Hi!

Here there is a guide about playing the archer class in pvp. I assume that you know the basics, I will not go into detail about trivial stuff. I will refer to skills as their popular names for better understanding.
So the skills and how to use them effectively:

Buffs:
After you have buffed up you should use your reskill (lapiris touch) pretty soon. If the first reskill fails you can use it again in 12 minutes when the buffs run out and you can't use them again yet.
You can use your buffs to make your opponents waste their debuff. You put on 2 of the 4, enemies will see that you are buffed at first glance and debuff you. Than you can use your more useful buffs (or protection potions) so they have to waste ANOTHER debuff on you instead of mages for example.
I see a lot of archers running around without buffs because there is a lot of action going on and they would have to stop for buffs and waste time. I think it's wrong. Think of the physical deffense buff as a free +1 upgrade on all of your gear for example! Also enemies will most likely avoid you more if they see some buffs on you even if the buffs are useless.
Some people use the permanent upograde buffs like survival tinc. or potion of serendity so that enemies have to scroll through those to see if they have priest buffs.
The crit buff (sharp senses) is very useful, try to remember using it all the time! It gives not only a decent extra dps (~8%) but makes it harder to use skills for your opponents because you interrupt them with your crits more.

The knockback (shout of air): Learn to use it as a reflex. If anyone approaches you, be prepared to use it! You will find yourself in situations when your flash is on cooldown but a stun would be really great. Than it is the perfect time to use a knockback. With good abb, you can kill mages from ~60% hp while they are knocked down. Especially useful when you are slowed so you can't kite.

Combo shots (sharp arrowhead+continous shot):
Watch videos on youtube about archers with good abbruchbug (4irmax, iN3V3R, Resu and many more)! The basic idea is that you can cancel the animation of skills if you change the direction of your movement. I hope I don't have to say this but DO NOT jump if it's not necessary.
You will probably fail at it sometimes and your character will just stop moving and get locked in a standing animation. How to fix it? Hold down one of the direction buttons (wasd) continously and alternate the rest of the buttons.
Another tip is to use both of your hands, one for shooting, one for moving. You can do this even by letting go of the mouse. Just bind keys to the right side of the keyboard so that you can reach it fast.
For very fast burst you have to mix other shots with the combo shots because it takes time while the first combo shot hits your enemy. For example combo 1 ->flash ->combo 2
Only do abb when it's useful! Sometimes positioning yourself correctly is more important than shooting fast.

The dot shot (deadly poison arrow):
A very underused skill. When to use it? a) On bosses (for example world boss or document boss) all the time. When your combo shots are on cooldown it should be used because it does decent damage and uses much less mana than snipe (the 200% damage shot). b) On warriors. You will do little damage on them and the damage of the DoT is fixed. It will tick on them for 69 no matter their armor. c) When debuff is on cooldown and it would be very necessary. Again, the DoT is fixed. Or if they have shield (invincibilty) on, the DoT will hit them for some ticks when the shield is over. d) Instead of debuff to bait your opponent's dodge. Good players can dodge debuff all the time but you can bait them to waste their dodge on the poison arrow because it looks similar.

Vacuum bomb:
Add it to your combo, it does add a lot of damage! But keep in mind that it takes a lot of mana. So avoid using it when you are low on mana!

The AOE (rain of arrows):
Spam it when you have some freetime in fights! Many people just run around on mounts nowadays but I think it's not too good. You should be on your feet trying to put down a good aoe.
Use obstacles (trees, fences) to hide behind so that you can put aoes right on the enemy team. It's a very good tip in general, always look for those covers!
Keep an eye on your mages. The key to winning fights is to follow up the stuns. If you see some frozen enemies you have to do EVERYTHING to get there and put an aoe on them. Get on your horse, risk dying, whatever!
You can put down a forward aoe, one that touches the enemy team slightly. If you do this you will be in the risk of getting feared. If you expect it coming adjust the camera to fear control position while casting the aoe so that you start moving into the right direction from the first moments.
It's probably basic but cancel the basic attack when you put an aoe or it can cancel it.

