Is It Just Me or Do Bows Feels Under Powered?

[Sollorex]

I thought about making a bow only character, but as I started to look into my options I found it struggling quite a bit as a ranged weapon. I know a Horror Bow comboed with piercing shot does good dot damage, but that's about at its got. The bow, with buffs, ends up around 50+ damage per shot. This wouldn't seem half bad if it didn't take time to draw the bow, and aim while in a fight. While a sword on the other hand can also reach 50+, can attack much faster, and has a much better move set to amplify it. Most of this would be okay if the bow didn't cost an extremely high amount of stamina to use. Without high stamina gear I can't even make it through half my quiver before I run out. It takes me 65% stamina cost reduction to bring it down to around the same stamina usage of a sword. Most tough enemies can take 1-3 quivers of arrows unless I abuse dots. Meaning, I have to abuse range, sitting in a spot they can't reach or run around in circles waiting for my stamina to regenerate before i can hit it a few times. I could live with the lack of damage if it maybe just had a couple more specialized abilities and/or less base stamina cost, but currently it feels like a hazard to use in a fight without abusing mechanics. Using it to start a fight doesn't help much either. An enemy can get to me very quickly, even when far enough away not to have auto lock. I would like to hear other people's opinion on the matter, though. Maybe I missed something about the weapon.

[Sollorex]

Originally posted by Speed:

You didn't miss anything, bows are not designed to be a main weapon. Bows, Chakrams, Daggers and Pistols are meant to compliment a build, not be the entire build. Technically any of them are enough to get by with, but you're only limiting yourself.

Bows, however, are a two-handed weapon. If I want to quickly swap between a bow and a melee weapon it could take 2-3 quick slots, and limit my options for abilities. If I want to use range with a melee weapon, a pistol would be a much more viable option. I did do a dagger/sword run with a bow on offhand, but it was a hassle to swap between them. I I could get off a warning arrow before having to spend the entire time of them getting to me to just swap to my other weapon from inventory. If I were to have put them on my quick bar I would have fared much poorer in melee combat.

[Sollorex]

Originally posted by Speed:

Yeah I agree, I'm not saying they're balanced, but I don't think they were designed to be your main weapon. The advantage of bows was that they can hit targets from very far away and don't require you to be in lock-on distance, so they make for a good opener. You should definitely have enough time to hit an enemy once or twice and then swap to melee before they reach you, otherwise you're engaging from too close.

My normal strategy was to use a piercing shot and then a sniping shot to engage. My main weapon was sword/dagger, and I quickly learned that, unless I wanted to abuse bleed, back stabbing was a much better opener. I could 1-shot most enemies with a back stab or at least break their posture.

[Солевой берсерк]

Just use horror bow and let enemies die of poison.

[Sollorex]

Originally posted by Оld /b/tärd:

Just use horror bow and let enemies die of poison.

Did.... Did you read the post?

[Солевой берсерк]

Originally posted by Sollorex:

Originally posted by Оld /b/tärd:

Just use horror bow and let enemies die of poison.

Did.... Did you read the post?

I did. As mentioned above bow is secondary weapon. Obviously u shouldn't use bow with enemies who has resistances to bleed/poison. Most enemies die in 4-5 shots.

[Sollorex]

Originally posted by Оld /b/tärd:

Originally posted by Sollorex:

Did.... Did you read the post?

I did. As mentioned above bow is secondary weapon. Obviously u shouldn't use bow with enemies who has resistances to bleed/poison. Most enemies die in 4-5 shots.

This concept was all addressed in the comments as well.

[GunofBrixton]

Originally posted by Оld /b/tärd:

Just use horror bow and let enemies die of poison.

Clearly didn't read the post. Thread titles aren't the content m8.

I haven't touched a bow yet, but was considering making a kiting archer with cold damage and +move speed gear.

Edit: Also, do you keep food buffs and tea buffs rolling to keep everything regenerating constantly?

[Madmonkey889]

Originally posted by GunofBrixton:

Originally posted by Оld /b/tärd:

Just use horror bow and let enemies die of poison.

Clearly didn't read the post. Thread titles aren't the content m8.

I haven't touched a bow yet, but was considering making a kiting archer with cold damage and +move speed gear.

Edit: Also, do you keep food buffs and tea buffs rolling to keep everything regenerating constantly?

I only use the food I save right before I enter a dungeon. Perhaps if i'm jumped on the road and take a hit I'll use some as well.

[Sollorex]

Originally posted by GunofBrixton:

Originally posted by Оld /b/tärd:

Just use horror bow and let enemies die of poison.

