Archery

Archery

Archery is a flexible passive that ties its bonus to your weapon type. Depending on whether you wield a bow, a crossbow, a hand crossbow, or two hand crossbows, you gain more damage, higher critical hit damage, more critical hit chance, or a small resource regeneration. This lets you tailor the passive precisely to your own gear, and it delivers a clean, always-active advantage in nearly any setup.

Which effect pays off most depends on your scaling. If you play with a hand crossbow, the extra critical hit chance is often worth its weight in gold because it multiplies with critical hit damage. With a crossbow, you instead benefit from the critical hit damage bonus when your crit chance is already high. Since the advantage is permanent and unconditional, a slot is easy to justify in many damage builds.

The four bonuses by weapon type

• Bow: 8% increased damage, no condition attached.
• Crossbow: 50% Critical Hit Damage.
• Hand crossbow: 5% Critical Hit Chance.
• Second hand crossbow: 1 Hatred per second.

Which bonus applies depends solely on the weapon you are holding. If you switch from a bow to a hand crossbow while leveling, the effect switches with it. The passive unlocks at level 30.

Which partners dictate the weapon

Some skills lock in the weapon type and thus indirectly decide which bonus you get. Hungering Arrow requires a bow or crossbow, so with it you get either the damage bonus or the Critical Hit Damage, never the hand crossbow's Critical Hit Chance. Strafe only needs a weapon and leaves the choice open. So before deciding, check whether any of your skills restrict the weapon type.

Where it fits alongside your other skills

Fan of Knives and Vengeance bring area damage and a big damage window, while Preparation and Smoke Screen handle Discipline and protection. Archery rounds out that bar as an unconditional value: nothing needs to be triggered or stacked. The second hand crossbow's Hatred regeneration is the passive's only resource component, and it pays off mainly when your Hatred spenders should fire more often than your generator allows.

by eRnstl