Pew Pew Pew

[Ivory]

Hooray! I have converted a non believer to the cult of the bendy branch!!

Soon, the entire world will recognize the power of archery and there will be a swelling of young archers as they rediscover the ancient art of the elves!!!

I can't wait till I'm 60 and find a sky cloak so I can really see how it stacks up.

What surprised me most when I had been tracking my damage before was that my melee ended up about the same as my bow. I had always figured "if raw DPS is really important, switch into melee mode".....but so far from the numbers, the bow actually keeps up.

I still suspect melee might be a better DPS option if you are using some really really nice weapons and self hasted better (though skydarkener procs are nothing to sneeze at...I've gotten 6 procs in 6 shots before).

Though, there are still some pretty good advantages to a bow with higher end raiding even with slightly less DPS (when using trueshot, it is no contest btw, bow wins...but BFG is pretty killer too). Such as being able to stay out of range of AE's and being able to duck behind caster shield walls between shots to avoid AE's (saves on heals / avoiding long AE stuns / and even death).

And remember, this is pure bow....not counting the other advantage of archery being able to weave in spells between shots (call of flame is a fast cast 206 damage...or at 59, we get Calefaction, which is a 450 DD....definitely worth casting! In melee you might lose more swings, but with bows you won't lose too much to throw it in...along with the advantage of being able to med between shots to make that much more frequent than a melee ranger could sustain).

But all of this is more high end crunching for efficiency and min/maxing DPS. For leveling up, a trueshot longbow and sow in oasis will have you out-soloing basically everyone. Level 30-40, a bow of the hunstman and you are the king of Firiona Vie along the cliffs. 40-50, still, you are pretty powerful with a good bow and a nice quiver and a velium swiftblade (one of the cheapest and best haste items, but only really good for archery since it takes a weapon slot).

Like I've been saying....for anyone playing a ranger (or someone who wants to solo) ....don't ignore your bow. It really is a strong tool. Even if you group a lot, being able to pull out your bow and take a mob down to 70-80 percent life for free before it gets back to the group is pretty nice. Or being able to root something off to the side and kill it while people med (costing everyone else nothing and not getting in the way of you medding) is also pretty impressive.

I've gotten to 55 now mostly with the bow and mostly soloing....and it has been a lot of fun. It becomes even crazier if you get your hands on a skydarkener around level 50 and show up to AE camps claiming them. Oh, and since you are only limited by your quiver size, you can overpull and eventually wear whatever is after you down. "Wait....is that ranger...AE kiting 12 wyverns? :|"

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