Non end game weapons - Arcane Archer

[telram]

I am in the process of leveling my first character over 6.
My build is a Elf Arcane Archer (1 Rogue / 19 Ranger).
I am currently level 13 (1/12) and have acquired a lot of bows and melee weapons for every day combat.

I am trying to figure out what I should work to hold on to, or what is really trash, or just wasted space. At last count I have 16 bows, 1 returning throwing hammer and 9 1h weapons.

I picked up the throwing hammer for skeletons.

Here is the list of what is currently in my bags for weapons, and I do switch between these depending on the mob I am fighting.

+1 Flaming Burst Longbow of Deception
+5 Longbow
+2 Cursespewing Composite Longbow of Backstabbing
+1 Icy Burst Composite Longbow
+3 Ghost Touch Longbow of Pure Good
Bow of the Elements (+4, Shocking Burst, Dex +2)
+4 Icy Burst Longbow
Silver Longbow (+2, Holy)
+2 Longbow of Smiting
+2 Composite Shortbow of Precision
+1 Banishing Longbow
+1 Wounding Composite Longbow of Greater Undead Bane
+1 Flaming Shortbow of Lesser Elemental Bane
+1 Paralyzing Darkwood Longbow of Righteousness
+1 Frost Composite Shortbow of Greater Giant Bane
+1 Anarchic Burst Longbow of Magical Beast Bane
+2 Returning Throwing Hammer

Ancient Vulkoorim Dagger (+4, Greater Giant Bane, Giant Slayer)
+1 Vorpal Scimitar of Backstabbing
+1 Crippling Byeshk Scimitar of Righteousness
Muckbane (+1, Lesser Ooze Bane)
+2 Paralyzing Heavy Pick
+2 Acid Shortsword of Shattermantle
Nickled Longsword (+1, Frost, Parrying)
+2 Frost Club of Lesser Ooze Bane
+1 Keen Battleaxe of Disruption

I want to get to the point that I am not carrying so many different weapons (unless that is normal) and be more efficient with the ones I do carry.

Also, at what point do I want to stop using my summoned +3 arrows and actually purchase arrows again? I didn't think I would need to, until I was reading the forms and it seems that I will have to start using store bought arrows again. I was mis-led into thinking that the AA would be self sufficient with the summoned arrows.

I know my list of weapons is pretty 'rag tag', but I tend to pick up what I can get from quests, or a guildie may hand me down one.

Thanks in advance,

[cpito]

I am in the process of leveling my first character over 6.
My build is a Elf Arcane Archer (1 Rogue / 19 Ranger).
I am currently level 13 (1/12) and have acquired a lot of bows and melee weapons for every day combat.

I am trying to figure out what I should work to hold on to, or what is really trash, or just wasted space. At last count I have 16 bows, 1 returning throwing hammer and 9 1h weapons.

I picked up the throwing hammer for skeletons.

Here is the list of what is currently in my bags for weapons, and I do switch between these depending on the mob I am fighting.

+1 Flaming Burst Longbow of Deception
+5 Longbow
+2 Cursespewing Composite Longbow of Backstabbing
+1 Icy Burst Composite Longbow
+3 Ghost Touch Longbow of Pure Good
Bow of the Elements (+4, Shocking Burst, Dex +2)
+4 Icy Burst Longbow
Silver Longbow (+2, Holy)
+2 Longbow of Smiting
+2 Composite Shortbow of Precision
+1 Banishing Longbow
+1 Wounding Composite Longbow of Greater Undead Bane
+1 Flaming Shortbow of Lesser Elemental Bane
+1 Paralyzing Darkwood Longbow of Righteousness
+1 Frost Composite Shortbow of Greater Giant Bane
+1 Anarchic Burst Longbow of Magical Beast Bane
+2 Returning Throwing Hammer

Ancient Vulkoorim Dagger (+4, Greater Giant Bane, Giant Slayer)
+1 Vorpal Scimitar of Backstabbing
+1 Crippling Byeshk Scimitar of Righteousness
Muckbane (+1, Lesser Ooze Bane)
+2 Paralyzing Heavy Pick
+2 Acid Shortsword of Shattermantle
Nickled Longsword (+1, Frost, Parrying)
+2 Frost Club of Lesser Ooze Bane
+1 Keen Battleaxe of Disruption

I want to get to the point that I am not carrying so many different weapons (unless that is normal) and be more efficient with the ones I do carry.

Also, at what point do I want to stop using my summoned +3 arrows and actually purchase arrows again? I didn't think I would need to, until I was reading the forms and it seems that I will have to start using store bought arrows again. I was mis-led into thinking that the AA would be self sufficient with the summoned arrows.

