I asked this question a long time ago, in 2016. At this time, summoner, samurai and bard didnt exist. I want to see some replies and see how everyone ranks the characters in this game overall. Heres mine to start;
(these are all subjective, buff archer and buff assassin, sorc needs an end game scepter)
This ones easy
Objectively and subjectively the worst class in the game. For reasoning look no further than your ranking of the archer.
In terms of overall effectiveness in end-game content (damage contribution, buffs, support, survivability, and mobility are all factors):
In my personal opinion,
that bow classes, especially archer and huntress, are shit
though warmonger is op so it’s not true anymore
I know and I hate it. I hate that sword classes have been meta for like 5 years now, I hate that bows have been utterly fucking useless for way too long.
I hate that every weapon type got an O3 set with a weapon and armour that are incredibly good and a ring that is at least usable if not excellent, all are either BiS or competitive for it and we got Angel Bard.
It’s ST and therefore isn’t forgeable. The armour and ring are absolute dogshit on their own because the whole set is meant to play around the synergies with the lute, which is nice when you’re playing Bard and terrible on the other two bow classes considering they don’t have lutes and can’t wear robes anyway, though that’s a moot point.
Every other O3 set is usable on the majority of the classes that use that weapon even if the whole set isn’t for their class specifically.
Tiered quivers and traps are so laughably useless late game, it’s sad. I’ll focus on quiver since I play more Archer than Huntress. It does shit all for damage cause it’s value is in the paralysis, which has no fucking point when everything worth using it on is immune to it. It’s a projectile to boot too, which means I can miss it, unlike AoE buffs or Autotarget/Instantcast abilities. What do I get for hitting it? Nothing, ~270 damage and “Immune”.
Of course, then there’s Aether Orb, I don’t know who the fuck thought it would be okay for a single midgame UT to completely outclass both of these bow classes cause it does what they do better, faster, longer, cheaper and more reliably.
I will say that Javelin and QoS are really nice but I don’t want to be reliant on difficult to get or limited items for my class to be able to stand on the same level as other classes that can use tiered abilities because they have an actual reason to carry one. Though I guess being reliant on UT’s has been the curse of bow classes since the game was released.
Yay! Warmonger is finally out! Just, you know, 14 months after all the other endgame items. While it does solve the weapon problem to a degree (not to mention I have to learn new Shatters now but that’s a personal point, my own skill/lack thereof has no bearing on this problem). It does nothing for abilities and Archer/Huntress are left carrying not the best or most useful ability but the least worst.
I will continue to play bow classes because I love their thematic feel, their gameplay and the concept in general (as well as their UT’s). All the elitist raid leaders that bitch about having an Archer instead of a Wizard can go fuck themselves as far as I’m concerned.
Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.
/rant
It is no wonder that all sword classes are quite difficult to get to top 1k on.
As someone who enjoys bow classes, I strongly disagree.
I don’t understand this part…
You just reminded me that only bow classes does not have 8% xp bow from O3 before we have Warmonger (seriously why only this 8%).
A possible way to compensate would be if an enemy is immune to mobility-hindering debuff and took damage from a tiered Quiver/Trap, takes 50% more damage?
Might as well nerf it and give 7% xp bonus to compensate…
You are so right about QoS (Javalin is meh to me) and reliant on UT’s. I had fun on my Archer because of that white bag. Without it, he’s meh IMO (still gud for full clearing GLand dungeons though).
Except I will never recover from this… Dying with my 1st QoS 3 days later after getting it b/c of ping lag when I tried to TP to WLab TRoom.
Aside from that, I think Archer need more UT’s somefing similar to QoS (not Bee(hemoth) Quiver though). Something like spread shots similar to the respective 2 UT’s (3-4 shots and deal 300-400 raw damage). Or even holding the ability space bar for the ability to charge up and inflict massive damage.
Warmonger ain’t that gud though. Getting to IC = there goes your DPS…
There is where the DPS meta came from…
To clarify this a little further:
Katanas got the Beisa set.
Enforcer is easily BiS katana.
Shielding is good on most leather classes (especially Ninja with Ballistic and Huntress with Lotus) but in general you can rely on having a paladin buff in most later game content.
Banner is decent swapout.
Staves got Dammah set.
Superior is excellent swapout and BiS up to 50 def.
Genesis BiS spell, rivaled only by Tablet and potentially Parasite Spell.
Diplomatic is one of the best robes in the game, its only real competition is Vesture.
Cranium is a serviceable ring on most swords/daggers/katanas and can be used on longer ranged classes as well.
Daggers got Gemsbok set.
Avarice is BiS dagger.
Coin is one of the best decoy prisms in the game.
Turncoat is situational but not bad, usable on most leather classes.
Monocle is uniquely good on invisible classes, so ghost rum, crystallized mist, turncoat or Rogue. Even without the invis effect proc, it’s still a solid ring on most classes.
Wands got Leucoryx set.
Lumiaire is easily BiS wand.
Scripture BiS damage tome.
Vesture is BiS robe, only real competition being Diplomatic.
Coronation is one of the best rings in the game.
Swords got Oryx set
Divinity is one of two best swords in game, closest competition being Colo.
Escutcheon is BiS damage shield and also a usable stun shield.
Glad Guard BiS heavy armour.
Horn doesn’t even need to be explained, easily one of the best rings in the game.
Bows got Angel Bard ST
Harp is actually decent, but also only 5% fame bonus (all the other weapons are 8%).
Lute is good if you have rest of set equipped but that restricts this to only Bard.
