Gun or Bow - Better in the Long Run?

[Frumply]

Originally posted by OWA_900
o... well excuse me

Thank you for all your input everyone.

I don't see the problem with mastering both; ranged skill is incredibly easy to raise anyway.

As a solo-only RNG i've been using acid bolts to debuff the enemy, then switching to bow (more +accuracy); mediocre WS's are kinda meaningless when you don't have any skillchain to perform for a blm. Once I learn sidewinder I plan on going xbow only, to keep TP while using acid bolts; the defense reduction on these are great, not to mention how cheap it is to make holy bolts.

48/24 now, 7 more levels till sindwinder... yay?

[Thegod]

i'll probably have an ebow in a few more levels when i hit 55, so from 55+ theres no question i'm going bow.

I've been playing around with guns, and i really havent noticed any difference, so i started using xbows to see if my DOT would be greater then with my bow, and......

...theres no question that my bow damage is greater, with barrage of 650-700( with a warriors warcry on) and w/o still like 384-500 theres no way a xbow could possibly outdamge my bow

[Hisdon]

Originally posted by Thegod
...theres no question that my bow damage is greater, with barrage of 650-700( with a warriors warcry on) and w/o still like 384-500 theres no way a xbow could possibly outdamge my bow

O-bow can do some pretty sick things :spin:

[Thegod]

i'm sure it can, with a 54 dmg rating thats crazy for a xbow..

...but e.bow can do somecrazy things as well, and i'd just rather try for that if i had my choice that is.

if not then guns till hellfire+1, im not going with the othinus bow, it makes the same lame sound as all xbows, call me retarded or not, but im already gonna be dressed up like a boyscout, i dont wanna have a flute sounding weapon too.

ebow rng>>>obow rng any day of the week IMO

*i was just kidding btw i'd totaly take an obow if i didnt have an ebow that is.

[Mephisto]

what level are you? lol


obow > ebow, period. No comaprison, ive pted with both, and obow blows ebow away~

[Thegod]

45, but my blm is 56 now, and i have partied with a few ebow users, no obow users, but its pretty unanimus that the e.bow is better then the obow, someone on the vn boards also produced damage pras.s that prove it was so (granted the ebow user had his PPA, but none the less, the equivalent on the obow isnt nearly as nice as the PPA.

either way, i doubt i'll have 6 million gil by 55 rng, and even if i do somehow come up with 6 million gil, im not to sure i wanna pump that much gil into rng anyway.

Bottom line is a E.bow ranger isnt gonna be shunned or shooed away by a single player in this game. No1 is gonna tell the ebow user he needs a new weapon, bottom line it wont happen.

...and not that i'm calling you a liar or distrust you in the least, but i have seen the dmg paras for this on another site (vnboards) so unless you can somehow prove it, im gonna have to go with whats been proven to me (E.BOW>>>O.BOW)

[Mephisto]

that prolly doesnt take into account the def- bolts that affect the rest of the PT's damage. I've been in PT with ebow and obow simultaneously(sp?) and obow was cleary better. I cant prove it, but yeah lol ;3

[Hisdon]

I was gonna type a big thing about what happens to a RNG's dmg output 70+ but I'll just cut it short. Regardless of your weapon(obow or ebow), you will do the same dmg,. However, Obow is faster, gives holy bolts (btw these things are nasty, I've seen em do 20-30 bonus dmg per shot), and venom bolts (these help a ton, and raise a O-bow users dmg plus mine by about 10 per hit)

I have pt'd with both RNG's, using E-bow and O-bow. I will be one to tell you, I outdmged the E-bow users, with THF sub and using a GS...imo that's pretty sad, even their TP gain is similar to mine. However an O-bow user gains TP twice as fast as I do. How do they do this? the O-bow user shoots 2 shots per my one hit usually, E-Bow users usually attack at my rate...At this point in the game where everything will do around the same dmg as far as your ranged weapons go, you want the speedier weapon that can pull off bonus dmg (if venom sticks and even if holy only does 10 bonus dmg, that's 20 dmg over the E-bow per shot) I'd also like to add the only differences these RNG's had equipt wise, was the bow/ammo (I swear every 70+ RNG has the same set up almost xD)

From my own experiences, O-Bow is the supieror of the two weapons.

[kuu]

It's kinda split..

Bow kinda sucks, but does everything you need to do.

Gun has damage but is slow and no CP bullet

Xbow is great with a CP bolt, stat bolts and low speed.

Damage of Xbow isn't great till lvl68 with the o xbow

Basically unless you have an ebow, and even then.

Xbow is good if you are willing to spend money, speed and thus TP over pure damage.

Gun's would of been great if there was a CP bullet.

I guess if you have melee pts xbow is good for acid bolting.

