Quick clarification for pawns. I've done some further testing and it seems iffy. The other day I had a pawn firing off Explosive shot without arrows, just confirmed it has Chirurgeon so it couldn't have been crafting them itself. Running in a party of 3 archers though nobody wanted to fire off special arrows unless they were given them. Unless it's tied to a specific inclination or some learned behavior that's hidden I'm not sure what the trigger was for seeing explosive shots fly so for now disregard that and give your pawns arrows.
It's possible your pawn picked up explosive arrows from a chest or an archer bandit. By the time you checked if it used the skill without arrows in its inventory it could have used all of them up.
I'd also add that the archer a.i is super janky (in my opinion) and sub par in contrast to the other pawn vocations. I had my mainpawn set up as archer for many levels/periods of the game, but watching her - she would barely do damage, just constantly half drawing, then repositioning, then half drawing again... by the time she fires off a shot pretty much everything is dead. I've never seen her use the barrage-style rapid shot ever despite being equipped with it. A shame because the archers LOOK bad ass, but they just don't seem to have much 'intelligence' when it comes to play. Other vocations seems to spam their abilities easily and when needed. Archer seems a bit "off".
@@destinyquestgameMaybe you chose an inclination that doesn't suit them, also giving them orders on how to act certainly must affect how they perform so it's quite complex. My pawn was an archer for quite a while and it's performance wasn't that good either but I didn't really use the commands and didn't know what the inclinations did. I guess the Calm inclination is the best fit for Archer and gladly we can change that with some items (I chose kindhearted).
Some small tips: Steady shot is obviously more damage, but if you auto shot after a jump off enemy it is counted as a fully charged steady shot, also if you are dashing and just press auto shot you will slide on the floor and auto target whatever is near you and it is also counted as a fully charged steady shot ^^ Shooting the abilities without steady shot does less damage but it can be great for applying the status arrows without worrying about aiming with steady shot.
If you get a headshot with a steady shot and the angle is right when you use an auto shot//loose, it will lock onto where the steady shot hit. So you can get like multiple eye shots on a Cyclops. It's a lil wonky when the enemies move a lot.
Yea the storage is kinda annoying, either stacks of 999 for materials or multiple stacks of 99. I started selling materials in bulk half way through my play through because I kept filling up on mats
The only thing I disagree with here is Spiral Arrow... Especially if you have the ice affinity on it.. hitting a weak point with 2 of those will like instantly freeze everything and it's constant tick damage that stacks with multiple shots.. 3 ice Spiral's into a dragon heart is basically gonna knock off a full health bar and freeze it
@@SaltyCinder same here it was also elden ring for me and before that it was bloodborne and mhw wasnt really expecting the game is so much fun ppl tend to say its fun in the early but in the late game it gets boring but this is my 3rd playthrough T_T
Yes spiral shot is my must have. I also think it's fun to spam on weakspots for large monsters even if it's not peak dps. I like that overlapping sound of all the different spiral arrows lol.
I was running around with just my mage pawn, and I was doing just that. CC'ing things with spiral arrow to freeze them, and then pick them off one at a time. Anything get too close I just launched myself away, and my mage would just levitate to safety.
Started the game with the archer class and given the slow start it makes you feel very powerful as you progress vs other classes that are OP to begin with. Loved the class and sad to see people sleeping on it. Ranger was so fun in the first game. The bow sounded incredible! Wish we had those sounds in this game
If u use warfarer and use the sorcerer augural flare then swap to sprial arrow it will take at least 3 health bars off the dragon. When hitting his heart.
@FightinCowboy I looked forward to that vocation the most, bust once I started playing it, I could not fucking stand it. Your videos help motivate me to give alot of stuff a try. Been a fan since AC6.
Because you are not using Heavenly shot, you could use Warfarer to play as an Archer, and level up other classes. Good option when you have maxed out archer and still want to play as one. Warfarer and Archer are very close in stats.
I’m around level 17 archer and absolutely loving it! I use tarring shot and fire affinity from my mage to light up mobs. Satisfying. Great guide, learned so much! Thanks.
Another BiG thing ppl sleep on is the spell silence,you can use silence when the dragon flies into the air to do his spell .... And he drops like a sack of potatoes,and you can just wait on him easily.... You can use it,when he's on the ground,he can't cast any spell the entire fight PERIOD.!!! Makesnit a manageable fight ☺️
archers with their various status shots made for some of my favourite warfarer combo's. The fact that their ultimate skill was dissapointing made it hurt less to lose it in exchange..
Personally I love the feel of Heavenly Shot. With that freezing effect you can basically guarantee it on anything important, after all. And the brief slowdown-time effect is a great way to line it up. It's just unfortunate that the thing is so unforgiving, but it is still fun to fire one arrow and do ungodly stagger while chunking health.
Whirling arrow I find is actually great for consistent easy damage on weak points. Even if you miss a little bit. The spin on the arrow will still hit the weak point some of the time. Also partnered with erupting shot it is huge damage going back and forth between the two
Spiral arrow is great for applying magic debuffs like fire ice or lightning. If youre not opting to load arrows onto your pawn and apply those heavy debuffs which is amazing for sure. Just make sure to have a mage buffing their/your weapon with an element and spiral arrow nice
3:24 Pawns needs arrows for them to be able to use the skills, I hired an archer pawn with all the special arrow skills and it never used it until I gave it the special arrows on its inventory, and the arrows in the inventory were decreasing each skill usage.
I love spiral arrow. It's great for breaking monster horns/tusks since it will do continous dmg to the spot it lands on. When when enchanced with elemental affinity, it does pretty good dmg and it hits multiple targets at once. Since it's aoe is pretty big, being in caves keeps monsters in check easily. It does multliple hits while not locking you in one spot. It's many utilities outweights the con of having a bit less dmg.
