Curse

ComMan · Jul 29, 2005, 05:04 PM // 17:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by loc87

Hmmm .. why point blank shot, which halves the arrow's range? why not something else like determined shot, power shot, or hunter's shot? And even if the bonus from melandru's is reduced, it's still going to have like +16, right? Also, why is favorable winds a waste?

Because it, like Penetrating Shot, only has a 3 second cooldown. Therefore almost every shot can have your base damage, plus melandru's arrows, plus attack damage. It's much more energy consuming than stacking Judge's Insight or Conjure Flame on top, but it won't spread your attributes as thin.

You'll note from my build that I don't run 2 attack skills though. It's just a suggestion.

I never had Melandru's Arrows + Dual Shot hit for anything impressive. 60 was the most I've gotten out of that combo, which is usually the minimum that Penetrating Attack hits for on the same targets.

Unfortunatly Yukito, Bow Rangers have a problem with three stats thanks to everyone's favorite skill that has nothing to do with Beast Mastery: Tiger's Fury. That must have skill swallows 10-15 attribute points, which is a minor annoyance regardless of what you want to build around.

If it makes you feel any better, I've bled to death on a number of occasions.

Also, I've been hearing recently that Horn Bows have an automatic 10% Armor Penetration. If that's true, then they might actually be better than Shotbow/Halfmoon/Flatbow for damage output. Too bad I don't have a max damage hornbow to mess around with...

cdepue79 · Jul 29, 2005, 07:08 PM // 19:08

Only 60 damage at most from melandrus/dual shot? wow i wouldn't be impressed either, but my shots are usually around 80-100 especially on elemenatalists or monks. The highest i can remeber was 59 & 56 from a melandru/dual shot combo, which is pretty good combined with the bleeding. Of course your damage will suck when used against someone without enchantments. I've only been playing a few months, but horn bows have always been rumored to have 10% penetration bonus, I haven't heard of anyone finding this false, just people confirming it from their own testing, so i assume it's true.

zedboy · Jul 29, 2005, 08:10 PM // 20:10

I <3 Melandru's Arrows. It packs a huge punch to those who have enchantments on them, especially casters.

I found a build that's made around Melandru's Arrows on a different forum, but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to link to it since I think it's a competing website. The person's name who came up with this build is Advalorem, incase he reads this forum too. I like this build quite a lot and have had loads of fun with it in the random arena as well as the team arena. Here's a modified version of it below, tailored to my liking (to be honest the only thing changed is Pin Down for Dual Shot and the attribute points):

Pure Ranger
Expertise: 12 (10 + 1 + 1 [Hunter's Mask])
Wilderness Survival: 10 (8 + 2)
Marksmanship: 15 (12 + 3)

Precision Shot
Dual Shot
Distracting Shot
Melandru's Arrows {E}
Whirling Defense
Troll Unguent
Frozen Soil
Resurrection Signet

I wasn't too sure about Precision Shot since it can be disrupted if you're hit, but I was amazed at how often I was actually able to use it since the release time (or cast time) isn't that long. I was using it as if it were my main bow attack instead of a moderate attack skill. The other thing that sort of bugged me was not having Pin Down after using it for so long. It was odd not being able to pin a runner down or someone dodging arrows, but I figured I can live without it so Dual Shot or Penetrating Attack can take it's place. The last thing I was worried about was the 12 Expertise that I chose (the original build had him using 9) along with the superior rune and major rune, but it actually tends to work out quite well since I have a superior vigor rune and Druid's armor. The health I'm at is 405 and I don't often run out of mana unless I'm hitting Precision Shot and Dual Shot constantly.

I use three collector's bows with this build. The first is the Flatbow model that does +15% damage while enchanted, the second is the Short Bow model that does +15% damage while health is > 50% modded with a bow grip of defense (armor +5), and the last one is the same as the latter but I put an Ebon bow string on it. I use the one with the Ebon string on it the most, then switch to the other ones that deal piercing damage when necessary.

I've died quite a bit, but Melandru's Arrows is fun nonetheless and you do more than you're share of damage if you happen to run across that poor sap with an enchantment on him.

[Edit]:
I forgot to add: I've heard that the Horn Bow does indeed have extra armor penetration because of it's slow refire rate (2.7), but, if this is true, does it only apply to the Horn Bow or does the Shadow Bow as well as all the other 2.7 refire rate bows have the 10% armor penetration too? Can someone reading this thread confirm this or point us to another forum / thread that has information on this? Thanks.

cdepue79 · Jul 29, 2005, 09:04 PM // 21:04

I'm assuming that Shadow bow would also have the 10% since every other stat on it mimics the Horn bow. I'm not sure i would take out dual shot since you can often do over 100 damage to a caster or monk.

loc87 · Jul 31, 2005, 02:59 PM // 14:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by cdepue79

I'm not sure i would take out dual shot since you can often do over 100 damage to a caster or monk.

You do over 100 damage with just dual shot and melandru's?

The Red Knight · Jul 31, 2005, 08:45 PM // 20:45

tiger
debilitating
pindown
distracting
melandru arrow
dual shot
penetrating shot
res sig

swap what you dont like for what ever

cdepue79 · Jul 31, 2005, 09:26 PM // 21:26

yeah vs casters and some monks, depending on what enchantments you can often do melandrus/daul shot damage of around 100 combined. The highest i remember was a dual shot with two numbers of 59 & 56 .

ComMan · Aug 01, 2005, 12:30 AM // 00:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by loc87

You do over 100 damage with just dual shot and melandru's?

24 from Melandru's and 28 from a max bow hit is 52 damage in a single, REGULAR shot with 12 marks and 12 Wilderness Survival. With 25% reduction that's only 39 a shot.

IF Melandru's isn't affected by the 25% reduction (which I'm pretty sure it is) that's still 21 max from the regular arrow plus 24 from Melandru's. That's 45 from each arrow of a dual shot TOPS if you have 12 marks and 12 Wilderness.

You would need a critical for 100 damage, and that's absolute max unless you can pump both of those above 12, along with the 13-14 Expertise that all Ranger builds say they need and the 4 Beast Mastery for Tiger's Fury.

You could always be an air ele and do 100 damage every time on every target.

piercehead · Aug 01, 2005, 01:53 AM // 01:53

I thought Melandru's would be added after the reduction (yeah-I'm probably wrong

), but either way, you'd need Conjure or something on it to do near 100 dmg.

cdepue79 · Aug 01, 2005, 04:05 AM // 04:05

Figure it however you want but i often get dual shots with damage of at least 50 for each arrow which is 100 damage. Maybe they are critical hits, but they are fairly often then.