Archery thoughts

[Fendell Orcbane]

So I have noticed that other than Taptap and I think Debo...pretty much no one uses archery as a big part of their game. And quite frankly I wonder why this is. I think that for the Morgoth Kill archery can be really hard as of 1.1.1, but for every other unique...give enough distance and a decent bow, archery is very powerful. The only thing that archery sucks for is getting out Sil's. But otherwise archery rules especially in the early game. If you have point blank archery you can pretty much take out anything in the early game and if you have a light enough bow you can do it fast.
But I feel like I'm missing something, granted I don't use smithing, but Melee just seems really risky and harder than it should be...hell even with my melee attempts I *still* make heavy use of archery to soften up enemies and this is without investing points in archery.
So I was wonder what everyone else though about archery, because to me is just seems really awesome. So awesome that I'm pretty much not going to use it for awhile...I almost feel like I'm cheating : )

[debo]

I haven't used archery as a main since I made that winner archer video a really long time ago. Not much reason for it, I just like hitting dudes more. I got bored of shooting. If I want to shoot things I'll play doomrl

[taptap]

i am doing archery irl since last year so there is some affinity. i even can shoot longer distances than the poor chars in the game . archery was horribly overpowered once, and I guess many people just didn't play archers after it was nerfed. i found it quite possible to kill Morgoth as an archer (did it 3 times in different ways as far as I recall). in 1.2.x we have more powerful bows again (found a 1d10 bow of doriath last game) but less sharpness with song (but probably more with piercing + high song which now simply add to each other?) and some issues with will.

i probably find early game with archers more difficult. later i have less problems, enough to die with my scatterbrained play, but less unsolvable problems due to listen / radiance / sprinting to get distance, elbereth or sufficient stealth to pick fights. fairly successful start for me is 2435 finarfin with concentration, evasion 5, melee 3 and weaponsmith at start and i make a 2 lb longbow at the first forge, that is what i am playing right now, when i am not killing beor flankers or beor archers.

i never had careful shot / point blank archery. it probably is good, but i take all other archery abilities already.

[BlueFish]

I quite like archery as a dwarf smith mauler (of all things).

I usually play a belegost with 4 str. Crafting a 4 lb +1 longbow is within my smithing means. Rings of accuracy +2 are too. Those rings contribute to archery skill, so even with only 2 or 3 archery and a very low dex and dwarf penalty to archery, I can hit pretty often with the bow. It does a lot of damage, and is pretty fun. I use archery a lot against giants and of course insects and cats.

[Fendell Orcbane]

I quite like archery as a dwarf smith mauler (of all things).

I usually play a belegost with 4 str. Crafting a 4 lb +1 longbow is within my smithing means. Rings of accuracy +2 are too. Those rings contribute to archery skill, so even with only 2 or 3 archery and a very low dex and dwarf penalty to archery, I can hit pretty often with the bow. It does a lot of damage, and is pretty fun. I use archery a lot against giants and of course insects and cats.

Interesting : )

[Fendell Orcbane]

i am doing archery irl since last year so there is some affinity. i even can shoot longer distances than the poor chars in the game . archery was horribly overpowered once, and I guess many people just didn't play archers after it was nerfed. i found it quite possible to kill Morgoth as an archer (did it 3 times in different ways as far as I recall). in 1.2.x we have more powerful bows again (found a 1d10 bow of doriath last game) but less sharpness with song (but probably more with piercing + high song which now simply add to each other?) and some issues with will.

i probably find early game with archers more difficult. later i have less problems, enough to die with my scatterbrained play, but less unsolvable problems due to listen / radiance / sprinting to get distance, elbereth or sufficient stealth to pick fights. fairly successful start for me is 2435 finarfin with concentration, evasion 5, melee 3 and weaponsmith at start and i make a 2 lb longbow at the first forge, that is what i am playing right now, when i am not killing beor flankers or beor archers.

i never had careful shot / point blank archery. it probably is good, but i take all other archery abilities already.

Well Point Blank archery is good in 1.2.1 and helps the early game IMO.

[Psi]

Archery is fantastically strong against single foes or at a distance, but one wrong move (which I am very prone to) and you can find yourself surrounded with no means of escape unless you have a HornBlasting. At least with a melee character you can BuffRage&Hope(TM).