Split arrow (spirit's guidence):
Learn to use it as a reflex when you see an enemy shadow. Also in the rare situations when both snipe and combo shots are on cooldown you can use this for single target damage.
It breaks the invisibility of anyone. You can use it on a random mob or a player to bring out nightwalkers or invi stunners. It's especially useful when the sacri priest is hiding with invi potion.
There is a trick that allows you to jump (and move by this) under the animation of any standing still-casting skill. Practice it: Hit space just in the moment when the skill finished casting and the animation starts. If you also hit a direction button you can also jump somewhere else, not just in one place. It can be done well with this skill.

Flash (flash bomb):
Try not to use it too obviously! Good players can dodge it if it is the first thing you shoot. It's not that common though.
Try to move "sharply" when shooting it. I mean try to cancel its animation a lot so that people have no time to react.
You can shoot flash and inmediately run out of range. This way your opponent can't cast his own stun. Then you get back in range and kill him.
Best targets for flash are mages and evocator pets. The worst are priests.

Debuff (chaotic arrow):
The best skill of archers, use it all the time.
Good players can dodge it very well. To avoid this you can start casting, cancel it immediately and cast it again. It messes up their timing.
I often see many archers debuffing the same target. The best you can do is canceling it in that situation. You should also cancel it if you see that the enemy is getting a lot of damage and will be dead by the time the arrow hits.

Snipe:
I'm not a big fan of this skill. Most of the time you are better off shooting 2 basic attacks instead of this. But there are some situations when it's useful: When the enemy is running to his teammates and you can't follow him. You just shoot a snipe after him from safe distance. It is also useful when the enemy is blinded and he waits for getting low to use a potion or invincibility. The big burst in one shot can surprise them if they don't see it coming.

Shadow (shadow of soul):
You should spam it when you have nothing to do. Often you are almost dead, don't have anything left. Don't give up, use this skill! It will fail but at least it makes them tab anotjer time and it can save you.
Use it when you see mages or evo pets coming! Often you can avoid the hole stun or at least be invisible while stunned.
By using the jumping technique described under split arrow you can make surprise attacks. You jump towards someone while using shadow and they won't expect you to be that close. They will use aoe or something and you can flash them while they cast.

Escape:
Learn using it as a reflex and than stop using it as a reflex. Sometimes you will get multiple stuns or get the next stun right after you have escaped. It is especially important against warriors and nightwalkers. Use it wisely against them. Against freeze it just have to be very fast. Precasting it is very useful. You see the freeze coming and you start casting escape before you are stunned and the freeze gets removed instantly.
Sometimes you want to get rid of the invi and the slow of the shadow skill. I advice you to do it with a canceled escape. It doesn't draw too much attention.

Sprint (Move like the wind):
The other most useful skill of archers. Don't waste it, use it right before an actual encounter!
Don't use any invicibility or shadow to survive while this is on, you can just run away 90% of the time.
Use the reskill after you have used this skill to reset it!

Reskill (lapiris touch):
I advice you to put this skill in your main skillbar. It has a short cast time so you can use it in middle of fights. You can reset flash, aoe, shield and so on.

Shield (lapirid blessing):
Always try to use it after a debuff.
In bigger fights it cannot be used like in small ones or duels. The best you can do is casting it before taking damage and charging in to fight but be careful because it will draw the attention of debuffers.
In archer vs archer duels you should try to fake it to bait the debuff. Like cast it and cancel it. Or use escape imstead of it because it looks similar.


So these were the advanced tricks that came into my mind. I know it's very long and impossible to remember all of it but at least it's available for people.
Feel free to share your archer tips!

Hi!
I decided to create a 2nd part of this advanced archer guide. I realized that those random tips for each skill are not very useful in their own. So this part will be more of a general and philosophical approach.


