[RED] Archer Skill Builds

I don't think SE first is such a no brainer now.

Vanilla 4th job crit bonus: 45% chance to crit for 1.2x-1.5x (average 1.35x) = 115.75% average damage
Max SE: 65% chance to crit for 1.2x-1.8x (average 1.5x) = 132.5% average damage

132.5/115.75 = 1.147. SE boosts your overall damage by less than 15%. It doesn't boost anyone's damage by much more than that, either.

(not counting crit ring/other weapon bonuses, not that it makes a large difference)
Classes without crit: 10.6% damage increase
NLs: 16.0% damage increase
Corsairs/Buccs: 13.4% damage increase
...you get the idea. Compare these boosts to the 53% (56.25% with crit ring) damage increase NLs get from SE right now, or the 65.7% damage increase archers get from SE right now.

I would work on Hurricane or maybe Expertise first. You could put SE to level 10 or something just to have a small buff with an acceptable timer, but putting 30 points into it before working on anything else is dumb.

I had thought I'd said something about this in there somewhere, but I guess I left it out. My 4th job area is very vague since I haven't even had any 3rd job experience yet, it's fairly difficult to tell at all how 4th job will go, especially since I don't yet know about the availability of skill books. For sheer damage output, Expertise is always superior to SE in any combination I believe. SE should come after unless you can find a suitable single target training area. Ultimate Strafe is much more accessible than maxed Hurricane though in this regard, so I think this opens up areas for Marksmen more simply. Though it's very marginal, after maxed Expertise, Maple Warrior gives almost the same damage increase as Sharp Eyes, though a bit lower. It may be a viable option depending on the availability of books. For example, 15 SE 15 MW gives better damage than 30 SE 0MW or 0SE 30MW.

In terms of Dodge, it's most likely only activated with the Dodge effect, i.e. 20% of the time, but one can hope.

For Mortal Blow, I geared the build towards my own experience and expected damage output. I don't foresee myself being able to 4HKO Roids. 5HKO seems like a stretch, and even if I could do it to them, the monsters afterwards might pose an issue to achieve the same ratio. If you can easily say that you'll have a 2400 average at 88, and 3600 average range at 98 etc (or 2900 and 4300 minimum respectively if you want to guarantee you'll always at least 4HKO), then Mortal Blow isn't for you.

As far as what I've currently played out, my friend and I both seemingly agree that after about 4 Soul Arrow and 12 Booster, PKB should be started towards maxing. As awesome as having no minimum range is, it doesn't mean pomegranate if monsters spawn on top of you or run into you and you can't KB them away because they either run behind you, the platform ends, there's a wall, and any number of zoning issues that PKB would eliminate. There's so many scenarios where I wish my PKB were higher level so I could push the two monsters in front of me so I can 2HKO a mob of six instead of 2HKO a mob of four and then 2HKO another mob of two. I'm going to add another tidbit for Arrow Blow right now as well though.

Arrow Blow has what I would like to say a stupid targeting mechanism. It is a mob skill with an area of effect, it is more similar to Arrow Bomb than Iron Arrow. The first arrow that is shot will seek the nearest available target. First, the target must be within normal shooting range, and within normal arrow curving angles. Arrow Blow will seek the nearest monster that fulfills these conditions regardless of whether or not terrain blocks it. Therefore, if a monster is beneath you with a platform blocking but is closer than a clear shot to a monster in front, Arrow Blow will fail. It will attempt to hit the nearest monster despite being blocked by terrain; however, the arrow that is shot will not explicitly try. The arrow therefore will miss, and appear to continue to go forward, hitting absolutely nothing despite another viable target is within range. Should the first shot of Arrow Blow successfully achieve its mark though, determined when the skill is activated, Arrow Blow will also seek up to two other targets, allowing it to hit three monsters. These two other targets are based on the area of effect around the original target, and can be hit regardless of terrain, converse to the original arrow.




Ignore my pomegranatety timing (i.e. I let it hit me =[). Had to get a bunch of tries cause it kept not knocking back or the shot was bad (i.e. I actually took damage), whatever. To me this feels a lot faster and more efficient in terms of the actual monster's movement than pre-Big Bang. The actual action speed for PKB is the same as every other attack, but there's a delay that prevents you from constantly spamming it.