Another cool trick is if you fire a normal shot and sprint right after almost pressing it at the same time you can chain that back to back to sprint and shoot and the same time without sliding. Cool little trick I found
Can’t believe I didn’t touch poison or ice. I alr knew erupting and incendiary shot were amazing. But for the double poison proc to do that much dmg is wild.
I would take Spiral Arrow over manifold bc if your enemy is moving the other consecutive shots may miss. Spiral is technically DOT and can combo with poison and tempest to burn down life bars. Great vid. I learned alot on how to perfect my archer pawn. I just wish there wasn't such a huge penalty for hiring high level pawns. My pawn doesn't get hired by new players at lvl 70😢
My favorite combo is spiral arrow and then shooting that spot with erupting shot so it explodes right away. Truly feels like you are using a rock launcher.
Damn cowboy, I started as an archer and was struggling, thanks for the poison double tap notice, I just didn't think poison was good and I mostly used tar + fire. That ice + toxic is great, I'll definitely be trying it out. Any advice on farming the resources for them? On top of buying them
For all arrows, you get tons of Withered Branches just by looting those wooden rubble piles you see freaking everywhere. Those are worth rooting around in also because they often give you a little gold. Blighting Arrow - Asp Toxiscales or Poison Pinions. Both of the creatures (poison saurians and poison harpies) are mostly found in Battahl region. Drenching Arrow - Syrupwort Leaf. You find these plants all over the place. Looks like Greenwarish and similar plants. Tarring Arrow - Lantern Oil. You can make absolute tons of this stuff by combining any two rotten food items. Explosive Arrow - Sunbloom. Another plant like Greenwarish that you can find all over. And if I remember right, each crafting makes multiple arrows (I think 3?). Usually I get more than I can make use of just by looting stuff, though.
This is a really top-tier guide. I really appreciate seeing a vid from someone who actually understands the class in its totality. Most guides out there treat Archer like it's just a weaker physical-damage version of Magick Archer. It's so much different and more powerful than that. I love Archer so much. I went into DD2 planning to play Thief and do a lot of boss climbing. So, being a DD1 veteran, I knew I should find the augment skills that would buff up my main vocation as much as possible, and play those vocations as well. So I started with Archer with the intention of using its augments on Thief. Wasn't expecting to like the vocation more than Thief! The only contrary thing I have to say is that I think Spiral Arrow is better than Manifold Shot as your primary skill. I think the only reason it feels like Manifold Shot outperforms is because mobs die so fast to any strong attack in the late game. If the game's combat was better balanced, being able to lock down each enemy with Spiral Arrow so you can safely pincushion them as you please would be more effective. I actually play with a mod that increases enemy HP by x4, and can see this is in action. Additionally, Spiral Arrow is amazing at quickly applying elemental debilitations. I also think it's hilarious to watch an enemy slowly get drilled off a cliff by Spiral Arrow, only to suddenly drop to their death when the effect ends, lol! Super agree that Heavenly Shot is a big disappointment. Even when you DO nail the shot, it doesn't feel like it does as much damage as it should for the charge up time and full stamina drain. The skill does state that the damage is based on how much stamina you have left at the time of loosing the shot, though. And I have never seen anyone that isn't fully drained by the shot. So maybe that's why it's so weak. Maybe an oversight makes it use more stamina during the charge-up than it should? Also, I am aware that it is supposed to empty your stamina, what I mean is that you should have some stamina left at the time the arrow flies, and THEN it takes all your stamina. At least this skill sucking makes it easy to want to play it under Warfarer. I also tend to play the Archer mostly at medium to close range, using the auto-aimed shots and kicks more often than Steady Shot. Parting Shot after a kick, and the slide shot seem to do as much damage as Steady Shot by default. And if you equip two Rings of Proximity, they hit super hard. Absolutely love the Legolas-style acrobatics when you are mixing it up at close range. That said, I do still mostly use Steady Shot when fighting bosses, of course. And I'm REALLY appreciate you talking about the advanced debilitations. This, I think, is what people understand least about Archer. Making use of this part of the vocation is what puts up there with the rest of the high-DPS vocations. Not to mention, watching a chimera or minotaur violently erupt in Torched flames is super fun to watch. Thank you for this video!
I'll have to test it, but it would be dope if your noxious shot could spread poison to multiple enemies if it's used to trigger the erupting shot in close quarters
The dropkick has crazy stagger. Ogres and Griffins hate it. I felt like I could knock an ogre over with 2 running dropkicks. May have had help from the pawns
Archer in general has bullshit amounts of flinch and stagger all over. Spiral shot can effectively stunlock small targets and shred armor off cyclops, apply elemental enchant procs rapidly, and micro-flinch like a mf. Heavenly Shot punishes whiffs super hard but it does a metric ton of knockback, even more than the already high dire arrow value. Boot to the face, explosive... Half of what you do seems designed to just mess with enemies. That ammo thing is a pain though. Seriously. At least pawns can be set up to abuse the hell out of them for free debuff spam.
I'm not a fan of Manifold Shot. In terms of utility, Cascade seems to have better stagger, can hit multiple enemies if you're about to get swarmed, and can do just as much if not more damage to single targets at very close range (especially with Ring of Proximity), plus it's easier to hit fast-moving targets with. For straight dps, Tempest outperforms Manifold, as you've shown, so I can't imagine a scenario where I'd want to use Manifold over any other skill. Even basic Steady Shots are nearly as good for mid range damage if you need to stay on the move. I agree with everything else in this guide, I've just found Cascade to be way more useful than Manifold in my experience.
He mentioned he wouldn't be doing a walkthrough in a different video because technically a hired pawn with quest knowledge can do that for you automatically.
Spiral Arrow was iconic in DD1, but mostly because it gave the best status application with special arrows. But now Archers have to use specific skills to apply status, so I'm not sure what it's for here.
