goa gold, gates of andaron gold

Archers have quite a few choices to make when it comes to their equipment. Not only do they have to choose between a crossbow or a normal bow, but they also have to make a choice considering their sword(s), and last but not least, they have to take care of their jewelry. The choices are easier than you might think though.

The hardest choice is to pick between a Bow and a Crossbow. Both have their advantages, but the crossbow is most popular by far. This is because of the slightly increased damage - You pay for that by losing some speed though. Damage is usually the favoured choice, because it makes leveling easier - Those few extra damage points your crossbow gives help your AoE hit for a lot more. For mass on mass PvP, Bow and Crossbow are about equal. The Crossbow will do more damage, but a Bow would allow to cast abilities like "Chaos Arrow", "Lightning" and "Rain of Arrows" just a little faster. In 1v1 PvP action, the Bow is the way to go - You may just beat other archers because you can blind just that bit more than they can.

Next, the Archers have the option to go into battle with either a 2-handed sword or a single-handed sword combined with a dagger. New Archers will go with the Two-Handed Sword, because it will do more damage than the single-handed ones (really, it will). They are wrong though. As an Archer, you should never be using your swords. On my Level 67 Archer, I have not used the swords since level 19. You only have your swords to get more bonuses (attack rate and critical close combat) so the conclusion is simple: more swords makes for more bonus -> Go with the One-Handed Sword + Dagger combination.

Jewelry for Archers is simple. You will want anything with a lot of Skill - if possible, with also Constitution and Life. You will not need any of the other stats. Just get as much Skill, Life and Constitution as you can possibly get your hands on. Important here is only that - if you can get your hands on a great Constitution and a great Skill set - you should be using the Skill set against people your level, and the Constitution against a crowd that is overpowering you.

Should you choose to be a fool, and want some Melee skills on your archer anyway, you'll need some Strength jewelry as well, provided you are not a Neved archer. I'll repeat again - don't.