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Written by Jisel on Salvation Forums:
The following message is my opinion. It is only that and nothing more. I feel it is supported by fact only because of my personal experience playing as an Archer in the game for a few months. Feel free to disagree with me, correct me, or even tell me to shut my trap. It is a free country, and your input is welcome on my topic.
I’m An Archer! Why am I not Needed?
A lot of times as an archer I am told by more experienced players that my class is not required to take on a certain boss monster, or to clear out a dungeon. Barbarians and clerics are deemed more important for these tasks. This attitude is universal throughout the game. You will never see a shout in the world channel wherein some party is seeking an archer or a wizard to kill Khewey or take on the Dismal Shade. We classes who are under the heading of “Direct Damage” are second class citizens in the opinion of the rest of the game community. As an archer I have the following thing to say to that attitude...
Yes, they are right.
Easy now… before my fellow archers, wizards, and even blade masters get too angry, let me explain why I say this. The reason they are right isn’t because we are failures as a class. It’s because most people do not know how to utilize our skills in a group, and a lot of us are just not as smart as we think we are.
The fact is, a cleric and a barbarian, of sufficient level and patience will eventually win almost any fight they enter into. Numerically speaking any war machine with lots of armor, hit points and the ability to repair itself in the heat of a fight is unstoppable. It is however slow, ponderous, and likely to get overrun by superior numbers, so don't get cocky kid! (I loved that line is Star wars, sorry)
A barbarian is like an M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank in most respects. He has high defense (armor) lots of hit points (horsepower) and can generally withstand almost any direct hit for at least a few rounds of fighting. Unfortunately even a high level barbarian is still figuratively armed with short range weapons that lack the punch the actual tank’s 120mm M256 smoothbore gun provides. That’s where we come in!
As an archer, I can outdamage any tank over an extended period of time. Argue with me if you want to, but you know this is true. That’s why you tanks are so paranoid about losing aggro in a fight and you all know it. I’m not bragging. A wizard will outdamage me just as easily as I do you. That is what we are designed to do. Blade masters are similar in some respects but thankfully have high enough hit points and defense to handle it when the monster turns on them. Archers and wizards are butterflies with bazookas. Put one of us behind a tank, and suddenly those fights go by a lot faster don’t they?
So why don’t these clerics and barbarians love us? Simply put, it is our fault. As a direct damage character you must realize that when your tank loses aggro you die. Period. If you survive it is only because you built your character incorrectly and pumped up your vitality (buy a point reset scroll at level 50 if you did this or you’ll be sorry), or the cleric spent a lot of valuable mana healing you. In the very likely event that you have to be resurrected after the fight, take a moment to ask yourself why it happened to you. The odds are it was not the tank’s fault. You probably screwed up, and you paid the price, so stop complaining and trying to switch the blame onto other people. If you do your job right you’ll probably walk through every fight your group engages in without ever even getting a scratch.
Here is the only rule you, as an archer or a wizard (or occasionally a blade master) ever needs to know about fighting boss monsters in a group.
Let the tank start the fight, and then count to four or five before you attack whatever he is hitting. If he kills it himself before you attack, you just saved yourself the cost of some arrows! Smile (Or mana potions etc.)
Simple, elegant, and it works perfectly almost every time! There will still be times that you’ll draw aggro from the boss monster, but most of the time you can just stop attacking, take a couple of painful swats from the big bad evil guy, and your tank will swoop in and rescue you. If he cannot then it was just not your day. It happens, and it is depressing, but it is sometimes unavoidable. Try not to get angry as tanks and clerics almost universally take your death harder than you do. They see your demise as their failure, even when you were the one that messed up!
Now as for the rest of you guys and I am mostly talking to you tanks and clerics who might be reading this. Don’t neglect the usefulness of getting one of us on your side! We kill stuff… fast! That’s a good thing, so try not to forget to invite us when you guys are facing something nasty or you might be in for a really long night!
Thank you for listening, and I’ll see you all in the game.
