Is Bow / Light Armor viable for PVE at later levels?

[Sharpe]

Is Bow / Light Armor viable vs non-animal NPCs at a later stage (e.g. 450+ skill and iron arrows) on official PVE servers?
Also is anyone running a viable 1-handed (without shield) PVE build?

[Varudius]

Bow as Main Weapon - No, not if you're running Solo.
The Game is based on having an "Army" around you - if you take a Warrior in heavy Armor with a single handed Weapon and a shield it could be of use but everything breaks down way 2 fast, for longer battles you should've around 3 Armor Sets and 3 Weapons at all time with you.
At the same time you and your Warrior will die really fast against enemys at the same Lv. or higher because the Dmg is so over the top it's painful to get killed by a Lv. 20 Elite Bandit with Lv. 46 and a Iron Armor (heavy) with 40% more Armor Perk because they deal way 2 much dmg.

I've played with a Single Handed Weapon, it's pretty fast (witha a Sword) but the Dmg is kinda low, if you hit a NPC which carries a Spear or a 2 handed weapon they'll stagger for a second, giving you an opportunity to strike multiple times.
But that makes the Weapon break down faster, want to have a longer living weapon, you should skilla Warrior in Armorer and Weaponsmith, it comes in handy if your stuff has 200% more durability

[dbix11]

I disagree with needing 3 sets of armor and weapons, i think thats absurd and takes away from the immersion and fun when we finally get to pvp in those long battles/sieges

[Gator]

The answer is, not really, no. Light Armor is for support units, like archers. Support units need a main force, and if you're talking solo pvp/pve, that just isn't happening. One guy until 450 command, then two, and finally 3 npcs fighting for you CAN hold aggro, but it's simply not viable in comparison to something like the insane dps of duelist one hander or the hp regen and sweeping strikes of the two handers. Light Armor is if you don't want to get hit and in the one or two times you DO get hit you don't want to die INSTANTLY. Heavy Armor is just too much of a difference in its capability of damage mitigation.

[Misfit]

the new patch made one handed 33% more durable and armor was already ok before.

[stretch]

Originally posted by dbix11:

I disagree with needing 3 sets of armor and weapons, i think thats absurd and takes away from the immersion and fun when we finally get to pvp in those long battles/sieges

Yeah. Thing is resources are easy to get. If stuff lasted as long as it should nobody would need all the billions of items crafted to level up the skills. Gear takes a stupid long time to craft even with decent skills - it's like 4 minutes for me to craft a sword which can break on one enemy.
Against a dragon enemy I will use 3 or 4 at least.
The damage armour does to weapons is beyond comprehension and you can see this easily by going against animals and or capturing an NPC and hitting them with and without their armour.
Wearing out fast uses the masses of crafted items and resources which is good but it's not making it fun.

I imagine a system where you can quickly add durability to an item using the same amount of resources but much faster. eg you create a base T1 weapon. Then you upgrade that to T2 using the same amount of resources as a new weapon but in 1/10th the time and right up to T10 or whatever. No increase in damage or anything. Just mass durability. Effectively you are carrying 10 weapons in one but made in 1/10th the time at the same cost in resources as crafting 10 of that weapon and having to carry 10 of them.

[stretch]

Originally posted by Misfit:

the new patch made one handed 33% more durable and armor was already ok before.

Armour has (had?) no level req to use efficiently and if that returns it will be as bad as weapons.
The level req on weapons is a huge factor in them wearing out fast. I could be wrong but it seems the higher you surpass the items level req by the longer it lasts. I don't think simply having the req skill does much for durability and it feels like you need to exceed it dramatically to really see it's impact diminish.

[Misfit]

idk, i have 520 onhanded and bronze swords still broke after a few hits.
crafting is at 600, also doesnt help too much.
i usually took 5+ swords with me, hope its a bit better now.

[margenov]

Once you get the bow to max skill level and use the best bow and arrows it's like a sniper, don't listen to the naysayers

[Misfit]

on same level enemys?

[Professor Goat]

Light armor = faster sprint = your buddy gets eaten by a bear and you survive.

[Varien]

2 helmets, 2 boots, 5 chest pieces, and 18 weapons (770 crafting and steel) on my combat thralls at all times. I can get a good solid 2 hours of PvE farming with that. Haven't done it since they upped the 1H durability though, so I might get get closer to 3 now =P

Once you get 2 thralls, you could totally do Light/Bow for the PvE. Until then wear heavy armor AND a dragon banner, that counts as light armor so you can level it as well. It will NOT mess with your heavy armor bonus's.