Xbows and Guns ONLY...

[Obano]

I may be wrong on this, Ninjitsu, but you shouldn't be going through those status-effect bolts very fast, should you?

Does the acid bolt only lower defense for THAT ONE ATTACK, or does it work like a debuff and last for some amount of time?

If the latter, then you could get one hit with the more expensive bolt, then switch to cheaper bolts until the critter was dead. You'd still be spending lots of money on ammo, but not as much as if you fired those more expensive bolts every attack.

If the effect is only for that one attack, then they probably aren't worth the money.

[Ninjitsu]

Well, the problem is that the status bolts are the only thing you can upgrade to for higher damage. At my level, there were no better bolts than the newbie ones other than status bolts. The damage output on a status bolt is much higher than the low level newbie bolts as well.

So, you would have to settle for a really low damage output if you weren't firing a status bolt for each shot. Also, the status effect doesn't really last too long, so you have to keep them coming every few shots for the most part.

They really didn't give us much of a reasonable selection for bolts, which is why I switched to bows. It just isn't worth the trouble.

[qweezy]

Status bolts/arrows are not 100%, more like 80%. I have had times where nothing happened when I hit the monster using sleep arrows. Never resisted though.

[greysenn]

Interesting stuff Qweezy. I'll have to give the sleep arrows a shot to see if they're any good for CC at all. That could be handy for links, not that I'd want to do it much.

As a side note for effect bolts, they make X-bows somewhat less worthless than I originally though. Power crossbow + holy bolts do roughly 100ish total, 60 from the bolt, and 30-40ish from the effect. (As opposed to 110ish per arrow for me). The downside? Besides cost, the WS and barrage damage is less than half of what the bow does. Futhermore, effects do not go off on barrages, and WS's.

Does give me something good to look foward to with the elemental arrows. As another quick note, 90% of the status bolts are able to be made with about 15 woodwork, provided you can get the bolt-heads.

Edit: Changed arrowhead misword.

[qweezy]

I've never tried Holy Bolt, they give 30-40 dmg effect? Wow...

The elemental arrows are about 5-10 effect damage :sweat: . Doesn't go off 100% of the time either.

[sudo]

You make me want to play a rng too Narru!

I'm going to switch over to using guns on my thf as soon as I get some money but it's Finals time at my school and my gil farming is getting beat up. But I like your attitude. If only more ppl played like you!

Can't wait for cannon shells.... too bad I can't use silver bullets ><

[Thylteev]

Well, you COULD become a support ranger for a bit with the status bolts. The thing is convincing other people that you actually can. Also, you don't have a very wide array of status bolts to work with until about 20 or so. In Qufim I used acid bolts, blind bolts, poison arrows, and sleep bolts if I wanted to be an enfeebler for a bit. You won't get bored once you're finished enfeebling, though, since the effects last long and acid bolts don't do horrible damage. +1 crossbows have some really really great +ranged attack. Only problem with that is finding them. God knows I don't have the patience to make one.

[cesaro]

I am currently experimenting with using crossbow and various types of bolts at level 60.

So far, I have only used it in places like Davoi, on the orcs there (T-VT), and the results seem fairly good.

Once it get's some real field use (ie. Leveling party), I will report back and share my results.

[RangerDade]

the problem with using xbow/gun is its very rare that your dps is goin to be over bow. level 50-55 comes to mind. At 67 there is othinus bow(67 crossbow) which is goin to be next weapon which is better than warbow+1 but worse than Ebow. Maybe at 70 Hellfire>ebow but since best bullets are silver i doubt it.

[greysenn]

Dade,

Offchance, Do you find that a warbow+1 with scorp arrows outdamages a musketeer gun with silver bullets? I know there is a significant delay difference, but I would expect the 20 or so damage difference to make up for it in slugshot and barrage.

[KamaAina]

I use both because I level up both....I like the Xbow + Holy Bolts vs things that are weak vs light. Fighting beetles I actually got +40 damage from light that is on top of the 60 or so from the bolt (this is at lvl 33 using zamburak +1)