Robe and Ring are pretty terrible standalone, especially compared to the rest of the stuff that drops here, they really only exist to enable the lute, which only the Bard can use.
Continuing on the previous point:
Weapons
both Katanas can use Enforcer just fine, all the Swords, Staves, Wands and Daggers can use their respective weapons with relative ease and also get the 8% fame bonus, not to mention every single one of them is forgeable.
Harp is the outlier here, it is ST (not forgeable), 5% fame bonus and only outdamages Void until 35 def. My point being that it gets outclassed by the previous BiS weapon in nearly all endgame content where target is not armour broken. Whereas all the others outclass their predecessors or at least compete.
Abilities
All the abilities are good. Coin is amazing, Genesis is really good, Star is solid, Scripture is good and Escutcheon is nuts. Lute is solid too.
Difference here is, Lute requires you to wear the rest of the set to get good use out of it, it’s somewhat mediocre otherwise. The other abilities are good stand alone and don’t need you to necessarily sacrifice your armour and ring slot to get really good use out of them.
Armour
Every class that can wear Glad Guard, does wear Glad Guard, it’s just that good. Same thing for Diplomatic and Vesture, both robes are really good on their own.
Shielding and Turncoat however are situational. Turncoat has a useful defensive effect and is a solid defensive armour overall but that isn’t what raids are looking for nowadays, regardless it’s pretty good IMO. Shielding while good, forces you to rely on other classes to get the full value of the armours effect unless you happen to be Huntress with Lotus or Ninja with Ballistic. This isn’t always reliable.
The ST robe is absolute garbage on it’s own, the only real reason to use it is to add the extra effect to the Lute, which only matters if you’re playing Bard.
Rings
Coronation and Horn are amazing and get used pretty much everywhere, they are both amazing.
Cranium and Monocle are a little more class specific, they are not usable on every class but tend to be pretty good on the classes that can make use of them.
Banner is not an amazing main ring but is a very good swapout and tends to be carried by some players that like using swapouts.
The ST ring is absolute garbage on it’s own, the only real reason to use it is to add the extra effect to the Lute, which only matters if you’re playing Bard.
Conclusion
My point overall is that I feel like bows got shafted in the O3 update. We make use of what we can from poaching it from the other sets but none of them feel like a perfect fit (except maybe Horn on Archer, can’t use mana that well anyway, what am I gonna do, spend it on an ability that does something? so combination of defense and offense stats is really nice). I hope that sort of got my point across.
You’re right, and I can see the logic behind the DPS meta, group tank meta got nerfed with tomes/puri nerfs. Status effect meta hasn’t been a thing since everything worth using a status effect on is immune to it, damage increasing effects notwithstanding.
So the safest way to finish content is to kill it quickly. The less time it spends in a phase, or alive in general, the less it shoots. I just wish all the classes got to participate in the DPS meta somewhat without feeling completely outclassed, whether that be through bringing damage, like Warr, Wiz or Ninja or utility like Trix, Mystic, Samurai, etc.
If they do balance each weapon class around having an offense class, defense class and utility class. Why not cement either Archer or Huntress as the defense class and recalibrate the other one to pure offense while letting Bard be the utility or if you consider Bard defense, then recalibrate one of the other bows as utility and one as offense instead of trying to squeeze both into the same niche and then outclassing them both elsewhere anyway.
Now I understood.
Post-nerfed Enforcer is still one of the best DPS katana but with more drawbacks than before (no piercing, shorter true range and noticable arc gap increase). I heard ppl don’t want Enforcer getting nerfed saying that:
Don’t forget, it does have the highest consistent DPS boost (with the portal proc) unless you got Weakened. I can create a list of consistent DPS build for robe classes if you want to see it.
Not consistent (with the insignificant +3 Dex boost) but I say it does give the same amount of surviability stats as UBHP and if you are willing to abuse the proc.
Monacle is good for classes that are hungry of Attack (namely Dagger classes, Summoner, possibly Knight/Pally and Bard).
Vesture sac(rifice)s DPS boost consistency for a noticable increased DPS (to the point it outcompetes Diplo). What do I mean by this? You lose that +15 Attack boost during Celestial or getting Quieted.
It indeed does have the highest DPS out of all wands except it is hard to land all your shots in.
Ah yes, one of my favorite too. A mix of consistent Lethality aka DPS, Utility and Survivability especially post buff. Like I can put it on any classes, even on Rogue (despite of appreciating more Attack boost than Dex).
It is rather a massive upgrade from Indomptable (despite of less damage per shot): higher firerate and Exalted Beam that pierces Armor and scales with Damaging. Colo is more of consistent damage (SS whites gets 8% xp bonus when).
At least it doesn’t completely outcompetes tiered ones…
GGuard itself outcompetes all armors, even MBane and Anni Armor. I have a feeling that Deca might nerf it eventually (just like Enforcer). It’s not the DPS boost that made it OP, it’s the +10 Defence AND +7 Speed is the whole reason why ppl want it.
Now that’s where my Coronation vs Horn argument came from. It indeed gives more DPS than Coronation, only if you are above 90% HP by good dodging (even so, you can’t keep that +10 Dex active all the time).
The issue is the DPS difference from those 2 are rather insignificant yet sac’ing DPS consistency entirely just for 2 more Dex than Coronation. Though it does give the most survivability stats as same as Deca.
Mana is only gud on Archer if you are spamming QoS or try to perma-debuff.
Actually, all classes have their 4/4 (or 3/3 on certain classes) sets, meaning they can do their DPS.
