So Archery tho...

CP5 · April 2016

They could give that Hawk Eye buff the ability to hold 1-2 more stacks, then make them degrade one at a time rather than all at once. That way burst still remains the same but an archer that wants to mainly use a bow can get better sustain dps.

strikeback1247 · April 2016

Bow is really good in most parts of the game except for endgame PvE where it's only about dps.

ZakuBeta · April 2016

My only real complaint about the bow is the range. It frequently will either be out of range, or in charge range. I did some PvP once that I was on a wall, and couldn't target any of the opposing players on the ground, while simultaneously being hit by their spells. Maybe it was a glitch in ranges on that keeps walls, but it didn't make sense. The lower overall damage doesn't bother me, the rate at which the range can be closed is staggeringly fast, as compared to the rate of fire, casting times of abilities. Maybe adding a slow to bow attacks is the answer, but that doesn't fix the issue I have when shooting from the walls of a keep. Maybe that is some form of bug like the charge bugs that prevent charging up inclines.

7788b14_ESO · April 2016

Yep, we all know how weak bows are in combat situations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOM4IQjQtM4

UltimaJoe777 · April 2016

MaxwellCrystal wrote: »

Heavy armor got Nerf'd*
Fixed it for ya.

@UltimaJoe777
I made a reccomendation where they should change scorched earth into something I called "Venomous Rain" where the it would put a AoE on the ground that would cause extra poison damage while the arrows would give a poison DoT

I'm fine with Endless Hail being physical, I'm just gonna miss having something on Bow effective vs Vamps is all. It kinda ruins the whole coverage against WW and Vamps thing where it matters lol

ContraTempo · April 2016

ShadowStarKing wrote: »

khele23eb17_ESO wrote: »

UltimaJoe777 wrote: »

ShadowStarKing wrote: »

Read the Patch Notes, and I love the changes so far.... heavy armor tanks got buffed, vamps got buffed, FG etc. But archery got very little buffs.

Poison injectiom got a 12% increase, that's good.
Draining shot got a heal after its use (although Idk how it works)

And that's it *sigh* I guess it's safe to say that archers are in the minority in this game I guess not alot of people try to main hand a bow in this game hence the small buffs each update.

I guess my favorite play style will be left in the dust.....

As a matter of fact that isn't it. Scorched Earth has changed into a physical damage attack. See the quote below:

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote:

Renamed this morph to Endless Hail.
Redesigned this morph so it now increases the duration of the arrow volley to 10 seconds, reduces the cost, and deals Physical Damage instead of Flame Damage.

Personally though I liked it better as Scorched Earth...

Still not enough to make bow a main weapon.

Yep, and no matter how many threads I or others make about bow, the majority will say "it's fine" I just really want to be an Archer....

I think I get what you are going for here. You want to be able to melee with a bow like Legolas. Other people look at IRL and see that people don't melee with bows; as an archer you don't let the enemy get close. If he does, then it is time to pull out a blade or a club. IMO ESO gives us a hybrid. Skills like bombard and draining shot give options a real archer would not have but nothing quite like the way we see Legolas getting up close and personal. But then, he was freekin' Leglas.

My biggest gripe is that weapon swapping is not reliable. IMO it should override anything else you are doing with your weapons and swap right now rather than queuing up at the end of other button presses and animations.

ContraTempo · April 2016

ShadowStarKing wrote: »

I think you need to calm down sir,

Never-in-the-history-of-calming-down-has-anyone-ev?size=800

jircris11 · April 2016

ShadowStarKing wrote: »

khele23eb17_ESO wrote: »

UltimaJoe777 wrote: »

ShadowStarKing wrote: »

Read the Patch Notes, and I love the changes so far.... heavy armor tanks got buffed, vamps got buffed, FG etc. But archery got very little buffs.

Poison injectiom got a 12% increase, that's good.
Draining shot got a heal after its use (although Idk how it works)

And that's it *sigh* I guess it's safe to say that archers are in the minority in this game I guess not alot of people try to main hand a bow in this game hence the small buffs each update.

