I made this for my guild forums, but since there arent any FA guides arround here, guess I'll make it public. Hope u guys find it useful.

Revision: 1.5 (Mar 22)

Changes:

* Added Thrusting Arrow, Blind, Sharpness, Precision.
* Fixed Art of Healing and Mass heal. They are G.Master and Completer.
* Fixed Resist Intention. Its a Master skill, not G.Master.
* Added a 1 more stunlock combo
* Added a PvE stunlock combo
* Added comments about Eagle Eye and Resist Intention.
* Added comments about the new completer and transcender skills.
* Fixed the Upgrade Skills for Master and higher Ranks. Sixth Sense, Damage Absorb and Force Ruling are G.Master skills, not Master.
* Added comments about Eagle Eye and Vital Bless. Both can stack with Vital Force (HP Buff) so its better to not spend skill points on them til they can stack with Vital Force.

Force Archers or FA's as most ppl call them, are basicly support characters cause all the buffs and heal they got, but they can also add some serious damage cause of the low casting time skill and decent damage they can do. Like the other quick guide, I'll simply tell u what skills are worth having per rank and some tips on how to play a FA.

Novice: Get Power Shot and Fire Arrow to 9. Combo with Power Shot, Magic Arrow and Fire Arrow until u get Power Shot and Fire Arrow to 9, where u can combo with just 2 skills. Get regeneration aswell. Upgrade Skill: Vitality Mastery. Get Dash from sword skills aswell, but u can decide whether u do this early on or u wait til u got a certain magic rank. If will suggest to get to level 40+ to wear adept stuff so u dont waste too much time exping sword.

Apprentice: Get Repulsive Armor and max it to 20 ASAP, its your first final buff. Get Critical Shot and drop Power Shot. Combo with 3 skills until u get Critical Shot to 9 where u can combo with Critical Shot and Fire Arrow. If u plan to not combo much, u can get Precision to 20. Upgrade Skill: Reflex.

Regular: Get Explosion Shot, Fire Lance and Terra Lance and make them 9. Drop Magic Arrow and Fire Arrow. U can combo with Critical Shot(9) and Explosion Shot(9), or make them 12 and combo with 3 skills (use Fire/Terra Lance plus the other 2). Dont get Eagle Eye until u hit level 140 (Rank 15). Its a final buff but it cant stack with Vital Force (HP buff) so its better to leave it til u can stack both. U can also get Blind to 20 if u plan to do bosses. Upgrade Skill: Drop Reflex and get Defensive Sense.

Expert: Get Stone Cannon to 9 and Lower Defense. Lower Defense is a debuff great for PvP but u can get it to 9 if u dont have spare points. Eventually max it to 20. Lower Defense is also great for luring mobs cause it makes them agro. Some ppl like Poison Arrow cause it has Damage Over Time, but its kinda slow so its up to u. Upgrade Skill: Force Control.

A.Expert: This is where the fun starts. Get Shadow Shot, Mana Condense and Vital Force. Mana Condense and Vital Force are final buffs so u need them at 20. Drop Explosion Shot and replace it with Shadow Shot level 9 if u combo with 2 skills or level 12 if u combo with 3 skills. Get Sharpness to 20 if u plan to play more support. At lvl140, Sharpness stacks with Warrior and Bladers attack skills.

Master: Get Great Heal to 20. Dont get Vital Bless until u hit 140. Its a final buff but it cant stack with Vital Force (HP buff). Dont get Resist Intention until u hit 140 cause it cant stack with other more important buffs, besides its a PvP only skill. Upgrade Skill: Reflex or leave it blank til G.Master skills so u can buy 2 G.Master upgrades instead.

A.Master: Get Thrusting Arrow to 20.

G.Master: Get Gravity Distortion and make it 9. Get Art of Healing to 20. Upgrade Skill: U got many choices here. U can get Damage Absorb if mobs are hitting u too hard, Ruling Force if u need a damage boost, Sixth Sense if your Defense Rate is too low. I would go for Damage Absorb to make it safer. Later on u can buy them all but since u only have 5 upgrade slots, u need to choose just 1. If u left your Master slot free and got 2 free slots, u can get Damage Absorb plus Sixth Sense for safer PvE.

