Bow damage & Arrows

Just got back to the game and played some days.

I always liked to play an archer. But the damage of the bows in that start of the game is REALLY REALLY bad. I know it gets better later on and with the right build.

But it’s really discouraging for start and mid, players to use bows.
Also, you need to carry like 1000000 arrows on you at all time when leaving the base as you need to use that many to kill all the mobs you run into. And the arrows weight a lot also.

So not only don’t you do any damage and it takes forever to kill stuff you also can’t carry anything, and you can make a good build as you also need extra points to carry more.

A solution could be to change the overall DPS of the bow so it hits harder.
But make it shoot slower so it’s more important that you hit.
That would also reward more skillful archers.

Really hope bows change a little before release.

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This is 100% agreeable as I love to be an archer too. Damage sucks and arrow usage is so high.
To kill a mob need to use 20 arrows I think…
It will be okay if after the mob die and player can recollect it. Higher damage arrows are more complicated to make, but it is also gone after a shoot.

I hope the skill bar’s 2nd tier is changed immediately. That is soooooooooo useless. If missed then it is flown away to don’t-know-where. What is the use of this skill. So lame. Better give n% increase in bow damage.

Really really hope there is a change.

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Bows are not meant to be high damage anymore due to the fact that archers can pretty much attack with impunity. At least not unless you go in with skill points. 40-50 Accuracy, 20 Strength with Set arrows or poisoned regular arrows still pack a huge punch and will go a long way in slaughtering most enemies before they can get to you. A concussion bow with blunt arrows will knock out a thrall before they know what’s happening, provided you do not aim for the head. If you go in with 40-50 accuracy, 30-40 strength you’ll be a walking war crime.

Melee will still likely outshine them in terms of raw damage, but that is the trade-off for archers being able to kill most things will minimal risk to themselves.

yes understand what you meant to say. And besides that the 2nd tier is really meaningless and useless. arrow need to be changed in any kind of way. Nobody nag for a higher damage. Number of arrows used in battle and useless skill is the point we are suggesting here.

Asking for less arrows to be used in battle is literally asking for better damage. Otherwise you are asking for mobs to have less hp which will while requiring fewer arrows to kill, will make melee able to 2-shot most mobs.

So, in order to use less arrows, you need to do more damage, which comes with adding more points in your accuracy, mixing in strength, and using poison arrows from a vantage point and pacing your shots so you allow the poison to tick a few times between so as not to waste arrows on a DoT effect that is already at maximum stacks.

If you are making your judgments based upon using bone arrows and a hunting bow with 0-10 Accuracy, then of course you will be disappointed in the output as Archery only becomes viable late-game, and even then is meant to be a secondary playstyle to melee.

Hm. Ok?
In order to archieve damage, that is on par with melee damage, an archer has to do:

  • reach level 60
  • unlock the epic accuracy armor
  • get one of 3 thralls (one being exile armorer for light armor, one relic hunter for light, one relic hunter for medium armor; two more are for heavy armor which weights too much (black hand+exile))
  • get enough silver+gold for epic materials
  • eighter kill a few “bosses” for legendary chests, hoping for khan bow (which grants 5 accuracy)
  • fall into that undead dragon hole, eighter killing that one or rushing ahead to get the recipes
  • kill some dragon(s) for their bones → ammo!
  • now stack 40+ strenght and 50 accuracy using those armor and bow, which already give +14 accuracy, leaving maybe 20 vitality, some stat getting 10 points and another one 5 points
  • if you want to, add that tattoo + flask (though that seems a little expensive to do)
  • craft those flawless accuracy armor, equip that khan bow, use dragon bone arrows and you are finally good to go!

btw, a melee has to do:

  • reach lvl 60
  • kill a few bosses for the chest, hoping for a good weapon OR find a recipe which is good for you and craft that weapon which varies in difficulty. (i.e. kingslayer, religious stuff, dragon bone …)
  • get yourself an armor set which is to your liking; I would recommend black keep gear if you are going for a mixed build, as each of those pieces grants 3 of a different stat.
  • invest (moderately) into strenght (30+ already does the trick) and youre good to go.

Wait… there is some concussion bow? I was wondering why I was killing those poor guys instead of sending them to wheel. Or do you mean applying some concussion kit to a bow? Hm…

About 0 risk for archers. This applies for archers who hide on top of some tower or something, but not if the player kills stuff without exploiting AI. Of course some archer can kite 2 thralls around for some 30-40 seconds until he killed them. In the meantime probably 6-9 thralls are dead already with blood dripping from a pair of daggers. To add on top of that, said archer has to stay on his toes (which clearly shows the “0 risk” in that) to dodge incoming attacks, as light armor plus low HP pool swiftly sends you back home when hit.

This whole “archers exploiting bad AI”-issue could be avoided by melee thralls getting their bows out if the pathfinding cannot connect. They had that in for archer thralls earlier, I dont know if that is still bugged or why those wont get out some melee weapon out anymore…
(I think running away if pathfinding wont connect is bad.)

But mentioning archer thralls:
In early game, sure, the archers hurt. But as soon as one reaches mid game with good weapon, better skill at dodging those arrows and more importantly getting a greater health pool, those archer thralls dont hurt anymore. I guess they keep using stone/flit arrows due to the system.
I dont care about archer thralls at all when I got 4 thralls coming at me. I will care about melees - even more about polearm-/hammerwielding guys.
Those are dangerous.
But archers? :joy: :joy: :joy: :joy: :joy:

Or is Funcom trying to tell us to exploit anything we can? :confused:

Also its funny how everyone is going on about perfect lvl 60 builds.
The real weakness of bows lies in early and mid game, where melee rocks like 10 times more than archery.
Late game is rather balanced with bows being viable, though definitly on melee side, where melees dont have to think that hard about perfect armor/weapon setup, not to mention statinvestment.

Exactly that is the point of archery. :smiley:
Be on a hardly reachable vantage point and snipe ANYTHING to death… well except heavily armored enemies…
Also bows on the same “era” were fiercesome enough that armies even incorporated them into their ranks…

So if ingame bows will stay this weak we rather ask for erradicate them from the game totaly…:smiley:

Hmm nothing in last update about about bows. Really hope they will do something.

lol ya, that second trait is really not good, This is not overwatch :stuck_out_tongue:

I agree with this, the bows are near pointless currently, coupled with a major lack of arrows. If arrows are a difficult to attain or make item, the damage needs to be a lot higher to compensate. There should also be crossbows and such as slower but powerful alternatives.