Can I duel with a Bow? Seems not

m0riarty23 · October 2016

I'm a semi-casual player (vet165) and decided to challenge a friend to a duel last night (vet530). He's a tank and i'm a DPS (well i thought i was). Knowing he would win the fight because he out vets me, i thought i'd get a couple "good hits" in. My main weapon is a Bow, and experimenting with several combinations of skills to try to get through his blocks and armor, I found that I could barely get him down to 90% health (thats with him NOT attacking back). When he decided to engage in combat, he would kill me before i scratched him.

Is the bow worthless? with all the gap-closing, and ranged combat skills, is this weapon a joke? Is the bow just a PvE skill line and I should hang up the PvP idea with this character?

Ghettokid · October 2016

Well:
If you are orc=bow is useful
Your not orc=bow is useless

m0riarty23 · October 2016

There is THAT much of a racial advantage?

Panth141 · October 2016

m0riarty23 wrote: »

There is THAT much of a racial advantage?

PROTIP: Disregard comments from @Ghettokid

Ghettokid · October 2016

m0riarty23 wrote: »

There is THAT much of a racial advantage?

Nah just joking.
But if talking seriously bow is pretty awesome weapon and especially on pvp. Some people are one shotting people with focused aim so its not bad at all. Check if you find bow builds from yt.

Ghettokid · October 2016

Panth141 wrote: »

m0riarty23 wrote: »

There is THAT much of a racial advantage?

PROTIP: Disregard comments from @Ghettokid

orc

Kutsuu · October 2016

No, you're being trolled.

Bow is especially strong in burst setups where you get the drop on your opponent, but it can be used in builds with more sustain.... preferably in conjunction with DW or 2h.

Dueling with a tank is basically your worst case scenario as a bursty bow user. Not only are you giving up the surprise factor, but you're fighting a character that you wouldn't want to gank even when you have the drop because their whole build revolves around surviving burst.

Also, 160 CP vs 500 CP is a huge difference. They're going to be 10-15% better than you in every way, before we even start counting any gear and skill advantages they may be leveraging.

Nestor · October 2016

Bows have their place, as an Opener from an advantage (Stealth from Behind is one such example) and to soften up an enemy from a distance. Also, when in large PvP fight, to soften up and do damage from a distance. Up close and personal in a Duel or 1v1, not going to be as effective.

Bows have their uses, it's just you can't use the Bow all the time. Have another weapon or skill bar loaded up to swap to after opening the fight with the bow.

SodanTok · October 2016

Dueling tank is hard as it gets, but if he wasnt even using skills its skills/build/l2p issue.
Even vs tank you should only have hard time and possible eventually run out of stamina and die, but you shouldnt die before that happen.

But yeah, bow is definitely weaker than other ways to play PVP. You need to grind it more and "become one with the bow"

Then you can easily fight most pvpers

Solariken · October 2016

Bow is a great weapon for mobility and for opening up a fight. It's also good from keep walls or the back of a big zerg v zerg fight. I like it a lot for a buff bar and Venom Arrow utility.

But no OP, you can't really use a bow to stand toe to toe with a melee weapon user (or even a decent ranged magicka build) - bow generally isn't a good choice for main weapon in a duel, they will slaughter you.

Sandman929 · October 2016

I think you could make it work, at least fairly well, but I think you're looking at DoT focused build. Cancelling a heavy attack with poison injection is effective, in fact it's a standard opener for NB gankers and it hits hard.
I've never tried a bow focused build but I think you'd benefit from a CP investment in Bow Expert and using light/heavy attacks for constant pressure and keeping the Hawk Eye passive at a constant 15% bonus damage to light/heavy. Use Bombard and Magnum Shot to create distance when you need it (remember you also get 12% increased damage at longer range with the Long Shot passive).

What ever else you can do to snare or immobilize targets, and give yourself Major Expedition to create a gap will help. Not knowing what class you're playing I don't know what the options are.

Wycks · October 2016

Just an FYI some of the top PC duelers and PvPers use a bow.

Sandman929 · October 2016

bob.ellisonb16_ESO wrote: »

Just an FYI some of the top PC duelers and PvPers use a bow.

Just about every stam player uses a bow, but I think we're talking about using a bow as a main damage source, not as part of the 2H/Bow build.

m0riarty23 · October 2016

Good info.

Alucardo · October 2016

A guy killed himself spamming snipe against my S+B ulti. Bow is great.

