I have stopped playing this game, and I thought it would be a waste not to post this guide I was working on earlier. Experienced archers, feel free to fill in the gaps, and maybe extend it into the later abyss levels.
=================================================
This guide is more abyss related than anything else. Once you learn the basics you can kite anywhere as long as there’s enough room. Also, the abyss is a great place to learn because the mobs are fairly weak, good exp, and good drops.

CASH SHOP: If you’re going to buy anything from the cash shop, make it things that increase HP or DEF. +9 bow is nice if you can afford it, but not needed.

BUILDS:

There are so many variations of builds, and arguments back and forth for archers that it’s very difficult to say yes or no to any build. Some will say END so you can kite more mobs, others will argue that END on your equips is enough because they hit less when you kite. Some will say full STR because more damage means faster kills, others will argue that not much damage actually comes from skill damage and that poison damage does the work. Some will say tons of DEX so you evade more hits, others will argue that losing the damage increase from STR, or losing the defense from END is not worth it for evasion…….

Me personally, I went full STR :: 10 SPR. Once I hit lvl 45~ I started adding END. The reason I did this is because lvl 1 ~ 50 is very slow. Full STR allowed me to train faster previous to lvl 51 when we can start kitting. I don’t miss the lost defense from all that STR, I just slap on some T3 defense and hold on for dear life. The mobs in the abyss have very low defense and attack so at lvl 51 you can easily start kitting entire rooms solo. By the time you reach lvl 70 (60 abyss is good too) you will have lots of END. (monsters outside the abyss have higher defense/damage).

Looking back at the situation, I think I would have done some sort of hybrid build, though alot of people would scream at me for saying that.

I would advise a END/DEX build, maybe 1:1 END/DEX. Maybe someone who reads this can fill in the gaps for me and I’ll quote you.

BASIC BUILD:
-full str until you hit lvl 51
-END after you hit lvl 51
-DEX whenever you want, if you want. T2 aim/evasion scrolls are dirt cheap and should make up for lost aim, if any.

EMPOWERMENTS:

Whatever the heck you want, as long as you have 5 free skill points by lvl 51. You’ll want to add 5 points into cooldown for natures mist ASAP. You can add power after cooldown as you level up. MAKE SURE YOU SAVE 5 POINTS FOR COOLDOWN ON NATURES MIST!!!!!!!!111

METHOD:
It’s quite simple, and I don’t mean to sound funny either. Run around, grab some mobs, and cast your aoe. Stone when you need to, pot when you need to, and DON’T STOP RUNNING. If you stop, you’re going to take a bunch of damage all at once as every mob hits you at once. It could kill you instantly if you take too much. Don’t just cast your AOE and then let the poison do the work though, keep using it! The damage from the skill adds up to about half of the poison damage with +8 ~ +9 weapon.

Questions that I had that I found the answer to later:

- Do I need +9 gears to be a good kite?
No, in fact I believe upgrading your armor would be a waste of time. The mobs don’t hit you constantly, they hit then run a bit to catch up. High END on your gear however, helps alot.

- Do I need to have a +9 bow
No, aproximetly half the damage you deal to monsters comes from dragging them around with 40 poision damage every second. The damage you deal from casting your aoe dishes out the rest. You can’t increase the poison damage by getting a +9 bow. The result is that getting a +9 bow WILL help, but is not required because you can still dish out decent skill damage from the aoe. Also, after you clear out a room, you end up housing to wait for respawns anyway. Most of the time you theoretically save is wasted there.

- What about scrolls, am I going to need scrolls?
Yes, unfortunately. T1 speed scroll is good enough, T2 is a nice luxury but you don’t need it. What you do need however, is T3 HP and T3 defense scrolls. Before you freak out, consider that you will be able to solo kite and collect all the drops yourself. When soloing the top room of the lvl 50 abyss, I bring in around 100s per trip from drops. It takes about 30 minutes to make one trip, spending 16s ~ 25s (bijou) on T3/T2 scrolls suddenly becomes insignificant. I would highly recomend T2 magic defense and T2 evasion. M.def for the vivis, evasion because it helps kite.

- What about pots, do I need a cleric?
T3 HP pots are sort of needed. If you intend to solo I highly recomend you buy them. I use about 20 per trip. The reason is because sometimes when you kite too many mobs, your stones won’t fill your HP enough to keep you alive. If you bring a cleric, your EXP is cut in half pretty much. The result is that you won’t use nearly as many stones or HP pots but your loot, exp, and leveling speed is cut in half. If you are having alot of trouble try bringing another 51+ archer instead of a cleric. You’ll kill mobs faster and share 50% of the agro depending on who tries to take it. While a cleric can certainly make your life easier, you really aren’t saving much time in terms of exp gained.

- How much money can I make, how often do you restone?
If you solo one of the small rooms in the abyss you can bring in around 40s ~ 50s per run. If you solo one of the top rooms (bigger room, more mobs) then you can bring in around 100s per trip. Minus the cost of T3 scrolls/stones/pots of course. If you make your own pots it works better because you get basically all the mats you need right from the abyss.

IMPORTANT: Do not simply NPC your drops. I do it because I’m a lazy tool but if you check the vendors near storage in elderine you can usually sell some of your dims, beast leather…etc for higher than NPC price. This gives you more money but takes a bit longer.

