1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789 by Zyfron(7x Broa Ranger) and ImCompiling(8x Broa Sniper) contact us at Zyfron@gmail.com ------------ --------------- ----------------- Contents: (0001) Preface (0002) Why be a bowman? (0003) What makes this build different? (0004) An analysis of “Arrow Blow” (0005) An analysis of “Final Attack” (00051) Arguments against “Final Attack” (00052) Arguments for “Final Attack” (00053) Final Attack and Iron Arrow (00054) Summary (0006) Stat Builds (00061) Strengthless Builds (0007) Skill Build (0008) Third Job (0009) Fourth Job (0010) Mathematical Examples ------------ --------------- ----------------- (0001) Preface This is an updated version of an older guide posted on Hidden Street in 2008, which has been revised for clarity, organization, accuracy, and to include new insights we have had into this build. The primary motivation for writing this guide was to show that there is more than one way to create a strong bowman based on personal preference. All to often, we see bowman playing as if it is certain doom or a ruined character to stray at all from the rigid standard (Double-Shot/no Final Attack) build. *note: the pronoun 'I' is often used in this guide, even though it was written by two people! This guide represents our collective experiences. It's just really hard to write without using 'I'! ------------ --------------- ----------------- (0002) Why be a bowman? This section if for those of you who are new to Maplestory, or at least, new to Maplestory bowmen. PROS: -Extremely high accuracy -Very nice looking equipment with good stats. -Very high attack, both on individual enemies and on area skills. -Very long range attacks from an early level -Powerful 3rd and 4th job skills. CONS: -Very few party buffs, and the ones we do have are only at very high levels. -Minimum range can be very annoying. (you can't hit monsters that are to close to you!) -Unstable damage, particularly in first job. -First 40 levels are difficult compared to magicians and thieves. ------------ --------------- ----------------- (0003) What makes this build different? This particular build is optimized for doing party quests (and even non-party quests) from levels 21-70. Many older guides and builds are based around the idea that you are primarily training on large mobs at these levels, which fundamentally changes a lot of things. This build is designed to get around the high defense of monsters in levels 10-40, keep up with dexless sins in Monster Carnival in your upper 40s, and own the Ludi Maze PQ (though admittedly, this last is mostly inevitable given how powerful bowmen become by level 50-60 and beyond). This guide assumes that you are primarily spending your first and second jobs in Kerning PQ, Monster Carnival, and Ludi Maze PQ. It also assumes that when you are not in these areas, you are mostly doing other quests which tend to involve killing monsters of a higher level than you. Using this build, your ability to simply walk onto a random map and train by killing everything there will be slightly less than using a more traditional build until level 70. So think about how it is you tend to play, and then decide which build to use. I find, as I think most players do, that party quests are both faster and more fun at least until level 70. One thing I would like to say, neither of the authors buy into the idea of a “debate” between whether FA/FA-less or DS/AB are “better.” These skills play differently, and have different effects. To debate whether one is “better” than the other is like debating whether hunters are better than crossbowmen. They are different. Crossbowmen, ultimately, do more damage than hunters. Does this prove that they are “better”? Of course not! And we accept no such arguments with regard to these skills, either. The way to create a character you will enjoy is to examine exactly what each skill does, and then pick the one that seems most fun to you! Everything else is secondary – you will level up faster (and actually enjoy the leveling!) on a character you enjoy than on a character you enjoy less, regardless of damage. We both enjoy seeing very large numbers, hitting high knock-back, attacking quickly against individual strong monsters, doing well in Party Quests, saving money, and having unique builds. If your priorities are very different from this (ie: more damage/second against mobs from 10-70 is more important to you) then this guide may not be the best for you personally. Though some not inconsiderable