Archery Balance

Mallingo

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Jan 7, 2022
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New to MO here but this is my opinion from what I have seen, full archer builds suck. I fully understand and agree with how archery works now for the most part but, I think if you want to focus as an archer you should be more effective than all the other FF’s that pick up a bow. Weakspot on heads only is a joke. And the additional skills currently associated with archery are extremely lacking.
I suggest allowing Weakspot hits on full body with a bow BUT locking this behind the Marksmanship skill. I do not know the exact numbers related to Weakspot other than it’s affected by DEX. I suggest the chance be less than daggers though as daggers should be much more effective at this. This would make full archer builds viable even against heavies if they spend the skill (marksmanship) and ability points (dex), to do so.
TL;DR: Change the marksmanship skill to allow torso weakspot chance with bows.
 
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I think short bows and asyms are balanced with asyms only needing a slight buff. I agree that marksmanship costs too much, but how do you balance that for how good it is? Making it weak spot anywhere is just too much. I really don't want archery to turn into magic and be a I WIN button.

The one aspect of archery that is over performing is long bows. The damage a long bow can do right now is cracked, beyond broken and needs to be addressed immediately.
 

nazgo

Member
May 29, 2020
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archery should be more gated behind skills, just like foot fighting. How many uses poleswords or axes without any skills?

Also archery needs NEW secondary skills. Now its like primary -> primary -> 2x primary. If SV for example, made moving (and shooting) with bows almost impossible , then added a secondary skill behind Aiming techniques, called "steady aim" or something, that would buff the movement for archers and already a small change like that would make a big difference between archers and basic FF. Or added a skill for longbows behind marksmanship, so nobody else could properly use them. In general, there should be (secondary) skills for different bows behind Archery. So either people did poorly with bows, or they had to invest that 100 points into Archery. Just few examples, but the main point being, archery desperately needs new secondaries.
 
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Emdash

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Sep 22, 2021
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New to MO here but this is my opinion from what I have seen, full archer builds suck. I fully understand and agree with how archery works now for the most part but, I think if you want to focus as an archer you should be more effective than all the other FF’s that pick up a bow. Weakspot on heads only is a joke. And the additional skills currently associated with archery are extremely lacking.
I suggest allowing Weakspot hits on full body with a bow BUT locking this behind the Marksmanship skill. I do not know the exact numbers related to Weakspot other than it’s affected by DEX. I suggest the chance be less than daggers though as daggers should be much more effective at this. This would make full archer builds viable even against heavies if they spend the skill (marksmanship) and ability points (dex), to do so.
TL;DR: Change the marksmanship skill to allow torso weakspot chance with bows.

I think head shots are legit but should hit WAY HARDER. It's hard to hit people w/ arrows in general. Some luck is required or a really steady bow to hit at range. Hitting someone with a crep bow is like lobbing grenades at them, to tag someone in the head who is moving takes really good predictive + mechanical skill.

Arrows in general do too low of dmg for how long it takes to pull a bow. On a MA, this isn't as bad for various other reasons, but foot archery is A JOKE, you are right. Still it's gonna save you vs a mount. You should outstrip a FF with full ranged combat by way more, you are right. Body weak spots w/ marksman is cool, I dunno if I'd lock it tho, just make it more. But that's slightly biased cuz I am always gonna roll 'dex bowman.' Sounds like a dude's name... arrow dmg is is too low, tho, if I'm taking 20s-30s with a bow in the kinda armor I wear, that's unacceptable. V steel or whatever it's like lol. I understand people don't want huge archer lines just crushing everyone, but still. Like I said: cool story, I rolled a char in 100x beta, 121 str Thursar to try out 121 longbows. I fully admit the longbow I use was prol not the best longbow at 121, just some stuff I grabbed off broker. I saw some dude who I knew from miscreants (vetis!) at the EQ and I was standing a little outside of Bakti. I y'd dude I'm about to shoot you with this bow, and he said OK. lol. I plugged him w/ a long bow, long bow arrow IN THE HEAD... he was NOT wearing steel, maybe like iron bone or some shit. It was a heavy armor, but by the color I couldn't tell what it was. It wasn't mola or incis. 44 dmg. 44 dmg. I deleted the char. You know how hard it is to hit someone in the head w/ a bow during actual combat? 44 dmg? on Meh armor? Stop it. I deleted.

Still tho I'm always gonna have my crep bow and every elf I have is gonna have archery even if I don't take the str gifts. I love the skill aspect of archery (altho I can tell just by looking aiming w/ o arrow tip is easier. I WANT A BONUS ALSO FOR AIMING WITH ARROW TIP!! The arrow actually comes out of the bow at a different angle then. Seems WEIRD. Like why couldn't they just leave the tip, everyone is there to help you understand you aim with the tip, it was one of the cool 'features' of MO.)


@ Shmer, what kinda dmg are you seeing on da best long bows? You realize they take a long ass time to draw + stam use, and require special arrows. They are basically a perch wep or a grief wep. Plus being only ground. Are you talking about the dmg they do to your horse, cuz I can def see how that would be wild haha.
 

Mallingo

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Jan 7, 2022
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I think short bows and asyms are balanced with asyms only needing a slight buff. I agree that marksmanship costs too much, but how do you balance that for how good it is? Making it weak spot anywhere is just too much. I really don't want archery to turn into magic and be a I WIN button.

