Comments from the Devs

[Lordender]

lol @ /ra spamming, god help us. This is exactly why I avoided ARC in the first place because I knew that SE would fail to bring the class up to a modern standard.

[Grey Jorildyn]

I actually think it works for Archer in this game. Call me crazy, but the ebb and flow of battles in a grind party is a good fit for the way Archer currently plays.

Example:
Pre-battle
Multishot, Multishot, Attack Buff (lightning bolt! lightning bolt!)
Open battle with Light Shot sawce

In Battle
Decoy up to absorb initial ranged attack (I block your spell, black wizard!)
Trifurcate, attack buff, fire
Chameleon
Go pull next mob

Until they change Multishot/Trifurcate mechanics, manual /ra spam does need to stay OR the other option is they change the attack buffs to only effect next action performed and not be wiped out by auto-attack.

[Corrderio]

Simple solution to Mulitshot and AA: Make it work on a charge system like Corsair's Quick Draw.

[Hyan]

I find it hard to believe that /ra spamming is the way for archer to maximize his damage output.

The basic attacks are still hardly meaningless as far as total DoT is concerned. Thus they generate a considerable amount of enmity, and if managing it will be of any importance in this game, not having AA gives them more control over their hate management.

[Spider-Dan]

Simple solution to Mulitshot and AA: Make it work on a charge system like Corsair's Quick Draw.

Agreed. The other solution would be to make Multishot nock 2 arrows instead of 1, but on a timer equivalent to the stamina cost of using Multishot twice (roughly 8 seconds). However, it seems like that would just make Trifurcate a redundant version of Multishot that consumes MP and has a ridiculous recast.

Frankly, I think the charge system is the best solution. If ARC cannot nock two arrows semi-instantly between fights, Multishot's value is greatly reduced.

[Sephiroth]

I think the strongest issue is that, if ranged attacks were automatic, if you were to engage a mob, you would immediately start attacking it without being able to buff yourself up and/or wait for party members like anyone else could.

Surely you will only start auto attacking a mob if A) You have that mob targeted and B) You hit your basic attack button. This goes for every class. It's how it worked in XI.

I actually think it works for Archer in this game. Call me crazy, but the ebb and flow of battles in a grind party is a good fit for the way Archer currently plays.

Example:
Pre-battle
Multishot, Multishot, Attack Buff (lightning bolt! lightning bolt!)
Open battle with Light Shot sawce

In Battle
Decoy up to absorb initial ranged attack (I block your spell, black wizard!)
Trifurcate, attack buff, fire
Chameleon
Go pull next mob

Until they change Multishot/Trifurcate mechanics, manual /ra spam does need to stay OR the other option is they change the attack buffs to only effect next action performed and not be wiped out by auto-attack.

I don't think the ARC class should be designed around the 3-4 weeks it takes to get to 50. What about the 7 months I've been 50? The class should be designed with longterm play in mind.

In any battle that counts you simply don't use Multi Shot after the initial engaging. A boss/NM fight might last 15 minutes but the only Multi Shot you use will be at the start. The stamina was always more than the cost of a basic attack and buffs were always best kept for weapon skills so it was bad DPS to spam Multi Shot like these rank 1 ARCs on the official forums think ARC is played.

Giving Multi Shot a timer won't fix that either. If it takes 12 seconds to knock 2 arrows vs you getting 3 basic attacks off in 9 seconds you still won't want to use Multi Shot other than when you engage. Again your buffs will be better used on WSs. If played right Multi Shot is a pre-engage move only. Most people can get TP at least every 30 seconds to use their Raging Strike with.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Not sure I agree entirely that it isn't an ok in-battle choice. More often than not, you're right, but there are exceptions to every rule. The fact that attack buffs effect every arrow fired by multi-shot is what makes it the exception imo. Barrage and Quick Nock damage are more limited by the availability of accuracy bonuses than recast timer on Raging Strike or Ferocity.

We really don't know what will become of multi-shot but if they don't change it significantly and then remove the stamina bar, the perfect counter to the point I'm making, there will be a problem.

[Sephiroth]

Even for other weapon skills that aren't multi hit, say Bloodletter, you're still better off using your buff with the WS. Well that assumes you aren't on the bottom of the battle regimen. If you are then yeah Multi Shot may be a little better, though I'd rather use the buffs for Trifurcate which is instant arrows. It's not often an ARC with a +2 or +3 crab bow will be on the bottom however, especially in current long fight situations where we can break a lot of body parts.

[Grey Jorildyn]

True that. Hawk's Eye is a determining factor too, not just the attack buffs. I've found multishot to have some pretty amazing damage in BRs and the weapon skills are stronger only near the top of a large stack. Accuracy can be really random though. My ARC is only 46 or 47 though so I've not spent a ton of time on it outside of grinding/leves. My experience with it comes from observing my linkshell's archers, some of which have hq3 crab bows. Just a +2 for me.

[Spider-Dan]

Surely you will only start auto attacking a mob if A) You have that mob targeted and B) You hit your basic attack button. This goes for every class. It's how it worked in XI.

No, it isn't. In XI, the "attack button" engages, at which point you will auto-attack until you disengage (or run out of range, or turn away).

Given that in this game, you have to be engaged to perform any action and you can't turn away from the enemy (because the game will turn you right back), any ranged job that has an attackable mob targeted and within range would immediately start attacking if they tried to execute any action (like, say, Multishot).

