03-expert.Rmd

# Archer III: Expert

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  <img src="imgs/bow.png">
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## Becoming the best

There's not much to top tier archer playing other than perfecting your timing, aim and baiting the enemy using your movement. If you see an archer that is better than you, you should observe him and ask yourself what he's doing differently/better and focus on doing these things yourself.

### Arc shots

Arc shots are most likely the hardest thing to master in archer combat -- that is shooting an arrow (a halfshot or a fullshot) upwards with the goal to have it hit places where you wouldn't usually be able to shoot. You're able to use it on pretty much all maps where people can hide behind obstacles. There's not much to explain here -- you just need to shoot arrows at the proper angle. This is hard to master due to how arrows act -- they're pretty much just not affected by gravity for a short while after being shot, and then start falling down.

The best way to train arc shots is just constant practice. You can do that both on online servers or practice yourself in Solo sandbox by building yourself a training course.

<video style="display:block; max-width:100%; height:auto;" src="webm/03-expert/arc1.webm" controls loop="loop" preload></video><br>

Mastering this and always knowing where your arrows will land would make you one of the best archers in the game, but this requires lots of experience -- that is knowing where to put your cursor for halfshots and fullshots depending on the distance between you and the enemy. 

Some more examples of arc shots:

<video style="display:block; max-width:100%; height:auto;" src="webm/03-expert/arc3.webm" controls loop="loop" preload></video><br>

Fullshot arc:

<video style="display:block; max-width:100%; height:auto;" src="webm/02-good/darc.webm" controls loop="loop" preload></video><br>

Bomb arrow fullshot arc:

<video style="display:block; max-width:100%; height:auto;" src="webm/02-good/sami.webm" controls loop="loop" preload></video><br>

Halfshot arc spam -- as you can see, it's hard for an archer to move around when there's lots of arrows flying around, so eventually they get hit by one of them:

<video style="display:block; max-width:100%; height:auto;" src="webm/02-good/arcspam.webm" controls loop="loop" preload></video><br>

A single halfshot arc at game start:

<video style="display:block; max-width:100%; height:auto;" src="webm/02-good/parc2.webm" controls loop="loop" preload></video><br>

Two halfshot arcs, with each one hitting a different player:

<video style="display:block; max-width:100%; height:auto;" src="webm/02-good/hardc.webm" controls loop="loop" preload></video><br>

### Arc shot combos

You can make a combo of arc shot + normal shot: shoot an arrow up, so that it arcs and hits the enemy on the head. Charge another arrow from the side and try to sync both of the arrows so that even if the enemy tries shielding, at least one of them hits. I do that twice in the gif below -- first when fighting against the red-haired knight, and again when fighting against the burger knight (with the 2nd arrow stunning the knight, which lets the arc arrow do damage)

<video style="display:block; max-width:100%; height:auto;" src="webm/02-good/arl.webm" controls loop="loop" preload></video><br>

Another example with bomb arrows:

<video style="display:block; max-width:100%; height:auto;" src="webm/02-good/tehv.webm" controls loop="loop" preload></video><br>

Even if you miss one of the arrows, you're still more likely to hit the enemy if they move. 

<video style="display:block; max-width:100%; height:auto;" src="webm/03-expert/arc2.webm" controls loop="loop" preload></video><br>

You can also use arc shots to make campy archers move away from their spot, allowing you to hit them with a normal shot. 

You can also check out this guide to arc shots from 2017: https://forum.thd.vg/threads/2119-guide-to-arcs.26549/