Archery is once again the top topic of grievance and disputes. I will always play as an archer, no matter how much it does get nerfed, at least that is what I was telling myself back in the days. I am not so sure anymore to be honest.
The recent nerf hit archers pretty hard. Although I think the intentions behind this nerf are correct, I dare say it caused more damage than it repaired anything. Usually I dont care anymore about this topic and I just wait for the next nerf to see if it is possible to adept. Too many times though I read the last months that you should bitch and lobby about something if you wanted the get something done and looking at the past and it seems to be the case. I do not plan to bitch in here though but rather evaluate my point of view, which I am sure a lot of people can share.
When talking about archery most of us take all the information on this topic for granted, how mechanics work etc. but allow me to present you an in-depth essay on this matter and lets pretend we dont persist in our viewpoints no matter what, at least this time. Have fun reading and let's begin.
an Essay
concerning
The root of all misery in cRPG
- Archery before the recent nerf
I. Armor restrictionsWeapon proficiency points are most vital for archers as they determine how fast they can reload their bow, how accurate they can shoot and to some degree even how much damage they deal. Archery comsumes A LOT of these WPF points in order to achieve a reasonable effect. If you want a build that gives you any of those qualities mentioned above, putting WPF into a category other than archery is quite a bad idea. That means you will have about no melee WPF at all, not by choice but by force.
Now, if you exceed a fixed amount of armor weight it decreases those WPF points and therefore your ability to function properly as the class you are. The last time I checked it was a total armor weight of 10 which has not to be exceeded, while the weight of body and leg armor count as x1, head armor count as x2 and gloves counts as x4.
This means an archer with nothing but a mail hauberk would already get a penalty while not even wearing gloves, boots or a helmet at all. To give an even more drastic example: An naked archer who wears nothing but a vaegir warmask and hourglass gauntlets would also already have reached the maximum armor weight limit of 10
( warmask = 3kg x 2 = 6 / gaunlets = 1kg x 4 = 4 ; 6 + 4 = 10 = maximum weight limit ). It is therefore not surprising that you dont see archers with resonable armor. Its not because they chose so but rather the game dictates you not to do.
Conclusion I:
Armor restrictions do not allow archer to wear reasonable armor if you want to maintain functioning properly as a ranged unit.
II. Melee capabilitiesArchers are coward and always run from a melee fight, right ? Lets see why this is.
As mentioned in the chapter above, having a sufficient amount of melee WPF points will inevitably leave you with too little archery WPF in order to maintain a reasonable ranged performence, which is the very reason you play as an archer for.
On top of the lack of WPF there is also the lack of Powerstrike. The DPS ( damage per second ) on bows is not really that great. If you want to be able to kill a medium armored person in less than 5 hits ( depending on the bow ), 6 Powerdraw is a must have.
Pre nerf the cookie-cutter archer build was 18/21 or similar. 18 strength is needed for 6 Powerdraw and therefore to be able to use the long- and rusbow, 21 agility is the minimum to get 7 Weaponmaster in order to have enough WPF to be able to operate a bow with acceptable accuracy. At level 30 you now would have 10 skillpoints left and didnt put anything into ironflesh, powerstrike, athletics.
Now you might think you could simply put the 6 points into powerstrike and 4 into athletics. The problem with this though is that you still cant afford any melee WPF. Melee WPF does not only vastly increase your swingspeed but also has a large impact on damage. Remember that a melee build with
ZERO weaponmaster has 111 WPF at level 30 by default.
No matter if you put 3 or 6 Powerstrike into your build, with minimal WPF your swings wont deal much damage against an armored enemy and are slow enough to be blocked by about anyone with ease. An agility orientated build will most likely be able to circle around you faster than your weapon is actually swinging. On a plated foe your weapon will most likely glance most of the time. Breaking a shield with the weapons available to archers is very time consuming. Combined with footwork, a high WPF 1h enemy is capable of outspamming you.
Archers are, as a fact, inferior in melee to any melee orientated build. As it should be.
Now combine the lack of melee capabilities with the lack of armor as to be read in chapter one.
Conclusion I + II: Without the possibility to carry decent armor into battle due to
Armor restrictions and a clear lack of
Melee capabilities there is little point in engaging an enemy in close combat who has the superior build and equipment in almost every way.
