Bow Master vs Crossbow Master

[Doyo]

To the main question, Pierce is only a "Projectile" mobbing skill, and does the most damage to the 6th monster that was hit with Pierce. SoA, is a versatile skill that could be use as a "1 on 1" or "Projectile mobbing" skill. It's versatility and rate of fire is comparable to Pierce so I have to say they are both even. Both of there skills have there pros and cons you know.

I believe that despite the[possibly useless] discussion, that was ED's and I's point. lols

[ElderDragon]

To the main question, Pierce is only a "Projectile" mobbing skill, and does the most damage to the 6th monster that was hit with Pierce. SoA, is a versatile skill that could be use as a "1 on 1" or "Projectile mobbing" skill. It's versatility and rate of fire is comparable to Pierce so I have to say they are both even. Both of there skills have there pros and cons you know.

You're right.... and wrong. Both have pro's and con's, but it's easily seen that pierce is the superior when it comes to mobbing; I only assume you're talking about mobbing because you use the word "mobbing" twice for each skill.

SoA was meant to be one on one, or bosses, while pierce was meant for mobs and mob-oriented maps.

[Doyo]

Since I reached 4th job some days ago, I'd like to revisit this thread and clear some things up about the skills known as pierce and hurricane(as "storm of arrows" is called in my skill book, aka the proper name for it).

Hurricane: Hurricane does not have a startup time. Right when you hit the button for hurricane, an arrow will come out. If you hold the button down, more arrows will continue to spit out at a constant rate. It does not warm up by increasing in speed as you hold the button, it simply starts out as fast as it is right away(which has been caculated at around 8.33 arrows/sec, although it could be faster but most certainly does not vary). The attack speed of your weapon will not affect hurricane. It will startup instantly every time, stop instantly when you release the button, and fire at a constant rate while the button is being held and the skill is not interrupted.

Pierce: Like hurricane, pierce is not affected by weapon speed. It does have a startup period, indicated by a little metre above your head when you start it, but the countdown until time to fire starts as soon as you press the button. As for damage, pierce's max damage at level 30 is 850%. It does not hit the first monster for 850 and go up from there, it hits the 6th monster for 850% after hitting the first monsters for whatever amount less, as I do not know that answer.

Both of these skills are awesome, but almost useless without any Sharp Eyes. Sharp eyes gives hurricane the power to knock things back and do a LOT more damage, as well as giving pierce the ability to do huge criticals. Without sharp eyes, hurricane wouldn't knock back hardly at all in the early levels of bowmastery, and pierce would do 950% damage max at level 30 due to the way first job critical works on every skill except arrow bomb. Not very impressive, eh? That is what sharp eyes is there for. ;3 Not to mention that everyone, especially archers without SE and hermits/night lords, LOVES sharp eyes. lol

I would also like to say that bow expert and marksman's boost are both very awesome skills, as bow expert has helped make my hurricane kill much more quickly and kb nest golems and such a lot more often over the past few levels.

If you have any questions pertaining to 4th job archery, feel free to ask me.

[ElderDragon]

Since I reached 4th job some days ago, I'd like to revisit this thread and clear some things up about the skills known as pierce and hurricane(as "storm of arrows" is called in my skill book, aka the proper name for it).

Hurricane: Hurricane does not have a startup time. Right when you hit the button for hurricane, an arrow will come out. If you hold the button down, more arrows will continue to spit out at a constant rate. It does not warm up by increasing in speed as you hold the button, it simply starts out as fast as it is right away(which has been caculated at around 8.33 arrows/sec, although it could be faster but most certainly does not vary). The attack speed of your weapon will not affect hurricane. It will startup instantly every time, stop instantly when you release the button, and fire at a constant rate while the button is being held and the skill is not interrupted.

Pierce: Like hurricane, pierce is not affected by weapon speed. It does have a startup period, indicated by a little metre above your head when you start it, but the countdown until time to fire starts as soon as you press the button. As for damage, pierce's max damage at level 30 is 850%. It does not hit the first monster for 850 and go up from there, it hits the 6th monster for 850% after hitting the first monsters for whatever amount less, as I do not know that answer.