Oh, believe me its still nuts. The damage ticks add up to about the same as any of your other damage skills, but it also still has the best elemental stacking when combined with your unique arrow types. But easily the best part about it is that whatever non-boss enemy you hit with it WILL be stunned for a very long time, I haven’t come across an enemy that has resisted the hit stun of all the ticks. What he said about just one shotting the small goblins is technically true, but that only really applies to the lowest of the low of enemies
As an archer main since hour 1, anyone who doesn’t have spiral shot equipped is nerfing themselves needlessly, it can honestly just replace any other damage skill with just how versatile it is, not even to mention the brutal knockdown it has attached to it
I dont understand why there is no Co-OP. They didnt have to put 2 arisen in the same world. We could use our Main Pawns to travel through the rift to help other Arisen aka co-op or even pvp.
I'm regard to spiral arrow. The last game let you attach arrows.to it. So you could use it on a minotaur and perform him easy. Or set sleep etc easier as it only used 1 arrow and all the hits did the debilitation
Warrior is the worst class imo. Capcom has characters like Dante and Soki but they make the warriors so slow and lumbering that you can barely evade massive oncoming damage. I hated face tanking every cyclops club, ogre drop kick and dragon air stomp.
while i agree the debilitations are nice, your video also perfectly showcases my issue with the class in general you had your dragon down and vulnerable for a long time, extended it a lot actually, which is nice. However, where i could have easily killed it then and there with Warrior, Thief or sorcerer, your fight went on for a lot longer. Okay "right then and there" is a tad extreme, i usually need two topples. that doesnt however change the fact that archer kind of feels sub par. ps: unrelated, but i wonder why you didnt charge your manifold before releasing. Is it more dps? It kind of works like the normal steady shots where they do more damage if you let the crosshair shrink
I play Warfarer using archer/ thief. Archer is highly slept on wont even lie i maxed all vocations but archer can get ish done once you know how to use it
My biggest disappointment with this game is the ultimates taking up one of the four special slots. I kind of wish it was a fifth That's designated to maybe a click in of the right stick. There's so many neat skills and I hate to take one away just for an ultimate a lot of the ultimate seem underwhelming
Skills can be exchanged through the game at camps. Most skills are not needed all the time. They want you to sacrifice the slots. If the ultimate skill is not useful then don't use it simple as that.
Wait, hold up, archer pawns don't use ammo? Holy crap. I did not know that. And here I thought it was terrible to have ammo skills on pawns. Spiral Arrow does a bunch of status when you have elemental boons on, so that's super useful with the right mage. It also seems to be really effective at knocking harpies out of the air and stuff. It's powerful utility, but not on its own. Does wet status also increase damage from lightning damage, though? Heavenly Shot is oddly good on pawns in some cases, apparently. They'll just nail enemies out of the air because they aim for weakspots.
I feel like archer is a little bit underwhelming in this game compared to previous one… like nearly all the abilities almost look the same? What happened to arrow rain etc.? Wouldve been cool if they kept also the Ranger class for us to advance
Question after you go to new game plus can take your old pawn or do you get to create a new pawn and be able to summon your old pawn and be able to freely equip your old pawn with stuff
You 100% need to give pawn archers special ammo. I tested this myself. If they don’t have the ammo they don’t use the skill. When I gave them the ammo it seemed like they spammed it. I stopped using the abilities that require special ammo because of that.
Can you PRETTY please do a comprehensive unarmed combat build guide? I badly want to run unarmed, or shield-only. But there's no Bloody Knuckle in this game sadly
indefinitely if you've finished every red beam except for the one in the sea floor shrine. You however only can rest a maximum of 12 days in the unmoored world meaning after those 12 days you'll technically eventually run out of things to kill as stuff just stops respawning as time doesn't pass without resting.
@@SanityPotion776 see also thought that. I was on day 10 n didn’t kno what was going to happen to I just ended it n went to new game but I’m making my way back haha. Thanks for letting me kno.
love this class so much! Really really fun - and I'm early game and haven't started crafting lots of special delibitating arrows/debuffs yet - just doing lots of fun trickshots and stomping small baddies.
Can I ask why manifold shot. Its poop compared to tempest. I swap it out ASAP. I did not know about the poison thing.. Guess I'll be stocking up..hehe..
Honestly I found Archer to be the second most boring vocation, right behind Trickster. It's still a decent vocation, but half the classes in this game feel lackluster. I say that while having them all maxed currently. The most fun are probably Thief, Mystic Spearhand, and maybe Warfarer or Warrior/Fighter, depending if you want shield parries or not. Now just waiting for some of the other Vocation vids you put out so I can see which skills are actually useful. Some of the classes I cared for less are better when I use some of the abilities you recommended. Side note, wouldn't Deluging shot also make lightning hit harder? I'm pretty sure that was a thing in the first game, so I'd assume it's in this one too.
Wait, what!? Pawns don't need the special arrows to use skills like explosive shot? Damn. I've been wasting arrows then. My main pawn's been carrying these arrows and will actually use them if it's in his inventory.
I've rented pawns that have no arrows and they still go through the abilities, but they will use em if they have em anyway. Wonder if that impacts damage or something 🤔
@@FightinCowboy I've tested on my pawn. Equiped him with 4x ammo skills, 0 arrows. He did NOT use any in spawn of 5 minute test. Haven't tested rented though 🤔
Nonetheless, Archer is just a shadow of its former self. In DD1 we used to use our special arrows to enhance our skills. And remember tenfold flurry? Nothing survived 10 explosiv arrows fired at once straight to it's face. Or gambling shot? The one that magick archer now has used to be an archer (ranger) skill
Great Gamble and Heavenly Shot are identical except you cant guide the arrow to its target anymore which is why it sucks bc you loose all your stamina and miss alot. They gave the guided feature to magic archers burning arrow.
