Archer: the forbidden class?

[:::Trickster:::]

I see that many debate on which is the best way of combat in the Gothic games: the sword or the spell. This debate excludes the third option in the game: the path of archery. Hasn't anyone played with an archer, and by archer i mean a character that uses the bow as primar attack. Has anyone at least tried to play as an archer?

For me the archer path has always been tempting because of one thing: with the bow you either miss or hit, but when you hit you always hit critical, your dexterity is always added to the damage of the bow in a succesful hit; with the sword you can do that only after a lot of training, only when you reach 100% either in 1H or 2H combat. Another advantage would be range: at high level of bow skill the range would be so great that you could kill the monster before it even spots you! Now for the things which have made me not choose the archer path: less power-ups for dexterity, no bonuses on bow for the bow skill, limited and gold consuming arrows, and the most important difficulty of close combat situations (of course you can use hit'n'run but that would be time consuming and useless in narrow spaces).

Opinions are welcome here!

[Sowilo]

I never played archer but I heard that some claim that the archer is the easiest way if you know what to do. For example there are more goblin berries than dragon roots so you can brew more dex than strength potions.
Than they have the advantage than an enemy can't block against an arrow.
And for the melee combat there are a few but very good swords which requieres dex.
If you play an dex char (that means with bow) you have not much weapons to choose but the one which you have are quite good.

[rockfest]

Well I never played as an archer...i combined multiple classes but never played only archer...

Imo this class has been ignored by PB (in a smaller or bigger way)...the difficulty wich is too easy is one reason, too few weapons and a variety of moves with the bow or xbow very limited...

Perhaps in g3 we'll have a better chance of playing like a real archer. :)

[WernerTWC]

Of course i played as an archer, and it´s also a very cool (and stylish) way to play the game.


And for the melee combat there are a few but very good swords which requieres dex.

Yeah, but if you play as an archer, then using a sword doesn´t fit to the "image" of an archer (of course it´s sometimes necessary, because with a bow you cannot knock out somebody, and there are some situations when one maybe don´t wanna kill an enemy), but again the stylish thing: It´s looks (imo) better, if an archer don´t wear a sword (the same thing with
mages).

[Amalor]

Has anyone at least tried to play as an archer?Of course! I liked to play GI as an archer a lot. Because of that I decided to play as an archer the first times I played GII and GIINotR.

Now for the things which have made me not choose the archer path:> less power-ups for dexterity, no bonuses on bow for the bow skill
As Sowilo said, you can brew more dex potions than strength potions

>limited and gold consuming arrows
Well, at the beginning you have to look a little bit to have enough arrows. But at least from chapter 3 to the end of the game I have always 2000 or 3000 arrows in my Inventory :D and the costs for them didn't hurt me at all. (last time in GI I had 4500+ bolts or something like that)

>and the most important difficulty of close combat situations
You can (and should if you have to) fight with the bow in close combat too. As you said, you always do a critical hit. So I don't see the difficulty.

[MladjanDJ]

Never played just Archer always combined but with crowsbow.Dragomir's croswbow I always get it at the start of GII.

[Petyamester]

I think that is mine case:
My favorite class is archer. I played gothic 3 times with archer. I always said that archers are the easiest way beating Gothic2. Mainly against the dragons. They cannot damage me, and i kill them with 6-7 shots.

[Khaled]

I played gothic 3 times.
:) I first thought you typed G3..anyway..in G2 it's infernal to play with a bow at the beggining..you miss too much and there are few arrows..but it gets veery useful when you are at 70% with the training :D
In G1..it's the best way to cut yourself a path through the monsters..I for one defeated everyone in the sleepers temple with bow..EVERYONE.. including the orc shamans..
I hope in G3..if there will be an unknown faction(rangers it's supposed) there will be a class called archer(ranger)

[:::Trickster:::]

Well, at the beginning you have to look a little bit to have enough arrows. But at least from chapter 3 to the end of the game I have always 2000 or 3000 arrows in my Inventory :D and the costs for them didn't hurt me at all. (last time in GI I had 4500+ bolts or something like that)

Because I never ( :confused: ) considered using the bow I always sold bolts/arrows at the shop, so I didn't stack as many as you did in my inventory (but my purse was surely jingling with more coins than yours :p ). That's why I must have had the impression that I would run out of arrows if I used the bow.


For example there are more goblin berries than dragon roots so you can brew more dex than strength potions.
Until now I didn't know this but I looked on the herb maps and there are indeed 14 goblin berries, 5 more than dragon roots.

I also found a new advantage to using a bow looking on the monsters chart: the majority of monsters have less defense or non at all agains arrows (except of course the skeleton and golem family).

Thanks for the tips. The next time I play I'll try the archer and see what it can do.

[Godcrusher]

well i never played archer cause i like swords and magic lot better. Sure there are very nice bows and xbows but i always use them as the back support for sword or magic ;)

[_DieGo_]

Nice thread... i'm usually on the way of sword, but bows are very nice too. Maybe i repeat from the others, but i didn't play only with the bow/x-bow... Why? Because it seems too easy i think, i have a friend who play just with the running thingy(hit-run-hit-run..) and it's to easy, so i used the bow now and then, on that or this, eeh, you know what i want to say... :D As rockfest said maybe in g3 the archer will be more important... :)

[Petyamester]

:) I first thought you typed G3...
:D G2 - 3 times with archer and 3 + X times overall. (and X is bigger than 30)

If you are an archer it's important to learn dex potions (20 lp) because it gives you +45 dexterity. But drink them if you have more than 100, because it has more value then.

