Archery Suggestion and Help

[bramblepot]

HI All,

I'm hoping that all the clever archery people here on the boards can give me some advice. While I'm still within my magic month I think I'm going to roll back archery and go back to sword and board. Before I do though, I wanted to see if anyone has any advice on what I maybe doing wrong with the archery.

I am a level 42 giantman ranger, set up for open longbow.

I have doubled in ranged, perception, and ambush and I am still getting beaten up pretty bad by stuff a few levels below me.

At first I thought it was because I was hunting undead (steeds/mares etc) and that they were puncture resistant. However...

As an example, this is my run in with vesperti, which are FOUR levels below me. I'm aiming for the right eye.

You remove a single arrow from a bundle of arrows.
>
You are now in an offensive stance.
>
You nock an inky black arrow in your pale ruic longbow.
You fire an inky black arrow at a vesperti!
AS: +239 vs DS: +187 with AvD: +32 + d100 roll: +46 = +130
... and hit for 11 points of damage!
Minor strike under the right eye, that was close!
The arrow is deflected to one side, sailing to the ground.
Roundtime: 4 sec.

You nock an inky black arrow in your pale ruic longbow.
You fire an inky black arrow at a vesperti!
AS: +239 vs DS: +186 with AvD: +32 + d100 roll: +26 = +111
... and hit for 4 points of damage!
Attack bumps an eyebrow.
Oh! So close!
Bad angle. The arrow fails to stick in a vesperti.
Roundtime: 4 sec.


I'm finding that I am slinging arrows in eyeballs and all that's really happening is I'm chipping away at their health until they die from coronary heart disease. This compared to one or 2 shots from ambush with a falchion. Not sure what I am doing wrong.

Any help/advice would be much appreciated.




Skills:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 170 70
Ranged Weapons.....................| 188 88
Ambush.............................| 188 88
Physical Fitness...................| 143 43
Dodging............................| 143 43
Harness Power......................| 142 42
Spirit Mana Control................| 90 20
Survival...........................| 90 20
Perception.........................| 188 88
Climbing...........................| 93 21
Swimming...........................| 93 21
First Aid..........................| 90 20

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 2

Spell Lists
Ranger.............................| 40
Training Points: 6 Phy 0 Mnt (152 Phy converted to Mnt)
(Use SKILLS BASE to display unmodified ranks and goals)

8 days remain until the annual FIXSKILLS is to be granted, on 05/20/2013.

You started this migration period on Saturday, 5/4/2013 at 10:17:02 EDT. You have 21 days, 22 hours, 12 minutes remaining in your current 30 day migration period.

You're currently migrating at a rate of .001 skill points per pulse, and have converted 2472.00 training points this migration period.

Further information can be found in the FAQs.

Spell Ranks:
Minor Spiritual :2
Ranger Base :40

Stats: Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 81 (30) ... 81 (30)
Constitution (CON): 83 (26) ... 83 (26)
Dexterity (DEX): 87 (13) ... 87 (13)
Agility (AGL): 81 (10) ... 81 (10)
Discipline (DIS): 83 (16) ... 83 (16)
Aura (AUR): 79 (9) ... 79 (9)
Logic (LOG): 83 (11) ... 83 (11)
Intuition (INT): 81 (15) ... 81 (15)
Wisdom (WIS): 79 (14) ... 79 (14)
Influence (INF): 67 (13) ... 67 (13)

[NinjasLeadTheWay]

I don't know enough. But as I also do the open longbow thing and I rarely miss an eye to lethal results, I would suggest a few things.

Armor Use..........................| 190 90
Combat Maneuvers...................| 240 140
Ranged Weapons.....................| 240 140
Ambush.............................| 240 140
Physical Fitness...................| 240 140
Dodging............................| 244 144
Harness Power......................| 70 15
Stalking and Hiding................| 240 140
Perception.........................| 247 147
Climbing...........................| 140 40
Swimming...........................| 130 35
Pickpocketing......................| 240 140

This is my build at the moment. I would triple in dodge if I could afford it. I wear MBP and rely on Surge of Strength to bring my RT down to a realistic number. That 1x in dodging is killing your DS by a healthy dose. And more PF will help your survivability.

[Whirlin]

Your AS is stupidly low.

Judging from your skills alone:
188 + 11+11 = 210
+13 dex = 223 AS

So you're either using a 0x bow with some societal bonuses, using a 4x bow, and didn't correctly show your skills due to conversion (use skill base)... and your actual skills are much lower.