No its not lol. The only significant thing it lost was using blast arrows with tenfold. Which wasn’t an archer thing. It was blast arrows being overpowered.
I was a ranger main in DD1/DA for 12 years, but I abandoned it's lesser cousin in DD2. It's cool seeing these guides regardless, but not having daggers or up close defense against the stunlocking and abilities requiring ammo kinda killed archer for me. If all of your pawns try to swim, R.I.P. lol To my surprise, thief has become my main vocation. It took over 240 hours playing as everything to finally decide. I'll go magick archer if I want range though.
They do have an up close defense. They have regular kicks and the leaping backflip kick. That said, they are a ranged vocation. Theyre not supposed to be up close. DD1 yellow vocations were just plain overtuned having access to dagger utility and crazy ranged damage.
@@FightinCowboy True, but the raw stat gap is weirdly huge for archer and maybe thief, less so for warrior. Weird. Kinda feels like they should at least be sidegrades in different contexts.
So you’re telling me…my pawn can shoot explosive and tarring shot…without me needing to buy arrows for her…but she still use the arrows…NANI THE FUCK?!? Crap me
🙄 Naturally the one singular exciting thing about Archer is also one of its most obnoxious elements too: unique on-demand debilitations.. at the cost of a small bloody fortune. Maybe if this actually was glitched on Pawns to not require arrows it'd be more appealing. Probably just going to wind up grabbing a mod that puts all consumables in a vendor for 1g and only use it for infinite arrows because *EFF* paying 1.5k for each damn Blight Arrow. What the actual sh- Itsuno...
Quick clarification for pawns. I've done some further testing and it seems iffy. The other day I had a pawn firing off Explosive shot without arrows, just confirmed it has Chirurgeon so it couldn't have been crafting them itself. Running in a party of 3 archers though nobody wanted to fire off special arrows unless they were given them. Unless it's tied to a specific inclination or some learned behavior that's hidden I'm not sure what the trigger was for seeing explosive shots fly so for now disregard that and give your pawns arrows.
Enemies have to have a corporeal body to use certain affections such as blight, the Dullahan doesn't qualify it's a spirit
It's possible your pawn picked up explosive arrows from a chest or an archer bandit. By the time you checked if it used the skill without arrows in its inventory it could have used all of them up.
I'd also add that the archer a.i is super janky (in my opinion) and sub par in contrast to the other pawn vocations. I had my mainpawn set up as archer for many levels/periods of the game, but watching her - she would barely do damage, just constantly half drawing, then repositioning, then half drawing again... by the time she fires off a shot pretty much everything is dead. I've never seen her use the barrage-style rapid shot ever despite being equipped with it. A shame because the archers LOOK bad ass, but they just don't seem to have much 'intelligence' when it comes to play. Other vocations seems to spam their abilities easily and when needed. Archer seems a bit "off".
@@destinyquestgameMaybe you chose an inclination that doesn't suit them, also giving them orders on how to act certainly must affect how they perform so it's quite complex. My pawn was an archer for quite a while and it's performance wasn't that good either but I didn't really use the commands and didn't know what the inclinations did. I guess the Calm inclination is the best fit for Archer and gladly we can change that with some items (I chose kindhearted).
Damn
Some small tips: Steady shot is obviously more damage, but if you auto shot after a jump off enemy it is counted as a fully charged steady shot, also if you are dashing and just press auto shot you will slide on the floor and auto target whatever is near you and it is also counted as a fully charged steady shot ^^
Shooting the abilities without steady shot does less damage but it can be great for applying the status arrows without worrying about aiming with steady shot.
If you get a headshot with a steady shot and the angle is right when you use an auto shot//loose, it will lock onto where the steady shot hit. So you can get like multiple eye shots on a Cyclops. It's a lil wonky when the enemies move a lot.
My biggest gripe is why wont the game let us stash 999 special arrows in our storage like the 1st game
i think that is an effort for balancing... be cause explosive arrow is definately OP as fuck
Stash the materials instead 😁
@@Joerisc actual 5head.
Yea the storage is kinda annoying, either stacks of 999 for materials or multiple stacks of 99. I started selling materials in bulk half way through my play through because I kept filling up on mats
How do you get multiple stacks of 99 on console? It only lets me do one stack of 99 and then say: storage full 😮
Best thing about Archer is the VICIOUS curb stomp you do on downed small monsters 😂
Lmfao LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Jail stomp
Probably the best archer guide out there, everyone else don't know what the hell they are talking about
Kinda hilarious how most shit on CZcams about this game is literal clickbait trash because the game is too cryptic for them (I guess)
The only thing I disagree with here is Spiral Arrow... Especially if you have the ice affinity on it.. hitting a weak point with 2 of those will like instantly freeze everything and it's constant tick damage that stacks with multiple shots.. 3 ice Spiral's into a dragon heart is basically gonna knock off a full health bar and freeze it
Can't remember the last time I played a game where hours would go by and it felt like minutes. I just don't have enough time to play this game
I last felt that with Elden ring and before that was the first time I played skyrim. This game is fantastic
@@SaltyCinder same here it was also elden ring for me and before that it was bloodborne and mhw wasnt really expecting the game is so much fun ppl tend to say its fun in the early but in the late game it gets boring but this is my 3rd playthrough T_T
Spiral shot is good with debilitation boons. Inflicting burning, ice burn or the lightening dmg
I use it way more the manifold shot.
love spiral shot, great way to CC foes and keep them off you
Pretty similar to the first game, then. I guess that makes it a good pairing with Drenching/Incendiary Shot and a pawn with Boons.
Yes spiral shot is my must have. I also think it's fun to spam on weakspots for large monsters even if it's not peak dps. I like that overlapping sound of all the different spiral arrows lol.