I guess my favorite play style will be left in the dust.....

As a matter of fact that isn't it. Scorched Earth has changed into a physical damage attack. See the quote below:

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote:

Renamed this morph to Endless Hail.
Redesigned this morph so it now increases the duration of the arrow volley to 10 seconds, reduces the cost, and deals Physical Damage instead of Flame Damage.

Personally though I liked it better as Scorched Earth...

Still not enough to make bow a main weapon.

Yep, and no matter how many threads I or others make about bow, the majority will say "it's fine" I just really want to be an Archer....

i run around as an archer and honestly i rarely swap to my daggers. If you are willing then the lack of "dmg" is not going to stop you.

Farorin · April 2016

The changes they brought in were cool, but I was hoping they would have included more.

UltimaJoe777 · April 2016

ContraTempo wrote: »

ShadowStarKing wrote: »

I think you need to calm down sir,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFi4uU8kQ28

Anti_Virus · April 2016

ContraTempo wrote: »

ShadowStarKing wrote: »

khele23eb17_ESO wrote: »

UltimaJoe777 wrote: »

ShadowStarKing wrote: »

Read the Patch Notes, and I love the changes so far.... heavy armor tanks got buffed, vamps got buffed, FG etc. But archery got very little buffs.

Poison injectiom got a 12% increase, that's good.
Draining shot got a heal after its use (although Idk how it works)

And that's it *sigh* I guess it's safe to say that archers are in the minority in this game I guess not alot of people try to main hand a bow in this game hence the small buffs each update.

I guess my favorite play style will be left in the dust.....

As a matter of fact that isn't it. Scorched Earth has changed into a physical damage attack. See the quote below:

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote:

Renamed this morph to Endless Hail.
Redesigned this morph so it now increases the duration of the arrow volley to 10 seconds, reduces the cost, and deals Physical Damage instead of Flame Damage.

Personally though I liked it better as Scorched Earth...

Still not enough to make bow a main weapon.

Yep, and no matter how many threads I or others make about bow, the majority will say "it's fine" I just really want to be an Archer....

I think I get what you are going for here. You want to be able to melee with a bow like Legolas. Other people look at IRL and see that people don't melee with bows; as an archer you don't let the enemy get close. If he does, then it is time to pull out a blade or a club. IMO ESO gives us a hybrid. Skills like bombard and draining shot give options a real archer would not have but nothing quite like the way we see Legolas getting up close and personal. But then, he was freekin' Leglas.

My biggest gripe is that weapon swapping is not reliable. IMO it should override anything else you are doing with your weapons and swap right now rather than queuing up at the end of other button presses and animations.

No not melee I just want Snipe to be a sustained dps skill thats good OUTSIDE of Ganking, archers are not suppose to be in melee combat, however I run with a melee weapon

The problem is that melee weapon overshadows my bow why try to snipe some one in open combat when they could clearly dodge it, block it shield stack etc. While melee weapons like 2h can CC and deal way more dmg.

When I started my goal was to be a bow dual wield assassin nightblade with bow as my main dps and dual wield as a back up cqc weapon, If you look up the ranger class in the game Dragons Dogma you'll see what I mean.

Stamina builds just seem to be all about melee while magic builds can go melee and range if they want to.

Thank you for your understanding most people would just call me stupid and be on their way.

Anti_Virus · April 2016

Farorin wrote: »

The changes they brought in were cool, but I was hoping they would have included more.

Me too.

Anti_Virus · April 2016

ZakuBeta wrote: »

My only real complaint about the bow is the range. It frequently will either be out of range, or in charge range. I did some PvP once that I was on a wall, and couldn't target any of the opposing players on the ground, while simultaneously being hit by their spells. Maybe it was a glitch in ranges on that keeps walls, but it didn't make sense. The lower overall damage doesn't bother me, the rate at which the range can be closed is staggeringly fast, as compared to the rate of fire, casting times of abilities. Maybe adding a slow to bow attacks is the answer, but that doesn't fix the issue I have when shooting from the walls of a keep. Maybe that is some form of bug like the charge bugs that prevent charging up inclines.

