Hello.

I WAS playing Archer from the release of the class untill Sage came out and my flustration about Archer reached its hights. While other classes had their kit renewed (succesions and awk buffs afterwards) Archer was left behind and eventually feed with small tweaks that didnt even scratch the surface of his problems. All this caused the decrease of Archers population and atm he is least played class overall.

According to data (published in december 2020) about the most played classes in Korea,Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macow  - Archer is currently perceived as a worts class....

What can be done/twicked/changed to make Archer on par with other classes again?

Most issues are prescribet and filmed by Generalmors who created GREAT feedback page. Unfortunetly it expiered...

Here are most frequently repeated problems of the class  (i'll update it based on of forum posts):

1. The class is too squishy for a skill kit (bad evadeing mechanicks) is has. It's a really complex issue. I understand that a class that has a ranged skills shall be squishy BUT in fact gap isn’t a big problem nowadays with all movement skills that other classes have. And looking at mobility warrior received with rework - it will be even worse. Besides many classes are much more sturdy and also have even better range skills. For example AWK Corsair which does everything better than Archer and has TONS of i-frames and protected movement.
2. Uphill/downhill zero dmg bug - crucial dmg deaing Archer skills (Luthraghons spear, Full bloom, Arrow explosion, Radiant storm, Deadly explosion) does no dmg when the target is on higher/lower spot (it differs among those skills - sometimes its small distance, sometimes is about one high of character) – its game breaking issue for Archers and its ridicules that PA ignored it for so long … In fact it was stated (almost a year ago) by PA that they will fix it ....
3. Dealing dmg out of vision range should be fixed. Its unfair and unnecessery issue that casue much of flustration and creates illusion of power of Archer...
4. So called Point of Origin issue (prescribed and filmed by Generalmors):
   - while performing skills with dislocation, archer "stays" at the starting point of the skill until the animation is finished.
   - before skill animation ends Archer can be cc-ed and grabbed at starting point of the skills instead of his location that can be seen (skill animation wise)
   - its a horrific issue (maybe a bug is a better name) that should not exist in a game where first cc usually ends duels, im really amazed that PA haven't adressed it yet.... !!!
   - its NOT class specific bug
   

So knowing that Archer is most squishy class (370dp archer can be easy one comboed by semi evasion or trial character - around 250ap) what makes him lacking? Here are a few ideas (some are mine some were posted already):

- skill animations (especially evasive ones) are too long and some of them cant be canceled, (being locked in animation is a best way to be grabbed/kd = dead). Only this fact paired with point origin issue makes archer unable to survive most of end game pvp.

- skills protection still has many gaps (usually while player is locked in skill animations)

- many skills have weak or non existant acc modifiers

- multiple targets dmg mitigation is to big and unfair due to other classes dont have it on similar (mechanick, aoe and range wise) skills

- the only way to win fight is to kill opponent before he reachers Archer (or risk meele try to kd him) cus he has no proper kit to avoid aoe dmg or grab and is to squishy to survive using SA rotation. This forces players to build high ap gear which makes Archer useless vs evasion classes that can kill (all pen c9) Archer anyway even with relatively low ap. Its a loose/loose situation for Archer.

- 1rst and 2nd generation rabam skills are garbage

- one of awk skills – Light’s Mark is totally useless.

- few non-awk „dmg” skills are useless: much too long and with weak dmg. Im speaking about: covering fire, wrath of nature, earth shatter, storm of light. The rest (arrow explosion and bolt of radiance) are plain too long and at the same time unprotected and partially affected by "elevation no dmg bug".

- Archer is crippled in end game pvp/pve due to his squishyness, poor acc modifiers and lack of good i-frames.

- Other classes can farm (for example Ash Forest) with 370+ dp while Archer can only dream about it... Archer cant deal good dmg over time while evading non-stop. He also cant use full poptential of his strongest dmg skill (full bloom) cus it requires melee range.

- long animation of dmg skills (usually unprotected) allows other players to interrupt it even after projectile is released... IN THAT CASE already released projectile DOES NO DMG.

