I dont understand the bow but would like to

[Mokona]

So with HBG it takes 3-6 hits with sleep/paralysis/poison to affect the monster. With bow I go through the whole stack hitting almost everything and it never triggers on the monster. This is one of the main reason I dont use bow since the coatings feel completely useless. Even power coating is such a minimal increase to damage I dont see a reason to even bring it.

[Jereweeb]

Consumable coatings do tend to be a bit on the expensive/wasteful side. At best you proc sleep/para/poison once per monster in a quest, but you would almost never need to do so anyway. Power coating is a pretty significant dps increase at ~35%, while close range is at ~18%. Make sure you always stay at the highest shot charge as possible, by dash dancing constantly. Shooting coatings at charge level 1-2 is useless. Bow isn't very hard to master, just expensive, as it needs a lot of armor skills, namely stamina skills, to actually be viable at all. Don't bother using it without constitution/stamina surge etc., you'll only get a bad time.

[◬ ☥ 𝕄𝕚𝕝𝕜 ☥ ◬]

the coatings are kind of a scam. I would just use power/close-range like jereweeb said. The most important part over everything is getting good at dash dancing to keep your charge up, once you get good at that you can do it while dodging things and etc and then you're at full power constantly. I would definitely look some videos up on this so you can see how it's done.

One of the best ways to learn a weapon for me is to watch someone do a hunt with it. This person fightincowboy always talks about every weapon armor and attachment and why and then usually shows his combo then goes on a hunt. I think it's very helpful. I don't know if its current or up to date, but you can basically just apply the principals no matter if you're fully geared or still going through it, you get the idea of what's good skill wise and such

here's the archer one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_UkIfyJlaM
sunbreak version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpwgVucrBZM

Also, I never ended up going for the rampage bows or bows of every type personally, I think thats the meta but I didn't "need' it at the end end end game so do with that knowledge waht you will

[devlkore]

I (kinda) main Bow, but get why it can be confusing. As others have mentioned, learning how to maintain max charge level is important. Defo get the Stamina use reduction skill on your builds to start with. Stamina recharge rate is nice too, but you can use the Focus Shot to regenerate stamina super quickly so not required.

I always take, but rarely use consumable coatings. Playing up close with the infinite Close Range coating is fun for me. To go with that I use Dodgebolt for countering/avoiding attacks. I recommend the Evade Extender skill (ideally level 3, minimum level 2) with that. If you want to use Charging Sidestep, you can have a lower level.

Finally test out different shot types and figure out what feels the most fun/effective. Personally I like Spread and Pierce, because I think Rapid is somewhat boring, but all 3 are viable and have their own pros and cons.

Depending how far you are into the game, you may not have access to all the Switch Skills, but I recommend regular Power Shot over Absolute Power Shot to save on stamina, Stake Thrust over Melee Attack as shooting the Stake gives you extra damage ticks, Herculean Draw over Bolt Boost as there's no range restriction, and Dodge Bolt over Charging Sidestep as, well... it's more bad*ss.

If you've played and are comfortable using Berserk builds, then you can ignore all of the stamina stuff, take Absolute Power Shot and go crazy, but that's kind of a topic unto itself.

[Pook and Pie]

Bow status application is directly related to charge level.

If you're standing in place, firing the bow 1, 2, 3, and then 4 times in succession and then starting over, the reason you're not applying any status is because you're not playing bow correctly.

Bow has charge levels that increase with each shot, or the longer you hold each shot. The maximum your charge level can be, with the Bow Charge Plus skill (that you *have* to run if you're playing bow, unless you're using the minuscule handful of bows that don't need it), is four.

With Charging Sidestep, you can increase your bow's charge level by shooting *and* by sidestepping with RT held. This also maintains your charge level, which makes it vitally important for both bow dodge play styles. With Dodgebolt, you increase your bow's charge level by shooting and by parrying monster attacks, which means it's a very reactive, counter-based play style while Charging Sidestep can be more evasive, instead.

Once you reach max level charge, you can maintain that charge by sidestepping afterwards.

This means you can, for example to keep it simple, shoot 1, 2, 3, 4 times (with Bow Charge Plus slotted into your armor skills), then hold RT and press A to sidestep. You can then release RT to fire, press B to fire a power shot up to 2 times, and then hold RT and sidestep *again*. This means, in sequence, the charge level of the shots aforementioned are:

1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, sidestep, 4, 4, 4.

This means your shots have the highest damage and status application. If you can't get a para after using para coatings on your bow after this, there's something else wrong. This technique is what's called dash dancing for bow, and it makes you incredibly mobile and significantly harder to hit, which is invaluable in later game hunts.

There's further optimizations that can be made to the above shots, like Charging Sidestep should hold RT and delay their first shot for about .5 seconds and *then* sidestep, because it lets you fire your first shot at level 3 charge instead of 2, etc., but you can learn that in time.

Always use power coatings until you get low (and then craft 20 more if you wish using the radial wheel), and switch to close range when you run out. Para, sleep, etc., are good for at least 1 status application per hunt but I wouldn't try to get more than that in multiplayer at all, because the loss of damage by switching to those coatings isn't worth it (because the status application from the coating overrides the elemental value of the bow, which significantly lowers damage).

[Johnnie Walker]

Originally posted by Pook and Pie:

Bow status application is directly related to charge level.

If you're standing in place, firing the bow 1, 2, 3, and then 4 times in succession and then starting over, the reason you're not applying any status is because you're not playing bow correctly.

Bow has charge levels that increase with each shot, or the longer you hold each shot. The maximum your charge level can be, with the Bow Charge Plus skill (that you *have* to run if you're playing bow, unless you're using the minuscule handful of bows that don't need it), is four.

With Charging Sidestep, you can increase your bow's charge level by shooting *and* by sidestepping with RT held. This also maintains your charge level, which makes it vitally important for both bow dodge play styles. With Dodgebolt, you increase your bow's charge level by shooting and by parrying monster attacks, which means it's a very reactive, counter-based play style while Charging Sidestep can be more evasive, instead.

Once you reach max level charge, you can maintain that charge by sidestepping afterwards.

This means you can, for example to keep it simple, shoot 1, 2, 3, 4 times (with Bow Charge Plus slotted into your armor skills), then hold RT and press A to sidestep. You can then release RT to fire, press B to fire a power shot up to 2 times, and then hold RT and sidestep *again*. This means, in sequence, the charge level of the shots aforementioned are:

1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, sidestep, 4, 4, 4.

This means your shots have the highest damage and status application. If you can't get a para after using para coatings on your bow after this, there's something else wrong. This technique is what's called dash dancing for bow, and it makes you incredibly mobile and significantly harder to hit, which is invaluable in later game hunts.

There's further optimizations that can be made to the above shots, like Charging Sidestep should hold RT and delay their first shot for about .5 seconds and *then* sidestep, because it lets you fire your first shot at level 3 charge instead of 2, etc., but you can learn that in time.

Always use power coatings until you get low (and then craft 20 more if you wish using the radial wheel), and switch to close range when you run out. Para, sleep, etc., are good for at least 1 status application per hunt but I wouldn't try to get more than that in multiplayer at all, because the loss of damage by switching to those coatings isn't worth it (because the status application from the coating overrides the elemental value of the bow, which significantly lowers damage).

thanks for the great explanation, have been dabling lately but cant figure out why im dashing wrong.
Using xbox controller:
I Rt (normal shot aimed)*4 > B (absolute power)> B (absolute power)> then side step > RT > B.

Was testing witha meta build but my dps keeps around 110 ish. (seeing some ppl on mp dishing 200more)
soi im confused what im doing wrong.
Have a good one