Loric's Fletching Guide
(3/22/99)
For those interesting in the archery or fletching skill (I should restate that, archery AND fletching since you really need both to function), here's a little information for you.
First, head over to Crossroads of Norrath and read the fletching information under
http://con.xrgn.com/
>> compendium >> Omellette's archery info
link directly there is:
http://con.xrgn.com/Oarchery.htm
I followed this model with Loric doing both fletching and archery. Here's a summary of what I did.
Initially, I saved all my skill points only spending 1 point whenever I gained a new skill (ie I received Kick at 5th, I spent a point to learn the basics and thats it).
At lvl 8 I had a total of 33 skill points to spent. I put 10 into fletching, 20 into archery.
Archery
This skill is great for warriors and rogues since you have the ability to deal damage from a distance to 1) draw MOB's to you or 2) kill mobs once they start to run away. The one problem with this skill is that it is VERY difficult to raise the skill and it is EXTREMELY expensive intially. All combat skills require 'success' in the skill in order to be raised, so in order to raise 2H slash, you need to actually hit with it. Archery takes arrows (at 1 sp a pop). At 5 skill lvl in archery, you hit ... 1 in 5 times ... do the math on the money you are wasting w/o gaining skill. Looks bad eh? It is.
Thus, if you are taking up archery, plan on putting at least 20 points into the skill initially and you MUST continue to use extra skill points when necessary and dump them into Archery. This is the only way to keep it up at early lvls w/o wasting money.
Fletching
Here is the savior to archery, fletching. With fletching, you can make arrows at 4cp instead of 1 sp for the low level wood arrow. Fletching arrows takes 4 components (head, nock, shaft, cut). You need a fletching kit (around 2 plats), and components to make the items. You can also make bows ... and folks, the Crossroads fletching info says it all ... the WORST bow you can make as a fletching is MUCH better than any store bought bow. Bow's need string and a wood shaft to make, both sold at vendors.
Raising fletching is actually fairly easy. I started with 10 in the skill, and bought the lowest lvl arrow parts, and slowly have been working my way up in skill. Here are the details if you want to try this skill out:
Starting skill: 10
Buy: 1 cp arrow heads
1 cp wood shafts
1 cp cut
1 large nock
This will raise the skill to 16
At 16 .....
Buy: 1 cp arrow heads
1 cp wood shafts
1 cp cut
4 cp med. nock
This will raise the skill to 36
At 36 .....
Buy: 1 cp arrow heads
1 cp wood shafts
6 cp parabolic cut
1 cp large nock
This will raise the skill to 46
At 46 ......
Buy: 1 cp arrow heads
1 cp wood shafts
1 cp cut
1 sp small nock.
Not sure how high this skill will raise (56 is my guess). I'm
currently at skill lvl 47 with Loric. I made my own bow for about
5 gp at skill lvl 33 and the item was too trivial for me to make
(ie no skill gain). Once I get the excess cash I'll try a couple
plat bow.
If you have any questions on archery or fletching, ask me.
Loric, lvl 10 woodelf archer :P