The archer is probably one of the most maligned characters in the game, but is also the most sought after, especially by the noobs.

I always find it interesting that a noob Trojan will seek out an archer in BI to plvl. Whenever I go to BI I am constantly inundated with requests to join my team, even when I don't have a team. Why? Because I can kill 5, 10, 15 and sometimes more birdmen with a single shot. So, everybody love me.

Well, almost everybody. You see, after the noob Trojan gains a few levels, he begins to feel superior to the archer and will quite often attempt (sometimes successfully) to PK me for doing the very thing he begged me to do a few weeks earlier -- kill as many monsters for him as possible so he can level faster.

Let me just explain it from my viewpoint. I am a lvl 133 archer, non RB. I have worked hard to get where I am, and I have killed a lot of monsters. My record on BI is over 14,000 birdmen in one hour. Imaging being on my team when that happened. You would have filled your 3 quests in a matter of minutes, perhaps leveled a few times, and at the least gotten lots of experience.

But, I often get accused of KSing (kill stealing). I don't do it deliberately, but when I fire a scatter shot, I will cover 1/2 the visible screen and go beyond about 1/2 screen distance, so I can't see you over there trying to make your XP quota of kills. I will never deliberately KS (well, almost never) and when I see someone else in the area I will move on, often giving up some sure kills to go to another area.

Hmmm, it wasn't KSing when I was helping you to plvl, so why is it KSing now? It's all a matter of perspective.

But, why is the archer your friend?

Well, first, he is the best choice for plvling. Nobody does it like an archer, especially a high level archer. So, every noob loves an archer. I remember when I was coming up I was jealous of the white bows and couldn't wait until I got one. Well, I have one and sometimes wish I didn't. But I have fun helping noobs to plvl.

Once you get above the noob stage, the archer is still your friend. Instead of complaining about all my kills, get on my team and benefit from them. When I am working a team, I will go out and draw other monsters into the warrs and trojs. I don't need to kill them, but they will follow me so I act as a herder. Plus, any that I kill go into the team kill pool and everyone gets credit. Plus you get team exp points for the kills too.

I've got other characters besides my archer, but he is my favorite. He may be weak, but he is fun to play. He is also very expensive to play. My arrows cost me over 3000 silver for a pack of 500. Every time I scatter I'm shooting 3 arrows, even if there are no targets in sight. So, I go through arrows pretty quickly and need lots of money to keep going. So, you will see me picking up gold when I hunt.

Be kind to your archer friends, they can help you a lot, even when you are high level. While you are killing one or two devils, I may be killing 5 or 6. Imagine what that could do for you if we were on the same team.

My archer is ZhouTong on the Celebrities/Fury server. When you see me, wave.