GreenSoup2HoT · October 2016

Slap on shield breaker and youll be fine bow primary.

Serious note though, the heal from scatter shot is not bad. If you have rally back bar you could easily be a big pain in the butt.

Bow Primary players earn my respect if your trying to duel with it. At least its not a meta heavy proc build.

The Bow turret ulty is also pretty sweet.

DeanTheCat · October 2016

Try Eternal Hunt. The rune created by EH ensures that if anyone tries to gap close into you, they will eat the rune and take damage. Then combine it with either Draining Shot or Magnum Shot to knock said target into the rune for even more damage.

Anti_Virus · October 2016

Not at all bow is ONLY good for back bar or for ganking

I've tried so hard to make a bow primary dueling build but it doesn't work, the devs neglect archers and have a heavy bias to melee and magic builds.

-Gap closer keeps melee builds glued to your face,

- the only bow skill that deal dmg is snipe and its very predictable

- Magic sorcs will tear you to shreads with their dps skills and laugh as you try to snipe their 10K shield

If you use a bow as a utility weapon, like resto staff then it works, but if you wanted to play a "ranger" class you need to look else where.

GreenSoup2HoT · October 2016

Dont let the quitters keep you from from making a fun build.

Use Eternal Hunt. This set will prevent players from Gap closing you. Use Scatter shot as your heal and stun. If someone wants to permablock just light attack them.

On my nightblade i would use Manifestation of Terror and Twin shades. You can sit in a fear of protection basically and drain stam from blockers with twin shades which also applies maim.

This build is completely none meta but its a lot more fun to use. Duels feel like duels and last long instead of 2 seconds.

Once Shield Breaker comes in jewerly and weapons youll be able to make a nasty setup for bow primary with Eternal Hunt.

I wouldnt use Snipe in duels. Takes to long to cast and easy to dodge.

Goodluck!

Sandman929 · October 2016

DeanTheCat wrote: »

Try Eternal Hunt. The rune created by EH ensures that if anyone tries to gap close into you, they will eat the rune and take damage. Then combine it with either Draining Shot or Magnum Shot to knock said target into the rune for even more damage.

Eternal Hunt seems like a really good fit for this build, and Shield Breaker as well.

AverageJo3Gam3r · October 2016

I've seen bow focused pvpers use rearming trap, venom arrow, and draining shot to apply pressure. You didn't say what class you are, but you'll probably have more dots or utility from your class too. Shadow image can provide extra escape, as does streak. Hurricane is good passive dps.

I'd recommend running a 2H on your back bar, then using stampede, dawnbreaker, reverse slice as your finisher once you've gotten them down to 40-50 percent with the bow.

Sandman929 · October 2016

AverageJo3Gam3r wrote: »

I've seen bow focused pvpers use rearming trap, venom arrow, and draining shot to apply pressure. You didn't say what class you are, but you'll probably have more dots or utility from your class too. Shadow image can provide extra escape, as does streak. Hurricane is good passive dps.

I'd recommend running a 2H on your back bar, then using stampede, dawnbreaker, reverse slice as your finisher once you've gotten them down to 40-50 percent with the bow.

But that's really just standard 2h/Bow...

m0riarty23 · October 2016

I'll experiment more.

DeanTheCat · October 2016

GreenSoup2HoT wrote: »

Dont let the quitters keep you from from making a fun build.

Use Eternal Hunt. This set will prevent players from Gap closing you. Use Scatter shot as your heal and stun. If someone wants to permablock just light attack them.

On my nightblade i would use Manifestation of Terror and Twin shades. You can sit in a fear of protection basically and drain stam from blockers with twin shades which also applies maim.

This build is completely none meta but its a lot more fun to use. Duels feel like duels and last long instead of 2 seconds.

Once Shield Breaker comes in jewerly and weapons youll be able to make a nasty setup for bow primary with Eternal Hunt.

I wouldnt use Snipe in duels. Takes to long to cast and easy to dodge.

Goodluck!

@GreenSoup2HoT

You might want to try that Venomous Serpent set from one of the trials. 25% chance to deal 8k Poison Damage on light attack to a poisoned target. And as an archer, you'll almost always have a target poisoned. So just play around with your EH and VS and watch stuff melt =P

Farorin · October 2016

I use bow in conjunction with melee weapons, and it works well for me, in duels as well.

driosketch · October 2016

Light armor magicka user, and we were on a narrow bridge, but I would get shredded by the bow ultimate when I wasn't ready for it.