Force Archer [Guide]

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Pros and Cons of FA

Pros:
Moderate-high MATK
Fast cast spells
Specialist in Heal
Specialist in knockback
Specialist in ranged combat

Cons:
Low HP
Low Def
Only two limit 3 spells
Completer spell weak against large mobs
Several buffs cannot stack until certain rank is achieved

Middle:
Moderate MP
Average ATK rate
Average Def rate
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Introduction To The Archer
This section will discuss cabal’s introduction in game terms

Astral Bow
FA is the only class that uses Astral Bow.
Astral bow adds attack range +1, some ATK rate and MATK. Although critical rate is supposedly increased, it does not function normally.
The tier of the magic weapon equipped on the right weapon slot will determine the level of Astral Bow. What is on the left weapon slot will not affect Astral Bow.
For example, Topaz on the right weapon slot will summon a Lv9 Astral Bow.

Cast Time
Another specialty of FA is fast cast time.
For example, while wizard takes 1.8s to cast a lance, FA only takes 1.3s to cast it.

Range
Since FA belongs to the magic faction, it excels in ranged combat.
To prove that it is a specialist in ranged combat, FA’s astral bow and eagle eye improves attack range by 1 each.

Area-of-Effect (AoE)
As a result of neglecting space, FA only has 2 spells that are more than limit 2, which are Gravity Distortion and Shooting Star.
Both have a limit of 3, however.

Power
As a result of neglecting power, FA does not gain as much MATK from INT, when compared to a wizard.
In addition, FA’s spells do not have high added damage.

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Gear + Spells
This section will discuss about FA’s spells, gear and survivability in general terms.

Skills
As FA belongs to the magic faction, most of its spells are MATK-based.
In short, ATK is generally redundant for a FA.

Secondary Effects
FA only has one spell that causes HP down effect – Poison Arrow
FA only has one spell that cause stun – Gravity Distortion
FA has 2 spells that has good down effect – Drilled Shot and Prismatic Arrow
FA has only one spell that has good knockback effect – Shooting Star

However, with the buff [Thrusting Arrow], knockback rate can be increased.
Hence, even lance series, cannon series and critical shot can have good knockback rate when the buff is activated.

Debuffs, Buffs and Recovery spells

FA has two debuffs, Blind and lower Defense.

FA has quite a number of buffs, totaling to 12.
Out of the 12 buffs, 6 buffs can be cast on other players and 6 buffs can only be cast on the FA itself.

In addition, FA is one of the two classes that can heal.
With Greater Heal and Mass Healing, FA is the best Healer.

Armor
FA’s default armor is battleset. As such, Shadow titanium, teragrace and mithril are exclusive to battle FA only.
Wearing battleset allows the FA to have a balance of def, def rate and MATK.

Force Archers are once wizards and some FA become displeased by the loss of MATK when they wield crystals and wear battleset.
As time passed, these purists tossed away their battleset and returned to their original roots.
They found that by wearing martial set, they are able to improve on their INT and have the casting speed of a FA at the same time.
However, to their dismay, they realized that they could only wear up to osmium tier, unlike their wizard brethren who could wear mystic martial and mithril martial.

Now, there are two main groups within the Force Archer class:
The Battle FA, which focuses on having a balance, and
The Martial FA, which focuses on damage dealing.

Weapons
FA’s default weapon is crystal. It specializes in controlling Force rather than intensifying it.
Battle FA will wear crystals until it reached osmium battleset.
Once it has enough INT, a battle FA will switch to wielding orbs so that it can have more MATK.

Martial FA will wield orbs the moment it starts wearing martial set.

Survivability
FA has one of the lowest HP and def among the six classes.
Due to these two weaknesses, FA players should never have the concept that it can tank a large mob as well as FS or WA at the later levels.

To highlight the difference in tanking ability,
A Lv 100 FA wearing teragrace may be hit for around 200 damage with wraith, while a FS in shineguard may be hit for minimum damage.
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Game Mechanics
This section will discuss about the basics of the game mechanics.

HP - Health points. When current HP is fully depleted, your FA dies and will incur a death penalty if the FA is killed by a monster.
MP – Mana points. This will determine whether you can cast spells or not.
When current MP is depleted to an extent, a MP potion in the inventory will automatically be used to replenish current MP.

