Here is my attempt to share with you how I saw PvP 1-15 with as an archer. I had a brief stay in there with my UM archer (four 3-hr runes and a 7-day rune). Ended my run with 3279 kills for 242 deaths. Considering I never nossed (or never will) and partied nossers only a few times, those numbers are not that bad. I don't claim myself to be any expert on this, still thought my experiences may help a few out there or at least start up a healthy discussion.

Since I made a choice of not nossing, I will not write anything about how one should play if he or she were to noss. If someone wishes to add to this thread with tips regarding nossing, I think it will complement what I wrote nicely.

Role of an archer in PvP 1-15

Archers can be quite deadly in the lower level PvP zones. They serve a wide range of purpose, and are quite essential to good parties. I see archers playing the following roles in PvP:

Winning kills
It is easy and convenient to pick out enemies when they are busy otherwise. However with so many archers operating in the zone, it's not so easy to win the kill for yourself or for your party. Every smart archer will pick out the inexperienced and squishiest casters first. Here's how I picked my targets:

Casters comes first without a question, I look at PvP rank to see how long they have been in the zone. Also people who put HM with their name, makes it a little easy on me, I pick them up as well.

I hit them with a rapid shot to see how much of the health bar I have taken out, and I try to remember that.

If they are too squishy, first chance I get at them I'll rush with a Rapid Shot (usually with xbow) followed by Bulls eye. If that doesn't drop them dead, I'll use pierce and then two regular shots. In most cases there will be other archers (possibly from other parties) who will shoot at them after my initial attack, but I'd have dealt enough damage to win the kill.

If they are not squishy enough and have healers behind them healing them up, I'll save my rapid shot. I'll keep shooting at them with regular shots when other archers will be assisting the cause. Somewhere down the line, the caster will pot because those heals won't come fast enough. When it comes down to the health bar from where I can take them out with a rapid shot, I'll only use it at that point.

Mana shot is a great skill against casters, however I would only use them if I go 1v1 against a good caster. Hunters have a tendency to hit you with mana shot so that you can't use mana shots yourself.

Hunters are my best pick after casters. A lot of hunters (archers as well) out there have very low defense and HP. Most of the time I would just stand there and keep exchanging hits, once they pot I'll hit them with a pierce and bring out rapid shot along with bulls eye. If I would find that other archers are helping me with the kill, I'd skip the pierce shot, because in most cases one of the other guys will do that. If they are generous, they will also use shot pointer. When you see the purple debuff on the hunter, forget everything and hit him with a rapid shot.

Assassins probably comes next if they are a little low on DEX and HP. Again some trial hittings on them will suggest you how they are built. Sustain shot or nailed shot is a must on them. Bulls eye also becomes very important. Hopefully you'll find these sins stunlocking a helpless caster. At that point the sins become easy pickings. However, I truely feel helpless when sins come for me, but not the casters. I am never quick enough to use a stun cure scroll -- something I still need to practise a lot.

Warriors are fun to play against. On 1v1, an experienced warrior with good gear should be able to beat an archer of same mode, level and expertise, most of the times. However, 1-15 didn't quite work that way. Only warriors that ever bothered me were the nossed ones, or when they come in groups (a series of stingers and deadly strikes. You just need to learn to kite them with your screen flipped (middle mouse button). Slow them, shot pointer them, pierce them and hit them with all you got, they will die cussing at you for running like a chicken.

Supporting attacks
When there are better damage dealers in your party, your role as an archer will be to support them. Most importantly this means you pick the same target as they are hitting at, not some random opponent. Debuffs like shot pointer and slow comes in real handy if you use them at the right time. Using mana shots on casters helps a great deal. Even if your damages are low, keeping the casters busy with hitting at them (interrupting their spells) will buy your damage dealers some time to land heavy blows on them.

Protecting squishies
Mages and priests in your party will usually have a fighter around them to protect. But if there are none around, and they send out warriors and assasins to pick out your mages and priests, it's on you to shoot at them from a distance while they are busy. This just requires you to keep an open eye on the mini map (to know that your party members are with you), and watching their HP bar.

Camping spawn hill
This will possibly be the most controversial part of my writing. I agree, camping spawn hill sucks. I also agree that letting them out will keep the zone more fun, and bring in more kills. Yet I'll shamelessly admit that I have camped a lot, and most of my kills have come from camping. If the zone is alive with nossers from the other side, then camping is not such a bad thing, their nossers will love the squishy campers and pick them out, while your task is to pick out the squishy ones around the nosser, and stay safe from the nosser yourself. Camping spawn hill was also a good option for me, as I got to see them infront of me, not getting worried that I will be ganked from all sides. I would camp on purpose if there were nossers from my side waiting at the spawn hill and yelling at everyone to back out. Only good that comes out of it is as soon as you let them out, they get wiped, but not by you. So, yes, I intentionally stood in there as long as I could to get my kills and kill the zone. Nossers end up losing time burning on their nos, and I could care less. They will eventually log out, and then I will play sensibly -- getting a few kills, running back towards the altar, giving them a chance to chase, and then fight back gaining few more kills when they retaliate.

If you were to camp the spawn hill, the most important thing is to realize when you should run back. If you do not have a healer backing you up, you must not stand there on your own when there are no other archers standing by your side. You should also pot at the right time, and if you're UM keep an eye on your magic defy buff. If you're doing your job right, you'll soon find all attacks rushing towards you. With good healers covering your back, you can simply ignore that and keep picking out casters one after another. If they send out warrior with stinger, just kite a few steps back and use your pierce. Your fellow campers will assist you rightaway to take him out. Same goes for assassins. A group of pagans is what create some problem, if they do it right, they can hit the campers badly with aoe spam. That's when supporting archers are needed to interrupt the cast.

