I Tried Blade & Soul’s New Zen Archer Class

Actually lit. It’s so much fun, and incredibly powerful.
I’ve played every single class since the game launched, and although I enjoyed Warden, I will admit that I haven’t had this much fun playing a ranged class in Blade & Soul.
Now before we get into the video I do want to preface this by stating that the team behind Blade and Soul reached out to me and offered to sponsor a playthrough of the new Zen Archer class.
They provided me a level 60 voucher and allowed for me to showcase what the new class played like at endgame to offer you all a first-hand look.
If you like what you see, then you can go right ahead and click the link in the description and pinned comment to play Blade and Soul completely free!

So if you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, Blade and Soul is an action MMO – with arguably one of the better action combat systems out there.
The game is free to play, so any and all purchases you make are completely optional and up to you. There are no fees required to play the game.

What I wanted to go over specifically today, though, was the brand new large content update: Storm of Arrows.
Traditionally in MMOs – or – rather, games in general, I play as the mage class. This is because I enjoy exploding things with fireballs.
So I’m a little.. inept at other forms of ranged classes, specifically archers. So I apologize in advance for being terrible at this.

The newest class – the Zen Archer is the 5th ranged-class in Blade and Soul thus far, with it being the most recent addition to the game overall.
The last ranged class was the Gunslinger, and that was all the way back in 2017.
One thing that I’ve always liked about Blade and Soul is the frequency of updates, and the fact that they keep the game fresh with brand new classes to try out and enjoy. Keeps things from getting redundant.
The Zen Archer is restricted to the Jin and Yun races – but honestly, imagine hitting a little mobile Lyn Archer.. Imagine a Lyn hiding in a tiny bush and ambushing you with a volley of arrows. Yeah. Scary.
The class itself was interesting to me. You had the ability to engage enemies close-range – like, not close as in a melee character, but you had skills meant specifically for close quarter combat.
Then you had skills to disengage from combat, your typical long-range skills and man was I powerful.
I remember being Hongmoon level 13 on my Warden and I felt powerful then. But this.. I felt unstoppable.

This lead me to queue for the brand new dungeon introduced with the Storm of Arrows update: Cathedra Cliffs.
This dungeon specifically is targeted at players with a minimum Hongmoon level of 21.. and is currently the most difficult dungeon found within the game.
All dungeons are 6-player co-op meaning you can have a max 6 players within the dungeon at a given time. But you’re not required to fill out your party.
Since Cathedra Cliffs has such a high Hongmoon requirement, not many people were queueing for it when MrsStix and I tried searching for a party.
Thus.. we figured y’know what? How difficult can a dungeon be.
So we opted to tackle it just the two of us.. and upon entering, had several other people join to aid us.

The Throne of Oblivion has an entry requirement of Hongmoon Level 17, so theoretically.. you might have better luck running it if you’re on the lower spectrum of the Hongmoon level.
Raids in Blade and Soul are 12-player instances – so you’re going to need a few friends before deciding to tackle it. And by a few, I mean a dozen or so.
Or you could PUG it. But I have a bad history with PUGs.

Now instanced content and the new Zen Archer weren’t the only things added. Nope, as per every Blade and Soul update, there was a lengthy extension to the story.
I won’t spoil anything for you other than what you see in the video, but suffice it to say, the story is one of the things that really gripped me with this game and is one of the main reasons I continue to come back.
I thoroughly enjoy the story – and am back every large update to see what happens next.

To showcase the Zen Archer I didn’t want to do exclusively dungeon or raid related content, so I did visit a few other hotspots.
I went ahead and did some of the daily and weekly challenge quests – these generally require you enter dungeons but they aren’t limited to instances.
I went back to the Celestial Basin – I actually still have a little PTSD from this place.

And finally, one of the things that aided me in leveling – but didn’t exclusively offer XP items, but a much, much larger array of goodies was the Bountiful Harvest Treasure Trove.
MrsStix just YOLO’d her options, clicking whatever looked the sparkliest. I opted for as many XP items as possible so I could gain the largest level advantage over my competition.
You get one free Treasure Trove key per day. When you open the Treasure Trove you’re given the option of purchasing 1 item with gold from the random selection of items that are generated.
While you’ll find XP items as I mentioned, other items will consist of cosmetic items such as costumes, pets, upgrade materials and other items.”

And that was pretty much it.

I did a lot on the Zen Archer, and had an absolute blast playing the new class. It is by far one of my 3 favorite classes in-game right now.
The new content is incredibly difficult, requiring you have an understanding of mechanics – both of your class and the bosses.
If you’re interested, again, in trying out either the new class, the new dungeon and raid content, or like me – are interested in the ever-evolving storyline, then go ahead and use my link in the description and pinned comment.
It’ll take you right to the game so you can play!

But that’s just my opinion – my first impression of the game. What do you guys think? Did you enjoy it? Do you enjoy it? will you try it out or do you even want to?
Let me know in the comments below and let’s talk about it!

Anyway guys, that’s it for me. Thanks for watching, hopefully you enjoyed the video, don’t forget to subscribe for more content like this and I’ll see you all next time, peace!