- dmg scalling at high ap (over 305 kutum ap) is bad in pvp and pve.

In other words Archer dmg scaling, survivability and versatility coming from dp, skills animation speed, skills protecion, as well as rabams shall be revised.

In fact whole Class needs a SOLID revamp to be playable at end game activities.
He must be able to kit properly with all its squishiness. He must be able to deal dmg (he needs faster skills, better dmg modifiers and better acc modifiers). His dmg mitigation (split dmg on top of pvp dmg reduction) seems absurd while other classes have NONE in their large aoe and big dmg, faster and protected skills.

What can be done? A lot of!

IN-DEPTH REWORK IDEA:

Speaking about pvp environment I personally would prefer keeping Archer squishyness BUT adding few mechanicks that would allow incoming dmg mitigation (a tool for outplaying opponents instead of makeing him plain OP).  Those changes would affect pve as well, resulting in better overall performance.

Overall concept:

First of all Archer skills must be much faster (at least 20-30% faster). Dmg/cc avoiding (i-frame) and mitigation (SA with % dmg reduction) shall be build in some crucial movement skills.  If the overall mechanick of the class isnt changed - PVE DR shall be added to base class stats so it can deal dmg at its full potential.

I wont touch dmg per se, it should be revised after core mechanick of the class is changed.

MOVEMENT:

1) Basics:
The overall idea is to make Archer the most nimble class as he is also the most squishy class in bdo.
Thats why he suffers the most from the lack of good evasive skills and good i-frame, and thats why he needs it direly.
Also Point of origin issue MUST BE FIXED!!! (however even if the Archer skills animations are speed up it wont be so dreadful). Weapon unholster bug after cc shall be fixed too... (this one is a common bug for some classes)

2) Specific skills rework:

- Winged strike: this skill shall have lingering SA (1,5-2 sec duration) and 3 sec cd, BUT NO CC, stamina cost shall be reduced to 100-150. It should be linkable with piercing cry.

- Piercing cry is OK but its AWK version shall be added (also linkable with awk winged strike), cd shall be reduced to 2 sec.

- Meteor dive: shall be much faster and fully protected (SA) but without CC. IF PA fails to adress Point of Origin issue this skill shall be totally deleted.

- Zephyr Leap: non-awk and awk version merged into reworked one: first part (the diseappear i-frame part) of awk 25% rage zephyr leap, shall become its base version (executed faster, with longer distance, with 3sec cd but without cc). It shall cancel all long animation skills (only if its not in cd), It shall be casteable quickly after KD (similar to ninjas Ninja Step).

- Glissade: all animations shall be faster, the KD of 3rd hit shall be transfered onto some more reliable and usable „on demant” skills (Lights Trail).

- Tactical strike: shall replace Glide and become basic Shift + Direction movement. The reposition distance shall be similar to Glide, insted of 2 skills – one BUT with 1 sec cd. It shall be easy linkable with piercing cry. It shall cancell all skills.

CC:

CC shall be removed from most of upgraded evasion skills (as written above) in a cost of adding one reliable (on demand) KD into Ligths Trail (it was taken away long time ago). It must be linkable with most Archer skills, also its CD shall be reduced to 4sec.

DMG SKILLS:

1) Basics:

- uphill/downhill no dmg bug shall be fixed!

- Archer needs better dmg scaling on high-end ap (pvp and pve wise)

- skills shall deal NO DMG out of vision range (not for Archer but for every class)

- released projectiles shall deal dmg even if Archer is cc-ed or killed)

- crucial dmg skills shall be faster and cancelable.

- multiple dmg reduction/ dmg split shall be adjusted as it scales with hight ap in a very bad way. Additionally split dmg shall be non-existant in pve.

2) Specific skills rework:

- Storm of Light, Wrath of Nature, Earth Shatter, Covering fire, lvl 56 and 57 rabams – are useless and shall be totally reworked. Or at least MUCH faster with better dmg and protection.

- Bolt of Radiance – shall receive FG, shall be executed faster and able to be used from quickslot also in awk stance, already released projectile shall deal dmg even if Archer is cc-ed, killed.