amount of mathematical analysis has gone into this build, everything written here is directly from personal experience unless it is explicitly stated to be theoretical. Though optimized for the first and second job PQs, this build is specifically designed not to detract from your strength in the third job, whatever you may hear elsewhere. In fact, this guide has recently been updated with a 3rd-job build specifically optimized with the same priorities in mind. ------------ --------------- ----------------- (0004) An analysis of “Arrow Blow” “Arrow Blow” is a skill which is available to bowmen at level 10. Most guides will tell you to stay far, far away from this skill using the logic that the alternative, “Double Shot” has the potential to hit a critical strike twice and thus do more damage. This is true, and it is also true that against most enemies Double Shot will do more stable damage. The only drawback of Double Shot is that a monsters armor is applied twice. With a few exceptions, the extra damage more than makes up for this. But just for fun, why don't we list a few of those exceptions? Monsters whose very high armor (relative to your level) makes Double Shot less effective than Arrow Blow: -Ligators (level 20-30) -Curse Eyes (level 20-30) -King Slime (level 20-30) -Robos (level 30- ~42) -Rombots (level 40- ~45) See where this is going? Yep, those are all monsters which you routinely have to face in party quests (which are, as previously mentioned, the fastest and usually the funnest way to level). In the Kerning PQ, I could easily kill ligators twice as fast or faster compared with any Double-Shot bowman (which is pretty much all of them) of the same level from the time I was level 21 until by level 30 the Double-Shot bowmen were just barely starting to catch up. From levels 30-40, I was also much more useful in Monster Carnival than Double-Shot bowmen of the same level. From 40-50, this build was more than keeping up and could even keep pace with all but the best dexless sins (though that also had a lot to do with Final Attack, which we shall be addressing shortly). Arrow Blow also does more damage on a single shot (one concentrated number) than any hunter skill period, or than any crossbowman skill until level 120. This is useful for showing off with high numbers or (more importantly) for hypothetically killing the occasional monster with very high weapon defense. Doing more damage per arrow also gives you a higher chance of causing a monster to “flinch,” which is very useful and should not be underestimated. In the 3rd job advance, for example, ImCompiling was able to flinch Athena Pierce with every shot, allowing her to stay out of range and making for an extremely easy fight. This was true for both characters against some other bosses and powerful monsters (such as Voodoos and Hoodoos) in second job as well. In general, and monster which you can cause to flinch will be much easier to kill than one you cannot. In Summary: Arrow Blow Pros: -Good at overcoming high defense. -More effective against most PQ monsters from level 21-~45 -More likely to cause an enemy to stagger -Very impressive-looking numbers (because a 3000 looks cooler than a pair of 1500s or even 1800s) -Somewhat less expensive -1 less skill point to max (because Double Shot requires a point in Arrow Blow to unlock) Arrow Blow Cons: -Somewhat lower damage against monsters with negligible defense (which, admittedly, is most of them after Monster Carnival). -Somewhat less stable damage compared with Double Shot Also note: The importance of staggering enemies and thus preventing them from getting close cannot be underestimated when fighting monsters that take more than two hits to kill! Arrow Blow will do this much more effectively than Double Shot. Also also note: Arrow Blow will generally be more effective up through your 40's based on the kinds of enemies your are killing. It will be more or less irrelevant in Ludi Maze because you will be using your mob skill almost exclusively. Thus the only time you will suffer for not having Double Shot is from 50-70 when you choose to be doing something other than Ludi-Maze. However, Arrow Blow is not at all a bad attack even then – against Voodoos and Hoodoos I've found (on Zyfron, levels 58-61) that the extra knock-back is very helpful. The extra damage from Final Attack will equalize your damage a great deal when compared with DS/FA archers, and will still allow you to far out-kill Double Shot archers without Final Attack. At level 70, you will get