"Play the way you want" as long as you're not a bow-bow player.

Aerin

What's the strongest META build for bow-bow that everyone uses for pushing score or tackling endgame content like Godslayer, Gryphon Heart, or even Planesbreaker? Please refrain from making fun of this; I'm trying to be very serious about it.

MudcrabAttack

Barely anyone I know is using bow in those scenarios, I’m the only one that I’ve seen

But there is one big buff I found by running bow in place of dual wield, that’s proccing more azureblight with an Arcanist beam build in a swashbuckler strat VDSR trial. More damage over time ticks means more azureblight blasting multiple enemies, the total lack of hawk eye stacks don’t really matter in this particular scenario

Dual wield deadly cloak ticks once every 2 seconds in a 5 meter area around yourself, but the enemies are all in front of you rather than around you. Flame and poison glyphs attached to dual wield are practically nothing in an AOE fight. Endless hail can be cast from a long ways off as you run towards a cluster of mobs, and it ticks once per second. Acid spray hits a cluster of mobs in front of you and ticks once per second for 6 seconds while beaming. Throw in caltrops and you get a ton of damage ticks and way more azureblight dps since the beam provides 3 ticks per second and the other skills reliably provide 3 ticks per second on everything in front of you

Aerin

"bow-bow"

Soarora

I know bow-bow is good in AS, I don't know the exact build I think it uses DSA bow as the front bar? Might be something to look into and see if you can find someone who does know the AS bow-bow build. Then you could try modifying it to use it elsewhere because I think that's the only place where someone has made a bow-bow build. Unfortunately, a lot of content nowadays has a lot of AoEs so it's expected you're using deadly cloak. Maybe you can use a class that has another source of major evasion.
I would not expect getting PB though, people require META there for a reason, and bow-bow just is not META and will never be (since ZOS has decided melee needs to have more risk-reward, daggers will always be the best if you can be in melee range).

merpins

There's some stam sorcs that are getting good use of bow-bow. Though I still prefer the greatsword setup on stam sorc.

AcadianPaladin

I play several OakenBow builds and play PvE mostly solo. I've found (for me) the Warden to be very much the most effective. Sorc is not bad. Well below those are NB and Templar. Have not tried other classes.

ssewallb14_ESO

I don't know how it translates to content but I'm seeing some really high parses from Master's/Maelstrom/Velothi setups on various classes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1fsA1hyJ_k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z63lv8w7WJI

Hapexamendios

I've had bow builds on arcanist and warden. They were both good enough to do vet dungeons, but didn't do so well on the hard modes or DLC vets.

MudcrabAttack

Aerin wrote: »

"bow-bow"

The one I mentioned above that post is bow bow, I didn’t clarify everything.

Azureblight body+ velothi amulet + 1pc slimecraw
Maelstrom bow back bar
Coral riptide bow front (next patch use charge trait)
Fulminating, acid spray, flail, beam, camouflage hunter on the front
Endless hail, caltrops, camouflage hunter, scholarship, flex back bar

It’s really just for AOE damage where lots of mobs stand together for azureblight procs

My favorite nightblade bow bow build that I took into a Godslayer prog is
https://www.esologs.com/reports/fvDm8Yqxwc73Nbtj#type=summary&fight=2&source=3
But it’s getting nerfed 10% next patch, so you would run debilitate or acid spray in place of concealed weapon. Bows typically have a hard time with aoe, but I managed ok-ish with acid spray on lokkestiiz. A bow build is perfect for Nahviintaas portals, good single target damage and some range