Goon Archer Guide 1.1.5

Guide

Bow vs Sling

Bows have better talents and do more damage. The benefit of Slings is that they're one-handed and can be used with a shield, or more importantly, a dagger in the offhand. You wouldn't actually attack with the dagger, it's just a stat stick. Ultimately bows are the better choice, but slings are also viable if you want to veer from the cookie cutter.

Stat Distribution

Bows scale with Dex and Str, slings scale with Dex and Con. I always put 1 in to Con every level on pretty much every character. My other two points go in to Dex, or Str (Cun for slings) when Dex is capped. Archers are pretty good at avoiding damage (especially if you're a Skeleton) but Con is a fundamental stat, it provides not only health, but also physical save and access to Thick Skin (A +%resist all passive)

Races

Cornac is my favorite race in general and you can always put your extra cat point in Archery Training for better Aim/Steady Shot. I really like the idea of a Yeek Sling archer who would just be incredibly quick and nimble but I've never been able to get one off the ground. I try to avoid classes with high exp penalties because I think it's a pretty big handicap, especially for a new player, but Skeleton is a great Archer race. A passive str/dex racial, a racial shield, a racial resurrect. Don't play a Skeleton if you want to go Antimagic though.

Gearing

Archers are pretty easy to gear.

Attack speed isn't a priority because you hit so incredibly hard, you want to amplify that as much as possible so you can one-shot things and 2/3-shot bosses. Critical Strike is only marginally useful, by late-game Aim will be giving you massive amounts of crit and you're only going to need 10-20% from gear to have 100% crit chance.

Raw damage is what you're looking for. Armor penetration, physical resistance penetration, raw dex/str. You also want defenses (crowd control immunities, elemental/phys resists, Con, Defense, etc.), but that's true on any character. I'm not really sure what the optimal ammo setup is because the last time I played archers seriously was immediately after the ammo revamp. Early on you want high capacity ammo, but as you get Bow or Sling mastery up to 5/5, you're reloading 4 shots per reload and low capacity becomes less crippling. Go with the highest damage ammo that you feel comfortable with.

Talents

I don't know enough about sling talents to give advice there, but for a bow archer:

Technique / Archery - Bows All four talents in this tree are great. Bow Mastery is mandatory, Piercing Shot is a powerful beam, Dual Shot costs no stamina and does elevated Shot damage to two targets. Volley of Arrows is your only AoE. I forget what the scaling is like on Piercing Shot and Dual Shot so consider that before putting more than one point in to these talents.

Technique / Archery Training Steady Shot is mandatory 5/5, as is Aim. These two talents are an archer's bread and butter and should be maxed first. Rapid Shot is useless and Relaxed Shot can be useful if you're ever having stamina problems (you will in extended fights, unless you teleport away to rest).

Technique / Archery Prowess I've never been a big fan of Flare, it's marginally useful (it's a light source, useful for checking areas for enemies) but you will have better sight options pretty early. Cripping Shot is useful to fire off when you cancel Aim to move away from a single target, but I wouldn't take it past 1/5. Pinning Shot is excellent but should be maxed after the important talents in the above two trees. Scatter Shot is an AoE stun and is also mandatory.

Technique / Combat Veteran Worry about your offenses and CCs first, but Spell Shield isn't a bad use of your points, and stamina regen might be useful to you at some point.

Technique / Field Control I try to keep Heave and Disengage at the same level. You definitely want both of these talents, beyond Phase Door rune they're your only way to distance yourself from a target without breaking Aim. Slow Motion is a great sustain against any projectile-using enemy but keep in mind that you will need to break Aim in order to dodge anything.

Technique / Combat Graining Max Thick Skin and Armour Training. You don't need Combat Accuracy because Aim adds a billion accuracy. Honestly if you completely run out of things to spend Generics on you can put some points in Weapon/Dagger mastery for the Phys Power increase.

Cunning / Survival Because of the great range that archers have, you definitely want at least one point in Piercing Sight. Charm Mastery is great. You probably won't have enough cunning for Charm Mastery or anything else in the tree though. If you're playing Slings then Charm Mastery and Evasion are great.

Unlockable trees Antimagic is a good way to deal with casters, but you can usually explode casters in 1-2 turns if you have line of sight to them. You will have generics to spare so you can pick up something like curses if you want to get some extra strength at the cost of restricting your gearing options and making shops a gamble.

1.1.5 introduced Technique / Archery Excellence, which has talents that allow you to shoot down enemy projectiles, including spells like Soul Rot or Fireflash. This is absolutely incredible, and goes a long way to making Archers more viable than they have been in previous versions of the game.

Playstyle

Aim from as far away as possible and hit the enemy with repeated incredibly strong attacks. It's pretty straightforward. Try to never stand next to an enemy, you have Disengage and Heave to give yourself some breathing room, and you can Pinning Shot an enemy after you get away from them. You definitely want a movement infusion because you need to be able to break Aim and dip out at a moment's notice. If you can constantly reposition yourself you will be much safer. Scatter Shot will stun you if you're in the radius so don't do that. I'm pretty sure that Volley of Arrows does not damage you but it at least used to damage escorts.

The early levels are a little rough, but Archer really starts to take off when Aim and Steady Shot are maxed.

Other Links

http://forums.te4.org/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=36449 (sling archer, version 1.0.5 guide)

http://forums.te4.org/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=36914 (bow archer, version 1.0.5 guide with recent updates later in the thread)