In fact, since you automatically target hostile enemies, I'm interested in seeing how the game handles an ARC trying to use Quickstride to run past a hostile mob. Will I turn around and start sprinting towards it after it attacks me?

Giving Multi Shot a timer won't fix that either.

Absolutely incorrect (though to be fair, I just realized this as I was reading your post). Even in the worst case scenario, where Multishot doesn't have Quick Draw-style charges and still only nocks one arrow at a time, there will now be no reason NOT to use Multishot every time the recast is up. Effectively, ARC would have Double Shot on whatever Multishot's recast is.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Multi-shot, as it's implemented right now, has some neat things you can do with it if they code some Traits for it. Also if they raised the amount of arrows you could nock based on your Archer rank, that would be nice too. Something like:

Rank 20 = 1 additional arrow
Rank 30 = 2 additional arrows
Rank 45 = 3 additional arrows

Furthermore, every additional arrow should have some kind of reduced accuracy as well. It only makes sense.

Here's a few Traits I made up with cheesy names:

Deft Hand - Occasionally nocks an additional arrow (base 20% proc rate, and some animation like your hand glows could activate when it occurs and logs say "You nock 2 arrows. [Total: 3]")

Steady Bow - When fired, additional nocked arrows have reduced accuracy penalty. (this is exactly how SE would word it because they love using two negatives terms to mean a positive. Think: Sentinel).

Relentless Volley - Additional nocked arrows receive increased damage with each successful hit. This damage increase resets with each miss. (damage +5% for each arrows that hits in succession, resets once one misses.)

I just think the ability in general has a lot going for it and also tons of room to improve its implementation without nerfing Archer.

[Spider-Dan]

I'm skeptical of any trait-based balancing of Multishot, though I'll admit it's based on my own speculation of the direction this game is headed.

I think that all the complaining about "lack of uniqueness" is going to eventually result in a version of this game where you get all of the innate abilities/traits of your class for free, and then you have a (much more limited) allotment of points with which to equip cross-class abilities/traits. If that happens, there would be no point in Multishot traits, as ARC would get them all for free and the other classes wouldn't be able to make use of them at all.

[Jamison]

Given that in this game, you have to be engaged to perform any action

There's no guarantee that being in active mode will equal engaging a mob. We'll have to wait to see how that works.

Edit:

I think that all the complaining about "lack of uniqueness" is going to eventually result in a version of this game where you get all of the innate abilities/traits of your class for free, and then you have a (much more limited) allotment of points with which to equip cross-class abilities/traits.

This makes the most sense to me.

[Cayos]

Nothing interesting, but w/e.

Just a heads up! We're looking into expanding the variations, as well as design-related elements, of the linkshell crests in the future.

Checked with the dev. team about displaying the time in-game (aside from the manual display method, of course). They said that if there is a major call for it to be added, they'll discuss its implementation. So... is there a huge desire for this?

We delivered your comments/suggestions regarding the loot colors in the chat log to the dev. team with the utmost care. They said that they're currently adding it to their lists of tasks and also let me know that they're planning to further enhance the chat color-related settings that players can control.

[miokomioko]

Checked with the dev. team about displaying the time in-game (aside from the manual display method, of course). They said that if there is a major call for it to be added, they'll discuss its implementation. So... is there a huge desire for this?

Do people not have clocks? What the hell.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Sure, but I still think the UI should show the time.

[Cichy]

Comment from Yoshida

I believe it is as you all have pointed out. You all have the right to choose.
Honestly, I think the amount of instanced dungeons and instanced raids are severely lacking in number. It's pretty much the same as taking the baton and running with it from an abnormal state of there being no quests at all. I'm not saying that I want you all to sympathize.

I believe it was necessary to have at least 4 instanced dungeons for leveling and about 3 raid dungeons for rank 50 players prepared at the time of launch. I think that in that case it would be natural that there would have been a choice of content depending on the player's needs, but currently that choice has not been made available to you all. However, as long as operation continues, taking the first steps toward change is necessary. While ideally we will be prepping the necessary numbers, compiling, and then implementing them, just as I have mentioned numerous times, the fact that it will take so long really sucks. I really want to hurry up and break through this state of nothing.

We will continue to implement raids and instanced dungeons from now on, so this is by no means the end. Raid dungeons are not the entire focus when it comes to upcoming content; I think it is just an all-inclusive term for something that should be present in numbers, so please don't think of the first installment of raid dungeons coming in 1.18 as simply a replacement for guildleves.

The reason why there are various limitations is due to the problems with instance occupation and content occupation. I have every intention of wanting to avoid making people wait in line for instances that are occupied by parties that do not meet the number of members or rank to be able to clear a dungeon.

Try playing it and if there are a lot of people saying they want to try the battles with smaller groups of people, it won't be too hard to ease up on dungeon-related requirements. I will be keeping an eye on everyone's comments and if necessary I will implement a mini-patch to ease up on the restrictions.

cool story bro

[miokomioko]

the UI should show the time.

This would be one of the worst possible uses of their time/resources right now.

[Grey Jorildyn]

It's not like it would take more than about 10minutes to create a widget, a default position for it, and the code to stream time off your PC. Get an damn intern to do it lol

[miokomioko]

obligatory:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Qa3-X5ema6...Tools_logo.png