strafe, and this whole discussion will suddenly become totally irrelevant. Also Also ALSO note: The average total attack for a Double Shot is 340% damage, for an Arrow Blow it is 300%. So even when armor and knock-back are negligible, it is not that big of a difference. It is NOT comparable, as is sometimes suggested, to the difference between mages' Claw and Energy Bolt (which is a much more significant difference of 80 compared to 55). See the math section at the end of this guide for details. ------------ --------------- ----------------- (0005) An analysis of “Final Attack” “Final Attack” is perhaps even more controversial than Arrow Blow. For starters, it is certainly NOT as cool as it sounds at first glance. For one thing, each Final Attack takes a not-inconsiderable amount of time, though it is still faster than an ordinary attack. For another, it will NOT duplicate your “Arrow Bomb,” “Double Shot,” or “Iron Arrow,” but will launch what amounts to an Arrow Blow regardless of what attack you used originally to trigger the Final Attack. One important thing you have to know about Final Attack is this: it is NOT useful until it is almost maxed. Skills like Arrow Bomb or Soul Arrow start benefiting you at level 1, and I've heard from many, many bowmen who got Final Attack to level 5 or 10, decided it was useless, and scrapped their characters or used NX cash to redistribute those skill points. And I have to agree, at 5-10 points, Final Attack IS pretty much useless. However, at level 30 Final Attack is triggering often enough that it essentially stacks with Bow Booster to give you an even greater speed-up (since a Final Attack is faster than an ordinary attack). It also reduces your costs considerably. By level 50, as mentioned earlier, I was keeping up with dexless assassins by killing Rombots in Monster Carnival rooms 5-6. This is because I had at least 50% more attacking power (from my faster attacks) and considerably less MP use which allowed me to keep firing long after most others had to stop to get potions. Being able to stagger the Rombots with both Arrow Blow and Final Attack was also very useful for keeping them at a distance. ------------ --------------- ----------------- (00051) Arguments against “Final Attack” Most of the arguments I've ever seen against Final attack are completely bogus. As you will see later in the “builds” section, Final Attack will not prevent you from getting any of your other skills or make you any weaker at level 70. It will not get you killed by shooting at things unintentionally – you should not be on a map if you don't want to shoot at the things there. There is however, one valid argument against Final Attack : it keeps you from maxing out Arrow Bomb/Iron Arrow until 10 levels later, and somewhat reduces your damage against groups of more than 3 enemies. This is because a maxed out Arrow Bomb or Iron Arrow will do considerably more damage overall than a Final Attack, and with more than three enemies this is not made up for by the faster attack speed. ------------ --------------- ----------------- (00052) Arguments for “Final Attack” Final Attack WILL make it much faster and more efficient to kill 1 or 2 enemies , since it makes Arrow Blow (or Double Shot) considerably more powerful. Against 3 enemies, it has been our experience that the damage is about the same with or without Final Attack when using Bomb Arrow, but is somewhat reduced by FA when using iron Arrow. However, when using Arrow Blow or Iron Arrow, Final Attack will concentrate the damage towards the front, killing the creatures closest to you first, as well as having a greater chance to stagger the enemy – both of which help to keep your enemies away from you while you fire. Another advantage is that Iron Arrow does not seek enemies, but only travels in a straight line. Final Attack will seek to enemies close to you even when you are using Iron Arrow, which is useful when the Flyeyes (the bats) in Ludi Maze fly at you, since they are very difficult to hit with an Iron Arrow and you don't want to stop firing. Another advantage of Final Attack is that it has no minimum range and so will sometimes work like a Mortal Blow. Mortal Blow is of course better at this, but on the other hand you can get Final Attack 20 levels sooner and it in no way impedes your ability to use Mortal Blow later on. ------------ --------------- ----------------- (00053) Final Attack and Iron Arrow This one is the trickiest. Iron Arrow does not stun enemies, and thus must be fired continuously