Curse

bennyandthejets · May 27, 2011, 07:16 AM // 07:16

Stray, Block, Miss, Dodge, Obstructed....perhaps I am missing more. While wielding a bow there are almost a half a dozen variables that prevent you from successfully hitting your mark.

Do all professions have to deal with this? Additionally is there any way to improve ones accuracy? I have a 14 in marksmanship & it is very common to see several of these variables per group encounter.

Thanks for your time

GigaClon · May 27, 2011, 07:40 AM // 07:40

Block and Miss are common to all weapons. Obstructed is just for ranged weapons, you can fix this by moving and making sure that there is nothing in the way. Also the type of bow that you use can influence things. A Flatbow might be great for range and what not, but don't try to hit anything that moves, as the arc makes the shot take longer. Lots of GW is reading the enemy and responding appropriately. Ex. if you are hexed with Empathy, don't attack.

Ratman · May 27, 2011, 07:44 AM // 07:44

Depents on what kind of bow you are using.

If your dealing with Stray, Miss or Dodge it could be your arrows take to long to strike your target.

If you are using a Flatbow, you'll have a higher change to miss because the arc of the arrows is higher.
When using a Longbow, shortbow or hornbow you have a medium size arc and you'll miss less ofter.
When using a recurve bow you will have a low arc and will miss least often.
You can use skills that increase the flight time (Read the Wind, Favoreble Winds) to lower the changes you'll miss.

If your dealing with block you could use skills that prevent blocking such as Asuran Scan.

And if your having problems with Obstructed you should try to move a little. Often it is a matter of hitting a tree/rock or something. And on the other hand sometimes you have a clear line of sight but you are still being obstructed. Thats just a game bug, there's nothing mutch you can do about it.

IronSheik · May 27, 2011, 07:46 AM // 07:46

All physicals deal with blocks and misses, but rangers/paragons have to have a line of sight to hit a target.

Some odd obstructions also prevent arrows from ever hitting, certain walls/bridges, when against the edge, prevent any projectile from ever landing, it can be hard to learn all of the games mechanics, but most of the time just moving so they can be seen is best option.

Melees can hit someone regardless of height, as long as they are adjacent, so one person can be under a bridge and other on top and the melee can attack them.

Blocks are caused by stances or enchantments, and usually prevent 50% or more hits from landing, rangers can't do much about these, but having necros or warriors can help wade these effects, attack something else until the effect is over

Miss/Stray is caused by hexes/conditions that lower your chance of hitting (Blind, blurred vision), or by someone moving from your arrow before it lands, or someone being out of line of sight

Bows all fire/fly at different speeds.

Flatbow - Fastest rate of fire, , maximum range, but has a long and very dodgable path
Recurve - Medium Fire rate, medium range, but fastest travel time, most common type used
Longbow - Slow Rate of Fire, maximum range, slightly dodgable path
Hornbow - Slowest RoF, Med Range, but has 10% armor penetration
Shortbow - Fastest RoF, Short range, fast travel time

Recurve is most commonly used because they are most likely to hit their target, but under certain conditions others are better (Spiking-Hornbows, Pulling-Long/Flatbows)

Some preparations/spirits affect travel time.

Read the wind causes all arrows, regardless of bow type, to fire at same speed, so looking at the bows, flatbow is best used with this preparation.

**Marty Silverblade** · May 27, 2011, 07:50 AM // 07:50

Block: caused by the target using a skill, like Aegis. All professions that rely on hitting things will have to deal with it.

Stray: not sure what causes it, but it isn't common. It doesn't happen on melee weapons. I know it happens with bows; I'm not sure whether it happens for other ranged weapons too.

Miss: like block but caused by something on you, like Blurred Vision or blind. Again, all professions that rely on hitting things will have to deal with it.

Obstructed: projectiles (from both ranged weapons and some spells) need clear line of sight to hit. It's not a problem for anyone who isn't dependant on ranged weapons for whatever reasons, and it isn't difficult to avoid either. It's something you'll figure out if you haven't done so already.

Dodge: it just means the foe moved in a way that caused the projectile (from any source) to miss. As it's a projectile issue, only professions dealing with projectile spells and ranged weapons will need to deal with it.

