Magick Archer

The Magick Archer is one of three Hybrid vocations in Dragon's Dogma. Hybrid vocations are exclusive to your main character, the Arisen. It costs 1,500 Discipline Points (DP) to switch to this vocation, then costs nothing to switch back to it later after the initial purchase.

Description
Equipped with magick bows, the Magick Archer is a class that weaves sorcery into every shot from their bow, ensuring that they always hit their mark. Magick Archers also blend sorcery into their daggers as well, making them a deadly class up close or from afar.

Primary Weapon: Daggers or Staff

Secondary Weapon: Magick Bow (NOTE: Magick Bows can not be traded.)

Primary Offensive stat: Magick

Armor: Magick Archer have access to amongst the widest range of armors of all vocations - almost all general melee and spellcaster pieces can be worn - only a few heavy armor items restricted to sword users only cannot be equipped. There are three armor sets wholly or nearly wholly restricted to this class alone : the Novice's Armor Set, the Raptor Armor Set, and the Holy Armor Set.

Strengths and Role
Magick Arrows: Magick Archers have fused magick into their very bows, allowing them to fire magickal arrows. The basic damage of the bow will affect Phantoms and their cousins.

Homing Shots: Magick bows lock onto enemies within the targeting reticle either on the ground or through the air, automatically aiming with pinpoint accuracy.

Mystical Daggers: Magick Archers are able to weave their sorcery into their daggers, allowing for spectacular magickal attacks.

Elemental Attacks: Magick bows skills are naturally infused with an element (Ice, Fire, etc) and allow for immediate access to an enemy's particular weakness. A regular shot from a magic bow deals pure magick damage, not physical like from normal bows.

Short Special Skill Cast Time: The Dagger and Magick Bow skills of the Magick Archer charge slightly faster than those of normal Magick spells. The Wymking's Ring and the Articulacy augment will shorten charge times even further.

High Mobility: The Magick Archer is the only vocation that can either double jump OR levitate. When wielding daggers they can double jump and dodge roll which make them highly maneuverable on the battlefield. If wielding a staff, they can use levitate to bridge large gaps inaccessable to double jumps. Certain treasure chests and hidden areas are ONLY reachable by levitating.

Versatility: The Magick Archer can easily adapt to fight off a variety of enemies and provide much needed support to the party. The Magick Archer's available skills can suit any playstyle. Magick Archers are also able to wield all elements at once, provided you choose the correct skills, thereby making it easy to exploit elemental weaknesses. They also have skills suited to both fighting a single strong enemy and skills for crowd control.

High Magick Defense Growth: Magick Archers have a high Magick Defense growth making them resilient to magick attacks. Above level 100 they overtake the Sorcerer and Mage in highest Magick Defense growth. (Not true in Dark Arisen, the Magick Archer's Stat Growth has been adjusted.)

Living Armor: While Living Armor can be a headache for most other vocations to deal with, the Magick Archer's Ninefold Bolt can finish them faster and more easily than any other skill in the game. As few as 4 shots from a considerable distance can slay Living Armor in under 20 seconds, without a single bruise on the Arisen or pawns.

Weaknesses
Silence: If Silenced, Magick Archers will not be able to use magic bow skills or magic oriented dagger skills, however they can inflict magick damage with their bow using the single shot, or switch to straight physical damage daggers (like Framae Blades).

No Other Arrows: Cannot use special arrows (like Blast or Silencer arrows) or the Maker's Finger.

Necessity of Magic: Strength of magic bow and most magic dagger skills comes from magic damage instead of physical damage. Physical damage comes from basic dagger attacks and some dagger skills.

Slow rate of fire: Basic shots from Magic Bows are executed more slowly than the short bow and long bow. Their skills are also slower to charge than the other Ranged classes. Carrying the Wyrmking's Ring and equipping the Articulacy augment will shorten skill charging times considerably.

High Stamina Consumption: The quick execution of some skills and the high use of stamina from others can leave the Magick Archer vulnerable while waiting for stamina to recharge. No augment reduces magic bow skill usage.

Less Precision: While Magick Bows are able to seek out and hit targets reliably, regular bow shots are restricted by what they can lock on to. Individual parts of larger enemies can still be targeted, like the head of a Drake, but the targeting reticle will not lock on to the horn directly. Other enemies (like Gorecyclopes) can flail about and defy the target lock, making the Arisen hit another body part instead. For many smaller enemies, the reticle targets the torso so the bow cannot be directly at the head.

Golems: Their weak spots are immune to Magick arrows. The Magick Archer must use daggers to attack them.

Low Attack Power: Of all available Vocations the Magick Archer has the lowest stat growth for attack power.

