Craftsman Archer Playthrough - Worth Doing?

Hello; I'm a returning player after years of inactivity, from way before the skill rework. I've been doing a regular playthrough with a friend recently, and we're around the level 50-60 range of quests.

I've expressed interest in doing a crafting playthrough to my friend before, and though they were hesitant to encourage me to do so, I'm the type to enjoy the kind of grind Craftsman offers. I also, admittedly, am drawn to the sense the sense of personalization it offers. I've already decided I want to do it, so if you're here to discourage me from trying, then don't; at least, unless there's some major crafting overhaul in the pipeline coming soon I should wait for.

When I suggested the idea of playing an Archer for the playthrough, my friend told me it was the worst class in the game and would make it even more tedious and staunchly recommended I choose another class. I still like the imagery of crafting my own bow to use, though. Is Archer so unworkable that doing a Craftsman Archer playthrough is really that bad of an idea? And if so, why?

Please be polite, I'm genuinely interested in what more avid and experienced players have to say.

 

Archer is debatably the strongest class in the game (though they're all honestly pretty evenly balanced at this point, outside extreme examples), especially for a fairly casual player (it offers a lot of tools that can make difficult content more manageable and excellent potential for soloing bosses), so no idea what they're on about. It gets really good damage, really good range (it is archer after all), and good mobility via windy feet if you're so inclined. The only downside is low base defense, so you take more damage, but it's also the easiest class to just avoid damage on. Bows are also, I believe, one of the better weapons to craft, but I'm by no means an expert and you should definitely get that fact checked by someone who knows more about that. At the very least, I do know that crafted Spring replacements have been really popular for a long time, so unless there was a recent nerf I didn't hear about, that's probably still a really strong option for the lategame. I do suspect crafted archer would be a bit weaker than a lot of meta builds for archer (Epoch and Labyrinth builds in particular), but I highly doubt you couldn't make something that could solo basically any solo content in the game.

 

Huh, I see. Perhaps the friend hadn't played Archer in a long time and forgotten its strengths, or were biased against it for some reason?

Thanks a bunch for your input, I'll definitely look into the "bows being the better crafted weapons" thing, and it's reassuring to hear that the class isn't as bad as my friend made it out to be!

 

Right now archer feels a little worse of if you look at dealing large aoe damage.
Melkor isn't wrong about boss solo potential though, it is a joy to do so.

Unless you use very specific mythics, most of the archetype combos make fighting large groups of mobs tedious. This quickly gives the feeling of being underpowered compared to other classes.

 

Ohhhhhh okay. That makes sense. That's alright, a friend has offered to do a crafting playthrough alongside me so I won't be alone, so it shouldn't be too bad. Thanks for the extra input!