I know my list of weapons is pretty 'rag tag', but I tend to pick up what I can get from quests, or a guildie may hand me down one.

Thanks in advance,

Keep:

Silver Longbow (+2, Holy)
+2 Cursespewing Composite Longbow of Backstabbing
+3 Ghost Touch Longbow of Pure Good
+1 Banishing Longbow
+1 Paralyzing Darkwood Longbow of Righteousness
+1 Frost Composite Shortbow of Greater Giant Bane
+2 Longbow of Smiting


Use Silver as your main DPS, it'll take you to through most of your levels until greensteel is an option. The others are good situationally. The rest of those bows are pretty much vendor trash. Take your wounder of Greater undead bane... wounding doesn't work on undead so half the enhancement doesn't work with the other half... trash it. Things like greater animal bane... well rarely do you meet animals when they're not in the company of other creatures so you have to choose which type of bane to use or waste time switching up bows, Silver would be better. You're better off going for something that will effect all/most of the mobs over a small portion. I would dump the hammer because even though your arrows don't break dr, the rest of the effects will still do more damage than the hammer or go melee. Most of your hand held weapons seem pretty good atm.

Your summoned arrows will be fine for most content but you will eventually need to stock up on arrows that break certain DR like silver arrows for devil bosses and vamps and cold iron for demons. Fortunately, it shouldn't take up any additional backpack space.

[PopeJual]

+1 Paralyzing Darkwood Longbow of Righteousness

You will do signficantly more damage to your enemies when you pew pew pew with your Silver Bow, but you and your party will take significantly less damage when you pew pew pew with your Paralyzer.

Improved Precise Shot + Paralyzer bow = very happy party from levels 10-17ish.

Learning to target the enemy that is farther away and creating a line of paralyzed enemies so that your party members can lay the smack down while you keep them out of danger will make you very popular, indeed.

When you need to just pump up your DPS, break out the Silver Bow. The Silver Bow has a 19-20 crit range and your Improved Critical: pew pew will turn that into a 17-20 crit range. In addition, it has the Holy damage that all your evil enemies will enjoy.

Last thought: Don't forget to carry some melee weapons with you. You still have 88% of the melee DPS that Tempest Ranger has. A pair of nice melee weapons will work very well for you when you're in your Manyshot cooldown or even just when the enemies are in your face instead of wandering around in the distance.

[Glenalth]

Also, at what point do I want to stop using my summoned +3 arrows and actually purchase arrows again? I didn't think I would need to, until I was reading the forms and it seems that I will have to start using store bought arrows again. I was mis-led into thinking that the AA would be self sufficient with the summoned arrows.

The only time you'll be using purchased arrows is typically for boss fights where you need silver, cold iron, or adamantine to bypass DR. You get access to a special vendor for these by gaining House Deneith favor


Of your bows...
Trash = Vendor, Sell = Auction

Trash: +1 Flaming Burst Longbow of Deception
Keep until you have a better +5 or can create +5 arrows: +5 Longbow
Keep: +2 Cursespewing Composite Longbow of Backstabbing
Sell: +1 Icy Burst Composite Longbow
Sell and use Imbue Force for Ghost Touch with your Greater Undead Bane: +3 Ghost Touch Longbow of Pure Good
Trash: Bow of the Elements (+4, Shocking Burst, Dex +2)
Trash: +4 Icy Burst Longbow
Keep and use whenever you want to do damage: Silver Longbow (+2, Holy)
Keep: +2 Longbow of Smiting
Trash: +2 Composite Shortbow of Precision
Keep: +1 Banishing Longbow
Keep until you find one with a better prefix: +1 Wounding Composite Longbow of Greater Undead Bane
Trash: +1 Flaming Shortbow of Lesser Elemental Bane
Keep: +1 Paralyzing Darkwood Longbow of Righteousness
Sell: +1 Frost Composite Shortbow of Greater Giant Bane
Keep for Maruts until you find better: +1 Anarchic Burst Longbow of Magical Beast Bane
Trash: +2 Returning Throwing Hammer

Your Silver Longbow is going to out-damage all of these except vs things immune to crits. Fill in your collection with Greater Bane bows for Undead, Elemental, Construct, and other things it doesn't cover.

Once you start Shroud crafting, make a Lightning II longbow with Holy, Shocking Burst, Shocking Blast, Lightning Strike. That will replace your Silver Longbow for most content, but hold onto the old bow as it will still outdo the Lightning II on things immune or resistant to electricity.

[telram]

Sell and use Imbue Force for Ghost Touch with your Greater Undead Bane: +3 Ghost Touch Longbow of Pure Good

I don't understand this.
Imbue Force? How do I do this?

