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Archer/Hunter/Bow classes.. so which game?
I'm a veteran MMORPG player, i've been playing mmo's since 2000-2001. I have seen companies do some amazing work on archer classes but at the same time, completely nerf them to the ground or just destroy their entire playing style.
So, here's my question to you all.
Which MMORPG would you say knows what they are doing with the archer/hunter class. Which MMORPG actually makes this class/playstyle enjoyable.
discuss!
Comments
Being a great fan of "Green Arrow" I love to play good Archer classes, tho I must say its rarely made good in MMOs. I loved the EQ2 ranger class a lot. it was a really versatile and fun to play class. Also in CoH you can chose bow as ranged weapon and do fun lotsa damage with it.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Try Lord of the Ring Online, the hunter in the game is the highest damage class with quite a bit of snare and versitility. I have a blast playing him for my 2 or 3 months stay in Lotro.
Every game I have played that had an archery based class, I have nearly always picked that class as my main. I love archers.
DAOC - best "true" archer classes of any game. Sadly, the game is a ghost town and in order to play an archer in "fun mode", you need a level 50 buff-bot.
WoW - Hunters are pretty fun, but overall it is WoW. I loved taming and raising pets though, but that is more the focus of the fun of Hunters there IMO.
EQ2 - As mentioned, Rangers are pretty decent there. Overall though, they used to be a fairly neglected class. I have not played one there in over a year.
I could continue this list and add more comments, but it's all subjective so I'll give you my short answer here:
LOTRO Hunter. Probably the best iteration of an archer class to date. Be warned though: Hunters are by far the most popular class. Everything for hunters in LoTRo is more expensive or harder to find due to demand. They can be versitile, but the reality is that most of the time is spent in their high dps stance and traits, making them fairly one-demensional.
Guild Wars. The ranger isn't really done any better than the other classes in the game, but it helps that it's a great game to begin with.
It is good that the class has considerable variety in combat, rather than just being shoot things and nothing else. A good ranger will probably want to have several different bows and switch between them as circumstances dictate. Some builds will rely heavily on a pet. Some will have a pet around to take some damage but otherwise mostly ignore it. Some will put the pet away entirely. Some will rely on using various ranger spirits which buff or nerf both allies and enemies alike. Some rely on inflicting conditions more so than doing direct damage. Some players even like to nearly abandon using their bow entirely and just go trapper. Add in a secondary profession and there are far more possibilities yet.
I haven't seen a pure archer class used very much in a mmo. I can't recall playing an mmo with a pure archer class. If I had to choose I'd say EQ and Vanguard to have implemented the archer type of class well. I would like to see a pure archer with a tone of midieval and some fantasy spice to it as well.
Here is an idea I have came up with for a pure archer class. (Hopefully someone will like it)
ARCHER
Primary Role: DPS
Secondary Role: Crowd Control
Preferred Armor: Cloth and Chain Mixed
Pure Ranged: The use of stamina as well
Flavor: Archery the second form of fighting in ancient times. Usually warriors, who can not make it, are sent to archery school. Over the years Archers and Fletchers evolved their techniques with different cultures and class to enhance their ranged combat. Because they are not highly trained with blades they must find a way to gun down their opponents.
For this, they imbued their tips of their arrows with magic and incense to poison tipped and frost tipped arrows. Archers use those different magical typed arrows to also control who does what on the battlefield by lulling them. Archers also master in three different types of arrows, the barbed, bodkin and broad head. Each arrow has its own specialty to inflict certain armor type’s damage. Archers can fling off other arrows as well and knows basic defense techniques to leave the battle with one on one situation.
If targets are close together a very skilled Archer will used Trio Shot – Allows you to shoot three arrows of any kind at the same time to a single target or any targets with a 10 yard vicinity of the initial target. However it will lower the ranged of the arrows used.