for maximum effectiveness – Final Attack will throw of that rhythm quite a bit. Since iron Arrow does so much damage, Final Attack will reduce your total damage with this skill when fighting three or more enemies. Final Attack will often hit monsters that Iron Arrow could not (since Final Attack will “seek” to an enemy and Iron Arrow will not) which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the situation. In the Ludi-Maze PQ, this is often beneficial, since it can hit the Flyeyes, as mentioned earlier. Despite interrupting the rhythm and doing less damage overall, Final Attack will concentrate your damage towards the front of a group of enemies, and has a greater chance of staggering the enemy at the front. In some cases, this is irrelevant, but in others it can be very important since Iron arrow doesn't stun so killing the monsters closest to you first can be a very good thing for your own safety. It boils down to preference – it will somewhat reduce your damage while somewhat increasing your versatility and decreasing costs with iron Arrow. In the end, Iron Arrow is a skill centered around massive damage, which Final Attack somewhat decreases. The other trade-off, however, is that because Iron Arrow does not seek up or down, you will use it slightly less than you would have used Arrow Bomb as a hunter. Thus, you will be using Arrow Blow (or Double Shot) quite a bit more until 70, and will thus benefit more from Final Attack when doing so. Final Attack can actually be very useful when hunting with Iron Arrow – despite what you may have heard elsewhere, it will often prevent you from being swarmed by continuously killing the enemies closest to you. While it could be accurately observed that Strafe will replace Arrow Blow or Double shot, thus rendering this advantage useless, it could also be accurately observed that Arrow Eruption will largely replace Iron Arrow in most cases, making these disadvantages irrelevant as well. ------------ --------------- ----------------- (00054) Summary Final Attack Pros: -Faster attack speed (Stacks with Bow Booster) -More powerful 1-2 enemy attacks -Much cheaper/use less MP (Final Attacks are free!) -Concentrates firepower towards the front of enemy clusters. -Makes Iron Arrow somewhat more versatile. Final Attack Cons: -Makes you less powerful against clusters of 4 or more monsters -Throws off the rhythm of Iron Arrow -Takes 30 skill points, which means delaying maxing out Arrow Bomb or Iron Arrow -Not useful until 20 or more points have been put in ------------ --------------- ----------------- (0006) Stat Builds Starting Stats: luk: 4 int: 4 dex: any str: any Simple Build: Crossbowmen will want to keep their Str equal to their level, while Hunters will want to keep their str 5 points higher than their level. The rest goes into dex. So if you have 10 str at level 10 (for a crossbowman) or 15 str at level 10 (for a hunter) just add 4 dex/1 str every level until level 120 (after which there are no new weapons, so all your remaining points go into dex). Advanced Build: The key to having the highest possible dex at all times (which should be your goal) is that your str only needs to be equal to your level (or 5+your level) when it comes time to get a new weapon. In other words, if you can manage to put every point into dex until the level (or 2 levels) before getting a new weapon, and carefully make sure you have enough strength at the end, you will be able to have more dex sooner than if you use the simple scheme laid out above. ------------ --------------- ----------------- (00061) Strengthless Builds In general, I am opposed to them. We have observed that the effect on damage of weapon attack vs Dex is about 10 : 3, with one point in Weapon Attack being about 3 times as useful a point in Dex. Thus, it is far more useful to be able to receive a more powerful weapon than just to have higher Dex. The reason strengthless builds work at all is that some weapons, including the Maple Weapons at 35, 43, and 64 have no strength requirement, allowing you to have the same weapon attack as other archers and thus making your Dex the determining factor in damage. Being stengthless will make levels 20 – 35 much more difficult (the first maple weapon is at 35, and you can use the level 12 crossbow without any strength which should be fine through about 20). At 35 and at 43, your damage will be MUCH higher than full-strength bowmen. However, in the 50s things will at least even-out and 60-63 will be unhappy levels for you by comparison. A