[Classes] Archer Guide #1 - PVP Skills, Crystal Setup

#Archer

Archer Guide #1 - PVP Skills, Crystal Setup

Aug 20, 2020, 21:32 (UTC+8)

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Last Edited on : Oct 31, 2020 (UTC+8)

# 1

This guide mostly came from my own experience, so there's probably some bias or mistakes here and there. Feel free to comment and gives Input!

Latest Changes

Sep 3rd 2020: Update to Luthragon's Call, Radiant Explosion (and 100%), Flow: Light Trail description after 09/02/2020 Patch. TLDR overall very good buffs (at least for me)
Oct 31st 2020: Update on addons Section to a new Thread (because of the word limits orz): Archer Guide #2 - Addons

🏹 INTRODUCTION - ARCHER PVP

1v1: Archer 1v1 Ability probably counts as average. Usually Archer have a hard time against Classes with Grab Especially shield classes such as Warrior, Valk, Guardian, Also Assassin classes such as Kuno, Ninja, Lahn (Awakening). On the other side, Archer does okay against Classes that don't have grab including the currently popular Succession Mages (assuming the gear difference not big).

Large Scale | Node War / Siege / GVG / RBF: In larger scale, Archer assumes the role of Support Damage / CC as Archer's damage not high enough (Without Q buff / Z buff) compared to other classes with same AP (Yes Full Bloom damage is BIG but its not really useable in large scale)

So, Archer won't be a playmaker in Large Scale but they will be the one that setup the kills for other people, or they can also KS ( Kill Secure not Kill Steal okayy |･ω･) ) to save your teammate time so they can switch target faster.

🏹 SKILLS - PVP

IMPORTANT SKILLS TO GET
Skills Name	CC Type	Protection	Note
Winged Strike	Knockdown	-	One of Archer's most defining skill. Very simple way to attempt Knockdown from range or connecting a 2nd CC. Can be used on Cooldown but it offers no CC. Don't Spam while its on cooldown!
Flow: Verdure Clout	Float	Front Guard, Lingering	Good skills with Protection and CC, also gives a lingering Front Guard. Useable from Awakening by pressing S + Right Click. Can be used on Cooldown but it offers no protection (it still have CC on cooldown).
Meteor Dive	Stiff	Super Armor	Probably Archer most important skills. Offers Protection and CC with slight movement. Useable after literally every other skills, you can also cancel or shorten animation most skill with this!!! also serve as a Stance Swap from awakening to pre awaken. Can be used on Cooldown but it offers no protection/CC. Don't Spam while its on cooldown!
Piercing Cry	Stiff	Super Armor	Can be used after every Pre Awaken skills. Another Protected CC skills with decent damage and good movement. Can be used on Cooldown but it offers no protection/CC. You can use/spam this skill on cooldown just for its movement
Bolt of Radiance	-	-	A big damage range skills that have long animation and no protection. Use it Only when your enemies CC-ed or not paying attention to you. You can cancel the skill with Zepyr Leap or Meteor Dive in case the situation no longer favorable.
Arrow Explosion	-	-	A decent range damage skills. Got good Addons. No protection. Use it Only when your enemies CC-ed or not paying attention to you. You cannot cancel the skill once its launched. Useable from Awakening by pressing Shift + F
Passives: Grace of Sylvia, Infinite Mastery, Righteous Fire	-	-	More HP and Damage so why not...
Watcher	-	-	Probably one of the strongest Awakening buff in the game, Gives 100% crit rate, 15% Special Attack Damage, also Makes Luthragon's Call and Piercing light instant full charge.
Radiant Explosion	-	Super Armor	Protected skills with -15 DP Debuff and decent good damage especially when the target is downed. Animation can be shortened by using Meteor Dive while in air. Useable from Pre Awaken by pressing Shift + Left Click
Spear of Sylvia	-	Super Armor	Another Protected skills with Evasion debuff, HP recovery and Good damage. Can be canceled using meteor dive, zephyr leap, Glide, Tactical Strike after the first few hits while still giving your enemy evasion debuff. Got a huge gaps at the end of the skil animation, so you should immediatly link it with other skills. Useable from Pre Awaken by using this skill from hotkey
Full Bloom	-	-	The famous 1 shot skill, just that, theres a lot of restriction before that happens. First of all you need to get a Clean CC on your opponent, Then you need to be on zero distances from your target before proceeding with it. Most reliable win condition on 1v1 but not really useable on group fights since its not protected. Try to not rely on this skill on group fights. Also useable to Invis Check on an area due to its Wide range.
Uproot	Float	-	Good damage melee skills with CC. No protection. Usually used as 2nd or 3rd CC followed by either Luthragon's Call or Radiant Explosion.
Luthragon's Call	KnockBack	Front guard (While charging)	My personal favorite skill. Cast Animation can be canceled after some skills such as Glide, Low Sweep, Light's Path, Glisde (3rd shot), Tactical Strike, Uproot, etc making it a Fast CC or filler damage skills. Other than that, it got insane Range + extra damage when its fully charged. (after Sept 2nd patch, the full charge casting speed now twice as fast makes it very usefull in large scale) Do take notice that its not protected if you instant cast it or its fully charged.
Piercing Light	Stiff - 2 charge / Knockdown - 3 charge	Super Armor (Not when arrow released)	Long range Nuke skills with CC depending on how long you charged the skill. Also provide higher damage the longer your charge. You lose protection when you shoot, so you should follow up with skills such as Glide or Meteor Dive as soon as you release the arrow.
Flow: Light Trail	Stiff	-	Decent Good long range damage with CC but no Protection. Can be used after some skills such as Glisade, Zephyr Leap, luthragon call, Low sweep, etc. In addition, this skill also have a change to proc a down smash on downed target. Useable even when its on cooldown but won't do any CC. After you use Zephyr Leap in Pre Awaken, you can press F to use this skill and it will swap you to Awaken.
Righteous Smite	-	-	Long range Nuke skills with no protection. Can be used individually from hotkey or after Flow: Light trail.
Ultimate: Zephyr Leap	Stiff	Front Guard	Disengaging skills with Front Guard and CC, Can be used to Cancel some skills such as Spear of Sylvia, Ensnare, Bolt of Radiance, etc. One of the reliable skill to catch a CC on your opponent while being protected. Can be used on Cooldown but it offers no protection/CC. Don't spam while it's on cooldown!
Low Sweep	Bound	-	Low damage melee skills with CC, down smash, and no protection. Usually used as 2nd or 3rd CC (for example after Meteor Dive) or just to swap from Pre Awaken to Awakening. Use from Hotkey to swap from Pre-awaken to Awakening
Tactical Strike	Knockdown (first arrow)	I-frame (When rolling, not when attacking)	The only I-frame skills archer got. Its a pretty short I-frame and unprotected after the roll. Offers Knockdown CC which makes this skill a good option to do a 1st or 2nd CC. You can use this skill from Pre Awaken by pressing Q + A/D + Right click, but make sure to lock your Watcher skill so you don't active it by mistakes.
Glisade	Knockdown (3rd Hit)	Front Guard	Great skills that offers you Front guard with some damage and hp recovery also a CC on the 3rd shot. Useable on both stances and can be used to finish off downed opponent with low HP or do an attempt to CC while stays protected. Best of all, you can recover your stamina while using this!