I was running around with just my mage pawn, and I was doing just that. CC'ing things with spiral arrow to freeze them, and then pick them off one at a time. Anything get too close I just launched myself away, and my mage would just levitate to safety.
Started the game with the archer class and given the slow start it makes you feel very powerful as you progress vs other classes that are OP to begin with. Loved the class and sad to see people sleeping on it. Ranger was so fun in the first game. The bow sounded incredible! Wish we had those sounds in this game
If u use warfarer and use the sorcerer augural flare then swap to sprial arrow it will take at least 3 health bars off the dragon. When hitting his heart.
Great video, like always. Looking forward to seeing how you play sorcerer!
Tomorrow!
@FightinCowboy I looked forward to that vocation the most, bust once I started playing it, I could not fucking stand it. Your videos help motivate me to give alot of stuff a try. Been a fan since AC6.
Because you are not using Heavenly shot, you could use Warfarer to play as an Archer, and level up other classes. Good option when you have maxed out archer and still want to play as one. Warfarer and Archer are very close in stats.
Can’t use heavenly shot as warfarer.
@@sPaCe_NiNjA187yea that’s why he said u can use it as a warfarer to level up other classes since ur not using the ultimate skill lol
I’m around level 17 archer and absolutely loving it! I use tarring shot and fire affinity from my mage to light up mobs. Satisfying. Great guide, learned so much! Thanks.
Another BiG thing ppl sleep on is the spell silence,you can use silence when the dragon flies into the air to do his spell .... And he drops like a sack of potatoes,and you can just wait on him easily.... You can use it,when he's on the ground,he can't cast any spell the entire fight PERIOD.!!! Makesnit a manageable fight ☺️
I found this class more fun than i orginally thought.
archers with their various status shots made for some of my favourite warfarer combo's. The fact that their ultimate skill was dissapointing made it hurt less to lose it in exchange..
So good with warrior, shoot a bomb arrow and hit it with savage lash for an instant knockdown
Personally I love the feel of Heavenly Shot. With that freezing effect you can basically guarantee it on anything important, after all. And the brief slowdown-time effect is a great way to line it up. It's just unfortunate that the thing is so unforgiving, but it is still fun to fire one arrow and do ungodly stagger while chunking health.
The damage on heavenly shot is insane matched with volcanic shot
I always try Warfarer combos without archer and always wind up going back to it lol
I play archer and fighter. Erupting shot is so much fun. It’s good damage, basically rapes gryphons
Whirling arrow I find is actually great for consistent easy damage on weak points. Even if you miss a little bit. The spin on the arrow will still hit the weak point some of the time. Also partnered with erupting shot it is huge damage going back and forth between the two
Absolutely love the dude that goes "HOY!!!!!"
Spiral arrow is great for applying magic debuffs like fire ice or lightning. If youre not opting to load arrows onto your pawn and apply those heavy debuffs which is amazing for sure. Just make sure to have a mage buffing their/your weapon with an element and spiral arrow nice
3:24 Pawns needs arrows for them to be able to use the skills, I hired an archer pawn with all the special arrow skills and it never used it until I gave it the special arrows on its inventory, and the arrows in the inventory were decreasing each skill usage.
I love spiral arrow. It's great for breaking monster horns/tusks since it will do continous dmg to the spot it lands on. When when enchanced with elemental affinity, it does pretty good dmg and it hits multiple targets at once. Since it's aoe is pretty big, being in caves keeps monsters in check easily. It does multliple hits while not locking you in one spot. It's many utilities outweights the con of having a bit less dmg.
100%. It's my favorite archer skill. I had to purposely stop using it just to try substitutes like manifold lol
Another cool trick is if you fire a normal shot and sprint right after almost pressing it at the same time you can chain that back to back to sprint and shoot and the same time without sliding. Cool little trick I found
I guess this is more fun then one shoting every thing with magic archer
Can’t believe I didn’t touch poison or ice. I alr knew erupting and incendiary shot were amazing. But for the double poison proc to do that much dmg is wild.
Lol there's a reason those blighted arrows are 2k at the average vendor!
I'm pretty sure pawns need special arrows for skills that use them.
I would take Spiral Arrow over manifold bc if your enemy is moving the other consecutive shots may miss. Spiral is technically DOT and can combo with poison and tempest to burn down life bars. Great vid. I learned alot on how to perfect my archer pawn. I just wish there wasn't such a huge penalty for hiring high level pawns. My pawn doesn't get hired by new players at lvl 70😢
Deluging shot also pairs well with lightning. More damage and a higher chance to paralyze.
My favorite combo is spiral arrow and then shooting that spot with erupting shot so it explodes right away. Truly feels like you are using a rock launcher.
Started as an archer. No videos no nothing. And yet to this day I believe is the best in my opinion. Only if you know how to use the archer
For me weapon is what it counts, armor is for fashion!
Wait, so hired pawns don't need to be supplied arrows or need to pull arrows from you?
Really hope more skills are added. Would also love the ability to have more then 4 skills at a time, or at least have presets/loadouts choose from
Damn cowboy, I started as an archer and was struggling, thanks for the poison double tap notice, I just didn't think poison was good and I mostly used tar + fire. That ice + toxic is great, I'll definitely be trying it out.
Any advice on farming the resources for them? On top of buying them
Also can you freeze a burning enemy? Like have a 3 man archer party (1 flex) and just have every status on a dude?
Those will cancel eachother out.
@@FightinCowboy Sad but thanks for the info 👍
For all arrows, you get tons of Withered Branches just by looting those wooden rubble piles you see freaking everywhere. Those are worth rooting around in also because they often give you a little gold.
Blighting Arrow - Asp Toxiscales or Poison Pinions. Both of the creatures (poison saurians and poison harpies) are mostly found in Battahl region.
