Hagbane bow needs adjustment after Patch 1.05

The Hagbane has 25 shots in its quiver,it takes about 3 charged shots just to kill one special like a Stormvermin regardless if its a headshot or not and up to 4-5 non crit charged shots just to kill a ChaosKnight.

Its currently sitting at the bottom compared to all the other weapons the elf has, the Longbow and Shortbow are better at dealing with both the hordes,specials and bosses then the Hagbane currently is. Im not asking for the Hagbane to be Overpowering, but in all fairness it has been cripplingly nerfed since beta especially considering the Patch 1.05 HeroPower scaling fix .

If the Hagbane is going to be stuck with a mere 25 rounds then could we please have its damage drastically increased? It currently is practically useless on Legend difficulty where the Longbow and the Shortbow outperform in any scenario, and its technically the only crowd control weapon the elf has yet it cant even do that very well now.
Considering its very limited ammo supply it should either be a lot more deadly damage wise or the ammo needs to be increased by another 20-25 rounds. I think increasing its ammo capacity would be a much better route then just having its damage increased.

This is feedback is only based for Legend difficulty.

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please look at the discussion in this thread on the hagbane. itā€™s actually REALLY good for legend mode, arguably the best, based on your setup. your comment about the other bows being better against bosses is not correct - the hagbane is an absolute boss wrecker. in fact, thatā€™s the main reason to bring the bow to legend for me.

alsoā€¦4-5 arrows for a chaos warrior? on legend? i thought it didnā€™t do any damage to chaos warriors without str potions.

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I positively love the hagbane. That all 3 elf bows have such different yet appreciable roles is good design, when a weapon is a too good ā€œall arounderā€ we end up with the beam staff situation.
Each charged shot can take out a cluster of grouped chaff, and deal substancial damage to a boss. This weapon is not an elite or special killer (or at least non instanteneous) and itā€™s fine : this is the long bow specialty.

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What Mookanana said really, Itā€™s amazing for halting packs and a monster wrecker as the left click is almost comparable to a longbow drawn headshot.

There is just a draw back to it, itā€™s gonna limit your special removal, your armored dmg is primarily gonna be melee and you can only pull ambient elites where as before you could snipe them down.

Iā€™d even argue that itā€™s TOO strong against monsters, but then again that is its core strength shrug.

this! i actually love all 3 bows, but keep switching them out over and over again because they all have their niche specialties - swiftbow is fantastic for just shooting EVERYTHING except chaos warriors, but is weak against bosses, longbow is slow but staggers and feels great with skillshots (sniping assassins in the air), hagbane for clearing hyperdense hordes and SV patrols and wrecks bosses so well.

i just love how switching out the bow means you gotta change up your playstyle every game. keeps it fresh and interesting!

not true, the hagbane is a special killer too, quicker on the draw than a longbow, but the special will take longer to die while waiting for the poison to tick tho, altho most of the time they die after recovering from the stagger. iā€™d rather face an assassin with a hagbane than a longbow too

Iā€™ll agree to disagree on that point, as longbowā€™s armor pen is far superior so lets say you get 4 ( rarely happens, but it can ) gunner / flamers then the longbow is gonna be superior, thatā€™s all i meant by it.

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i donā€™t favour it for itā€™s instant projectile damage, but rather the fact that it can stagger the special way quicker than a longbow can. when a gunner is firing at you and you need to stagger it asap, one of those bullets can toss up your aim on a longbow, forcing you to try to reaim, this is precious time lost. just an example, but a heavy attack with a hagbane that isnā€™t even on target (lenient on near misses) can stagger the bugger, giving your team 2 seconds to smash him. if thereā€™s 2 specials together, rare case but it happens, one arrow staggers both.

thereā€™s plenty of situations where my party gets surrounded by horde, assassins, firerats and hookrats and leeches and whatnot surprise us at the same time, one of the ways to get out of a wipe is to spam that hagbane everywhere including your own feet and at your teammates to give them breathing room.

but i get what you mean, the longbow can snipe targets much more effectively and get that sweet headshot PLINKS.

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Yep, theyā€™re tools for different uses / situations.

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I know iā€™m late to the party, but I just wanted to add some opposing points to this discussion.
Iā€™m not sure if you guys play on Legend, but the Hagsbane is straight up useless right now on Legend. It is out performed by the longbow in every scenario. I just got a vet hagsbane, which i was extremely disappointed to learn doesnā€™t even have a unique skin, so I compared it to my vet longbow in multiple scenarios on all monsters and specials and ambushes and hordes. The lb does more dps against all monsters than the hb, I tested this with and without a strength potions and the results were the same. The Lb can 1 shot headshot sv and can 2 shot all specials with itā€™s charged (on Legend of course). The lb can pierce through multiple enemies as well allowing a skilled player to thin hordes down. The aoe the hb has is itā€™s only use, which is completely negligible when thereā€™s a mage or dwarf with a flamethrower. Add to this the ranged damage drop off the hb has is far shorter than the lb and more dramatic and you now have a weapon that was good (and my favorite weapon in v1 and in the beta) and is now useless

I really wish it was closer to how it is in V1 in general.

Sure, i prefer the longbow aswell, for the headshots and easy special removal.

The longbow is probably the highest damaging range weapon in the game concerning headshots, these require a draw and aiming.

Hagbane has the benefit of just demolishing monsters without either, iā€™d wager itā€™s the better monster killer except for chaos troll where headshotting is easier.

