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BOW GUIDE:
First, we need to establish what build we use, and then the skills we use. Bows are STRENGTH based weapons, therefore are more suitable to STR based builds. Apart from that, bows are ranged weapons and nukes would get useless because of that. I would suggest a pure strength build, or a 90% STR build. Bows get great criticals, and strength based characters crit very well. Hybrid bows suck, and pure int bows die in PVP in a matter of seconds. Bows level quickly (although not as fast as nukers) and do pretty well in PvP. I always own pure ints of my level. STR Blades and Glavies should generally beat you in PvP. Bows are fun to use and useful while playing jobs.
As for the equipment, there are three choices: armor, protector or garment. Pure str chars have very good physical defence but very weak magical defence. Having armor means godlike physical protection, but magical attacks will hit very hard (Taoists, Gunpowders, Spiders etc.) With protector you get good physical protection and a certain degree of magical protection. In addition to that you will move 10% faster and use up 10% less mana then you would use when wearing armor.. Further will be explained when presenting the skills. If you wear garment, you have relatively good physical protection (due to your STR Build) and good magical protection. Garments are good for any STR build. With garment, you move 20% faster, and use up 20% less mana. Because pure STR chars have little MP, i would recommend either garment or protector. Both are good. If you go with protector, by training these skills: Frost Guard + Cold Passive + Fire Protection you will have exceptionally good defences, but your grinding time is increased by 10% compared to garments. The choice between garment and protector is yours. It is good to look for STR and INT increasing equipment. It costs a bit, but definitely pays off. In PvP, the difference is very often made by the equipment worn. You need bows with high critical, anything that is above 10 critical is good. In this sense, quoting Hellsharpt, it’s great to buy bows in advance. It’s very frustrating to hit lvl 32, for example, and not have a good bow. Any SoS bow is great. Having a SOS item is like having the same item +5 (in the stats). SoM means roughly +10 and SoSun +15 Usually SOM or SOSun bows are very overpriced and to have one requires tons of money or tons of luck.
As for the skills, i will make a presentation of each tree you are interested in.
I will comment on each one of the skills for your main trees (Pacheon and Fire).
Pacheon:
Anti-Devil Bow: maxed out. It has a great crit bonus and relatively short casting time. It’s one of the essential components of your build.
Multi-arrow skills: are great to use after Anti-Devil and should also be maxed out.
Hawk training: I think you should get the white and blue hawk. They add a bonus to the attack rating. Black hawks are useless, because they only do physical damage. The
damage dealt is insegnifficant.
Autumn wind series: Are pretty much useless. Don’t get them.
Break heaven arrow series: These skills increase your attacking range. If you like, and have enough SP, you can get them, but it is not necessary.
I would suggest choosing one of Explosion Arrow and Strong Bow. If you SP farm a little, you can get both. Explosion arrow is better at higher levels, but Strong Bow is good right from the start. It only has one drawback: a very long pre-shot delay. Strong Bow is excellent when zerking and fighting giants/uniques, because it deals great damage.
As for the force to use, there is always a big debate, between fire and ice. I believe fire is necessary for any strength build, due to the physical attack buffs it has. Apart from that, fire imbue has the biggest damage of all. However, nothing is more annoying in PvP then the freeze effect of the cold imbue. At the level cap most players are ice immune, due to fire shield + jewelry. At lvl 70, if using ice, you are left with a force that does little damage and virtually no status effect in PvP. Therefore, if you plan to play to the later levels, choose fire. Ice imbue is more fun, but less effective. I will only present the skills needed for the fire-based build.
Cold force:
Frost guard :great physical protection buff, excellent when maxed out.
Frost nova: Great skill to escape when surrounded by mobs, also good to freeze opponent in PvP, then ghost walk. The skill is more for fun, and you can scrap it without a worry. At lower levels I had it (the second book) and it was annoying for the guys I PvP with. At later levels it’s ineffective.
Cold armor: Good physical defence boost; maxed out, Frost Guard+Passive = + 97 physical defence, which is not to be neglected.
Lightning force:
Piercing force: Is more beneficial to INT based builds, but can help for a STR build to. Not mandatory, but sometimes useful. (at mastery lv 52 piercing force offers a bonus in magical damage of 13%)
Grass walk series + Ghost walk: This is very useful, you must get it. It provides more speed, therefore reduces your grinding time. Ghost walk is also useful in some situations. Particularily for archers, ghost walk can help to get away from an opponent and have more time to use, for example a strong bow or anti-devil bow skill. An archer should try to kill things before they reach him.
Fire force:
Fire force series: Elemental imbue with great damage, Damage over time status effect. People argue between ice and fire imbue. In the time cold imbue slows a mob down, fire imbue kills it. I’ve had both with my archer, and fire turned out to be much better.
Fire shield series -only good for blade and sword users- so useless for you
Flame body series: Good physical attack buff, combined with passive skill.
Fire protection series: Magical defence buff, if you went with protector, take it, if you wear garment, it’s not necessary, but it helps.
Fire wall: useless skill, don’t get it.
Flame wave: Fire nuke, only useful to int users, so don’t get it.
Flame devil force: passive skill, physical attack boost, very useful when maxed. Together with maxed flame body: + 13% physical attack.
You should be aiming for the following mastery levels: 70 Pacheon, 70 Fire, 68 Ice, 52 Lightning.
You need lvl 70 Pacheon and Fire, I would say lvl 68 in Ice, for the Might Guard of Ice, and lvl 52 in Lightning, for the third book of the grass walk series. If you SP farm a little, it should be very easy. Alternatively, you can drop ice completely, but if you SP farm a little, it doesn't hurt to have those physical defence buffs. This expresses my personal opinion, and you might disagree with it, this is why I’m open to suggestions. Please come up with suggestions about what to change/add. ty in advance
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Buy a cheapo shield; put it in your quick bar right before fire shield and your bow.