good level 64 bow will be the last weapon you'll ever see (except for maybe a Bow if Magical Destruction) making your 60's and 70's much better by comparison to strength bowmen. By 80 or 90, the higher-level weapons of strength bowmen will give them the advantage once again. A few hybrid solutions would be to go strengthless until 80, then pour points into strength to get your 90 bow, or to keep a full-strength build until 28 or 30, then go strengthless until 80 as mentioned before. If you are thinking of making a strengthless bowman, keep in mind that hunters have more strengthless options (the Winkel, Bow of Magical Destruction, etc) than crossbowmen, who only have the Maple Items. Also, levels 10-35 will likely be very difficult, since the highest level weapon available to you will be a level 12 crossbow. ------------ --------------- ----------------- (0007) Skill Build (New players, or people who simply want a build to follow strictly, can skip the next paragraph) Before we get into specific skill builds, let's just say one thing: Particularly if you are already an experienced player (and thus don't need to follow guides blindly) THINK CAREFLLY ABOUT YOUR BUILD! Think about it in terms of YOUR specific training style, who you train with, and where you train. You've seen the analysis above of Arrow Blow and Final Attack – if you tend to use Arrow Bomb or Iron Arrow more often than Arrow Blow/Double Shot, then Final Attack is probably a bad idea. If on the other hand you find that, like us, you use Arrow Blow/Double Shot 70-80% of the time, it makes sense to power that up even at the expense of getting your mob skill maxed out 10 levels later. This sort of reasoning applies to every skill there is. For example Zyfron tends to train almost exclusively with a certain similar-level Cleric. Since most maps with undead creatures are full of large groups on multiple levels and platforms, Zyfron is planning on maxing out Arrow Rain at 70 before maxing out Strafe (an analysis of this will follow in the third-job discussion). If you are an experienced mapler, and can figure out the math behind these sorts of things, then apply this sort of analysis to EVERY SKILL rather than just believing other people or guides. Everyone plays differently, and will thus benefit differently from each skill. Remember what we said earlier about not buying into the “debate” about which bowmen were “better” any more than which classes are “better.” If it was a simple as figuring out how to do the most damage, we would all be playing spearmen. Well, here's the moment you've all been waiting for: the Skill Build for a Questing Bowman. Levels 1-10: This does not particularly matter, as these levels are extremely easy to get out of in any case. However, I would be sure to get “Nimble Feet” since it will potentially benefit you in running back to your group for the next PQ. First Job: 10 +1 Blessing of the Amazon (1) 11 +2 Blessing of the Amazon (3), +1 Eye of the Amazon (1) 12 +3 Eye of the Amazon (4) 13 +3 Eye of the Amazon (7) 14 +1 Eye of the Amazon (MAX), +2 Critical Shot (2) 15 +3 Critical Shot (5) 16 +3 Critical Shot (8) 17 +3 Critical Shot (11) 18 +3 Critical Shot (14) 19 +3 Critical Shot (17) 20 +3 Critical Shot (MAX) 21 +3 Arrow Blow (3) 22 +3 Arrow Blow (6) 23 +3 Arrow Blow (9) 24 +3 Arrow Blow (12) 25 +3 Arrow Blow (15) 26 +3 Arrow Blow (18) 27 +2 Arrow Blow (MAX), +1 Focus (1) 28 +3 Focus (4) 29 +3 Focus (7) 30 +3 Focus (10) Discussion: You could potentially do Arrow Blow and Critical Shot in reverse order (and if you are funded, you probably should!), though the difference in damage is not that significant and doing them in this order is much less expensive if you are an un-funded character (because Arrow Blow requires MP and thus MP potions). I chose to put the last few points into “Focus” mostly because Focus looks cool when you cast it, and the extra accuracy from Blessing of the Amazon doesn't do much for you (neither do the bonuses from Focus, but Focus looks cool.) Second Job: 30 +1 Arrow Bomb / Iron Arrow (1) 31 +3 Mastery (3) 32 +3 Mastery (6) 33 +3 Mastery (9) 34 +3 Mastery (12) 35 +3 Mastery (15) 36 +3 Mastery (18) 37 +2 Mastery (20), +1 Bow Booster (1) 38 +3 Bow Booster (4) 39 +1 Bow Booster (5) +2 Soul Arrow (2) 40 +3 Final Attack (3) 41 +3 Final Attack (6) 42 +3 Final Attack (9) 43 +3 Final Attack (12) 44 +3 Final Attack (15) 45 +3 Final Attack (18) 46 +3 Final Attack (21) 47 +3 Final Attack (24) 48 +3 Final Attack (27) 49 +3 Final Attack (MAX) 50 +3 Arrow Bomb / Iron Arrow (4) 51 +3 Arrow Bomb / Iron Arrow (7) 52 +3 Arrow Bomb / Iron Arrow (10) 53 +3 Arrow Bomb / Iron Arrow (13) 54 +3 Arrow Bomb / Iron Arrow (16) 55 +3 Arrow Bomb / Iron Arrow (19) 56 +3 Arrow Bomb / Iron Arrow (22) 57 +3 Arrow Bomb / Iron Arrow (25) 58 +3 Arrow Bomb / Iron Arrow (28) 59 +2 Arrow Bomb / Iron Arrow (MAX), +1 Power Knock-Back (1) 60 +3 Power Knock-Back (4) 61 +3 Power Knock-Back (7) 62 +3 Power Knock-Back (10) 63 +3 Power Knock-Back (13) 64 +3 Power Knock-Back (16) 65 +3 Power Knock-Back (19) 66 +1 Power Knock-Back (MAX), +2 Bow Booster (7) 67 +1 Soul Arrow (3), +2 Bow Booster (9) 68 +1 Soul Arrow (4), +2 Bow Booster (11) 69 +1 Soul Arrow (5), +2 Bow Booster (13) 70 +1 Soul Arrow (6), +2 Bow Booster (15) Discussion: While Bow Booster and Soul Arrow do not end up being completely maxed out, both end up lasting close to 3 minutes. The only disadvantage here is that this is somewhat less than the amount of time they would last were they completely maxed. This does not disadvantage you in any way, since 3 minutes is a completely reasonable amount of time to re-cast a buff over. Please note that Mastery is brought to 20, not 19. Because the last point in Mastery only gives 1 point in accuracy, of which you already have more than enough, many guides say you should only bring mastery to 19. However, 20 Mastery is required for the 4th job skill Bow Expert, and it is better to spend the point now than sacrifice a point later on which could be going to powerful 3rd or 4th job skills. You could potentially spend a few more levels early on putting more points into Booster or Soul Arrow, since it is annoying to have to re-cast it so often (when you only have 5 and 2 points in each). However, be sure to do Final Attack as soon as possible, since it will only be truly useful until 70. ------------ --------------- ----------------- (0008) Third Job Discussion: As neither of us have actually played through most of the third job, we will not be posting a build for it. Our thoughts, however, are these: Strafe is an extremely useful skill! Strafe fires 4 arrows, and at 1 point each arrow does 71% damage and has a chance to critical. However, this damage increase by only 1% per shot per point, for a maximum of 100% damage per shot. This is a relatively recent change, and older builds may tell you to max strafe first or not to use strafe at only one point. This is because it used to be the case that a level 1 strafe did only 50% damage per shot. Now that strafe is considerably more powerful at just 1 point, the situation is different and this old advice is no longer valid. Arrow Rain/Eruption is also an extremely useful skill, and potentially much more powerful than Strafe. Arrow Rain/Eruption at one point will do only 60% damage per monster, and hit up to 6 monsters. The damage increases much faster and much more than that of strafe, however, and when maxed each shot will do 160% damage to up to 6 monsters. Because Arrow Rain/Eruption has no minimum range and can hit about half the map at once, it is very easy to hit 5 or 6 monsters at once, unlike Arrow Bomb and particularly Iron Arrow which require a considerable amount of maneuvering and only hit a small area, making it far more difficult to consistently hit large numbers of enemies. This means that you will do considerably more damage with Arrow Rain/Eruption than with strafe (160%x6 as opposed to 100%x4) if you train intelligently. There are two main party-quests available to you in your 70's and 80's, and these are Magatia PQ and Pirate PQ, both of which rely on clearing maps of large mobs, making Arrow Rain/Eruption the more useful skill in Pq'ing as well as training. 1 point in strafe is extremely powerful and will be more than sufficient for handling the bosses you will be encountering at these levels. Since both strafe and Arrow Rain/Eruption are extremely valuable at only 1 point, and 5 points in Mortal Blow are required to unlock Arrow Rain/Eruption, the first 3 levels or third-job should look like this: 70: +1 Strafe (1) 71: +3 Mortal Blow (3) 72: +2 Mortal Blow (5), +1 Arrow Rain/Eruption From here, it is best to max Arrow Rain/Eruption first, for the reasons discussed above. After that, Strafe should be maxed since this will be your primary single-enemy attack skill. Since puppet and Hawk/Eagle are also useful even at only a few points, you could potentially spend a few levels to get puppet to 6 and Hawk/Eagle to 3. After Arrow Rain/Eruption is maxed, the next skill to focus on is Strafe. After