ATK – Increases the damage of ATK-based spells. Generally redundant for FA.
MATK – Increases the damage of MATK-based spells.
AMP – This is a multiplier that acts on MATK/ATK, depending the AMP is Mag AMP or sword AMP.
If your skill amp is 2.00, then your potential damage from 600 MATK is 600 x 2.00.
If your gear amp is +30%, then your potential damage from 600 MATK is 600 x 1.30

Added damage – This is an additive that is added to your potential damage.
If your skill has 2.00 AMP and +1000 added damage, then the potential damage from 600 MATK = (600 x 2) + 1000
Note that potential damage may be seen on your character screen and it does not take the enemy into account.
Resultant damage is the final damage output after taking the enemy’s stats and various penalties into account.

Def – This stat will reduce the amount of damage inflicted by the enemy.
Note that the enemy has a MIN/MAX damage range.
In addition, there is something called a minimum damage cap, where inflicted damage cannot go below that amount.

ATK Rate – Affect whether you will hit the enemy or not.
Def Rate –Affect whether you are able to evade an enemy’s attack or not.
Flee rate – Reduces your chance of being hit.
Although you can see it on your gear or skills, you cannot see it on your character screen.
It is a hidden factor.

How atk rate, def rate and flee have to do with each other?
The three factors are tied to a hidden factor known as hit rate .
You can also call it dodge rate , if you alter the formula slightly.
In simple terms, hit rate affects your chance to hit.

ATK rate and hit rate sounds similar…?
Yes, because ATK rate is the main contributing factor that affects your chance to hit.
It’s like being surprised that the main ingredient of boiled cabbage is cabbage .

Def rate and flee rate sounds similar…?
Yes, they sound similar because they act against the enemy’s chance to hit you.
However, Flee rate is percentage-based while Def rate is numerical-based, so they function differently in the hidden formula.
Only idiots will think def rate = flee rate because they sound similar.
Might as well say orange = apple because both are fruits.

Crit Rate inc. – Chance of getting a critical damage.
Applicable to normal attack and skills.
Critical damage is always shown in blue, so you’ll know whether your hit is normal or critical.
Base crit rate is 5% and default crit rate cap is 50%. Crit rate cap can be increased by +max crit rate effects.

Critical Damage inc. – Increases the amount of resultant damage by a percentage.
Applicable only for critical hits. That means if you fail to crit, this factor is useless.
Base crit damage is +20%. Crit damage cap is currently unknown.
For example, if your resultant damage is 1000 on enemy X and your crit damage is +900%, your resultant damage becomes 10000 whenever it crits on enemy X.
Depth -0300
This section will discuss about the basics of the game mechanics.
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Skills Etc
This section will discuss class rank up, skill rank up, Stat distribution chart, Stat ranking chart, Aura and Battle Modes.

Skill rank up

Posted by DuoBlader (http://forums.playpark.net/showthread.php?t=199916)

For Magic novice -> transcender, you will gain a total of
+96 DEX, +96 INT, +270 HP and +540 MP

For Sword novice -> transcender, you will gain a total of
+96 DEX, +96 STR, +270 MP and +540 HP

In total, you will gain,
+96 STR, + 96 INT, +192 DEX, +810 HP, +810 MP

Because FA has low HP, you must not neglect sword rank too much as you level up magic rank.
Regardless, a FA must be a dual transcender eventually.

The two subsections below will help you decide how you want to distribute your stats.

As one can see, STR is the most undesirable stat for FA as it does not add any MATK.

Stat Ranking Chart
Note that the points are based on 100 stat points. Hence, 100 STR of blader will get 120 ATK.

Class rank Up
At every 10 levels, you are allowed to take a test to increase your class rank.
Class rank up is fairly important because you may gain stat increase and certain attractive rewards as you go along.
For example, after the Lv 140 test, you will be able to stack two of the same type buffs together.

