Skill Archery

The skill that governs the use of bow-type ranged weapons. Archery provides Warriors and Rogues with a Ranged Attack skill to safely pull enemies, gives Shadow Knights and Paladins an alternative with longer range and free of mana, and is specialized by Rangers for kiting, pulling, and situational DPS in raids and groups.

Classes

• Ranger (Max 240?)
• Warrior (Max 240)
• Rogue (Max 240)
• Shadow Knight (Max 75)
• Paladin (Max 75)

Brief Overview

On P99 Archery damage is affected by STR. However there is debate if this is a bug.[1]

Archery damage depends on DEX the SAME way melee attack damage depends on STR. STR has no effect on archery damage. (On p99 this is currently not true. STR operates the same for archery and melee weapons.)

ATK has exactly the same importance for archery that it has for melee.

However, str doesn't change archery atk, only dex does.

REMINDER : the ATK value shown in EQ is the MAIN HAND MELEE ATK only, and does not apply to offhand nor to archery. off hand and archery atk are calculated the same way that main hand atk is calculated, but use their own values for skill ( slashing/piercing/archery) and for stat ( str used also for off hand, but dex for archery).

Items that increase ATK do influence archery ATK

Dex affects critical hit rate for archery.

Procs and critical hits are based on dex for both melee and archery.

Critical hit rates for archery on war and rngs = critical hit rates on melee for war (Rangers Archery Crit Hit at Level 17+)

• You can critical as a ranger starting at level 12, not 17.

Haste affects bow delay the same way it effects melee.

But archery uses one more kind of haste, stacking with the others : quiver haste (QH). It follows the same rules than all the other kinds of haste : only the best QH is used if more than one apply. To have a QH, you just need to have a Weight Reducing quiver in your inventory.

QH = WR of the quiver / 3. Quiver haste (and their weight reduction) activate with the release of Scars of Velious expansion.

Archery uses the primary hand damage bonus (so greater damage bonus if a two handed weapon is equipped).

Damage Calculation

The base damage on a bow works a bit differently than on a melee weapon. Whereas a melee weapon's base damage (before strength, skill, or level are factored in) is (DMG*2+1), for archery, the base damage is Bow DMG + Arrow DMG). In other words, a 20 damage bow firing 2 damage arrows has a base damage of 22.

Range

Bow range does not cap at 300. Testing was done both with duel and outranging dragon fear to verify that a 200 range bow with 150 range arrows does have a range of 350. This was precisely determined to be correct in the duel test (range exactly 350), and anecdotally determined to be true due to ranging dragon fear against Faydedar in the PvE test.

Note that this is particularly helpful because Dragon_Roar has a PBAoE range of 300, which allows for a character to stand outside fear range and DPS with careful positioning.

Additional note on Hitboxes. NPC Hitboxes most likely add to the range you can shoot them at. Here is a screenshot of me shooting Karkona with a 300 range bow/arrow combo from 330 range (from approximate center of dragon). My initial interpretation was that this meant that the Z-axis component did not apply (I shot her from the cliff overlooking her area). This was part of an investigation into the feasibility of ranged DPSing Klandicar from the top of the cliff to avoid dragon fear and AOE. This was an incorrect conclusion, however, as additional testing attempting to shoot a Bulthar from the top of the Cobalt Scar tower demonstrated. Z-axis distance -does- apply to archery range. Further investigation revealed that the hitbox on the dragon was likely the cause for the additional distance, as the range is computed to hitbox edge, not Mob location, and dragons have very large hitboxes.

Trueshot and Ranger DPS

Rangers can pull respectable DPS with a good bow and the Trueshot Discipline. This is especially true in cases where there is some mechanic, such as a poor hitbox or AOE, which makes it difficult for melee to stay consistently engaged.

Rangers get innate double damage against non-rooted, stationary MOBs starting at level 51. This effectively offsets the fact that archery damage does not double the attack power like melee damage. A Ranger using an Exquisite_Velium_Reinforced_Bow and CLASS_2_Steel_Silver_Tip_Arrow is effectively using a 38/36 two hander with 340 range, without damage bonus or double attack. That is still not very good DPS, but the Trueshot discipline slightly more than doubles Ranger bow damage for 2 minutes. With that added, it becomes approximately equivalent to a 38/36 two hander that always double attacks, can crit and doesn't have a damage bonus. That ends up being competitive DPS, though usually still behind a well geared rogue if the rogue dps is not disrupted by fight mechanics.

Example: Fight vs. Queen Bee in Sky

This was a particularly messy Queen Bee fight with a bad tank swap off of death touch. The dps (including myself -- Jayya, 59 Rogue at the time) had trouble staying behind her and in a position that could hit her bad hitbox due to movement (also, IIRC I instantly died when she flipped during enrage). Salal, however, Trueshot from outside melee with Exquisite Velium/6 Damage arrow combo, and was able to do consistent DPS over the course of the fight while she was running around murdering people.

Removed the names of the other people involved:

Skills