PROVO - ARCHER SOLO

[SaladinX]

Hi

So I recently created this build and wanted to know a few things, as I seem to be struggling with it.

1. What should the ideal template be? I have the following and I want to know whats best.

100 Provo
100 Music
100 Anat
100 Tacts
100 Archery
60 Magery
60 Hiding
80 Healing

90/100/35

I am contemplating removing hiding for resist spells...but would 60 resist spells do me better than lets say running way off screen and hiding?

2. What is the fastest way to provoke something, pull out bars? A macro?

Provoking is hard - I won't deny it, but is there a way to make it easier with macros or perhaps smart targetting?

3. What are some good SOLO areas that can yield good results. I want to farm solo for now. What are my limitations? I think I hit my limit fighting Shadowy Wyrms and Dragons (at the same time provoking).


Any help from a really good SOLO Provo/archer would be helpful. You can even PM me if you don't want to reveal secrets in public space.

 

[edw3rdwood]

I would drop magery and put all my other skills at GM. Having 100% chance at hiding will help you most on this build IMO. On any other build I wouldn't drop magery, but for a provo archer it makes sense to travel ultra light -- meaning not even any regs/armor -- and just be in and out with your gold as quick as possible. All you need to run with is your clothes & a newbie bow that won't drop, a tambourine, bandages, and arrows. So you will be using recall scrolls/runebook only, and should be able to dodge getting hit since you have a bow and can still heal with bandages. If shit hits the fan, just run and re-approach the situation, re-provo, attack with bow, etc

Also if you are not being attacked, you can hide in the middle of a bunch of enemies and hit ctrl+shift then drag bars of everyone, organize nicely on your screen, then start provo'ing. By the time you break hiding your two strongest mobs will already be provo'd on each other.

(Provo note: always get the spellcasters off you and absorb weak melee damage if you have to, i.e. hell hounds, ettins, whatever and provo the liches and dragons. You can provo once, then wait 10 seconds and provo another two enemies or add one to your current provo, etc etc)

 

[SaladinX]

Thanks for the advice.

Whats the worth or benefit of going 105 Provo, 110 Provo etc?

 

[edw3rdwood]

There are only 1-2 enemies that can't be provo'd at 100 skill, I think Shadow Wyrms and maybe something else. Above that, there are also paragon versions of harder mobs like ice fiends, balrons, etc and they won't provo at 100, so mainly 100+ is for paragons only. Someone else can give a fuller/better answer

 

[Vic Rattlehead]

I provo solo all the time, my template is the following:

100 Provo
100 Music
100 Anat
100 Tacts
100 Archery
100 Hiding
100 Healing

100/100/25 : don't care about balanced stats, I'll never fight anyone with that template.

Like edw3rdwood said, travel light, but I don't go as light as he does:

- cheap armor: GM made costs nothing and you can absorb some of the hits while provoking casting mobs
- a GM instrument: gives better chances for successful provo, they're very cheap too
- a half decent bow like force or power, I like to make some damage to have mobs at the same health level
- arrows, obviously
- bandages

Pots are optional, I usually carry 2 or 3 cures in case some mob poisons me (bandages take too long) 1 greater heal in case of extremely low health and 1 or 2 refreshes if stamina gets too low (after being hit by an ogre lord paragon, that can help).

Resist is pretty much useless since you should not take a lot of damage from casting mobs if you do it right.
100 hiding is much more useful to me as I can hide in the middle of the mobs to start pulling bars, hide until at least 2 mobs respawn, hide from PKs, etc... Plus it's a free skill, macro it in a dungeon butt naked and you'ill hit GM pretty soon.

"2. What is the fastest way to provoke something, pull out bars? A macro?
Provoking is hard - I won't deny it, but is there a way to make it easier with macros or perhaps smart targetting? "

Provoking is not that hard, it just takes a little while to do it right. Personally I just run near the mobs, hide, then pull bars of the two biggest and preferably casting mobs, and start provoking. During the cooldown, other mobs may or may not aggro you, if they do, you can move around without going too far (or provo will break) and start provoking the rest.
Alternatively if there are too many mobs at once, I'll just run to them, hide, pull bars, then attack the two biggest, run off screen so they are still following me but can't cast from that distance, lure them away from the rest of the spawn then hit your provo macro and make them fight each other.

