Why people love Bow and Arrow so much?

Iselin

Because we have no chakrams...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp7lc6lrpxo

BigBragg

Change my mind.

Kram8ion

I think it's just that it has the least clunkiest light attack

TheInfernalRage

My bow/bow build is built for close range and love trash mobs. I never liked longer range builds in this game, unless it's PVP, because the time between long range and melee range is too small. You can feel like a stealth archer in the beginning, but when you fire the first arrow, you'll be holding block or dodging in no time.

EvilCroc

You can feel like cunning and awesome ranged DD, who does not mess with melee goons and stays away from filthy magic the same time.
But this is not about ESO.

Violynne

Æterny wrote: »

Let me know how you feel about it!

The greatest game in the ESO franchise, Oblivion, allowed me to do something none of the other games I've played could do: bow wielding magic caster.

The only reason I chose bow in Oblivion was because DW wasn't available.

When Skyrim came out, I had hoped I could finally play the DW magic caster. Nope. If you wanted to cast magic with your hands, you're SoL.

This massively stupid design change carried itself over to ESO, where lightning and inferno staves cannot fire on command, and DWs still cannot be a hybrid.

Thus, DWs have useless DoTs, a pretty critical weapon to have in one's arsenal. So, my only choice is to have a bow backup, to which Poison Injection becomes one of the most powerful DoTs in the game.

One of these days, I'll get to make the character I've always wanted to play: a DW magic caster.

I do have an alt that's as close as I can get it, but she hits like a 5 year old girl.

This game... needs fixing. I've never seen anything as stupid as tying damage to attribute points. Whoever thought this was a good idea should have spent more time developing games to realize this was one of the dumbest moves to make.

Until then, you'll continue to see my Poison Injection and Arrow Barrages on the battlefields while I'm slicing and dicing like a Cuisinart.

*sigh*

MrGarlic

I've been playing with bows and arrows for 50 years so mind your own business.

DDuke

Because there's no crossbows?


Seriously though, I don't think the amount of bow users is too disproportionate to the amount of players who play DW/2H, DW/S&B, S&B/2H etc etc - atleast in PvP.

Strider__Roshin

I use a bow in order to maintain pressure from a distance.

Cave_Canem

I think many of us have at least shot a bow in real life, not so many have been armoured and swung a sword and no-one has ever cast a spell, so the bow is the weapon in ESO we can feel the most familiarity with...

...Also when the zombie apocalypse comes and the ammo runs out, we know its make a bow and git gud or git bit! :P

Cadbury

Iselin wrote: »

Because we have no chakrams...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp7lc6lrpxo

I wish we had mage weapons as cool as Kingdom of Amalur's chakrams.

Cadbury

Artemiisia wrote: »

I blame the hunger games

This bow is on fire!

lagrue

Drakkdjinn wrote: »

B/c they played ez mode [snip] in skyrim, and they're confused as to why ESO isn't skyrim.

[Edit for inappropriate comment.]

Let's be fair though, they didn't have much choice melee and magicka were both shite in Skyrim. I swear Bethesda designed that game around stealth daggers and stealth bows and nothing else. Melee was too clunk - and magicka was just impotent - and in most cases *** against dragons due to poor range on 99% of spells - even if you tried to gear towards it.

zaria

lagrue wrote: »

Drakkdjinn wrote: »

B/c they played ez mode [snip] in skyrim, and they're confused as to why ESO isn't skyrim.

[Edit for inappropriate comment.]

Let's be fair though, they didn't have much choice melee and magicka were both shite in Skyrim. I swear Bethesda designed that game around stealth daggers and stealth bows and nothing else. Melee was too clunk - and magicka was just impotent - and in most cases *** against dragons due to poor range on 99% of spells - even if you tried to gear towards it.

yes, in Oblivion magic was king because of the spellmaker and you could make some interesting spells who contained weakness to magic
In skyrim it was stealth and bows.

ATomiX96

Alot of people are comming from Skyrim and now they also want to roleplay a sneaky archer

Dalsinthus

It’s interesting that people play this game for so many different reasons.

Archers are a core fantasy archetype and I’ve been playing them (and wizards) in both pen and paper and video games since I was a kid. I wish eso allowed a bow primary build that was competitive with other dps builds but alas it is kind of weak.

The popularity of Legolas and the viability of archery in Skyrim couldn’t hurt the appeal. As others noted, pi and barrage are strong.