The one aspect of archery that is over performing is long bows. The damage a long bow can do right now is cracked, beyond broken and needs to be addressed immediately.
I definitely do not want an “I WIN button” either but as it stands unless you can pull off headshots consistently in battle, (maybe somebody can?) bows are just horse slayers. I have yet to test long bows in pvp personally, maybe I will enjoy them more. Bottom line though, if you gear your toon around archery you should be better at it than a regular foot soldier.
 
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I definitely do not want an “I WIN button” either but as it stands unless you can pull off headshots consistently in battle, (maybe somebody can?) bows are just horse slayers. I have yet to test long bows in pvp personally, maybe I will enjoy them more. Bottom line though, if you gear your toon around archery you should be better at it than a regular foot soldier.
Short bows WS for 60 and asyms/long bows weak spot for 90~100 for reference.
 

Mallingo

New member
Jan 7, 2022
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archery should be more gated behind skills, just like foot fighting. How many uses poleswords or axes without any skills?

Also archery needs NEW secondary skills. Now its like primary -> primary -> 2x primary. If SV for example, made moving (and shooting) with bows almost impossible , then added a secondary skill behind Aiming techniques, called "steady aim" or something, that would buff the movement for archers and already a small change like that would make a big difference between archers and basic FF. Or added a skill for longbows behind marksmanship, so nobody else could properly use them. In general, there should be (secondary) skills for different bows behind Archery. So either people did poorly with bows, or they had to invest that 100 points into Archery. Just few examples, but the main point being, archery desperately needs new secondaries.
I feel this would be a decent solution as well. My biggest concern is that any foot soldier can use a bow with very little skill point investment while someone with all points in archery related skills and stats is maybe a little faster… A separate skill for different bows makes sense. As does a skill for steady aiming. Something to really separate an archer from a FF with a bow.
 

Mallingo

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Jan 7, 2022
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Short bows WS for 60 and asyms/long bows weak spot for 90~100 for reference.
Maybe I just need to get good lol. Still, the chances of hitting headshots consistently in battle are not high enough to be worth the points in marksmanship.
 
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Maybe I just need to get good lol. Still, the chances of hitting headshots consistently in battle are not high enough to be worth the points in marksmanship.
I agree, and it's the reason I don't get it on my fighter. I'm not good enough to constantly land head shots while fighting and the game does me no favors with how characters move and report player position. A big reason why archery blows is just based on how players move in the game. There is no momentum system in the game, meaning that as long as you are spiriting you can move your camera in any direction instantaneously and not lose speed. Another issue is depending on the player character model you are shooting at, arrows can just phase through parts of the enemies body.
 

Highlander

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Oct 27, 2021
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I think bows are fine, dc short bows are perfect mages killer and usable in movement. Long bows hits like a bazooka but requires good aim while standing still. If u want to be a foot archer Just get good.
 

Emdash

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Sep 22, 2021
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Long bows could always weak spot. Long bows have a negative weak spot chance. You cannot weak spot with long bow arrows.

I wanna see these long bow weak spots! haha, esp @ 100s. And shorts at 60. I don't really use long bows, but pretty sure I've not even weak spotted a horse head for 60. You talking about with dense crepite or is there a better short bow now?

Edit: altho I do run lean veela hm. but my 2ndary char has 110 str.

You mean on a max str char? I wasn't even sure that str affected archery dmg much besides the pull being easier.

edit2: legit tho if you can hit dudes for 60s and 100s with bows, I def stand corrected and need to look more thoroughly into better bows, I guess. Cuz I'm not so great, either, but I def could pull something out of my ass for a chance at that kind of dmg.
 
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I feel like the elephant in the room is that bows may be a bit on the underpowered end as the systems that are meant to further support them in combat are not in place yet. Specifically talking about poisons from alchemy and fletching, respectively.

It'd probably be for the best if they continue to be undertuned in anticipation for when those systems arrive rather than overtuned to the point where said systems make them incredibly overpowered.
 
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Mallingo

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Jan 7, 2022
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I feel like the elephant in the room is that bows may be a bit on the underpowered end as the systems that are meant to further support them in combat are not in place yet. Specifically talking about poisons from alchemy and fletching, respectively.

It'd probably be for the best if they continue to be undertuned in anticipation for when those systems arrive rather than overtuned to the point where said systems make them incredibly overpowered.
I had no idea they planned to add those other systems. Sounds like I was maybe a bit hasty, poisons could be a game changer. Hopefully archers get a little love in the future then.
 

Jatix

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Sep 30, 2020
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The issue is buffing archery in a way that wont buff MA or FF builds that bring bows. Because yes full foot archer builds could use some love. The issue is theres no a lot you can do to not make them dead when a FF gets close.

A possible buff is a prim to switch weapon super fast. Then they could have swords or something, and switch to it super fast to parry and fight, and if they can get out of range they can super quickly switch to the bow to keep shooting. This isnt 100% archer, but could be for people who spec more into bows and less into FF.

Another thing that could help foot archer is another primary to buff stam use. Bows use way more stam in this game than in MO1. Which is for a reason. But current stam have bad chase ability if the enemy isnt already 1 arrow from death. A while ago I counted arrows I can shoot per stam bar while sprinting and it wasn't enough to kill an armored enemy, even if I landed 100% of arrows. Which is good compared ot mo1 ff's whipping out a bow and killings you at full hp. But I feel liek a full foot archer build thats hopeless at close should be good at chasing.

What would be kinda cool is a primary that ups arrow speed. The arrows feel liek nerf arrows, makes hitting moving targets annoying. But things like this risk buffing MA, which would be bad.