Ranged Bow Mage?

[Maerit]

I've always contemplated being a ranged mage using a bow. Does this work well with a hafling? I know very little about ranged combat. Is it dex based vs strength based with a bow? Will my DS be too low because I can only 1x in ranged weapons? What skills are required to be a battle mage using a bow? Can't show stats right now, but I can say my strength sucks and isn't going to get much better. I have high dex and decent agility, though.

Right now I've trained my mage up to level 18, he's a pure caster.

18 ranks of PT

1x AS
2x MIU
1.5x HP
2x SA
1x Air Lore

18 Major Elemental
18 Wizard (was working up to enchant since he's mostly going to be a utility character)
14 Minor Elemental

CoL master

So, would it be too early to try out battle mage? My toying around with skills seems to indicate that I'd have to sacrifice a lot of spells. Does an e-bladed bow work well enough, or would you need to obtain a decent weapon?

I can do perfectly fine as a pure mage and would stick with that for a while if it's too early to try out something different, or if low strength stats dont support the playstyle. Thanks for the input.

[Morrff]

With enough post cap it's very viable, works great for Construct tasks. Joloven used to train that path even before his post cap, not sure how viable he was through his 80's(if indeed he was using a bow then).

My first thought is that you'll not have enough training points to make it viable at 18, but then again I've never actually tried that path. Personally I think it would be a much easier path around 50's.

Let me know if/when you go that route and of the outcome.

[Kitsun]

Bow mage is pretty much just like a war mage in that you sacrifice spell ranks and some other misc goodies for a weapon type. Like with bolts, the ranged DS will be lower than melee so its easier to hit. Getting a 4x bow and eblading store bought arrows gets you to 8x with only like a 50k investment.

I think the general concensus is that war mages work best in earlier levels because ROI hasn't completely chewed you out yet. You can make most weapon types work with Haste, if you can't, you're doing it wrong.

[Asha]

Khistian handled it well post cap.
Just don't forget to train in perception. It adds to your ranged AS and also helps ambush from open.

[Maerit]

But which stats impact bow use? I know you get lower RT for loading a crossbow the higher your strength bonus, but does a composite bow require strength, dex, agility? Do you get more AS from dex or agility, or does your AS come from strength? I'm just not sure where my power will be coming from using a bow, and since my character is pretty much permanently gimped for strength, it'd probably be a bad plan to go with any weapons reliant on that stat for AS.

[Durgrimst]

Dionket still uses an archer mage build, with tons of highend gear to back it up.

[Inspire]

(at level 45), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 20 4
Ranged Weapons.....................| 147 47
Physical Fitness...................| 102 24
Arcane Symbols.....................| 93 21
Magic Item Use.....................| 93 21
Spell Aiming.......................| 194 94
Harness Power......................| 147 47
Elemental Mana Control.............| 120 30
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 102 24
Perception.........................| 194 94
Climbing...........................| 90 20
Swimming...........................| 50 10

Spell Lists
Major Elemental....................| 43

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 43

Spell Lists
Wizard.............................| 20
Training Points: 0 Phy 0 Mnt (862 Phy converted to Mnt)

[Izzy]

But which stats impact bow use? I know you get lower RT for loading a crossbow the higher your strength bonus, but does a composite bow require strength, dex, agility? Do you get more AS from dex or agility, or does your AS come from strength? I'm just not sure where my power will be coming from using a bow, and since my character is pretty much permanently gimped for strength, it'd probably be a bad plan to go with any weapons reliant on that stat for AS.

Never use crossbows. All bow RT is based on strength bonus. Every 10 bonus = -1 second RT from the base. AS is determined by your dex bonus. Agility has no bearing on ranged weapons. What's your strength bonus? If you have at least +15 you could probably use a longbow just fine. With haste and air lore you should be able to drop that 4 seconds down to 1.

[Dhuul]

I remember way back in the day seeing Cog take down krolvin using a bow. He's capped now, and been so for a while, so I'd say it's pretty darn viable :)

[Maerit]

Never use crossbows. All bow RT is based on strength bonus. Every 10 bonus = -1 second RT from the base. AS is determined by your dex bonus. Agility has no bearing on ranged weapons. What's your strength bonus? If you have at least +15 you could probably use a longbow just fine. With haste and air lore you should be able to drop that 4 seconds down to 1.

Alas, at level 18 on my little gnome my strength bonus is -5... I doubt I'd be a weapon user at this point, and have no interest in re-rolling. Pure it is!

[Morrff]

So jack up your air lore for haste and plow up yourself some strength enancives from the turnip patch.

Edit: Oh and Cog isn't/wasn't never way back in the day if I remember correctly he capped in like 2-3yrs from pretty much scrap. I could be misremembering but the fact that you have Krolvin in the same sentence and I was pretty sure they were not that old.

I'm sure if I'm wrong Bruno will correct me.

[Dhuul]

I could be wrong...but we all started at 0 :)