Is the Wasp Bow Any Good?

[Godamnzilla]

About a year ago I mentioned how they should add a tier three bow, something like a compound bow, ideally made out of tech found around the map. Well they didn't go anywhere near that design and dropped the ball on the design they put out. But looking past the design is it even worth using, such as in a mainly bow build? The only thing I could really think of that makes it useful is if you use the apex predator mutation, but is that even good either? What's the point in that when the mutation requires you to kill other bosses anyways, not like you'll need it at that point.

[Simple Tora]

I mean if you're using a bow only build wasp bow is the best you're going to get so it doesn't really make sense not to use it lol

[Serpiko82]

I spent a lot of resources to upgrade and max out my trusty black ox beetle crossbow. The wasp bow should be HELLA better to make players even consider putting the effort to max it out as well, unless they swim in resources already.

[Spice]

Originally posted by Serpiko82:

I spent a lot of resources to upgrade and max out my trusty black ox beetle crossbow. The wasp bow should be HELLA better to make players even consider putting the effort to max it out as well, unless they swim in resources already.

Agreed. My black ox bow easily outperforms the wasp/bard bow. So what if it takes longer to reload when I can often single or double shot kill? Not to mention I have to keep farming supremes just to get it anywhere NEAR the damage range of the black ox.

I see over on reddit people singing the praises of the bard's bow + certain mutations blah blah blah but it still doesn't seem worth it to me. Maybe just my play style... to each their own. But yeah, I too had hoped it would have been much better/a clearer choice. But then again I have a bone to pick about the ridiculous number of weapon permutations, so...

[Godamnzilla]

Originally posted by Simple Tora:

I mean if you're using a bow only build wasp bow is the best you're going to get so it doesn't really make sense not to use it lol

Being the best bow at the basically the end of a playthrough doesn't really mean much, like the battle axe. Not that you can't get them earlier, but the area you get them in is generally considered end game. But if it's so much better it really could be worth it. So after I made this discussion I went and tried out the damage of the bow at lv9 vs the Insect Bow. On the basic creatures the bard bow took only 2 to 6 less arrows to kill. Not really much better considering the difference in material required and stats.

The "best" part of the bow is using it with Apex Predator, but that requires you to kill the mantis first, which doesnt make sense as if you can kill the mantis then the only boss left that's a threat is the Infected Brood Mother. But using Apex is a waste anyways as the wasps that it summons are almost useless. They rarely spawn and when they do they either miss or despawn. When they do hit they do such pitiful damage. To even get the bow most people are going to use the Oox crossbow anyways making it even worse of an option really when the weapon you tried to get is not much better than the one you used to get it with.

[Godamnzilla]

Originally posted by Serpiko82:

I spent a lot of resources to upgrade and max out my trusty black ox beetle crossbow. The wasp bow should be HELLA better to make players even consider putting the effort to max it out as well, unless they swim in resources already.

It's not... it's not really better than the Insect Bow either. At lv9 the wasp bow takes only 2 to 6 less shots than the Insect Bow, which is bad considering the difference in stats and materials. The ox bow does so much more damage per kit that it doesn't really matter if it reloads slower.

[Godamnzilla]

Originally posted by Spice:

What is there to sing about? Having less aggro is only good in groups and its apex buff is useless even if you get the luck for the wasps to spawn. To even get the apex buff you need to kill the mantis and that is harder than the wasp, making it so the only boss to use apex on even if you did possibly want to use it, is the Infected Brood Mother.

[Spice]

Originally posted by Godamnzilla:

Originally posted by Spice:

What is there to sing about? Having less aggro is only good in groups and its apex buff is useless even if you get the luck for the wasps to spawn. To even get the apex buff you need to kill the mantis and that is harder than the wasp, making it so the only boss to use apex on even if you did possibly want to use it, is the Infected Brood Mother.

I'm assuming you quoted the wrong person. I agreed with the assessment that it's not worth it.

[happygiggi]

Only in multiplayer with the bard mutation, else forget that weapon.

Imo it's a design fail, in a survival game, were ammo is limited, ranged weapon that is slow but pack a punch will always be more valuable as it save ammo (less shot to kill = less ammo used).

[Serpiko82]

Maybe useful when spamming is more important? Like, if you want to saturate a large are with AOE arrows (gas or explosive), or when the elemental damage is more important?
Otherwise, yeah, I'll stay with my crossbow.

[Godamnzilla]

Originally posted by Spice:

I'm assuming you quoted the wrong person. I agreed with the assessment that it's not worth it.

Ah, my comment was not directed towards you personally, but to the people at reddit that you said were "singing" about the bow. Sorry for the confusion.

[Godamnzilla]

Originally posted by happygiggi:

Only in multiplayer with the bard mutation, else forget that weapon.

Imo it's a design fail, in a survival game, were ammo is limited, ranged weapon that is slow but pack a punch will always be more valuable as it save ammo (less shot to kill = less ammo used).

I agree fully. They really dropped the ball on the design.

[Godamnzilla]

Originally posted by Serpiko82:

Maybe useful when spamming is more important? Like, if you want to saturate a large are with AOE arrows (gas or explosive), or when the elemental damage is more important?
Otherwise, yeah, I'll stay with my crossbow.

I can agree that needing to spam arrows could be a reason but even that's iffy. At Lv9 with mutations the wasp bow vs the Insect Bow does only around 2 to 10 more arrows of damage, and 10 is against something like the rhino. So comparatively the difference in stats doesnt really constitute much more of a damage difference, especially comparing the materials.

[SoloQ]

Isn't that a common theme throughout with the gear? Most of it's pretty much trash and not worth using.
But it looks cute on an armor/weapon stand!

[Godamnzilla]

Originally posted by SoloQ:

Isn't that a common theme throughout with the gear? Most of it's pretty much trash and not worth using.
But it looks cute on an armor/weapon stand!

A very fair point