Spam Ability for Bow?

Chanus · January 2017

I've been running my Nightblade with a bow to get the skill up, I had been leveling with Dual Wield, and so my bow layout is

1. Poison Injection
2. Endless Hail
3. ???
4. Camouflaged Hunter
5. Rearming Trap
U. Soul Tether (I don't have Fighter's Guild 10 yet for Dawnbreaker)

So, first question: What should my #3 ability be?

Second: Is Poison Injection my spam ability? I wasn't sure if constantly using it would be overwriting the DoT and hurting my DPS or not.

I've looked at a few different builds but they're all pretty much described from already being leveled up, which I am not yet.

I am at 175CP or so, but the Nightblade is a new alt and doesn't have many skill lines leveled up.

SodanTok · January 2017

Snipe is bow's spam (

) ability. Until then its barrage/poison arrow.

Yes, reapplying Poison Injection steals you of dot procs (with very fast spamming, you could literally never get DoT proc)

datgladiatah · January 2017

You'd probably run snipe, but it's not the best spammable. There really aren't many ranged stamina options besides snipe. Either morph could be effective

Chanus · January 2017

Cool deal, thanks!

WhiteMage · January 2017

Be warned, though, that your dps won't compare to melee fighters, and in PvP you will be rekt by them.

OrphanHelgen · January 2017

You need to light attack weave properly to get dmg with a bow.
This is due to the hawk eye passive.
Next patch they increase the stacking 2 more times, and the dmg by 10%.
But the problem with snipe as I see it, is the channel time. You slow down your movement and many times you have to block or move, and it makes you cancel the snipe.

Chanus · January 2017

WhiteMage wrote: »

Be warned, though, that your dps won't compared to melee fighters, and in PvP you will be rekt by them.

Well that would happen anyway as I am terrible at PvP, so... :P

Chanus · January 2017

OrphanHelgen wrote: »

You need to light attack weave properly to get dmg with a bow.
This is due to the hawk eye passive.
Next patch they increase the stacking 2 more times, and the dmg by 10%.
But the problem with snipe as I see it, is the channel time. You slow down your movement and many times you have to block or move, and it makes you cancel the snipe.

Hmm, I could see that being an issue. Something to consider, though right now I'm just doing normal PvE stuff so I have time to figure it out I suppose.

Really issue #1 for me is just that I wasn't using five abilities because I couldn't decide on the fifth one.

datgladiatah · January 2017

Grim Focus' disease morph could work really well for building up damage whilst light weaving. The beast trap morph with longer range would be very good too, unless you want to backbar your melee execute and ambush. Ballista is a good ult because you can keep dpsing while it's active, the poison one is sacrificial unless you run out of stamina.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · January 2017

Are you just grinding the skill line? Shouldn't take more than an hour or so to grind it to 50. There are 2 easy ways to do this. First, simply slot 4 bow skills on your DW bar and spam tornado. You can use another bar to give you whatever buffs you need to make the grind easy. You dont actually need to equip a bow to level it.

Second, in terms of a spam skill, again for grinding, use acid spray. Its pretty good AOE and can be spammed. If you are looking for a spam skill for boss fights, then snipe is the answer you are looking for, but you probably wont be pleased with the results. Bow is a great back bar, but not a great primary bar, at least in PVE.

gp1680 · January 2017

Chanus wrote: »

I've been running my Nightblade with a bow to get the skill up, I had been leveling with Dual Wield, and so my bow layout is

1. Poison Injection
2. Endless Hail
3. ???
4. Camouflaged Hunter
5. Rearming Trap
U. Soul Tether (I don't have Fighter's Guild 10 yet for Dawnbreaker)

So, first question: What should my #3 ability be?

Second: Is Poison Injection my spam ability? I wasn't sure if constantly using it would be overwriting the DoT and hurting my DPS or not.

I've looked at a few different builds but they're all pretty much described from already being leveled up, which I am not yet.

I am at 175CP or so, but the Nightblade is a new alt and doesn't have many skill lines leveled up.

You could always add a utility, support, or buff skill and start leveling that up. I run a DK with dw/bow. On my bow bar, I use purge (from Alliance War skills) and reflective scales (from Draconic Powers). I find both of these come in handy when using a bow while taking or defending a keep in Cyrodiil. Try different skills until you find something that fits your play style and, maybe more importantly, helps to keep you alive. lol.

Stannum · January 2017

bow = lights spam with keeping rellentless focus up and discharging assasin's will. Also it keeps and stacks bow passive "hawk eye" buff all the time.

Chanus · January 2017

Coolies.

Thanks for the input everyone!

ADarklore · January 2017

My bow spammable is Acid Spray for mobs and Snipe for single targets; Snipe is actually much much faster if you Medium attack weave between shots.

masterbroodub17_ESO · January 2017

OrphanHelgen wrote: »

You need to light attack weave properly to get dmg with a bow.
This is due to the hawk eye passive.
Next patch they increase the stacking 2 more times, and the dmg by 10%.
But the problem with snipe as I see it, is the channel time. You slow down your movement and many times you have to block or move, and it makes you cancel the snipe.

Ooooooooo reallllly?

I suppose it's easier to provide a buff based on positioning than to mess with adding another ranged weapon or something to bring ranged physical DPS more in line with other forms. Maybe I should give it a shot again XD. Wildstar has my attention at the moment but....we will see.

Solariken · January 2017

I personally think Silver Shards (Fighters Guild) is the best ranged spammable for bow DPS. The main reason is that it works really well with weaving light attacks - you need to throw a light attack in between every skill cast to be sure Hawk Eye stays stacked.

SS also passively boosts your weapon damage and has an AoE damage component. The single target damage is better than Acid Spray and remember it will hit an additional 20% harder versus WW/undead.

It's a very underrated and underutilized skill IMO.

SodanTok · January 2017

Solariken wrote: »

I personally think Silver Shards (Fighters Guild) is the best ranged spammable for bow DPS. The main reason is that it works really well with weaving light attacks - you need to throw a light attack in between every skill cast to be sure Hawk Eye stays stacked.

SS also passively boosts your weapon damage and has an AoE damage component. The single target damage is better than Acid Spray and remember it will hit an additional 20% harder versus WW/undead.

It's a very underrated and underutilized skill IMO.

That is true, but it is also very expensive skill lacking synergy with hawk eye.

Toc de Malsvi · January 2017

sodantokb16_ESO wrote: »

Solariken wrote: »

I personally think Silver Shards (Fighters Guild) is the best ranged spammable for bow DPS. The main reason is that it works really well with weaving light attacks - you need to throw a light attack in between every skill cast to be sure Hawk Eye stays stacked.

SS also passively boosts your weapon damage and has an AoE damage component. The single target damage is better than Acid Spray and remember it will hit an additional 20% harder versus WW/undead.

It's a very underrated and underutilized skill IMO.

That is true, but it is also very expensive skill lacking synergy with hawk eye.

Yup, was very happy with the Hawk Eye buff change in general when it came about, however it only affects actual bow attacks which dropped the value of Silver Shards. The buff to it coming in U13 is even better but virtually eliminates the value of silver shards all together. Previous to the initial change to Hawk Eye, Silver Shards had a permanent spot on my bar.