Yes, the lower dmg isn't the problem, its the skills specifically snipe its very unreliable, you will Hardly kill players with snipe on your own because of the cast time and travel time, plus there is an audio que that warns you.

All one has to do is go behind a tree and no more snipes, it's sad most archers get destroyed by stam melee. Its funny when you see them desperately cast snipe hoping to land at least on hit and watch as the stam Dk/NB roll dodges it spams a gap closer and wreaking block leap GG or Ambush SA fear Soul Harvest and then its GG.

kendellking_chaosb14_ESO · April 2016

Hyssia wrote: »

I'm using bow in PvP. Not using "Snipe" or "Bombard" or any of those abilities that you see the brainless PuGs spamming.

Poison injection - this was already OP imo (Stealthed heavy attack > PI > crit rush > soul harvest, get oneshot), and in duels it'd randomly tick for ~5k+ if enemy was below 50% health.

Draining Shot - This. This badass guy just got buffed big time - as a stamblade, this will add a 3rd heal to my arsenal. What is there to complain about? The knockback + CC (from double cast) is extremely underrated, both in 1vs1 and 1vX. But the heal? Hey man, I just got buffed big time.

Endless Hail - I'd love to stack this with caltrops and possibly veil of blades in 1vX / 2vX.

I'm of course going to assume that the majority of you who read this are zergers - so I'm sorry that your precious snipe or bombard didn't get buffed. Tough luck, change your playstyle. Solo won't hurt.

You missed the whole point this is coming from a solo player,you using crit Rush then Soul Harvest on a Twohanded bar is the problem you have to go Melee if you don't kill from stealth Archer is really bad on it's own outside of stealth needing to change weapons is the problem. No one said we lacked a powerful open from stealth.

Also your AoE stacking wouldn't work Forward Momentum or Shuffle is on every stamina build so we will drop the snare and walk out. Caltrops is not cheap and Veil is an Ultimate that's a lot of resources wasted.

vontariel · April 2016

Shortening snipe travel time from ~3s to <1s, reduce cast from 1s to 0,75 and reduce/eliminate self CC when casting and nothing more is needed.

Lysette · April 2016

ADarklore wrote: »

ShadowStarKing wrote: »

colec74 wrote: »

I played another well known MMO for a little over a decade, and almost always had a hunter. It hindered the way I thought about combat when I came into the game initially. When I realized I don't have to have a "main" weapon. I use a bow and dual wield, and they complement each other well. If I want to stay away from a melee combatant I use the bow as much as possible. I do a pretty good job of using the terrain to kite them, but it does take skill. DoT them and autoattack when I can. Scatter shot is a nice utility skill that gets them off of you, and there are also other ranged attacks from other skill lines that work well at a distance. Some melee skills can be upgraded to ranged. Also, I can keep a melee stun on my bar to regain distance if needed. I personally like the way it's set up. It takes more skill to use, and isn't just an instant win like on other MMOs.

I run duel wield and bow as well, and what you say is true, when the game first came out that was going to be my setup, bow as my main weapon and dual wield for back up.

Turns out Archry Sucks in every aspect excepts stealth attacks, why use snipe with a cast time and travel time which is clearly dodgeable when I can wrecking blow/Dizzing Swing spam CC a target and empower the dmg.

You must be talking about PvP ONLY... also 'why use snipe...' how about because that's how you enjoy playing. Not everyone in this game is a min/maxer and not every ability should be geared towards min/maxers. Sometimes skills and weapons are just FUN TO PLAY and can work if you put the time and energy into developing a playstyle that works with it. Sounds to me like you just want an easy playstyle, not one that involves a bit of extra L2P involved.

