Small bow for ranger: bad choice!

[gamunity]

I found a nice special small bow for my ranger and equipped it for a while. But soon enough i found out that it is a bad choice! Rangers have little concentration to spill and need to make every arrow count! Strength comes from few but well targeted arrows, not quantity. Having a quickshooting but less damage doing bow is therefore a bad choice!

If the dev's want this weapon to be something worth considering, they have to make it better in some other way. Like making it consume less concentration per shot.

[-=DeadSoul=-]

I disagree here i just made my small bow even more Atk speed Heavy wont tell you how much though ... its all about the gems

[-Amethyst-1]

Using your small bow has faster attack. I like the small bow better.

[gamunity]

Surprising! Maybe i just haven't found the ideal bow yet ;-)

[2Radon]

The advantage of faster weapons is faster animations - thus you are able to move sooner after an attack and dodge faster.

Using fast swords for DK means lots of rage generation, while a slow mace means strong single hits. I find slow weapons pale in comparison to fast for DK, because the abilities that you can use more often by far make it up for any more damage a slower weapon would do.

For SW: wand + ball would be the ultimate combo of surviving at the cost of damage and resources. A staff would be the ultimate efficiency of resource (mana and essence) usage and reliable numbers, but dangerously slow attacks and no extra protection. Wand + book is a combo like the first one when it comes to avoiding damage, but with power nearly like a staff, while the drawback is quick resource consumption and random critical hits (which means you can take twice as much time killing a mob if you don't crit luckily).

For Rangers slow weapon is like the staff of SW, except that you can still add a quiver (crit like SW book), or a shield depending on the situation or preference. The fast weapon is just like SW wand, and you can also choose between the quiver or the shield.

What I can say is that SW seems to be the most interesting at choosing weapons and play style. Ranger is almost like SW: skill(or hassle)-requiring because you can actually swap between quiver and shield any time and get the most out of them (about to take damage? equip shield. no threat? quiver). DK is most boring and expectable because it is a melee/tank class and primarily need survivability, as well as rage + fast weapon is superior to other choices. You could still work with swapping sword and shield with a two-handed sword when fighting a SW since you cant block or mitigate magic with shield. However slow weapons mean it is nearly impossible to hit a moving target during a chase anyway.

[ee5k]

@ Original Poster

Yes and No. (Shortbow has its uses.)

Yes if you are using only trap->precision shot to kill mobs.

No if you PvP and melee (melee which you should avoid if possible against same level NPCs, but it is epic for farming grey NPCs for crystals of truth due to AoE at no concentration cost).


By the way, here is an interesting fact. Did you know that ranger's offhand slot shield is worse than mage's crystal balls (and obviously worse than warrior's shields as well)? Also, our quiver gives less crits than mage's books as well.

Here I thought rangers are suppose to have more armor and block rates than mages. I guess I was wrong.

Short bow also deals less damage per second compared to mages' single handed wands and warriors' swords. More reasons to avoid using it unless you are farming grey NPCs or PvPing.

Note: I'm referring to the base stats.

[2Radon]

Originally Posted by ee5k

@ Original Poster

Yes and No. (Shortbow has its uses.)

Yes if you are using only trap->precision shot to kill mobs.

No if you PvP and melee (melee which you should avoid if possible against same level NPCs, but it is epic for farming grey NPCs for crystals of truth due to AoE at no concentration cost).


By the way, here is an interesting fact. Did you know that ranger's offhand slot shield is worse than mage's crystal balls (and obviously worse than warrior's shields as well)? Also, our quiver gives less crits than mage's books as well.

Here I thought rangers are suppose to have more armor and block rates than mages. I guess I was wrong.

Short bow also deals less damage per second compared to mages' single handed wands and warriors' swords. More reasons to avoid using it unless you are farming grey NPCs or PvPing.

Note: I'm referring to the base stats.

Did you check the levels? Those weapons might have different level progression on each kind of them. For example as DK you can pretty much buy a new weapon each level, and shield being your only off-hand you get a new one only every 8 levels... -.-

[ee5k]

Originally Posted by 2Radon

Did you check the levels? Those weapons might have different level progression on each kind of them. For example as DK you can pretty much buy a new weapon each level, and shield being your only off-hand you get a new one only every 8 levels... -.-

Of course I did. I factored in the levels when comparing as well. You can also check from upgrading item. Even the upgraded item is weaker at the same level in comparison.

I agree, rangers lack variety also. I think this game is just more DK focused.

[2Radon]

Originally Posted by ee5k

Of course I did. I factored in the levels when comparing as well. You can also check from upgrading item. Even the upgraded item is weaker at the same level in comparison.

I agree, rangers lack variety also. I think this game is just more DK focused.

Yea I agree about it being DK focused. :/
The thing about shields is that at the items respective level it will always give 33.33% chance to block and 50% damage blocked. Is the orb any different?

Also I think we should have a variety in equipment so that we can choose being tougher against magic or physical damage, like spell shields, resistance armor, etc.

What could be something that would work to balance SW in both PvP and PvE is a magic shield of some sort. You know like the classic mana shield or simply some sort of damage absorbing bubble, whether stationary or usable on only self or also allies...

P.S. This is going off-topic, but I think it's a good discussion.

[JsRanger]

I really think the precise shot skill (forgot the exact name ... the one with 125% damage and double when marked) Is already powerful anyway with small bow and longbow so for me and my opinion, i'm saying its good