- Do people try to kill you for the rooms?
Not really, what you need to keep in mind however, is that if you’re soloing in a room that can help 3 or 4 people train…….Maybe you should let them train. I haven’t had anyone try to kill me yet, probably because I’m nicer than most people though (no offense). If they come in with a fighter, cleric, and DD I tend to let them have the room. This is just common courtesy, not my own weird ways. If I’m close to lvl up, I ask them if I can party for a few more minutes until I level. Nobody has said no yet, mainly because they’d be stupid to turn down a kiting archer in their party

Things that I discovered that you might want to know

- People will probably ask to party you alot. It’s usually lower lvl 40+ people who come in asking for a party. Try not to turn these people down. If you don’t want to, then just don’t but think about it….Archers are the one class that can really help train people, and even if they are leeching you’re still getting exp way faster than any other class at your level. If you want, put drops on sequential and ask them to pickup all the drops. If it’s a cleric, ask for heals of course. Ask them to try and kill the vivis for you (I’ll get to this later). If they die don’t sweat it, help them if they are being mobbed but don’t go out of your way just to save them. Chances are they’ll gain back the lost exp in 30 seconds when they get back. Karma people!

- If you are going to buy a charm from the cash shop, make it charm of DEF. Don’t go for charm of STR like I did. My logic was, oh I’ll get more damage and kill them faster but that’s not the case. As I mentioned before, a large portion of the damage you deal comes from the 40 poison every second. Charm of STR can’t increase that. You’re better off kitting the mobs easier for a bit longer than trying get rid of them faster. If you can afford both, go nuts. I’m not saying charm of STR doesn’t help. It does, just not as much as you might think. Charm of DEF works wonders. At lvl 57 it reduced each attack by about 25 damage. That might not seem like much, but consider that you’ll have probably 20-30 mobs trying to hit you all at once. That adds up very quickly.

- Sometimes the mobs tend to get too close to eachother. They’ll sort of meet into one mob. It looks like maybe 1 or 2 mobs are following you but it could be many more than that. To test, just throw an aoe and watch the damage. If a gazillion numbers fly up, KEEP RUNNING lol. If only one or two pop up you can probably relax a bit and try collecting drops.

AOE patterns. Feel free to contribute your own, here’s a few that I’ve come up with.

CIRCLE: The best one, in my opnion, is the circle. Especially in the abyss because they have these nice little circular crystal things for you to run around. You’ll get really freakin’ dizzy after a while but it’s awesome. All you do is run around the circle while kitting. The result is that when the mobs die all the drops will be right around the circle, and you can collect them while you run around kitting too. There’s one disadvantage, you get hit more. Because you’re constantly losing speed by turning they catch up more often. However, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Also, watch out for sides of the crystal circle thing. Sometimes you caught on them and you stop running. Just stone and click somewhere to get going again.

Traits
+ Easy to collect drops
+ Easy to kill vivis (see below)
+ Less space required to kite
+ Convenient circle things in lvl 50 abyss
+ Easier for a cleric to heal if you bring one.
+ Good for begginers

- Get dizzy
- Get hit more
- Harder on the wrists because you’re constantly turning
- Pegs on the crystal thing get annoying (lvl 50 abyss)

VIVIS: One very nice advantage to the circle is that the vivis are easy to kill. Usually they are extremely annoying because they are ranged attackers, if you run in a straight line, it’s hard to hit them. The technique that I discovered with "rubies" of Bijou is to run in a circle with the vivis in the center of this circle. Conveniently, simply running around the crystals will draw the vivis straight into the center. This also works without the crystal things. What’ll happen is the vivi will stop moving and just continously attack you. Then, run in a circle and fire your aoe so that it strikes the vivi as well as the mobs behind you. This will take some practise, but it’ll stop you from pulling out your hair trying to get rid of those darn vivis. This also works for the archers/mages in abyss that attack with long range skills, although the mages are only in the hallways and aren’t an issue. You can also kill them by planning ahead, kill them before you get all the mobs on you. You can also target the vivis and use your DoT skills as you run. This will take down their HP faster.

ZAMBONI (A): This is probably what’s better after you get the hang of things. When you are able to kite in the big room in the lvl 50 abyss, this will be pretty nice. The reason it’s good is because you don’t hit as much as with the circle pattern. You run in a straight line which means the mobs hit you alot less. It’s easier too because you aren’t turning 24/7 like the circle. The only time you really need to worry about being hit is when you are turning. However, if you make the turns very wide you can get even better results. The problem is that your loot will be skattered everywhere. You can kill the vivis when you make your turns though, use the half-circle with the vivi in the center and just hit it. If you time it right, you can hit them twice per turn usually.

Traits
+ Easier on the wrists
+ Less circles, less dizzy
+ Hit less because you run in a straight line usually
+ Good for aoe in the big rooms of the lvl 50 abyss

- Takes lots of space
- Drops harder to collect
- Clerics have to run to keep up (clerics range has been upgraded though)
- Harder to see when your partner needs help, if you have one

STAPLE (B): The staple is a modified version of the zamboni. The main reason to use this pattern is because it takes less space, and your drops aren’t skattered as much. It has the same benefits and disadvantages as the zamboni, all you do is turn a bit sharper at the ends. If you’re feeling fairly lazy and can take a few hits, just do a straight line and turn 180 degrees instantly. Arguably that’s bit a harder though because of the abrupt camera angle change.

TIPS:

- Set natures mist to your mousewheel. To do this, put natures mist in some unused slot on your actionbar. Lets say for example "6". Go to options and then shortcut settings. Find "6" and click it, you should be able to reassign it to the mousewheel by pressing down the mousewheel button. (don’t slide it, press it so it clicks). If your mouse doesn’t have a wheel on it, head over to your local PC repair shop and buy a mouse with a mousewheel…Should only cost a few bucks for a used one.

- Don’t be afraid to say no when somebody asks to party you, be nice about it, but most people are just asking to get plvled.

- Try to restone as fast as possible so that nobody takes the room while you are gone. If they did take it, move elsewhere and don’t sweat it. They probably didn’t even know you were training there. You’ll be restonning fairly often so try not to get used to any particular room. You’ll be shifting around alot.

Credits go to yourmojo.