This and if poisons can be used on a bow as well - which I hope they will be - it is the only weapon which would be able to apply a specific poison effect to a target at range. This combined with its fabulous range makes it a viable weapon given a playstyle which goes with it. DPS are just important in a brute force approach, I personally find improved range and smart gameplay a lot more interesting than to just close in to bash on the enemy with a melee weapon. But each to it's own, I guess.

Hyssia · April 2016

kendellking_chaosb14_ESO wrote: »

Hyssia wrote: »

Also your AoE stacking wouldn't work Forward Momentum or Shuffle is on every stamina build so we will drop the snare and walk out. Caltrops is not cheap and Veil is an Ultimate that's a lot of resources wasted.

"We will" - pugs sure as hell won't cast anything that drops snares and slows.

vontariel · April 2016

Lysette wrote: »

This and if poisons can be used on a bow as well - which I hope they will be - it is the only weapon which would be able to apply a specific poison effect to a target at range.

Poisons are usable on bow. As well as on destro staff and other weapons. They work in same way* as enchants on live atm. Also, poisons supress weapon enchants.

*I mean triggering by skills and LA/HA. There are diffs but stating them is not important here.

Lysette wrote: »

This combined with its fabulous range makes it a viable weapon given a playstyle which goes with it.

Most of time you are unable to stay at "fabulous' range because:
a) there's no room for it
b) mechanics force you to stack near boss
c) your healer hates you cause you bring him additional difficulties
d) gaapcloser spamfest

Lysette wrote: »

DPS are just important in a brute force approach, I personally find improved range and smart gameplay a lot more interesting than to just close in to bash on the enemy with a melee weapon. But each to it's own, I guess.

In single player or dailies maybe. For competetive environment bow is behind. No matter how smart your play is or how far you are, if you need for every DPS to pull 20k DPS on boss for full fight due to it's mechanics you either pull it and manage to beat him or not. You could always leech from your friends who are pulling 25/30k but personally i'm not happy with that outcome.

idk · April 2016

ShadowStarKing wrote: »

Read the Patch Notes, and I love the changes so far.... heavy armor tanks got buffed, vamps got buffed, FG etc. But archery got very little buffs.

Poison injectiom got a 12% increase, that's good.
Draining shot got a heal after its use (although Idk how it works)

And that's it *sigh* I guess it's safe to say that archers are in the minority in this game I guess not alot of people try to main hand a bow in this game hence the small buffs each update.

I guess my favorite play style will be left in the dust.....

The best builds are rarely, if at all, full weapon builds. I do not know of a Dstaff build that is full dstaff nor a 2H or DW build full of skills from those skill trees.

Shadowcub · April 2016

I main with a bow as well. In PvE, 99% of the time I have no problem even soloing zone bosses and Dark Anchors (that 1% might take a death or two, but I'm bull-headed in general).

I usually run with Poison Injection (Venom Arrow), Lethal Arrow (Snipe), Draining Shot (Scatter Shot), Swallow Soul (Strife, NB), and Merciless Resolve (Grim Focus, NB).

On my second bar, I dual wield and that usually has Crippling Grasp (Cripple, NB) for those sticky situations when I need more space to kite.

It took me awhile to make the bow work for me. I was stuck in this thought of, "Well, this is useless but fine for a couple hits when pulling..." And then I had a Come to Everquest moment and remembered the days of kiting the crap out of things with the Tangling Weeds line of spells on my druid. Of course, Agony is not really comparable, but the general idea was to slow down the target(s) and speed myself up. It turned out to be a really fun way to play an archer.

In dungeons, I mainly try to stay out of the way and keep an eye on the healer incase a stray mob goes after him/her. I'll really only switch to dual for extra self-healing or to wolf out.

My only real wish would be some sort of instant damage ability or something that "charges up" like Grim Focus, be it buff for me or debuff for the target.

The lower DPS doesn't bother me, and frankly, I think it should remain that way. As someone said, low risk - low reward. I was never much of a DPS number fanatic, and have always enjoyed hybrid gameplay in a support role more. To each his own on that front.

