The Archer is a starting class in Dragon’s Dogma 2, allowing players the opportunity to pick that ranger/marksman class. Those of you who want to launch arrows through the air, chipping away at targets, unleash hails of arrows, or focusing your sights on weak spots of creatures will find a satisfying class to unleash hell with. If the ranged physical damage dealer class is your thing, then this Archer Guide for Dragon’s Dogma 2 will aid you with assassinating targets at range.

Archer Builds in Dragon’s Dogma 2¶

Okay, for the most part, the Archer is a base class of the Magick Archer, albeit the base version only focuses on ranged damage. This guide only focuses on the basics of the Archer class, and so it will focus heavier on Archer skills, arrow types, and other such things. Since it is a spellcaster, the Magick Archer will require its own leveling to support attributes better for Magick scaling. So, keep this in mind while reading this build.

With that out of the way, feel free to use the ToC here to auto-scroll to various build sections.

• Skills
• Leveling and Attributes
• Augments
• Pawns

Best Archer Build Skills in Dragon’s Dogma 2¶

These three Weapon Skills offer the Archer build a slew of key skills, offering yourself defensive options, AOE tools, and single target burst attacks. Multiple attacks against a single target are very strong when you can hit weak spots against the same target. Think a rapid firing barrage of arrows at a Cyclops’ eye, for example.

Core Weapon Skills:

• Dire Arrow/Deathly Arrow - Knocks back smaller targets, with the Deathly Arrow version able to pin enemies to walls.
• Exploding Shot/Erupting Shot - Launches an arrow that, when hit again or after a short time explodes, dealing damage to the main foe and nearby enemies. It can also knock enemies off balance.
• Barrage Shot/Manifold Shot - A rapid barrage of arrows at a single target.

Exploding Shot is also nice for dealing with a chunk of damage to a target, and it offers some CC (Crowd Control) to help knock enemies off balance. Again, this is nice for taking down Harpies and helping to make tall enemies go down easier, it can even sync with knocking over larger enemies with Dire/Deathly Arrow.

For the most part, Deathly and Dire Arrow are your defensive skills. Pinning an enemy to a wall offers great CC while knocking over a charging enemy that is considered light is a great way to disengage from a problematic foe coming your way.

Optional Skills¶

As for your fourth weapon skill, you have one you can adjust at your leisure. We recommend one of the following skills to use.

• Sweep Shot/Cascading Shot - Great for when packs of enemies like Goblins run forward, offering you a threat against multiple fights.
• Tarring Shot/Incendiary Shot - Tars an enemy, making them more combustible to burning debilitations and slowing them.
• Debilitating Shot/Nocuous Shot - Debilitating, which is a gradual damage over time skill on targets.
• Drenching/Deluge Shot - Wet status effect type arrow skill. Handy when pairing with lightning enchantments and spells.
• Keen Sight/Lycean Sight - Enables you to target foes at a much greater distance.
• Torrent Shot/Tempest Shot - Rapidly spam arrows while standing still for sustained damage.

For the most part, the optional skills are largely either strategy-based or party composition-based. Strategy-based skills like Keen Sight and Debilitating Shot offer the player better ambushing strategies or more sustained DPS on boss fights. Having a constantly ticking poison on a boss with several HP bars cannot be understated.

As for the composition skills, you’re largely looking at methods to further improve team synergy. The Drenching and Tarring Shot type skills are great if you can reliably get fire or lighting enchantments on your bow or via your party. They help produce more debilitations, making them handy when paired with Sorcerers or support Mage builds.

Meanwhile, Torrent and Tempest Shot are great if you have a Tank Fighter build in your party. Knowing you’re safe from attacks will allow you to take full advantage of the damage ramping attacks for those skills, but you only want to use that skill when you’re safe and bigger boss threats are busy. Otherwise, you won’t get much out of the skill if there are lots of low HP enemies and you need to run away.

The other party synergy-themed skill is the Sweep and Cascading shot. This is a decent AOE Skill, handy for early-game stuff. However, if your party lacks AOE damage, then it’s still acceptable to use.

Don’t forget to pick up your Core Skills for additional free aiming, peel-back attacks, and other important parts of the Archer kit.

Leveling, Gear Planning, and Attributes¶

For those who played the original Dragon’s Dogma, you’ll be aware that each Vocation grants a different amount of stats per level up while under a specific Vocation. However, the values are not consistent at each level in Dragon’s Dogma 2. You’ll find that you’ll get a huge boost to strength, then defense with some magic thrown in the next for Archer.

Without being able to datamine and figure out the exact values for each vocation per level, it’s hard to suggest a leveling order under certain vocations. If you’re looking for a balanced playstyle, level up as an Archer, as you’ll gradually earn decent Strength values, followed by Magick for any enchantments or Magick Bows you come across. You’ll also get progressively better Stamina the further your progress levels while playing as an Archer.

If you’re hellbent on Magick Archer, make sure to take some levels as a Sorcerer. Sorcerers get a lot of Magick stats per level, meaning you can get more damage on Magick scaling bows later on. We advise looking through our Bow Database and Magick Bow weapon database to get an idea on the type of bows you can get in the mid and late-game to help you decide your leveling priority. You can also take a look at our interactive map for ideas on where to find decent bows as you play through the game, such as this decent early-game physical damage bow (Map Marker).

Best Archer Augments in Dragon’s Dogma 2¶

Now, it’s time to look at the Augmentations you want to use for your Archer Build. For the most part, you will require a few from your tree, alongside others from other Vocations. There’s room for you to pick and choose your own, as there’s more class flavor than direct build-impacting Augmentations for Archer builds.

This table contains five Augments that you can use as part of your Archer build. There is room for one additional Augment of your choosing, whether it’s an optional role-play one from the Archer tree or some other form of stat or party role type Augment from another class. Note that only player characters can get the Magick Archer so that Augment only applies to player builds rather than Pawn builds.

A Look at Archer Pawns in Dragon’s Dogma 2¶

If you’re considering having a Pawn Archer in your party, there are a few Pawn Inclinations and specs to consider.

• Inclinations: Simple or Straightforward
• Specialization: Forager or Logistician

Due to the nature of Archers having skills that can use arrow types, you will need to keep an eye on special arrow types. Make sure to purchase or craft Blighting Arrows, Drenching Arrows, and Explosive Arrows that you need for your skills. This is where the Foraging and Simple aspect of pawns come in. Both of the combined make finding materials on your travels easier, so it means you can better stock up on materials used to combine arrows like Withering Bark and some form of combination to make arrows. Meanwhile, a Logistician can automatically combine materials into relevant recipes as and when you get them. Handy for auto-creating arrows when you can.

Alternatively, if you want a pawn that uses more traditional archery skills and ignoring the Debilitating arrow types, then, the Straightforward personality is better for you. This makes them more aggro and willing to use their skills offensively. It combines very well with skills that allow the Archer build to be mobile, such as Barrage Shot, Crescent Shot, and other more mobile and offensive playstyles.

With that said, this concludes everything you need to know about our Archer Build in Dragon’s Dogma 2. This should help you hire the right pawns, create your own character, or modify your main pawn.