1. How to improve?
In my opinion there are 4 type of players, each type on other skill level:

Level 1: The player who doesn't know anything about the game.
Level 2: The player who thinks about how to use his own character. He thinks about which button is which skill, what should he use to debuff, how to abb and stuff like this. I think the classic "newbie" player is on this level. He does pvp but it's clear to everyone that he is not good.
Level 3: The player who knows how to use his own character (level 2, he does it mostly automatically) and he thinks about what his opponent will do. When does the fear come, when to use dodge to avoid debuff, when will his opponent bubble and so on. You get the idea. Most players are on this level in my opinion. You can never perfect this level, with practice you can think of more and more enemies in the same time and more and more options.
Level 4: The player who does level 2 and 3 mostly automatically (you can never perfect them though) and actively thinks about what his teammates do. The most basic example is: when does our mage go in, when should I follow? Or does my support has bubble? Is he even near? Things like these. I think this level is the real difference maker. This is mostly invisible to others but it's very very important.

I remember feeling that I have no potential to do any better in fights than I did. I used to feel that everything is streamlined. For example when i got stunned by a mass fear I felt like it could have been impossible to avoid it anyways. Or I shot a mage and the priest healed him many many times. And I said it's all planned, it will happen 100/100 of the time, I can't do anything to get success. But I was wrong.
I didn't realize that I'm stuck on my current level. I had to start to think about other things while playing, I had to step on the next level. So yeah, honestly admit which level you are on and try to improve this way.
You will learn level 2 automatically over time and if you read the first part of my guide about the skills. You can improve level 3 by dueling a lot. And you can improve level 4 by playing support priest. But if you just do general pvp and force yourself to think about these that's enough too.


2. What to do in a fight exactly?
According to my and the experience of others I say the following. I have no specific reasoning for it, it just works in practice:

1. Put an aoe bettween the friendly and the enemy team! 2. Use sprint! 3. Look for overextending players and debuff/kill them! 4. Use shadow! 5. Continue looking for overextending players, overextend a bit yourself and try to debuff/burst someone! And repeat!

Of course you don't have to follow these exactly, real skill is when you stop following rules but it's the baseline.

Some things to avoid doing:
Don't stay in the backline! Archer is like a half-tank, try to use it that way.
Don't shoot people without debuffing! Even if you hit an opponent decently other teammates may not so help them by debuffing targets all the time.
Don't run around on your horse if your shadow/aoe/sprint is ready to be used! Priests and mages do it because they don't have sprint, shadow and as good range as archer. You don't have to copy them. Don't get me wrong, you should use your horse if you have to get somewhere very fast but don't just chill on your horse!


3. How aggressive to be?
It's a tricky question. You probably see many good archers in the ranking with very few deaths and playing very defensively. But I don't recommend to go for as few deaths as possible. Sure, it's a nice challenge but if you want to improve you have to experience a lot of situations many times. Which you can't do if you just avoid danger. So try to always push yourself towards being as aggressive as possible. But it's very important to actively notice your limits. What is the highest level of aggressiveness that you can get away with?
But don't just go for one style all the time! Opponents will start to know your next move if you always play in the same way. And it gives a very fresh experience if you try some other styles too. Let's say you try to go for as few deaths as possible in one day and for as many as possible on another day.


4. Random tips.

A very important skill of an archer is target selection. The most precise way to choose a target is not by tabbing but by clicking on it with your mouse.
It is possible to dodge flashes. If you run away from your opponent it gives you more time and it let's you dodge his flash.
It is possible to dodge flash, yes. But it's more important to dodge debuff or axe. Don't waste your dodge! Also don't waste it on fears even if you see it coming. 90% of the time it will not work anyways.
Use dodge very cautiously! Always remember that it really makes it hard for your priests to help you. So if you are almost dead and you still have the dodge, don't use it!
Use the "turn character around 180°" and "turn camera around 180°" buttons. It is the most optimal way to move around.
Often you find yourself in the situation when the teams don't do anything, nobody engages. If you trust your priest you can try to bait the enemy team into attacking you, creating an opportunity for your own team to attack the enemies who get grouped up to kill you. Archer is a half-tank because you are hard to damage when buffed and you can use your shield when debuffed. So for a short time archer is actually very good to tank.
Shield usage is very key. Using it before taking damage is very hard in mass pvp but it can save you very well. You need a good game sense to know when you will get in trouble and use it before because later you will get stunned.