What good is bow for ?

Arundo · July 2017

Bow needs some love from ZOS, when I first started playing my idea was to make a Heavy Archer (no not a fat dude with a bow) but that didnt happen as its not that good as a main weapon. ZOS promised play as you want when they advertised this game but yeah seems you can but dont expect to be valid in a group.

stevepdodson_ESO888 · July 2017

kargen27 wrote: »

Doesn't Edwin Starr have a song about this?

Happy Radio?

DRXHarbinger · July 2017

Poisonous serpent and Master bow injection + LA spam, does the job quite well.

MarbleQuiche · July 2017

AzraelKrieg wrote: »

MarbleQuiche wrote: »

CMFan1966 wrote: »

There is a bow skill morph and I can't think of the name of it right off. It knocks the enemy back 5 or 6 meters, stuns them and then heals me a little bit. I really like that ability, but I'm kind of leaning away from the bow these days unless I'm at a dolmen.

The Magnum morph of that is great for getting inside locked cages.

Or out of locked cages. But don't tell anyone otherwise bows will be nerfed so hard.

I think you may have just let the secret slip

Fiddlesticks! Quick, create a diversion!

* Magnum Shots into a different thread*

frostitomik · July 2017

In large group pvp it is the most effective weapon and your kill/death ratio can get crazy, sometimes like 20:1, as bow does good damage when you use sets like Marksman and basically you just don't die. You can 2-3 shot most light and medium armor builds just spamming snipe and poison injection from 30m range. For ganking it's broken OP, you just kill anyone below 25k health in a second just spamming snipe. Bow is OP for pvp, in pve it's bad and you will be called noob for using it.

Bombashaman · July 2017

"What good is bow for ?"

To look fabulous.

qsnoopyjr · July 2017

gethemshauna wrote: »

Bow? Great weapon for idle bots. They can shoot LA in single place for 24/7 at the dolmen.

bots?

Someone leaving there game on, and just have something on their attack button?

Thats not a bot pal.
Thats same thing as someone in Elder Scroll game running into corner all day sneaking to raise sneak, someone with jump button, to raise acrobatics.

Banana · July 2017

I love the bow as my backbar pve weapon.

Sixsixsix161 · July 2017

As someone who normally plays ranged characters (including bowazon in D2/D3, and a hunter in that "other" MMO), mages, etc., playing a character with a bow would be a favorite for me.

However, it's not like any bow character in the other games. Main issue (for me), you don't have a pet tanking for you, but having said all that, I started a NB with the bow being a main weapon (she's level 26 now). On my back bar, I have a resto staff and heals if it gets really hard. I also carry a two-handed sword and a destroy staff in case the tactical situation dictates that I need something else beside the bow. The ultimate does a lot of damage, but you have to have level 50 on the bow before that becomes available.

And hard it is. You better know how to kite. Keep plenty of health potions on hand. And poison is not my favorite item because it suppresses whatever damage is on the bow. So, if you have a bow with 2500 fire damage, that fire damage disappears while you have poison active. I don't see where 760 points poison damage for one second is better than 2500 points fire damage.

On the other hand, walking into a small room where four enemies are waiting for you will test your abilities to the max, and be careful pulling groups in a delve/dungeon, because you need room to kite and you will back into another group of enemies. Fun times.

But I'm going forward with it, bound to make it work.

Robo_Hobo · July 2017

Endless Hail is the Pve stamina user's version of the magicka user's liquid lightning/path of shadows/and whatever the DK and Templars ones are called. And then Caltrops is the stamina user's Blockade of Fire on top of that.

GreenhaloX · July 2017

vpy wrote: »

2H - Rally (heal) , Executioner (strongest melee execute), AOE shield (Brawler)
DW - Steel Tornado (best AOE melee damage), several heals, highest dmg
1HS - Tanking ..nuff said

Is there a niche that bows provide that others cannot provide or does have abilities that deal better damage than others ??

You can do a single snipe or two before the mob is on you so even the range factor does not simply cut it.

So what good is the bow for ??

Bow is to show that not only sorc can blast a target from a distance. You combo bow heavy and poison injection and you can literally kill certain adds with one attack. Plus, bow skills, such as poison injection, Endless Hail/Arrow Barrage provide supplemental DoTs for a stam dps. I'll tell you, adds/mobs/boss whatever.. they melt down faster with Endless Hail and Poison Injection in the attack rotation. Plus, to me, the bow's ultimate, Toxic Barrage, is one of the better ultimate out there against a boss.

Oh, by the way, Steel Tornado, although effective, yeah, is not the highest dmg, though; if that is what you're alluding to. I see with Biting Jabs, I take out mobs a bit better than the Steel Tornadoes.

Warbow7 · July 2017

Endless Hail on a Maelstrom bow will almost always be your highest damage output on a test dummy and Poison Injection will also make the top 5.

Apparently there are 3 other abilities in the bow skill line as well, though i have yet to find a real use for them. Snipe has its moments in PVP i guess.

rotaugen454 · July 2017

Bow! Huh! Good gawd ya'all. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! (Except AOE!)

Kuramas9tails · July 2017

You equip the bow for the major expedition after a roll dodge of course.