As far as specific areas, your choice. Pretty much all of them are good for solo provo. I can send you a list in PM of the spots I hit the most.

 

[lollo]

Hello everyone

Atm i'm running a solo bard with the following skills

GM Music
GM Provo
GM Anatomy
GM Fencing
GM Healing
GM Hiding
50 Magery
50 Tactics.

I really like recalling 100% from scrolls (for pks) and I also want to have a good success rate without scrolls, so magery is a must.

I'm thinking about dropping Fencing for maybe archery. Or drop fencing and tactics to get GM magery and GM meditation (for energy vortexes)

What do you guys think is the better template to farm some gold solo? I want to make a million to buy a house and some resources and then start a tamer (already GMed it on OSi in 1999, it's gonna be a pain but it shouldn't be as hard, I remember getting 0.1 in 2 hours in the high 90s) to make big cash

 

[Budcookie]

My bard template is
110 provo
100 music
100 magery
100 med
used to be
100 eval
100 resist
100 wrestling
switched to
taming
vet
lore.
If I hadnt worked my taming to the mid 60's already (and I am super slow at char development) I would have done archery cause till im dont with taming im useless for champs. Solo I can make 100k an hour if I grind hard. The trick is to get 5k recall out unload and come back.

 

[Vic Rattlehead]

Energy vortexes are only good on mobs that do not dispel easily, some are also immune to poison. And it costs more than arrows.
I have two templates, an archer/bard and a mage/bard. I use both but archer bard with vanq bow is just a faster cash machine. The only benefit of using my mage is that he's GM resist (but doesn't have hiding) so it's always better when luring casting mobs or in case of a failed provo.
I would say try both templates and compare. Provo is just easy as fuck to raise and so is magery/medit.

 

[lollo]

Energy vortexes are only good on mobs that do not dispel easily, some are also immune to poison. And it costs more than arrows.
I have two templates, an archer/bard and a mage/bard. I use both but archer bard with vanq bow is just a faster cash machine. The only benefit of using my mage is that he's GM resist (but doesn't have hiding) so it's always better when luring casting mobs or in case of a failed provo.
I would say try both templates and compare. Provo is just easy as fuck to raise and so is magery/medit.

Thanks for the quick reply!

Will archery do enough damage even with only 50 tactics? Or should i be dropping magery to 30 (just enough to not fizzle with scrolls) and have 70 tactics (keep in mind teleport also saved my ass once or twice while trapped)?

I heard it's possible to recall with scrolls and zero magery but I guess it'd fizzle 90% of the time

 

[VFingerDiscount]

Keep rune book charged and you don't need any imagery to recall

Sent from Baja 1997 - ICQ 12013388

 

[lollo]

Keep rune book charged and you don't need any imagery to recall

Sent from Baja 1997 - ICQ 12013388

100% sure? Fizzle rate?

 

[ShinPi]

I use no hiding and replace with mage resist so when the pk cone I have a chance and with out resist one fail with greater dragon = death

 

[SaladinX]

So after using this template I have the following:

105 Provo (trying to find a 110 PS)
100 Music
100 Anat
100 Tacts
100 Archery
100 Hiding
100 Healing

This seems to have work best. Trust me, magery is NOT needed! Its a waste of skill set because without Eval Int and proper meditation, you wont be able to do much.

If you're going to be a provo, i figured you have to point and click fast! It depends on your dpi, screen size w/e, but you gotta be able to pull out bars immediately, or click (if the mob is big enuff). Same skill can be used to click on the recall button in the runebook.

Whenever PKs come, I have my book open and hit that blue button extremely fast to make it out in time...

The only thing I am considering is Resist spells...this seems to be the only reason I seem to be dying. However, I dont know what to replace...Hiding seems to be the only thing...but cant decide yet. Resist spells would help against LL, Balrons, Ancients, Wyrms and daemons.