Archers also have access to an onscreen indicator to shoot at different body parts. The torso is the default body part. Other body parts included are head, arms and legs. Depending on what body part you shoot at it will have different effects. For instance if you shoot at the head, your critical chance on what ever ability you have used will increase. Because the head is a small target, it will be harder to have an accurate shot. If you shoot at the legs, you would snare them and if you shoot at the arms you would slow down thier weapon swings or spell casting. Of course each has a cooldown and this works way more indepth, but will explain further upon request.
Each ability Archers has, there are two times which indicate to shoot arrows. For instance, there would be a Draw back time. This draw back time is the minimum time to have an accurate shot on your perfered target. However with this time your effects and abillities will do thier normal damage. There is also a Max Draw Back time. If you hold your shot for this time your abilities will reap more damage and effects as well. You would also recieve a possible bonus effect as an incentive because the longer you hold your shot the more vulnerable you are.
In my opinion, the best games for creating how the archer actuall feels (and is used) in game play are Lineage 2 and Guild Wars.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
i personally really enjoy archery from age of conan, when you can string the traps and leg pins together you will never be touched.
Darkfall
Archery is really powerful, high damage and long range.
Sorry to bust your bubble but vanguard implimented the range class kind of meh seeing how endgame, ranger do more damage melee than range.
I'm glad the bow/archer class is slowly dying off... Theres too much RDPS crapping on the other classes in mmorpgs now.
its very satisfying in Darkfall with the manual aiming..
Remember Old School Ultima Online
Sorry to bust your bubble but vanguard implimented the range class kind of meh seeing how endgame, ranger do more damage melee than range.
I didn't say pure archer. I said archer type. There is a difference there. Thanks for the lesson I already know, please comprehend better =D
I know what you are saying, and my repond would still be the same. So you are telling me that vanguard design of the ranger as a primary range dps is good when they do more damage in melee? I'm not saying that a archer/hunter/ranger class shouldn't be able to do decent melee damage. But when you see a ranger charing in when he have the option of staying at range with the sorcerers and necro, something about that class is not design well enough.
Wow, I guess I have to explain my self here. No, I am saying the ranger has archer type of features, hence the archer type of class. I love how the ranger is done in Vanguard. Again I didn't say pure archer or said that the ranger in vanguard should be more distinguished with arrows. All archer type means, is they have those features, and does not mean they do more archery over melee.
You're joking right? EQ being the game where the ranger class symbol is a bow and quiver so naturally you do most of your damage with melee.
Anyway, I'm tempted to play LOTR just for the archer class but I don' t think they're doing free trials right now. WoW's hunter class has the best implementation of bow combat I've seen yet. The only complaint I have with it is the pet can't hold aggro if you spec marksmanship.
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You're joking right? EQ being the game where the ranger class symbol is a bow and quiver so naturally you do most of your damage with melee.
Anyway, I'm tempted to play LOTR just for the archer class but I don' t think they're doing free trials right now. WoW's hunter class has the best implementation of bow combat I've seen yet. The only complaint I have with it is the pet can't hold aggro if you spec marksmanship.
BAH DID YOU EVEN READ THE POST ABOVE YOURS??????????????????????????
DDO Ranger, very powerful class, not only excellent archer by also a very mean two weapon fighter for close combat.
DDO is one of the very few MMOs that can actually handle projectiles properly, not just being able to manually aim the shot, but the fact that the projectile is actually pathed so it can be dodged or use scenery to block it. Most MMOs just do a LoS check and will hit you even if you move behind cover or another player, which either causes the projectile to home in or obviously pass through things such as walls.
You get some nice shootouts, arrows pinging off the scenery as you let off the odd shot and then dive for cover again.
When you get Manyshot (increasing number of arrows fired at once) and Improved Precision (shoot through all mobs in the arrows path) you can really do some damage to large groups. The variety of effects on bows and arrows adds a lot as you will need to have a nice selection so you are able to overcome mobs resistances or apply special effects such as curses or holds.