Curse

Hades Tartarus · Feb 02, 2008, 12:19 AM // 00:19

I have not brought out Ol' Rebel Trapper in quite some time.
I must admit that I have forgotten all about how to play this guy and there are also a lot more skills available now.

The question however is: What is the bow effectiveness like on all these bows? Is Flat bow "better" than a short or long bow? or I guess you could ask yourself in a different way: If you wanted to go for speed as well as range what would be your choice bow? Mine seems to be a flat bow.

Second question is a bit easier I guess but here goes it: Marksmanship or Expertise what would you rather have max attributes on? I trully can't decide but, the way I see it, expertise is more beneficial, to lessen the cost of the skills, since really in most builds today I think (mainly pve mind you) people like using all kinds of effects and even spirits and such.

Actually the more I think about it the more I understand how poorly I have played a ranger and, how it could possibly be a lot of fun if played right.
Anyway, any kind of light shed on these two (simple?) questions would be greatly appreciated.

Lord Xivor · Feb 02, 2008, 12:24 AM // 00:24

Max out your marksmanship if you plan on doing bow attacks. If you are trapping, then higher expertise is a good thing. Flatbow gives a higher arc, with the same distance as a longbow, if I remember correctly...but it is much easier to miss a moving target. Shortbow is closer, more direct. I prefer a recurve bow, which gives a more straight shot, perfect for interrupts, not as close as a short bow, but not as far as a longbow/flatbow, as well.

The Meth · Feb 02, 2008, 12:40 AM // 00:40

Heres a link to the wiki page on Bows

Shortbow and flatbow have fast refire, Longbow and recurve have medium, Hornbow has slowest

Shortbow has least range, recurve and hornbow are medium, longbow and flatbow are long range

Recurve shoots fastest arrows, flatbow shoots slowest, all others are inbetween

Hornbow has 10% armor penetration.

If you are using bows its probably better to max marksmanship first, but keep a good balance still.

Stormlord Alex · Feb 02, 2008, 12:50 AM // 00:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hades Tartarus

The question however is: What is the bow effectiveness like on all these bows? Is Flat bow "better" than a short or long bow? or I guess you could ask yourself in a different way: If you wanted to go for speed as well as range what would be your choice bow? Mine seems to be a flat bow.

All the bows have different uses. Flatbows may seem good on the surface, but they have a huge firing arc and can't hit moving targets for jack.

Essentially, I use it as this...
Recurve - general purpose bow. Most accurate, decent rate of fire, and the arrows hit fastest for interrupting shizzle.

Long/Flat - for killing stuff at long range, mine are generally vampiric as their sole purpose is (generally) damage - I might have a Crippling or Silencing one somewhere, gathering dust

. Long if they might move, flat if they're stationary.

Hornbow - sole purpose is to spike. Pull it out to get the maximum possible damage on a spike combo, ignore it otherwise. The rate of fire is so damn slow as to not be worth the general use. Also vampiric.

Shortbow - for increased DPS at short ranges. Meh.

Quote:

Second question is a bit easier I guess but here goes it: Marksmanship or Expertise what would you rather have max attributes on? I trully can't decide but, the way I see it, expertise is more beneficial, to lessen the cost of the skills, since really in most builds today I think (mainly pve mind you) people like using all kinds of effects and even spirits and such.

Generally, I run a much higher Expertise than I do Marksmanship.
The damage increase you get from skills and the increase base damage of the bow doesn't quite add up to being able to fire off a Savage Shot on demand for 4 energy. Expertise lets you spam stuff.

distilledwill · Feb 02, 2008, 12:58 AM // 00:58

Alex's comment pretty much covers it all, just to throw in my two cents id say take a recurve and a flatbow if PvEing. Recurve for general use, its the best all round bow. and a flatbow for pulling.

Attribute spread... its a well contested subject. In PvE i tend to take a higher expertise than marksmanship, the energy manage ment allows you to deal with repeated small skirmishes, but sometimes ill stick a sup rune of marks on just to be naughty as you can pretty much run wild and free in PvE.

thats a bit of a ramble, but i hope theres something which is of some use in there...

pygar · Feb 02, 2008, 01:04 AM // 01:04

The question about bows is too much to answer, hit the wiki like Meth said above.

Marks. vs. Expert is an easier one to feild. (kinda) The trick with either attribut is understanding how they work:

Every level in Marks. will equate to 5AL of opponent armor-so at 12 Marks. you are dealing straight damage to AL60, however after lvl 12 every attribute level only gets you a very small increase, rough guess from the readings I have done would be 16 Marks. is equal to 68AL(?) or will deal roughly 115% of weapon damage to AL 60.(it is more damage, but not very much more considering the investment you'l make to get Marksman that high)

Expertise gets you a 4% reduction to ranger skill costs, and also cuts the cost on a handful of skills from other classes.10 expert gets a 40% reduction in energy costs-16 of course a full 60%. there are different brake points, but if you are not using any skills above 10e cost you can have a 14 and effectively get 60% energy reduction.

The best balance of the 2 for you is going to depend on what you want to do with your build...if you want almost all your eggs in one basket, you can have high marks and expert, but almost nothing else. If you want wilderness survival,beast mastery, or want to spec very many points in a secondary attribute you'l have to lay off on one of the two. (since they cap Marksman and other weapon stats after 12, marks. is the easier one to skimp on IMO, especially given the bows low rate of fire ...ranger DPS isn't that great anyways.)

Amy Awien · Feb 02, 2008, 07:43 AM // 07:43

Keep in mind that the energy costs are rounded, a 10E skill with 44% discount (expertise 11) costs 6 energy, with 48% 5 energy (exp=12), and with 56% discount it's 4 energy. The most used cut-off points for expertise are at levels 8/9 and 12/13/14. See also the article on [wiki]Expertise[/wiki] on GW-Wiki.

Pyro maniac · Feb 02, 2008, 09:51 AM // 09:51

for PvE:
silencing shortbow for BHA ranger, pointblank the mob
Some recurve bows, always good.
Flatbow, mainly for luring or for targets who don't move
Longbow and hornbow: never use them tbh.