Gun would be good for more mage, like big set ups. You would take a while to get TP, but a big bang = less chances for monster to WS.

Still CP arrow/bolt rules.

ebow vs o-bow
I've seen this well for the pass 2 months side by side. Ebow seems better stand alone wize. It's more damage per shot+acc. damage per shot is good in terms of monster TP gain. Ranger TP gain is about the same too.

I also like the CP arrow better then the CP bolt.

When they are used together though... you can hit 1.7k damage on flies after an acid, dia2 and a good crit on side.

[Lynsy]

In my experience, pre-50 Guns and Bows do almost identical dmg/hit, but gun has a much, much longer delay. After 50, Gun DOT and Bow DOT seem roughly even, but Gun seems to have 2 clear advantages--I build TP a lot faster with Gun and larger DMG means bigger Barrages and WSs thus increasing over all damage.

XBow, at least to me, is situational. I personally do not like it...but I dont have the allmighty OBow yet so, um, can't speak for that. I use XBow for solo stuffs since it increases RNG solo capacity exponentially (Can solo Ts, which, coming from WHM main, is like OMG /dance). In PTs...if I wanted to be a support DD, Id be a DRK or SAM--I just play RNG because Barrage makes me giddy as a school girl.

Oh, and as far as bows go...You can get roughly the same dmg out of War Bow+1 and Demons as EBow and Scorps...So...If you are buying EBow for show, think about sticking with War Bow+1 and using Demons if you cant afford to do both--nerfing yourself for show is vain and moronic~.~ (And the 8mil price difference will buy A LOT of demon arrows).

I personally keep Bow, Gun and XBow on me along with Arrows, Bullets and Bolts and switch up as one gets boring, though nothing is cuter than a taru RNG with a gun ;\

[sylvanas]

Originally posted by kuu

Gun's would of been great if there was a CP bullet.

guns are great already. ^^a i have never once wished for a cp bullet.

[kuu]

You don't know what you're missing if you don't use CP ^^

Sure it's not like every hit you can use it, but it's well worth it in chaining tactics.

ebow is not for show. It's does an average of 20 damage over warbow, more if you acid and dia2, sidewinder averages 100damage more, and CP arrow about 200 on top of that.

Not being able to afford scorp has nothing to do with having an ebow or not. Its only more options.

You DON'T have to use expensive arrows ALL the time. You can play hate control to your own tune. Changing to scorp when you WS, Change it to barrage, Unlimited with CP, and if you feel it's worth the money, change when your sharp.

If you're in a pinch shoot wooden arrows for regular.

[Thegod]

you dont have to use the best arrows???

srry i used fang skipped beettle, used horn skipped sleep (lol) i use scorps now, but i will be switching to elemental arrows and i'll use the ones the mob is weak to.

I.e. alot of ice arrows for crabs and beetles.

[Thegod]

you dont have to use the best arrows???

srry i used fang skipped beettle, used horn skipped sleep (lol) i use scorps now, but i will be switching to elemental arrows and i'll use the ones the mob is weak to.

I.e. alot of ice arrows for crabs and beetles.

Ok so i asked last night, and it seems that all 5 rngs in my LS think they are even, 3 of those rngs use obows, no1 uses the ebow <---probably ther main reason i want it, they are all 65+ im 44 and i can equip it at 55, not 68.

hrmm, my problem is rank, so w/o the CP bolt/arrow witch weapon would you guys go with for level 52? gun or warbow+1

and if a gun is even slightly more usefull then an ebow w/o the cp arrow, then in wanna use guns...the only rngs i see using guns are 70+ will the hellfire gun.

[Lightseeker]

A couple of points no one has mentioned yet, that I want to bring up/talk about.

1. I've been told that bullets count as blunt type weapons, like hand-to-hand, while arrows are piercing. This would mean that guns would be naturally more effective against bones, crabs, etc which are the mobs that arrows are weak against. This would be true regardless of delay/damage etc, so I'd think you'd want to take that into account when comparing numbers.

2. Weaponskills. This may be a bit off topic, since we're mainly talking about dps, but I just recently saw this in another thread and found it interesting. Markmanship WS factor in AGI only, while Archery WS factor in STR and AGI. This would make me think that a bow would be more effective in the hands of a higher STR race, like elvaan, while xbow and gun would be better for high AGI rangers like mithra and taru.

I've only recently reached the level where guns are a viable option, before that I was using xbow to keep my skill up, but bow as main. E-bow is 10 mil on Fenrir, not an option for me, but I'll definitely get O-bow when I get high enough level. Until then, I'll use a gun as main weapon on beetles, crabs, bones, etc and War Bow +1 for anything else. Just my thoughts. :spin: