I finally got around to 'fixing' my ABC archer (archery + bushido + chivalry) and I am extremely pleased with the results. He can now take down some stuff that he could not before, and he's suddenly fun again. This is what I changed...
- Goodbye Bushido
I was done with honoring everything anyway but it turns out this was a good move.
- Hello Poisoning
There is some Karma loss when you apply poison to a target but if you're fighting anything at dragon level and above you still gain after a kill, more than you lose for poisoning. Dragons cure themselves and might not be the best example of when to poison, it was just an example.
- Hello Resisting Spells
I soulstone poisoning in favor of resist where/when needed, like in Doom the template now looks like this:
- 120 archery
- 120 tactics
- 120 anatomy
- 120 chivalry (timers last longer, damage increase is 15% instead of 5% at 100 etc)
- 120 Healing (4 second heals with a cure check every 2 seconds = hard to kill)
- 100 poisoning with 20 focus OR 120 resisting spells, as needed
I didn't do the 'lower a bit of this for a lil' of that' game and tested the above with straight up real skill, none of them from gear. The result was that the template could have ALL of the important archer stats. 70's resist, 100% DI, 150 hits, 45% HCI/DCI, 30% LMC, 2/4 FC/FCR etc. I ignored LRC and INT bonus but I did stuff extra DEX on the suit which let me lower the base DEX 10 points and still hit 150, which I placed in INT. I also used the Chiv III mastery to give me 15 more INT. With 120 Chiv the Consecrate Weapon lasts 11 seconds and I could use weapon specials easily, without running out of mana. I did spend 360M on the suit, including buying a Slither, but that's not mandatory.
The Magic!
With 180 Stamina and 55% SSI OR 210 Stamina and 35% SSI the ideal bow becomes the Elven Composite Longbow with a 3.75 second swing rate. You will hit the 1.25 second cap with these and though each hit might be for a little less than a composite bow the total damage per second (DPS) is a good 8 pts higher vs the 1.5 the above gives for composite bows. Adding velocity to the bow gives you another 10 pts DMG on average if you're properly keeping your distance. Adding lightning adds another 22-25 damage on average.
Poisoning comes in here - The secondary special for the elven longbow is Serpent arrow and at 60 poisoning you are poisoning the target with the 2nd highest poison possible(without needing to apply or even carry poisons). At 100 poisoning you have a chance to apply the occasional lethal poison too, game over when that happens as even a cure fails often. I did tests for comparison and the above does more damage than your typical composite bow spamming AI with perfection from Bushido... and you're not having to push as many buttons either.
Playstyle: Obviously this template requires the target to be vulnerable to poisons but it's also viable if you swap poisoning to resist spells. It's on the weak side for killing multiple targets at once though you can use a bow with an area effect and/or use the fire shot archery mastery for another way to hit multiple targets. Use the occasional 'force arrow' special of the elven longbow too for extra stopping power, if that hits with velocity it drops health fast. If the target it vulnerable to poisons I feel this is stronger than the bushido equivalent, and it's even otherwise. I think the devs tweaked the damage output of Bushido too but that's for another thread.
6 skills instead of 7, all at max real level, frees up the suit slots to reach the caps... that's important with a bushidoless archer in my opinion.