Drenching Arrow - Syrupwort Leaf. You find these plants all over the place. Looks like Greenwarish and similar plants.
Tarring Arrow - Lantern Oil. You can make absolute tons of this stuff by combining any two rotten food items.
Explosive Arrow - Sunbloom. Another plant like Greenwarish that you can find all over.
And if I remember right, each crafting makes multiple arrows (I think 3?). Usually I get more than I can make use of just by looting stuff, though.
Jump kicks count as blunt damage so they are great against skeletons
Thanks for the guide! Bowman
Damn I honestly slept on some of the abilities. Now I'm going to have to replay as an archer again instead of doing something else lol.
This is a really top-tier guide. I really appreciate seeing a vid from someone who actually understands the class in its totality. Most guides out there treat Archer like it's just a weaker physical-damage version of Magick Archer. It's so much different and more powerful than that.
I love Archer so much. I went into DD2 planning to play Thief and do a lot of boss climbing. So, being a DD1 veteran, I knew I should find the augment skills that would buff up my main vocation as much as possible, and play those vocations as well. So I started with Archer with the intention of using its augments on Thief. Wasn't expecting to like the vocation more than Thief!
The only contrary thing I have to say is that I think Spiral Arrow is better than Manifold Shot as your primary skill. I think the only reason it feels like Manifold Shot outperforms is because mobs die so fast to any strong attack in the late game. If the game's combat was better balanced, being able to lock down each enemy with Spiral Arrow so you can safely pincushion them as you please would be more effective. I actually play with a mod that increases enemy HP by x4, and can see this is in action. Additionally, Spiral Arrow is amazing at quickly applying elemental debilitations. I also think it's hilarious to watch an enemy slowly get drilled off a cliff by Spiral Arrow, only to suddenly drop to their death when the effect ends, lol!
Super agree that Heavenly Shot is a big disappointment. Even when you DO nail the shot, it doesn't feel like it does as much damage as it should for the charge up time and full stamina drain. The skill does state that the damage is based on how much stamina you have left at the time of loosing the shot, though. And I have never seen anyone that isn't fully drained by the shot. So maybe that's why it's so weak. Maybe an oversight makes it use more stamina during the charge-up than it should? Also, I am aware that it is supposed to empty your stamina, what I mean is that you should have some stamina left at the time the arrow flies, and THEN it takes all your stamina. At least this skill sucking makes it easy to want to play it under Warfarer.
I also tend to play the Archer mostly at medium to close range, using the auto-aimed shots and kicks more often than Steady Shot. Parting Shot after a kick, and the slide shot seem to do as much damage as Steady Shot by default. And if you equip two Rings of Proximity, they hit super hard. Absolutely love the Legolas-style acrobatics when you are mixing it up at close range. That said, I do still mostly use Steady Shot when fighting bosses, of course. And I'm REALLY appreciate you talking about the advanced debilitations. This, I think, is what people understand least about Archer. Making use of this part of the vocation is what puts up there with the rest of the high-DPS vocations. Not to mention, watching a chimera or minotaur violently erupt in Torched flames is super fun to watch.
Thank you for this video!
Quick tip for aiming for heavenly shot. Use your controller to aim it manually you’ll always make your shot. Not the joysticks the actual controller.
How do I set that up
@@thegreatavci1469 it’s in the settings for Camera. Controller motion aim.
I'll have to test it, but it would be dope if your noxious shot could spread poison to multiple enemies if it's used to trigger the erupting shot in close quarters
The dropkick has crazy stagger. Ogres and Griffins hate it. I felt like I could knock an ogre over with 2 running dropkicks. May have had help from the pawns
Archer in general has bullshit amounts of flinch and stagger all over. Spiral shot can effectively stunlock small targets and shred armor off cyclops, apply elemental enchant procs rapidly, and micro-flinch like a mf. Heavenly Shot punishes whiffs super hard but it does a metric ton of knockback, even more than the already high dire arrow value. Boot to the face, explosive... Half of what you do seems designed to just mess with enemies.
That ammo thing is a pain though. Seriously. At least pawns can be set up to abuse the hell out of them for free debuff spam.
I'm not a fan of Manifold Shot. In terms of utility, Cascade seems to have better stagger, can hit multiple enemies if you're about to get swarmed, and can do just as much if not more damage to single targets at very close range (especially with Ring of Proximity), plus it's easier to hit fast-moving targets with. For straight dps, Tempest outperforms Manifold, as you've shown, so I can't imagine a scenario where I'd want to use Manifold over any other skill. Even basic Steady Shots are nearly as good for mid range damage if you need to stay on the move. I agree with everything else in this guide, I've just found Cascade to be way more useful than Manifold in my experience.
Just curious. Will you be doing a walkthrough. Your dark souls, bloodborne and Elden rings were so informative. Thank you for those guides.
He mentioned he wouldn't be doing a walkthrough in a different video because technically a hired pawn with quest knowledge can do that for you automatically.
Spiral Arrow was iconic in DD1, but mostly because it gave the best status application with special arrows. But now Archers have to use specific skills to apply status, so I'm not sure what it's for here.
Oh, believe me its still nuts. The damage ticks add up to about the same as any of your other damage skills, but it also still has the best elemental stacking when combined with your unique arrow types. But easily the best part about it is that whatever non-boss enemy you hit with it WILL be stunned for a very long time, I haven’t come across an enemy that has resisted the hit stun of all the ticks. What he said about just one shotting the small goblins is technically true, but that only really applies to the lowest of the low of enemies
Oh i didn't know pawns could use the status shots without arrows. That's a game changer for me
can they? I mean they WILL use arrows if they have them.. I haven't tested with 0.
@@saitzo2325 i haven't tested yet either. I was just going off what Cowboy said in the video.
