Hello, I want to give my feedback about things I think are wrong with the Archer Class.

I don't PvP yet (but hoping to learn), therefore I have no specific suggestions on how to address these issues. And I have already mentioned them in the Archer Reboot Thread:

Black Desert | PEARL ABYSS (playblackdesert.com)

But I wanted to post them here as well with hopes that someone at least considers what I have to say.

----------------------------------------------------------

First piece of feedback:

One important thing about archer that I did not see addresed is the skills that don't have hitboxes or movement loyal to their animations. Please re-evaluate the hitboxes of Archer skills. Specially the kicks and Rag'hon attacks as they make up a 1/3 of our "ranged" class kit. These melee attacks are very unforgiving in their range/hit area compared to newer classes.

Look at the video below, look at my guardian killing a mob to her right effortlessly at 0:06 with a frontal attack. At 0:15 she kills a small pack of mobs. Even when her swing is to the front a mob behind her left dies. Compared to Archer, at 0:24 I swing a kick to my right and only the targets in front of me die. At 0:30 I only killed TWO out of four mobs. One of the targets in front of me to my left is untouched and IT'S RIGHT THERE.

P.s. sorry for the quality, idk why it seems like I recorded it with a Nokia 3210

Perhaps it's unfair or dumb of me to compare two classes with completely different purposes. Melee vs Ranged. But I guess this goes to show that our close-ranged attacks need a lot more rework. This "technical" issue (for the lack of a better word) makes Archer gameplay seem more finicky and unforgiving than it should be. Because it makes me realize that a lot of our animations are just fancy for no reason other than to slow us down. Earth Kick is a swing to the RIGHT and won't kill enemies to my right.

Everything with moderation of course. I understand if Guardian's melee has forgiving short-range aoe melee attacks because of the "lava" or "rocks" that she summons. Whatever, right? It evens out with how slow she is. But archers do not enjoy of this, it's really unfair for our skills. Neither do I want some nonsense like Lahn's grab that has a fan-shaped hitbox. 

BDO | LAHN GRAB BROKEN?! - YouTube (Watch the first 15 seconds...)

Let me say it once more for the people in the back. I DON'T WANT AN AOE KICK THAT CLEARS A PACK OF MOBS ALL AROUND ME.

I WANT HITBOXES TO PROPERLY TRANSLATE FROM MY ANIMATIONS. A KICK THAT SWINGS /RIGHT/ SHOULD KILL MOBS TO MY RIGHT.

Another fine example is Meteor Dive. Meteor Dive can't jump over obstacles even though it's a JUMP. It has a "jumping" animation, which covers a mild distance but doesn't  really work as a jump. I imagine this skill should be capable of jumping over small-medium sized enviroment objects, which it cannot. So its mobility is an illusion.  In a way, Meteor Dive is no different than a dash skill that does damage with a fancy acrobat animation.

Other skills like Zephyr Leap can.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/897152752705208320/897491767606247434/Black_Desert_2021.10.12_-_11.28.27.02.DVR.mp4

This is a video demonstrating the issue, recorded by Moubors#0001 in the Archer Discord. (Not a virus I promise)

Aditionally, I think all of these jumps should be higher and cover A LOT more distance; Winged Strike, Covering Fire, Gaping Darkness, Radiant Explosion, Uproot, etc (ALL of these mobility skills.) We are supposed to be a KITING LONG-RANGE CLASS but it doesn't play like one.

"Wouldn't this be unbalanced?" Strikers and Ninjas can climb their way up buildings with a chain of skills with ridiculous height. (Will update with Gif when I find it.)

Not the GIF I had in mind, but it's a good example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26dugWPQef0

And you have classes that cover absurd distances in the blink of an eye. 

On the same topic of animations. Why do we have so many recoils and flinching animations on our skills?

I understand some skills push you back due to the inertia or force implied in your shot like Flow: Light's Trail. But skills like Wrath of Nature, Bolt of Radiance, Full Bloom, Luthraghorn’s Call have animations that portray that Archer is too weak or clumsy to be using the Greatbow. My first impressions on Archer is that he is a trained fighter and his speciality is his agility, almost like Assassin's Creed character and their parkour. His class introduction even says: He has refined his skills to be able to move swiftly while maintaining deadly accuracy to overtake his enemies. Then why doesn't he play the like fast/strong protector of the Realm he is painted to be? You could compare him shooting beams of light with someone handling a gun. A professional knows how to absorb recoil and not be affected by it. Perhaps these could be somewhat mitigated after the Ascension quest, since it's theme is the maturing of your character or gains more dexterity. Or something..

You don't see Shai tripping over their own feet cause they're small or "childish".

You don't see Warriors performance reduced by what should be a very heavy double-handed sword.

You don't see Valkyries punished by the size or weight of their huge Lancia.

You don't see Novas being held back by their big and cumbersome Quoratum.

Probably only Corsair's otters have a similar hiderance, but they ARE portrayed as silly and clumsy.

Then why do we get these flinch and recoils?

Second piece of feedback (About close range attacks.)

From the moment I started playing Archer, I was taken aback by the amount of kicks and Rag'hon close combat attacks we have...I have heard plenty from other players that "all kicks should be removed cause they are useless" and how "squishy we are as a Class". Close combat makes little to no sense for me in Archer's Context. So I think they should be repurposed for a few specific things.

      - Stronger against PvE targets.

