Longbow Enchantments?

Hi all,

I just wanted to ask you, the community, what you think of the enchantments found on longbows? Personally me, I find that longbows have about the same values for any enchantment (be it damage, increased weapon damage, attack speed) as found on shortbows. Shortbows do not have critical damage, but longbows do. My concern I'm posing to you is that longbows should have slightly higher enchantment values to offset the loss of speed. Many of the shortbows I find 99% of the time have higher min and max damage than longbows, which defeats the purpose of having a longbow option in the first place. Though the longbow is not a true 2H weapon, it should see enchantments up to 50% (maybe bit too high) higher than found on shortbows. From what I know of 2H weapons of other classes, they are usually up to 100% higher than their 1H counterparts. Or as some have suggested, let rangers have a true 2H weapon (aka crossbows) ridding themselves of back items for ultimate power.

My end conclusion is that longbows, for the most part, are utterly useless (except for conserving essences, hellOOO~ that's what I want but from an equally good longbow) unless one can find the holy grail of longbows.


My best (approximate) enchantment per bow type to my recollection:

• Shortbow
  • Damage - 43 (upgraded is at 47 now)
  • Speed - 10.7%
  • IWD - 35.6% (still have this bow in locker)

• Longbow
  • Damage - 35
  • Speed - <8% (I don't really pay attention to speed but never have I seen better)
  • IWD - 35%
  • Crit Dmg - 29% (on a green longbow lol)

Where's critical hit value on the list? Screw that garbage!

Any comments on the matter? I could be wrong about this longbow thing. Please, let's not start a "rangers are OP" type of discussion, this isn't about PvP.

 

I wouldn't mind a good short bow, but as a PvE player I prefer long, and even finding a longbow superior to what I have now has been tough (it's my last piece of blue gear). Currently, at lvl 36, my Magic Bow of Thorns' stats are:
- Damage: 99-129
- Speed: the usual longbow 0.83
- DPS: 94, 91
This also includes a +216 critical hit value, a 17.4% increased weapons damage, and 4 gem slots.

It may not be the strongest weapon around, but I can virtually solo, w/o essence, Heart of Atlantis with it. Still, it's a blue eyesore in my otherwise nice collection of Extraordinary and Legendary gear, not to mention it's worth a small fortune in glyphs, which I'd one day like to use to upgrade my other gear.

Well, as they say in business, the 3 most important things are location, location, location. In DSO, it's farm, farm, farm.

 

That is indeed a lousy bow. Melt it. You should be able to easily find a better blue bow.

 

this is an awsome blue bow, best i have every seen and i have opened thousands and thousands.

 

speed for longbow ,the max is about 11% and critical damage is about 40%. damage 50. % weapon damage 35%.

 

There have been several discussions in the past about creating a 2H option for Rangers as they are the only class without that choice. Most agree it should be an option, but how to do it and with what stats quickly turns into an OP argument.

Couple of things on your original post. Both the short and long bows have the same enchantment possibilities. The types of enchants as well as the possible values are the same. The base damage is higher at each level on the long bow. This is the offset for the lower speed. This is also what can make the longbow have much higher damage with the right enchants like IWD%.

Truth is, the devs have shown no love for the long bow, this shows up in the Dragan set where all 2 handed classes get a 30% spike in damage for wearing the set -vs- 15% for rangers wielding a longbow. I believe this was a balancing act to keep longbow damage from becoming astronomical in combination with the marking capability, but they didn't seem to mind that happening for DK SW SM with armor break. I doubt this is anywhere on the list to even look at by the Dev's and is unlikely to get a review although I still support the idea.

To clarify some of the guessing on stats here are the possibilities since R139.
Adjustments To Enchantments

• The efficiency of “Extra damage” enchantments on all weapons has been increased by about 50%.
• The “Critical Damage” enchantments can now appear on one-handed weapons. The minimum and maximum values are 10-30% on level 1-42 items and 10-35% on level 43-45 items.
• The maximum value of "Attack Speed" enchantments on 1H-weapons has been increased to 13% on level 1-42 items and 15% on level 43-45 items.
• The maximum value of "Increased damage" enchantments on 1H-weapons has been increased to 40% on level 43-45 items.
• The maximum value of "Increased damage" enchantments on 2H-weapons has been increased to 80% on level 43-45 items.

 

Thanks for the valuable info. Your expertise is always welcomed.

I haven't seen a shortbow with any critical damage, maybe it's my bad luck or I'm just missing something. As for the higher base dmg on the longbow, I was going to mention in original post that I don't think that was enough to justify the speed loss as it's a very minimal increase. Yes, the IWD would take advantage of it a bit more but not by much; especially if the damage enchantment lines are the same as on shortbows. Base damage is 38(min)-40(max) higher on longbows. With enchantments being relatively the same, the overall base damage is going to be maybe 100 higher or like me, you'll find it drops lower. Keep in the mind the speed loss, which is much harder to build back.

On the Dragan set bonus, 15% is fine since longbows aren't a real 2H weapon. That's sorta where I concluded that longbows should see a 50% (more like 25% or 33% though) increase in dmg and IWD enchantment values. On the R139 weapon adjustments you listed, I sorta feel that longbows being lumped into the 1H classification was a mistake. It should be in between on the lower end though.