Both of these skills are awesome, but almost useless without any Sharp Eyes. Sharp eyes gives hurricane the power to knock things back and do a LOT more damage, as well as giving pierce the ability to do huge criticals. Without sharp eyes, hurricane wouldn't knock back hardly at all in the early levels of bowmastery, and pierce would do 950% damage max at level 30 due to the way first job critical works on every skill except arrow bomb. Not very impressive, eh? That is what sharp eyes is there for. ;3 Not to mention that everyone, especially archers without SE and hermits/night lords, LOVES sharp eyes. lol

I would also like to say that bow expert and marksman's boost are both very awesome skills, as bow expert has helped make my hurricane kill much more quickly and kb nest golems and such a lot more often over the past few levels.

If you have any questions pertaining to 4th job archery, feel free to ask me.

Pierce does not a have a start up time, it has a charge time - the moment you hit the button it begins charging and if you don't hold it down it'll fire a pierce (albeit a weaker one). Both skills are almost useless early; pierce isn't strong enough for its charge time till about ~21 and SoA doesn't properly KB stuff till you get a good level SE (like you said).

My only experience with 4th job is a 131 bowmaster and a 167 marksmen; the former was a friends on gms and the latter was my cousin's on kms.

[Doyo]

Oh yes, forgot to mention it was a charge time. lol I'll have to go edit that. :3 You can release it right away, or charge it for a loooong time. Just kind pointless to charge it for a long time, but the animation looks cool. xD Cheers.

[ElderDragon]

Oh yes, forgot to mention it was a charge time. lol I'll have to go edit that. :3 You can release it right away, or charge it for a loooong time. Just kind pointless to charge it for a long time, but the animation looks cool. xD Cheers.

A lvl 124 marksmen doing 24k to the fourth target is pointless ?

[poffin1]

why compare these. we all know that it is personel preference. We should compare them too other classes like fighters mages etc. Like everyone said
Mob= Xbowman Soloing= SoA very simply consempt

[ElderDragon]

why compare these. we all know that it is personel preference. We should compare them too other classes like fighters mages etc. Like everyone said
Mob= Xbowman Soloing= SoA very simply consempt

We compare them because we want to. It's human nature to compete.

[jhon1192]

Pardon me, I jammed up a calculator up my ass (where my had was, according to you) and I did some math, let's take a look:

SoA is a reported 6~8 arrows per second, so we'll do the average:7. Now, even though I highly doubt anyone has max SoA, we'll do the math with 100% (just so that you can't complain). 700% per second, 2100% in 3 seconds. Right ?

Now for pierce: 2.5 second charge up, meaning 850% x 2.5 = 2125%. That looks like 125% extra damage. But wait ! SoA hits only 1 thing, while pierce hits 6. Oh, but that's still wrong: SoA increases by a reported 18% per target.

But that's all nonsense because apparently a bowmaster can kill 3 things in 3 seconds ! So, we'll assume they're both level 150 (maxed SE, expert, and soa/pierce) with a range of 3836~4697 keep in mind that's a bowmaster range, so again marksmen would get a higher range and would have a higher % of attack. Now let's do that math

2,100% x 4,697 = 9,863,700
2,125% x 4,697 = 9,981,125

That's a 117,425 difference. SoA would take out 1-2 skelegons, while a marksmen would take out 6 in 2.5 seconds. Keeping in mind this is all done using a bowmaster's damage formula for both and I didn't factor in the 18% increase per monster. But wait ! How can we except a 6 monster mob to form every time ? If only there were some sort of long-ranged move that could push monsters back..... perhaps it would be called dragon pulse ?

People like you make me doubt the intelligence of this community.

I dont know if anyone noticed but these calculations are totally off(maybe u should've kept the calculator with u).

when u multiply 2100% x 4697 how do u ever get 9,863,700??????

This is true if ur stupid enough not to know that 2100% is in fact expressed as 21

therefore, 2100% x 4697 = 21 x 4697 = 98,637
And 2125% x 4697 = 21.25 x 4697 = 99,811.25

So the difference in damage is actually 1,174.25 and it is not 117k

furthermore, the average for SoA is actually 8 arrows per second, not 7
therefore this adds an extra 300%
so in fact, SoA is better

[ElderDragon]

It would be if those numbers weren't redundant and hypothetical, purely for representation. I almost took you seriously though, till you thought they were real...