Maybe I haven't learned a trick for this but there is no point nuking a pack of enemies from afar if I still have to get closer for my pets to pick the drops...This change would give the variety of kicks and Rag´hon punches another purpose. Most people agree that Archer can grind descently in low spots but is lacking in end-game areas. Perhaps a new Breath Type that increases damage to monsters on all close combat skills and reduces damage taken? I really don't know, but I'm sure you can get creative PA.

      - Last resort that works as a stun your enemy in order to gain distance again or just evasive maneuvers.

I am completely illiterate about the world of BDO PvP. So this might already be a thing and I am ignorant to it. However the reason why I bring it up is because most players in the Archer Discord agree these attacks are not efficient within the Archer Kit. Uproot being the only which I think could do this... I was told to lock it to prevent casting it by accident...If we have so many close combat attacks it should translate in context that "just because you caught up to an archer doesn't mean it's a dead man." But it doesn't work like that right now, the moment you're caught you can start writing your obituary. Because we are not made for close combat.

And a more capricious piece of feedback (About appareance)

There is one thing that bothers me a lot is that the aesthetic design of Archer is all over the place. 
Succesoin attack are just.. yellow light.. I guess. Awakening has some sort of lightning effects going on(?). A lot of the skill names are nature-leaf themed. On your ascension quest you meet a white wolf and the only memory of it you have is that you skinned it for a Luanwulf costume.

I think archer effects should:

- Have a lighter color instead of yellow, white almost.

(Or Black. They resided in Elvia realms, according to Lore, I know it is not a literal underground but it is the counterpart of the Light realms.)

- More green effects like Exhale when Breath:Recover is selected. Leaves/vines etc. Since their whole lore is that Archer protects the roots of Kamasylve.

- Have less Lightning-esque effects and have more mist/wind effects. I dont know why also feathers come to mind. (Since arrows have feathers.) Would also be an interesting theme. 

- Have more interesting effects such as the following skills: Wrath of Nature and the waves emitted from the floor as well as the light circle from Piercing Light.

- Have more wolves in the animations. 

- Most wolf animations are limited to BSR attacks, the Archer Discord was nice enough to explain this was a thing. But they immediately said: "They are terrible". It's really really sad that most of the wolves in archer's animations are limited to these Black Sprit Rage meters. You know a class really needs some love when you're trying to explore it and most of the time the answer you get about skills is: "not worth it, not good, just lock it" :/

Please don't forget our Skill Height Issue PA.. :(

‘Make a long-distance character like a long-distance character’
(...)
In the case of other existing Taegung skills, it is a rather slow but powerful one-shot concept due to the nature of the weapon."

I strongly believe there needs to be a risk/reward or strength/weakness in every. And honestly, worded like that it really makes a lot of sense. Archer's Greatbow is a very big/strong weapon that can have flinch/recoil/slower cast times but chunky single-target ranged damage.

However, that's where I don't understand Archer's main weapon situation. The crossbow range is negligible at best (Which I have seen fixed in the reboot somewhat.)

But what is the gain/loss of our all the punches and kicks we have? I counted and we roughly have: 23 ranged skills (Ascension included) and 13 close-combat skills. (Flow Skills included, Absolute skills not counted.) A third of our kit is CLOSE COMBAT. WHY? 

How do these melee skills benefit Archer at ALL? We aren't tanky, we aren't a that can build evasion as effectively as other es do. 

They are weak from my experience, they're def not AoE because their hitbox is complete garbage and we already agreed they shouldn't be AoE.

But then WHAT are they for? Do these skills CC or...do anything well? Can anyone honestly answer me that, I'm not asking sarcastically.

PA, why do you insist on keeping them?

Archer has always struck me as the most suited for kiting and squishy when caught. I thought archer would do well high speed; hard to keep up with his slippery moblity, almost hinting he could be an evasion . But maybe that concept is wrong? Then which is it? Speed and mobility are things other es do much better. Wizard's teleport is one, Musa's new Chase...the above examples mentioned as well.

The list goes on.  Meanwhile Archer has to learn a variety of tricks to acomplish this in what we call skating: BDO Simple Archer 'Skating' gue - YouTube

Mentioning Wizard again, they have a dagger. They are the magic caster that works best when kept at a distance, with good AoE. I checked and they have a handful of dagger skills only, which I have seen in gues is best kept unlearned. (I dn't research much into this, is what I saw at first glance. Please correct me if wrong.) Imagine if Wizard had a 1/3 of their skills using the dagger? Close range for a mage? Doesn't make sense, does it?

Close combat is completely opposite to the theme of a bow-using called ARCHER. You don't see a guardian suddenly pull out a slingshot and shoot rocks at you from a mile away. Because it makes no sense in her close-combat melee design, even if she does have rocks in her Succ animations. Yes she does have a few skills where she throws her axe or can hit enemies that are a descent distance away, but its not a third of her total amount of skills. And even if she did, she would only benefit from that.

Then, he is presented as a fighter with deadly precision. So...he should have had accuracy from the beginning? (And not just only after the passive rework he was given this past fray.)  But a can't have both evasion and accuracy. 

But what if archer d? He is single target in the best of scenarios and squishy when caught. Could that not excuse it?

What if Archer was:

Main: Evasion-based, Moderate Damage, M-close range, a bit more CC-oriented(?), Faster, no recoil.

Ascension: Accuracy-based, Higher damage, Long-range, Squishy, Slower, recoil

Perhaps his passive could swap these attributes depending on the weapon in usage? At the cost of higher cd on skills that swap from ascesion to main and viceversa. It would make more usage of his non-traditoinal "awakening" design.

Blah, I'm just spewing nonsense...Our buffs have been good. But we still suffer from a failure core-designed.... Please PA