Clearly didn't read the post. Thread titles aren't the content m8.

I haven't touched a bow yet, but was considering making a kiting archer with cold damage and +move speed gear.

Edit: Also, do you keep food buffs and tea buffs rolling to keep everything regenerating constantly?

I always keep tea, giant stamina potions, and some local berries on me for stamina usage. If you're going to make an archer, best I can see is using it in conjunction with another skill. Specializing in traps might be worth your while.

[Boboscus]

The bow is usually(against melee attackers) a weapon they cannot "defeat". If it was any stronger it would be broken just like it is in Skyrim. Therefore a balance has been made, they're not as strong nor as easy to wield/use in tight combat, but if used correctly you can dish out some serious damage without putting yourself in danger.

[Sollorex]

Originally posted by Boboscus:

The bow is usually(against melee attackers) a weapon they cannot "defeat". If it was any stronger it would be broken just like it is in Skyrim. Therefore a balance has been made, they're not as strong nor as easy to wield/use in tight combat, but if used correctly you can dish out some serious damage without putting yourself in danger.

You can dish out moderate damage without the abuse of dots or mechanics, in my eyes. Like stated above, you're simply unable to kill most high health targets without going through your entire stamina bar two times over. Once you learn how to use it, melee is easier to use bar far. There is a big list of moves to use with melee, takes little stamina to use, and can literally one-shot almost anything. I was able to kill manitcores in one combo.

[Neyreyan_Youtube]

Originally posted by Sollorex:

I thought about making a bow only character, but as I started to look into my options I found it struggling quite a bit as a ranged weapon. I know a Horror Bow comboed with piercing shot does good dot damage, but that's about at its got. The bow, with buffs, ends up around 50+ damage per shot. This wouldn't seem half bad if it didn't take time to draw the bow, and aim while in a fight. While a sword on the other hand can also reach 50+, can attack much faster, and has a much better move set to amplify it. Most of this would be okay if the bow didn't cost an extremely high amount of stamina to use. Without high stamina gear I can't even make it through half my quiver before I run out. It takes me 65% stamina cost reduction to bring it down to around the same stamina usage of a sword. Most tough enemies can take 1-3 quivers of arrows unless I abuse dots. Meaning, I have to abuse range, sitting in a spot they can't reach or run around in circles waiting for my stamina to regenerate before i can hit it a few times. I could live with the lack of damage if it maybe just had a couple more specialized abilities and/or less base stamina cost, but currently it feels like a hazard to use in a fight without abusing mechanics. Using it to start a fight doesn't help much either. An enemy can get to me very quickly, even when far enough away not to have auto lock. I would like to hear other people's opinion on the matter, though. Maybe I missed something about the weapon.

Just tested some things while making my video for the nerfs to come with the experimental patch and the bows will be nerfed even harder with the horror bow reciving a hard nerf.

The devs said that this is intented as the bow is not meant to be a main weapon, more like a trinquet or something very specific for a situation.
Also the quiver size is reduced to 15:)

[Sollorex]

Well, that doesn't sound good. I was already shied away from bows, but this could make me avoid using it all together. I get the idea of making it an off weapon, but it doesn't do the job of an off weapon very well(without abuse of mechanics). It could be a good off weapon if it was easier to swap in and out of, but in its current state we're stuck having to shoot one or two arrows, open our inventory, swap weapons(sometimes a main hand and offhand, which takes extra time), and then not have time to swap back at any other point in the fight or use 2-3 quick slots, which are much more valued with skills. With the nerf to the Horror bow, and bleed being nerfed, it wont even have abuse of mechanics to fall back on. Without easy weapon swapping, I would think just buffing its base damage, and reducing stamina cost would be a big improvement. Maybe make more types of arrows, so you can use a more expensive ammunition for more damage. This could balance abusing it, but still keep it useful. Doesn't seem like an easy item to balance.

By the way, would you happen to know what changes are currently happening to the Horrow bow?

[Neyreyan_Youtube]

The bows still do a lot of damage on the enemies on the overworld map but they can't be used inside buildings anymore.
The bow build is still viable but needs more potions, it's more about the skills anyways and the buffs. But the master trader set was also nerfed regarding defence so it will be dangerous to play as a fast ranger:P

They removed the decay damage and nerfed the Extreme poision to only Poision...efectivly reducing it to the level of the coralhorn bow but the coralhorn will inflict pain wich is great for debuffing enemies and then engaging them in melee

[LunaBird]

on 19 july , bow be nerf more again