Greenwood1900 · April 2016

I really don't know what you expect from a Bow, or from the game. Instant gratification?

Is this game you have 2 bars. There is no main weapon. You have to use both.

I use Two Handed Sword and a Bow for PvP. I will never drop the Bow in PvP, no matter what.

In PvE I use different combinations of Dual Wield, Two Handed and Bow.

Read the comment above.

vontariel · April 2016

Shadowcub wrote: »

I main with a bow as well. In PvE, 99% of the time I have no problem even soloing zone bosses and Dark Anchors (that 1% might take a death or two, but I'm bull-headed in general).

That's not that big challenge (we're speaking of WB outside of wrothgar and Hew's bane, right?) because you can solo it with any spec. Even as a healer.

Shadowcub wrote: »

In dungeons, I mainly try to stay out of the way and keep an eye on the healer incase a stray mob goes after him/her. I'll really only switch to dual for extra self-healing or to wolf out.

All dungeons, including vICP and vWGT are now relatively easy and will be even easier. You don't even need tank to finish them, because running it with 3 DPS is much more faster (and it's easier to find 3rd DPS than tank). Even when 3 of them are on sub-optimal build (but are knowing what they are supposed to do).

Shadowcub wrote: »

My only real wish would be some sort of instant damage ability or something that "charges up" like Grim Focus, be it buff for me or debuff for the target.

And the only change would be you will spam this skill instead of snipe (if it would bring better DPS), so why not improve snipe? Second idea is much more viable to be honest.

Shadowcub wrote: »

The lower DPS doesn't bother me, and frankly, I think it should remain that way. As someone said, low risk - low reward. I was never much of a DPS number fanatic, and have always enjoyed hybrid gameplay in a support role more. To each his own on that front.

magicka builds are even lower risk, and much higher reward atm. That kind of thinking, that range is price of less damage would be fine, if it would apply for whole game, not only bow.

ZakuBeta · April 2016

Kiting doesn't work so well in this game. Most of the spawns don't travel very far from their locations, and some can't even travel the bows range out of location. It really sucks when your target is almost dead, and about 2/3 of the way to you, and resets to full health and runs away. I find it amusing in the new content, as some of the spawns will travel a long way to chase you, almost double what the standard game does, and watch people stop at the usual end of the rope to check inventory or map and then get attacked.

Anti_Virus · April 2016

Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »

ShadowStarKing wrote: »

Read the Patch Notes, and I love the changes so far.... heavy armor tanks got buffed, vamps got buffed, FG etc. But archery got very little buffs.

Poison injectiom got a 12% increase, that's good.
Draining shot got a heal after its use (although Idk how it works)

And that's it *sigh* I guess it's safe to say that archers are in the minority in this game I guess not alot of people try to main hand a bow in this game hence the small buffs each update.

I guess my favorite play style will be left in the dust.....

The best builds are rarely, if at all, full weapon builds. I do not know of a Dstaff build that is full dstaff nor a 2H or DW build full of skills from those skill trees.

OMG I think you are missing the point I have SAID numerous times that I DON'T run the same weapons I run dual Wield and bow.

My problem is That I can't have Bow be my main hand weapon and have my playstyle focused around archery with melee as support, bow skills are completely unreliable(snipe,scatter shot) in both PvE and PVP

Sorry If I come off rude but many people get the wrong Idea That I want Bows to be OP and in my previous replies I've stated that I want bow to be like Destro Staff.

Right now Bows are like resto staffs for Stam builds, EVERY stam build is Melee focused ONLY WHY? Why can't we have ranged stamina builds? Magic builds can go melee OR range and Stam builds only go melee.

Every build that uses bow Only has it for support and utility, but then why is the bow only designed for that? Archers were One of the most important units in winning battles back then since arrows were deadly. In this game archers are a joke and are shrugged off by most people.

Heck there isn't even a cool represention of Archers in PVE Mobs most of them are never a threat anyways (except for taking aim skill) I think there are only 2 Archer bosses, and NPCs don't have any cool animations not do they pose a thread like the warrior and mage and Rouge NPCs.

