Archers are the ranged physical damage dealer class. The primary role of the archer is to stand in the background dealing as much damage, as quick as possible, to the enemy. Not only are archers able to deal physical damage but also some magic damage (mostly consisting of metal damage). This makes them very flexible damage dealers, as they will always have an answer to the enemies defense, whether it being magical or physical.
Pros:
- High critical percentage
- High accuracy
- High evasion
- Can deal both physical damage and magical damage
- Ranged attack
- Fast movement speed
- Can fly from level 1
- Only other class besides assassin that can stealth
- Very useful in mass PK and TW
Cons:
- Low physical and moderate magical defense
- Low HP
- Deals less damage up close
- Draws aggro easily if not careful
- U sually picked second to assassins in squads for instances such as Frostcovered City
Statistics
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Equipment
Weapons
Damage Chart: Lower-Low-Medium-High-Higher
Attack Speed Chart: Slower-Slow-Medium-Fast-Faster
Slingshots:
Short range, Medium attack speed, Medium-Medium damage
Bows:
Medium range, Slow attack speed, Low-High damage
Crossbows:
Long range, Slower attack speed, Lower-Higher damage
Note: Crossbows, Slingshots, and Bows have the same base maximum range. They differ in effective minimum range (damage is halved when too close)
Armor
Archers are a dexterity based class, so Light Armor is the best armor to use. Archers should only use HP shards (Citrine) when sharding armor, as they need both magical and physical defense. Left over points should be allocated to dexterity to increase damage, evasion, and critical hit rate.
Archers in PvP
At the low to mid levels, archers are the best overall damage dealer due to their range, and fast physical/magical damage. At higher levels, when classes become more balanced, archers work mostly as robe killers. This means they kill wizards, venomancers, and clerics. However they still work as backup damage to other classes as well. You could say that the archer is the "sniper" in Perfect World International, as they will sometimes one or two shot a player (due to their high critical percentage) before they are even seen.
Archers in PvE
When it comes to grinding, archers work almost effortlessly as they have knockback, stun, and slow skills. They also have two shields: Winged Shell and Wings of Grace. Winged Shell will only be a dependency in the early levels; however, it remains a very good safety net and means to escape damage at high levels. It is also good for PvP in later levels. Wings of Grace requires a spark so it is an OK skill, but is later replaced by far better skills.
Archers are good damage dealers to have in a party for instances. One reason is their Sharpened Tooth Arrow skill. At level 10, it will reduce a target's maximum HP by 16%. When a target has 1,600,000 HP, it effectively deals 256,000 damage. The effect can be increased to 20% with the sage version. This makes killing bosses faster. The level 100 skill, Blood Vow, will reduce max hp by 18% as well as increase damage taken by target by 25%.
Note that the sage form of the veno skill Soul Degeneration will also decrease max hp by 20%.
Archer in Territory War
Archers play a very important role in Territory War as they help to kill the enemies fast and push them back. Like in PvP, archers are mostly standing at the back making sure that the people that are almost dead, dies. The skills Sharpentooth Arrow and Barrage of Arrows are two of the most important skills here. Sharpentooth Arrow are used mostly on barbarians to lower their max HP so they are killed faster, but is also very useful on all other classes. Barrage of Arrows is the best AoE skill that archers have. It can kill a handful of lower levels or help to kill catapults.
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Basics
Archer Different Stat Build