III. ToughnessArchers need agility in order to be able to shoot well. More agility means less strength. Less strength means less health. Ironflesh is not an option either as most of the skillpoints are needed to get archery running at an acceptable level. Neither is armor much of an option as mentioned in chapter I. All in all, as an archer you are the most fragile unit on the battlefield and you will get oneshot by almost anything. No matter whether its a lance to the back, a greatsword to the chest or a bolt fired from an arbalest to your stomach. You have to rely on dodging and avoiding enemy contact if you want to survive.
Due to this low toughness, as an archer you dont have the luxury to figure out the enemy fighting style and analize why he was able to hit you and then come up with a counter to your enemies playstyle. Gambling as in hoping that you hit him first, kicking while hoping your enemy didnt anticipate it and stab you in the face etc. are one time events in a round if you happen to be unlucky. You might have hit that plated guy about 6 times with your mace already or hammered that guys shield for the 20st time already, sadly it does not help you at all when he gets that one lucky oneshot in the end. Even a simple horsebump is enough to take a big chunk out of your lifebar.
Conclusion I + II + III: The effects of
Armor restrictions, the lack of
Melee capabilities AND the additional low
toughness dictate archers to play in the most defencive manner their can achieve, avoiding any contact with enemy arms, missiles or horses in order to participate actively to the game until the end and not looking at your dead body early in the round.
IV. Slot restrictionsWhile a 2h build needs nothing but his 2 slot sword and a polearmer needs nothing but his 2 or 3 slot polearm to gain maximum efficiency out of his build, it's a bit different for archers. As an archer you can carry light bows for 1 slot or heavier bows for 2 slots. Additionally you need quivers, 1 slot each. Since your arrows are not laser guided, you will miss, arrows wont hit due to bugs, they will get cought by shields, will get blocked by horses etc; bringing 2 quivers into a large battle is mandatory. The types of arrows that deal the most damage are limited to 15 per quiver ( bodkins, 17 when +3 ) and 18 per quiver ( tatars, 20 when +3 ).
If we now consider that lighter bows need 4 hits average to drop a medium oppenent from full health ( observation with my +3 hornbow ) and about 3 hits with heavier bows ( observation with my +3 longbow ), going into battle with 17 - 20 arrows will simply not last an entire round when there are tons of horses, shielders and total chaos around you in general.
This leaves you to either chose a 1 slot or a 0 slot melee weapon as an archer. While 0 slot weapons dont deal much damage in general and are outranged by about anything on the battlefield there are at least some decent 1 slot weapons, some even with 2h seconary modes. Sadly they are not an option for rus- or longbow archers. However, as said in chapter II, melee capabilities of archers are not that great.
Chosing a blunt weapon is about the only way to have a chance to at least interrupt your armored attacker consistently with a hit instead of glancing and getting oneshot as a result. But even if you forget about the blunt damage, the longest weapon you can get your hands on as an archer is the arabian cavalry sword or similar swords which all happen to have cut damage. With a weapon of this length you wont be able to fight a lancer and you will easily be outreached by almost every 2h and polearm player.
Conclusion I + II + III + IV:
Armor restrictions, low
Melee capabilities, low
toughness and
Slot restrictions. Now you see where this is going. Engaging in melee fights with a level 30 archer build is about equal to fight with a lvl 15 melee build without spending any WPF points. This is not a consequence of low player skill. Running away from a fight as an archer is the only sane thing to do when the game simply does not allow you to kill your enemy by other means. The very reason archers behave in a "my old friendgy" way, as in "kiting" is the constant crying to nerf them further. Devs did it, now you got what you whished for.
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So what do archers have left ? They score the lowest points in almost every category compared to their mounted and armored companions. Ah, thats right. The fact that they can combine the ability to deal damage from afar with superior mobility.
While direct enemy contact is a death sentence to pure archer the only tool there is left is taking advantage of superior mobility while maintaining a ranged damage output. The glorious "kiting". We all know it is gay, noobish, lame, my old friendgy and what other expressions there have been invented so far to describe this style of playing.
