BOWS :: Conan Exiles General Discussions

DarkFire

Sep 15, 2022 @ 2:53pm

Conan is all about the cinematic wade-in-and-purge melee combat, aka the original Arnie conan films. Sadly archery has always been poor compared to melee combat. It's an artefact of the game being balanced for PvP play rather than co-op or SP.

#1

Gremmy

Sep 15, 2022 @ 2:59pm

Actually you can get some pretty great damage out of a bow, it just depends on what you want out of it.

If we're talking about pvp, just don't use a bow.
If we're talking about pvE, then get the set religion to tier 2 and unlock snake arrows.

Proceed to craft like 500 snake arrows and use a high tier bow and instead of holding down the right mouse button to aim and get that perfect shot off, just spam left click while walking backwards away from the mob.

3-5 arrows is enough for MOST basic thralls to die, and 5-10 for harder to kill mobs. The poisons damage doesn't increase if you hold the arrow till it's fully charged, so rapid fire-ing them will pump out some really good dps.

#2

SpeedFreak3 has Conan Exiles

Sep 15, 2022 @ 3:08pm

The main advantage of a bow is the range, but it would be overpowered if a bow could drop enemies by impact alone consistently before they can close up.
So after 2 to 4 shots most tougher foes are in melee and your bow becomes pretty hard to use effectively.
With no way of diverting enemies attention bows cant live up to their expectation really.

#3

Shadex

Sep 15, 2022 @ 5:08pm

I haven't had a problem with bows if you are willing to choose that play style. One of my clan mates has full AGI spec, AGI gear, and with a good bow and arrows they can drop most thralls I pull before they get to me and chew through anything I am tanking. 3.0 seems to have really defined lanes and asks us as players to choose one of them. My spec I am damn near unkillable. There are melee DPS specs that just wreck but can't really take a hit and thrall specs that make them beasts companions or offer support. We can no longer just choose some full 2000% encumbrance meta with points spread all over and hope to excel. Could bows be better? Sure, but I also think lances should be better in PvE as well but as someone said, Funcom looks at everything through a PvP lens.

#4

Mike Hawthorne has Conan Exiles

Sep 15, 2022 @ 7:03pm

My bow is much stronger since the merge.
I can pick off the captain of the pirate ship from the top of the mountain next to it.

It takes about 2 iron arrows for most NPCs, and 1 for a deer. Rinos take about 4 and you have no risk, I'm just using iron arrows. I use poison arrows for the Dragons.

I'm using a Dragon Bow.

I usually do as much damage as possible from a distance and they rush in and finish them off with my thrall.

If you get just the right distance away they will just stand there until you kill them.

Last edited by Mike Hawthorne; Sep 15, 2022 @ 7:12pm

#5

Invisible

(Banned) Sep 15, 2022 @ 7:27pm

Originally posted by LazyReaper:
why do bows suck so bad

Sounds like a YOU problem.

#6

Xevyr

Sep 15, 2022 @ 8:30pm

What's wrong with them? They were never "useless" in any of the game modes.
However 3.0 buffed them massively by turning them to agility weapons and applying damage and special perks..
They can do almost the full DPS of any other weapon but from a high range.. can pretty much one-shot most lower tier animals (any darfari or hyena etc)

#7

LeBurns

Sep 16, 2022 @ 4:48am

I made a bow focused character and they were TOO powerful. I couldn't knock out any thrall, no matter what bow I used, because I'd always kill them first. But killing rhino's and tigers with just a couple shots is nice, but I have to switch to a club to knock anything out.

#8

Viking

Sep 16, 2022 @ 6:50am

Originally posted by LazyReaper:
why do bows suck so bad

?? A full AGI build can 1 shot a 1 skull boss with a fully charged head shot from 15 foundations+ away depending on perks.

#9

Vattende

Sep 16, 2022 @ 6:56am

Originally posted by Mike Hawthorne:
My bow is much stronger since the merge.
I can pick off the captain of the pirate ship from the top of the mountain next to it.

It takes about 2 iron arrows for most NPCs, and 1 for a deer. Rinos take about 4 and you have no risk, I'm just using iron arrows. I use poison arrows for the Dragons.

I'm using a Dragon Bow.

I usually do as much damage as possible from a distance and they rush in and finish them off with my thrall.

If you get just the right distance away they will just stand there until you kill them.

Right, all is in the distance, a good as possible bow, and correctly set stats.
Iron arrows are fine at start, also you can get plenty of them free while looting them around. But they're heavy. Later i opte mostly for razor, easy enough to make once you have hardened steel.

#10

Xevyr

Sep 16, 2022 @ 7:11am

I mean if you want to check it out I did make a short clip not long ago.
Someone was having trouble with the new thralls and previously they just watched them do all the hard work cuz they didn't wanna go close to the bosses... so I suggested them an archer build and to possibly invest in authority :D (too bad I forgot god mode on lol, but the damage part is obviously not affected by that) That's in non-epic aquilonian armor.. thrall is still using his old hp armor so everything could be much better optimized. BUT you can see the power of the bow :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J-gVSV0q7E

#11

emitfudd

Sep 16, 2022 @ 11:42am

When I started the game pre update I thought bows sucked. I am still playing pre update and have the attribute maxed out. With a dragon bow and obsidian arrows I can one shot an NPC if I hit them in the head.

#12

Devil

Sep 16, 2022 @ 12:16pm

Originally posted by Xevyr:
I mean if you want to check it out I did make a short clip not long ago.
Someone was having trouble with the new thralls and previously they just watched them do all the hard work cuz they didn't wanna go close to the bosses... so I suggested them an archer build and to possibly invest in authority :D (too bad I forgot god mode on lol, but the damage part is obviously not affected by that) That's in non-epic aquilonian armor.. thrall is still using his old hp armor so everything could be much better optimized. BUT you can see the power of the bow :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J-gVSV0q7E

i see a power of thrall not a bow... im still to see someone solo a boss just with a bow and say it is better than mellee. i think that is the problem, people want be a ranger class and get frustrated cuz bow is just a ''suport''in my opnion.

#13

Wu9Lives

Sep 16, 2022 @ 12:55pm

Bait post lol Bows are really good in PvE

#14

Xevyr

Sep 16, 2022 @ 5:33pm

Originally posted by Devil:

i see a power of thrall not a bow... im still to see someone solo a boss just with a bow and say it is better than mellee. i think that is the problem, people want be a ranger class and get frustrated cuz bow is just a ''suport''in my opnion.

Except I'm doing way more damage to it than the thrall in that case :P to be more precise around 260 per hit, however yes the thrall did good as a tank, which is why I recommended this build for people who used to just have the thrall fight and not do anything. A lot of those players are having difficulty now with thralls being nerfed, so this definitely helps for that.

Aside from that bows have slightly lower dps than a full melee strength build.. (and I mean slightly as in slightly... light attacks are actually higher damage than a full strength build 2h axe, on heavy attacks the axe surpasses it a bit and it is faster since you don't have to charge it plus it gains combo finisher damage bonus perks)
Overall I think it's decent.. and wouldn't call it "support" but simply ranged, if you get in melee combat it's obviously not the best choice, but the same build will let you use a short sword quite well. Bows don't have to be "on par" in damage to melee weapons if the enemy can't hit you and die till they reach you :P
Anyway, they are definitely better than pre-update so try them

#15

Conan Exiles

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