Hunting to Archery

[chikkenball777]

This is sort of an open-ended question meant to start a discussion, so please consider it with that goal in mind.

As the Archery mastery is essentially the spiritual successor of the vanilla Hunting mastery, what are your opinions on the changes made? Has the mastery become better, or worse, with the change?

[Efialtis]

I tried Archery mastery with a ready made lv 50 character in epic greece.
In terms of pure piercing damage nothing beats the good old Hunting mastery
We have the marksmanship tree - study prey - AoH - CoH -Volley - wood lore well nothing beats them....(it's so perfect that's if it is done better it will be very very overpowered...)
May be the new mastery is better with hybrids which will make better use of the various ways plus the sorcery mastery
Considering me i 'm not going to play an archery character but i have to admit that i love the explosive arrows - reminds me my Sacred game huntress.

[Hyperion²]

Archery mastery reminds me the old d2 amazon, 3 skill for adding elemental dmg, 1 skill that is multiple shot.
Also the new mastery is modelled to the old hunting, and the new one is by far better that the old one (obviously bows part, not the spear one); we lost study prey but gained way of the sickening arrow, just add some speed and you have a cannon while holdin a bow.

I really like the way masteries mod has been developed; many smart and coherent touches to the game.

[Mr. Scetch]

The new archery mastery is really boring tbh. The really fun thing about hunting was the main bow attack.

But that one got nerfed heavily in the archery version, taking all interesting parts out of the mastery. :/

[Hyperion²]

Well, imho it is the opposite: for a bow user, in the old hunting it was all study prey (right button) and marksmanship (left button).
Now there are more options: multiple shot, mortal shot, , the escape skill, the one "ways of" to choose... i think they have done really a good job with this mastery.

[The Rock-man]

Way of sickening Arrow IMO is a better study prey but with a chance on hit -216% compared to -92%.

IMO the new bowstring is better than marksmanship.

For huge damage use mortal shot (mortal strike for bows )

[Mr. Scetch]

Well, imho it is the opposite: for a bow user, in the old hunting it was all study prey (right button) and marksmanship (left button).
Now there are more options: multiple shot, mortal shot, , the escape skill, the one "ways of" to choose... i think they have done really a good job with this mastery.

Well, Multiple shot is only viable when playing with -100% CD or when maxed out. In the beginning it's not really useful because at least 2 arrows have to hit. Most of the time only 1 hits, even when the prey is standing right infrotn of me. o_0

That's how it is for me anyway.

one ''ways of'' skill is a good idea, it really lets one specialise in a secondary damage type, but in the end only 1 is the best, the ''sickening'' arrow one.

[Alek_tq]

I don't like any of The Ways... Archery is not as powerful as old Hunting, not even Rouge.

[Efialtis]

The test is very simple
1.Take your best bow char and choose hunting mastery then invest as many skill points as you like
2.You are allowed to pick a second mastery ( any ) but ONLY for the stats
3.Play lets say the Hades run

Repeat the steps 1-3 with the same char but this time choosing Archery mastery and be sure to spend the same skill points as spent before
Play again....
The result is obvious-> I can outrun any- i repeat -any Archery build with the old Hunting mastery even without Study Prey

I'm Blind but i see...

(regarding the Multiple Shot you must be very lucky if it hits more than 2 targets)

Hunting Mastery for ever

[Felipe]

Bring the old fragments from Markmanship tree to Bowstring tree and we're done with that ;D
And maybe some flat piercing damage ;x