Quote from ironwoman;1264711:
2 seconds loading time or not, Final Shot is still a great skill. For those of you who think it's shit... I want to ask, how many of you are actually developed archers? Because I see none. If you actually want to discuss a skill in the area, at least have some knowledge and experience into it. If you can't get the full potential, or even just high potential out of it, don't conclude the skill is bad just because it isn't good for you. Of course it will suck with no damage, but it doesn't actually require any of Final Shot reforge for the skill to be good.
Final Shot is still great pre-renovation because it basically guarantees you the true "Magnum Revolver". You're firing potentially 874% projetiles, at almost 2 times per one second. If we want to talk more realistically, probably more like 3 projectiles per 2 second. That's still more than what the game has to offer in terms of DPS, and I think the skill can still live with the loading time. Sure, it could get annoying compared to the other insta-load skills, but skills gotta have draw backs.
As for the 50% issue, it is only ranged attack that gets affected by it. However, the DPS you can pull off with Ranged Attack with Final Shot is actually nice. Although, to be fair, you don't really need Final Shot to get off a good normal attack on enemies. And like you said, the skill's really about Magnum shot. The damage potential of this skill is insane, especially with combo cards, not that it'd really be needed in the first place.
Just chipping in here as an 11k elf archer (among other things).
Final Shot is not a "crap" skill, but it certainly isn't a particularly good skill either, especially for a racial skill (compare FH and Defense with a Vales shield). FS does not and cannot "guarantee" Magnum Revolver simply due to the fact you can still miss your shots. However, it cannot be denied that aim speed and therefore DPS do increase. In my experience though, that small DPS boost isn't really necessary most of the time. Without the use of FS, simply running closer to enemies between Magnum Shots bumps up your aim speed enough to kill most enemies and bosses quickly. Using FS shortens that time by maybe a few seconds, since you aim faster. The only practical use I have for FS is fighting bosses if I'm feeling lazy, stacking Enduring Melody and Life Anthem to offset stam use and using FS with my effective range bow to Magnum spam without having to move at all (granted, with an effective range bow you don't have to move at all anyway). By and large, the short duration makes FS impractical for mission/dungeon rooms due to archery's inherent lack of AoE power (Crash Shot lacks power if you don't crit and the cooldown is enormous in comparison to other AoE skills).
FS and range as a whole are extremely lackluster and slow compared to newer skillsets, like puppets. I still use range but usually just wipe out most of the wave first with puppets then use my bow to finish off the stragglers. Even then, my dowras would probably be better for that purpose (quick attacks with no aiming). Range in general is slow and largely obsolete, and FS does very little to change that, revamp or no.
tl;dr Final Shot is okay but doesn't address the problems with archery itself. FS (and range) is generally not worth using most of the time and very impractical. Even if FS were buffed, depending on how long the duration and cooldown become, range is still barely worth using in comparison to, say, puppets or guns, which combine AoE damage with single-target prowess, whereas range is largely focused on one-on-one combat (slow and methodical).