Board Thread:Online Discussion/@comment-64.18.111.33-20130927132713/@comment-16047389-20140321182132

Bows aren't used for people who want to destroy an enemy in 5 seconds, they are for a more tactical playstyle. In pretty much every MMO or RPG I've played, I opt for bows/ranged. You won't deal nearly as much burst damage as a rogue or warrior running in with dual-axes, but you're a more reliable source of damage, but more importantly you are the team's primary source of crowd control. Looking at the Bow weapon skills, we can see that they have one DoT (damage-over-time) attack, one massive attack, and 3-4 attacks dedicated to snaring and zoning the targets. This is a regular play style for team based RPGs, as the most important trait about an Archer isn't about dealing as much damage as possible, it is making sure that the rest of the team can. This is not to say that Archers are weak, but they won't win a DPS race against melee. What Archers do accel at, though, is in their ability to "kite" enemies. This means that they can effectively slow and snare enemies to a point where the Archer can run circles around the battlefield not letting the enemy hit them, while still dealing consistent damage. When a rogue runs away from a fight, that means they have to drop all of their efforts to do damage on the target. Archers can maintain respectable damage whether advancing or retreating.