Best Dragon’s Dogma 2 Archer Build Vocation Class – DD2

This Dragon’s Dogma 2 Archer Build has the ability to deal high damage at all times with the ability to burst and target difficult to reach weak points.  The Archer Vocation is a starting vocation and will have a good balance of health, stamina, and strength.  Additionally, it can craft specific arrow types to compliment elemental damage and inflict powerful debilitations for larger foes.

For a full listing of all of the Archer skills, please see the Dragon’s Dogma 2 Archer Guide.

Table of Contents:

• Skills
• Core Skills
• Augments
• Optimal Party Setup
• Equipment

Archer Skills

Here we will discuss the Skills used on the Dragon’s Dogma 2 Archer Build. The Archer Build uses the following Skills:

• Dire Arrow – [Deathly Arrow]
• Barrage Shot – [Manifold Shot]
• Heavenly Shot
• Exploding Shot – [Erupting Shot]

Situation Skills

• Sweep Shot – [Cascade Shot]

Dire Arrow – [ Deathly Arrow ]

A correctly charged shot with Steady Shot (Manual Aiming) will allow for a decent damage shot that can help stagger larger enemies and will knock down anything else.  This skill is not primarily used for its damage even though it is substantial on smaller targets.  We keep this skill for assist with knockdown on larger targets heads.

Barrage Shot – [Manifold Shot]

Highly effective for damage and on-the-go combat while moving.  While you should Manually aim as much as possible on archer, this is the perfect skill to mix in when you want more damage than an auto attack but want the class to aim for you.  For example, harpies or wolves that are fast moving will be quickly dealt with using this skill. Barrage shot can be manually aimed on target weak spots for decent damage.  For the most part though, this skill is best used between movement and setting up somewhere to shoot manually again.

Heavenly Shot

A very high powered arrow that has the potential to devastate large enemies in mid to late game scenarios.  This is good put into large targets that were just downed as well.  Can be used effectively with a Mage pawn that has Celestial Paean which will give you unlimited stamina for a short time.  Using Heavenly Shot will still give you the damage without exhausting your stamina.  Otherwise, this is best saved for flying griffons and dragons that are hanging in the air for awhile.  This burst damage will assist in knocking them back down to the ground.

Exploding Shot – [ Erupting Shot ]

• Drenching Shot
• Tarring Shot
• Blighting Shot

This is an alternate spot for your special arrow skills, with exploding being a highly effective option.  You shouldn’t need these for anything for larger targets and employ on more difficult enemies.  Feel free to rotate these skills and ensure your mages can take advantage of effects you place to see the powerful utility the archer can bring to a party.  If you were to fight a dragon for example weak to Ice, you would set your Pawns to ensure they have Ice to use and swap in Drenching Arrow to increase their damage and chance of freezing the target.

Situational Skills

Sweep Shot – [ Cascade Shot ]

This skill is multipurpose in hitting multiple targets in front of you closing in as well as functioning as a shotgun close range on larger enemies.  It should be manually aimed for effectiveness of either spreading against a crowd of enemies or for bursting a point blank target.  This is not a bad skill early on leveling up considering the limited choices.

Core Skills for the Archer Build in Dragon’s Dogma 2

Here we will discuss the Core Skills (Passives) used on the Dragon’s Dogma 2 Archer Build.  All Core skills can be learned and are passively applied.

Loose – Your general light attack but likely more used than any other class.  The Archer’s light attack feels underwhelming early on and it really is, but it will get better.  Manually aiming with Steady Shot will be where a lot of your consistent damage sets in, in conjunction with Leaping Punt.  Additionally, sprinting and actively using loose will shoot a much stronger shot as your Archer will do a slide and pop out of it with a heavy attack.  Archers that fail to master that will miss out on their effectiveness and uses in fights compared to other vocations.

Front Kick – This is the weaker of kicks but it works to some effect for targets in front of you.  Once you level up to get Leaping Punt you should be moving around the fights in such a way that you never use Front Kick.

