Why do so many people reccomend Archer for a bard?

FrogX

FrogX

Expert
I really understand why people are saying bards should take archery, I took this advice and am now wondering if there is any real advantage of archery over melee. The only real benefit I see is being able to kite certain mobs, but since they are generally attacking each-other anyway I don't really see the point. Melee seems to kill AT LEAST twice as fast, plus you can actually defend yourself! Archery leaves you completely defenseless, people can go grey taking your loot and you can't do shit about it unless you want to get killed too. I almost feel like the people saying to use Archery and don't get any Resist just want you to build this way so you will be easier to PK.

On a related note: Which melee combat skill do you recommend for a bard?
 
Vince[Tharakus]

Vince[Tharakus]

Grandmaster
For me personally, I do it for the range attacks. And with a bard you can hunt anything in the game. And there is some mobs u just dont want to mellee.
And Bards aren't defenseless!
Learn to provo mobs on that red or thief while you attack them as well.
 
Chop

Chop

Journeyman
Play what fits you best. I play a bard/mage no melee or archery. I don't min/max I just enjoy the game the way I want to. ;)
 
crazy-horse

crazy-horse

Master
Melee does kill faster, espcially with talismans. Problem is, you are using the mobs to tank each other, and if you too much damage, too fast, yourself.. you will find yourself the object of their rage. I've helped provokers and had that happen to me countless times.
My guess, archery is so that you have a little distance and slower heavy damage to make sure the mobs stay on each other.
 
Vince[Tharakus]

Vince[Tharakus]

Grandmaster
crazy-horse said:
Melee does kill faster, espcially with talismans. Problem is, you are using the mobs to tank each other, and if you too much damage, too fast, yourself.. you will find yourself the object of their rage. I've helped provokers and had that happen to me countless times.
My guess, archery is so that you have a little distance and slower heavy damage to make sure the mobs stay on each other.
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This is 100% correctomudo!
 
FrogX

FrogX

Expert
Vince[Tharakus] said:
For me personally, I do it for the range attacks. And with a bard you can hunt anything in the game. And there is some mobs u just dont want to mellee.
And Bards aren't defenseless!
Learn to provo mobs on that red or thief while you attack them as well.
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I didn't know that the mobs would switch aggro on you while provoked, I haven't noticed this happening when dexxers jump on my provoked mobs but this seems like a really good reason to stick with archery.

The Darkthrone said:
I farm fast as fuck with my bard archer.. *shurgs*
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I thought I was fast until I saw a dexxer bard just plowing through mobs in less than half the time it was taking me with a good slayer bow. When I saw that I said "I'm so dropping Archery" and he said "Yeh its pretty worthless." But now that I know the above about the aggro switching on them for dealing that sort of crazy damage, it's definitely making me definitely reconsider.

Chop said:
Play what fits you best. I play a bard/mage no melee or archery. I don't min/max I just enjoy the game the way I want to. ;)
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I like actually being able to kill paragons ;)
 
Vince[Tharakus]

Vince[Tharakus]

Grandmaster
Theres a chance for mob to switch targets. It doesn't happen 100% of the time. But the mechanics of it, mob will switch to the target that is causing the mpst damage, the fastest.
 
T

TraJik

Grandmaster
Archer bard is a hardcore build behind Tamer for $ intake. This build would probably even beat tamer/bard minus the fact that the archer bard has overhead of Slayer Bows and many more regs as opposed to the tamer who only has Bandages to restock for farming. I can farm 500k with a tamer for only a few thousand bandages where when I used my bard I was dumping tens of thousands of gold into regs. This really does add up and is the only thing i've noticed that makes the tamer any better than a bard.
 
FrogX

FrogX

Expert
Vince[Tharakus] said:
Yea I never seen a retarget from a mob and farther then 2 tiles.
Thats just my experience.

But the retarget is ingame mechanics.
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Thank you for this very crucial detail, exactly why I made this thread :D

TraJik said:
Archer bard is a hardcore build behind Tamer for $ intake. This build would probably even beat tamer/bard minus the fact that the archer bard has overhead of Slayer Bows and many more regs as opposed to the tamer who only has Bandages to restock for farming. I can farm 500k with a tamer for only a few thousand bandages where when I used my bard I was dumping tens of thousands of gold into regs. This really does add up and is the only thing i've noticed that makes the tamer any better than a bard.
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Shit I spend more on arrows than I do on regs!
 
A

account51

Master
In my opinion things are imbalanced, you either have to run a full PvM (archer bard) and recall out quick, or a full PvP template to fight back. I should have went bard archer on my PvM, I can't do much fighting back with current spell damage, even with 5x.
 
Snickle

Snickle

Grandmaster
It's because the Archer is so much more useful at champ spawns. I used to be macer Provo then started champing. I quickly switched to Archer. I also dropped anat + healing for mage + meditation. Such a better group player. EVs n cross heals.
The new Archer could also do everything my macer healer could do when I solo'd gp farm
 
Chop

Chop

Journeyman
FrogX said:
I like actually being able to kill paragons ;)
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I enjoy killing paragons with my bard mage. Barlons, Titans, Ophids, whatever. I have even taken down para ancient wyrms with it. All solo. Bard mage might not be as fast or powerful as other builds but if you know what you are doing its still pretty powerful and makes pretty good coin. ;):D
 
[Legato]

[Legato]

Master
is it just me, or does the xbow and heavy xbow not shoot as far as the normal bow? I can't seem to kite as well using them on my bard, so i switched back to normal bows
 
Joey Golden

Joey Golden

Expert
On osi, the heavy x bow and bow only have a range of 8 tiles I think, and the regular bow has a range of 10? Pretty sure that's the same way it is on here so yea gotta use regular bows for the max range.
 
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