But yes overall itā€™s a worse range option since it packs less of a punch per arrow over the course of a game.

Less spike damage as well unfortunately, which can be costly. Thatā€™s my primary reason for preferring LB myself. Iā€™ll often see other people tag stuff with hagbane but since it doesnā€™t kill it right away I find Iā€™m killing it anyways, so in practice it feels like a lot of the hagbaneā€™s damage isnā€™t ā€œeffectiveā€ damage. Iā€™m sure thereā€™s a case for bosses but I still donā€™t care for the drawbacks in V2.

The hagsbane is actually worse for monsters, which is why iā€™m of the belief it needs a buff. I should go a little more in depth about how I figured this out and how I tested this though. So I did this under uncontrolled situations, but basically the same all around. I solo ran against the grain on legend and would go until i got a boss to spawn at the big tree, I did this for all monsters. The reason for this is thereā€™s an ammo stash there all the time at the ladder and itā€™s quite the open space. The lb beat the hagsbane even when I was not getting mostly headshots and even when all my shots on the hagsbane were charged or not charged. I did this while there were many enemies still alive and attempting to kill me, yet i had no problem killing the monsters (except for the bt) with the charged shots on the lb. Now that I mentioned it I feel like ranting about the Bile trolls, but honestly iā€™m sure everyone and their mother has already. The low ammo it has also kills it, because if I didnā€™t have that ammo stash it would just run out of ammo too quickly, even with scrounger.

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Iā€™d actually like the in depth, genuinely interested btw.

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Agreed but Scrounger + WS ammo regen would likely compensate, but thatā€™s nothing to write home about considering LB is basically unlimited ammo with either of those methods individually, so you donā€™t have to sacrifice a DPS weapon trait or a different supporting talent just to make it sustainable. Also doesnā€™t help the situation on HM/Shade at all.

no, it is a bow made for monster killing.

it also removes hyperdensity hordes, itā€™s also a stormvermin patrol stunlocker/killer, special killer and stunner.

nope. the longbow cannot compare to the burst dps of a hagbane on bosses, and it cannot kill/cc a large pack of infantry mixed with heavy mobs. sure, a longbow can 1 shot headshot a stormvermin, but when 4 SVs are charging you, the longbow canā€™t do much vs hagbane can just chain CC/kill them.

i made a huge post about the hagbane playstyle somewhere, iā€™ll try to find the link.

you are pretty much comparing a sniper rifle to a grenade launcher.

edit: link

Alright Iā€™ll highlight points here then
-Map and area details: Against the grain, at the the bottom of the hill by the ladder with the ammo crate and healing supplies. Approx 300m from the big tree.
-class played: handmaiden for all tests
-traits: scrounger and barrage were tested on both the lb and the hb
-Results per Monster:
>Troll: if it wasnā€™t for the ammo crate the hb would be useless. Scrounger does not allow it to hold up
unless on the waystalker AND under half health constantly. The Lb did admirably with scrounger as it still
had ammo to get it through the 1st healing stage. Barrage is useless on the bile troll as ammo runs out
too fast
>Spawn of chaos: melted by both the hb and lb. The lb still lasted longer in terms of ammo and had
accomplished more damage by the time it needed a resupply. However, with the bosses speed it was a
little obnoxious to fight using the lb while there were many enemies.
>Stormfiend: This boss is too easyā€¦ please do something to actually make it difficult. I could use a rock to
defeat this boss and I would still end up winning at some point. If you really require me to make a point
on this then I will, but honestly do you even care?
>Rat Ogre: Similar to the SoC, however the Lb did better as headshots were easier and there was more
breathing room. However, as stated with the SoC, it was obnoxious to fight while there were many
enemies as the RO would fling them behind me while i used my charged shots.

-Extra Note: Scrounger is mandatory on both against trolls, but barrage still adds some damage on all other monsters as they donā€™t heal.

-Additionally in terms of specials and elites, the hb was only useful on maulers and stunning globes, while the LB basically managed to do everything else using less ammo and faster. (Lb clutches against leeches and packmasters)
The LB especially out performed in terms of sv as it was a life saver against patrols, where as the hb ran out of ammo after killing only 2 Sv on an average of 3 patrols. Even with scrounger it failed to accomplish much.

If youā€™re attempting to imply that I donā€™t play with the Hagsbane the right way or that I donā€™t understand how to use it, youā€™re pretty daft. I have 310 hrs in v1 exclusively using Kerillian with that bow only and most of my 220 hrs right now has been with it as well. I have a lot of experience with the hb. However, after getting a vet lb and moving onto Legend, Iā€™ve honestly found no reason to use it anymore. I tested both bows out today and I already pointed out the results.
On champ the hb is good on monstersā€¦ on Legend it flops. It didnā€™t make the jump. Iā€™m simply putting my points out there and the results of my testing with it and the lb, if you want to then give it a try too. Take some time and test out both on Legend by yourself so you donā€™t have others adding damage on, youā€™ll be as disappointed as I was.

Only the health regen aspect of Amaranthe is dependent upon being sub-50%. The ammo regen is always on, even at full health. I generally run ammo regen + hunter to good effect.

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Eyyy thatā€™s pretty good. I didnā€™t realize this so iā€™ll have to try that out on Waystalker then. I mainly play on handmaiden for the clutches, but even when I do play waystalker I grab the increased health regen as with the passive health regen necklace itā€™s pretty useful