Archers in Dungeon Siege

[Opalescence]

With the exception of several (quite wonderful, I might add) mods, I've never found archers to be quite as useful as, say, warriors, mages, or heck ANY other class (where "class" refers to a character that focuses on something that is representative of a certain class of character, such as melee for warriors or nature/combat magic for mages, or any combination thereof). And it's not just that there are virtually nil decent abilties that combo well with ranged attacks, but to add insult to injury I've never found any decent bows/crossbows! Has the ranged attack become a bastard child, unwanted by developer and gamer alike in Dungeon Siege? How very, very sad. I always liked the Bowman (and crossbowman), and I tried VERY hard to play the game through as one, and got my butt royally handed to me. As far as I know, EXTREMELY unplayable and I eventually succumbed to downloading and installing a mod that enhanced ranged attacks with special abilites (with names like bombard and cannon) before I could do any kind of serious damage.

Is this the way it always was, and will be? Have I missed something? Are archers actually just as good, but I've missed some part of Dungeon Siege? I'm more than happy to accept that! Just tell me what skills will make ranged attacks do more than somewhere around 5 damage every 10 seconds, even to krugs, and where a decent bow/xbow might be found, and I will thank you from the bottom of my heart and go looking for that bow/xbow and start playing as a bowyer/crossbowman once again. Otherwise, I shall be forced to mourn what has become of my favorite "class" of character in one of my favorite games .

Thanks in advance for your help guys...

[tom the terribl]

Archers

Yes archers are the weakest of a combat team. However nature and combat mages have powerfull spells. When playing in Veteran the nature spell Sun Ray is very powerfull but in Elite the spell Kill is good but expensive for mana. The combat mage can use Cyclone of Fire as the most effective spell verses any other form of combat. A combat mage can caste 4 or 5 cyclones before the first one quits because each spell lasts 20 seconds. When attaching the doppelgangers the Cyclone of Fire kills the pack almost at once and I'm talking about at Elite and hard level.

Back to archers. I like to develop all the skills and the best normal weapon I found is a strong crossbow with 2636 in average damage. Compared to Sun Ray which has 4852 in average damage and has 13 meters of range. I only use a bow to change the nature of the game; you know do something different.

If you are playing in a team then a archer adds the element like a mage to attack without moving or moving very little where as the mellee fighter must move unless wielding Triple Strike.

Comparing a mellee fighter with archer or mage the mellee fighter has a huge advantage because mellee is hughly connected to strength. A high strength mellee can fight effectively bare handed.

If you want to improve your character skills faster review the mods at http://www.dsedit.net. These mods are easy to install and are just as easy to remove without effecting Dungeon Siege. I use some of these mods like the 8x17 backpack to play Dungeon Siege single handed without even a mule.