Overview

Black Arrows are the ranged specialists on the creep side.  They also have several support skills such as hinder and traps to assist with both offensive and defensive roles.  A ranked BA will strike fear into the hearts of many freeps.

Skills

Traits

Class Traits

Recommended Corruption Traits

Survivability:  Stealth Detect, Health for Power, Health for Damage, Damage for Power, Physical Resistance

Partial Glass Cannon:  DfH 2, DfP 2, PRB 2, TRB 2, DfH 1

Goldtagger/Soloist:  HfP 2, DfH 2, DfP 2, TRB 2, SRB 2

Tactics

[Moof, Elendilmir]

• BA DPS Maximization:  Don't bork up your DPS by overusing skills.  For the most part, the system will slide an autoattack in-between most combos you throw at it, but if you work at it, you can lose out on some good steady DPS (for example: mashing Strong, Punctured, and Flaming arrow all in sequence).  I believe your latency may have some effect on whether this is an issue for you or not
• I always open with autoattack and allow an autoattack between skills.  Three exceptions apply
  • Running in for a last minute shot on someone or seeing they are going down too fast to get a normal shot off:  User No You Don't on the run
  • Going for a max DPS shot.  Use skill of choice (I prefer punctured target or vital target followed immediately by No You Don't)
  • Hinder shot openers to immobilize a freep.  Sometimes there isn't time to let an autoattack cycle first and circumstances require hinder to be your opener
• I've started moving Flaming Arrow out of my arsenal due to the higher and higher resist rates and high power cost.  I use Flaming in 3 general situations
  • Burglers, enough said.
  • Multiple freeps, victory certain.  Drop a flamer on a tank class, then move on to the next and more important target.  You will guarentee yourself additional infamy.
  • Single or few targets, power not an issue, first to engage.
• Additionally, I have almost completely removed Screaming Shafts from my use list.  Unless I have previously identified a Freep as having good mitigation against everything but shadow damage, I never use it.  Some disagree on this point, but I have had good success tossing it out on the proverbial window to an out of the way hotbar.

[Taugrim, Landroval]

• In order of most efficient: Death Blossom (depending on how many are AoE'd), Cut (in melee range), No You Don't, Strong Pull, Flaming Arrow. Punctured Target, Hindering Shot.
• Strong Pull (SP) becomes very power-efficient as you stack +damage corruptions, and it has a short induction. It's my bread and butter.
• No You Don't (NYD) is instant cast and is tied for the best single-target D/P ratio. No induction + high D/P = score! I love this ability. No just for the interrupts, but for working into the DPS cycle and going for KBs. I get more KBs from NYD than any other ability.
• Cut is our best option when in melee range (along with NYD). So use it every time the cooldown is up if targets are on top of you. Of course, if you can you should get out of melee range, you're glass cannon BA, right?
• Flaming Arrow doesn't scale with +damage corruptions. But the DoT does good Fire damage, and it's great for keeping Burgs in combat. If you aim to inflict the most DPS you can get on a target, Flaming Arrow is a good idea.  However, it is a large power sink that will be wasted if your target resists.
• Death Blossom has a long induction, but if it hits 5 targets, the D/P ratio is outstanding. It can be used to keep multiple Freeps in-combat (contributed by: Asriel).
• Punctured Target (PT) is a huge power sink (4x more expensive than Strong Pull) and it has a longer induction than SP. It has situational value: e.g. when the ranged target assist calls for synchronized PTs on the minstrel (contributed by: Scratchy).
• Always eat in combat. BAs go through power fast anyway, and if you have boosted damage at the expense of power even more so. (contributed by: Gorbag_Rotmakr).
• As a low morale BA, you are a juicy target for freeps to focus fire on. That doesn't mean your survivability is nil, however. If traited well for resists, you can rush to the front lines when needed, pop Moving Target, and evade tank the hunters. If the freep target assist doesn't respond quickly, you can shut down their ranged DPS with this tactic and buy your raid time to recover.