Favorite bow for waywatcher and favorite loadouts

[Mad Marduk]

What is your favorite type of bow for the waywatcher and why? Do you prefer different ones for different maps? And what are your favorite loadouts for each hero and why? Just something I thought would be interesting to discuss again. I always liked the long bows, but the first orange bow I got was Thornstorm the swift bow and after getting some pretty sick performance out of it as a wave suppressor I have come to enjoy it. Tonight I finally got an orange long bow. I haven't played with it yet, but I am curious to see how it will feel after adapting my playstyle to the swift bow. For a melee weapon on the waywatcher I initially liked dagger and sword the best, but never got better than green. I now have a blue glaive, which is okay, but what I have been using is the gleamslitter dual daggers and have come to do well with those.. especially with backstabbery helping me take down ogres and stormvermin.

My other most played hero is Saltzpyre and I liked using the one handed axe with him a lot, but I have come to enjoy the rapier after using the orange one for a while. I know that most people prefer the brace of pistols, but I have never really cared much for them. I actually have three holy hailstorm repeaters that I accumulated in a short period unintentionally. I haven't bothered with one, but the other two came with sets of traits that I like and switch out sometimes so I will end up keeping them both.

Right now I use combustion staff and flaming sword (with earthing rune) on the bright wizard. Two handed hammer and drakefire pistols on ranger. Also two handed hammer on empire soldier along with repeater pistol. I tried out mace and shield only once so far and that playstyle is very alien to me. I do best with the quicker attacks and relying mostly on normal attack rather than charged attacks.

How about you guys?

[doom_hamster]

my fav bow is longbow, the most true bow without unnatural speed of swift bow, magical fancy sound of trueflight, and without sizzling clouds of hagbane. Read that guide for info about weapons, and for my playstyles:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=824736725

[Malakai]

Originally posted by war_hamster:

my fav bow is longbow, the most true bow without unnatural speed of swift bow, magical fancy sound of trueflight, and without sizzling clouds of hagbane. Read that guide for info about weapons, and for my playstyles:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=824736725

Wow, extremely detailed and well done guide. Got to learn a few new things abt my dwarf axe+shield. Thanks and sorry my post is not related to the op since i rarely play the elf & wizard.

[[ACPL] Jon]

Blue swift one. Because ROF is often "make or break" for me in case of weapons.

[Myrmidon]

I use:-

Orange Longbow
Orange Dual Swords

I use the Longbow because it can do armoured and flesh targets. I find 71 arrows to be ample for me personally. I loose all of my arrows from a full draw.

I use the Dual Swords on the basis they both have significant reach and coverage allowing me to engage multiple skaven in melee. They're also very fast.

I literally never use the Swift Bow because it can't really do anything to storms/specials and even a charged shot can't always reliably drop a regular rat on the upper tier difficulties. The Longbow is simply better in every way with a meager difference in the time it takes to full draw. With ammo traits it works out at 71 vs. 131. It's a big difference but I personally never find myself running low on my 71.

The only time I'll use the hagbane is if I'm consciously aware that a team I'm with is ill equipped for a rat ogre. The Trueflight is a great special killer but you really don't get many arrows and I find it more ecconomical to simply kill specials with regular.

[ProtoShel]

Bow: Hagbane. It's good against hordes and groups of enemies, great against the ogre, and decent against specials.
Sword: 1h or dual swords (with killing blow & regrowth). 1h is a little harder to use, but has better (and more) trait combos for kb+r (and higher max % for regrowth).


As for the rest of the characters:

Saltz: Rapier/Falchion (sometimes axe) - Repeater (sometimes one of the other ranged)

Bardin: 2h hammer or greataxe - Drakefires, grudgeraker or handgun

Sienna: Normal sword - Fireball (sometimes beam or conflag)

Kruber: 2h hammer - blunderbuss or handgun

[Dr. M.T. Cicero Fryman-Strawman]

Orange sword & dagger and orange swiftbow, unless we have no one on the team to quick-kill specials. Sword & dagger is just a 'no ♥♥♥♥' combo, but I love how the swiftbow absolutely melts trash and can pour out so much fire that you can clean up most specials in a pinch.