The spiral shot is more powerful when you have an element buff
As an archer main since hour 1, anyone who doesn’t have spiral shot equipped is nerfing themselves needlessly, it can honestly just replace any other damage skill with just how versatile it is, not even to mention the brutal knockdown it has attached to it
If you use deluging shot with ice affinity spiral arrow, you stun lock all bosses.
Where do you think is best to upgrade archer equipment?
Spiral arrow is op when u have magik buff and puts any status related to the enchantment in 2 shots
I understand why there isn't, and agree. However, having Co-op available would be great fun. Archer would essentially be support.
There will never be co-op. Stop talking about it. Sheesh 🤦
@@sPaCe_NiNjA187 Right....IE: Me stating I agree with there not being co-op.
I dont understand why there is no Co-OP. They didnt have to put 2 arisen in the same world. We could use our Main Pawns to travel through the rift to help other Arisen aka co-op or even pvp.
I'm regard to spiral arrow. The last game let you attach arrows.to it. So you could use it on a minotaur and perform him easy. Or set sleep etc easier as it only used 1 arrow and all the hits did the debilitation
So far every class has scratched a different itch for me, still gotta try warrior!
Warrior is the worst class imo. Capcom has characters like Dante and Soki but they make the warriors so slow and lumbering that you can barely evade massive oncoming damage. I hated face tanking every cyclops club, ogre drop kick and dragon air stomp.
@@unlucky7s561Thats the point. Warriors dont avoid damage. They tank it.
welp that is insane about to swap back to archer for a bit
My archer is maxed out. Thinking of getting different arguments and buffing him.
while i agree the debilitations are nice, your video also perfectly showcases my issue with the class in general
you had your dragon down and vulnerable for a long time, extended it a lot actually, which is nice. However, where i could have easily killed it then and there with Warrior, Thief or sorcerer, your fight went on for a lot longer. Okay "right then and there" is a tad extreme, i usually need two topples. that doesnt however change the fact that archer kind of feels sub par.
ps: unrelated, but i wonder why you didnt charge your manifold before releasing. Is it more dps? It kind of works like the normal steady shots where they do more damage if you let the crosshair shrink
He chose not to use Heavenly Shot so he couldnt use that option on the downed dragon. He was spamming Tempest shot instead. Personal preference.
I play Warfarer using archer/ thief. Archer is highly slept on wont even lie i maxed all vocations but archer can get ish done once you know how to use it
My biggest disappointment with this game is the ultimates taking up one of the four special slots. I kind of wish it was a fifth That's designated to maybe a click in of the right stick. There's so many neat skills and I hate to take one away just for an ultimate a lot of the ultimate seem underwhelming
Skills can be exchanged through the game at camps. Most skills are not needed all the time. They want you to sacrifice the slots. If the ultimate skill is not useful then don't use it simple as that.
btw everyone medusa bow also has huge stamina drain for skills
Kinda wish manifold was ten fold flurry tbh.
Kinda wish you could combine special arrows with skills like DD1. Even Manifold shooting 3 explosive arrows would do wonders.
Archer is alot of fun in this game, but I am missing fracture dart from strider..
Wait, hold up, archer pawns don't use ammo? Holy crap. I did not know that. And here I thought it was terrible to have ammo skills on pawns.
Spiral Arrow does a bunch of status when you have elemental boons on, so that's super useful with the right mage. It also seems to be really effective at knocking harpies out of the air and stuff. It's powerful utility, but not on its own.
Does wet status also increase damage from lightning damage, though?
Heavenly Shot is oddly good on pawns in some cases, apparently. They'll just nail enemies out of the air because they aim for weakspots.
Wet causes lightning to spread further aoe wise
I feel like archer is a little bit underwhelming in this game compared to previous one… like nearly all the abilities almost look the same? What happened to arrow rain etc.? Wouldve been cool if they kept also the Ranger class for us to advance
Yeah, Archer aka Ranger in DD1 was absurdely OP. I see why they had to nerf the class but they went too far...
The vocations in dd2 are different classes with different weapons. Ranger would had to use a different bow.
@@TheBlakamon15 exactly.. i find the giant/longbow specialization in DD1 was interesting.
Question after you go to new game plus can take your old pawn or do you get to create a new pawn and be able to summon your old pawn and be able to freely equip your old pawn with stuff
How are you doing the follow-up manifold shot and not running out of stamina?
You 100% need to give pawn archers special ammo. I tested this myself. If they don’t have the ammo they don’t use the skill. When I gave them the ammo it seemed like they spammed it. I stopped using the abilities that require special ammo because of that.
Read pinned
Losing downpour volley and fracture dart is an actual crime.
Can you PRETTY please do a comprehensive unarmed combat build guide? I badly want to run unarmed, or shield-only. But there's no Bloody Knuckle in this game sadly
Someone already did an unarmed run. Just search for it on yt. Suffice to say it’s not good and very hard.
Love archer…
Wait I didn't know that about the pawns
What if warfarer deluge shot, then blizzard and flare?
heavenly shot should be like Dragon Piercer skill from MH
Cowboy how long can you stay in the end game world after doing all red beam bosses?
indefinitely if you've finished every red beam except for the one in the sea floor shrine. You however only can rest a maximum of 12 days in the unmoored world meaning after those 12 days you'll technically eventually run out of things to kill as stuff just stops respawning as time doesn't pass without resting.
@@SanityPotion776 see also thought that. I was on day 10 n didn’t kno what was going to happen to I just ended it n went to new game but I’m making my way back haha. Thanks for letting me kno.
you can sleep infinite number of times if you "reset" mechanic by going into fog with your pawns@@SanityPotion776
@@SanityPotion776 Could you just AFK and time will past?
@@moonflowerpalace3872 No. Time doesn't pass normally in the Unmoored World. AFKing for any amount of time doesn't do anything.
Today I learned pawn requires no arrow. All these time I thought they were useless...
They need arrows. He got it wrong.
