Bows No Longer Useful At Mid-High Levels

[Mohavon]

Bows are my favorite primary weapons in Warframe. I got Paris way back when it was first released (back when it was cool), and made Dread from a lucky Stalker drop the instant I nabbed it. I've maxed and forma'd both, and I must say I'm sad with how they perform late game.

 

They just don't kill enough. And now that pretty much any weapon can be silent, there is almost no place for them.

 

Against infested, you can get some big numbers with Dread, but it doesn't matter much when you've killed one Charger and there are fifty of them swarming you. And when the ancients come... *Shudder*

 

Paris can pick off a couple Grineer, but you MUST have a spectacular crit build and you MUST shoot their weak points and you MUST charge every shot and pray to God your crits and multishot proc so that MAYBE you can kill one guy in one hit.

 

I don't have Paris Prime myself, but from what friends say it seems to suffer late game as well despite its higher damage, which means the issue goes deeper than that.

 

Summary: With the projectile speed and drop (not to mention the charge time), bows are too hard to use for too little return.

 

Suggestions: Perhaps reduce the arrow drop and increase speed. Maybe add innate puncture to allow multikills. An overall damage increase would be not unreasonable in my opinion. Alternatively, introduce some bow-exclusive mods that make them worth a little more late-game consideration.

 

What sayeth the peoples?

[MageMeat]

It's just because the arrow penetration is messed up by elementals.

They deal substantial damage, it's just that their ability to deal with crowds is ruined if one wants to deal maximum damage.

EDIT: After reading the post again, I would be fine with changes like these, but ultimately I view the bows as weapons to destroy a single heavy in one or two shots, like all snipers. You aren't supposed to use them on grunts too often. That's what sidearms, melee and your Warframe's abilities are for.

Edited September 26, 2013 by MageMeat

[Korion]

I agree! It would be really nice to see a bow buff.

Bows are such fun weapons but I rarely use em because there are so many weapons that just perform better against higher level stuff

[HailCreation]

Get thunderbolt. 

 

Also, use a sidearm for mass killing, the bow for primary killing (ancients) 

 

Secondary weapons do not have to be the weaker weapon, especially when a primary like the bow can be a precision weapon. 

Edited September 26, 2013 by HailCreation

[BoomyGordo]

sounds like a good idea

[ChaoticVice777]

The bows are pretty nice to use, but they cater only to a certain niche and they "fall behind" due to the fast pacing of the game.

[StrangeCandy]

A bow buff would make me very happy. I had to put aside my Paris, my second favorite weapon in the game (Paris Prime being the first), in favor of a higher damage primary.

[AfuzzyTiger]

I own all the bows and I am a avid fan of the weapons, but they are not competitive weapons for endgame. And i don't think we will see any changes on them any time soon, so just enjoy it when you're not doing anything that requires actual end game gear. As saddening as that sounds.

[Liechea]

The only buff I expect from a bow is crit chance or crit damage.

As for the arc, I don't think its needed as its a bow and different bows have different Arc. 

Paris < Paris Prime < Dread. 

As for the multiple kills, use a puncture mod. Bows generally don't have much of a power to penetrate except causing huge damage due to stopping power.

 

Though I do agree on the bow exclusive mods. There needs to be more than Tbolt. Like more Charge damage perhaps and ammo pick per successful hit (like that'll happen lolz :-   

[Flackenstien]

I vote Snipers & Bows get their own Serration/HornetStrike/PointBlank that scales ALOT higher, seeing as Snipers are meant to deal slow but massive damage to single targets.

Edited September 26, 2013 by Flackenstien

[Davoodoo]

I did few t3 survivals with my paris prime(0 forma) and i was still able to oneshot heavy gunners. Thx for speed trigger and shred charge is nearly instant. I see no problems with bows maybe except pretty low crit chance, but im gonna wait patiently till new bow is released and then complain if needed.