Archers Unite!

[Jager]

So. I would like to know from a crafter's viewpoint, What is your favorite type of bow. A reply with why would also be immeasurably valuable to me. *grins*

Jager.

[Silverglade]

Well, as you know, I use a horselord, which is a Yumi, but only because of it's power and stats. If I had to choose given the same stats, and all things being equal, I would be between the repeating crossbow and the regular crossbow. The reasons for the repeating are: fastest swing of all the bows, DPS of 2.67, which is third from best, and the special abilities, double-shot, and moving shot.  The regular crossbow boasts the highest DPS of all of them, 2.76, and still has decent specials, concussion blow and mortal strike. But the speed and specials put the repeating xbow a hair above for me, at least. The heavy xbow gets an honorable mention, being that it is second in DPS at 2.75, but it being the slowest to use, compounded with the dismount secondary, which is useless expect for PvP, significantly drop it's desirability. This is, of course, assuming that everything on Stratics is still accurate. This is based on base only, using the calculator significantly changes this in favor of a Yumi, if it is accurate. Hope this info helps!!!

[TTG]

Crafters view point eh?  I am guessing you mean in using a special fletching kit to make bows for sale.

I like the regular bow for it's ability to both para hit and mortal strike.  It's also rather easy with not much stat ehancements to get max swing speed from it.

Secondly, I like the yumi for it's armor ignore and double shot ability which combined with a tree can be nasty.  It also seems to kick out 5% more damage than the bow.

But the way I think about bows is for utilitity... hitting as fast as possible is the best mesaure and since para shot paralyzes all monsters, then that's your crowd control.  Being able to do any extra damage is pointless and is not going to be the difference between life and death.

Pvp wise, obviously we know that 120 Archery = X chance to hit    vs   120 weapon skill + parry + bushido = X + 50% chance to dodge + Avoid making it impossible to get hit.  Thus bows are close to obsolete unless combined with Lower Defense enhancements that come on bows. 

Best stats for a bow?  Depends on what you already have but my favorite are:

swing speed increase
damage increase
lower defense
lower attack
mana drain


-Ironhand

[Varsin]

Crossbow (the normal type), Yumi force you into taking Ninjitsu/ Bushido for effective specials usage thus not worth it in my opinion.

Base speed is almost neglible on most Archery weapons since they are all very close together, exception being Repeater (that is until ML comes out and Magical Shortbow will be added to the exception). But using Runics, Sockets with Mythic Tourmalines it is easily possible to get a very fast Crossbow (like Wastenott's 55% SSI Crossbow) or heavier hitting archery weapon and thus negating the benefit of repeaters as endgame weapons. The specials on a Crossbow might not be the greatest (Mortal Strike and Concussion Blow) but I rarely ever needed to use them since I was hitting without them every 1.2 seconds or so for 80 - 250 damage (with all buffs/ skills used absolutely no Slayer props) so it didn't matter.

In my opinion Yumi (especially Horselord) are heavily overrated.

THE most important stats on a bow of any type for fighting purposes rather then utility (Regen. Luck..etc) are as follows:
*Damage Increase comes as standard on Exceptionals*

Base intensities, pre sockets.

1) SSI                      15+  (Efficiency & Damage Output)
2) Hit Lower Defence 25+  (Efficiency)
3) Hit Leech Mana      20+  (Endurance)

4) Hit Lower Attack    20+ (Tankers stat)

One should aim to get one very good "Universal Bow" and not waste time on restricted pew pew (in other words, don't go for Super Slayers since you will have to keep switching out and you'll make a less durable target more fragile when EoO and SS opposing family rules come into play.

But if you do make some Super Slayers then they will sell regardless.

Best way to deal with crowds as a archer, is to archer dance and go all out on the weakest family/ things after you until the only thing that is left is the hardest opponent present. You conserve alot of mana later and with the correct augments and suite you can tank alot of things in Melee such as hordes of Dragons and 2 or so Balrons(without Bushido/Ninja). If there is one thing that is too hard to tank then use Dispel Evil to scare it off while you deal with the other things.

Just remember that when SSI,Touramlines and the base 150 Dex/Stam are taken into consideration the slowest heaviest hitting archery weapons are top of the DPS charts.

But the few archers there are tend to waste time with the Horselord since they don't know what archery weapons they should be using and the stats aswell.

[Knossos]

Being an Arch with Bushido, and soon Ninj instead, I can say I LOVE the Yumi.  It's fast enough to do everything I need and attack at swing cap, and it's special moves are far superior as far as PvM DPS you can get.   Double Strike, unlike Double Shot, reduces your damage by 10% for that attack, so you can not say that those specials are equivalent.  As for the other specials on weapons, not one has both primary and secondary weapon specials that are worth it in PvM unless you are talking about a base bow for soloing so you can run and gun.  I typically go with at least one other person so I can do what I do best, and they can too, easily doubling our efforts.

For stats, this is what I would look for, in order:
Damage Increase
Mana Leach
SSI
Lower Defense
Slayers
Hit Magic Arrow/Harm/Fireball/LTN
Stam Leech