that, cater your skills to your playing style. One important note: The Sniper skill “Blizzard” does not critical! This makes it ineffective as a damage-dealing skill and thus should only be brought up to 21 points, since at 21 you will receive the maximum amount of freezing and there is only a 5% difference in damage between 21 and 30. However, Blizzard is very useful for Snipers at just one point due to it's ability to freeze and immobilize enemies. Thus, Snipers should put one point into Blizzard at 73, and then max Arrow Eruption and come back to Blizzard later. ------------ --------------- ----------------- (0009) fourth Job Notes: As neither of the authors are even close to this level, this section is still under construction. A few notes, however: Hurricane fires arrows approximately 50% faster than strafe, from what we have observed, and at the same strength. Sharp Eyes should be maxed first, no other skill even comes close to being as powerful. Sharp Eyes will increase every single one of your attacks by an average of 55% damage (+15% critical and +40% base damage), and this includes strafe and Arrow Rain/Eruption. It will also do this for every person in your party! Based on observations of the speed of hurricane and this math, Sharp Eyes will make you Strafe as powerful as a Hurricane without sharp eyes while simultaneously improving every other attack done by you or anyone in your party. Since Snipe requires a cool-down and Piercing Arrow need to be charged up to be used while retaining all the disadvantages of Iron Arrow, this skill is more effective than either of those as well. Skills like Phoenix/Frostprey, Snipe, and Dragon's Breath can be useful even at only 1 point, so one point should be put into these skills early on. ------------ --------------- ----------------- (0010)Mathematical Examples All example assume that Critical Shot has been maxed. Critical shot will add +100% damage to any attack, and will activate 40% of the time, resulting in an average damage of +40%. Arrow Blow: Base Damage = 260% Average Damage = 260% + 40% = 300% Maximum Damage = 260% + 100% = 360% Armor is applied only once. Maximum concentrated damage (one number) = 360% Double Shot: Base Damage = (130%)x2 = 260% Average Damage = (130% + 40%)x2 = 340% Maximum Damage = (130% + 100%)x2 = 460% Armor is applied twice. Maximum concentrated damage (one number) = 230% Final Attack: Base Damage = 250% Average Damage = 250% + 40% = 290% Maximum Damage = 250% + 100% = 350% Armor is applied only once. Maximum concentrated damage (one number) = 350% *note Final Attack fires considerably faster than an ordinary attack, and for purposes of comparison should therefore be considered as a 400%-450% attack of the same speed. Arrow Bomb Base Damage = 130% Average Damage = 170% Maximum Damage = 230% Maximum concentrated damage (one number) = 230% Hits up to 6 monsters, stuns 60% of the time. Average against 3 enemies = 510% Average against 6 enemies = 1020% Maximum against 6 enemies = 1380% Iron Arrow Base Damage = 180% Average Damage = 220% Maximum Damage = 280% Maximum concentrated damage (one number) = 280% Hits up to 6 monsters. Average against 3 enemies = 633% Average against 6 enemies = 1185% Maximum against 6 enemies = 1545% *note that damage decreases with each enemy, and only enemies in a straight line from the player will be hit! These numbers are based on a 9% decrease in damage for each enemy (according to StrategyWiki.org) Strafe (1 point) Base Damage = 71% x 4 = 284% Average Damage = (71% + 40%)x4 = 444% Maximum Damage = (71% + 100%)x4 = 684% Maximum concentrated damage (one number) = 171% Strafe (30 points) Base Damage = 100% x 4 = 400% Average Damage = (100% + 40%)x4 = 560% Maximum Damage = (100% + 100%)x4 = 800% Maximum concentrated damage (one number) = 200% Arrow Rain/Eruption (1 point) Base Damage = 60% Average Damage = 60% + 40%= 100% Maximum Damage = 60% + 100% = 160% Maximum concentrated damage (one number) = 160% Hits up to 6 monsters. Average against 3 enemies = 300% Average against 6 enemies = 600% Maximum against 6 enemies = 960% Arrow Rain/Eruption (30 points) Base Damage = 160% Average Damage = 160% + 40%= 200% Maximum Damage = 160% + 100% = 260% Maximum concentrated damage (one number) = 260% Hits up to 6 monsters. Average against 3 enemies = 600% Average against 6 enemies = 1200% Maximum against 6 enemies = 1560% *note that Arrow Rain/Eruption have no minimum range and can hit about half the screen at once, making it very easy to hit 6 enemies at once on many maps.