Completer: Get Shooting Star to 9 or 12 depending on your combo. Get Mass Heal to 20

Transcender: Get Art of Sniping to 20. Upgrade Skill: The last u didnt pick, I will go for Sixth Sense. U can also leave the slot free so u can buy Change Force skill to start skilling up sword with magic skills. Up to u.

By this time u should have these buffs and these magic attack skills:

Repulsive Armor lvl20
Eagle Eye lvl20 (only by lvl140+)
Mana Condense lvl20
Vital Force lvl20
Greater Heal lvl20
Mass Heal lvl20
Art of Healing lvl20
Art of Sniping lvl20
Thrusting Arrow lvl20
Resist Intention lvlX (only by lvl140+ and every level only adds duration is not worth having it at 20)
Vital Bless lvl9 (only by lvl140+)
Precision lvl20 (if u dont combo and u just spam skills)
Sharpness lvl20 (if u wanna play more support)
Lower Defense lvl20
Blind lvl20 (if u wanna help with bosses)

Critical Shot lvl20
Stone Cannon lvl18-20
Shadow Shot lvl20
Gravity Distortion lvl9
Shooting Star lvl9
Lightning Cannon lvl20 (if u do the stunlock combo)
Fire/Terra Lance lvl18-20 (if u use them)
Poison Arrow lvl18-20 (if u do the stunlock combo)

Upgrade Skills: Since u can only have 6, u have to pick from different upgrades. PvP wise, u want more defense and damage. PvE wise, u want more defense rate and defense.

PvE upgrades:
Vitality Mastery
Force Control or Defensive Sense (more dmg vs more defense)
Force Ruling
Damage Absorb
Reflex
Sixth Sense

PvP upgrades:
Vitality Mastery
Force Control
Force Ruling
Defensive Sense
Damage Absorb
Sixth Sense

Combos:
PvE Combo: Gravity Distortion(9) + Lightning Cannon(20) + Poison Arrow(20) + Shadow Shot(20) + Stone Cannon(20) (99% stunlock combo but breaks if G.Master has no room to cast)
PvE Combo2: Gravity Distortion(9) + Shooting Star (9 or 12) + Critical Shot (20) + Shadow Shot(20) + Lightining Cannon(20) (Stuns and doesnt break when G.Master has no room, but u get hit once)
PvP Combo: Grativy Distortion(9) + Critical Shot(20) + Shadow Shot(20) + Poison Arrow(20)

Basically I believe FA's should rely on their speed to pwn but the "pro" guides u will find everywhere will tell u to use slow ass skills to combo. Thats stupid since we are the only class who has 1.3 seconds casting time skills and instead we use 2+ seconds skills? Even if they do less damage, the more skills u use in a combo, the more chances u got to crit and do more damage in time.

Anyway, u can go with the "well known" FA combos or u can try by yourself and see which one fits more your style. For example, I dont use G.Master skill in PvP combos cause its too slow and by the time it ends, u could easily cast 2 lances. I also believe Critical Shot is the best FA skill even if its an apprentice skill.

Just keep in mind, that the lower the skill is in rank (apprentice, expert, etc.) the more it will be affected by high defense. For example Critical Shot does amazing damage, but u will find out that it does 10 damage to some high defense targets. For example Lake in Dusk final boss will receive no damage from critical shot and lances, while Cannons and other higher rank skills will hit for a lot more.

There's a breaking point were the defense makes skill damage ridiculously LOW. If that happens in PvP or PvE, switch to higher ranked skills. U can pass that breaking point by boosting your Magic or by being higher in level aswell.

Edited by EvilBunny - Mar 22 2008 at 9:53am

LC is used for time purposes. and Bunny i thought it was PvE Combo: GM 12 instead of GM 9 ofr stun lock?

