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There are many ranged Vocations to choose from inDragon’s Dogma 2. From magick casters to more traditional archers, there is no shortage of good ranged options. The Archer seems to be the weakest of the bunch at first glance, lacking the utility or raw damage of its competition, yet its unique toolkit more than makes up for this.
A skilled Archer can stunlock larger enemies, light targets aflame, or inflict the strongest poison debuff in the game. Archers reward game knowledge and strategy with potent damage-over-time effects and powerful group synergies. Today, we’ll show you two builds for the Archer that make it one of the strongest Vocations in Dragon’s Dogma 2.
Build Overview
Inflict powerful debilitations from the safety of your party’s backline with this powerful Archer build. You will be able toinflict the strongest damage-over-time effects in the game without any assistance from your party, igniting targets with Torch or debuffing foes with Fulminate Poison. Throw in an Ice Mage into the mix, and you’re able to stunlock bosses with the Drenched debuff and ice attacks.
While the Archer might not have the raw DPS of the Magick Archer or certain Warfarer combos, this Vocation is well-suited for players who want to inject a little strategy into combat. Learn of your enemy’s greatest weakness, exploit it, and you’ll come out on top every time.
Skills And Augments
The Archer’s main job is toinflict advanced debilitations. They are the only class in the game that can inflictTorchedandFulminated Poisonwithout the assistance of other Vocations. Damage-over-time skills are what the Archer specializes in, so be sure that you’re stocked up on debilitation arrows before you leave town.
Pawns don’t require ammunition to use any Archer skill, including debilitation skills like Erupting Shot.
Since the Archer’s role remains the same between the Arisen and Pawns, we will recommend two skill configurations that work well with both characters. Torched is ideal for the earlier portions of your journey, while the Fulminated Poison setup becomes much more appealing when you reach the endgame andhave a good Mage in your party.
Fires a barrage of arrows with great accuracy.
Tempest Shot
Enter a crouched stance before unleashing a volley of arrows. Repeated activations will fire more arrows at the cost of stamina.
Incendiary Shot
Fires an arrow that sticks to targets. Detonate the arrow to inflict Tar.
Erupting Shot
Fires an arrow that sticks to targets. Detonate the arrow to inflict Burn.
Using this skill on a Tarred foe will inflict Torched instead, a much stronger DoT effect.
Subtlety
Decreases the likelihood of being targeted by foes.
This build usesManifold ShotandTempest Shotto take care of smaller enemies. Aim for the head, and most enemies will become staggered or die outright. For larger enemies like Griffons, we useIncendiary Shotto inflict Tarred, making them more susceptible to flame. Fire anErupting Shotright after, and you’ll set the target ablaze with the potentTorcheddebilitation.
Large monsters weak to fire, notably Griffons, will take immense damage from this combo.you’re able to’t inflict Tar on Dragons, so this combo is ill-suited for the endgame, but it’s quite effective for defeating larger monsters throughout Vernmund and Bakbattahl. If you end up fighting a tough Drake, you can always rely on Tempest Shot to get the job done. Just keep an eye on your stamina.
As for Augments, there’s nothing too surprising here.DynamismandZealare S-tier passives from the Warfarer Vocation, reducing your character’s equip load by one tier while lowering the stamina cost of all skills. We then useSubtletyto lower our chances of getting targeted by enemies,Athleticismto sprint for longer,Thewto carry more weight, andLethalityto increase our damage against critical weakpoints on targets.
Deluging Shot
Fires an arrow that sticks to targets. Detonate the arrow to inflict Drenched.
Ice attacks will immediately freeze the target. Lightning will leave the target dazed for a few seconds.
Nocuous Shot
Fires an arrow that sticks to targets. Detonate the arrow to inflict Poison.
Use this skill twice in quick succession to inflict Fulminant Poison, a stronger DoT effect.
Similar to the Torched setup, this skill configuration is meant to inflictFulminate Poisonon the target. Hitting a target withNocuous Shotwill inflict a single stack of Poison, dealing a small amount of damage over time (DoT for short). Hit them with a second Nocuous Shot, and they’ll be debuffed with Fulminate Poison, which dealssignificantlymore damage. Dragons will lose an entire health bar before the poison goes away.
Since you don’t need a primer arrow for this to work, we use the fourth slot to socketDeluging Shot.This inflicts Drenched on the target, a powerful debuff that makes the target far more susceptible to ice and lightning ailments.If your mage is using Ice Affinity, your default attack can freeze the target in seconds, effectively stunlocking the enemy. Dragon, Griffon, it doesn’t matter. They’ll freeze all the same.
Our Augment selection remains the same as before, although you might consider swappingLethality for Asperity(R2 Sorcerer) to make your arrows more likely to freeze Drenched targets. Once again, you’ll need a Mage with Ice Affinity for this to work, but the free crowd control this gives you cannot be understated.
Arena Breeches
Shadewalker’s Neck Wrap
Most of the items above can be obtained from theVolcanic Islandvendor. TheRing of Triumphis tied to collecting Seeker’s Tokens, and theRing of Proximitycan be found in the Mountain Ruins dungeon. Once you unlock Bakbattahl, we recommend you book it southwest towards the Caliginous Depths dungeon. This is the only dungeon in the game thatspawns theMedusaenemy. Kill it, and you have a small chance of earning theMedusan Spellbow.
Item Upgrades
This build should ideally useDwarven Upgradesfor weapons and armor. This will increase your bow’s damage and knockdown power, making it easier to knock bosses off-balance. Your armor will gain knockdown resistance. Throw on the Constancy Augment, and your character will seldom get staggered.
Unlike most weapons, theMedusan Spellbowquadruples your XP gains from kills.This makes it much easier to level past Level 50. If you can’t get the bow to drop, purchaseRevenant’s Wailfrom the Volcanic Island vendor. This will serve you until the endgame, at which point you’ll want to upgrade all of your gear to prepare for NG+.
(Alternative)Dragon’s Rancor
Eagle-Eye Cuisses
Pioneer’s Cape
Once you unlock the Unmoored World, you’ll want to purchase theHydra Huskfrom any weapon vendor as soon as possible. For some strange reason, it deals more damage than theDragon’s Rancorbow, which costs WLC.
As for armor,the entire Archer set that costs WLCis ideal here.Cavalier Hat,Heroic Coat, and the Ealge-Eye Cuisseswill greatly improve your Archer’s survivability. Throw on some Dwarven upgrades, and you’ll be nigh-immune to knockdowns as well.
