include arrows, melee weapon, and armor. More input on this topic is appreciated.
Okay, now for the last, big, confusing topic of incredible importance. Modified WPF. What!?
Check this out:
http://infinitum.dyndns.org/crpg/calc.htm (Once again, thanks to Vargas, cmpxcgh8b, Fasader, virus_found, and Urist)
There are three great tools here to help you build your character. Of chief concern to us is the first. Weight WPF Effect Calculator.
The gist of it is this; your WPF in Archery is modified heavily by both your level of PD, and the weight of your armor (again NOT weapons). I call this, your Modified Weapon Proficiency (mWPF). Experiment with the calculator to see what I mean. You'll notice that with no armor penalty, the relationship between PD and WPF can run the spectrum from huge penalty if PD is high and WPF is low, to massive bonus if WPF is high and PD is low. Ultimately, the top level archers have a mWPF that is much higher than their base WPF, which is how they hit you in the head from so far away. From here Im going to be lazy and repost what I wrote on a different thread and maybe Ill improve it later when I have time. It will be a bit less legible to beginners but sums up this issue concisely I feel. The post was discussing what bow is best to use.
From experience, if you have dreams of glory that involve beating other top archers at dueling as well as hitting headshots from medium to long range, you're going to need a modified WPF of at least 275 if not 300+. At that point your reticule settles very quickly and to a perfect point, and it stays that way for several seconds. Getting that high with PD 6 (i.e. Warbow/Longbow) requires about 205-210 base WPF without any armor penalty (less than 6 modified armor weight). For some perspective, to get that high, you'd need to get to at least level 32 assuming you put skill points only in PD, WM, and Athletics, and dumped the rest into AGI, while putting WPP only into archery (generally this is considered a pure archer build).
To reach similar proficiency with a Khergit Bow at PD 4, you only need about 180-185 base WPF with no armor penalty, which can be reached in a pure archer build at about level 24.
Your Khergit bow is doing 5 base damage less than a Warbow, which is pretty significant. But notice that you can reach the same level of mastery with a Khergit bow a good 8 levels earlier. Ultimately, if you're doing anything other than a PURE archer build (No melee skills at all, no horsies, and no real armor), I'd say stick with a Khergit, or Strong at the most. If, however, you like running away on foot whenever baddies get close, and you wanna 1-2 shot all those silly infantry running around, and you don't mind grinding until your eyes bleed, get a Warbow (or Longbow if you're really crazy) and level until about the mid-30's. You will then be feared from afar.
In conclusion, everything beneath a Khergit Bow isn't really worth your time and should only be used temporarily. The step from Nomad to Khergit is by far the best upgrade in the category of bows. After that, moving up to Strong, and eventually War/Long is a matter of taste but shouldn't be done too hastily. You'll regret more points in PD if you don't yet have the WPF to handle it. Track your progress with the calculator above, get your modified archery to at least 250 as quickly as you can, and then upgrade bows to your preference while keeping modified WPF above 250 (275+ for archer heaven). Bulzer's advice approximates this quite well:
Go for 12 str for your equipment and Khergit, then 15 or 18 agi.
Then 15 str for strong bow, then 21-24 agi.
Then 18 str, and all your other levels go for agi.
Works quite well.
Again, except for the math, this is all my opinion based on personal experience. Mileage may vary.
NOTE: It remains to be seen how the next update will affect this advice. If nothing else, the steeper experience curve that will make anything above level 35 essentially impossible will probably reduce the number of people wielding War/Long bows significantly or else render them a bit less effective since the top archers using those weapons right now are in the level 40 range. This is all conjecture, feel free to ignore it completely.
As I said at the beginning, I welcome all input, corrections, additions, etc. and I will try to address questions. Thanks to those who's advice and info are improving this guide. Note that much of this info deals with a pure archer. There are many varieties from Archer Knight to Horse Archer that will function differently. Hopefully this post will give you the info you need to start building your archer the way you want to. Most importantly, have fun, good luck, and shoot a tin can in the face for me!
-Barely Legal