Originally posted by heavenbird PVE Multiple Mobs - Gravity Distortion(9) + Shadow Shot(20) + Shooting Star(9 or 12)  (non combo stunlock, great for mobbing at Lake in Dusk)

Sorry, I meant mobbing at lakeside

Originally posted by chewy2 LC is used for time purposes.

Still, there is no point of getting Lighting Cannon when Stone Cannon and Fire Cannon are so much better. 

Just a question., Why not take thrusting arrow buff, it gives 30% more knockback, therefore stone and fire cannon/lances have like 75% knockback rate when thrusting arrow is max. Just curious

Yes, Thrusting Arrow is very useful, forgot to comment about it. I also have it at 20 and will add it on next version.

Yes, u can always get Blind aswell. Since I play mostly as support, I have it at 20 mainly for bosses. I can tell u it helps making mobs miss on your party. I'll add a comment about it on next version.

I've have sharpness at 20 but I havent test it on buffing a 140+ char yet. Maybe it wont stack with all the others they have. Its a weapons type and should work with Bladers and Warriors, tho there's 1 blader buff that might get in the way. I'll comment about it after I do some testing. Precision I dont think its that useful unless ppl dont wanna combo much, but with all these buffs and skills at lvl20, u are gonna run out of points very fast.

Edited by EvilBunny - Mar 18 2008 at 2:59pm

theres no point to sharpness ever. Bladers and Warriors get three attack buffs which is all weapons type and all three is stronger then sharpness. Warriors have the same thing. Force bladers get 3 weapon types too which is more effective imo then ours. Wizards don't need it ever and pointless on FA. The only char is really FS even then i think its not too effective depending on build type.

eh yeah those 3 was waht i was talking about. I thought evoluated skill was just another type. Yeah i knew sharpness was weapon type, but it is an attack buff. Well i guess that makes sharpness a bit more useful then i originally thought.  Still useless for Force Bladers though.

Edited by chewy2 - Mar 19 2008 at 5:04pm

Updated.

Thanks everyone for the great feedback.

At 20 maybe, but the cooldown makes it useless, unless u wanna wait like 20 seconds to use it again. I dont remember the exact cooldown but its over 15 seconds for sure.

Edited by EvilBunny - Mar 23 2008 at 9:31am

I wish I could find a more complete list listing more levels than what are listed, but for the DPS questions.. Something interesting i found on the EU Cabal forums:

http://members.netmadeira.com/miguelsousa/fa2.htm

It's a chart comparing the DPS of cannons/lances vs FA skills.

It's from the EU version, only a partial list as far as skill levels are concerned, and there were quite a few corrections that needed to be made, all of which I'm not sure whether or not the corrections were made to the chart or not. So please, double check amp, cast\cool-times, etc. just in case to make sure it's the same as our version and also to see if all corrections that needed to be made were made.

However, it's still a useful chart nonetheless, but I haven't had the patience to double check every last bit to make sure it's all 100%. I just use it as a quick reference every now and then.

Anyways, I hope someone finds it useful.

Also, to the OP, very nice guide with some very useful information! Wish I would've found this earlier. Thanks for taking the time to write it! :D

At 18 the cooldown will be over 10 secs for sure. High level duels dont even last 8 secs so forget about using it twice. U can use it as a finisher tho.

Heal in combo, dont think so. Havent tried it, but the skill turns "off" in combo mode. Its grayed.

Also that DPS comparison is like the first version that guy made. There's a excel spreadsheet with ALL classes skills, all levels. Far more useful than that one.

Originally posted by EvilBunny Also that DPS comparison is like the first version that guy made. There's a excel spreadsheet with ALL classes skills, all levels. Far more useful than that one.

Sorry to drag this off topic, but do you have a link? I've tried browsing through the thread I found the one I linked to and looked through google, but I can't find it :(

Have you ever tried to debuff a boss? It says something like debuff skills can not be used on bosses.