Best Longbow?

[Sharnath]

I am currently using a Bow of Sinew and am looking for the best longbow I can find. I have a static group of folks I play with and we dont raid. All of us are 20+. Any recommendations are appreciated. I am an Arcane Archer with 18 warrior 1 rogue 1 wizard.

[FuzzyDuck81]

It's somewhat situational, but of non-raid loot ones the bow of sinew is certainly a very nice piece of kit, the bow of the silver flame is good too. There are also some pretty nifty randomly generated things with the new item enchantments, especially if you get some of the multi-effect prefixes & suffixes - I'm rather partial to my erosive longbow of the sun for example.

Since you're a fighter-based archer that presumably means you have all 3 tiers of kensai? the extra crit range will make on-crit effects somewhat nicer so maybe be on the lookout for "of radiance" suffix (blinds enemies on crit), "of mauling" is a good general damage type one too (slicing, bleeding & maiming).

Basically, have a look in the auction house & just see what you like the look of for various situations - and since you're an arcane archer, unless you're really after that extra +1 or +2 to hit & damage from a +6 or +7 epic weapon, just find the one with a nice low + number.. its the enchantments you want, ammo you can summon yourself in most circumstances.

[deahamlet]

The two bows from Cannith challenges, at tier 3 you can even add good and +metal arrows it bypasses DR on bosses.
Lit II is great DPS.
Epic Thornlord.
The new whatever name it has bow from the new raid.
Alchemical.

PS: You should at least consider Shroud. Thornlord is a big grind, Caught in the web is a bit much for people who usually don't run raids, and so is LoB really. But Shroud should be an easy introduction and lit II really is that nice.

[Relenthe]

Unfrotunately there aren't many quest based longbows.

The bow of sinew is probably the best you can get 6 man

From raiding you can get Unwavering Ardency from Abbot, or Pinion from caught in the web, or greensteel lit II or another variant from shroud, or alchemical from Lord of Blades

From crafting you can make the standard +5 holy burst of greater chaotic outsider, lawful outsider, or construct bane and any other baned you can craft.

Another construct option is the shatterbow which you can make epic

You can also make the longbow of earth or that greater dragon bane/crushing wave longbows from cannith challenges. These are some of your best bets if you dont raid.

That's it from the top of my head

[DeafeningWhisper]

The following is based on my own opinion/experience, I have a ftr 18, ranger 1, arty 1 Kensai III myself and a Bardcher.

Best standard damage type: Pinion from Caught in the Web, Bow of Sinew's bigger, tougher brother that does steroids on the side. Bow of Sinew will do fine until you get it, the crit profile is very nice.

Best against undead: Epic Bow of the Silver Flame, standard none epic one will do almost as good a job which is kinda sad...

Best versus damage reduction: LitII GS longbow, if and when you face a mob that has enough DR to make base damage with Sinew all but useless this guy will get the job done, also has higher then normal damage dice.

Best CC bow: Epic Elemental Longbow of Earth, improved destruction, greater stone prison on top of some nice dps effects.

Last piece of advice try to fit Precision in your build, my Kensai AA loves critting on construct, undead and targets that are otherwise uncritable. Heck with Bow of the Silver Flame you bypass 45% fortification.

[FuzzyDuck81]

Best versus damage reduction: LitII GS longbow, if and when you face a mob that has enough DR to make base damage with Sinew all but useless this guy will get the job done, also has higher then normal damage dice.

I'm sure some number crunchers can figure it out better, but in my experience the bow of sinew feels more reliable dps over time vs. the lit2's spike damage capability.. and as for DR, bow of sinew with correct ammo won't have any problems, it's got the aligned property to also get through /law & /chaos, vs. a typical lit2 which can only manage /good & /evil

I did forget about the cannith challenge ones though & yeah the earth longbow is very nice, just wish i could bring myself to doing those challenges to actually get one.

[Ironforge_Clan]

Personally I've trended away from named and Greensteel bows for the random generated ones. I have found that in the hands of an AA with Shiradi you can do as much if not more damage with these new bows.

My suggestion would be to find a bow with both a damage dealing prefix and suffix so you are doing as much damage per hit. Some of my personal favorites are:

Impellent
Hemrorraging
Lacerating
Corruscating
Phlembotomizing

There are also a few suffix effects that that I am fooling around with. Some proc on a confirmed critical while others proc based upon a percentage. I find that the percentage based ones proc as much as any GS. So far I would recommend you look at:

Erosive
Sun's Fury
Crusader

Just try and see what you can find at the vendors and play around with them. You'll find certain combinations are really handy and others not so much. Try to find that one combination that works for 85 to 95% of the content and then just fill in the blanks for those pesky monsters.

Good Luck

[Aliss7]

Because turbine can't fix basic things like inventory spamming arrow usage, I still carry around and use a metalline of righteousness bow, using AA returning arrows as much as possible.

[Captain_Wizbang]

The Sinew Bow you have, along with Wind Howler Bracers when rolling a crit is great stuff.

Orange, Purple & Red named, I start w/ a stat dmge Wounding/ Puncturing or a Poison Strength from Faerun, for up to 10 pts of stat damage, then follow up with GS Lightning strike, Sinew, Bow of the Silver Flame, whatever the situation calls for.

Other things you should be looking at besides just a bow, are things that augment a ranged attack, eg the wind howler bracers.

And if you're a strength based build using Bow Strength or a dex based build, there are many ways to tweak "to hit & dmge".

