The Greater Archer Debate: FA or FA-less?

Unlike the AB vs. DS debate, a conclusion has not yet been reached. FA and FA-less have many pros and cons for and against both of them; this coupled with the fact that FA is a very "feel" based attack makes this is a difficult topic to discuss in the archer community.

Just know full well that if you go either FA or FA-less, the other half of the archer population will think you are stupid!

Reasons to get Final Attack:

* You are fine with 5 Soul Arrow and 15 Bow Booster.
o This should probably be explained in more depth. Soul Arrow and Bow Booster work as timer skills. Adding points to them does not increase their effectiveness as they only really decrease how often you cast these skills. The mana cost for both of these skills is negligible, and by using 5 SA /15 BB, you are already gaining back the mana cost by natural mana regeneration (both skills last 150 seconds at those levels, so you gain back 45 mana; BB and SA combined only costs 30 mana and 15 hit points at those levels).
* You wish for more damage/time.
o Final Attack increases your shots/time quite a lot. Final attack is fired at least 2x faster than DS, and so your bow shoots much faster as FA comes out.
* You want to save mesos.
o Final Attack is a free skill that activates 60% of the time when maxed. This means that instead of firing your DS, which costs 16 mana, 60% of the time you will shoot something for free. This gives loads of savings in mana potions.
* FA has no minimum range.
o If Final Attack activates, you won't "bow-whack". You will always fire FA, no matter what the distance between you and your enemy.
* FA knocks back enemies when DS cannot.
o While many archers agree that knockback is not a necessary feature, they do agree that it is a nifty little feature of FA. DS damage is split over two weaker shots, while FA is one strong shot. This means that enemies that require 1000 damage dealt to them at once to be "flinched" or "KBed" may not be KBed by DS, and have a much higher chance of getting KBed by FA.
* FA does not fire when you jump shot with a bow. However, you may need jump shoes or activate booster for it to not activate (For Hunters, +1 Jump is all that is required). Furthermore, because XBows are slower, FA may still fire with an XBow. The amount of jump required to not activate FA on an XBow is around +13.

Reasons to NOT get Final Attack

* To max out SA and Bow Booster.
* When you skip FA, you get your mob skill much earlier on, and Iron Arrow/Arrow Bomb are very potent on large mobs of weak enemies, the main thing you will train on during those early levels.
* You dislike FA itself; that is, you think the skill makes you worse and not better.
o There is a valid argument to this. FA is a double-edged sword. While it does increase your damage/second, your mobility and control over your character is reduced — you lose control of your character during that 1/3 of a second when FA is fired. FA-less archers also note that while FA is firing, your crowd-control skills such Bomb or IA may be delayed (and in general, their effectiveness is lowered).
* FA can get you mobbed if it gets activated. The delay can cause you not to turn quick enough if there is an enemy behind you, alas, causing damage.

Facts

* FA does not activate when using 3rd job skills.
o This sounds bad, but it is also good. Strafe does so much damage in the 3rd job that it beats DS/FA in all respects, including speed and power. If final attack activated in 3rd job skills, you'd be weaker. So it is a good thing it goes away.
* FA always hits only one enemy. (It may even end up hitting a monster you didn't even provoke, such as when the skill activates and a monster spawns right in front in that same period of time.)
* DS is more powerful than FA. See DS vs. AB debate; the rules in the debate apply to FA as well. FA receives only +100% from Critical Shot, and thus the max damage is 350% damage. But because FA is faster than DS and is a free shot, FA is more mana/damage efficient and damage/time efficient.
* The delay of FA is between .3 and .35 of a second for bows, it is unknown what the delay is for XBows. For some, this is too long, others, it is not noticeable, which contributes to the controversy of this skill.

Dragontamer believes that as a rule of thumb, Hunters should get FA, while XBows should not. Hunters are much faster than XBows, and thus the lost time from FA is easily made up by the speed of your bow. This does not mean that it is a bad idea to be FAless if you are a Hunter or to get FA if you are an XBow however.http://strategywiki.org/wiki/MapleStory/Bowman_Guide/Builds