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
| Skill | Effect | Cost | Duration | Cooldown |
| Cut | 164 AoE common | 42 | 5s | |
| Death Blossom (R1) | 177 AoE common | 77 | 1m | |
| Flaming Arrow | 79 Fire +47 fire every 2s for 20s | 170 | 5s | |
| Hindering Shot | 55 common, 40% slow | 42 | 8s | 5s |
| I See You! (R5) | +4 stealth detection | 50 | 30m | 30s |
| Moving Target | +50% melee evade, +25% ranged evade | 50 | 30s | 5m |
| No You Don't (R3) | 164 common, interrupt | 42 | 15s | |
| Punctured Target (R2) | 245 common | 170 | 10s | |
| Screaming Shafts | 3x 88 shadow | 77 | 10s | |
| Strong Pull | 153 common | 42 | ||
| Vital Target (R7) | 919 common + 47 common every 2s for 20s | 170 | 5m |
Traits
Class Traits
| Trait | Effect | Rating |
| Set Trap (R5) | Root | 5/5 |
| Avoidance Boost | +2% Parry, Evade, Block | 0/5 |
| Deadly Aim | +5% ranged critical chance | 4/5 |
| Enhanced Skill: Hindering Shot | Short root to hinder | 5/5 |
| Penetrating Arrows (R4) | -10% block chance | 3/5 |
| Resistance Boost (R1) | +3% Song, Cry, Physical, and Tactical resistance | 1/5 |
| Swift Draw (R2) | -0.3s induction from each attack | 4/5 |
| Uncanny Reactions (R2) | +25% ranged evade chance | 5/5 |
Recommended Corruption Traits
Survivability: Stealth Detect, Health for Power, Health for Damage, Damage for Power, Physical Resistance
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.
As a new BA I would like to review the corruptions, skills and traits that are recommended. Those here seem to be outdated and we are missing a few. A few examples- Enhanced Death Blossom; Enhanced Head Shot; Skirmisher stance;Steadfast Barrage. Are any of these recommended?
What skills rotation(s) would experienced BAs recommend? While both in a raid or 1v1 vs tactical or melee class?
Thanks!