What makes a bow good?

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Fire_Kid wrote:

It really depends on the build. I prefer physical for Lightning Arrow.

Tell us your build and we can help you out more.

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physical crit bows:
high increased physical damage
high flat physical damage
high chance to critical hit (not global)

priority is damage > crit
all 3 are needed though for the bow to be considered good

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Hellrazer001 wrote:

I am in no means an expert, but I put a lot of time into my ranger " now temporarily shelved " and found that at level 77 I was having a hard time leveling more, I have had this bow for most of the game,

which has killed every other Bow I have tried, and yes faster attacks and faster projectiles are a must, and global and critical Strike.

I have tried

and

and none of them seem to cut it, the Quill Rain is not too bad at lower levels with Explosive arrow but at end game its like a Mosquito. It also has the problem of eating manna in seconds, and also with the speed it fires it cancels out the explosive arrow stacking if you fire more than 6 shots and dont wait for the arrows to explode.

Deaths Harp bow sucks because the 2 arrows it fires spread so I found it hard to hit a single target unless close, and the stats on it are just not good enough " another low level bow "

Darkscorn Maraketh Bow was not too bad but, the " Choas taken " is not great, but it still did not stack up to my bow above.

The Blackgleam Quiver just was not good enough compared to the Rare I was using, " global and critical strike "

The one thing you really need to look out for is one shotting your self on reflective mobs, you usually dont notice them at the edge of the screen until you have pulled the trigger and bang. " But I do seem to play all my Characters with a lot of Rare Find at my expense :))) "

I think that without either a Voltaxic Rift or Lioneye's Glare later on rangers are in trouble as Great Bow drops are extremely rare compared to other weapons.

So basically go for all elemental or all Physical in your build, but attack and projectile Speed are a must. with a totem and/or zombies thrown in to keep the packs away long enough.

But I am sure there will be more experienced higher level Rangers that may be able to give there insight into a good high level ranger or bow user.

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Nephalim wrote:

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Jonathong_ wrote:

All your responses are very helpful! But can someone give me a quick breakdown as to why a tri elemental bow is so good?

because your damage will be most elemental based and will be boosted by WED from gear and passives.

However, lions eye + black gleams + LA is 100% elemental conversion and still benefits from hatred which is a far stronger build.

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tikitaki wrote:

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Nephalim wrote:

"

Jonathong_ wrote:

All your responses are very helpful! But can someone give me a quick breakdown as to why a tri elemental bow is so good?

because your damage will be most elemental based and will be boosted by WED from gear and passives.

However, lions eye + black gleams + LA is 100% elemental conversion and still benefits from hatred which is a far stronger build.

lol

lioneye is not that great, and blackgleam sux

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tikitaki wrote:

i should clarify:

lioneye is the most cost effective bow in the game. it's a good overall bow with good attack speed.

it has no flat lightning damage. that's a problem. it has low base crit chance. huge problem. the dps caps out at ~330.

rares can be much much better. even tri-eles, mostly because of the importance of base crit chance (the crit chance on your weapon while using an attack).

if you are running crit, you can basically count on gaining about 10 - 12% crit chance by switching from lioneye to a good rare crit bow, plus however much extra dps it has.

im not dissing it. its a great starter bow, but you can def. beat it.