Are bows, crossbows, and flintlocks viable

[dinodog1998]

I use magic, keep myself below 25% weight so i can roll and have a staff in one hand and the 2 handed starter mage sword (cant remember name) that i rarely if ever use.

Are any of the 3 Viable to use at any point in the game as a MAIN weapon. I know it cost gold to buy ammo but i constantly am someway or another jumping off a cliff or fall dmg will kill me and loosing 2k gold here 2k there and only thing i use gold for is the tiny pouches of salt

[Fenfen]

Short Answer: Yes.
Long Answer: You're going to run into a lot of slow spots unless you buy a large variety of ammo. The most consistently viable option will be the flintlocks because they do 50/50 damage, if your main hand has extra blades/blunt then it will switch to 75/25. Best creed would be mountain smith because they are the only way to get glow shot. Weapon buffs do apply to crossbows and flintlocks so stock up on those as well. Only Salt is lost on death and the cleric that 'saves' you only takes around 10% of what you have so it really isn't anything.

[TheDoctor]

too expensive... and i heard people saying it useless on ng+

[Scythia]

My only problem with guns was that despite having a nice blast plume they only affect a single target, even when enemies are clustered.

[Luscinius]

Haven't played with crossbows myself, but heard they are pretty underwhelming damagewise. On the other hand they have a special move that gives you a long back jump when you use a light attack followed up by a shot for example, should also work with ligh-heavy-heavy-shot.

Guns are really good, and definetely can be used as main weapon. Can't add anything more to what have been said.

Using bows earlygame is hard, first bow you can get lacks both in damage and scaling. Though you can change bow right after Village of Smiles if you get yourself a Vilehawk Ear. Next upgrade can be done if you take a little detour after opening Red Hall of Cages sanctuary to Dome of the Forgotten and farming Hornet Steel's Ashes.
Best creed would be either House of Splendor or Order of the Betrayer. Goldenwine from Splendor works with bows (not sure about guns, haven't tested it), Flask of Defilement also give you a nice boost in damage, personally I still prefer Goldenwine. Also, both of these creeds sell both flame arrows (devotion 1) and poison arrows (devotion 2).

I'm doing an archer playthrough right now and haven't yet meet anything in NG+ that gave me problems. Dex/Wis build for Gravewalker Greatbow and prayers.

[stevo]

Flintlocks are like the most OP thing in the game

[101Titan101]

IMO they're worth it for the look alone.

[TheDoctor]

Originally posted by bladechild:

Flintlocks are like the most OP thing in the game

wrong.