[Malacite]

Sleep Bolts are largely for soloing (i.e. running away lol >.> or Sneak Attack in a THF's case) since the duration of a sleep bolt is only a few seconds compared to Sleep Repose or Lullaby.

[Armando]

Speaking of soloing, they're great for manipulating mobs. Since there is a very high probability that when you take a mob below 25%, it's going to use a TP move immediately, you can use a couple of Sleep Bolts to take it under 25% while keeping it asleep. Then you can run away, and when it wakes up, it'll default to a self-buff move since you're out of range for all attacks; or, if it doesn't have a self-buff, it'll try the longest-reaching TP move as soon as it's in range, which you can watch out for and run away from.

This can be pretty useful soloing Promyvion against Weepers since Memory of Element is highly damaging and Auroral Drape/Vacuous Osculation suck really hard. They'll always default to Hexagon Belt, which isn't too much of a threat, and if you really wanted to, could dispel with an Acid Bolt. But the tactic could be extended to any kind of mob, really.

BLUs can do something similar. Use Head Butt to take the mob below 25% (make sure you blink out the animation) and run away while it's stunned.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Originally Posted by Armando

Huh? Do you have a parse to back that up? X-Bow and Archery, if you have equal skill in both, should be equally accurate. Unless, of course, you're standing at the same distance for both, since they have different sweet spots.

HQ bows are often granted a mix of +ranged accuracy and attack.
HQ guns are usually just given +ranged accuracy.
HQ and NM Xbows usually only give +ranged attack.

So it is more likely to miss with Xbow than Bow at that level. The ratings are created equal, its just the weapons aren't.

Maybe you're just noticing more misses because you're shooting more (although that's usually the opposite of what people do - demonize high Delay weapons because of how painful it "feels" when they miss and have to wait for the next attack round.)

That's most likely the case. Xbows tend to have lower delay than other ranged weapons, so you'll shoot more and feel like you miss more.

[Firewind]

I was mainly referring to the bonuses on the HQ versions of the weapons. The +5RAcc from Horn Arrows and then the +Ranged Acc from the HQ longbow does make a noticeable difference at my RNG's level (now RNG37).

Misses are less painful with a crossbow anyway taking into account the low delay. I mean Arrows and bullets hit HARD but if an arrow misses it means that by the time I've let off another shot the I could have potentially put 4 bolts (more if Rapid Shot kicks in) into that mob for the party. It was why i was outdamaging the DRK by a considerable amount. Even though he was hitting like a ton of bricks my rate of fire let me pull ahead every time he missed.

Actually because of that I'm mostly just using longbows for Barrage damage (WS with Crossbow, switch to Longbow, hit barrage, shoot, WS with longbow and switch back) and EES damage.

[Malacite]

Speaking of HQ Xbows... is the Machine Crossbow really worth the obscene price it sells for? With a max MND build you could pump out some nice damage but it seems to me Obow would still out parse it over all.

[Firewind]

Originally Posted by Malacite

Speaking of HQ Xbows... is the Machine Crossbow really worth the obscene price it sells for? With a max MND build you could pump out some nice damage but it seems to me Obow would still out parse it over all.

It looks like something you could use to fill a mob with bolts before it even notices it's been pulled. So while it looks cool would be awesome for epeen damage I'm not sure if it's worth the price.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

/looks at Othenus' Bow

/looks at the other crossbows

/laughs

[Caspian]

Mal, I had a nq version for soloing and random bc's when I needed to spam sleep bolts to keep a mob out of the picture. For anything dps-wise you want O-bow. You don't get any more ws's with a low delay x-bow and those are considerably weaker. Not to mention barrage.

[Malacite]

Duh, my point was about the potential for spamming holy bolts for the added damage.

Also, I because I feel like ranting about this right now; @@r&^#*^t&fgsgydys POS COMPUTER BOOTS ME FROM FFXI 3 TIMES TODAY OUT OF CAMPAIGN BATTLE GRRRRRR /WRIST

[Andrinor]

I used machine x-bow in dynamis with acid bolts. The mobs drop so fast DPS is not an issue (you may only get 2 shots), and this makes sure you land that acid early on. Other than that, I use O-Bow nearly exclusively.