Archer's Guide to PvP

I DO NOT hold the credits for this guide once again... These are some results from some extended research through the Internet. Anyways, today's topic? Archers!! Enjoy!

PvP Tactics

Play smart. Keep in mind the following:
You are a RANGED attacker, so play accordingly. Don't try to tank or you'll get spanked. Stay off the front of a battle line (unless the enemy is retreating). Being at the front is an easy way to get Novad to death
In Lunar War (LW) and CZ (Colony Zone), many characters will be higher level and/or better equipped than you.

To earn np's, the #1 thing you must avoid is dying (duh!). If you are in a party, you get less than 50 np's per kill but you still lose 50 when you die. Run away bravely at the first sign of trouble. If you don't run early enough, you'll find gaining np's to be tough. Retreat until you find a cluster of blue dots (friendlies) to draw the heat away from you. Once you pass a group of blue dots, it is usually safe to turn around and attack again, because you can outrun anyone Swifted. Run away from any scumbag cheating archer using the Arrow Shower hack. Getting hit by AS hack is like having Spike spammed on you.

You should "probe" enemy players you've never seen before with Shadow Hunter: shoot them and check the damage to get an idea how strong they are. Make a mental note of those targets you can hit for a lot of damage. These are your np donors.

You should frequently press "z" to target the nearest enemy. If you don't see that enemy, stop running and hit "z" so you can get the direction to them.

To rack kills, be selective about targets. I look for targets in this order:
Mages (weak defense, tend to get pounded by everyone)
Battle priests (weakest defense, but be careful or they'll duff you, and they hit harder and faster than mages)
Rogues
Non-battle priests
Warriors

Mages often have a warrior or two in front of them acting as meat shields so you may have to target mages manually.

Stay out of LW and CZ until you hit level 60. At level 60, you:
get the awesome skill Shadow Hunter (SH). SH always hits for 250% damage unless you contact something in between, like another player or terrain. Without SH you will miss a lot. Most of the other archer skills (aside from SH and AS) are not effective in PvP. The DOT (damage-over-time) skills don't do much damage, esp compared to mage DOT skills, and they have a slow casting time.

You can do the master quest. The master quest will probably cost you an arm and a leg, but it's worth it. It boosts your attack permanently by about 6.75%. For me the attack boost was 85, which is like having +21 dex. In addition, when your hit points are low, you'll automatically redball, which raises your resistances by 50.

Arrow Shower is a great skill for PvP in the right situation. It is tough to land all 5 arrows unless your target is stationary and you get right next to them. Use it on stunned or screamed targets, priests who are healing, mages who are casting, and melees who use standing combo.

Use Light Feet (LF) instead of Swift. With LF you can get out of a bad situation in a hurry, or close on someone trying to run away bravely. You can outrun everyone except other LF'd rogues. If you insist on using Swift you will be an NP donor.

Constantly keep Lupine Eyes (LE) up. With LE you and your party can see Stealth'd rogues. One thing about LE is that only the rogue who cast it gets the icon. But the rest of the party does get its effect. If another rogue in your party already has LE up, you will not be able to cast it.

Don't underestimate the value of Minor Heal (MH). A well-known sin named 0000000 says that MH is the best PvP skill in the game. A skilled rogue can make himself very difficult to kill with MH.

If you are in a party, make sure everyone has Swift. It is your #1 responsibility. An unswifted player is a sitting duck.

Carry cure curse potions (I usually lug 6 around) so you can cure debuffs. They are heavy (15 pounds) but well worth it. If you see a party member duffed (purple bar) or slowed (green bar), in particular a melee engaged in combat, stop attacking a cure the player ASAP, or they'll get run over.

Don't bother lugging Styx around. Most targets you Styx will either town or run away. The best uses I've found: Styxing an attacker who is close to killing a party member, or Styxing a 1920 healer so your party can finish off the healer's party.

Use your arrows to keep Nova mages at a distance. Novas can quickly decimate a party
To get on a level playing field, you'll need have a 1200 or 1500 buffer or use scrolls. Many people use scrolls (+1500 hp, +300 def, +attack) so that they are not vulnerable to buffs and Strength of Wolf running out. To save KC I usually only use the +1500 hp and +300 def and cast SoW when I don't have a buffer
I left this for last because some people will have an issue with this: protect your np's with /town. Why? If you spend any time in CZ you will realize:
if you are facing a cheater (e.g. arrow shower hacker), the odds are heavily against you, and you're better off towning
there will always be players who are much higher level and/or better equipped.

PvP FAQ

What is the minimum equipment (bow, armor) I need for PvP?

What I recommend:
+7/70 iron bow (ap 119)
+6 chitin bow (ap 111)
+6 enion bow (ap 111)
+7/70 iron xbow (ap 110)
+8/80 horn xbow (ap 109)

goblin pauldron for the 16/16/16 resistances
paper archers: +7/12 plate pads, helm, boots, and gauntlets. Or +8/15 half-plate. I'd go with +8/15 half-plate, as you'd get 12 more dex at a cost of 13 defense. If you're paper, your defense is going to suck anyway.

