These arrows are so under-powered for the cost compared to other religious items of its tier it has the least function.
I think ice shard arrows should just be brought in line with the black ice weapons and the like (carried by the priests) and give frigid bite on hit so perhaps they may even see some use in the north.
probably balance and cost wise could do with a few extra points of damage alongside the frigid bite.
I can’t disagree strongly enough on the “underpowered” argument here. Starting out of the gate, very early on, you have ready access to arrows that do at least as much damage as ironheads and are much easier to acquire in mass quantities. And what “cost” are you referring to? Kill somebody for the ice shard, get some branches (seriously, you don’t have like 1000 of these things lying around?) and some feathers (nests are all over the noob river, just look up). They’re a Tier 1 religious item. Making them on par w/black ice gear is ridiculous. Frankly, I think Ymir is a must-have religion starting out if you plan on being any sort of archer.
while i dont think these arrows should be on par with black ice i do think they need something to make them useful. if i wanna play as an archer i just choose Set. sure you unlock the arrows later but they are better because the poison does twice the damage.
I agree. It always felt like they were intended to inflict cold damage but never actually get the buff in-game. Please consider this in one of your next updates!
You can do both. Start with Ymir, then when you’ve got some levels, go prod Mek-Kamoses to teach you Set.
Ice arrows are a strong, easy-access early game option with a relatively low cost. Making them stronger would necessitate moving them further up the Feat chain and level.
I think ice arrows are in a pretty good spot right now. They’re one of the better religion items for lower-level players. What we, who have been level 60 for years now, need to remember that some stuff in the game is not intended for endgame. Just like iron spears or Stygian khopesh’s are not an endgame player’s weapons of choice, neither are Ice arrows.
(Of course, unless you start with Ymir religion, you’re probably level 60 by the time you reach the Outcast. But you can’t really balance game content based on the latest point you gain access to it, but the first point.)
it is hard for me to understand what perspective you are coming from, the arrows are obsolete by level 29-30 (ivory arrows/specialist ammunition steelheads) the cost of ice shards yes is a cost factor in harvest vs mining times you have to factor in which is even worse/slower if in your hypothetical they are under level 29 due to the length of time it takes to kill someone.
So I cant see how it is economical for a low level archer and as someone who is vastly experienced with the game as is most of the playerbase I couldn’t imagine playing for more than 2 hours and not being at least level 30, on some level you can tell funcom even understood that this stepping stone system actually just doesn’t really work hence why they only add iron and star metal versions of dlc weapons.
Every other religion has its tier 1 function somewhat useful even at endgame, Mitra ambrosia heal, Yog meat, food and water, Elixir of freedom always useful, set antidote, useful, ice shard arrows and ice? nope.
That and lastly to consider is frigid bite would not effect people badly in the desert, it is highly situational, so unless you expect them to go North immediately and somehow not level past 30 it will not have a massive impact on the power level of the arrows along noob river.
You have even said yourself the only way to see benefit from it is to select it as your starting religion as you need to go north just to learn it so this level of power benefits at most 1/5th(people who chose yimir) of a small subsection(new players) of hyper specific gamestyles(archers) instead of, well everybody.
Not everyone power-levels on PvP servers. Some people like to enjoy the journey instead of rushing to the end. and depending on where you’re adventuring, easily killable human NPCs can be more plentiful and easily accessible than ivory or steel. You view the game from a veteran level 60 player’s perspective, but not everyone is a veteran level 60, especially new players.
You may argue that the Frigid bite effect is minor. That much we can agree about. But bumping the arrow damage to black ice levels (which require a level 60 Feat) would mean bumping the arrows up to level 60, that is, to Foeshatter levels.
What would you give to low-level Ymir worshippers in return?
When you had to chop trees to get ice shards they were some pretty great arrows because you could get shards quickly and fill your quiver.
When they made the change to align Ymir with other religions by making shards come from humanoid corpses, shards became much slower to acquire. The problem is they did not change ice arrows to either give more arrows per craft or alter the cost. As a result the arrows went from really good to practically a waste since you have access to ironhead arrows within 90 minutes or so after character creation, and steel not terribly long after.