- Arrow explosion: shall receive FG, shall be executed a lil faster, also the „bomb” shall explode upon contact with enemy even if Archer is cc-ed, killed OR if player cancel the second part of a skill animation

- Full bloom: I find this skill (as it is now) the most charmfull for Archer because it creates the illusion that the class has good dmg, meanwhile its BIG dmg comes from melee range casts. Furthermore its dmg is greatly reduced while in cd. Its a good pulling skill but also the one forcing Archer to stay close while the whole idea about Archer is range! And Archer is too squishy to go melee on eng game pve/pvp. I suggest adding charge mechanick and turning off dmg reduction while in cd (or reducing cd down to 3 sec). Also the pve only KD is annoying as the skill is a good pulling option - I suggest removeing any cc from it. Chargeing shall focus all arrows in one line.

- Archer shall receive one multishooting skill – sth like razor wind (ranger)

- Righteous fire and lights patch- are NEARLY USELESS (except of 10ap buff that shall be transfered onto Ligts trail)

- Radiant Explosion – the mechanick of its Rage (100% one) version shall be the base one, skill animation shall be MUCH (like twice) faster and SA shall cover its full duration, if cancelled after releasing projectile it shall deal dmg normally.

- Luthragons Call shall have cd lowered down to 5 sec and its base and especially charged version shall have much better dmg in pve and knock back (the charged one only) effect in pvp

- Mountain Breeze shall be replaced with dmg dealing skill (with "new" zephyr and changed tactical strike it would be obsolete), if not deleted it shall be activated with any direction+F and shall be faster with much shorter cd (its mainly evasion skill, its dmg is low so at least let it be used more often...), also it shall be usable from quickslot from non-awk stance.

- Piercing light: CD shall be reduced by half, dmg split shall be non-existant in pve.

DEBUFF/ BUFF/PASSIVES:

- Ensnare: shall become one of rabams BUT with proper (for Archer) range and longer buff duration and FG

- Wind of spirit: 20% movement speed instead of 10%

- Grace of sylvia: shall give 10 % acc and 10% evasion instead of +10 range ap/crit rat

- Exhale: using this skill shall add specific buff/debuff to te next skill used by Archer, the Heal version shall be changed and add 20% dmg reduction to Super Armor state

- Lights mark shall be deleted and replaced by ground placed trap - it stays on the ground and when activated by nearby enemy it creates a well viseable field of strong debuff (AS/movement? Evasion/DP? unable to go into invis etc).

In the end I would like to make a question to Devs:

How is it possible for Archer (700GS) to win against full evasion Ninja/Striker/Hash (700GS) while:

- Archers skills are too slow to distance him so he will receive dmg all the time (due to lack or reliable i-frame), he also cant fight back while doing it

- Archers skills have so many gaps that he will get cc/grab during skill animation (and killed instantly)

- Archers acc modifiers are so weak/non-existant that he wont be able to hit evasion ninja and if he builds up TONS of acc he will hit like wet noddle cus of bad dmg modifiers (even at 280+ ap with full acc build, or with 305 ap with 1-2 accuracy accesories and kutum)

- Archers is so squishy that even 280+ ap evasion class will kill him (at 400dp) in his slow SA rotation

- Archer cant build good evasion/acc build (due to lack od base eva/acc or weak skill tree modifiers) that provides good dmg

- do you find such loose/loose situation, where there is NO POSSIBILITY to win even if played perfectly, fair? Because in my opinion THIS is absurd in a game where you have to protect you spot (1vs1) to grind effectively.

What are your thoughs / ideas???.

Im asking for contructive critic or conversation backed up with resonable arguments...

P.S Currently im testing (tagged) Archer at 301/303/376 (2x tet bs+pen kutum c7). I have also Sage with 301/309/376 stats (tet bs main, pen dande c13, pen kutum) and pve wise I feel that the difference is so big that its similar to elvia buff...  The difference in pvp is even bigger (yes after sage nerfs).

I Kind of agree with you with all these changes your the OG kiting class but cant really kite anything. DP wise your basically exactly the same as we rangers were the DP just doesnt scale that well. ( my 290DP feels identical to my 360+ DP) Do I use muskan and PEN  green gear helm or URU plus Gaith/ griffin  it makes no difference.

