Bowman build

The short version. Put everything in DEX except the STR your next weapon or armor asks for. Max first, not Double Shot. Lean toward a 2nd job by about level 20, because it decides how much STR you need and which weapons you buy.

Stats

Stat	Rule
DEX	Everything spare. It is your damage and your accuracy.
STR	Only what the next weapon or armor needs, added just before you equip it.
INT, LUK	Leave at 4. No bowman skill uses them.

By our estimate every stat starts at 4, you place 9 points at creation, and you then get 5 AP per level. We plan on that: set 12 DEX, 5 STR, 4 INT and 4 LUK. Whether points are placed by hand or automatically before level 10 is not confirmed. If the window lets you choose, choose DEX: and both need 25 DEX.

Weapon level	STR for the bow	STR for the crossbow
10	0	0
15	15	0
20	20	10
25	25	15
30	30	20

Add STR late. Ten STR is two levels of AP, so you can raise it in the two levels before you equip the weapon. Until then those points earn more in DEX. If you skip a weapon, skip its STR too, unless your armor needs it. Bowman armor needs STR equal to its level minus 10 from level 20 up. There is no real dexless bowman, and going STRless is a trap: see Bowman build variants.

1st job at level 10

See in , Henesys. A 25 DEX requirement for the job itself is disputed, and you will be past it anyway. By our reading you get 1 SP at advancement and 3 per level, so 61 by level 30.

Buy arrows from a grocer, not the weapon store: for bows, for crossbows, 1 meso each. Bowman leveling covers sellers and crafting.

Where the 61 SP go

Spend all 61 before you advance. It is reported, though not confirmed, that 2nd-job SP cannot go back into 1st-job skills.

Arrow Blow, not Double Shot

At skill level 20	Damage	Targets	MP	Arrows	Range
	240%	1	14	1	350
	120%	up to 2	16	2	300

Nobody has confirmed whether both Double Shot arrows can hit one mob. It does not change the advice. Either way, on one mob Arrow Blow does at least as much per cast, costs less MP, burns half the arrows and reaches 50 further. Double Shot can only win with two mobs in reach.

One report so far has its arrows splitting across two mobs and leaving both alive, though the same player felt it helped in a party. One point after Arrow Blow is a cheap way to try that. Do not max it.

Maxed Double Shot already? costs 7,000 NX and resets all skills except Beginner skills. Single resets also sold for mesos between players in the week to 7 Nov. Store listings show only asking prices, so ask in chat what one recently sold for. Use it before level 30 if you can, because nobody has tested whether 1st-job points refund after advancing.

Eye or Focus

This is the only real choice at 30. Arrow Blow 20 and Critical Shot 15 take 35 SP, which leaves 26.

Plan	Eye	Focus	Knockback	Arrow Blow range	Accuracy
Default	15	10	1	470	+14 for 170 s
Focus-heavy	6	20	0	425	+25 for 300 s

Train at or below your level, take range. Train above your level, take Focus. The gap is real but short-lived. By our estimate a level 30 bowman with 132 DEX hits a level 34 about 65% of the time on Focus 10 and about 90% on Focus 20. At level 34, Focus 10 is already enough.

Hunter or Crossbowman

Neither is the better class on current evidence. A handful of player opinions point both ways and nobody has measured either one. So decide by how you want to fight and the maps you want to use.

	Hunter	Crossbowman
Group skill at max	: 130% on each of up to 6 mobs in a blast 300 wide and 200 tall	: 180% on the first of up to 6 mobs in a line, falling with each mob
Bonus effect	30 to 60% chance to stun for 2 s	None
Final Attack at max	120%, up to 3 mobs, uses 3 arrows	360%, 1 mob, uses 1 arrow
Mastery bonus	+10% crit rate, +10 Movement Speed	+20% crit damage
Weapon speed, lower is faster	6, with two faster bows at 5	7, with two faster crossbows at 6
STR at 30 and at 70	30, 70	20, 60
Top W.ATK at 30 and at 70	50, 90	52, 92

Both pay 28 MP and 1 arrow for the group skill at max, and both get the same Booster, Soul Arrow and Amazon's Judgement.