As much as I love bows, I hate pvp snipe spam as much as the next person, especially with all the health desyncs it seems to generate. I’ve had a lot of bg matches recently were my character freezes and I drop dead, followed by the sound of focused aim or lethal arrow. There are then 3 or more of these hits, usually from one person, in my recap. So I do tend to relentlessly hunt down and kill that person.

JobooAGS

I personally love bows and practice archery irl. So it is natural for me to try to make bow builds work in pve and pvp and not to be something that is despised or only for zergs. Though, I regonize that it is lacking in some regions and needs buffs in those regions, mostly passives

JobooAGS

It is sad as there is no popular and respected ranged stam build

Mr_Walker

Because it's fun?

Danikat

For me it's because ranged weapons are useful and ESO doesn't have many choices, especially for stamina based characters. I don't normally use a bow in TES games because I hate having to carry all the arrows around (yes it's silly, but it bothers me) and generally found ranged spells to be a better option. But in ESO I use them on 2 characters.

Judas Helviaryn wrote: »

I grew up with a couple bows. Archery's something that just fits for me, it's personal, fun, and generally more immersive from my standpoint.

Judging by the comments, this community will hate on literally anything they don't understand.

Fixed it for you.

Zardayne

Cadbury wrote: »

Iselin wrote: »

Because we have no chakrams...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp7lc6lrpxo

I wish we had mage weapons as cool as Kingdom of Amalur's chakrams.

I wish we had some overland mobs as tough as those. He actually got to use more than 2 abilities..

I would add like most have you almost have to use bow in PVE for the extra DOTs. Endless Hail and Poison injection are almost required. For PVP swap out Hail for Snipe.

I shoot a bow in RL and I love it but normally in games I still gravitate toward a druid class (or similar).

raj72616a

because it only takes one arrow to the knee to turn an adventurer into a guard.
psychic immortal guard.

xxthir13enxx

People luv cheese

DMuehlhausen

YamiKuruku wrote: »

well alot of people here come from skyrim
and in skyrim you always play a stealth archer XD
maybe its also just that people dont wanna go active in a fight and being "deadly" from afar

It's not just Skyrim, you end up playing stealth archer in basically ES games cause it's so over powered. One shotting Dragons is fun .

tunepunk

I think the bow skill line in eso is pretty useful.

Snipe - Heavy hitter
Poison arrow - Pressure
Endless hail. Ground based AOE good dps.
Acid Spray - Good direct area damage.
Magnum shot - Get off me!
Movement speed after roll dodge.

And don't forget. light attacks hit pretty hard. I get up to 14.5k light attack hits when crit, on my stam sorc.

Æterny

DDuke wrote: »

Because there's no crossbows?


Seriously though, I don't think the amount of bow users is too disproportionate to the amount of players who play DW/2H, DW/S&B, S&B/2H etc etc - atleast in PvP.

Across all MMOS/RPGs i have played that i could have access to the population class distribution, the Majority plays an archer class style. Not to all combined, but let's say 100%: 10%Healer 10% Warrior 15%Thief 15%Barbarian 20%Mage 30%Archer. Just a rough exemple.

munster1404

Artemiisia wrote: »

I blame the hunger games

Lord of the Rings

anadandy

Cadbury wrote: »

I wish we had mage weapons as cool as Kingdom of Amalur's chakrams.

Oh Kingdom of Amalur... *weeps*

As to why I love bows? Playing a Ranger is my jam - has been for 30 years. You'll take my bow when you pry it from my cold dead hands

Æterny

Dalsinthus wrote: »

It’s interesting that people play this game for so many different reasons.

Archers are a core fantasy archetype and I’ve been playing them (and wizards) in both pen and paper and video games since I was a kid.

Exactly this i want to figure.

I have no intention to offend Bow lovers, but i will give myself as an exemple: I feel stupid shooting a bow. Zero fun or motivation to do this over and over. I'm more into some kind of melee caster full of buffs or fist fighting (Let's Say Monk/Paladin/Melee-Buff kind of combat)

Idk, i feel like bow is so Ordinary, no contact with the combat. Almost like an AFK kind of combat...

rfennell_ESO

Ranged has it's advantages.

In pvp, the likely two most prevalent classes are magsorc and stamblade.

Those are also the classes/specs that can utilize ranged.

Furthermore, if you get tired of the fact that certain people can't reliably be attacked in melee range (*cough bs cough*), you need not worry any longer, you just got to be prepared with whispers that read l2p git gud and the usual litany of "elite" insults.