Let's talk about Bows and their role

[Colanius]

So I'm a bit confused here, I'm a level 10 striker/warden, got an excellent short bow from the bear quest and also a honed longbow from CV1, but while also running several CV1 runs I was told by lots of people to stop shooting with bows and go melee.

The argument was that bows are only for pulling and don't do an efficient dps (someone said one tier below melee weapon damage) and melee weapons are the only way to do DPS efficiently.

Is this correct? are ranged weapons only for pulling? if so I'm doubting on keep playing... I wanted a ranged class with bows and with these arguments, from a lot of people, it seems like all classes are all melee focused...

 

[MarcusFromOz]

I've never been told that.
If that was the case then there would be no point to having shortbows in the game imo.

Maybe they were talking about it being hard to use in places like CV1 because of all the tight corners.

Possibly they meant that many bows do their best damage when you are to the side of a mob, while a melee weapon can have better frontal or rear attacks, and in many dungeons you just can't be to the side.

*shrugs*

 

[dullahan]

In groups I often use bow instead of melee. When soloing I use frontal weapons and my bow is side/back, so its not as good.

 

[Elloa]

So I'm a bit confused here, I'm a level 10 striker/warden, got an excellent short bow from the bear quest and also a honed longbow from CV1, but while also running several CV1 runs I was told by lots of people to stop shooting with bows and go melee.

The argument was that bows are only for pulling and don't do an efficient dps (someone said one tier below melee weapon damage) and melee weapons are the only way to do DPS efficiently.

Is this correct? are ranged weapons only for pulling? if so I'm doubting on keep playing... I wanted a ranged class with bows and with these arguments, from a lot of people, it seems like all classes are all melee focused...

It seems that your group had certain ideas of how to play and wanted to impose you their vision, but that's not WE (The dev team) intend you to play.
You will have to judge by yourself what's more comfortable for you to play. In some case, and especially if you have a long bow, it can be more tricky to position yourself in small corridors in a dungeon. If you do have a shortbow, it doesn't have this issue as you can be in melee range. This is very situational.
There is many experimented players that are running double bow build, and this for any striker class.

So play what you like, be aware of certain situations, play smart, and do not let others dictate how you have to play even though they may have the very best intentions in the world and want to be helpful!

 

[Mynno]

There are players who are strictly bow users and they do quite well. As others have pointed out bows usually have positional bonuses that require you to be on the side but they still do very good damage. Besides I can guarantee that most melee classes especially new ones don't use their positional abilities to their fullest effect. Also there are items in the game that help out bow users considerably. I was running a crossbow Duelist for awhile and I could do similar and in some cases more damage than some of the melee classes were doing. Just as the others are saying, if you want to be a bow user go for it and you will still get groups. and have fun. If random groups demand you play a different way then join a guild that knows your playstyle and will let you play the way you want to play.

Remember you are paying for this game not the other players so you play the way you want to play and you will certainly have fun!

 

[dullahan]

I've had several people say that its cool to see someone that mains bow and they didn't know that was possible. The only drawback is that in a several hour group session, you'll go through upwards of 1k arrows, and thats not cheap. Kind of think only autoattacks should expend arrows or if good arrows give benefit, that basic arrows should be cheaper.

 

[Zanfire]

I've had several people say that its cool to see someone that mains bow and they didn't know that was possible. The only drawback is that in a several hour group session, you'll go through upwards of 1k arrows, and thats not cheap. Kind of think only autoattacks should expend arrows or if good arrows give benefit, that basic arrows should be cheaper.

Auto attack arrows should be infinite, maybe skills use them or something. Especially with the short bow since you use it at melee range it should act like one. It's from what little I've seen not stronger then melee weapons so why purposely waste money every shot?

I could get why someone would reject the idea of a pure bow user as it is now, they don't gain much benefit and can end up unable to do anything if they run out.

 

[dullahan]

Auto attack arrows should be infinite, maybe skills use them or something. Especially with the short bow since you use it at melee range it should act like one. It's from what little I've seen not stronger then melee weapons so why purposely waste money every shot?

I could get why someone would reject the idea of a pure bow user as it is now, they don't gain much benefit and can end up unable to do anything if they run out.

Bows are better if they're your best weapon. I've chosen them as my quest rewards. You can always use melee if you're running low, but if you run out completely and you need them to pull, that can be a problem.

I don't have a damage parser, but I'm sure its probably similar whether range or melee.

 

[BellatorMonk]

So far as I have experienced as a Lvl 5 Striker to this point is my Bow doesn't normally have enough range to pull before the target aggros me before I even fire. 9x out of 10 aggro mobs seems to detect me just as I get into Bow range anyways.

 

[Calkrow]

So far as I have experienced as a Lvl 5 Striker to this point is my Bow doesn't normally have enough range to pull before the target aggros me before I even fire. 9x out of 10 aggro mobs seems to detect me just as I get into Bow range anyways.

There are two types of bows, short and long. The long bow has greater range but can't be used in melee range. The short bow is the opposite, shorter range but can be used at melee range.

Perhaps you're using a short bow?

Also, the mob aggro detection is quite different to other games. You'll find if you try different things you can get in range to pull even with a short bow.

 

[Emdash]

So I'm a bit confused here, I'm a level 10 striker/warden, got an excellent short bow from the bear quest and also a honed longbow from CV1, but while also running several CV1 runs I was told by lots of people to stop shooting with bows and go melee.

The argument was that bows are only for pulling and don't do an efficient dps (someone said one tier below melee weapon damage) and melee weapons are the only way to do DPS efficiently.

Is this correct? are ranged weapons only for pulling? if so I'm doubting on keep playing... I wanted a ranged class with bows and with these arguments, from a lot of people, it seems like all classes are all melee focused...

check out my completely ignorant comment!

Without some sort of a dodge mechanic, or like a shoot and hide behind a tree, something... bows will indeed be only for pulling. Pulling is so important, though?

The other obvious point is group play. A group should be able to have rangers, and if aggro ever breaks onto them, they can 'peel' it off with melee. I definitely would use ranged stuff if I was playing with anyone. Solo, though, think about real life... one thing that is kind of a 'hack' in this game is how quickly you can switch weps. Sure, it cancels out your skills, but you can hit something with a strong attack by bow (which for some reason are the same attacks as you have with melee??) and then switch and be ready to smash them with another strong attack by the time they get close. If you are standing in front of something with a bow and shooting it, though, you have to understand that in 'the realm of realism,' that's just a bit weird.

And I've played games where bows hard carry. If you CAN kite, you can effectively bow anything down. The combat limits kiting in a lot of ways, from what I've experienced, and that allows for less cheese, which is good. Definitely would be happy to have people with me shooting bows even if 'wahhh you're doing less dps.' I just wanna know that A. the enemy group is going down and B. we're not dying. Otherwise, I'm cool with whatever build people wanna bring. Min-maxing is a huge waste of time, unless you are minning to the point of just hitting your face on the keyboard.