Marksman
by Charis

Class: Any
Tag: MARK

Introduction

More of a Role than a distinct variant, a Marksman takes extreme pride in hitting his target, whether with bow, sword or missile. As a rogue, he shuns wild shooting or plinking off into distance. As a warrior, he hates having a series of whiffs at the air where a dead monster once breathed. As a sorcerer, he hates missing his target, and if he uses chain lightning at all, it will be to position himself to send multiple bolts through a mob with extreme precision.

Items

The Marksman prefers the Meteoric weapon over the Massive. Strange is his good friend. +Magic, which provides better spell accuracy, is favored over +mana. Quality shots, not quantity. But overkill isn't necessary either.

Some Marksman tricks include a rogue keeping two witches in stunlock with a swiftness bow, a surrounded warrior hitting each opponent the min. # of times he might take to kill, then rotating one hit on each in a flurry of 'finish him!' maneuvers, and the sorcerer avoiding stoning prey too much as hitting would require no skill.

Precision Combat

Trial and error will tell you if you're missing too much, but some guidelines for the Hell section...

MAX AC's of opponents: 85, 75, 65, 65 in Hell, Caves, Cats, Church.
Add 50 for NM, or 80 for Hell to these Normal values.

To Hit given on screen is 50+Dex/2. While the *actual* to hit is
Melee: 50+dex/2 +clvl (+20 for W)
Bow (point blank): 50+Dex+clvl (+10W, +20R)

You'll miss 1 in 20 no matter what, so 95% actual is targeted. For magic missiles, to hit is 50+Magic-2*clvl-distance (+20S), so at a range of 5, for automiss value, need Magic=50+2*mlvl

For a 30th lvl in H/H, you will want an on-screen to hit of 230 (210 for Warrior), for melee, 208 for W/S bow (103 Rogue bow), and a Magic of 170, if that is used.

Extremes

For those who like Extremes... (700% To Hit?!)

The Nimble Marksman will value dex and tohit to an obscene length. With all the best items, the maximum dex achievable is 225/415/250 for W/R/S. The following would be a killer set of gear:

Obsidian Mail of Precision (RS) or AFPoPrecision (W)
Obsidian Crown Precision
Jade Shield Accuracy
KSoPrecision, or Emerald/Weird Bow of Perfection
Three Gold/Perf jewels

This gives +165 dex (+160 if bow), possible max resists, +90% to hit, moderate AC

Dmg bonus for 30th lvl rogue:
Melee: Clvl*(str+dex)/200 = +70, with To Hit of 50+clvl+dex/2+items = 377-477
Bow: Clvl*dex/100 = +124, with to hit of 585-685.

This means that a 45th lvl Nimble Marksman Rogue could break 700% actual To Hit.