Trash: Bow of the Elements (+4, Shocking Burst, Dex +2)

Is this really not that good of a bow? I thought with the +2 Dex it would make it useful.

Sell: +1 Frost Composite Shortbow of Greater Giant Bane

This is my giant bane bow, why would I want to get rid of this when Gianthold is so close for me to hunt at? Or do I just need to find a longbow version?

Everyone, thanks for the replies. I have been able to reduce the number of bows I am carrying. I am still looking for upgrades and new stuff though. I figure I will need outsider bane soon, so I have started to look for that.

[kaobang]

+2 dex is nothing, you should get +5 or +6 dex item.
I would advice to keep the greater giant bane for GH, it is usefull.

I dont like smiting / banishing on bow because the crit range is too low.
Since you dual wield, it is much better to have banishing on rapier / scimitar (depending if you have IC slash or pierce).
For smiting ... well there so many resist that I prefer a bludg + adam + smiting (smite mace) so at least I can go thu clay golem Dr.

[Glenalth]

I don't understand this.
Imbue Force? How do I do this?

The Imbue Force and Imbue Force Burst abilities you get also grant Ghost Touch when active.

Is this really not that good of a bow? I thought with the +2 Dex it would make it useful.

The +2 dex from the bow does not stack with other dex items.

This is my giant bane bow, why would I want to get rid of this when Gianthold is so close for me to hunt at? Or do I just need to find a longbow version?

The damage from the Silver Longbow will be higher due to its larger threat range unless you're going against fortified giants or are having issues hitting them and need a higher attack bonus.

I figure I will need outsider bane soon, so I have started to look for that.

Look for a good one as it takes a lot to beat out that Silver Longbow. For an Outsider Bane bow you're also going to want to get a Holy or Holy Burst prefix for overcoming DR.

[smithtj3]

The imbue ability is granted to you later as an enhancement option as you level (along with some other B.A. imbue options) so you just haven't unlocked it yet, don't sweat it.

As for conjured arrows, vs purchased arrows: You can conjure up to +5 by the time you hit level 20 which I use on everything that doesn't have a DR. For everything with a DR I have four narrow quivers and each one has 400 silver (for boss devils and the occasional vampire) arrows, 400 adamantine arrows (constructs and anything else largely metal in nature), and 400 cold iron arrows (for demons such as the Xorian creatures). You can purchase these once you get 75 favor from House D I believe. It might be 150 favor, in either case it's not hard to obtain.

As for your bow load out you want to put your bows into two categories:

Category 1: Your main damage dealer, i.e. the Silver Bow/Greensteel crafted bow

I also keep a flaming burst bow of maiming for enemies particularly susceptible to fire damage and a icy burst bow of maiming for enemies very susceptible to cold damage (though in ernest, I rarely get these out at end level anymore but they are nice to have in the event that you True Reincarnate)

Category 2: Support Bows, i.e. bows that aren't geared toward DPS but towards providing support for the rest of the group. Paralyzing (this is pretty much a must have for PUG slayer runs. Manyshot and improved precise shot work marvelously in conjunction with a paralyzing bow), strength sapping, constitution damage, banishing, etc. I usually break these bows out when the group DPS/AC is proving a little low and bleeding the healers dry. Keeping 7 or 8 mobs immobilized or enfeebled is going to a great deal more for the group then beating on one mob at a time while dual wielding.

As for blade weaponry I have two holy burst kukri I use on 99% or everything I come across that needs an up close and personal approach, and a set of undead bane hammers for undead. If you foresee yourself going toe to toe with a lot of trolls, iron golems, etc then you'll want to consider having something to get past those DRs but they don't show up much at end game.

[Pwesiela]

Ultimately, you'll want to vendor the one's in red and keep the ones in white.

+1 Flaming Burst Longbow of Deception
+5 Longbow
+2 Cursespewing Composite Longbow of Backstabbing
+1 Icy Burst Composite Longbow
+3 Ghost Touch Longbow of Pure Good
Bow of the Elements (+4, Shocking Burst, Dex +2)
+4 Icy Burst Longbow
Silver Longbow (+2, Holy)
+2 Longbow of Smiting
+2 Composite Shortbow of Precision
+1 Banishing Longbow
+1 Wounding Composite Longbow of Greater Undead Bane
+1 Flaming Shortbow of Lesser Elemental Bane
+1 Paralyzing Darkwood Longbow of Righteousness
+1 Frost Composite Shortbow of Greater Giant Bane
+1 Anarchic Burst Longbow of Magical Beast Bane
+2 Returning Throwing Hammer

Ancient Vulkoorim Dagger (+4, Greater Giant Bane, Giant Slayer)
+1 Vorpal Scimitar of Backstabbing
+1 Crippling Byeshk Scimitar of Righteousness
Muckbane (+1, Lesser Ooze Bane)
+2 Paralyzing Heavy Pick
+2 Acid Shortsword of Shattermantle
Nickled Longsword (+1, Frost, Parrying)
+2 Frost Club of Lesser Ooze Bane
+1 Keen Battleaxe of Disruption

Also, at what point do I want to stop using my summoned +3 arrows and actually purchase arrows again? I didn't think I would need to, until I was reading the forms and it seems that I will have to start using store bought arrows again. I was mis-led into thinking that the AA would be self sufficient with the summoned arrows.

