MA fletching

[Binkyuk]

I got to MA fletcher and was a touch disappointed to find that the 12 hour wait between MA items applies to arrows and bolts as well.
As I don't even pop to the shops without at least 1000 arrows in my pack, I need 5 days between outings, and even 1000 arrows doesn't go all that far.
I guess i can just mass produce level 16 arrows, but a major reason for spending all that xp on fletching was so i'd have a reliable supply of decent arrows. The +4 bow is nice but not that nice.

If it's at all easy please make the 12 hour wait not apply to ammunition.

[TheBestDeception]

Agreed.

Archers have it hard enough as it is, with the lack of ability to get keen arrows, attacks of opportunity, and the like. Ammunition in general has always been a problem, since there is no way to get constant elemental damage (unlike melee weapons of comparable levels).

The requirement that an archer must make his own gear if he is to want high level arrows is another drawback to being ranged... one that the melee characters need to worry about.

[AggieDan]

Same thing applies to shiruken, darts, etc.

[Elagneros]

Another drawback to being an archer is that good arrows are hard to come by. There's plenty of unique melee weapons out there for a wide range of levels (though few level 1 weapons worth pursuing, and it should be noted that the master assassin blade really should be a level 9), but once a character gets on of those he keeps it unless he's disarmed or pked in a faction city, neither of which happens too often. The archer or any ranged attacker for that matter does not have it so good. Here's a rundown of what's available for ranged attacks:

Bows: three unique longbows, Gnoll Skyripper, Bow of the Forest and Ice Bow and 1 unique shortbow, Bow of the Medusa. The longbows are levels 9, 16, and 20(?) respectively, the shortbow is a level 5. There's 4 unique types of arrows I know about, Snake Arrows, Gnoll Seeking Arrows, Forest Imbued Arrows, and Giant Ice Arrows. The arrows all tend to be fairly rare drops.

Crossbows: I've only found 1 unique crossbow, the Yuan-ti Scout Bow, and that's a level 5 weapon, and it's not much of an improvement on what the stores have to offer. There's only 2 unique bolts that I've seen, Kobold Tazerr bolts and Yuan-ti Scout Bolts, both of which are low levels, and the kobold bolts are very weak.

Slings: Not counting any Amazon drops (since I haven't been there that much), there's 2 slings I know of, the Torn Sling, which is junk (it has a -1 penalty), and the Giant Sling, which is the same thing as an Enhanced Steel Sling. Two types of bullets, Goblin Boogers and Large Rocks, the boogers are weak level 1 bullets with a little extra acid damage, the rocks are decent mid-level bullets.

Thrown weapons are even more pathetic. I only remember seeing four different types of darts: Hobgolin Fire Darts, Kobold Tazerr Darts, Pygmy Darts and Throwing Knives. Most of those have some sort of hit and/or damage penalty, and they're mostly all low level. I don't know of any shurikens or axes.

The biggest problem I think with ammo is the high rarity of it. A high level archer can go through a stack of arrows pretty fast, and unless the character can fletch Artisan level arrows, that best he can quickly restock are the level 13 arrows. And bow users at least have good ammo, most of the rest of the ranged gear is crappy. Damage potential for ranged weapons is also pretty poor, given that in the case of bows, crossbows and slings, bonus damage is added to the ammo only and not the launcher, therefore even a Forest Bow or Ice Bow causes mediocre damage. And fighting a monster with high damage reduction doesn't help, since there's no Strength bonus helping you out. Having SD and rogue levels and sniping with HIPS and Sneak Attack will boost damage, but an AA can't do this.

[Kromix]

Amazon has lvl 20? Throwing axes, they drop by 50 normally... IF they drop at all... and they go VERY quick but they are great damage...

[lordshelt]

you forgot the Bandit crossbow

[Flailer]

Agreed - the ammo situation for ranged weapons bites. There's a decent shortbow, sling, and bullets that drop in Amazons - I could probably add elemental damage arrows to the Dervishes as well. I've also wanted to replace the arrows from the MA crafting station with a quiver that will on use provide 10 stacks of arrows.

But, those are a bit of a short term solution to reworking the crafting infrastructure to allow a greater supply of ammo and let weapons scale to the epic levels. We've got some good ideas, but need to get the time to implement it. We've got a good group of hands in the mix, so hopefully we'll be able to address some of these things...wait for it....soon. Also, some of the planned jobs will probably help out ranged folks as well.

[deathdearler1]

i thought the duergar droped some low lvl throwing axes?

[Flailer]

Nope - just a hand axe.

[deathdearler1]

aahh, thats what it was

[Elagneros]

Agreed - the ammo situation for ranged weapons bites. There's a decent shortbow, sling, and bullets that drop in Amazons - I could probably add elemental damage arrows to the Dervishes as well.

I've figured the sling singers had something, but I've been only up to amazons twice, and both times in a party, which isn't always the most ideal conditions for loot hunting.

I've also wanted to replace the arrows from the MA crafting station with a quiver that will on use provide 10 stacks of arrows.

That would be an interesting item, the biggest problem there would be balancing the overall strength of the arrows produced, and how often one can produce arrows from the quiver, or else you'll have arrows that are too weak or people making too many powerful arrows at one time.

But, those are a bit of a short term solution to reworking the crafting infrastructure to allow a greater supply of ammo and let weapons scale to the epic levels. We've got some good ideas, but need to get the time to implement it. We've got a good group of hands in the mix, so hopefully we'll be able to address some of these things...wait for it....soon. Also, some of the planned jobs will probably help out ranged folks as well.

I've always been under the impression that the crafting system as is was meant to be sort of temporary. I think I'd prefer seeing the crafting system stay at MA crafting at level 19 with MA being the best gear. Having to go 19 levels in a singel class can be pretty tough, and crafter builds except for MA leather druids and arcane crafters aren't all that great here. I don't want to have to go 25-30 or more levels as a pure fighter or something to make gear, especially if dropped gear tends to be better in nearly all cases. I also don't want crafters that I've leveled past 19 to have a hard time reaching even higher levels of crafting because I multied them after getting MA. I think the crafted items need a bit of an overhaul since much of it, particularly armor and weapons are inferior to store bought items of the same level. Even the Artisan weapons and armor aren't as good as unique stuff, and gear from the newer epic areas are starting to make the crafted silvery armor and weapons junky.