LESS IMPORTANT, BUT NICE TO HAVE
Skills Name	CC Type	Protection	Note
Ensnare	-	Super Armor	Protected skills that gives Crit Rate buffs and slow debuff if it hits the opponent. Can now be canceled with Glide.
Breath of spirit, Exhale	-	-	A grenade throw that can either gives you small heal, slow debuff or Stun change. If you hold A/D and presses E you can skip the skill animation
Wrath of nature	-	-	A Long range skills with damage which is not protected and has long animation. The important part is this skill gives 12 Ranged AP when used. So usually you just cancel this skill immediately using Glide or Meteor Dive after casting it.
Volant Kick	KnockBack	Front Guard	This skill also one way to swap from Awaken to pre-awaken which also gives Protected CC that can be useful in certain situation.
Gaping Darkness	Stiff	Front Guard	I personally didn't use this skill, but a lot of other archers do. Its a fast melee Protected CC skills. It shares the same input as Glisade with Glisade as priority. If used during Glisade cooldown, you will use this skill instead and switched to pre awaken.

🏹 RABAM / SKILL ENHANCEMENT

Archer don't really need to use rabam as it might kills you instead. But do look forward for new Update on Rabams!

🏹 BLACK SPIRIT RAGE SKILLS

Skill name	CC Type	Protection	Notes
Full Bloom (10%)	-	-	Best skill to dismount Horse Riders or even Cannons since it got huge range and wide area. Especially effective on flat grounds
Ultimate: Zephyr Leap (25%)	Stiff, Float	I-frame, Front Guard (after i-frame until when raising arm)	The Black Spirit version of this skills consist of 3 Part which starts from when the archer dissapears while doing an AOE Stiff on his location, followed by a jump Backward (you can change direction of your jump by rotating your camera) then the archer will raise it hand and do an AOE Float on where your cursor pointing. You can cancel the last part with other skills such as Meteor Dive, Glide, Tactical Strike, Etc.
Righteous Smite (50%)	-	Super Armor	A long range Nuke damage that deals good damage if it hits properly. Decent skill overall but I rather use my Black Spirit Rage for other uses such as the 10%, 25%, or just Z buff.
Radiant Explosion (100%)	Bound	Super Armor	Won't really recomend using this one. Deals kind of low damage for a 100% (unfortunately, the recent damage buff to radiant didn't seem to affect the 100% version). Probably only useful when you spawn and enemy is hitting your fort.
Luthragon's Call (200%) Earth Shatterer's (200%) Bolt of Radiance (100%)	Various	Various	As of now, its not recommended to use any of these Black Spirit Rage skills. Its mostly because of the low damage for the long casting animaton and its high cost makes it not worth it to use.