After evaluating the conclusions of chapter I, chapter II, chapter III and chapter IV, which all on their own highlight the negative consequences of getting into close combat with an archer build, it is ESPECIALLY the negative synergies of all of the four combined that makes me answering the following question as follows:
Q:
Can archers stop running away like little sissies already ?A: Bitch please.
Admittedly kiting IS in fact a pain and leaves certain melee builds without the chance of defending themselves until they get into melee range, which is quite often impossible for a melee build. It is the same injustice that happens when a melee DOES get into melee range ( for unexpected reasons ) and chops the archer into peaces without much chance to counterattack. Allthough this sound much theoretic, we all know both of those examples do or at least did happen on quite a regular basis and the outcome of both of these examples are merely a matter of skill but rather build and equipment superiority. And THIS is not acceptable in a skill based, competitive multiplayer game in my humble opinion.
Archers kited because there was no other tool to an archers disposal other than kiting. The cure for this could only be: take away their kiting but give them a fair chance to be effective in return. Sadly however, this is not what has been done. The only viable playstyle of archers has been taken away while all the previous nerfs over nerfs still remain.
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- Archery after the recent nerf
What changed ?
Well the same issues are still there but now in a slightly modified form.
Missile drop, missile speed and damage got nerfed on loomed bows. Ranged capabilities overall got nerfed. Additionally, archery equipment such as bows and quivers are significantly heavier in order to slow archers down.
If we look back at pre-nerf archery:
I. Armor restrictions are still there ( as far as I know unchanged ).
II. Melee capabilities for archers did not get buffed but instead heavily nerfed. And this is why:
Due to the increase of weight of archery gear you now carry about as much weight on you as an archer as you do as a plated knight. A longbow + 2 quivers of bodkins weighs 20kg. Tatar arrows are even heavier. If you bring a bit of armor with you thats another additional 10kg = 30kg in total + melee weapon. The weight increase has a devastating impact on your movement speed and mobility. Although this prevents archers from kiting it also makes dueling, as in using footwork almost impossible.
Even pre-nerf your armored enemy already had the upper hand in almost every aspect of the fight, now he also has superior mobility.
Archers always had to rely on dodging and avoiding enemies in order to survive. Without this ability you get almost autokilled by horses as you cant dodge their couches anymore, if they know how to couch that is. Certain shielders now outrun you and are a 100% procted from your arrows while they get closer.
Even if you see an xbower pointing his arbalest at you, chances are high that you wont be able to build up enough momentum to walk out of his line of fire, which then results in a oneshot.
Agility builds such as ninjas can backpaddel faster than you can walk forward while being able to swing weapons with more reach, more damage, more speed, and beating you in every other category there is when it comes to melee combat.
1h cav in general does not have the problem anymore of archery getting out of their reach as they can turn their horse faster now than an archer can run around the horse.
III. Toughness is still low. With the nerf of lance damage archers might now survive a lance in the back. Still many things oneshot you. And what does not oneshot you will definitly twoshot you. This minor boost in toughness is negated by the movement speed nerf however and archers simply dont have the chance to avoid a lot of dangers anymore.
IV. The slot system is still there, no changes on that.
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Final conclusion
The question I have to ask at this point: What is the purpose of an archer now ? What is the point of playing a class that neither can handle to be confronted directly with enemies nor has the ability to avoid those confrontations ?
Of course the people who are looking for advantages instead of balance are happy now but,
why should I play as an archer if I can grab a 2h sword, simply walk to my enemy instead of shooting him and engaging him with a better overall performance? Why should I restrict myself to play as a crawling crashtest dummy when I can simply strap a crossbow/bag of javelins to the back of my armor and be effective in melee and ranged combat alike ? Or simply get a heavy horse and inflict more DPS with bumping everyone to death without any skill required ?
I havent seen many of the top tier archers around the last days and those who were there got spammed to death by people without the skill to actually justify it.
This is just another patch that unwarrantedly enables bad players to counter archers without trying. What is your intention devs ? Do you want to balance archery or do you want to remove it ? I am sure there are a lot of people who would be pleased to give actual constructive criticism if people would have the impression that you are listening to them. But as of now, no matter how much I like this game, I dare say you have not exactly done a good job about this matter.
Thank you for your attention.