Either way, you need to upgrade your bow, learn to fletch, and choose a society... You're missing out on at least 70 AS from those things alone.

[Whirlin]

... wait... are you keeping 102 up from MnS? Because that lowers your Ranged AS...

[cwolff]

Are you in Voln and on the 14th step? That would account for using 0x gear with sym courage. Whirlin hit the nail on the head though. Your AS is WAY too low. A 4x bow and ebladed or fletched arrows will be life changing for you. Make sure you're using all of you ranger spells. I'm assuming that you are wearing chain hauberk? Is this 4x also?

I bet for 200k you could turn this completely around and start crit killing with one arrow more often than not.

[Whirlin]

Or if you happen to have some extra money... there's a nice bow I happen to be selling

[BriarFox]

Here's an important question: Are you hunting in stance offensive? If not, boom, problem solved. Your AS should be at least 300.

[bramblepot]

In stance offense, with symbol of courage, I have a x4 bow and master fletched arrows made of faewood (That's +25?). What I'm seeing is:

You nock an inky black arrow in your pale ruic longbow.
You fire an inky black arrow at a rolton!
AS: +295 vs DS: +5 with AvD: +25 + d100 roll: +70 = +385
... and hit for 164 points of damage!
Perfect strike to abdomen. The rolton howls in pain and drops quite dead!
The rolton collapses to the ground, emits a final bleat, and dies.

SO an AS of 295 with society perk. However, I think I would use sym of courage only when hunting undead as it uses favor. Does that sound about right? Approx. 295 AS at level 42 in the open? Without the courage symbol, I think I would be only at 270.

[NinjasLeadTheWay]

Or if you happen to have some extra money... there's a nice bow I happen to be selling

I saw that coming! ahaha

[bramblepot]

Yeah at this point your bow is an institution. No one can actually buy it.

[Whirlin]

You're flat out wrong for not using Symbol of Courage when hunting. I know you need to worry about favor and all that... But that's an aspect of voln you kinda need to get used to. If you don't like it, you need to join COL or Sunfist.

Vesperti, with AvD of 32, they're wearing leather class armor, that's a DF of .325 with a longbow.
+25 AS would be +8.125 damage on hits that would hit without the +25.
Since leather has a crit divisor of 6, you're looking at upping 1 crit tier, and then a little bit
Eyes only require Crit tier 4 for a death crit.
Using Master-fletched arrows and getting those blessed would be an additional +5, for a total of 9.75 damage.
Using my 7x longbow with +3 STR, +3 Dex enhancive would be an additional +17 for you, for a total of 15.275... almost two full crit tiers.

[BriarFox]

295 AS is fine, and you should use Symbol of Courage. In the recent Voln update, they divided the favor gained for steps from the favor used for symbols, so you don't need to worry any longer about slowing yourself down in advancement because you're using your abilities.

Take advantage of the +30 boost from 608 and snipe with it, and use 607 and 610 as setups and disablers, and you won't have any problem. If you need any more AS, get some pure potions from the backroom of the cleric shop and use them for bravery, or get some bravery scrolls. You can also upgrade your bow to 5x and use it with master-fletched arrows (or 6x and use it with ebladed arrows) for the maximum of 10x combined.

[bramblepot]

Wait, I was under the assumption my only choices were to by Whirlin's superbow?

[SHAFT]

Wait, I was under the assumption my only choices were to by Whirlin's superbow?

That IS your only option! If you know what's good for ya you'll fork over the silvers without hesitation!

[bramblepot]

Update:

I really need to thank you guys. Really good advice all around. Switched up to storm giants and I am often one shotting. This is after I just switched to GoS so no additional AS bonus. Even with 265ish AS its not bad. The key was 607 and 610 as someone had mentioned before.

[NinjasLeadTheWay]

Update:

I really need to thank you guys. Really good advice all around. Switched up to storm giants and I am often one shotting. This is after I just switched to GoS so no additional AS bonus. Even with 265ish AS its not bad. The key was 607 and 610 as someone had mentioned before.

Dude, you don't have to lie, you can just tell us you bought Whirlin's bow. We won't make fun of you.

[SHAFT]

I tried to buy whirlin's bow and it resisted me.

[BriarFox]

Whirlin's bow won't leg go of my leg. I'm trying to leave the store, dammit!