[Gorwe]

Bow: Trueflight-so reliable, so comfortable. Effective vs everything except hordes

Melee: Dual Sword-really, just going around cutting heads is awesome. But it doesn't really feel Waywatcher-ish. Very good vs hordes.

Other characters(best):

Viktor: Flamberge + Repeater-really a combination with no drawbacks and a lot of strengths. I don't necessarily think a Flamberge fits Viktor aesthetically

Bardin: Grund(1h hammer) + Drakkhar Thrundi(Drakefires). Has some problems vs single target, but boy does it feel good. Put on Drakk Goruz helm and feel like a dragon!

Sienna: Sceptre + Conflag. Very good crowd control, very good AoE, very good single target, a LOT of healing. What's not to like?

Markus: Flanged Mace + Ursula(Repeater). I mostly go around with Ursula with F.M. being a backup with Scavenger and Regrowth. I also switch to F.M. during hordes unless they're lined up(then Ursula can really shine). But I'd like for Markus to get more anti-RO weaponry tbh.

(worst):

Viktor: Flamberge + Volley-So cumbersome and with too big holes when enemies can freely hit you. Also aesthetical ugh.

Bardin: Grundreugi(2h Hammer) + Rorkaz-I just don't like inaccuracy of Rorkaz(shame, the gun looks awesome) and 2h Hammers, so weak, so cumbersome, so open to attack(good CC though, but why'd I sac a Shield for it)

Sienna: Flashfire(F.Sword) + Bolt-this feels really wrong. Flashfire is all kinds of slow and cumbersome and Bolt...well Bolt is meh currently imo.

Markus: Maul + Blunderbuss-see Bardin, only much, much more cumbersome and clumsy.

Kerillian: Glaive-I like all the ranged offers. Glaive is...ok, I guess, but I prefer her other weaponry by far.

[Lunethex]

The worst elf players use the Longbow and Swiftbow. Slightly better players use the Trueflight. Only the good ones use Hagbane.

In lieu of an enormous wall of text I proffer our video series on Vermintide's weapons, basic tactics and combat, teamwork, and more. For demonstrations and effectiveness of weapons, what to listen for, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9cR63PgdMh0jwkNROPtZIXvK0wTwcnWu

[Dr. M.T. Cicero Fryman-Strawman]

Worth noting, Gorwe, that greatswords are a weapon all Order of the Silver Hammer witch hunters are trained on, wrt. The Witch Hunter's Handbook. It seems incongruous, but it shows the devs were paying attention.

[Dr. M.T. Cicero Fryman-Strawman]

Originally posted by Lunethex:

The worst elf players use the Longbow and Swiftbow. Slightly better players use the Trueflight. Only the good ones use Hagbane.

Hagbane has no real edge outside of cata, save against rat ogres, which you should have no trouble with if you've got an IQ above room temperature.

[Dr. M.T. Cicero Fryman-Strawman]

Originally posted by Lunethex:

Originally posted by Ullr:

Hagbane has no real edge outside of cata, save against rat ogres, which you should have no trouble with if you've got an IQ above room temperature.

Where do you weirdoes come from?

I can't speak to other weirdos, but in my case, Michigan.

[Lunethex]

Originally posted by Ullr:

Originally posted by Lunethex:

The worst elf players use the Longbow and Swiftbow. Slightly better players use the Trueflight. Only the good ones use Hagbane.

Hagbane has no real edge outside of cata, save against rat ogres, which you should have no trouble with if you've got an IQ above room temperature.

Where do you weirdos come from?

[Lunethex]

I'm not interested in argument but I'll just go on saying what I usually do:

You're wrong, you have no idea what you're talking about, etc.

[Lunethex]

And btw, seriously, if you actually think that the Hagbane takes a backseat to any of the other bows, I don't even need to play with you to know how ignorant you are.

[Dr. M.T. Cicero Fryman-Strawman]

Originally posted by Lunethex:

And btw, seriously, if you actually think that the Hagbane takes a backseat to any of the other bows, I don't even need to play with you to know how ignorant you are.

To be honest, you sound like the kind of tryhard who starts screaming into the mic the moment he gets downed (and that kind of tryhard always gets downed), so I suppose the feeling is mutual.