Here's why.

You will be able to summon +5 returning arrows. so the plus on the bow will become irrelevant. You will only need to buy silver, adamantine, or cold iron arrows, which you will get from the House D vendor, in order to break DR with certain bosses and bows combinations.

Find a disruption longbow, and use the imbue abilities you get as an AA ro make it ghost touched (force or force burst).

Also, read the Arcane Archer link in the sig.

[96th_Malice]

When you need to just pump up your DPS, break out the Silver Bow. The Silver Bow has a 19-20 crit range and your Improved Critical: pew pew will turn that into a 17-20 crit range. In addition, it has the Holy damage that all your evil enemies will enjoy.

15-20 on my raged barbarian is insane ..... Although I prefer the 17-20 on the Radience Bow as light seems to do alot of damage to stuff as well

Remember ... Use support weapons ( Paralyzers / Improved Cursespewers )

Any bow you can use to support the people in your party tends to make them more tolerant of ranged toons !

[cpito]

Keep for Maruts: +1 Anarchic Burst Longbow of Magical Beast Bane

Except Maruts (Inevitables) are constructs.

[Glenalth]

Except Maruts (Inevitables) are constructs.

The suffix doesn't really matter for mid-level Maruts. Eventually he'll get his end-game stuff and it will be surpassed.

edit: made a note on my previous post for clarification

[Sani_Medicor]

Wouldn't you be better off using a melee weapon for smiting, banishing, disruption? It just doesn't seem like you shoot fast enough to make it even halfway useful.

[Glenalth]

Wouldn't you be better off using a melee weapon for smiting, banishing, disruption? It just doesn't seem like you shoot fast enough to make it even halfway useful.

The disruption is actually very nice on a bow since things will often be disrupted before you even get to them. By the time that's not true, you're likely better off using DPS gear instead. You also get some good options being an AA for dishing out damage while disrupting like turning a +1 holy/holy burst of disruption into a +5 Ghost Touch, Holy/HB, Force Burst, of Disruption or drop back down to +1 to add Flame Arrows for mummies.

The smiting and banishing are more difficult to justify because of it only being on crit, but there will be plenty of situations where there is a good perch, barrier, or kiting path to prevent some/all incoming damage while trying to get those crits. Ideally you're going to want melee and bows for those two though.

[JeffreyGator]

I've been the using the following for the past 5 levels or so on Asteriel my AA wizard.

Silver bow gets used the most
+1 Frost Paralyzaing of Pure Good gets lots of use to prevent mobs from shooting me back.
+1 Frost Wounding of Puncturing is surprisingly not much better than the silver bow except when I'm auto-critting stunned mobs.


I agree with the points about the special bows. There just isn't enough crit range for these.

I think I may have a disrupter but don't know that I use it ever. Anything that will disrupt before it gets to me will likely die from acid arrows out of the silver bow as well. This worked very well in the desert and the orchard (explorer areas being great places to shoot stuff)

I have a pair of keen smiters for constructs that I'm not disintegrating or something.

I have a pair of banishing melee weapons to save SP from casting Banish.

I haven't had much success with targeting ghosts with a bow since they have to be on top of you to see them generally.

[Glenalth]

I haven't had much success with targeting ghosts with a bow since they have to be on top of you to see them generally.

Dense Earth Elemental + Death Ward = Best decoy for ghosts ever

[cpito]

Wouldn't you be better off using a melee weapon for smiting, banishing, disruption? It just doesn't seem like you shoot fast enough to make it even halfway useful.

It depends on the role any archer wants to play. Toward later levels, one of the most useful bows an archer can weild in a group is a cursespewing of shattermantle with IPS active especially when dealing with specialized mobs. It makes them more suseptible to both melee and casters. It has the added benefit of doing less damage. Yes, you read that right, there CAN be benefits from having a lower DPS. By doing less damage you are less likely to take/keep agro so less damage is taken.

Of course, this also requires you to accept not having very many kills and running with groups who understand and accept why you're not high on the KC.