[Dez]

Its fun to play a real ranger character. I really dig old school ranger style (1-hanhded sword, bow, hunting skills, sneak, mercenary armor). However the fun stops here because one can't really aim with the bow in gothic. All the hits from bows or crossbows are calculated with simple dice rolls, which is not really fun for player in the long term.

Also the way arrows or bolts seem to behave in gothic is so far from the real thing that it isn't even funny. For instance If a scavenger runs past you and you keep shooting it. The arrows will do 180 degree turn in the air. Even the guns of today can't do that! I can't stress how dull it feels that you can't pick or even see the used arrows. They will just dissapear from the face of the earth. Where do they go? in the beliars realm?` :rolleyes: I'd so much like them to stick where they land.

I think piranhas should take a serious look at thief-series and see how cool the bow-combat can be.

[Petyamester]

Yes, but we can hope the physics in g3 will 1000x better than g2. Like if a scav runs to you, and you are shooting with all your strenght, and shoot through it's head, the scav would do a 360 degree spin backwards. That would look nice.

[suibhne]

Played G1 as an archer and found it really easy, tho near the end I just dumped all my unused points into STR and 2-handed. Ranged combat in G1 was was tough at the beginning (due to bow availability) but then extremely powerful for the middle 60% of the game; after that, tho, it didn't seem to do as much damage as straight swordplay, even with really high skills and attributes. (Especially against those bloody endgame sword-wielders...you know what I'm talking about.)

In NOTR, tho, I find archery much more difficult. Maybe it's just because I didn't adequately prioritize Dex from the beginning, but I found that bow damage always lagged way behind direct weapon damage. I finally gave up and went the STR route instead.

I'd love to see archery get its due, with special abilities like poisoned or flaming arrows. Ranged combat is inherently fun for some of us, but it's disappointing that raising your ranged skills only adds more accuracy and damage; it doesn't give you any new combos or combat possibilities, as with 1-handed and 2-handed. I really hope PB makes ranged combat cool in G3.

[Catarina]

I don't play a pure archer, I always combine sword and bow. I chase with the bow from greater distances (for example to weaken strong enemies) and do the last hit with the sword. Or bloodflies and dark mages ("Die Suchenden"? how they're called in english? The Searchers?! I mean the mages in the dark clothes throwing fire balls in the 3rd chapter of GII) are killed with the bow. I kill all enemies with the bow, that are a danger if i get too close, because they've fire or s.th. like that.

[MladjanDJ]

("Die Suchenden"? how they're called in english? The Searchers?! I mean the mages in the dark clothes throwing fire balls in the 3rd chapter of GII)
The Seekers

Yes, but we can hope the physics in g3 will 1000x better than g2. Like if a scav runs to you, and you are shooting with all your strenght, and shoot through it's head, the scav would do a 360 degree spin backwards.
We are talking about Gothic here G O T H I C not Matrix.
But that is a nice idea.

[Catarina]

@ MladjanDJ

Thanks! ;)

[Khaled]

let's just hope there will be a ranger faction..I would really like to be a ranger..and togheter with some companions lay an ambush on a dozen of orcs..you know..4 companions like the quest Greg gives you in NotR..flaming and poisoned arrows won't hurt..because a ranger really should be able to poison his arrows..:D

[kamykaze]

when i was playing g1 ... i wanted to become an archer ... like in the game Sacred ... and i can say that i made it ... i specialed on dextery and the box ... i ofen was playing with the swor ... one hand or two handed


in g3 it would be nice to exist a race or a camp where you can become an archer :D

[ss07ax]

It would be great to make some magic arrows as!
And I agreed with Khaled there should be diffrents types of arrows.

[kamykaze]

if i'm right .... in g1 & g2 ... was only normal arrows ... but it will be great if in g3 will be other types of arrow ... ( poisoned arrow , steel arrow , fire arrow * but not the magic fire arrow * )

[Corbo]

I always plays an archer. But maybe that makes the game too easy. Then you are only challenged when you meet arrow resistant beasties, like trolls, golems, skeletons.
For G1, you need nothing but a bow and a hammer.
The plus in G2 is that you can see arrows that miss, bouncing, falling. They do not follow the moving target as someone said they do. And you can recover some of the missed shots from the floor.
One improvement is to have the enemies react even when you miss. You can even, sometimes, hear an arrow bouncing on an armor, but the guy does not move until he has lost some HP.
Also, there were more enemies using them in G1 than in G2. They made bandits much tougher. In G2, only the lighthouse bandits were tough enough to approach.
No mage, no swordsman stands a chance in front of an archer.
One more problem in G2: the aim often locks far away targets instead of the closest ones. Like, a group of orcs charges you, the first one falls, and then you realise you are shooting at a meatbug 1 km away while the real menace is closing up...

[Ork_Hunter]

i have always played with archery as my 2nd or 3rd form of combat but never as my primary.

[adrian93]

I don't like archery in gothic because i don't have many arrows.

[Rune Maker]

I was thinking the same, but i've just started playing archer for the first time(what took me so long?) in G2 and i have 1500 arrows at any given moment in chapter2. It's really stylish, and with a higher percentage you can kill tough enemies before they reach you. Go for it, it's worth it!

[Ast3r]

I always played as an archer.Militia archer,Paladin archer,Mercenary archer,Dragon hunter archer.Always.