Party formation

I mean no offense when I say 1-15 hardly has any good party going. It's bound to happen with all new players entering the zone to gain some experience in PvP. However it is quite frustrating when everyone is running everywhere, or your WIS priest is standing ahead of you trying to attack instead of healing you. I have ended up soloing in the zone many a times just out of frustration.

I feel PvP works best with parties formed dynamically and according to how the zone is playing at a certain time. My best pick would be 3 archers, 2 healers, 1 mage, 1 fighter. However when the zone is playing more openly, I'd probably like to replace 2 archers from there with 2 fighters or rangers. I don't see the need of a defender in a PvP 1-15 party much. Tac buff is not good enough at level 1, and curse/panic also doesn't contribute much. Still good defenders can help being a meatshield for the party.

Builds

STR/DEX builds
For 1-15 zone STR/DEX is a proven build. Regardless of mode, we usually spare 2 DEX points per level. The more adventerous ones among us will switch between 1 and 2 DEX points every odd and even level. And some would even go with a full STR build with DEX in lapis only. As for myself, I want to have a certain amount of DEX on me for my lvl 15 archer. A DEX total of 50 points have worked for me quite well.

Lapis linking
My understanding is glass toons (all attack and no defense) are not meant for PvP. Simply put, if you can't stay up, you don't get the kills. There are plenty of nossers in the zone on both sides. You are to make sure you don't die in 1 or 2 hits from them -- at least you last long enough to pot and run away. An all around balanced build often shines in PvP. For lapising up your archer gear you would possibly invest in attack (craft and assault lapises), resistence (dual fortune 4, dual safe 3 or wit lapises) and health points (life lapises). It has been shown that HP lapising ensures longer survival than DEF lapising.

Expensive set

Sonic level 2 on boots

Craft level 5 on boots (to be swapped with sonic boots when it's time to run)

Life level 5 lapis on gaunts

Life level 5 lapis on worship helmet

Wit level 5 lapis on worship helmet

Assault level 5 lapis on bow (to be swapped with bow for rapid shot and bulls eye)

Assault level 5 lapis on xbow

Craft level 5 on tops

Craft level 5 on pants

Added attack: 84
Added HP: 720
Added resistence: 75
Added movement speed: 2 levels

Moderate set

Dual craft level 3 on gaunts, boots, pants, tops, bow and xbow
Added attack: 45
Added HP: 875
* This is what I used for my archer who was on 7/2 STR/DEX build. I had 220-230 attack and over 2k HP with no aura. Was quite funny when pagans would keep on attribute removing me thinking I have an ele top.

Cheap set

2 level 3 HP lapis

2 level 3 craft lapis

1 level 3 assault lapis

Added attack: 22

Added HP: 360

LUC/DEX builds
There are a good number of LUC based archers/hunters in 1-15 zone with UMs becoming more common. My duels against LUC based archers suggest that a STR/DEX build archer has an upperhand over LUC/DEX builds. LUC based archers will have a few lucky wins, but that's about it -- you can't survive relying on bless bar. One other problem with building a LUC based archer is, we don't have dual fortune lapises that help both offense and defense. Of course, there is dual fortune level 4, but that only protects us from casters leaving us totally vulnerable against all meelee and shooting attacks.

Lapis linking

If I were to build a LUC based archer for PvP 1-15 my build and lapising will go as follows:

7 LUC, 2 DEX per level

Dual fortune level 2 on bow/xbow

Dual craft level 3 on two parts

Dual fortune level 4 on two parts

With this build, a UM archer can get 145 LUC, which gives roughly 29% chance to crit. I understand that it's possible to raise the LUC amount quite a bit higher than 145 with level 5 fortune lapises. But then again, I am not an advocate of building glass toons for PvP. The added 350 HP will help somewhat against meelee and shooting attacks. And with 72 added resist, you will get hit for roughly 180 damage less by each spell casted on you.

REC/DEX build
I haven't tried this yet, but when I am bored and have sufficient fund to do it, I'll make a 6/3 REC/DEX archer with dual safe level 3 lapises linked on all 5 pieces. In my opinion, this build can play a good role in the zone for the following reasons:

Unorthodox builds throw opponents off

These archers will only play a support role:
- interrupting casters by shooting at them
- using pierce shot and slow to stop opponents when they run away
- debuff using shot pointer

With the advantage of range and pierce, slow and debuffing skills I feel they will play a better role than a level 15 defender

Useful Information

Archer default stats at level 1:

STR 11, DEX 10, LUC 14, REC 10, WIS 10, INT 7

HP 312, MP 165, SP 272

PvP 1-15 noble gear default stats:

Noble Lightening Bow (xbow) - STR 4, DEX 2

Noble Composite Bow - STR 2, DEX 3, LUC 1

Noble Hard Leather Gauntlet - STR 1, HP 46, SP 25, MP 17, DEF 2, RES 2

Noble Leather Boots - LUC 1, HP 41, SP 22, MP 15, DEF 2, RES 2

Noble Leather Pants - DEX 1, HP 63, SP 34, MP 23, DEF 3, RES 3

Noble Leather Armor - DEX 1, HP 89, SP 48, MP 33, DEF 4, RES 4