I would have to look at archers kit because ranger has many accuracy modifiers that we are squishy in exchange for being able to shat on evasion stacking players with enough gear. Archer Im trying to recall how much of that he actually gets. I did play him breifly during the ranger reroll palooza slightly after his release. But ranger at least has their swords to fall back on and a grab to get people out of their face. Archer really doesnt have anything like that.

I still think to this day archer and ranger given how twig like they are on Q spam for ranger and on just basic attacks for archer should just be permantly super armored till out of stamina to continue to do so because we get caughed on we are dead so that protection wouldnt do much other then help us not get CCed and nuked I mean just getting hit by any AOE skill we are dead. although Ranger does have more frontal guards to work with so she doesnt really need it but archer I can see it working well given he kites and kites and kites doesnt ever really stop.

Good write up and I agree the class needs to see a change.

I just saw future skill of archer. Will be an Iframe skill, but it's still not enough. We need DR buffs and acc buffs

The new skill seems to be a step in right direction BUT:
- its too slow and IF i-frame is only at the beginning of a skill we will get grabbed (and killed) at starting point due to Point of Origin BUG
- it would be nice to have like 6 sec cd and more directions to perform it (like a/w/s/d + F)
- one skill as said above is definetly not enough to place arcehr on pair with other classes (we need much more...)

Frame at start and in flight:

But it seems to me of little use. This does not solve the main problem - speed, damage, accuracy, kiting.

Sorry if I make a clarification but: in the video you can clearly see that the iframe does not extend for the entire duration of the flight. We will also have the same problem already present in other skills: this skill ends with an animation in which the archer have the enemy behind his back at a very ridiculous distance from him, which means that with an area spell we will take all the damage with a back attack multiplier. Sorry but this is not the right direction... Let us aim at targets, not right now that they only disappear all the time. Give speed to the archer, our gameplay is pure kite, other classes dash (some are simply little tp) are more fast and runs more distance, 50% of class disappear too. Our disanganges have a first animation on site, than we push back, our archers are stupid? Our superarmors are a joke, a single area attack can destroy us and a lot of our animations are indelible. Honestly i think they are kidding us, there was a contest for archer rework on discord archers server, we have a winner and a tons of pourpose. This is the best Pearl Abyss can do for archers after all this time? We count about 400 active archers in EU/NA, the lowest population of all classes in BDO. This is the way to reach 200...

Can I ask for a few top rework ideas, or the most often ones. I would add it here so as im trying to gather rework ideas from many sources in one post.

I would prefer not to post proposals from other players without their direct consent. You can find them all in a section called "Archer Feedback" within the class discord. This is the link to request access.

https://discord.gg/NfvbMZe

You will also find the proposal from General Mors which I assume you are all familiar with.

Try asking for their permission which I'm sure they have no problem giving you ;)

I think this skill needs 2 changes

1. increase its distance  ( this is just zerker shooting his toe its so bad!)

2. make a quicker.

I dont think the whole thing needs to be an iframe if these 2 things are adjusted. Shorter cooldown maybe but would have to see how  it does after those changes.

I dont nessarily think the class needs more damage but if Accuracy is a issue for him unlike ranger who can make evasion look like a meme then he should be given the same treatment ( He should be a tank destroyer)

People do not understand all we range classes have is our damage output we are twigs no matter how much DP we build we are still the squishiest classes in the game. Ranger is honestly in a good spot but archer needs to be given the same treatment we got not long ago.

But heres the problem archer was so busted on release similar to how ranger was just shotgun spamming back at release PA nerfed him and nerfed him hard. They know how broken range spamable DPS can be when not kept in check. The problem is just like before ranger was buffed back up  PA is now scared to touch the class. Because over buff and you become rediculous in all content  finding that sweet spot is very important and hopefully they are willing to try. But if you remember what we rangers went through for years after our nerfs it took PA forever to bring us  back into something that actually has a role other then filling the enemies BSR gauge xD