Bows-Why They Desperately Need A Buff (Numbers Included)

[Pendragon1951]

Really now, other than the novelty of having a Bow, what real practical use can they possibly be? Without a real stealth mechanic or the reason to even use stealth they become just obsolete. If you were to stand 10 guys in a group in front of any bow and a Soma, at least 9 would be dead by the Soma by the time the bow let go of it's arrow.

[Alphascrub]

Bows have certainly been brought up to be in need of review for a bit. Scott (Grineeer) was on a buff binge last week and I can confirm that Bows are on the radar for buffing!

 

 

Oh happiness... Please tell me he intends look at arrow flight speed! 

[Llyssa]

The numbers on there seem odd to begin with... the "18 mods" thing doesn't help.

 

That being said, bows do get a much higher status chance(which, you don't seem to mention), and have the ability to do that whole "kill 8 guys with 1 arrow" thing that other weapons just can't.

 

A buff would be nice, but I have a very real sense that this is blowing things out of proportion badly.

[Drakenreiter]

The numbers on there seem odd to begin with... the "18 mods" thing doesn't help.

 

That being said, bows do get a much higher status chance(which, you don't seem to mention), and have the ability to do that whole "kill 8 guys with 1 arrow" thing that other weapons just can't.

 

A buff would be nice, but I have a very real sense that this is blowing things out of proportion badly.

Oh, it is... it's nowhere near as bad as people make them seem. I can't say I would mind a buff, but for me they're still better than that silly Soma that everyone and their grandparents are using (also Penta... pfff...). They're so much more satisfying to use! Also, you people with your Vectises (hobbitses?! huh...). As much as I love bolt action rifles, my Lanka is the real deal!

[NetSlayer]

How about a fully charged arrow has a 100% proc chance.

[ReptileZA]

How about a fully charged arrow has a 100% proc chance.

That would just be borderline OP with Toxic or Viral...

[Tsukinoki]

@Llyssa

He's showing that even if you could equip every single damage mod in the game, with the exclusion of heavy calibur, that the Dreads charge attack (the highest damage bow attack possible) will only hit for 10K while a soma with 8 mods will hit for 13K.

If you go for the standard 8 mods the charged Dread only deals 3.2K dps.

There's just no way that they can compete with any other rifle in the game.

Modded for damage the charged Dread deals 3269 DPS.

The MK1-Braton (lowest DPS of all rifles) deals 3719 DPS.

The Lato (lowest DPS of all pistols) deals 3857 DPS.

The Strun (lowest DPS of all shotguns) deals 5000 DPS.

The Snipetron (lowest sniper DPS and no one can get it anymore) deals 2931, so the dread barely beats it out.

The Vulkar (lowest sniper DPS that anyone can get) deals 3534 DPS.

And if you want to go for Burst damage its not all that much better.

It beats out the MK1-Braton(the starting gun) but loses in burst to everything else.

So the strongest bow is beaten out in DPS by the weakest of any other weapon category in the entire game.

That just shows how desperately in need of a buff they are.

EDIT:

Yes I do know that its per shot damage is dramatically higher. But in the vast majority of the game DPS will win out by a long shot considering how many enemies there are at a time. And by the time you've fired off a few charged Dread shots the rest of the enemies would be long dead.

Even if you go for pure firing speed, which means you can get off nearly 1 charged shot per second you're damage is going to tank quite heavily and isn't worth it.

Edited February 4, 2014 by Tsukinoki

[Thaumatos]

Would I take a Vectis over any/all bows?  Absolutely.

 

Would I take a Vectis over a Soma/Ignis/Penta/Grakata/etc?  Never unless I had support.

 

Yes the bows are not as good as the Vectis, but even if they were, they'd never be as good as a non-sniper weapon.  This is not a very sniper-friendly game.  You guys need to realize its not all about DPS.

 

They're getting a (probably damage) buff and that's good; sometimes that needs to happen for balance purposes.  Assuming they still shoot one arrow at a time, have projectile travel time, and need to charge, then they'll always be worse than a hit-scan sniper rifle.  They're essentially the same thing but one has drawbacks (little pun there).

 

Warframe is not a very sniper-friendly game.  Wish it were, but it isn't.

Edited February 4, 2014 by Thaumatos

[Leorion]

Faster projectile speed is something I would want. No enemy stands still so it's so hard to attack with a bow.

[Thaumatos]

Really now, other than the novelty of having a Bow, what real practical use can they possibly be? Without a real stealth mechanic or the reason to even use stealth they become just obsolete. If you were to stand 10 guys in a group in front of any bow and a Soma, at least 9 would be dead by the Soma by the time the bow let go of it's arrow.

 

This is probably the best benefit to having a bow.  When they do decide to go fix stealth, it'll be interesting to see the use they get.

 

Hopefully they're not outclassed by the 'silenced' mods that every weapon can get now (iexcept shotguns).

[EclecticDragon]

or chance, for a maxed 100%, a big explosion radius will only get your &#! killed (by yourself)

 

Then it's a risk reward sort of deal as you risk blowing yourself up more the higher the rank goes but also you get more efficient damage as more enemies are hit and more of those enemies are hit for higher damage in the explosions.

[Fretless]

I'd like to see the reload time on bows greatly reduced.  It would increase the fire rate, which is the biggest problem for bows in general.  It could also make charged shots versus uncharged shots a more interesting tradeoff, if players could fire a higher ratio of uncharged to charged shots than they can now.

[Noble_Cactus]

Would I take a Vectis over any/all bows?  Absolutely.

 

Would I take a Vectis over a Soma/Ignis/Penta/Grakata/etc?  Never unless I had support.

 

Yes the bows are not as good as the Vectis, but even if they were, they'd never be as good as a non-sniper weapon.  This is not a very sniper-friendly game.  You guys need to realize its not all about DPS.

 

They're getting a (probably damage) buff and that's good; sometimes that needs to happen for balance purposes.  Assuming they still shoot one arrow at a time, have projectile travel time, and need to charge, then they'll always be worse than a hit-scan sniper rifle.  They're essentially the same thing but one has drawbacks (little pun there).

 

Warframe is not a very sniper-friendly game.  Wish it were, but it isn't.

 

And that's why the Vectis is still a good weapon. It doesn't have as high DPS as an Ignis, Penta, etc. But it is very efficient for the damage it deals, and when you get into higher levels, that's what matters the most. Amount of damage per resources expended.

 

What makes this game sniper unfriendly is that enemies simply don't like to sit still. In other words, bad AI. You can lead your shots, but that only goes so far when MOAs like to run in spastic circles and change in unpredictable directions, or when a Lancer is hopping back and forth between platforms and then suddenly decides to stop. Rockets, grenades, and machine guns don't care about that.