The Useless Longbow

[Seprest]

I like the idea of giving it +3 dmg and more speed on the arrow.  I am sorda new, lvl 28, and I thought the bow would be the best, but then I realized I have never seen anyone else use a longbow, so I went to the warbow that most people were using, and instantly started to get more kills, most of the time I have a positive kd ration now!  Shooting people at long range is not a matter of the bow, but more of your proficiency in the weapon, and dmg on powerdraw.  so make the longbow have a little bit more damage and a little bit more speed on the arrow, even if this doesn't completely balance it, it is definitely a big step in the right direction.  It is just crap atm, anyone who sais they use longbow, use warbow, faster, very little dmg difference,  more dmg output, pew pew.  Longbow won't save you an arrow on most heavy plate wearers, so warbow is just overall better in all categories.  Having 3 more dmg might look good on paper, but there is something funky ingame that just makes shooting it SUCK.


On another note, we should really be able to hold our bow drawn for a much longer period of time.  It is really quite silly that having so many points in proficiency and power draw don't let you hold your shot for any noticeable time!  It is just frustrating that you lose accuracy so fast.  I can deal with it, but there should be a window of opportunity.  this would be of great benefit to archers, and make it a more pleasurable class to play as rather than just fixing a gameplay problem.

[Formless]

Longbow is totally useless right now, once you finished pulling the bow the target has moved far away from where he was when you started the process of aiming.  By the time you adjust your aim to where the guy is right now the reticule has gotten hudge and the shot could go really wild.  Either do 1 of 2 things to fix this up.

1.)  Give tons more damage (so you can 1 shoot medim armoured targets). To make the long bow this slow aiming and slow firing weapon actually useful at killing.
2.)  Keep damage the same but speed this baby up to make it useful.

[Grey]

I ground my way up to 18/18 to be able to use one and I discovered once I had that the longbow is a complete waste of time. The new animation which slows archery combined with the bow's own slow speed means you have a delay of about 4 seconds between choosing a target and releasing the arrow. This is too much for the bow to have any real value: at long range your target could have gone anywhere in this time while at close range you have already been killed. Unsurprisingly hardly any archers use the longbow now. It should either be totally reworked or simply removed from the mod.

Ill buy one now, and try to get the effort up to 'loom one soonish. I havent read anyone else's posts but from yours I think you need to hold the mouse button down and track ur target, as soon as you reeeeeaaaccccchhhh full stretch, make final adjustment, and BAM! you just nuked a guy. Its not easy but it is effective.

[3ABP]

Ill buy one now, and try to get the effort up to 'loom one soonish. I havent read anyone else's posts but from yours I think you need to hold the mouse button down and track ur target, as soon as you reeeeeaaaccccchhhh full stretch, make final adjustment, and BAM! you just nuked a guy. Its not easy but it is effective.

I repeat my very funny story (in connection with your "BAM! you just nuked a guy"):
Masterwork Longbow + Bodkin arrows + high PD and WPF + short distance = DIDN'T kill 3 naked man one by one (3 different naked man).
Just put those mans into the even medium armor - and pls describe how you see your "Nuke".

[Elmetiacos]

Yes. You don't one shot anyone but shirtless peasants who started their character half an hour ago even with a longbow and bodkin arrows.  There is all the difficulty of the long delay between aiming and actually firing plus the very brief time the reticule is narrow enough to get a reasonable chance of a hit and for a very small advantage. I can see that it might work for short range shots with dedicated Strength based longbow-only archers, but for most archers the weapon isn't worth considering next to the alternatives.

[bruce]

Yes. You don't one shot anyone but shirtless peasants who started their character half an hour ago even with a longbow and bodkin arrows.  There is all the difficulty of the long delay between aiming and actually firing plus the very brief time the reticule is narrow enough to get a reasonable chance of a hit and for a very small advantage. I can see that it might work for short range shots with dedicated Strength based longbow-only archers, but for most archers the weapon isn't worth considering next to the alternatives.

If you get one more PD and a warbow you will fire faster and be more accurate then a longbowman with 1 PD less and do more damage and have comparable shot speed. Because 14% is more then 8%, you see ;)

So the longbow might have an advantage if you have something like 10 powerdraw. Then you can't "push the warbow one notch up", and you have the most damaging bow ingame. But I know few people who would do that - although the damage output of a 10 PD longbow must be terrifying, especially if it's heirloomed. But slow and inaccurate, however... but yes, it's the only "purpose" I see for a longbowman, to stack tons of powerdraw and have a very powerful but slow bow.