I find manifold shot to be pretty weak.
love this class so much! Really really fun - and I'm early game and haven't started crafting lots of special delibitating arrows/debuffs yet - just doing lots of fun trickshots and stomping small baddies.
deathly arrow is SO much fun but I do have to move on from it as enjoyable as it is to use
Wait! What?? Your pawn doesn’t need to have the arrows in their inventory to use the special debilitating abilities??? 😮😮😮
Check pinned
Can I ask why manifold shot. Its poop compared to tempest. I swap it out ASAP. I did not know about the poison thing.. Guess I'll be stocking up..hehe..
The benefit of stuff like manifold is that you can move while shooting. Tempest requires you to kneel and stay still.
Had no idea it was so good. I was playing it wrong hah.
Honestly I found Archer to be the second most boring vocation, right behind Trickster. It's still a decent vocation, but half the classes in this game feel lackluster. I say that while having them all maxed currently. The most fun are probably Thief, Mystic Spearhand, and maybe Warfarer or Warrior/Fighter, depending if you want shield parries or not. Now just waiting for some of the other Vocation vids you put out so I can see which skills are actually useful. Some of the classes I cared for less are better when I use some of the abilities you recommended.
Side note, wouldn't Deluging shot also make lightning hit harder? I'm pretty sure that was a thing in the first game, so I'd assume it's in this one too.
Description says it expands the aoe range
@@FightinCowboy that's an interesting choice for a mechanic. I'll have to try it out. Thanks
In that little notebook I showed talking about torched and ice bound it details all the status effects
@@FightinCowboy ah, somehow I missed that part
Cowboy for the love of god plz do a guide on where to find eldricite locations
Purple ghosts in unmoored world.
11:21 how do you spam Tempest shot with no stamina use?
ultimate mage skill gives limitless stamina, it's the big gold aura in the sky.
Way more enjoyable than MA imo
I love my Archer , so elegant. Moveset. I upload endgame sure, youtube.
Wait, what!? Pawns don't need the special arrows to use skills like explosive shot? Damn. I've been wasting arrows then. My main pawn's been carrying these arrows and will actually use them if it's in his inventory.
I've rented pawns that have no arrows and they still go through the abilities, but they will use em if they have em anyway. Wonder if that impacts damage or something 🤔
@@FightinCowboy I've tested on my pawn. Equiped him with 4x ammo skills, 0 arrows.
He did NOT use any in spawn of 5 minute test.
Haven't tested rented though 🤔
@@milt3k your pawn needs arrows but rented pawns don't, part of the whole not required to micro manage other people's stuff
Good clarification I'll pin.
Nonetheless, Archer is just a shadow of its former self. In DD1 we used to use our special arrows to enhance our skills. And remember tenfold flurry? Nothing survived 10 explosiv arrows fired at once straight to it's face. Or gambling shot? The one that magick archer now has used to be an archer (ranger) skill
Great Gamble and Heavenly Shot are identical except you cant guide the arrow to its target anymore which is why it sucks bc you loose all your stamina and miss alot. They gave the guided feature to magic archers burning arrow.
Tenfold was the goat with explosive arrows. I hate the regular archer in this game by comparison.
No its not lol. The only significant thing it lost was using blast arrows with tenfold. Which wasn’t an archer thing. It was blast arrows being overpowered.
What cloak is that?
My favorite class right here.
Anybody got a archer built like this . Link gamer id 🎉
So pawns don’t need ammo…? Well I just built my archer explosive arrow all day no other skills
So why we doing trickster last come on
Trickster ain't coming lmao
Maxed out trickster and it was the worst experience in the game by far. Horrible class
I was a ranger main in DD1/DA for 12 years, but I abandoned it's lesser cousin in DD2. It's cool seeing these guides regardless, but not having daggers or up close defense against the stunlocking and abilities requiring ammo kinda killed archer for me. If all of your pawns try to swim, R.I.P. lol
To my surprise, thief has become my main vocation. It took over 240 hours playing as everything to finally decide. I'll go magick archer if I want range though.
They do have an up close defense. They have regular kicks and the leaping backflip kick.
That said, they are a ranged vocation. Theyre not supposed to be up close. DD1 yellow vocations were just plain overtuned having access to dagger utility and crazy ranged damage.
999 all storage box WHEN??
Easiest game I have ever played. Where is the challenge?
lol throw Ron out under the bus.
Magik Archer but with no rizz.
Kinda lame how the dragon bow is so much weaker than the hydra husk for some reason.
There's a couple instances for this is the case though, warrior and thief both have better weapons that are purchased from vendors
@@FightinCowboy True, but the raw stat gap is weirdly huge for archer and maybe thief, less so for warrior. Weird. Kinda feels like they should at least be sidegrades in different contexts.
Fair
So you’re telling me…my pawn can shoot explosive and tarring shot…without me needing to buy arrows for her…but she still use the arrows…NANI THE FUCK?!?
Crap me
I've had rented pawns use them without arrows, haven't tested with my personal pawn tho.
@@FightinCowboyokay I’ll test it and get back to ya
Actully never mind I’m not gonna think to hard on it, plus I like giving my pawn the arrows,immerse me in getting supplies for the journy
🙄 Naturally the one singular exciting thing about Archer is also one of its most obnoxious elements too: unique on-demand debilitations.. at the cost of a small bloody fortune. Maybe if this actually was glitched on Pawns to not require arrows it'd be more appealing.
Probably just going to wind up grabbing a mod that puts all consumables in a vendor for 1g and only use it for infinite arrows because *EFF* paying 1.5k for each damn Blight Arrow. What the actual sh- Itsuno...
Hydra…yeah a bow named after an awesome enemy from the first game. Sad face.
Pple do sleep on archer.
I literally just got the Fate reference, I'm sad it took me this long lmao
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