I'm curious as to whether there's a Damage Formula floating around for Pirates/Pirate Skills*.

*I'm not sure if there are any skills which resemble Lucky Seven in the fact that they run off of a damage formula independent of the damage range.

I'd go make a pirate and play with numbers myself, but I can't play kMS. :/

I'm level 45 on mine but I got bored due to no other beginners on the server

JoblessxFTW here

[SIZE="3"]CURRENTLY REQUESTING:[/SIZE]

• Confirmation of values
  
• Caps, if any, on MP gain
  

I thought I'd share the build I plan to use for my future Infighter. I'm no Pirate expert so I'm open for advice.

[SIZE="5"]Pirate[/SIZE]

I know every kind of forum has these and Im not being original. But Ive always loved sharing my day and getting info on my buddy's from other servers

Well I blew up my 4th zhelm, and currently APQ'ing my butt off to afford more Helm Dex scrolls

How about you guys?

Delete this and everyone of my other threads

Global Ignore please

The complete (when finished) guide to the bowman, with personal experiences from other bowman.
I would like to note, that this is not just a copy-paste of an already existing guide, though many elements may be derived from said guides. This guide is essentially a ground up guide of bowman.

The Bowman Basics

I Wanna Be A Bowman, Please
To become a bowman, you must first be level 10, with a minimum of 25 DEX. You must head to Henesys, through the portal under the Mushroom Park sign, and head all the way to the right, to the tree/building.

What About My Stats?
As a bowman, there are two different paths you can take, both with variations in style and builds.

The two stats that will be raised throughout your Bowman career is DEX and STR. Dex acts as the main part of a Bowman's damage range, increasing DEX will boost your damage overall. STR acts as a stabilizer to a Bowman's damage range, increasing STR will increase the minimum damage of a Bowman, and after so many point, increase the max damage of the damage range.

There are three main variations to stat builds.

The normal one consists of increasing STR and DEX normally for your weapon, and stop adding STR when you know which weapon you want to stop at. Usually, most Bowmen will opt to cap their dex a little below their highest level equip, and use STR adding equips to be able to equip the weapon, while adding those extra points into DEX. This Build will require little funding to make it an awesome Bowman.

This build has two variation, Low STR build is common, and consists of capping STR at a lower amount, and using STR clothes, capes, and the STR bonus from a Zakum Helm to be able to equip the highest level weapon they will use. For most Low STR builds, STR is capped at around 75. The other variation is newer in light of the release of overall STR scrolls. This variation is Super Low-STR, and uses the fact that all Bowman overalls only have a DEX requirement to equip, and certain ones have 6 STR on them clean. With these two factors taken into consideration, it would be possible to equip an high level Bow with a Z-Helm, a decent STR scrolled overall, and a STR cape, with barely any STR added at all. The Low-STR will require some funding to make it a awesome Bowman, but mainly for a STR cape, and Z-Helm. The Super STR-less will require a larger amount of funding, but has major benefits to it.

The STR-less build is very literal, in that you leave STR alone throughout being a Bowman, and add nothing but DEX. STR-less builds consist of using stat-less weapons, or weapons that have no stat requirement to equip, such as the Maple Weapons, and the Bow of Magical Destruction for Bows. The STR-less build can require very little funding, to a lot, depending the supply of BoMDs and Maple Weapons.

The Path Of The Bow
The Bow is one of two weapon types available to a Bowman. The bow has some advantages over the other weapon choice, crossbows. and the enjoyment of their face not being covered almost completely by the weapon. The main downside to Bows, is both the average attack on the bows, and the formula used for bows.

The Path Of The Crossbow
The Crossbow, or Xbow, is the second type of weapon available to a Bowman. The major upside to Xbows, is the increased average attack the Xbow has over its bow counterpart. Where a LVL 90 bow would have 90 clean attack on average, an LVL 90 Xbow would be 93 attack clean on average. The damage formula also gives the Xbow an advantage. With a 106 attack Bow on my Ranger, i had a high damage range of 19xx, but with an 104 Xbow, my high damage range was around 20xx, easily more damage with a weapon of less attack. The main downside to Xbows, is the look of it. At higher LVLs of Xbows, the size of the weapon is noticeable, as it will tend to cover most of your face when equipped, if not all of it.