[elraido]

I got one from the new challenges. Not exactly sure what it can out DPS, but it is nice for a "named" random. I think it might have one more thing on it than this though, but am not 100% sure
Improved base damage for being level 20+
Acid Blast
Disintigration
Improved Cursespewing
Good Luck

[wax_on_wax_off]

Challenge bows are really strong. Even just at tier 1 the Epic Bow of Earth is great, and it even breaks DR with "Stay Good" Shiradi ability. Epic Calomel Bow wouldn't be bad as another option.

Edit: get them to tier 3 and slot them with cold iron or silver respectively and then use Flametouched arrows (vendor at start of chronoscope raid) or holy +1 crafted arrows (cheap to make for when you need a bit of extra damage).

[Karavek]

my main bows on my clonkcher for situational needs are a metaline bow of smiting, banishing bow of pure good, holy bow of disruption, sinew bow,( still working on getting a house c challenge bow) really those bows tend to cover just about every situation. being a clnkcher ofcourse means I am not afraid to use melee if its just the better choice for a sitch, but even the biggest baddest I plan to melee I always try to soften up with a many shot barrage first.

[countfitz]

I'm gonna say it: Sinew. You already have it.

Otherwise, you'd need to be talking epic levels. And you're not epic yet.

Green Steel could be fun, but not 'better' than Sinew, plus you can make better GS items before this that are more 'important.'

Sinew has: Aligned (so with the right arrows, it's a DR breaker).
The BEST Crit Profile IMO.
Includes Seeker (frees up a slot)
Includes stealth, so you won't have to kite (as much) which I personally hate.

[WruntJunior]

Personally, I just made a lit 2 longbow...even if you don't normally do Shroud, lit 2 bows are definitely nice enough to make an exception.

Bow of the Silver Flame is nice in two cases: one, being lazy against a pit fiend (it breaks DR), and two, is great against undead.

For a longer-term bow plan, trying for eThornlord and/or Pinion wouldn't be a bad idea, but these are both from raids with horrible drop rates (eThornlord being a desert explorer area item, which makes the shard and the base item rather hard to get...Pinion is in the new raid, which has extremely bad drop rates).

Challenges bows, as have been said, are nice.

In addition, random bows are occasionally awesome...for example, my construct beater is a +4 holy burst of smiting (planning to upgrade to +5 or, if I'm super lucky, +6). Just keep your eye out, and search the AH on occasion, and you can find amazing bows.

[ZeebaNeighba]

I like the unwavering ardency from abbot, as it is the beastiest looking equipment in the game...2[d12] base damage, so it's slightly better when you have point blank shot and combat archery, being 4d12 (average 26) base damage over 3d8 (average 13.5) for a standard longbow or 4d8 (average 18) for a standard epic longbow. Also it has permanent blur, I'm guessing that's kind of hard to get on a fighter since that class typically has low umd and can't cast it. Unwavering Ardency has the high crit range too, the 19-20 x3 that a lot of the good bows like your Sinew have. Flaming burst too.

Of course it's a raid bow, and one in a quite annoying raid with low drop rates too. At least there's very little benefit from upgrading it, so don't feel like if you get it, you'll need a seal too (you can blind enemies on vorpal strikes, when they fail a dc33 reflex save...but anything that fails that consistently will also instantly fall to slayer arrow and windhowler proc and extra crit damage...)

Epic Elemental Longbow of Earth or simply keeping your Sinew would be my suggestion. The earth bow gives 1d6 acid damage per arrow with acid burst (2d10 more on crits...sadly it has a normal longbow crit range) and 2d8 extra acid damage per shot (so once each time you fire your bow under manyshot too) and Disintegrate proc, which averages 9 or so extra damage per arrow, but it's a has a random 2% proc rate. Improved Destruction and some turn to stone stuff too for CC'ing. If you upgrade it, you get a red augment slot, so you can give it an alignment and then use metal arrows from the house D vendor to break the DR you want. Like Lit2.

[Ganak]

I have every significant bow in the game listed below except Epic Thornlord.



Top bow atm:

• Pinion

Other Top Choices:

• Cannith Challenge Epic Elemental Longbow of Earth

• Alchemical - I love my Earth-Air bow (Acid Burst, Greater Stone Prison, Earthgrab, Alchemical Dexterity +2, Lightning Strike), but Cannith challenge earth bow is easier to acquire and comparable.

• Lit2

Now overshadowed by Pinion and tougher to acquire:

• Epic Thornlord
• Unwavering Ardency

Situational:

• Epic Shatterbow - Greater Construct Bane

• Triple Ice Greensteel Longbow - For Fire elementals, but I go with Pinion.

Overrated:

• Challenge Dragon Bane bow

• Bow of the Silver Flame (I still use Triple Positive Greensteel often against non skelly undead).

Underrated:

• Triple Earth Greensteel Longbow - Cheap to make (2 scales), mine is a minimum level 8 legacy greensteel made after the shroud went live before it was changed
  
• Triple Positive Greensteel bow - Cheap and great for undead

[350zguy]

The best bow is obviously a Heavy Repeater!

[sirgog]

I don't recommend making a Lit 2. It works well in Eberron content but in Faerun too much is immune to lightning or heavily resistant. You wouldn't use an Incineration bow in Amrath, so don't use a Lit 2 in Faerun.

[Viisari]

From what I've seen, Pinion by so far that it's silly.

With the proper epic destiny anyway...

[DeafeningWhisper]

I don't recommend making a Lit 2. It works well in Eberron content but in Faerun too much is immune to lightning or heavily resistant. You wouldn't use an Incineration bow in Amrath, so don't use a Lit 2 in Faerun.

He's right, I've had to switch to Epic Elemental Longbow of Earth quite a bit in FR, but I would still make a LitII if only to help lvling in Eberron from lvl 12 to 20.

Oddly enough the best style of weapon that works in both is a triple earth, most others have lightning or fire which only works in one of the realms.