Having now built a second dex character who I tried to lean heavilly into what my str character could not, bows.
This build was extremely satisfying to craft but I ran into a wall of not wanting to pick other options after weighing them, main issue runes (cone shot op).
As far as non elemental attacks there are:
Basic attack-now uses stamina super nice. Can also be charged.
Multishot-3 arrows, pew-pew-pew. Pretty much never misses. can’t even come close to cone shot though.
Knockdown shot-1 Strong arrow that breaks enemies very reliably and hits harder than charge shot. If you see a shield just hit this once to open them up.
Cone shot- fires 8 arrows in a “cone?” very non-cone like flight patterns, this can come back in on itself and doesn’t stay spreading.
-Can litterally snipe with this and get multiple hits still. (If not all 8) I would argue the farther you are the more time it has to regroup. This might be a bug I think keeping the spread would nerf it and is needed.
-typically gets at the minimum 3 hits but VERY reliably most hit.
-each arrow counts as a hit for enchants…
Now for elemental attacks
Any “elemental” arrow deals 1 normal damage but has element. Nothing crazy. This is focus based and can refund itself and loop very reliably.
But here’s why I don’t think these elemental attack runes matter that much. You can add a gem and infuse all of your attacks to have the element, now your essentially losing a rune slot because basic does this and is mandatory on all bows plus no focus use.
You can use rune “element” enchantment, even better than a gem because it’s now 100% element dmg and gives 30% dmg boosts on top. Plus it stacks with a weapon gem either Spike or element because it makes it 100% infused. Can use this instead of a elemental arrow rune for pure profit.
Focus.
With a few rolls in focus recharge% you can very reliably cone shot and get over refunded. Broken. This is even more true if your focus total exceeds 300+ because its all % based. Especially because you can have multiple different things also triggering besides focus gain.
Bows are 1 handed meaning your main hand enchants also stack with bow enchants. I wrote about this previously but this is 8 enchants that can be in your favor. Focus % on hit is a gem, double recharge % compared to other things. You might not be able to torch your main hand but you can use any 1 handed weapon and gems to have a reliable stat booster for your bow. Heaven forbid you have a Flurry weapon like needle Spear or siren queen horn you can recharge 400+ focus in a single Flurry (read my movelist post for reference). If for some reason you happen to be empty.
As far as focus per arrow for random numbers comparison.
20/1 elemental arrow attack (20 per) reliablly free
100/3 in multi hit (33 per)
100/1 knockdown (100 per) but the skill feels justified enough to have this happen honestly bows don’t like shields.
100/8 cone shot (12.5 per) insane economy as far as per arrow each arrow will recover itself and then some.
I would like to clarify I think bow is a super fun playstyle and I absolutely love it. I just want to address some concerns I had and also help people understand the current economy. A few ideas for the devs to help balance it. Cone shot needs to cone and keep spreading it would feel better if you had to shotgun blast it and stay in melee range for good damage. Multi shot either needs to cost less or have more arrows to balance out focus per arrow. And focus needs some serious balancing.
Here are 2 pictures of cone shot. One vs the wall with a good spread (also how i counted the arrows). 1 vs a locked on enemy about to get whalloped by 8 arrows.
