[Semi-spoiler free] - Are bows viable? Coop

[Kaliragoth]

Long story short I made a magic character and played a fair bit but it just didnt feel quite right even if its very very strong, tried making a bow character as I enjoyed it in the early game on my mage before becoming a mage. But even with the War Bow stuff as simple as ghosts in the first zone are barely scratched by the basic bow attack. Is it just weak or am I doing something wrong?

[Lapinoire]

Bows are meant to be pullng weapons. However, you can craft a pretty strong bow with that Warbow you have. Find two large horrors in the Wind of Cabal Ruins in Enmerkar forest, and kill them for Horror Chitins. Craft the bow with Warbow, 2 Horror Chitins, and an Occult Remains. The bow itself inflicts Extreme Poison, while learning Piercing Shot for 600 Silver at the Hunter Trainer in Berg inflicts Extreme Bleeding.

You're not supposed to use bow directly in combat, as it's meant for pulling or picking enemies off from afar. Once you've pulled the enemy, and it has survived your initial onslaught of Sniper Shot>Piercing Shot>normal shot>Evasion Shot, switch to a different weapon.

[Rinera]

You need to do elemental damage to deal with the ghosts. They might seem like basic enemies until you are no longer a mage.

Though on the subjects of bows, I'm actually not sure if they can be buffed or not with elemental consumables, but you almost surely need to first learn bow related skills from the trainer in Berg to make it good enough, like all weapons in the game.

EDIT: Do note that just because an enemy exists in the first area, it doesn't mean they are weak. An enemy is the same even if they are found elsewhere, some weaker than others.

[Bomjus]

if you are playing bow, you basically play the "damage over time" build. piercing shot to bleed, horror bow to poison, and then obsidian pistol to set them on fire.

i played pure bow when i first started the game, and while it is viable (master trader gear + marathoner makes you uncatchable therefore unkillable) i think a much better build is to open up with bow, but your main damage is blood bullet/rune magic.

internalized lexicon with the horror bow, open up with piercing shot and poison, then finish off enemies with either blood bullet spam, or keep the bow out and shoot lightning bolts from long range. pure bow pretty much only requires the hunter tree to be good, and since you are ranged all the time you don't need tanky armor, so mage armor for backup magic or master trader to kite is your best bet. i think the viability of the bow is how little it needs to be at peak performance.

by comparison, a full melee build requires good armor, preparation, knowledge of movesets, more farming for gear, multiple skill trees (for skills or passives for stamina), and suffers from lack of quickslots. you are pretty much at 80% of you rmax power for a bow build with just master trader armor, a horror bow, piercing shot, and sniper shot. all of which you can get in cherosonese and enmekar forest.

will you deal as much damage as some guy in tsar armor, buffed out his ass with a worldedge greataxe? no, you wont. but no enemy will catch you, and you can dodge any attack by just sprinting sideways.

[Xero]

There's a bug where the bow you're using will just randomly disappear, so keep that in mind.

[Bomjus]

Originally posted by Xero:

There's a bug where the bow you're using will just randomly disappear, so keep that in mind.

FYI for OP, i played my first character as a bow user for over 30 hours and my bow never disappeared. the bug exists, but that doesn't mean it will happen.

[CoffeeHead]

I namely saw the bow bug when dodge rolling while having it equipped

[Lapinoire]

Originally posted by Bomjus:

by comparison, a full melee build requires good armor, preparation, knowledge of movesets, more farming for gear, multiple skill trees (for skills or passives for stamina), and suffers from lack of quickslots. you are pretty much at 80% of you rmax power for a bow build with just master trader armor, a horror bow, piercing shot, and sniper shot. all of which you can get in cherosonese and enmekar forest

You don't need armor, you can just run Master Trader or Dancer Mask+Top with Master Trader Boots to be viable with weapons. The only instance where you need armor is fighting faster enemies, like Manticores. Otherwise, movement speed and pouch space are integral to melee combat.

Reminder that Heavy Armor is a trap, unless you're running a counter-based build, where mistakes can lead to incredibly hairy situations.

[robruckus65]

Originally posted by Remilnelia™:

Originally posted by Bomjus:

by comparison, a full melee build requires good armor, preparation, knowledge of movesets, more farming for gear, multiple skill trees (for skills or passives for stamina), and suffers from lack of quickslots. you are pretty much at 80% of you rmax power for a bow build with just master trader armor, a horror bow, piercing shot, and sniper shot. all of which you can get in cherosonese and enmekar forest

You don't need armor, you can just run Master Trader or Dancer Mask+Top with Master Trader Boots to be viable with weapons. The only instance where you need armor is fighting faster enemies, like Manticores. Otherwise, movement speed and pouch space are integral to melee combat.

Reminder that Heavy Armor is a trap, unless you're running a counter-based build, where mistakes can lead to incredibly hairy situations.

Heavy Armor is amazing get a good weapon that staggers and you can just walk through their first hit and then beat their face in until they die taking minimal damage that your food regen will heal. You need something that is at least the elite plate armor level of protection though everything above that just makes you even tankier. Take the merc skills to lower the armor speed and stamina penalties and you are even better off.