--------------

*Your marksmanship attribute does not affect accuracy.
*To avoid missing, make sure your team has appropriate hex and condition removal so the anti-physical hexes don't stay too long on you.
*Likewise, make sure your team has appropriate enchantment removal so annoying block enchantments don't stay up long either. Stance removal is generally annoying, so it's only worthwhile in very specific areas (and even then, I generally don't bother). Keep in mind you can just switch targets if it's blocking.
*Dodging and Obstruction are positioning related, once you play more you'll get better at it and hopefully it should happen less.
*Stray is weird; it happens and no one really knows why.

bennyandthejets · May 27, 2011, 08:23 AM // 08:23

Good to know, thanks everyone. Thanks again Marty

Tripolityx · May 27, 2011, 08:27 AM // 08:27

"

Obstructed occurs if the target was behind a physical barrier when the projectile was fired.
Stray may occur instead if the target is moving toward a place where you would have gotten the "obstructed" message.
Dodge occurs when when the target switches directions so that the projectile ends up going to the wrong place (e.g. moving out of the way of Broad Head Arrow's slow arc).

"

By GW Wiki. When you think about it. Stray makes more sense.

Wenspire · May 27, 2011, 09:42 AM // 09:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by IronSheik

Bows all fire/fly at different speeds.

Flatbow - Fastest rate of fire, , maximum range, but has a long and very dodgable path
Recurve - Medium Fire rate, medium range, but fastest travel time, most common type used
Longbow - Slow Rate of Fire, maximum range, slightly dodgable path
Hornbow - Slowest RoF, Med Range, but has 10% armor penetration
Shortbow - Fastest RoF, Short range, fast travel time

Just a minor correction; I believe recurve and long have the same rate of fire. Well, at least according to the wiki.

dudemonkey · May 27, 2011, 12:40 PM // 12:40

I found "Stray" to occur when you're shooting at a moving, distant target. The read I get from it is that you shoot at a target, but they move out of the way before they get hit. You probably WOULD have hit, but they're no longer in the spot that your arrow is heading towards so you missed due to "Stray".

gremlin · May 27, 2011, 02:40 PM // 14:40

Always hated the rate of fire differences for bows, as an archer it made little sense, I hope this doesn't carry over to GW2.

Rate of fire should only apply to crossbows and that only due to the varying mechanical devices needed to reload.

SheilaWhiteclaw · May 27, 2011, 02:47 PM // 14:47

Simple Solution: Asuran Scan.

Skyy High · May 27, 2011, 05:21 PM // 17:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by gremlin

Always hated the rate of fire differences for bows, as an archer it made little sense, I hope this doesn't carry over to GW2.

Rate of fire should only apply to crossbows and that only due to the varying mechanical devices needed to reload.

Eh, why? Without the rate of fire difference, there's no reason to ever use a flatbow or shortbow over a longbow or recurve. Also, the hornbow would be the most powerful bow (instead of only useful for spikes / fixed attack speed skills).

gremlin · May 27, 2011, 06:26 PM // 18:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skyy High

Eh, why? Without the rate of fire difference, there's no reason to ever use a flatbow or shortbow over a longbow or recurve. Also, the hornbow would be the most powerful bow (instead of only useful for spikes / fixed attack speed skills).

I hate the idea because its unrealistic and I like as much realism as is possible while still making the game playable.
The time it takes to knock an arrow draw aim and loose it are similar though this game doesn't use arrows as such.

I can think of enough variation in bow types abilities without making every self bow have a different loading time.

Shortbow short range average penetration
Longbow long range excellent penetration
Recurve/Hornbow same thing really the asiatic varient of the longbow greater range better penetration.
Gastraphetes aka Belly Bow extreme range slow firing cross between a recurve bow and a crossbow.

Crossbow easy to use so lower skill rating slow loading/firing middle range.
Cranquin or similar very slow loading/firing middle range extreme armour penetration.
Siege Arbelast goes through anything takes ages to load/fire.

Asuran/Chinese repeating crossbow low range very little penetration but able to fire very fast for a short time.
That one is difficult to do so it would be better achieved by a skill.
But I am an admirer of the little beauty.

Fay Vert · May 27, 2011, 09:22 PM // 21:22

Obstructed occurs when your target is on a bridge, in plain view, but vaguely near the edge. Sucks