How do you play mage or archer ?

[Glaeken]

Just curious ! The system of swapping just one active skill tied to the mouse right button seems incredibly tedious for a mage to switch everytime between the spells you want to cast ? And for an archer, unless I missed something there's no hold position attack shortcut ? Are there workarounds to those ? Undocumented shortcuts ? Right nowI don't see myself playinf anything but a melee character ... I'd really like to hear from experienced DD players who rolled archers or mages how they did it !...

[Raze_Larian]

You can assign hotkeys to switch between active spells.
Click on the 'Browse Skills' button to open the skill menu, with icons for all your skills, the special move and (once you get them) the teleporter pyramids. Hover the mouse cursor over an active skill and press a function button (F1-F10,F12) to assign a hotkey. You can do the same with the Browse Potions button. This will let you use a hotkey to switch to a skill (it is still right click to use) or use a potion.

Holding Ctrl will target the enemy closest to the mouse cursor, for weapons or spells.

[Glaeken]

You good sir are a life savior ! Thanks very much :)
But I'm still puzzled as to play archer without a hotkey to hold position while firing. No possibility here ?

[Minamir]

You mean to have your character stand still and shoot enemy?

Easy way to target enemies without miss-clicking near them (which would cause character to move there instead of attacking) or moving at all is to move the mouse cursor near the enemy, hold Ctrl an then left-click. Holding Ctrl "highlights" the enemy nearest to the mouse cursor, and clicking will attack him even if your cursor was away from the target. Your character will stand where he stands and will shoot ranged weapon. Then run away when enemy gets clorer, quickly target with Ctrl and shoot again, rinse and repeat. :)

[Glaeken]

Most helpful ! Thanks a lot good sir ;)

[Raze_Larian]

You may want to take a look at Burning Wall for your strategic withdrawals. It works best if you run a tight circle around an NPC or group (which requires good timing and coordination), but even just using it as you withdraw can slow and damage most opponents following you.
Archers can also use Skeletal Wall or the rat summon as a buffer between them and the enemy. Poison weapon is quite effective, and level 1 of the survivor's Curse can be case repeatedly on a target to significantly lower its resistances.

Archery as a warrior - my thoughts[www.larian.com]

[Glaeken]

Thanks for all the tips, I think I'll stick with my melee guy for the 1rst and try either archer or mage (or an hybrid) on a rerun !..

[Siddha]

Great tips.
I just began a game and this helps a lot

[EolSunder]

also you can pause the game then aim, which works well since you don't have to "unpause" it, it will automatically unpause when you attack.

So with aiming, etc just get use to using the pause key to allow you to "aim" at what ever you want to hit. And make sure to take extra sight skills so you can see further, and thus shoot further.