is it common practice?

[Vorpodu]

to wear a shield as an archer?

[BriarFox]

Common practice? Sure. It's exactly as common as using one's bow to chop down trees.

[Vorpodu]

well obviously you cant use it while you are shootin shit. but just to have in case of emergencies is more what I was thinking.

[Gelston]

No, it isn't common practice.

[Whirlin]

Going to train in shield use in case of emergencies? What emergencies would that be? If you get disarmed, you could always carry a second bow... and then actually be able to kill the critter that took your first one.

Also, no access to krakii to check my math, but I believe 2x ranged & 2x perception may provide comparable defense to Open Hand & 1x shield use. But that depends on the armor you're wearing, CMANs, bow, shield, shield size, stats, and a lot of other factors.

[Vorpodu]

well i figured since you can fire a bow from either your right or left hand, just keep it in your right and you can pull out your shield if youre in trouble. i thought a shield would add flat +20 + shield enchant to your DS.

[Methais]

Assuming this would be effective at all, it would still probably only be needed .0000000000000000000000001% of the time, and be a paperweight the rest of the time.

[Gelston]

Archers can already generate a very high DS. If you are in a situation where a shield would add more DS, then you probably can't move to pull out said shield.

[MrMortimur]

well i figured since you can fire a bow from either your right or left hand, just keep it in your right and you can pull out your shield if youre in trouble. i thought a shield would add flat +20 + shield enchant to your DS.

So I am a fail archer, I had no idea you could fire with a bow in your right hand so I just logged in to test it. Has this always been the case? Is everything mechanically identical with using either hand? Now I must know if runestaves can be used equally well in the left hand.

[neimanz1]

yea but I think u lose about 20 to 40 ds if you fire a bow in your right hand though

[Vorpodu]

thanks for all the answers to my question!