As others have said, I agree that pretty much all of Keri’s ranged weapons are good. Longbow is among the best in the game, Hagbane arguably is the best in the game, Crossbow is a more specialist weapon, and Swift Bow has noticeable weaknesses against armor, but otherwise they’re still strong.
Like @Yzneftamz said, Swift Bow is great at taking quick shots at the most threatening specials, like Blightstormers and disablers. It’s also pretty good at dealing with berserking enemies since you can spam shots so fast. It’s kinda my preferred weapon on Handmaiden on anything below Deathwish, though its damage against armored specials is kinda painful. I wish it had just a bit more damage and stagger on headshots. It can feel silly when you’re standing there, pin-cushioning their face while they don’t even seem to notice.
Oh, and regarding Averlorn Bow: hell yeah. Asrai Javelin would be another good option for her, they’re totally a thing in the lore. Honestly, I thought we’d see one of those before we saw a Spear+Shield for her.
I agree. But the longbow is not AS bad at that, and that is where my issue stems from. The longbow’s uncharged shots can do roughly the same as the swiftbow’s, albeit slower of course. The swiftbow is better in this regard, no question, but it doesn’t really balance out its otherwise really big flaws when push comes to shove. I LOVE playing swiftbow on WS, it is alot of fun to use when you know what you’re doing (and are not afraid to keep it out even when enemies are close and keep dodging and shooting), but the longbow is just very versatile and ammo count being its only limiting factor, which is basically non existant as WS or Shade.
That’s the same to me. It has superb burst damage, but being limited to only 2 magazines makes its low efficiency stand out pretty noticably. Volley also has a much shorter engagement distance than longbow does to use effectively, which is why I usually prefer to use it with a “Hunter” setup to boost my boss killing and only use it to thin out groups of stormvermin or maulers. It is, however, the undisputed king of mowing down stormvermin patrols from stealth. I highly recommend trying that, it is one of the reasons I don’t bother with CDR on shade’s carreer skill anymore (cooldown is short enough that it is up all the time, anyhow, if you keep slaying), stealthing behind a patrol and then just blasting away, potentially killing 10 SV with your whole ammo reserve before they can even do anything.
Idk. I love crossbow on shade. Bloodfetcher makes it easy to regain ammo. You just throw some light swing into elite’s back and you good. Longbow is kinda meh though. Not my playstyle. Melee is a place you find me. And you dont really have time in melee to aim with longbow. Same argument for repeater pistol.
The Longbow is absolutely devastating in the right hands. With handmaiden I can myself average 30-50 special/elite kills a map, this can be done consistently with only one or two ammo pickups across a map, if you try hard enough.
**edit. Meant that on champion difficulty. You can one shot kill pretty much all elite and special units w handmaiden longbow, no headshot, if you choose the talent point which increases hero power by 15%. Of course legend will require a headshot to 1 shot kill-
No matter what weapon I’d name, it’d perform better in some things that the elven bows and worse on others. Just like the melee weapons, each ranged weapon works differently and is used in a different manner and different situations. If you really feel some are clearly worse than others, you likely aren’t using them according to their strengths.
On Kerillian, use the Longbow if you’re at least decent with headshotting and want a versatile ranged weapon. Use Swift bow if you want to spam arrows everywhere, for crowd-clearing and for snapshots. Use Hagbane for more tactical shots, for control and for Boss damage. And use the Volley Crossbow for single-target burst damage. If you feel you need (or want) something else, you’re out of luck. All those weapons perform well in their respective roles and styles, but may lack something else.
They are a problem for most ranged weapons, not just Kerillian’s. Only a few specific Careers with specific weapons and/or builds can deal with them effectively from range. A Bounty Hunter with aRepeater Pistol built for it, or a Huntsman with his Longbow or Handgun are the only ones to do it with ease, and I think a Waystalker set up for headshots and a Longbow comes a good third. Sienna’s Bolt Staff is also capable. And all of those still rely on headshots.
The only ranged weapons that can penetrate Super Armor (the thing Chaos Warriors are wearing) without a headshot or crit are (iirc) Handgun, Empire Longbow (with heavy charge) and Bolt Staff (similarly, with full charge). Even they don’t do significant damage on a bodyshot. Without Career abilities or Power modifiers, all of them still need several headshots for CWs. And only Huntsman built for it and using his Career Skill, or a Bounty hunter built specifically for it (and using Blessed Shots) can reach one- or two-hit capabilities. And Huntsman still needs his headshots.
And apparently, the Maulers’ heads are also super armored, so with nearly everything headshots against them are counterproductive. It’s weird, but that’s how it works.
Yep, and still strong enough to deal with them in a few shots, or to soften them up for an easy melee kill. It’s not a problem of the weapon but a property of the enemy.
A good add; I haven’t done much research into breakpoints really (and rarely play BH, even if Crossbow is my favorite choice there). And that’s still a specific Career built for it, and (at least) one shot still relies on luck or needs significant setup.
In all honesty, there is at least one specific case where going for a Mauler’s head is more sensible (namely, WHC and his passives), and a few other setups may be possible where headshot multiplier overtakes the body damage, but otherwise they should really be bodyshotted.
Well WHC yes only because of instant slay passive, but even testing with exec sword body shots always win even crit headshot was very laughable damage comparing to body
Mmh. I was thinking more on the lines of Waystalker (with her higher headshot damage) using a finesse weapon with a high modifier. Unlikely to be enough, but possible, I think. Can’t say any numbers, though, as I’m too lazy to do the research.