Moonshadow66 · April 2016

Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »

ShadowStarKing wrote: »

Read the Patch Notes, and I love the changes so far.... heavy armor tanks got buffed, vamps got buffed, FG etc. But archery got very little buffs.

Poison injectiom got a 12% increase, that's good.
Draining shot got a heal after its use (although Idk how it works)

And that's it *sigh* I guess it's safe to say that archers are in the minority in this game I guess not alot of people try to main hand a bow in this game hence the small buffs each update.

I guess my favorite play style will be left in the dust.....

The best builds are rarely, if at all, full weapon builds. I do not know of a Dstaff build that is full dstaff nor a 2H or DW build full of skills from those skill trees.

Though it would be great if this was possible

I started levelling a bow and DW with two characters only at VR16, and with a 3rd VR16 also but she was halfway through already. While trying to get all these skills up and enough skills where finally unlocked, I had the bow bar full of bow skills and the DW bar full of DW skills (just to level those lines quicker). It does work, but it's really hard with a bow to stay alive when the enemies get closer. Whenever I died too often and tried again, I had to switch to the DW bar to finish it.

So I guess it is possible with all active skills being weapon skills up to a certain point, but it's not really viable. Also, I was doing this mainly while playing the Wrothgar content, it's still easy enough for this, well, except the died-and-use-DW moments. I don't think it's the best idea in PvP or dungeons, though.

I was trying using a bow back in beta already and hated it; to me it felt like "throwing eggs". I came straight from Skyrim where I "favor the bow" (as the guards say^^) and the differences couldn't be any bigger. I'm aware that ESO is an MMO and the combat mechanics are very different, but what I missed a LOT was, besides of the enormous damage, using tactics.

The arrows aren't "real", that's one thing; you cannot trick the enemy by shooting an arrow behind them to let them search for you in the wrong direction of the area while waiting for the perfect moment to put them an "arrow to the knee". And their AI is different as well. Tactics like this are not possible in ESO, but what's archery without tactics? For having to do it without, the skills should be stronger, imo.
I got used to the bow in ESO and even like it now, but I don't "favor it".

vontariel · April 2016

ShadowStarKing wrote: »

Heck there isn't even a cool represention of Archers in PVE Mobs most of them are never a threat anyways (except for taking aim skill) I think there are only 2 Archer bosses, and NPCs don't have any cool animations not do they pose a thread like the warrior and mage and Rouge NPCs.

You are very wrong on that.
All strongest archers in tamriel are in vMSA. This is only place in whole game when focusing and killing archers are biggest priority.

Kimba_Do · April 2016

This one suspect a killing could be made selling sharp sticks for people to poke each other.

That being said, one alt is an archer/NB, albeit still low level. It seems functional, if a bit fragile. A good mix of abilities on the bar helps, but Khajiit suspects technique is the prime factor in making an archer a success. In other words, skill comes from the player more than the abilities - no matter how worthless/devastating an ability is, should one lack the knowledge and skills to use it effectively, one will fail on a regular basis.

Lysette · April 2016

Kimba_Do wrote: »

This one suspect a killing could be made selling sharp sticks for people to poke each other.

That being said, one alt is an archer/NB, albeit still low level. It seems functional, if a bit fragile. A good mix of abilities on the bar helps, but Khajiit suspects technique is the prime factor in making an archer a success. In other words, skill comes from the player more than the abilities - no matter how worthless/devastating an ability is, should one lack the knowledge and skills to use it effectively, one will fail on a regular basis.

I have archer/NB combination as well, it will never become a competitive player, because I am using a hybrid build, which is a lot of fun to play this combination. I am bit disappointed though, that the bow will not be the only ranged weapon which can apply a specific poison to a target, this would have made it unique. But overall, even if it will not be a competitive build, it is still one, where I dare to take part in pvp. I might die more often than not, but any kill I can make feels a lot more accomplished.

