Skeleton Archers are undead warriors who wield bows and fire arrows at their enemies. They have appeared in all three of the Diablo games, as ranged variants of their Skeleton brethren.
Skeletons do not seek to consume the flesh of the living as do many of their other undead kindred, but seek only to slay those who live to increase their ranks. Single-minded in their mission to slay the living, some of these animated warriors now use the bows that served them in life to deadly effect.
Skeleton Archers return in Diablo II. They appear often in large packs, and they can be quite deadly; on higher difficulties, only a few volleys are enough to kill even the sturdiest of warriors. They can be found normally with other monsters and act as suppressive fire until the melee units get close enough. Good encounters to deal with Skeleton Archer groups are to lure their other units away until out of range then deal with the Archers. Since the Skeleton Archers can deal devastating damage in groups, a good way is to use ranged spells or anything that can do a area-of-effect such as Fist of the Heavens. There are four other variations besides normal Skeleton Archers: Returned Archers, Bone Warrior Archers, Burning Dead Archers, and Horror Archers.
Skeleton Archers return for their third go in the Diablo series, and they are as much of a hassle as they have ever been.
A humanoid skeleton with a bow and a relatively slow firing rate, they are not dangerous one on one, but a pack of them can be pretty nasty, especially against low armor or stationary targets. In Diablo III, they usually spawn with Skeletal Shieldmen, firing from the relative safety they find behind their blocking brethren. They may also appear with a Skeletal Summoner. It is not known if these shaman can cast any sort of buffs on the archers.
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