What is the point of bows right now?

Wicked Feedback
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1

I really dislike bows in the game right now, the damage is really subpar, and the first two bow skills (barrage, cone shot) are way too expensive, for a not very meaningful payoff. This isn’t helped by the fact that it’s offhand only, meaning it’s slim pickings for one handed dex weapons, and using only a bow is pretty difficult.

I know magic might be a bit op at the moment, but it does everything a bow does, but in one weapon, plus, it’s elemental by default. I feel like bows need to either get a lower stamina cost, higher damage, higher focus per shot, or have really good focus abilities. Maybe even if it’s just piercing on charged shots.

The only way i’ve found to make bows properly work is by using a flame infusion because they do so little damage, but again you could just use a fire wand instead.

It would be cool if bows were two handed, and you could do melee, or some really short range bow attacks, I’d even take it if you just got another weapons’ moveset, like the default unarmed one or like the club one or something and just sticked it onto the bow.

2

I don’t know where this experience comes from, I find them strong, I used them on 3 different characters when they changed them. I tried all the elements, the character I use the most has an ice bow and a charged shot that freezes any small enemy. I beat all the bosses using the bow, and I didn’t find it any more difficult than doing so with a normal weapon.

Runes, on the other hand, as you said, are very weak, I talked about it in detail in a post I made some time ago: I really Like the new Bows but they are Not yet “Fully Cooked”

The Devs have already said that they will add Great bows (two-handed weapon), Crossbows and Great Crossbows (two-handed weapon).
Even though I am of the opinion that if they add the Great bows the current bow needs to be rebalanced to be a fast weapon, since it now has the stamina cost and attack speed of a heavy weapon, and so the Great bows can’t be even slower.

3

I think my mistake was trying to use only bows right from the start of the game, I’m assuming there’s a big damage spike once you get a ring that has +damage to rune attacks. What were your stats like? was it a dex glass cannon build, I think I put too many points into stamina.

4

I always put at least 6 points in stamina, then I put points in saute and maximum crarico to stay in fast roll, then I try to upgrade the weapon, after I have upgraded the weapon I lv up the damaging stats (so in the case of the bow: Dex).

Then it seems to me that it is more important to boost the damage than the Max Stamina, try to get equipment that gives you stamina regeneration. The elemental effects are stronger than physical damage only if you have the enchantments that boost them, otherwise physical damage is better.

Then it seems to me that it is more important to boost the damage than the Max Stamina, try to get equipment that gives you stamina regeneration. The elemental effects are stronger than physical damage only if you have the enchantments that boost them, otherwise physical damage is better.

Since bow runes are weak, you can use a throwing rune on your main weapon as a ranged rune (it’s a rune that costs 50 focus and throws the weapon like a boomerang; you can find it on the axe the blacksmith sells you, but there are also elementary variations if you find them). In the early stages of the game, using the bow alone is difficult because you have no way to gain stamina regeneration. But once you find stamina regeneration, it’s perfectly usable alone, especially in fast roll (keep a weapon in your right hand to use the throwing rune and to gain the effects of the weapon’s charms).

This is my favorite build with the bow, freeze the enemies with the bow and then shatter them with club (This specific weapon has a moveset more similar to a two-handed sword rather than a club and I like it a lot)

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50% stamina regeneration it’s more than enoughto to use only the bow as your main weapon, this build I showed you is a balanced build 50% melee 50% ranged, but If you want to use the bow mainly don’t go with the ice infusion.

This build is more focused on the bow, the dagger is used to quickly recover focus if needed, and for the runes:

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I can’t give you an example of medium level characters because I brought all the characters to lv30.

If these builds Still aren’t strong enough for your taste, This is probably the strongest build you can make with the bow:

(maybe it’s better if you lower the damage a little to get some more health xD)

Hope you can enjoy bows.

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5

Hey man !

You can have a look at this post I created a while ago. The bow topic has been discussed many times on this forum.

Let the Devs know if there is anything you like in my suggestions (Like, comment, upvote)

At the moment I just pretend the Bow is a work in progress and hope for a future rework of the weapon.

7

Good Idea

I proposed a solution for these problems here: I really Like the new Bows but they are Not yet “Fully Cooked”

8

They shouldn’t have implemented bow stamina, bow as off-hand was meaningful as a focus weapon.

They have said that proper range weapons (2h bows, 2h crossbows, and more) are going to be implemented in the future. Let’s see those.

After trying, I didn’t had fun with wands or bows after last patch. Maybe it was just me, I would love more balanced and fun off-hands weapons in the future.

10

Plague reduces resistances after inflicting the status effect, it reduces fire resistance more than the others, so if you use a fire rune after inflicting the effect, you’ll notice that it will do much more damage.

There are also two unique enchantments (exclusive for purple items) that interact with plague: one is found on armor and reduces poise resistance of infected enemies(enemies stun faster), and the other is found on gloves and automatically kills of infected enemies below 20% health.

Generally, plague is the strongest element against enemies with a lot of health.
And if you find both enchantments it’s probably the strongest status in the game.

It’s also the most boring if you don’t get these specific effects on gloves and armor, and in fact I was testing it with that build, but I don’t like it very much, so I think I’ll switch to fire when I find embers, or I infuse the dagger with pestilence and the bow with fire, and fight first with the dagger and then with the bow after I’ve inflicted the status effect (against large enemies and bosses).

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11

LOL I didn’t even realize you had to charge, I’d been trying to execute bow fires as if they were triggered like any other Rune attack. I was wondering why I was never able to fire lmao.

12

I’m not surprised, you can only see rune descriptions at elenor, and even then they don’t mention charging/channeling I don’t think