Longbow Vs Short

What are the argument for Longbow / Short bows.

I currently have a longbow for high damage, but I do like the idea of some extra protection.

Any thoughts on who / when to use a short bow?

here this is a site u should keep in ur favorites here is for bows.
http://www.guildwiki.org/wiki/Bow

the short bow class is good when fighting up close, if you're in the thick of things. the longbow class is really only good for pulling and picking at your target from a distance.

i prefer the horn bow to the short bow, as the horn bow gets the armor penetration

~lothar

Beyond the pulling with the longbow and in tight fighting with the short bow....

I use a longbow in PvE when firing at creatures that have a knockdown skill. You can shoot from beyond the knockdown range.

I use a short bow, with its faster refire rate, upgraded with a Zealous Bow String (+1 energy on a successful hit) coupled with Barrage and Lightning Reflexes to gain energy.

Flatbow - the advantage of this is that is tied for the longest range and the fastest refire. The problem with it is the high arc size and longer travel time which gives enemies more time to dodge the arrows. This problem can be somewhat negated by Favorable Winds or Read the Wind (maybe?).

Longbow/Storm bow - the advantage of this is that it has the greatest distance of all the bows (with the exception of the Flat bow). Because of the range, it is useful for pulling so you could possibly aggro less enemies if you're careful than other bows.

Composite/Dead/Eternal/Recurve - the advantage of this is it has the shortest travel time. This makes it good for interrupts because it is the most accurate.

Short bow/Half Moon -the advantage of this is that it has the quickest refire rate (with the exception of the Flatbow with the problem already stated above). That means spamming more arrows and more skills (like Barrage). This usually equals more overall damage. The disadvantage is that it has a much short range (so the enemies have to be closer).

Horn/Ivory/Shadow - this has a 10% armor penetration, but the refire rate is rather slow and the arrows travel slower than short bows, so honestly, I don't know the advantage of using this bow.

The best inherent modifier is probably damage +15% when health is above 50% on a 15-28 damage bow that you can get from collectors. If you want protection, upgrade the bow with an appropriate bow grip (defense, shelter, and fortitude are all good choices). The bow string, on the other hand, really depends on the skills you are using. You probably want up to four bows with different bow strings to suit the different skills you are using.

I don't think I ever switch from my flatbows, but I"m thinking about getting a hornbow just for kicks.

really i preffer the mid to long range bows mostly becasue flight time dosnt mean squat. think about it, your closer to the target with a shortbow so obviously the flight time is shorter, while on the flatbow you are further away at max range so it takes longer to reach the target.

Long Bow's Range + Short Bow's Refire = Flatbow but with long flight time (meaning they can dodge ur arrows some times) i like flatbows so i dont have to switch between my long bow or short

In PvP, I like FlatBows only with RtW (which makes them more accurate). In PvE, Flatbows or Longbows are good for pulling. In any event, it's either Short Bow or FlatBow with RtW with me.

I prefer the Short Bow, although sometimes I take a Flat or Long Bow.

There isn't really any good reason to be using a Horn Bow.

Where can you get a %15>50, 15-28 from a collector?

Quote: Originally Posted by Allmightybob

Shortbow.

Why?
Shoots faster

"Oh no! You get longer range with a longbow!"
Who cares? Rangers are almost always the last to be attacked.

Quote: Originally Posted by chris_nin00

Quote: Originally Posted by chris_nin00

The horn bows are nice for the armour penitration but the most important feature is refire speed. Sit down and figure out the damage over a certain time period, you will find that the fastest bows more than make up for the armour pen on the horn bows. A quickshot build and tiger's fury can even the bows out quite a bit but even still a short/flatbow are still a half second faster than the horn bows when using tiger's. I find the most dmg per second (not dmg per shot -- that is the horn bow) is the flatbow (and the short but why stand so close) and the nice thing is that RTW completely eliminates the slow flight time. If you want a spike team, the horn bow gets you that little extra pop and the refire rate won't matter in a spike team if you do it right. For interupt, I prefer the halfmoon/short because of the natural refire and flight speeds (the two most important features of a interupt bow) and the short range is not a problem because you want to be close to that which you are intrupting to make sure that the time between your decision to interupt and the hit are as small as possible to ensure a successful interupt. Again, sit bow and crunch the numbers yourself, compare the refire rate vs the armour pen and what features you need for your goals.

Im am curious now after reading this thread about bow refire rates and its affect on interrupting.

After reading the skills description and stats on Distracting shot I noticed that the "cast time" is 1/2 second.

I cant test this out as I only just decided to make room for creating a ranger but does this mean that:

1. The skill is activated 1/2 sec immediately after you hit the skill no matter where you are in your fireing sequence. (best case).

or

2. The skill is activated 1/2 sec after your next shot keeping in line with refire rates. (worst case)
Example: shadow bow - refires at 2.7 secs
if you used Distracting shot 1 sec after your first shot there would be 1.7 secs left of you refire time and then 0.5 secs for the skill activation.
Total time = 2.2 secs

I have a hunch that it works like senario 1 from observations from my Griffon farming days with the rockshots. They seemed to distract me sometimes mid sequence and the arrow also seemed to travel quicker. If this is the case it wont matter which bow was used.

If it was like senario 2 then this would mean that interrupting would rely heavily on luck as you could have just fired a shot and the enemy then uses a skill but your interrupt would have to wait until your bow had recharged.

Another matter to consider would be the flight times of the arrows and the range you are firing at when interrupting and whether or not these play a part in it.

This is driving me nuts cos I cant test it

I thinking of starting a ranger myself and from this article I started knowing about the types of bows and such.
Prolly all the info in the above thread came from this guide
http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/dosw...s_ranger_a.txt
At the bottom of the article it shows you the different types of desert collectors.
Each collector gives u a different type of bow. I got 3 different ones 15>50 and upgraded them myself. This way you can save on buying bows.

You can find it on this site.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/dos...me/914653.html

hornbows are usually used for spikers and he means interruption from i guess punishing shot wich spkers use.
flatbows are overall the best bows because all u need to is a skill to negate the defectiveness