82 hp archers: +7/12 full plate pads, helm, boots, and gauntlets. Get +6/10 or +7/12 chitin gauntlets if you can

90 hp archers: +6/10 chitin pads, helm, boots, and gauntlets. Get +7/12 chitin if you can. You can also wear shell helm, boots, and gauntlets, but you don't bother unless they are +6/10

The most important item is your bow. Focus on getting a good bow over armor.

Do I need a dagger defense helm?
No.

For the non-archer classes, dagger defense is highly recommended. But as an archer, you have the advantage of ranged attack, LF, and MH. If a sin is giving you trouble, spam MH and 720s, and LF until you reach a pack of blue dots. I've noticed that 80% of the time, if I pass another non-rogue character of the same race, the sin will switch to target that other character. Why? Fleeing rogues are a pain to finish off. And any experienced sin fighting you will know this. And if you use a dagger defense helm, you'll be giving up, say, +12 dex, which is about 48+ attack with master. If you're getting spanked by sins, you're probably not making good use of your bow's range.

Which potions should I use?

Don't use anything less than 720 hp pots. The 360 hp pots won't cut it. The 960 mp pots should work fine, and they are much less expensive compared to soul pots. I generally carry 30 720's, 60 960 mp pots, 5 cure curse pots, and 20 blood of wolf.

Best Uniques

Below are the uniques I recommend for archers. You'll notice that I left out Iron Necklace and Iron Belt. Those are awesome for sins, but archers should focus on attack over defense as they have ranged attack

Ring of Life: one of THE most expensive uniques in the game.
+0: Dexterity: 7, Health: 7, Defense: 50, HP:50, MP:50, Lightning Resistance: 20, Poison Resistance: 30
+1: Dexterity: 10, Health: 10, Defense: 54, HP:75, MP:75, Lightning Resistance: 22, Poison Resistance: 32

Amulet of Dexterity: the dex boost is incredible
+0: Dexterity: 15, MP:50
+1: Dexterity: 20, MP:75, Defense: 2

Elf Belt: the dodge boost will help prevent you from getting Leg Cut and Scream'd
+0: Dexterity: 10, Defense: 30, Dodge Rate: 20%, Attack Ratio: 20%
+1: Dexterity: 15, Defense: 32, Dodge Rate: 22%, Attack Ratio: 22%

Kekuri Ring: best-value rogue unique, by far. The resistances are awesome for CZ
+0: Dexterity: 8, Flame Resistance: 15, Ice Resistance: 15, Lightning Resistance: 15
+1: Dexterity: 10, Flame Resistance: 16, Ice Resistance: 16, Lightning Resistance: 16, Defense: 2



ADD:



Dont go Cz until youre lvl 65 at least ( 10% decrease on all the dmg received), anything below that is a 2 hit kill to any other class (when buffed, if not youre a one hit kill).

Always carry weapon defenses, not wearing them, but in youre inventory. Having dd and sd whit you is a saving life thing, you wotn be able to always run, ppl there got scream and ice too, so youll need youre defense.

If you see a warrior redball...just atack another class, warrior redball is about 3k hp, so you pretty much got no chances of getting the kill.

ALWAYS carry styx on you, well at least when u on party, styxs tends to mess up the priests (not much ppl use styx so priest not habituated to counter it), that will give youre party the advantage.

Since youre talking about CZ archer paper and fp are not an option, minimun equipment is chitin or shell, you need to boost youre ac, if you got low defense you got no chances of runing away on cz..youll be death before u can say lightfeet.

The real minimum pk bow is Iron bow +7... anything below that wont work.

on my opinion this the way bows go...

Eagle Eyes +8 > Helenid +8 > EIB or IB +8 > Helenid +7 or Eagle Eyes +7 > Horn Cross Bow +9 > Chitin or Enion at +7 > Iron bow +7.

Prices are higher on uniques bows, so for a decent price you can get hxb+9, which has 122 ap and can be used whit wes.

Is useless to go pk whit armor below +7, +6 wont give you enough ac or dex.

This thing u didnt put and i think is really important, Make a +7 str paper set, this will help you carry styxs and pots while pk.

When you see a party of mages use magic shield first, then atack them, if they nova like crazy u will get chances to survive this way, otherwise u pretty much death.

And finally...the jewerly...

Well of course rol is always an option, but it is simply too expensive ill put a list of jewerly that are gg for archers xD

Rings

Elf rings +1/+2 ( ubber dex, magic resistance, cheaper than most earrings)
Kek rings +2/+3 ( decent dex, great resistances)
Rol +0/+1 ( expensive like hell, great bonus, low dex for an archer tought)
Legionary Band +0/+1( Rol price, rol like bonus, but better resistances)
Rom +0 ( good to combine whit elf or kek to boost a lil ure ac and hp, cheaper than rol or roc)

Pendants

Ammy of dex +0/+1/+2 Great dex, cheap price.
PP +1/+2 5 less dex than ammy of dex, far better bonus, lil more expensive ( the best choice for an archer)
BDK +1/+2 A cheap choice, cheaper than the other two..but worst too.
WP +0/+1 More expensive, less dex but higher chance of survival.

Belts

Youre an archer...you just need elf belt xD

Earrings

Silver earrings are the best unique option, EMEs are expensive and got low dex, dex +9 earrings are a good way to start.