Steady Shot – This is your manual aim, but this is how you will increase your damage.  As you get better weapons and augments, you will see the effectiveness of archer progress rapidly at providing steady damage through Steady Shot.

Leaping Punt –  Leaping Punt makes the Archer Vocation much more engaging in fights as you position yourself in such a way to make use of this skill on all enemies.  Larger foes can be kicked off balance as well as smaller ones.  Parting Shot will put out a very strong follow up to Leaping Punt and together produce a very effective short range combo between harassing enemy weak points.

Parting Shot – This is used after Leaping Punt and does very significant damage for costing no stamina.  This should be actively used as much as possible between comfortably harassing enemies through Steady Shot.

Swift Nock – A general passive for the Archer to increase their drawing speed – a great upgrade to increasing their damage output.

Puncture Dart – This skill wasn’t actually described as to where it was bound on controller for me, but turns out it was pressing in right thumb stick.  This is an increased power shot that loses accuracy but in some target ranges for specific targets that isn’t an issue.  In shorter ranges can be used to effect.  But with a great weapon min-maxed you will likely find yourself rapid firing normal light attacks through Steady Shot aim.

Augments

Here we will discuss the Augments used on the Dragon’s Dogma 2 Archer Build.  While you can initially only use the Archer’s Augments, once you have leveled up other Vocations you can begin combining Augments from multiple Vocations. We recommend using the following Augments:

• Endurance (Archer Vocation) – Increases your Maximum Stamina.
• Lethality (Archer Vocation) – Increases the damage dealt when striking a target’s vitals.
• Exaltation (Mage Vocation) – Augments your Stamina Recovery Speed.
• Verve (Thief Vocation) – Augments your Strength.
• Dominance (Warrior Vocation) – Augments your Knockdown Power.
• Voracity (Magick Archer Vocation) – Recovers a small amount of Stamina when you deliver the killing blow to a target.

Optimal Party Setup for the Archer Vocation Build in DD2

This Dragon’s Dogma 2 Archer Build functions primarily as a pure damage dealer, therefore we will add a supportive tank and healer roster around it.  Thus we would benefit from the following pawn members:

• Fighter Vocation – Included for drawing aggression and acting as a front line for the party.  Gathered targets are able to be hit easily with a sweeping shot or a penetrating charged shot.
• Mage Vocation – A must-have in the party with Archer Vocation to provide elemental buffs through boons.  A good option for primary pawn as it can then be set to provide Celerity for more speed.  This will fill your role for healing in group as well.
• Sorcerer – Provides elemental area of effect attacks.  Can be leveraged in conjunction with specific arrows for difficult fights.  EI: a target weak to fire could be tarred and set on fire.

Equipment

Below is an Archer Build Equipment setup that you can work towards obtaining as you progress through the game – it is quite expensive especially if you plan to fully upgrade everything, but if you get everything then your character will be very powerful. This is not just a list of the “best items” in the game – there are some items that are stronger than those below but are unreasonably time-consuming to obtain for most players or are only available so late in your playthrough that you will barely get to use them.

Don’t worry if cannot obtain everything on the list right now – just equip the best you have for the time being and replace or upgrade later on when you can.

Please note that the purchasable items in the table above may not become available until you progress through the game to a certain point – if you are low level then you will only see fairly weak items in vendors.

When collecting equipment for your build, you may struggle with your Carrying Capacity being too low, especially in the early game. Fortunately, this is something that can be increased in various ways. We have a guide that explains all of the ways to improve Carry Capacity.

Equipment Upgrades

We recommend upgrading your equipment with the Battahli Smithing Style for an increase in the Strength stat of your gear, buffing your damage output.

The Archer’s primary focus is upgrading its weapons and keeping them at the highest damage.  Jewelry providing extra strength can be found in Melve and would be very helpful to aquire as early as possible.  These will help significantly scale in damage output.  Upgrade armor secondary to keeping the highest damage weapons, as the Archer is able to avoid a significant amount of damage in the back of the fight.

Related Dragon’s Dogma 2 Content:

• Archer Vocation Guide
• All Dragon’s Dogma 2 Guides and Builds