Love Always,
Jisel
P.S. Link to a popular archer guide:
http://www.asiapworld.com/pwforum/viewtopic.php?t=116
The following message is my opinion. It is only that and nothing more. I feel it is supported by fact only because of my personal experience playing as an Archer in the game for a few months. Feel free to disagree with me, correct me, or even tell me to shut my trap. It is a free country, and your input is welcome on my topic.
I’m An Archer! Why am I not Needed?
A lot of times as an archer I am told by more experienced players that my class is not required to take on a certain boss monster, or to clear out a dungeon. Barbarians and clerics are deemed more important for these tasks. This attitude is universal throughout the game. You will never see a shout in the world channel wherein some party is seeking an archer or a wizard to kill Khewey or take on the Dismal Shade. We classes who are under the heading of “Direct Damage” are second class citizens in the opinion of the rest of the game community. As an archer I have the following thing to say to that attitude...
Yes, they are right.
Easy now… before my fellow archers, wizards, and even blade masters get too angry, let me explain why I say this. The reason they are right isn’t because we are failures as a class. It’s because most people do not know how to utilize our skills in a group, and a lot of us are just not as smart as we think we are.
The fact is, a cleric and a barbarian, of sufficient level and patience will eventually win almost any fight they enter into. Numerically speaking any war machine with lots of armor, hit points and the ability to repair itself in the heat of a fight is unstoppable. It is however slow, ponderous, and likely to get overrun by superior numbers, so don't get cocky kid! (I loved that line is Star wars, sorry)
A barbarian is like an M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank in most respects. He has high defense (armor) lots of hit points (horsepower) and can generally withstand almost any direct hit for at least a few rounds of fighting. Unfortunately even a high level barbarian is still figuratively armed with short range weapons that lack the punch the actual tank’s 120mm M256 smoothbore gun provides. That’s where we come in!
As an archer, I can outdamage any tank over an extended period of time. Argue with me if you want to, but you know this is true. That’s why you tanks are so paranoid about losing aggro in a fight and you all know it. I’m not bragging. A wizard will outdamage me just as easily as I do you. That is what we are designed to do. Blade masters are similar in some respects but thankfully have high enough hit points and defense to handle it when the monster turns on them. Archers and wizards are butterflies with bazookas. Put one of us behind a tank, and suddenly those fights go by a lot faster don’t they?
So why don’t these clerics and barbarians love us? Simply put, it is our fault. As a direct damage character you must realize that when your tank loses aggro you die. Period. If you survive it is only because you built your character incorrectly and pumped up your vitality (buy a point reset scroll at level 50 if you did this or you’ll be sorry), or the cleric spent a lot of valuable mana healing you. In the very likely event that you have to be resurrected after the fight, take a moment to ask yourself why it happened to you. The odds are it was not the tank’s fault. You probably screwed up, and you paid the price, so stop complaining and trying to switch the blame onto other people. If you do your job right you’ll probably walk through every fight your group engages in without ever even getting a scratch.
Here is the only rule you, as an archer or a wizard (or occasionally a blade master) ever needs to know about fighting boss monsters in a group.
Let the tank start the fight, and then count to four or five before you attack whatever he is hitting. If he kills it himself before you attack, you just saved yourself the cost of some arrows! Smile (Or mana potions etc.)
Simple, elegant, and it works perfectly almost every time! There will still be times that you’ll draw aggro from the boss monster, but most of the time you can just stop attacking, take a couple of painful swats from the big bad evil guy, and your tank will swoop in and rescue you. If he cannot then it was just not your day. It happens, and it is depressing, but it is sometimes unavoidable. Try not to get angry as tanks and clerics almost universally take your death harder than you do. They see your demise as their failure, even when you were the one that messed up!
Now as for the rest of you guys and I am mostly talking to you tanks and clerics who might be reading this. Don’t neglect the usefulness of getting one of us on your side! We kill stuff… fast! That’s a good thing, so try not to forget to invite us when you guys are facing something nasty or you might be in for a really long night!
Thank you for listening, and I’ll see you all in the game.
Love Always,
Jisel
P.S. Link to a popular archer guide:
http://www.asiapworld.com/pwforum/viewtopic.php?t=116