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Author: neoelasticman
13,938 Views
11 Comments
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I tried to write this before but it's not up yet, so sorry if it goes up twice. Also no copyright issues because I do not actually USE the guide mentioned, but instead put everything in my own words, and include some information they missed.
People are always asking what the difference between one bow and another is. It's not difficult to figure out the ups and downs of a bow if you know what to look for, and this ranger guide from gameFAQs does a pretty good job of telling you. I find, however, that it is a little confusing to read and doesn't point out the trends in bows. Essentially this guide is just a clear restatement of what the other guide says, without getting too specific.
The best way to find out what your bow does is to try it out. Each bow has a fire arc, fire rate, arrow speed, and range. Some supposedly have armor penetration but I'll leave that alone since the other guide is pretty clear about that.
The easiest piece to find out is the fire arc, or how high you shoot an arrow. Bows come in high fire arc (approximately 45 degrees) and low fire arc (pretty much straight ahead). The longbow is an example of high fire arc, and the shortbow is an example of low fire arc, just for comparison. A high fire arc will have greater range but lower arrow speed, and a low fire arc will have a greater arrow speed but less range.
The next item we'll discover is the range, also an easy one to determine. Using the aggro bubble, determine how close you have to be to the enemy before you can shoot. A short range will require the enemy to be inside the circle, and a medium range will have the enemy right on the circle's border. The long range bows can reach the enemy before they even enter the aggro circle. Range is a result of both fire arc and arrow speed. A higher range will give you a greater distance from harm, including magic with limited range. Shorter ranges reach the target sooner, which is important for things like interrupts.
It makes sense to cover arrow speed next, now that we know our fire arc and range. Using these rules you can identify your arrow speed:
Low Arc / Short Range - Slow
Low Arc / Medium Range - Fast
High Arc / Long Range - Slow
These are the only three rules you will need. Fast and Slow are only relative terms. To understand this better you just need to think of simple physics. If you shoot a bow with the same arc but 2 speeds, the faster arrow goes further. Also, if you shoot a bow with same speed but 2 arcs, the one closer to 45 degrees (in this case the higher one) will go farther, but will get more wind resistance and slow down more. A fast arrow has a better chance of hitting a moving target and gets to its target faster, which is good for interrupting.
Finally there is the fire rate, or how many arrows you shoot within a given amount of time. There is no correlation with this and other bow statistics that I know of, so all I can say about it is that there are 3 different speeds, and the bows for each speed are listed in the linked website.
There is a special case bow, the flatbow, which I think is so different that I deserves to be described on its own. A flatbow has an extremely high fire arc, long range, a very slow arrow speed, and a fast fire rate. It essentially sacrifices accuracy to be the only fast-shooting bow with long range.
A final note, for those who wish to know, the max base damage on a bow is 15-28. I don't suggest any specific use for this information, but I will say that you will probably want at least 1 PvP bow and at least 1 PvE bow, depending on your needs. I hope this was helpful.
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