bow in iceborne

[Ragster]

so, i have been told by a certain friend of mine that the bow is terrible in iceborne and told me to use melee weapons instead... im terrible with melee weapons, how accurate are his claims on the bow? since i main the bow, due to me being terrible at combos, aswell as my past usage of melee weapons providing somewhat lackluster results, such as, too slow, useless against flying ones, too little damage for the amount of time spent being close to the living bioweapon and such, i started with the light bowgun due to mobility, but i took a liking to the bow, so yeah... how viable is the bow in iceborne?

[JHarlequin]

Every weapon is viable, there is more a matter of which one takes more practice to get right.

Bow is not the most difficult but there are a few problems. Probably the biggest issue is that the monsters are much faster and much more likely to hit you in melee with physical attacks. Bow gives bonus elemental defense so you are going to take harder hits whenever enemies hit you. Basically, bow works, but is sort of glass cannon for a lot of people.

It takes a lot of practice to not burn out your stamina too much and to avoid attacks effectively. With bow, you do a lot of dodging just to not get hit as well as to keep up a good attack rhythm.

If you aren't great at avoiding attacks, then the bow might be something that will take more practice than you might like.

[Ragster]

im good at avoiding attacks to some degree, however some attacks seem unavoidable in the normal one, im guessing the iceborne ones are more aggresive and fast then, though, should i farm for gems before i do iceborne stuff? although based on you answer, im thankfull to know that the bow is not "♥♥♥♥ and terrible in iceborne" as said friend described it

[Mander]

How viable is the bow in Iceborne?
A lot, but only if you play it with elemental builds as a glass cannon. Raw bow in Iceborne is simply terrible. Moreover, the status of glass cannon weapon is highlighted heavily by the main armour set you want to use with elemental bows, which has the unpleasant side effect of damaging your own health for every arrow you set loose. So, if you can’t dodge, you die. If you miss too many arrows, you die.
In Iceborne, bow is a weapon who promotes a high-risk high-reward playstyle: if you aren’t comfortable with a papier-mâché defence while dancing in the fray… well, maybe other weapons will suit you better.

Nonetheless, after learning its ins and outs, I can testify bow can shred monsters easier than most: the only “problem” is that you need a build for every element.
Fighting a monster with the wrong elemental bow is a terrific act of self-harm.

[Ragster]

cool, i guess my only question then would be ways to get jewels for it of what builds i should use, but i think those are already on the webz, so i think i might begin searching there i guess

[Giallombardo]

Originally posted by Ragster:

so, i have been told by a certain friend of mine that the bow is terrible in iceborne and told me to use melee weapons instead... im terrible with melee weapons, how accurate are his claims on the bow? since i main the bow, due to me being terrible at combos, aswell as my past usage of melee weapons providing somewhat lackluster results, such as, too slow, useless against flying ones, too little damage for the amount of time spent being close to the living bioweapon and such, i started with the light bowgun due to mobility, but i took a liking to the bow, so yeah... how viable is the bow in iceborne?

tell your friend "You know nothing Jon Snow"

[Ragster]

Originally posted by The Legend:

Originally posted by Ragster:

cool, i guess my only question then would be ways to get jewels for it of what builds i should use, but i think those are already on the webz, so i think i might begin searching there i guess

I posted a link for a sticky ammo build you can make early.

will do, i will most likely use it to try to transition to a bow build though, i will give this a try tho, thx

[cronic0_0]

So it's extremely powerful and yet also very unforgiving. You are much more likely to be one shot with a bow than with any other weapon other than the light bow-gun but the light bow-gun has longer range and this more mobile.
If you're looking for a powerful weapon what is range and much more forgiving than the bow? heavy bow-gun is a good choice.

I'm not the best bow player I consider myself pretty decent considering I can solo alatreon by myself with the bow. And it is by far the hardest weapon to solo him with due to how Unforgiven it is

[Ragster]

Originally posted by Giallombardo:

Originally posted by Ragster:

so, i have been told by a certain friend of mine that the bow is terrible in iceborne and told me to use melee weapons instead... im terrible with melee weapons, how accurate are his claims on the bow? since i main the bow, due to me being terrible at combos, aswell as my past usage of melee weapons providing somewhat lackluster results, such as, too slow, useless against flying ones, too little damage for the amount of time spent being close to the living bioweapon and such, i started with the light bowgun due to mobility, but i took a liking to the bow, so yeah... how viable is the bow in iceborne?

tell your friend "You know nothing Jon Snow"

will do, with the accent and everything

[Walrus-Sama]

Bow is good but requires a lot of investment to bring out it's true potential. I'm pretty sure it's the most build/deco heavy weapon in the game. At peak strength it can output some serious damage (one of the top DPS weapons I believe), but without all those skills to build for it properly it's damage output when played 'normally' is mediocre at best.

The Playstyle of the Bow is also a lot more intense than a lot of other weapons, since you have to dodge constantly to both evade attacks and keep up your DPS. Bow's a glasscannon so you need to be extra careful.

Also worth noting that Bow's favor elemental builds, and for that you'll optimally want to have 5 Bow's of each element to match the weakness of a given monster. Blast Bows also kinda work as a (weaker) catch-all choice.

[Dagný]

Once the skills to tenderize parts in one go and for longer drop the bow is gonna be insane because it deals a huge amount of damage really fast when you hit weakened parts.

[Garviel Loken]

Every weapon is viable. If your friend thinks bow sucks it's not the bow it's him.

[Fat Pigeon]

The Bow is an weapon of mass destruction in lategame if wielded by a person who know what he / she does.

[♋Phenex]

It's top 2 in speedrun times though idk if the comparison chart has been updated or not recently so it's definitely extremely powerful. Positioning and stamina management are pretty important to use properly.

[Ghost Bear]

Bow is at the same time one of the easiest weapons and one of the hardest.
Learning how to use it is relatively simple. Learning how to put that into practice, that's when your skill will be tested.

Bow is one of the hardest weapons to use out of the box, it is likely the weapon that requires the most decos that you will likely not have for a while. That's not to say that you can't use it before you have them, but other weapons will likely net you faster kill times.

One of the common beginner traps with bow is going full machine gun mode, and just firing non stop. While with some of the earlier monsters you may get away with this, there are monsters that will punish you hard for it, as with any weapon, learn your monster, and learn how long your animations take, so that you know which openings you may exploit and which ones may get you punish for greed.

Bows not only require a lot of different decos, but also it is an elemental heavy weapon, so you will need to have builds and bows for every element (including blast, there are monsters like nergigante that take poor elemental damage and a blast bow is actually very strong against).

So yes, bow may feel weak, or like an uphill battle at first, I wouldn't call it a beginner weapon, not because its move set is complicated, but because of the cheer amount of farming that you will need to get it to truly shine. Once you manage to get what you need, it is easily one of the most powerful weapons.

[Cereal]

Bow is one of the kings of Iceborne weapons. It is consistently in the top 3 of highest dps weapons and is also consistently in the top 3 in popularity ratings.

If your friend thinks that its terrible then I don't think it's the weapon that's terrible, its him.