The Firing speed of both Bows and Xbows has been thrown into question. Some other guides list that there is a slight difference of shots/minute between the two, mainly because Xbows firing animation plays through fully, with the arrow actually firing at the end of the animation, while Bows have the arrow firing more towards the beginning to middle of the animation. I plan to test this myself by using the stopwatch on my cell phone and firing both and Xbow and Bow without booster or SA, using normal arrows for 1 minute, and the amount of arrows used will give the shot/minute. That Number I will bring to you when i am finished with the test.
Firing Speed Results
Using a Normal Speed Bow And an Normal Speed Xbow with no booster for either. I had with me 100 arrows of each and fired for 1 minute timed on my cell phone stopwatch. The results are.... 75 Arrows Shot With BOW/Minute, and 71 Arrows Shot with XBOW/Minute. This shows that there is a clear speed advantage with Bows over Xbows, but Xbows do have the increased damage.

Stat Distribution
For Bowman, DEX is the single most important stat there is, and for Bow users, STR is the second.

For Bow Users, you Should keep your STR at 5 above your level, so if you are level 30, your STR should be at 35.

For Xbow users, keeping your STR equal to your level is all that is needed.

First Job Skills
For the First Job Bowman, there are three skills that need to be maxed, these skills are:

The Blessing of Amazon: It adds Accuracy, even though Bowman get massive amounts of Accuracy alone from the high amount of DEX we have, having the Accuracy from Blessing of Amazon allows us to attack certain higher level monsters ahead of other classes.

The Eye of Amazon: This increases the distance our arrows go, since we are a ranged class, the father we are from the enemy, the less damage you may take while training.

Critical Shot: This is an absolute must, as this single skill allows Bowman to compete on the same level as other classes, by giving Bowman a boost in the damage they are able to deal, adding 100% more damage to the attack. With my high damage range of 19xx, i hit about 19xx with a normal arrow, but with a good critical shot, i hit upwards of 41xx.

Arrow Blow Vs. Dual Shot
For most new Bowman, this is one of the most confusing parts of the Bowman job: whether to use one high damage attack or to use two attacks in one, with lower damage for each attack.

Arrow Blow: This attack skill gives a major amount of damage in the form of a single arrow. Many argue that Arrow Blow is the best way to go, for certain reasons, like seeing high numbers, as well as needing less MP to use than Dual Shot.

Double Shot: This attack skill deals higher than normal damage over 2 arrows, giving the same total damage as Arrow Blow, at the increased MP cost. The main and most reasonable reason people say to go with Dual Shot, is because when Critical Shot is added to the equation, Dual Shot out damages Arrow Blow.

In Simplified Terms

wobbufet Wrote:Critical shot does not give x2 damage it gives an extra 100% damage. AB with crit = 360%. DS with 1 crit = 360% with 2 crits = 460%.

Is FA even that useful for warriors? It seems to me like it's a waste of potential damage because of the unpredictability...

I apologize, this thread is a tadbit misleading. It's mainly infighters, though since I called it "Pirate" I must add information about gunslingers. That will be added at a later date.

My oh my oh my. I figured I'd post this here and get a head start on most others.

[SIZE="5"]Fun Fact of the Day about Pirates[/SIZE]
(07/27/08) I was wrong about the 01 fact. You'll miss out on about 240 HP. Still not much when you have 8000 HP. Gunslingers, on the other hand, should care.
(07/01/08) By advancing at 29 instead of 10, you will miss out on about 153 HP(73 at the best, 228 at the worst).

[SIZE="5"]Data Crunching[/SIZE]
[SIZE="3"]Formulae[/SIZE]
Infighter
Max- [(STR * 4.8 + DEX) / 100] * Weapon Attack
Min-(STR * 0.9 * 4.8 * Skill Mastery + DEX) / 100 * Weapon Attack

Gunslinger
Max - [(DEX * 3.6 + STR) / 100] * Weapon Attack
Min - (DEX * 0.9 * 3.6 * Skill Mastery + STR) / 100 * Weapon Attack

[SIZE="3"]Damage[/SIZE]
Low-DEX Infighter:

Yes, as of 6:45 PM EST, all Global servers and even the site is down.