Belidos · July 2017

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

I don't understand the obsession with Endless Hail. What enemy stands still for 16 seconds?

The poor sap that just stepped into your rearming trap without realizing it?

techprince · July 2017

For a bow/bow build, all bow abilities are useful.
For a 1h/2h+bow builds, Endless Hail and Poison Injection are used which comes within top 5 damaging abilities.
For PvP on any builds, Poison Injection and both morphs of Snipe are very useful.

DocFrost72 · July 2017

With the inclusion of master at arms and the buff to hawk eye (passive)? Bows are in a much better way than they've been in a while for main hand DPS

TheRealPotoroo · July 2017

Sixsixsix161 wrote: »

And hard it is. You better know how to kite. Keep plenty of health potions on hand. And poison is not my favorite item because it suppresses whatever damage is on the bow. So, if you have a bow with 2500 fire damage, that fire damage disappears while you have poison active. I don't see where 760 points poison damage for one second is better than 2500 points fire damage.

This one is easy to solve: replace the fire enchantment with a poison one. Bows are stamina weapons so you don't want enchantments that scale to your max magicka, you want to scale off your max stamina (which poison, amongst others, does).

geonsocal · July 2017

if you enjoy zerg versus zerg pvp action ranged weapons are an absolute necessity...

kinda hard to hit folks from the top of a keep with a 2H or DW weapon...

if your magicka focused need to have a stave, stamina focused, gotta have a bow...

especially with morrowind - you can't just spam magicka or stamina ranged attack abilities all day long...

PlagueSD · July 2017

vpy wrote: »

2H - Rally (heal) , Executioner (strongest melee execute), AOE shield (Brawler)
DW - Steel Tornado (best AOE melee damage), several heals, highest dmg
1HS - Tanking ..nuff said

Is there a niche that bows provide that others cannot provide or does have abilities that deal better damage than others ??

You can do a single snipe or two before the mob is on you so even the range factor does not simply cut it.

So what good is the bow for ??

It lets us Stam players use range on those not-so-melee-friendly boss fights...

kijima · July 2017

rotaugen454 wrote: »

Bow! Huh! Good gawd ya'all. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! (Except AOE!)

I see what you did there. You get an awesome from me.

ADarklore · July 2017

What is Bow good for... players who do NOT like to constantly melee. One of the best things I like about my StamSorc is that I can melee with DW when I want or I can range with Bow when I want... it gives a lot more variety to gameplay and I honestly prefer range attacking than melee. However, I hate Magicka characters because it's staff, staff, or staff... and the same abilities over and over and over and over again with no variety. Stamina weapons add variety, and when you're playing a game for 1000's of hours, options and variety are a good thing.

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO · July 2017

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

Sixsixsix161 wrote: »

And hard it is. You better know how to kite. Keep plenty of health potions on hand. And poison is not my favorite item because it suppresses whatever damage is on the bow. So, if you have a bow with 2500 fire damage, that fire damage disappears while you have poison active. I don't see where 760 points poison damage for one second is better than 2500 points fire damage.

This one is easy to solve: replace the fire enchantment with a poison one. Bows are stamina weapons so you don't want enchantments that scale to your max magicka, you want to scale off your max stamina (which poison, amongst others, does).

While I appreciate that you are trying to set this guy stright, this part is a bit vague, poison weapon enchantments do not get increased by your stats, they only get increased by champion points. So without CP, a fire enchant and a poison enchant will hit for the same, regardless of the build.

Gatefan2004 · July 2017

First thing I thought of when I read the title.

Edit: Had trouble with image.

Amour · July 2017

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

IlCanis_LupuslI · July 2017

CMFan1966 wrote: »

There is a bow skill morph and I can't think of the name of it right off. It knocks the enemy back 5 or 6 meters, stuns them and then heals me a little bit. I really like that ability, but I'm kind of leaning away from the bow these days unless I'm at a dolmen.

Draining shot=>Love that ability

Its the Mass hysteria for people who want the preserve their magica for important stuff

TheRealPotoroo · July 2017

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

Sixsixsix161 wrote: »

And hard it is. You better know how to kite. Keep plenty of health potions on hand. And poison is not my favorite item because it suppresses whatever damage is on the bow. So, if you have a bow with 2500 fire damage, that fire damage disappears while you have poison active. I don't see where 760 points poison damage for one second is better than 2500 points fire damage.

This one is easy to solve: replace the fire enchantment with a poison one. Bows are stamina weapons so you don't want enchantments that scale to your max magicka, you want to scale off your max stamina (which poison, amongst others, does).

While I appreciate that you are trying to set this guy stright, this part is a bit vague, poison weapon enchantments do not get increased by your stats, they only get increased by champion points. So without CP, a fire enchant and a poison enchant will hit for the same, regardless of the build.

I just crafted two CP160 daggers with my stamDK. I enchanted one with a Truly Superb Glyph of Fire and the other with a Truly Superb Glyph of Poison, and jumped into a Cyrodiil No CP campaign. The fire dagger says 1948, the poison enchantment 2025. Interestingly, my magplar in the same No CP campaign gets reversed numbers, 2025 and 1948. So there's something non-CP influencing the damage from each enchantment.