First off, I want to say that @boltonsquad has done an amazing job with his Ranger3 Fletcher3 guide. At the beginning of early access, there was undoubtelty a huge vacuum of knowledge amongst the fresh player base, so the original Ranger3 Fletcher3 guide was a great read to get our bearings right.
With that said though, there have also been a lot of misconceptions being brought up about Fletcher3’s because of the initial assumptions of the Korean ToS scene. We need to clear the air about some things now.
Myth #1: Fletcher3 is a great AoE class.
Busted.
Fletcher3 is NOT a great AoE class, nor is it viable for Earth Tower except for PUG group floor5 clears (and possibly floor10 clears if the party can carry you). The AoE capabilities of this class is absolutely mediocre, the rate of damage is too slow, the SP costs are unfathomably high for little payoff. You have to spend around 10-20x as much SP to do the same amount of damage as other real AoE classes.
Myth #2: Fletcher3 has OP single target damage
Confirmed.
Fletcher3 has consistencly the best performance against almost every world boss in the game, and Fletcher3’s absolutely crush all boss rush dungeons like the missions in Fedimian or the Saalus Convent dungeon. Magic Arrow is just that strong of skill.
While other classes may have higher single target burst, when it comes to sustained single target damage Fletcher3 has no competition.
Myth #3: Archer1 Ranger3 Fletcher3 is the best setup for Fletchers in iToS vs. Archer2’s Swift Step 25% Crit Buff
Plausible.
There are very specific setup scenarios where Ranger3 Fletcher3 grants you the highest damage spec available over Archer2’s Swift Step crit rate buff, and that is specifically when you hit past the 100% Critical Rate limit. Because Crit Rate does have a cap and Damage does not, Steady Aim will provide a stronger buff for you if you ever mange to reach past 100% crit rate. The begs the question: is it possible to hit 100% Critical Rate with absolutely 0 investment into DEX or Swift Step?
The answer is yes, and here are the requirements:
- You need a dedicated player that has full STR stat setup (yourself or a qs3 buddy)
- You need a dedicated Linker3 with FULL DEX (or another party member with full DEX) for you to lifeline with.
- You need a Chronomancer with Quicken Buff.
- You need a Priest / Krivis 3 SPR support with Monstrance buff and Zalcia buff/debuff. About 125 SPR minimum is required to set any world boss in the game to 0 crit resist. Melstis is also required for you to maintain a 100% uptime on Steady Aim
With this dedicated worldbossing setup, you’re granted essentially 100% crit rate and 100% uptime on Steady Aim, and in this scenario is the only time when you outshine other builds involving A2 Swift Step buff or any others.
However, as a forewarning this requires a huge amount of investment from multiple players into multiple chars who are only relevant at world bossing.
And because of the nature of this game, A1 Ranger3 Fletcher3 isn’t in any way a superior class that trumps all other classes. Other setups will be superior at other aspects in the game, so pick what openers you want in regards to what interests you or fits your playstyle.
Alternative Fletcher3 Openers
As a general courtesy, here are some suggestions for alternative builds to A1 R3 Fletcher3:
A2 R1 Scout1 - Guerilla Warfare World Boss Slayer Meta
Right now the issue with World Bossing is that most Fletchers regardless of openers already have enough DPS to guarantee a cube, the problem is finding the boss in time to even deal enough damage to it before it dies. In this sense, this makes Movement Speed the most important stat to have for getting cubes. It’s also why gear like Karacha Xbow, Windrunners, and Movement speed on head pieces are so expensive. Having near-perma cloak gives you the same amount of move speed increase as riding a mount, which is a huge deal. Time wasted in finding or getting to a boss is time wasted on you dealing damage to it.
*This does not, however, apply to world bosses like Dullahan that have a fixed location and timer. Because of Dullahan’s spawning nature, you can do all sorts of shenanigans on him that would not work for the majority of other world bosses.
A3 R1 Fletcher3 - Lone Wolf Wood-whispering Mountain Hermit
The main draw of this build is that it grants you higher evasion via Swift Step 15, which is extremely significant when you have a base of 1000+ Evasion in a near Full Dex build with Leather Armor Mastery. Because of the nature of how you deal damage with Magic Arrow, you quite literally have to just park yourself on top of a mob and cast MA at their feet. If you move or kite at all, your DPS goes straight to 0, so you essentially have to tank every single mob pack in order to kill them as quickly as possible.This build is suited solely for that kind of face-tanking play style. Multishot 15 is also a great aoe burst skill at later levels.
A2 R1 Wugu1 - Ebola AIDS Cancer Dispenser
This is theoretically the highest single target you can achieve on a boss monster through poison DoT damage, however this build becomes significantly worse if any other wugus show up or are in your party. Able to output huge amounts of single target Damage over Time, you kill your enemies by infecting them with every disease known to savior-kind. Go full STR with Broadhead Arrow 15 for maximum roleplaying effect.
A2 Sapper2 Fletcher3 - The Batman Green Arrow Bastard Child
A new variation that’s been showing up if you want some more aoe on a fletcher build, might be decent for earth tower of anyone ever decides to bring a fletcher along. Not only do you get to craft a lot of arrows, you get to craft a lot of traps alongside it. Enjoy your prep time.
A1 QS3 Fletcher3 - Rexipher Slayer, Deadborn Holocauster, Literally the Hitler of Lepusbunnies
An off-road variation that gives you both the ability to speed farm field mobs and deal ST damage on world bosses. The biggest upside to this setup is that it lets you reliably do more damage to World Boss Rexipher since you can rely on Running Shot auto attacks to do damage instead of using only Magic Arrow which gets you insta-gibbed by his Reflect Damage. Also enjoy spending every waking moment of your life committing the genocide of Deadborn Scrap Archers and Lepusbunnies for a Running Shot Monster Gem and Magic Arrow Monster Gem.
With that, I think I’ve laid the ground work for this thread. Please feel free to continue the discussion.