The question that matters is how many mobs each shot hits. Damage per shot, adding up every mob, with both skills at max rank:

Mobs hit	Arrow Blow	Arrow Bomb	Iron Arrow (estimate)
1	240	130	180
2	240	260	324
3	240	390	439
4	240	520	531
5	240	650	605
6	240	780	664

Arrow Bomb is client data. Iron Arrow assumes each mob takes 80% of the one before, which is a community estimate. The client only says damage falls. This is rough maths on skill percent alone. It leaves out crits, mastery, Final Attack and the weapon and stat gap between the classes.

On skill percent alone, Iron Arrow leads up to about 4 mobs and Arrow Bomb from 5. A Crossbowman's extra DEX and W.ATK push that up by our estimate, so treat 5 mobs as about even and 6 as Arrow Bomb's clear case. Bows are also a speed step faster, and nobody has measured what a step is worth, so a real speed gain would help Arrow Bomb at any count.

Lean Hunter if your maps are mixed or stacked. The blast reaches 100 up and down from the mob it hits, so it does not need a clean line. Lean this way too if you want the stun, or expect to hit the full 6 mobs a shot.

Lean Crossbowman if you are happy to line mobs up along long platforms, or expect 3 mobs a shot or fewer. You also keep 10 more AP in DEX for the whole game and get the bigger single-target Final Attack. On stacked platforms Iron Arrow loses much of its value.

One player report so far says the same thing: Crossbowman is stronger on straight maps only, and Hunter's stun adds safety.

What does not separate them: the group skills cost the same, and neither weapon line has a shop past 25. Crits are nearly a wash. With an estimated base of 5% rate and +20% damage, Hunter crits about 35% of the time for +35%, and Crossbowman about 25% for +55%. That averages about 1.12 against 1.14.

The client has no job-change item, so treat the choice as permanent. 2nd-job skills lock to a bow or a crossbow. Steps are in Job advancement, and each branch has its own guide: Hunter, Crossbowman.

Gear you can actually get

and in stop at level 25, apart from Sam's level 26 Whitebottom Boots, which any class can wear, and no shop sells gloves. Above that you craft, trade or hunt.

"Listed" below means a reference drop that is not confirmed in Classic World. If you see one fall, report it. Prices are shop values. Crafting ranks are Woodcrafting for weapons and Leatherworking for armor. Woodcrafting shows as Carpentry on item pages. A cap at rank 8 is reported but not confirmed, so treat rank 9 and 10 recipes as possibly out of reach.

Rank is only the gate. Recipes also need Spool of Thread from Tailoring, Screws from Weaponcrafting, ingots from Smithing or gems from Arcforge. No shop sells those, so check the market before you plan on a recipe.

Weapons

Each cell shows W.ATK, then weapon speed. Lower speed is faster.

Level	Bow	Crossbow	How to get it
10	30, 6	32, 7	Karl, 5,000
15	35, 6	37, 7	Karl, 7,000
20	42, 6	39, 6	Karl, 13,500
25	44, 5	47, 7	Karl, 16,500
30	50, 6	52, 7	Rank 6. Ryden listed from , Eagle Crow from
35	52, 5	none	Rank 7, no listed drop
40	60, 6	59, 6	Rank 8. Vaulter listed from , Heckler from
45	none	67, 7	Rank 9, listed from
50	70, 6	72, 7	Rank 10. Olympus listed from , Rower from
60	80, 6	82, 7	Asianic listed from . Golden Crow has no known source
70	90, 6	92, 7	Listed from , Red Hinkel also from

If you are heading for Hunter: War Bow at 10, Hunter's Bow at 20, Battle Bow at 25. Composite Bow is optional. Battle Bow looks like +2 W.ATK for 3,000 more mesos, but it is also a speed step faster than every other shop bow. That is why it can carry you past 30: Ryden adds 6 W.ATK and loses the speed step.