Side note: Marking capability doesn't make a ranger OP. It's part of the class. If we didn't have it, we would be doing nearly half the percentage of other classes. Dry precise shot is 150%, dry lightning strike is 250%. Marked precise shot is 300%, charged lightning strike is 333%. Now why does everyone complain that the marking capability is OP? The numbers don't lie. Sorry I digress, but I get tired of players making this comment that marking is OP.

 

The OP stuff is indeed useless. There's enough argument on that stuff elsewhere. As is; I feel things are pretty balanced and the 2h option comes with a sacrifice, usually of a defensive off hand item so it is a trade off. Here's the thing I was thinking about. I currently have a short bow in the bank with 4 DMG% lines that total 90ish%. It's in the bank because of the upgrade bug. As is at level 45 the DPS is around 430 and my base damage is in the 1800's. That's a short bow. If that bow was a 2 handed Long bow, upgraded to 49 and the %lines were doubled because of the 2hand element my base damage would be above 2300 high end. A marked precise shot would hit for 6k+ and crit for 12k. A one shot crit kill in PVP. Not to mention that in PVE Precise shot penetrates marked targets and thicket explodes for 300%. Toss a net and one shot everything in any PW. IT would be a hoot to play it and truthfully on par with some of the new DK weapons, but.....

Anyway not trying to argue just thinking of some of the things the dev's go through when they contemplate class balance stuff and maybe why we don't have a 2-hand option. But, but, but, with some balancing tweaks I still think rangers should have that option.

 

Ahem Ahem... I have a Ranger using a Longbow... And I have 1700 max dmg and 2.1 speed...

" Longbows are useless " ... Pfft .. cou ghouta zink out of ze boxa to be ze op op op rangar

 

Who are you directing the comment to? I can't find anywhere in the thread where it says "Longbows are useless" I'd be interested to see your setup or know where you get the extra spd from. Most endgame LB users are at around 1.8 spd.

 

I am curious how you're setup is. I did put a phrase before saying "for the most part". You're the exception I would say. If you don't mind, would you take an unedited pic of your setup?

I would love to be able to hit 12k crits and clear PW dungeons faster. I can see your point. But remember, you are quite OP as a ranger. I think it would perfectly normal if 2H longbows yielded that sorta potential, but like you said, it would need some tweaks to the rangers' balance.

 

Would be nice to upgrade longbows a bit, I want to try it out but still can't find decent one that will worth to reset my tree.
Also there are some useless skills for the ranger, like Death Sweap... 3 seconds DoT that actualy does lower dammage than the other melee skill we have. Absolutelly no one uses Death Sweep, maybe make the DoT 10 seconds so we can actualy use that skill.
And very few use longbows.

 

ATM my attack speed is 1.6.
In the best possible scenario ... I could get extra attack speed (upgrade to royal sapphires + 2x ring of fortitude + Witch Chaser Equipment) of 50%. That would be 2.1 attack speed.
If I go further ... and replace the rubies in the bow with 5x royal sapphires that would be +62.5%.
That is 2.725 attack speed.
BUT ... that setup would so useless ... even for PVE. (not just the damage would be very low but crit. damage and crit. rate as well)
I prefer good balance rather than only damage or only attack speed.

BTW you all know I use long bow for both PVE and PVP.

 

Indeed, you were my base line thought for the comments above and my own experimenting with a couple of decent LB's. And honestly till I see a 1700 dmg, 2.1 set-up for LB, I'll be suspect. Was questioning a probable s-t-r-e-t-c-h of reality.

 

I believe it. This is why I haven't been able to replace it, even if I bought one. It was a good drop early in my game, and 'tis been a faithful companion since.

--MERGED--

Well I'll be. Just a few days ago I was saying how I couldn't find a good longbow upgrade, and today I opened a cube and found a fairly decent one: legendary bladed. Took a big loss on critical hit value. But damage, critical damage and speed went up, and using the new bow did seem to take out monsters a little faster.

 

So, do you think this one is not better?
Just looted it from Crypt:

 

For a blue level 15 bow that is pretty good. The consideration is, do you have the gems to make that bow as good as it can be. When upgraded to say 48, you will get an additional 45 from those percentage lines. If you put 5 +20 gems in it then you'll get an additional 45 from those lines. So, base + 100 for gems +45 +45 so top end is ~290. Which is good for a blue.

But, uh lets get a leg in there and blow that all away with a 700+top end and Dps over 450. Talking about good blue bows is like discussing which used car is fastest or which leftovers taste the best.

 

long bows is useless and developers should remove them from the game or give them some buff to let players reconsider using it
like DKs, and SW double handed insane stat..oh dont forget double handed guns...my mechanus has one with 120% increased damage+65 damage

 

That is only your opinion.
Using long bows requires proper setup.

 

Setup or not, still absolutely noone in the game uses them. This must be a sign that longbows arent appealing enough for the players to consider a build with it.
Oh wait, longbows are not two-handed. Can we have a proper second option bow so RA's can actually differ from one another, please?