What does Hokuto's Bow even do?

[nai249]

Like when the "mark" spreads it only seems to put an icon over the head. It doesn't hurt them or anything like the description suggests

[Phirestar]

It increases the amount of damage that tagged enemies will take, similar to enemies that're caught in Bear Traps.

[Soren]

Yeah, it's basically like the Fan O War if you ever played TF2. Hit them with it to mark them for death (for a little while) then follow up with other damage that would be boosted. The description should state how much damage it adds as follow up damage.

I guess it's also functional as a weak ranged weapon that can kill enemies that only have 1 hp (those flying things). Which might not be too bad if you are using a bruality melee build.

[nightshift]

Best ranged weapon for a Brutality build (if you don't use shields).
It's awesome in itself, but when you get one that poisons / bleeds the enemy, it's basically a great damaging weapon that you can utilize the +X% damage on bleeding / poisoned enemies - affix of your melee weapon.
It is great to have one that emits a poisonous cloud upon impact, or when the projectiles leave a trail of flames, thus you can cause high burning damage AND do +100% to burning enemies in addition AND get the mark damage bonus of the bow as well! If the projectile spreads oil, it's all the better for your fire grenade.

Actually the bonus damage coming from the bow works exceptionally well with any DOT like fire, bleed or poison since it adds to each DOT and that damage bonus is insane. So if your fire grenade do 300 fire damage, each burn will be increased with the mark damage, which can totally quadruple that! The DPS difference between a normal burning and the one coming from marked enemies is huge.

It is exceptionally great against bosses since those you have to damage a LOT for them to die, and if you add the bonus from each DOT and each melee hit, you'll come to a conclusion that in the end you saved up hundreds of thousands of damage with the HotK for example.

Also it gives you damage resistance, which is happily accepted.