Archers?

[Giga Pulse]

I was wondering what you guys think of the Bow classes?

[Midnight]

Archery/Energy Blasters were a bit of a fad for a while. They can stack defiance damage bonuses very easily.

[BlueBard]

I think Trick Arrow should have been a Blaster secondary, or at least a modified version of it.  I also think the costume parts totally lack a decent archer's cap.  That's what I think.

I just can't get into being a Trick Arrow Defender, as Defenders have more effective primary powersets available to them, IMO, and they suffer from not being able to access the more potent Archery attacks until higher level. 

Plus Archery/Devices as a Blaster just seems wrong somehow from a visual standpoint.

That said, (speaking as someone who's only experienced things from the Defender side,) Archery is not bad as a powerset.  It's very accurate, has decent damage and has very good range.  If you're trying to pick off distant targets at range, or keeping your distance to minimize aggro, it's very good.

[Kommando]

I have a level 41 TA/Archery Defender and I love it.  There is a nice little manual on the COH forums that I used as a reference.  Basically, do not expect to be a damage machine.  Yes you can take down bosses and even entire mobs but it is going to take a while.  Your main strength with TA/Archery is debuffs combined with AOEs.  Acid arrow is indispensable as a repeating debuff.  You have hold and immobilzations.  You don't really need aim or any kind of boost because the rate of fire is inherently quick and TA/Archery has a fairly high accuracy.  So what you have may not be all that powerful, but you essentially have an endless attack chain especially when grouped since you can benefit from a defender's endurance discount.

[Ephemeris]

Trick Arrow is an awesome set.  It's my second favorite mm secondary.  Oil Slick is like a mini nuke.

Villains need Archery.   

Trick Arrow should never, in any current or modified version, be a blaster secondary.  A melee weapon such as a hatchet or knife for a blaster seconadary would be ok.  Blaster secondary=melee/self buffs/mitigation (w/ the exception of Devices).

[GhostMachine]

I have a Bow (Trick Arrow/Archery) Defender, and there are a few things I like about it:

1. Neither set uses a lot of endurance, so I can actually run him with Stealth up and no Stamina skill and only have to pop blues about as much as any other AT with Stamina would unless its a really prolonged fight.

2. Blazing Arrow and Glue Arrow = awesome.

3. Kicking for Brawl when the bow (or any other hand to hand weapon is out) is always a good thing.

4. Rain of Arrows looks incredible and does a ton of dmg - at least when a Blaster uses it, anyway - my Defender is only lvl 26 or so so he doesn't have it yet, but I've grouped with a few high lvl Archery Blasters before.

Things I don't like:

1. Can't really solo all that well. However, I've heard that changes once you get the Oil Slick Arrow, and I've teamed up with enough TAs with it to believe it.

2. Explosive Arrow kind of sucks.

I took Heal Other as the most recent power because none of the Archery or Trick Arrow options available appealed to me (did consider Disruptor Arrow) and because I'm a Defender, so I'd like to be able to provide some healing, but I have no intention to take any of the other powers from that pool.

(I'm personally glad there's no archer's cap costume piece, because then we'd have more Green Arrow and Robin Hood rip-offs running around (there are some, using a hood, but still....))

[Giga Pulse]

Thanks for your input guys  :cool:

I'm starting a SG on Justice "Brotherhood of the Bow"

It's a all archer SG  :D I did it..... well..... just to see if a SG with so tight a member ship class work or not