[Fendell Orcbane]

Archery is fantastically strong against single foes or at a distance, but one wrong move (which I am very prone to) and you can find yourself surrounded with no means of escape unless you have a HornBlasting. At least with a melee character you can BuffRage&Hope(TM).

I doubt you make many wrong moves...I just feel like Archery + Stealth removes a lot of the chance elements. Which is why I like it.

[taptap]

Well Point Blank archery is good in 1.2.1 and helps the early game IMO.

Do you take crippling shot? (I tend to go precision, crippling shot, flaming arrows, dexterity and very late rapid fire. 5,5k xp for point blank archery looks excessive)

[Fendell Orcbane]

Do you take crippling shot? (I tend to go precision, crippling shot, flaming arrows, dexterity and very late rapid fire. 5,5k xp for point blank archery looks excessive)

Nope. I used to take cropping shot. But its been nerved and besides Flaming arrows can get kill rather than slow enemies down so I'd rather get that first. Before 1.2.1 I *never* took point blank archery...now its a must. But I used to get Flaming arrows before precision. Then the Dex point. Because the Dex point is so useful. I also take Rapid fire late in the game since generally I like to pump my archery up so that each shot is hitting hard as possible. Generally point blank archery is good for the early game...but it helped out with my last winner since Morgoth was right next to me.

[taptap]

Nope. I used to take cropping shot. But its been nerved and besides Flaming arrows can get kill rather than slow enemies down so I'd rather get that first. Before 1.2.1 I *never* took point blank archery...now its a must. But I used to get Flaming arrows before precision. Then the Dex point. Because the Dex point is so useful. I also take Rapid fire late in the game since generally I like to pump my archery up so that each shot is hitting hard as possible. Generally point blank archery is good for the early game...but it helped out with my last winner since Morgoth was right next to me.

You probably have decent evasion and armour and probably way more constitution, I tend to have only enough for sprinting and hardly enough of those to support lengthy close quarter fights - that's why I build around either stealth or Elbereth.

As I am fond of focus / concentration and high perception I often get work out of crippling shot even nerfed as it is as compared to 1.0.x. And I am all for a longbow as initial weapon and 2 or 3 str (now more than ever) - which makes flaming arrows less mandatory as they may look with a 1d7 1lb bow. I have much less trouble with running out of ammo since I switched to initial longbow.

[evilmike]

The easiest two wins I've had in sil were archers, I think both were sindars of fingolfin, one of them on the ladder. Getting your first bow is the hardest part, but you can just craft a bow if you want, the xp cost won't really hurt you in the long run (and as you play, it's nice to get free ammo from forges anyway, enough to have flaming arrows on during most fights). Take enough stealth so you can pick most of your fights (you shouldn't need a ton of stealth), take crippling shot and sprinting so you can kite stuff. Don't forget to increase your dex. If you want melee, just take versatility, which gives you enough melee for backup purposes. Although it looks like in 1.2 point blank archery may be a better idea.

Something I also like to do to make archery a bit nicer, is keymap 'v' to 'ff' and 'V' to 'Ff', since it lets me shoot my target with 1 keystroke instead of 2.

Overall I think it's the easiest character build to win the game with.

[Fendell Orcbane]

You probably have decent evasion and armour and probably way more constitution, I tend to have only enough for sprinting and hardly enough of those to support lengthy close quarter fights - that's why I build around either stealth or Elbereth.

As I am fond of focus / concentration and high perception I often get work out of crippling shot even nerfed as it is as compared to 1.0.x. And I am all for a longbow as initial weapon and 2 or 3 str (now more than ever) - which makes flaming arrows less mandatory as they may look with a 1d7 1lb bow. I have much less trouble with running out of ammo since I switched to initial longbow.

Well I pretty much do the same staff that you do : ) Granted I probably take focus/concentration later in the game than you might.

[Fendell Orcbane]

Overall I think it's the easiest character build to win the game with.

Yup : ) I totally agree which is why I'm surprised at the lack of archers on the ladder.

[debo]

I think that's actually why you don't see many of them -- it gets dull after a while