The strength and power of an archer pawn

[Maximumpkin]

Is it possible to make an archer pawn useful? So far, based on my observations, even in full dwarven gear, it loses in damage to both a fighter and a support mage. By the time the archer aims and shoots, the fighter takes out a squad of enemies with one attack (while my pawn is still aiming at a single goblin's head), or my support mage doesn't even aim and destroys everything with lightning (I don't know what the shortened version of sorcerer is called in the English localization, so sorry, but I hope it's roughly clear).

So, are there any skills that deal damage like a thief's helm splitter or at least like a mage's lightning? Something that doesn't require aiming and just hits hard and hurts the mob. So far, the only decent skill is the explosive arrow, which is a consumable, and while consumables are cheap, I still don't like being heavily dependent on them. And yes, I've always enjoyed the aesthetics of bows, so I want an archer pawn not as an abuse but as a full-fledged damage dealer.

[Dragon]

whirling arrow and the torrent one are both decent. heavenly/deadly shot are 'ok'. wouldnt probably even equip most other abilities to an archer. but pawn archers are never going to be as good as player archers, because they don't consistently aim for weakpoints.

add on top of this that as you mentioned pawn archers only nock/loose arrows at like a quarter speed of what you can, yeah.

[Elder Borjoyzee]

pair the archer with a sorcerer pawn (or yourself) and hope augural flare goes out, and hope whirling arrow connects with it. Otherwise.. I guess get comfortable with stocking a lot of special arrows for the archer to use, all of the special arrows are useful in their own ways.. only thing that sucks is the archer using the powerful but expensive poison arrows on a weakling enemy

[Jjp7123]

Archer is a super slept on class IMO. Their arrow skills are great for striking vitals from a distance. Excluding Unmaking arrows, which can one shot literally every boss in the game except the Dullahan (Doesn't work on Dullahan because he's undead), Nocuous Shot is your best arrow type for damage. If you shoot 2 poison arrows in succession, it deals insane damage over time against most bosses, even drakes. Main problem is that arrow type is expensive AF. You can also use Delulging Shot and pair it with asperity augment and Ice affinity from a mage on your party to stunlock most bosses with frostbite with ease. Only class excluding Warfarer that has access to the Medusan Spellbow too.

Recommended Weapon: Hydra Husk (Spellbow is bad on Archer pawns because of stamina penalty).

Recommended Inclination: Calm or Straightforward

Recommended Gear: Heroic Set from the Dragonforged, Prowler kerchief to reduce aggro, Ring of Momentum, Ring of Proximity, Ring of Brawn, Ring of Skullduggery. Ring of Quickening. Cape is preference but I love the Uniter's Mantle cape personally.

Recommended Skills: Cascade Shot, Lyncean Sight, Heavenly Shot, One arrow ammo skill of your choice. Up to you. Some people don't like Heavenly Shot on pawns though, cuz they are terrible with managing the skill at times.

Recommended Augments:
Lethality (Archer; MUST HAVE. Archer is all about hitting vitals)
Exaltation (Mage; useful for every class TBH)
Endurance (Archer; good for maxing out Heavenly Shot's damage)
Subtlety (Thief; must have to reduce aggro)
Thew (Fighter; Optional if you want to carry lots of arrows and required if you are using Ring of Brawn)
Dominance (Warrior; because DD1 veterans know that Knockdown > Damage)

One thing to know is that Augments tend to affect pawn AI to some extent. For example: If you give a pawn Avidity augment, they will climb enemies a little more. At least, that's how it was in the first game. Another thing is the inclinations. Different Inclinations focus on different playstyles.

Straightforward pawns tend to cast skills the most, but the downside is that they don't care about their stamina management. You'll actually hear the other pawn inclinations comment on it during battle, something along the lines of "See? This is the result of your heedlessness!"

Calm pawns tend to manage their stamina the best, and I've noticed that they tend to be a little smarter about what skills to use when, like when sorcerer pawns exploit a boss's elemental weaknesses, but calm pawns that are ranged tend to cancel skills when enemies get too close. For example: A skill like the thunder mine on pawns makes them walk towards enemies to cast it, but they will often cancel it if the enemy looks at them in that situation.

Kindhearted pawns like to cast taunts and support spells more (think the speed boost, the defensive clusters and the affinity spells) and I've noticed that they like to sync up with other offensive spellcasters to increase their casting speed more often.

Simple pawns are the most neutral of the bunch and love to break objects and loot everything. Even sorcerer pawns will waste their stamina on a spell to break objects from a distance.

[Maximumpkin]

Thank you all

[H-Foundry PIXIV]

Originally posted by Jjp7123:

Exaltation (Mage; useful for every class TBH)

I saw on reddit Exaltation gives such a low boost in recovery speed it's not even funny how bad it is (see bottom pic/text). Waste of an augment slot.

https://old.reddit.com/r/DragonsDogma2/comments/1d8l9aa/timings_on_recitation_quickening_rings/

[Jjp7123]

Originally posted by H-Foundry PIXIV:

Originally posted by Jjp7123:

Exaltation (Mage; useful for every class TBH)

I saw on reddit Exaltation gives such a low boost in recovery speed it's not even funny how bad it is (see bottom pic/text). Waste of an augment slot.

https://old.reddit.com/r/DragonsDogma2/comments/1d8l9aa/timings_on_recitation_quickening_rings/

Interesting. TBH, i'm not that surprised because they nerfed the potency of augments compared to the first game significantly.

[Drakken]

Try with all those skills, and tell me if you see a difference.
This is true for every class btw.

Lethality/ Archer
Asperity/ Sorc
Catalysis/ Sorc
Pertinacity/warrior
Domance/warrior