If you are heading for Crossbowman: Crossbow at 10, Battle Crossbow at 15, Mountain Crossbow at 25. Battle Crossbow needs no STR. Balanche is optional: +2 W.ATK and a speed step faster for 13,500, for five levels.

No bow or crossbow above 25 is in a shop, so settle your level 30 plan in your late 20s.

Armor

Buy the level 20 DEX set, skip the 25 set if money is tight, and plan your gloves, the only slot a shop sells attack scrolls for. The table shows the best piece per slot.

Level	Hat	Top and bottom	Gloves	Shoes
10	DEX 1, Sam	or , with or , DEX 1 each, Sam	none	Speed +1, Sam
15	DEX 1, Sam	or , with , DEX 1 each, Sam	DEX 1, rank 3	Speed +1, Sam
20	DEX 2, Sam	or DEX 2, with DEX 2 or STR 1, DEX 1, Sam	DEX 2, rank 4	STR 1, DEX 1, Sam
25	DEX 2, Sam	(two versions, same stats), with , DEX 2 each, Sam	DEX 2, rank 5	Stay on Deer Huntertop, or at 26 buy Speed +2 or Avoid +2, Sam
30	Stay on Green Hunter	Stay on Bennis	DEX 3, rank 6	STR 2, DEX 1, or Speed +2, rank 6
35	Stay	and , DEX 3 each, listed from	DEX 3, rank 7	Stay
40	DEX 4, listed from , or stay on Green Hunter. STR 2, DEX 2 is the bowman row on , the end of a 570-doll chain, so expect it well after 40	and , or and , DEX 4 each, listed drops	DEX 4, rank 8	STR 1, DEX 1, rank 8
50	Stay	overall, DEX 10, listed from and	STR 2, DEX 3, listed from , or DEX 5, rank 10	Rank 10 or listed drops
60	DEX 3, listed	overall, DEX 12, listed	STR 3, DEX 3, from , quest level 65, or DEX 6, listed from	STR 2, DEX 2, listed
70	Listed drops only	overall, DEX 14, listed from	DEX 7, listed	STR 7, listed

• Skip a tier if money is tight. The level 20 and 25 DEX pieces give the same DEX. The 25 set adds a little W.DEF and 5 HP.
• Shoes will not give you DEX. The most on any bowman shoe is 2, so pick them for avoid, speed or jump.
• Gloves are worth planning. No shop sells them, so up to level 40 plan on crafting or the market, then listed drops or the level 65 quest. Every glove recipe to level 40 wants Spool of Thread, which only Tailoring makes. Gloves are also the one slot a shop sells attack scrolls for. is +1 W.ATK at 100%, 40,000 mesos from or . Five of them add about 10% to a 50 W.ATK weapon. Reports differ on the citizenship grade needed to buy them.
• Sure sources are rare, so use them. from gives +1 Accuracy. from gives +3 DEX and +4 Accuracy and needs level 50. Its chain wants 30 , listed only around Florina Beach, so buy those from players, or buy the finished cape. Stores list both. Level 55+ gear drops are unconfirmed. At that level only quest gloves and earrings have a sure source.

Live picks from the item stats, which skip anything with no known source:

Not confirmed yet

• Whether Double Shot can hit one mob twice.
• Whether AP is placed by hand before level 10, and whether the job really needs 25 DEX.
• Starting points, AP per level, and whether 1st job adds bonus AP. Stat totals in these guides assume no bonus.
• The SP rate of 1 at advancement and 3 per level. SP plans in these guides assume it.
• Whether STR or DEX on gear counts toward a weapon's requirement. Plan on base stats.
• Whether 2nd-job SP can go into 1st-job skills, and whether SP Reset refunds them after advancing.
• Whether crafting really stops at rank 8.
• Whether armor pairs with different names are male and female versions. Check the item before you buy.
• Whether level 60 and 70 weapons and armor drop at all yet.