Originally conceptualized on Kysei, the heavy-armored Arbalest is a fearsome predator. Requiring great strength and training, they fire weapons such as swords and axes chained to their bodies from large metallic bows. While effective, they are impractical in normal warfare, and are usually only seen as specialists.
Buster Cannon is extremely effective, greatly lowering the target's Phys and Magic Defenses, as well as their Armor. Use it against physically defensive enemies to greatly increase the damage allies deal to them.
Chained Boomerang and Straight Cannon will both apply the on-hit effects of your Special Armament. You may want to choose a weapon that has such an item effect for maximum effectiveness.
Oil Chain reduces the Momentum cost of most of the 'Chained' skills, but it also leaves behind powerful field tiles when triggered. Leading or pulling monsters through them can deal a lot of extra damage.
Shore Up's high Momentum cost makes it difficult to use efficiently. Try getting bonus Momentum from a critical hit or hitting an enemy's weakness, and then using it, so you don't spend a turn doing nothing but reloading.
Strengths[]
Great synergy with classes that grant you survivability or also use Heavy Armor, such as Black Knight, Demon Hunter (Matador Stance) or Ghost (Wraithguard).
Firing Posture will greatly increase their range, and guarantee that your Arbalest Cannon skills will at least graze an enemy and do its effects, so evading is not an option against an Arbalest who is buckled down.
Blowback Cannon can easily buy your teammates a turn to recover and regroup, as it will scatter all the enemies across the battlefield and knock them down. Just make sure to aim them towards the center of the battle, not the battle borders, for maximum effectiveness.
Heavy Tackle can be used to forcefully disengage from an enemy in melee range, by bashing them across the field. This ignores Knockback immunity and can Knockdown, buying you time for one or two more shots.
Can use Bows in melee range with very few drawbacks, due to Arbalest Specialist added together with Close Shot in Archery Talent.
Drawbacks[]
Despite utilizing Heavy Armor, the class lacks additional bonuses to damage reduction or parries, utilizing only raw Defense and Resistance, which can make them less durable than more tanky classes like Black Knight or Ghost.
Firing Posture will make them immobile, which can be dangerous in some situations when the enemy gets too close.
Bows tend to suffer a bit on shoring up Scaled Weapon Attack, therefore making it hard to stack up damage on this class. The requirement of Critical Hits may also stretch some defensive builds a bit thin if they wish to score those bonuses.
Special Armaments are limited to only Swords, Spears and Axes. The only way to utilize unconventional weapons such as Tomes is through using Arbalest/Arbalest, which can be quite ineffective in the grand scheme.
Unlocking[]
To unlock the Arbalest, one must equip Heavy Armor and win a battle using a bow as a Level 20+ Archer.
Alternatively, you can equip a Bow in your Main Hand and a Sword, Spear or Axe in your Off Hand.
Arbalest
STR
WIL
CEL
SKI
DEF
RES
VIT
LUC
FAI
GUI
SAN
APT