It does not matter to me, if a character's race, class or weapon sucks, if I want to play this character, i do that with all its strength and weaknesses. I want to play an authentic character, who does not have to be the best to achieve something. And if she is an archer, regardless how much this weapon might suck for others, my archer will do her best to master this weapon.

vontariel · April 2016

Kimba_Do wrote: »

This one suspect a killing could be made selling sharp sticks for people to poke each other.

That being said, one alt is an archer/NB, albeit still low level. It seems functional, if a bit fragile. A good mix of abilities on the bar helps, but Khajiit suspects technique is the prime factor in making an archer a success. In other words, skill comes from the player more than the abilities - no matter how worthless/devastating an ability is, should one lack the knowledge and skills to use it effectively, one will fail on a regular basis.

That's true, to the certain degree. No matter how skilled you are, you couldn't breach gap between potential performance of one and other builds. On competetive environment most magicka builds are something like 25-30k single target DPS for whole fights (more than 1 min ofc). DW/2H are reaching something like ~25k-28k DPS. For Bow it's struggle to maintain that magic 20k cap. No matter how you look at it its 25-30% difference in overall performance.

Anti_Virus · April 2016

Shadowcub wrote: »

I main with a bow as well. In PvE, 99% of the time I have no problem even soloing zone bosses and Dark Anchors (that 1% might take a death or two, but I'm bull-headed in general).

I usually run with Poison Injection (Venom Arrow), Lethal Arrow (Snipe), Draining Shot (Scatter Shot), Swallow Soul (Strife, NB), and Merciless Resolve (Grim Focus, NB).

On my second bar, I dual wield and that usually has Crippling Grasp (Cripple, NB) for those sticky situations when I need more space to kite.

It took me awhile to make the bow work for me. I was stuck in this thought of, "Well, this is useless but fine for a couple hits when pulling..." And then I had a Come to Everquest moment and remembered the days of kiting the crap out of things with the Tangling Weeds line of spells on my druid. Of course, Agony is not really comparable, but the general idea was to slow down the target(s) and speed myself up. It turned out to be a really fun way to play an archer.

In dungeons, I mainly try to stay out of the way and keep an eye on the healer incase a stray mob goes after him/her. I'll really only switch to dual for extra self-healing or to wolf out.

My only real wish would be some sort of instant damage ability or something that "charges up" like Grim Focus, be it buff for me or debuff for the target.

The lower DPS doesn't bother me, and frankly, I think it should remain that way. As someone said, low risk - low reward. I was never much of a DPS number fanatic, and have always enjoyed hybrid gameplay in a support role more. To each his own on that front.

The Dps Doesn't bother me either, that's not the problem for say, its how the bow was designed,

In PVE when you try to use bow, your main DPS skill is snipe. The problem is the way it's designed is not practical.

It has a cast time and travel time making the skill unreliable, if a mob is at a weird angle (dungeons) its unresponsive same said for PVP players except they have plenty of ways to counter the slow projectile.

Snipe also seems to "snare" you, i've died many times against bosses and players because I was in the middle of casting Snipe and got smacked by a mobs heavy melee attack, or mages spells sometimes there is a red aoe that forced me to stop casting snipe and roll dodge

Against players I would get smacked on my back due to that Crystal frag, javelin, wrecking blow just messed up my dps rotation.

Bow was designed to be used at max range to be the most efficient, the problem is...
1.) Being a max range in dungeons is great for you but bad for the healer and group as your healer will have yo leave the heal range of your tank to heal you. Some bosses punish you for being at range (Molag Kena) others require "Stacking" mechanics.

2.) You can never be at range in this game. Some mobs are immune to CC so how you expect to keep your distance and kite? In PVP melee builds can just gap close you indefinitely how do you kite them? not enough skill to do so, Sorcs can't keep their distance either but It least they have Kiting skills(streak, and mines)

It seems as if you are punished if you use a bow outside of stealth play.

I've played dragons Dogma and the ranger class is an archer class that has a long bow for primary dps and daggers for back up and it works well.