🏹 SKILLS TO LOCK

Raghon Spirit	Can be used to Switch from Awakening to Pre-awaken but more often than not, it will interfere with your inputs.	Volant Kick	If you're not planning to use this skill you can lock it
Covering Fire	Can be used to Switch from Awakening to Pre-awaken and some people might use it, but in my opinion there's a lot other better skill to use for this purpose.	Ascending Spirit	It shares the same input with Uproot which is S+F and can be used on both stances.
Storm of Light	A skill with niche uses. At most its useable when you required to shoot without moving and want to deal some CC. If you really want to use it, you can put it on hotkey anyway so just lock this skill for safety reason.	Gaping Darkness	Personal preferences because I didn't use this skill from input because I'm not used to the same input it shares with glissade. (W + Right click)
Earth Shatterer	Can be used to Switch from Awakening to Pre-awaken. I won't really recomend it for PVP as it's unprotected and a melee range skills.	Flow: Shadow Hack	So that you won't activate it accidentally if you use gaping darkness.
Earth Kick	Kind of "meh" skill since we have a lot of better option to inflict CC and damage.	Watcher	So that you won't accidentally activate it when you use Tactical strike from Pre Awaken. (Q + A/D + Right click)
Evasion	The famous "must lock" skill of all classes. Lock this skill so you won't do a "roll of shame".	Low Sweep	Personal preferences because sometimes this skills link with other skill, so I don't want to accidentally activate this skill by mistake. (I just use this skill from hotkey)

🏹 SKILLS TO PUT ON HOTKEY

Spear of Sylvia	Can be use from Pre-awaken to do Awakening swap from Hotkey. Useful for a lot of situation and combos (Example: Verdure Clout -> Hotkey Spear of Sylvia -> Uproot -> Luthragon Call -> Full bloom)
Low Sweep	Can be use from Pre-awaken to do Awakening swap from Hotkey. Better way compared to pressing C or S + left click to swap back to Awaken, also useful as follow up after Meteor Dive or Piercing Cry provided your in the correct distance.
Watcher	Simple reason to lock this skill and hotkey it is, so that you can use Tactical Strike from Pre-Awaken Stance without accidentally triggering this skill.
Ensnare	Must use from Hotkey, usable on both Stance.
Righteous Smite	Can be use on Pre-awaken to do Awakening swap from Hotkey, also for whenever you want to use this skill without doing the full flow combo. You will slide a little bit forward compared when you use this skill normally on flow.
Gaping Darkness	Can be use on Awakening to do a pre-awakening swap, though I didn't use this skill, its a fast Front Guard skill with stiff.

🏹 CRYSTALS

Pictures credit to @BoiLondoAnor from Archer Class Discord

💘 Classic V1

Good for both PVE and PVP Equally. A safe choices that won't go wrong

💘 Classic V2

This setup probably more favorable for PVE (HAN Hoom helps pve while special Evasion not) as 2x HAN Hoom + 2x Special Evasion on armor is a lot better compared to 4x Hand Hoom for PVP. The adamantine helps both PVE (Less CC-ed mean more kills) and PVP (with the current popularity of mage classes)

💘 RBF Build

An all out build focussing on dealing as much damage as possible in PVP. I still recommend JIN Viper for the gloves though since Accuracy helps a lot in damage.

💘 Evasion Build

Since Evasion Requires 2x Jin Harpia, and I don't recommend sacrificing your Offense potential, that means we only got 2 free slots on shoes (Special evasion on Armor too important to replace) which either 2x HAN Hoom or RBF Adamantine works well

💘 My PVP crystals setup

I think special evasion a lot better for Armor crystals compared to around 200 hp and few dr+eva bonus from 4 set bonus especially since I'm not Evasion build. 20% change to negate Critical Atk / Back Atk / Down atk / Air atk is huge and can save you sometimes.

I used to have 4 Han Hooms on boots and helmet (Classic V1), but due to recent popularity of Mages, I think Adamantine is a better choice now for having higher survivability, since mages most used skills is Bound (voltaic) and Knockdown type (Meteor, Fireball explosion)

If you have any Questions, feel free to contact me ingame or here ☆ﾐ(o*･ω･)ﾉ

Vand

4 7

Lv 63

Vand

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Last Edited on : Aug 20, 2020 (UTC+8)

# 2

Very Detailed and neat looking guide!
The content is also top-notch as expected from a veteran archer.

Wadermolon

0 1

Lv 28

Wadermolon

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Last Edited on : Aug 20, 2020 (UTC+8)

# 3

after reading this guide i can CC people from 1 km away as a mystake.
thanks for the guide.

Salacia

1 7

Lv 62

Salacia

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Last Edited on : Aug 21, 2020 (UTC+8)

# 4

hit me, I fall and I die class... I scared of archers..........

Thanks for this SUPPORTER Vand.

When is RETROMAY writing a guide ?

Veonya

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Lv 61

Veonya

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Last Edited on : Aug 21, 2020 (UTC+8)

# 5

@Wadermolon Thanks you~ Hope this guide will helps you
@Salacia Mystics throwing dragons everywhere |･ω･)
@Veonya ahahha i will pass your message to Retro (^_<)〜☆