[Elmetiacos]

I'm surprised to discover that this would be just about a feasible build, according to the Character Planner:
Level 30
Str 30
Agi 12
converted 14(!)
Athletics 3
Power Draw 10
Weapon Master 4
Archery 139

[Cup1d]

At this moment I have 27str/12agi build, with 9 PD and 137 wpf in archery. And yes, I'm aiming gor 30\12 build.
If you expect something like - one shot = one kill, sorry, I must dissapoint you.

Damage report
AT 9 pd with MW warbow and sharp bodkins you cant oneshot anyone except peasant.
Archers take 2 arrows (chars with 50-53 health, 27-36 body armor).
Lamellar west chars (ninja-like - 38-44 body armor) take  2-3 arrows.
Mail and other medium armor (46-52 body armor) take at least 4 arrows. (but usually you are dead)
Brigandine and Elite series armor take at least 5 arrows. (but usually you are dead)
Transitional Armor and heavier - 5-8 arrows. (but usually you are dead)

Accuracy report
Accuracy is bad. IMHO = Do not expect better accuracy with more and more PD over requirement.

Expected disadvantages
Without PS and wpf investment, in melee this build have small chances.
With 12 agi and 3 athletics you are slow. You cant outflank and find firing position in the rear of the enemy in time.
Your shooting is slow too. Archers with balanced or agi-oriented builds can outshoot you with ease.
Your firing distance - short-medium. At long distance you will need all your Luck.
In open fields you are easy prey to cavalry, xbowers, archers, shielders and fast 2H.

Expected advantages
Point-blank shooter. You can be really good in skirmish shooting, if you have some infantry support. But usually infantry is most unawared chars without any practice in teamplay.
Siege character. Yes. You can be really effective on siege servers. Better at defending but as attacker too. But remember - siege servers is no more than kindergarten for battle servers characters. So 70% of your kills its 1-20 level chars.
Long range pewpewpew.  Archers lottery.

Roof is your friend.

IMHO - damage bonus is not so big for such trade-off.
You can achieve 2\1 or 3\1 K/D. But you can achieve such K/D with regular strongbow and 5 PD, 150-160 wpf. And add versatility to your build.

[Elmetiacos]

At this moment I have 27str/12agi build, with 9 PD and 137 wpf in archery. And yes, I'm aiming gor 30\12 build.
If you expect something like - one shot = one kill, sorry, I must dissapoint you.

Damage report
AT 9 pd with MW warbow and sharp bodkins you cant oneshot anyone except peasant.
Archers take 2 arrows (chars with 50-53 health, 27-36 body armor).
Lamellar west chars (ninja-like - 38-44 body armor) take  2-3 arrows.
Mail and other medium armor (46-52 body armor) take at least 4 arrows. (but usually you are dead)
Brigandine and Elite series armor take at least 5 arrows. (but usually you are dead)
Transitional Armor and heavier - 5-8 arrows. (but usually you are dead)

Accuracy report
Accuracy is bad. IMHO = Do not expect better accuracy with more and more PD over requirement.

Those are more or less the same figures as I get with a plain, ordinary War Bow and PD6. PD may lengthen the time it takes for the reticule to widen for a held shot, but it doesn't improve accuracy at all - it used to once upon a time as it does in Native, but some patch between September 2010 and January 2011 took this away. Cup1d is a better archer than me; if he can't hit much with this build, I won't try either.

[Beauchamp]

so nerf warbow and strongbow and longbow will be fine :o)

[Rumblood]

so nerf warbow and strongbow and longbow will be fine )

Try using better bait if you're looking for more troll points 

[Beauchamp]

Try using better bait if you're looking for more troll points 

i wrote it wrong, the smiley shouldn't be there. i was absolutely serious. there are again so many gaychers in crpg... i'm afrad that strategus will turn to shitty CS again.

[Rumblood]

That was better, it moves closer to sincerity. Not deserving of a TP though 

[Grey]

Its awesomeBar now, not trollpoints. I think too many people had too many trollpoints, they have now made negative a bad thing, just as everyone on forum agreed I am furthest person from troll and upped my "negative troll" to 40......

[Tears of Destiny]

I think simply upping the damage by another two or three points would make it viable, then it would be a good nitch weapon that could be used for headhunting cav/tin cans. Oh, and making the image for it larger, it looks too small in-game.

As for the complaints that by the time you draw your bow you have to readjust for a target, I disagree. I at least can move my reticule and track while drawing (Is my game glitched then?), so I only lose targets when they go behind cover..