 

[asics]

110 provo
100 music

100 tactics
100 archery
100 anatomy

80 magery for utilitys gate
40 medit
80 healing

i really feel good with this kind of template, bow slayer

magery is a waste? how u cure from deadly poison? from barracoon\neira\shame 5 silver serpents?
you can do magic reflection..if you dont have magic resist...you can in mani\invasmani.. you can reveal, teleport, wall of stone, invisibility...gate... magic trap too...how u can say is a waste of time?

i farm also every spot..i thinkmagery is a little useless without any medit... and ifyou want hiding at least you need 80 or GM... imho.

 

[SaladinX]

110 provo
100 music

100 tactics
100 archery
100 anatomy

80 magery for utilitys gate
40 medit
80 healing

i really feel good with this kind of template, bow slayer

magery is a waste? how u cure from deadly poison? from barracoon\neira\shame 5 silver serpents?
you can do magic reflection..if you dont have magic resist...you can in mani\invasmani.. you can reveal, teleport, wall of stone, invisibility...gate... magic trap too...how u can say is a waste of time?

i farm also every spot..i thinkmagery is a little useless without any medit... and ifyou want hiding at least you need 80 or GM... imho.

Magery in itself is not useless, but I felt hesitant to spent 100 points on it (or mixed with Med). Magery ALONE is useless is what I should've said.

See, Hiding has proven its worth for me, because of provoking higher end mobs, and looting your body in peace when two paragons whoop you lol.

 

[edw3rdwood]

I would use a provo archer if you just want to gold farm. And give him hiding. With hiding, not only can you hide from PKs but you can also hide right in the middle of a bunch of mobs as long as none of them target you first. This means you can run into a room, hide, pull bars, click provo [wait 10 secs], then provo your first mobs and since you waited 10 secs while in hiding, provo is already ready to go again and you can use it a 2nd time instantly. So...

archery
tactics
healing
anatomy
hiding
music
provo

All GM. You can keep 9 recalls in a runebook, or 10 if you have an exceptional-crafted runebook, and recall by clicking the blue gems on the first page. This works 100% of the time even with no magery. You can even run this build naked/with clothes, and with a newbie bow (start a new char with archery, you'll get a bow that won't drop on death), and the only thing you will ever lose on death is bandages and arrows.

 

[asics]

Magery in itself is not useless, but I felt hesitant to spent 100 points on it (or mixed with Med). Magery ALONE is useless is what I should've said.

See, Hiding has proven its worth for me, because of provoking higher end mobs, and looting your body in peace when two paragons whoop you lol.

yes but without resist and magic reflect..is really hard sometime.. also..how u cure against silver serpents or poisno elemental or theratan champ? you just die? without an nox or arch cure.. i see relly more useful magery instead hiding..i was really thinking about hiding, but i think hiding works better on a provo mage with hiding , instead a provo archer..

btw you dont need 100 magery ( 70-80 is enough) and you dont need 100 medit ( 40-50 is enough too)

but if the spawn u usually farm, dont require magery, keep as you feel better!

 

[asics]

I use no hiding and replace with mage resist so when the pk cone I have a chance and with out resist one fail with greater dragon = death

greater dragon = str pots for more hp, heal pots, bandages , in mani , magic reflection, 110 provoke, you dont die

 

[ShinPi]

greater dragon = str pots for more hp, heal pots, bandages , in mani , magic reflection, 110 provoke, you dont die

I'll Def look into that ty for input I totally forget about str and heal pots. I have an alchemist and multiple of keg of each for that slips every time with that sound advice maybe I can remember and quit dying lmao ty

 

[asics]

pots are costly i knwo but

have 110-120 dex realy make your swing faster and less miss with archery (if you use blue pots)

using greater str, redouce your dieing..sometime you dont have the problem of loss of stamina and death cause you overloaded
with 100 or more str you have a bonus on damage (if you have not max stat , you can max it with the pots while use your bow)

heal pots take you alive , and if you have the bandage incoming...the heal pots and in mani\invasmani..sometime you survive easiery (

using magic reflection will save you from the first big shot..and you can provoke..., also with this little price of ps..going 110 provoke really make your provoking rate so much better on big mobs!