Archery... How to get that 90% hit percentage? (in General)

Does anyone know how the Archery skill actually works? I always keep the effect at 1.0, but I am far from hitting targets 90% of the time. As soon as they have Evasion or any DEX increasing equipment, I stop hitting them. My minion is using a +20 compound bow. What am I missing in order to hit targets 90% of the time?

Archery only enables firing a shot per round, whether you hit or miss is a function of your dex and pth versus their evasion. Even if your opponent has Evasion trained to lvl 10, he will be able to evade a +30 bow in round 1, and +20 in round 3. Apart from raising the pth on your compound bow or getting a ToA, in which case you might lose that Archery and get some BL instead, there is nothing much you can do in the present situation. You can go Mage like everyone else though :)

You are most likely missing DX...

Thanks for the information.

The Archery skill description in Wiki contains the following text: "- Allows Bows only (does not apply for Crossbows and Slings) to fire with 90% Chance To Hit (CTH), or 100% CTH with the Elven Long Bow. "

This should probably be taken out of the description then, because it can lead people (me for example...) to believe that archery lends a 90% chance to hit with any type of bow if effectiveness is 1.0. That was the only reason I was learning Archery...

"archery lends a 90% chance to hit with any type of bow if effectiveness is 1.0"

that is exactly what it does, but it does not negate other factors

Not at all, the skill only grants you that possible CTH, while DX actually lets you land the blows...

What does CTH mean (Chance To Hit)?

I thought it meant exactly Chance to *HIT*. When the result of an attack is a miss, then you didn't hit anything (well, asside from the dirt behind your target).

90% chance to hit with an effectiveness of 1.0 (100%) should mean that 9 out of 10 arrows should hit the target (with or without damage is another story). Right now, that is not the case.

If 90% CTH means that you have 90% chance of loosing an arrow, than it should be 90% CTA (Chance To Attack) of 90% CTF (Chance To Fire).

When I first saw that, I assumed it meant that bows with archery now get the equivalent of +90 from archery. This I figured was balance due to the evasion changes. However now, I have now idea what the 90% cth means. :-/

"Archery only enables firing a shot per round, whether you hit or miss is a function of your dex and pth versus their evasion."

Wrong. All ranged weapons fire in all ranged rounds. With no archery, your base chance to hit with a bow is 20%. This is then further modified by Evasion, PTH, DX, etc. With Archery trained to 1.0, your base chance to hit is 90% before being modified by all of the above. With Archery trained to 1.0 and equipping an Elven Longbow, your base chance to hit is 100%, which will then be further enhanced by PTH/DX, and reduced by Evasion/DX.

Although note that currently, it is believed that Archery + ELB is bugged, as your chance to hit falls through the floor.

Again, what is CTH exactly?

Lets say an ELB works as expected, then 100% chance to hit with a 1.0 effect means you should always hit your target and only the amount of damage you make varies.

I decided to unlearn archery and put the point in Bloodlust instead. Since then, I have seen VERY little difference from when I had Archery. The only notable difference is that where my minion always attacked twice per round with Archery, he now attacks only once in some cases. Had I transfered all the point into extra DX, I am sure I would have seen absolutely no difference.

Archery is a broken skill in my opinion.

"Lets say an ELB works as expected, then 100% chance to hit with a 1.0 effect means you should always hit your target and only the amount of damage you make varies. "

Wrong. 100% *BASE* chance to hit. That is then further modified by Evasion, DX, PTH, etc. Basically, it just means that using a bow won't hurt you.

And regarding your numbers, that's because as I mentioned, Archery/bow usage is bugged. Just wait a little and it will most likely be fixed.

archery is working fine for me

ok, I skimmed through the posts.

CTH = Chance-to-Hit, that is the base CTH, archery makes bows have 90% CTH in round 2, it is 100% with the ELB. so if your target has no DX or evasion, you will hit.


so it gets changed, depending on your Plus-to-Hit (PTH) their Evasion, their DX and your DX.

"archery is working fine for me"

Then how come novice's +10 SOD works better than his +100 ELB?

so does archery work with my exbow or is it only normal bows it works with

that was a +50 bow I think NS...

"+102 ELB, and +20 seekers still can't score a single hit in ANY ranged round"

"that's a +102 ELB...

I like how my chanter using the +10 SoD gets a hit in...makes me feel great."

Maybe I missed something. Oh, well.

Black Heart, I clarified that in the wiki.

"- Allows Bows only (does NOT apply for Crossbows and Slings) to fire with 90% Chance To Hit (CTH), or 100% CTH with the Elven Long Bow. "

You're simply putting the emphasis on the wrong word!

CHANCE to hit. Not GUARANTEE to hit.

Example:
If you are throwing darts at 5 different boards, and only one is the correct board, you have a 20% Chance To Hit. This does not mean you will hit 1 out of 5 times - heck, you could miss every board, but you still had a 20% chance to hit the right one.

But if you have 3x their DX, you'll hit every time.

Kind of like this: If you have 90% CTH, then only 9 out of 10 blows have a chance to land. Out of that 9, your DX and PTH determine further how many will hit.


Hopefully this explains it a little better for you.

As for me, I confused myself with my own analogy, so if it is necessary you may skip directly past that to my second example.

I have always assumed this to mean that after all other factors
have been considered, you then have 90%(or 100% in the case of ELBs) chance to hit from that, so if you have a compund and after DEX and evasion you have an 80% chance to hit, you would then have a 72% chance to hit your opponent.