Being an Archer

CREATING THE IDEAL ARCHER
When you create a new character, you are presented with numerous options on your
character's appearance. Really the only thing that makes any sort of difference
is your starting weapon, but even then if doesn't make too much of a difference.
The sword has the most narrow range of damage, while the hand axe and wooden
has a higher maximum and lower minimum damage than the sword. I went with the
hand axe - DEX raises your minimum damage with a melee weapon, and as an archer,
you will naturally have high DEX, so you should have decent damage. In the end,
the starting weapon will not matter because you will only wield it for 8 levels
tops.

On the right side of the screen, you can name your character and generate stats.
The name is whatever you want that's unique, and has to be 4-12 characters in
length, consisting of only letters and numbers - no spaces, underscores, or
symbols.

Now this is the most important part in making the ideal archer - generating
stats. You want to click on the dice to randomize stats over and over until the
INT and LUK are both 4. STR and DEX can be anything, but no matter what, INT and
LUK must be 4 each. This may take as little as one minute, or as long as an hour
or two. It may be tedious, but in the end, it is worth it.

Others will argue that getting a 4 and 5 will suffice. If you don't want to
spend up to a few hours clicking the dice, then you may opt to settle for a 4
and 5. Being a perfectionist, I strongly advise you to keep rolling that dice
until two fours show up for INT and LUK.

YOUR ABILITY POINTS (not to be confused with Skill Points)
Luckily, archers have the easiest time increasing damage at lower levels. Why?
For archers, the only equipment that require STR are:
-most bows
-most crossbows
-all hats from level 25-40
-all shoes from level 15-25
-all Bennis equipment
If you are lazy and don't want to worry about exploiting damage increase at
lower levels, then the general rule of thumb is:

FOR HUNTERS: STR = LVL + 5
FOR CROSSBOWERS: STR = LVL

With this rule, you should only be putting AP into STR when you need it. For
example, for bow users, you need 25 STR when you are level 20. At level 25, you
need 30 STR. So leave STR at 25 from level 20-24, and when you hit level 25,
pump all 5 AP at level 25 into STR. This makes you have more damage earlier,
even though later on, the damage will be the same. Hey, anything to help you
level faster, ehh? Whenever you are not putting AP into STR, put it into DEX.
You always want to try to maximize DEX. You will also notice that you can add
AP to HP and MP. You should NEVER do this because you get a boost to HP and MP
with every level.

This rule will hold for your entire career as an Archer. Never forget how to
raise your AP.

So when you start on Maple Island, go ahead and put all AP for the next few
levels into STR until STR 25. After that, put all your AP into DEX. The reason
for this is so that your melee damage will be high, helping you train with ease
until level 18-20. At level 20, you can continue the normal AP distribution.

At level 10, your stats should look like this:
STR 25
DEX 37
INT 4
LUK 4
To become an archer, you must be level 10 and have more than 25 DEX. Shouldn't
be a problem if you've been following my guide. Leave Maple Island, travel to
Henesys, and locate Athena Pierce. She is in the rightmost building in the
Mushroom Park, which is a portal in the middle of the city.


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Living as an Archer
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THE BASICS OF A BOWMAN
I will now cover the skills of an archer, and add my comments.
ML = max/mastered level

The Blessing of Amazon (ML 16) - Increases accuracy
---
This is a passive skill that adds accuracy. This is quite useless to archers
because Archers naturally have high accuracy. This is something that warriors
would love to have, but unfortunately don't. This skill should never exceed
level 3. But do note that Blessing increases ACC for all weapons.

Critical Shot (ML 20) - Allows you to perform a critical attack with a certain
success rate
---
In other words, free extra damage. When maxed, normal shots do double damage.
Contrary to popular belief, Critical Shot only adds 100% damage to the current
attack multiplier, it does not double damage. Because of this, Arrow Blow is
rather inferior to Double Shot. Also, Critical Shot also makes archers' damage
really unstable, even with mastery in the second job. Regardless, all archers
should max this skill.

The Eye of Amazon (ML - Increases the range of attack for both bows and
crossbows
Pre-Requisite - Level 3 The Blessing of Amazon
---
Not a real necessity until you actually use a class-specific weapon around
level 18-20. But this is the skill that makes the archer the unique class that
it is. Even claw thieves can't out-range you when you max this skill. You want
to max this skill before the second job starts.

Focus (ML 20) - Focussing to temporarily increase accuracy and avoidability
Pre-Requisite - Level 3 The Blessing of Amazon
---
The accuracy bonus is negligible (see comments under Blessing), but the bonus
avoidability can really come in handy. Archers who choose not to use Final
Attack in the second job would want to max this skill LATER. That is, don't put
SP into Focus until the late 20's. Note that 4 DEX = 1 EVA. That means that
maxed Focus is the same as gaining 80 DEX's worth of EVA.

Arrow Blow (ML 20) - Fires an arrow with authority. Applies more damage than
usual
---
A nice skill that helps to make higher level monsters flinch. Yes, there are
monsters that do not flinch when attacked - the first monster you may encounter
that doesn't flinch is a Bubbling. You won't really see that high damage until
you have mastery in the second job (2.6 * 30 = low damage). This skill is
considered inferior to Double Shot because with Critical Shot, the multiplier
is 360%, while Double Shot will have 230% * 2. Crossbowers may find utility in
Arrow Blow because the crossbow's higher damage makes for extremely high damage
output, which is generally used to show off those high numbers. In general,
Arrow Blow's usefulness is only limited to flinching/knocking back monsters.
Just remember: killing faster is better than stalling one monster.

Double Shot (ML 20) - Fires two arrows at once to attack an enemy twice
Pre-Requisite - Level 1 Arrow Blow
---
Without Critical Shot, Double Shot has the same damage multiplier as Arrow Blow.
But when you get Critical Shots, you get two hits of 230%. Also, the lower
multiplier allows for consistent damage, while Arrow Blow's damage is rather
unstable. The usefulness of Double Shot doesn't really shine until you get
mastery in the second job - seeing two 1's on a monster is very disappointing.
Also, don't worry about Double Shot using up two arrows - this problem is solved
with Soul Arrow in the second job. Hunters love Double Shot, but that's not to
say that Crossbowers don't benefit from Double Shot. Every archer should max
this skill.

SKILL TABLES
n = Skill level

The Blessing of Amazon