I’m having so much fun playing my chosen class on the ArcheRage server right now!
In contrast to many other MMORPGs I’ve played I didn’t land on my favourite kind of character in ArcheAge right away though. When I first picked up the game in 2014 it was, for some reason I can’t recall, clear to me that a Melee DPS would be my build of choice. After playing as a Shadowblade for a couple of months I was tired of always being in the thick of things and being focused down by ranged classes almost instantly more often than not, so I decided to switch things up and fight at range myself.
I tried different flavors of archer and eventually settled on Stone Arrow, which I played until I quit the game in late 2015, and then again four years later in Unchained. The class always felt somewhat lacking in damage output however, so I finally checked out another variant, the Ebonsong, which I’ve been using ever since. Between my time in Unchained and now some skills have been tweaked or reworked, and I love the class even more now than I did then.
Before I elaborate on what’s so great about it I need to take a step back and talk about how classes in ArcheAge work in general though.
I’ve actually praised the game’s skill trees and classes before, but since I’m so enthusiastic right now I’d like to go into a little more detail today. Ok, maybe a lot of detail, so better strap yourselves in.
At the time of writing there are fourteen skill trees in the game (up from twelve in 2019), three of which make up a character’s final class. As you can combine these without any kind of restrictions this leads to a staggering total of 364 available classes.
Not all of the skill trees are created equal though. Some are clearly meant to define your character’s roleĀ – like damage dealer, tank or healer for instance – while the others are mostly designed to fulfill a supporting role in any of these contexts. That being said, you absolutely can play a class that’s comprised of three buff/debuff/misc trees if that’s what you want. You’ll even have a fancy name like Nightcloak or Exorcist – yes, they’ve really given each and every possible combination a unique name, how cool is that?
However, you’ll most likely have an easier time, especially if you also like to do stuff on your own every now and then, if you include one of the role-defining skill trees. These are (I think):
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- Battlerage (melee combat)
- Sorcery (magic-based ranged combat)
- Archery (physical-based ranged combat)
- Gunslinger (physical-based ranged combat)
- Vitalism (healing)
- Defense (tank-stuff)
For example, the aforementioned melee DPS class Shadowblade is centered around Battlerage, supported by Shadowplay and Witchcraft, whereas an Ebonsong uses Archery with Shadowplay and Songcraft.
Settling on a combination of skill trees isn’t all there is to defining your build though. Not even close.
From character level 55 onwards you’ll have the maximum amount of skill points at your disposal, which is 20. Since each tree offers 12 skills you’ll obviously have to pick and choose. What’s more, three skills per tree can only be unlocked once you’ve spent a specific amount of points in that same tree beforehand. Last but not least, the passive abilities seen on the screenshot above are also enabled by spending enough points in the respective tree.
This leads to a whole string of decisions you have to make. Do I want to be able to go invisible? I’ll have to spend at least 5 points in Shadowplay then. But I really need that passive bonus to critical rate too, so I’ll also have to reserve 8 of my 20 points for Archery alone. So on and so forth.
These decisions can become even harder once you realize that even skills from different trees can have various interactions. For example, multiple Archery attacks deal more damage or other bonus effects to bleeding targets. However, Archery by itself has no means to make someone bleed (John Rambo would like a word…). But if you use a skill from another tree that inflicts bleeding prior to shooting those arrows the bonus effects will trigger.
Of course there’s also stuff like this built into each individual tree. Before I launch Concussive Arrow, a strong AoE bow-attack, I use another Archery skill that buffs my crit rate a bit and, more importantly, negates the former’sĀ cast time when fired within the next five seconds. As the buff’s cooldown is short I can execute this combo literally every time, hence I specced CA into doing more damage at the cost of an even longer cast time, which gets negated by the synergy all the same.
And how did I do that? Well…
Cue Ancestral Skills.
Apparently Koreans can only count to 55 (just kidding of course), because after reaching that character level filling the XP bar up one more time makes you go back to square one, so to speak – you get a fancy symbol next to the number and are now at “Ancestral Level 1”.
Among other things this unlocks the ability to modify one (predetermined) skill per tree. Usually you can pick one of two variations, but you can also just leave it as is of course.
Sometimes the modifications are relatively minor, like the aforementioned damage boost balanced out by a longer cast time, but there are also those that transform a skill into something completely different. One such Archery skill, Missile Rain, is pretty cumbersome to use in its default state. It has to be manually aimed at a certain spot first, followed by a relatively long cast time, only then the rain of missiles begins. It doesn’t even do all that much damage to make it worth the hassle. However, one of the ancestral alternatives makes it so that the skill instantly shoots its volleys horizontally in a cone in front of you. You don’t even have to specifically target it at someone, and it pushes back enemies that are close to you to boot.
You unlock more such options for each skill tree every few ancestral levels, up to 13, so once you’ve reached that level you’ll have, considering all of the above, an enormous freedom in how to build and play your character.
Which is why I really don’t feel like I’m playing an Ebonsong – I’m playing my Ebonsong!
Archery by itself is already a lot of fun, and I’m using Shadowplay for stealth, mobility and an important debuff that makes the target take more ranged and magic damage. The real kicker is the Songcraft tree though.
As the name suggests this is basically ArcheAge’s version of the bard, so it’s not surprising that you’ll find various helpful buffs for your whole group or raid (up to 30 players) here – move speed, healing over time, attack speed and damage, defense, you name it…your lute’s or flute’s melodies will make your friends happy and your foes tremble with fear. To keep this from being too powerful you can only play one of these “Perform skills” at a time, and if you attack or do anything else the song will stop.
You can play them while on horseback though, and they’re not only useful when in a group – being able to heal yourself between battles or make you / your mount go faster is already tremendously valuable. I use these – along with the mobility skills Shadowplay provides – basically all the time. Hell, you can even speed up your poor donkey when it’s got to carry your fat well-conditioned butt plus a heavy trade pack around.
Songcraft also offers some very powerful debuffs. Especially Sonic Wave can be a game changer in large-scale PvP as it makes all enemies in a 15m long and roughly 8m wide column in front of you lose their targets and unable to lock onto anyone again for three seconds.
A short but very strong buff to your own move speed and a passive proc on crit that increases your critical rate even further round out this…err…all around awesome package.
So, yeah, I’m pretty sure that I’m an Ebonsong for life now.
I’ll probably still level up all the other skill trees too though, if only because the game lets me. Always good to have options, right?
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