archery is rigged at the moment, you need high tier crafted items to do reasonable damage

I started with an archer too, it was pretty stupid when with 3:1 archer to sword skill ratio, my practice sword was still doing more damage

I would suggest you get druid magic and level with that until you can craft yourself good bows and arrows

or make another guy to make your good bows and arrows...otherwise archery takes tons of patience and jealousy at the higher versatility and damage of melees and mages before you can start keeping up with them

I'm not posting is this thread, because every starting archer seems to start a new thread, there are dozens, if not more threads about archery (almost a book I'm sure).
So I'm not posting here..
...wait i did, darn it!
Whatever, if u need anything, Sin-Jin is tha man, ask him <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
If u can catch me ingame, I can help you too.

Wow, no shortage of responses.

I wasn't trying to start "yet another archery thread" but was mainly confused about the damage numbers with respect to my skill levels and weapon damage. However, all the advice is helpful. I tend to pick the odd paths in games like this (my other char right now is an Etherialist).

Again, thanks all, always nice to have a friendly, helpful community.

etheralists kick ass

I'm not quite the expert in archery, but I have gathered a lot of info about it, so I'll tell you what I know

-dex doesn't actually increase damage that much, if at all (if it's so little that it's questionable, that's pretty miniscule =P)
-the damage multiplier isn't working properly
-your damage cap is SUPPOSED to be "Ranged damage multiplier cap: 1 + skill/100", but like I said, it doesn't seem to be working properly...
-from what I gather, your archery level also limits how effectively you can use the arrow, kinda like melees (for melees, their damage is capped if their weapon skill is lower than the total attack on the weapon)
-wood is expensive...very very expensive, especially t6 arrows
-since you're pretty much limited to almost pure bp damage, mobs with good thrust resistance or no blood will give you tons of trouble
-one of these such mobs is the principle and only supplier of t5 and t6 wood =(
-you MUST train fletching like no tomorrow to be a good archer (it autolevels, so only get 1 level of it)
-don't make any arrows besides the basic one and the most basic chopping one (for bad, but existant hp damage), personally though, I'd always use only the bp arrows and use druid magic for hp damage
-druidic is almost a must have suppport school
-unconfirmed and questionable, a quote I don't remember who started first..."chicks dig bows"

and that's all I know, now wait for the expert who's name I can't remember to post =P

Actually, this is a statistically proven phenomenon. I work as a senior statistical consultant for a major market research firm, please don't make me share the data. Just suffice it to say that the statement is overwhelming supported through extensive quantitative analysis. It is also supported by a plethora of open ended subjective data and pure anecdotal evidence. I am now working to quantify the cause of the attraction through a series of laddering interviews designed to elicit the underlying values behind the bow user attraction with pretty young females who happen to show some proclivity to blonde dark skinned ranged users dressed in Aristan. Please PM me if you are interested in participating in my research and I can set up a time for the interview. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/bouncy.gif" alt="" />

Sin

Actually I think you've hit bullseye on everyone of your points with only nitpicking exceptions. Of course, I don't claim to be an expert.*

Only thing I would disagree with is that druidic is a "must have." Like any supporting magic school, they all have their strengths and weaknesses when aligned with archery. Druidic does have nice buffs though. My archer had no magic skills above 80 and did fine. It is only the archery bugs that prevent me from playing now.

Also, Sheyda and Sin Jin are correct in everything they said. There are tons of threads on archery as it is the class with the most…shall we say…eccentricities? I loved playing one and having played archers in many many many games, I think Rubies had one of the best ideas for them (different arrows, skill builds etc). If they can get the wrinkles out of the programming, archers would be awesome.

*Actually, I do claim to be an expert, forget anything else you've heard from Sin Jin. I taught him everything he knows.

This is true by the way, Cawshis did teach me everything I know, of course at level 57 I still ocassionally get killed by hobs so consider that a warning if you plan to seek him out as a teacher. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/toothy9.gif" alt="" />

Serioiusly, Cawshis and Sheyda are the true archery experts, I just play one on TV and wouldn't listen to anything I have to say either. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/yes.gif" alt="" />

Ciao,

Sin