Rach's guide to archer (from a purely psychotic point of view)

Someone requested that I put together a little something on how to start a good archery character. So here it is in all of its glory. Keep in mind that what I say isn't absolute by any means, it is just my experience with various archer character builds (one 8lvl one 10lvl and one 14lvl in morningthaw and my current fav 20lvl in harvestgain). I am very happy with my current character and have noticed alot of my previous weaknesses disappear a great deal.

My first recommendation is this: Specialize in one skill only. Alchemy and even fletching can be saved for a mule (however I like the flexibility to carry around a few different kinds of arrow heads for different situations). You may even want to choose a skill such at item magic or melee defense to specialize rather than bow (since you will be using bow more than any other skill the bonus is not going to be that great when you compare). Most importantly you will be able to train more skills giving your character flexibility from the start.

My second recommendation is this: Train Item magic. You get a +1 to damage for every 10 coordination points over 100. This is not enough. Training Item allows you to learn Blood drinker, swift killer and heart seeker. All of which can add to your attack abilities enormously. Having it trained from lvl 1 allows you to immediatly take out lvl 4 creatures. Then there is the whole portal thing-I mean who wouldn't want it?

My third recommendation is this: Train Melee defense. Coordination and quickness are a archer's best friend, they are also melee defense's best friend. No matter how far you can shoot whatever you shoot is still going to walk up and sock you good.

With these three basics in mind this would be my idea of an awesome pin cushion artist (or at least what the young rach was born with):

Starting Attributes:

Race: Sho

Str 50
End 50
Coo 90
Qui 80
Foc 30
Sel 30

Specialized
Bow

Trained
Appraise Item
Healing
Item Magic
Melee Defense
Magic Defense
Run
Jump
Unarmed combat
Fletching
Arcane Lore

With this build you can quickly get to 100 for both coordination and quickness. Once you are to a point that you are causing signifigant pain to the appropriate beasties--you then have a broad base to expand upon. Trained skills are most of the 'larger' skill point eaters, this allows you to choose new skills to train at fairly early levels--my later in life choices were missle defense and appraise magic item (just got sick of saying, 'hey could you ID this?')

A word about bows--getting a good boy is so hard it makes me scream. You will not find many if any kickass bows for a long time. When you do make sure you carry another bow with you at all times-if you die and lose your bow you are in more trouble than most. Also be mindful of damage modifiers--A yumi does 1.33 times more damage as a nayin but it also shoots slower--weigh the differences carefully--less hits more damage or more hits less damage (this of course depends entirely on what sort of bow you've found in the wilds)

And a word about shooting stuff. As a rule you will miss your second shot--not always but usually. You will often miss on hills and uneven terrain. You may try to shoot something pass your range. So for this reason I usually shoot the first time maxed out on accuracy and then hit the down button on my keypad (stopping the auto attack). This eliminates a lost arrow and allows you to tell if the baddy got one sticking out of him or if you need to repostition yourself. If they are coming that is when i turn down the accuracy and go full auto on the punks.

And lastly reasons why and archer would want to train... Strength to carry much ammo Endurance to shoot forever Coordination to kill them on the first shot Quickness to duck and run Focus to buff Self to buff. I would say that until you hit lvl 10 or more to increase attributes exclusivly-spot training skills is nice but attributes affect more than one thing and are cheap to raise for a long time.

Good luck,

Rach' mann