Skills
Augments: 35,000 DP

Core: 16,000 DP

Dagger Skills: 33,500 DP

Magick Bow Skills: 51,900 DP

Staff Skills: 23,100 DP

Total: 159,500 DP

Tips and Tactics

 * Magick Rebalancer allows the Arisen to buff the entire party as often as needed (Magick and Magick Defense ), greatly improving the Magick Archer's damage output and that of the rest of the party. The increased Magick and Magick Defense pertains to Mages and Sorcerers and any physical fighter wielding a magick weapon either permanently enchanted or temporarily enchanted by a magic spell. This skill will stack up to four implementations.  Note that potions granting the same effects count towards the maximum stack count of four.  Pawns must stand or travel through the sigil to benefit from this dagger spell.  If the Arisen switches from Daggers to Staff while Magick Rebalancer is in effect, its buffs will cancel on the Arisen, but will not cancel on Pawns.
 * After felling a large enemy, such as a Cyclops, it is possible to heal any grey health with the Magick Archer's dagger skill Scension/Grand Scension whilst the corpse is decomposing. This can be used in conjunction with Backfire/Immolation to take down enemies quickly and recoup lost health afterwards.
 * In addition to their listed effect, each Magick Bow skill corresponds to an element, denoted by the color of the charging bolt and its targeting reticle. Combined with the Magick Archer's melee skills, it is very easy to wield all five elements at once and avoid relying on enchantments to maximize damage.
 * Depending on the build of the Arisen, it may be a good idea to have at least two physical damage skills equipped in the player's dagger skill slots. This type of set up will allow the player to have well balanced physical and magical damage output, since Magick Bows can only inflict magickal damage. In addition, this set-up will serve as a useful fallback when Silenced during battle if no means to cure this debilitation is on hand.
 * Sixfold Bolt causes ice damage and can easily freeze enemies susceptible to Ice. This spell, if aimed correctly, can one-shot-kill Saurians, even at early levels when they would otherwise prove tough.
 * Hunter Bolt evenly distributes its damage through its ten bolts. If there are not enough targets to fully lock on, the Magick Archer loses 10% of its full damage for each non-locked target for that shot.
 * Although all Magick Bow spells can lock onto enemies at certain ranges, the effective range of a spell can be far greater than this limit. Enemies can, for instance, be sniped with Sixfold Bolt past the lock-on point. If struck with the main projectile, the target will still be hit by the additional projectiles despite lack of lock-on.
 * Funnel and Vortex Trail function like the Mystic Knight's Funnel/Vortex Sigil, but are more flexible due to their ability to use a living target or wall as a vortex source in addition to the ground.
 * Shadowshackle combined with a Vortex Trail in its center make an easy trap for crowds of enemies.
 * Shadowshackle will Torpor boss enemies in the circle instead of trapping them.
 * Sacrificial Bolt/Great Sacrifice has a wide attack radius, meaning it can be used to dispose or damage crowds of enemies.
 * Stamina decreases rapidly as time slows with Sacrificial Bolt/Great Sacrifice . Make sure a premeditated target is established beforehand together with sufficient stamina for the shot.
 * It is important to note that Sacrificial Bolt and Great Sacrifice will instantly drop a pawn's health to zero when the spell is fully charged and will return pawns to the rift without a chance to revive them. This will happen whether the bolt is actually fired or if the bow is sheathed once the charge is complete. Be very careful if using this ability. The pawn is returned to the Rift with no opportunity to review, gift or comment, and the default rating of 3* damages the pawn's ranking and reputation.
 * Sacrificial Bolt and Great Sacrifice are Dark-elemented attacks, therefore they are completely useless on the Ur-Dragon. It is not recommended to use this attack in the Chamber of Lament as the player will trade all the potential damage the sacrificed pawn could have inflicted for something that does not do very much damage.
 * Explosive Rivet can ignite fire-susceptible enemies on impact. Up to four rivets may be deployed at a time. Follow up with Cutting Wind to detonate the embedded rivets.
 * Ricochet Hunter is great for tight corridors.  Since the bolts gain strength the more they bounce off surfaces, it is best to aim at a wall before loosing the shots. Remember the bolts are seekers so they will find a target even if you're not aiming directly at them. The bolts will not intentionally fly towards friendly NPCs; wild bolts may hit NPCs, but only if a target is not found and if the Arisen has extremely bad luck. Bolts disappear after a number of bounces, so no need for concern unless aiming directly at NPCs in Gran Soren.
 * Magickal Flare can do minor damage to Undead and is useful to light an area from afar.
 * Do not underestimate the value of Great Ward Arrow. It can be an invaluable asset against monsters who attempt to weaken your party.
 * Combine Immolation with Hundred Kisses when climbing enemies to ignite them as well as maximize damage output. If possible, obtain Magick Archer and Daggerist's Rings/Bands to upgrade the skills to Flameshroud and Thousand Kisses to enhance the skills.
 * The damage done by Backfire/Immolation/Flameshroud skills scale only with the player's total physical damage. The player's Magic damage value has no effect on the damage done by these skills.
 * By combining Double Vault and Sunflare it is possible to extend the Arisen's jump further to land on otherwise unreachable ledges . However note that the Arisen will immediately propel downward and will not be able to grab onto a ledge unless Instant Reset is used before landing. Instant Reset can also be used to chain together more than one Sunflare. The following video uses a low resolution but it accurately conveys the technique:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE2EAipl9Wo
 * Magick Bolt damage drops slightly at distance - though the effect is very minor compared to physical arrows - less than a 10% difference between very near and very far. Some skills such as Seeker Bolt are unaffected by distance.

Trivia
The Equipment of the Fighter in the Change Vocation Menu is:
 * Weapons: Magian Crutch and Thunderclap
 * Torso: Brigandine Jerkin and Hunter's Jacket
 * Arms: Bronze Bangles
 * Legs:  Braided Hosen and Raptor Cuisses
 * Cloak: Ebon Neck Wrap