Contributions made by Khayantos (cabalonline, 02-27-2008)

Level 10: Combo possible

Level 20: Aura Mode possible

Level 30: Battle Mode 1 (Multi-Shooter) possible

Level 40: Buff Time 50% UP
Battle Mode 1 + Aura Mode Possible

Level 50: Board Chain Attack Skill Level 1
Battle Mode 2 (Twin Gunner) Possible

Level 60: Battle Mode 2 + Aura Mode Possible
Board Chain Attack Skill Level 2

Level 70: HP Boost
Max HP UP (Values may vary depending on the Battle Style)
Board Chain Attack Skill Level 3

Level 80: Buff Time 100% UP
Board Chain Attack Skill Level 4

Level 90: Combo accessible in Aura Mode
Training Dummy Restriction Removed
Bike Chain Attack Skill Level 1

Level 100: Bike Chain Attack Skill Level 2

- Promotional Quests for Lv. 110 or higher can be played only those who completed the “War Clouds” Quest group.

Level 110: Battle Mode 1 (Combo accessible)
Bike Chain Attack Skill Level 3
Second storage inventory unlocked

Level 120: Buff Time 150% UP
Buff Quantity Limit to 6
Bike Chain Attack Skill Level 3

Level 130: Battle Mode 1 + Aura Mode (Combo accessible)
Buff Quantity Limit to 7

Level 140: 2 Identical series of Buff can be used and overlapped
Buff Quantity Limit to 8

Level 150: Buff Time 200% UP
Buff Quantity Limit to 9

Level 160: Buff Quantity Limit to 10

Level 170: 3 Identical series of Buff can be used and overlapped

Aura Mode

After you complete your level 20 test, you will obtain Battle Aura. Battle Aura has 6 aura codes, ranging from Water, Ice, Fire, Lightning, Earth and Wind.
There is no known stat difference between the Aura Codes for CabalSEA, so just choose the graphical appearance you prefer.

For FA, Aura Mode adds ATK, MATK, Def, Def rate, Atk rate, Crit rate, Crit damage and HP restore.
For Lv 9 Aura Mode (Ice), it adds +46 ATK, +70 MATK, +110 Def, +90 Def rate, +1000 Atk rate, +10% Crit rate, +10% Crit damage and HP restore +2 (per 2s).

1. Battle Aura can be stacked onto Battle Mode 1 and Battle Mode 2 later.
2. Battle Aura is the only power up that can combo with shooting star
3. Battle Aura is the only mode that adds crit rate and crit damage.
4. Combo can only be used after a certain rank is achieved.

Battle Mode 1

After you complete your level 30 test, you will obtain Multi Shooter.
Multi Shooter adds ATK, MATK, Def, Def rate, Atk rate and HP restore.
For Lv 8 Multi Shooter, it adds +75 ATK, +75 MATK, Defense +110, ATK rate +900, Def rate +80 and HP restore +5 (per 2s).

Multi Shooter is a weird Battle Mode that is only suited against small mobs.
1. It changes the limit of your attack spells to 1, regardless the spell is gravity distortion or drilled shot or whatever. Piercing effect is also lost during Multi Shooter.
2. It splits the spell and attacks a number of targets within range. So far, I observed that the max number of targets is 4.
If a FA cast Gravity Distortion on a mob size of 20+, the player would usually expect it to hit >15 mobs.
During Multi Shooter, if the same FA casts GD, it will observe GD splitting into 4 and each GD will randomly choose one target.
Instead of hitting >15 mobs, each GD hits one and only one target, totaling to 4 for the entire spell.

3. Shooting star cannot be used during Multi Shooter.
4. Combo can only be used after a certain class rank is achieved.

Battle Mode 2

After you complete your level 50 test, you will obtain Twin Gunner.
Twin Gunner adds ATK, MATK, Def, Def rate, Atk rate and HP restore.
For Lv 6 Twin Gunner, it adds +120 ATK, +120 MATK, Defense +175, ATK rate +700, Def rate +60 and HP restore +5 (per 2s).

Twin Gunner is rather special.
1. It is one of the few Battle Modes that promote the use of normal attack.
During Twin Gunner, normal attack is based on MATK and a certain amount of added damage is included when normal attack is used.
Up to two targets can be attacked at the same time and at any direction.
The resultant damage is actually broken up into a series of shots but most won’t realize this aspect when they activate auto-attack.

2. Fatal Shot can only be used during Twin Gunner.
This special skill can only be used against a single target. It is based on MATK and a certain amount of added damage is included.
The skill has 2 secondary effects: HP down –20 and Down.
For a high level FA, this unique skill is probably one of the weakest skills it has ever used.

3. Combo is currently unavailable during Twin Gunner, even at Lv 170.
4. Shooting star can be used during Twin Gunner.