Anyone have trouble with Firey bowstrings???

I picked up some Firey bowstrings last night. The description said they do fire damage, but no specifics such as (+5 fire damage) were given. I went ahead and upgraded my Ithas bow with the Firey bowstrings, but as far as I can tell, they don't do any additional damage.

Are they supposed to add another damage number when you hit, like ignite arrows does? Or is the damage combined with your regular hit? Any clues anyone???

Also, how much damage are they supposed to do???

Seems like a worthless upgrade if I don't know how much better I am doing.

Dwig

I may be wrong because I haven't used them before, but I believe they cause all your attacks to be fire damage rather than adding additional damage. Basically, your bow that did 10-18 damage now does 10-18 Fire damage.

Ok, if that's the case, what's the point of using it?

Somehow, I would think that fire arrows would inherently do more damage than regular arrows.

Is there any benefit at all using this upgrade?

Thanks,
Dwig

Certain monsters have weaknesses to particular elements. For example Ice golems hate fire skills/damage. They have no armor against it, or at least reduced armor. So with your firey bow you'll do a lot more damage than you will with a regular one.

Very useful on anything "ice" in my experience. Ice imps, ice golumns, siege golumns, and so on. Also useful if you are a R/E like me with a fire focus. I cast mark of rodgort switch to a firey bow. Decent fire DoT.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/skill/21-mark-of-rodgort

Sounds like you haven't been playing for very long. You'll eventually begin to see the benefits of certain upgrades against certain mobs.

well i wish there was holly bow strings or halts or we to deal with those undead :P

I'm actually up to level 17 now with my R/Mo, and I'm diappointed in my overall damage dealing ability. I haven't found any weapon or armor upgrades that improve my damage.

My area effect skills, such as ignite arrows do only minor damage (+8) to surrounding targets. Dual-shot with ignite arrows is my best combo, but my kill rate compared to warriors is still about 1:4.

I can see how fire arrows can help you against ice creatures, but do they actually do less against fire creatures, such as fire imps? (Dang I just got through Borlis pass and Shiverpeak stuff.)

Dwig

if you are level 17 and still using this combo, i would see why you are frustrated. that combo is fun at the beginning, but does not actually do much damage. AoE is best left up to those elementalists.

the only bow upgrades i am aware of that actually specifically add to your damage are maybe the sundering bow string for armor penetration, your +% dmg to certain types of mobs grips, and indirectly, the +1 marksmanship grips. you also need an internal modifier on the bow that is +% dmg while hexed/enchanted/> or < 50% health and customize it for the +20%.

not only is having the right bow important, but also have the right stats and skills. i would suggest getting your marksmanship up to at least 12, and expertise at 12 or 13 after runes. you need +dmg preps and cheap/spammable +dmg shots. you should check out Campfire for some ideas on how to play good ranger builds.

Erm, I'm a Ra/Mo20 and specialized heavily in smiting prayers. Smiters are darned good AEers also. Between smiting AEs and smiting protection spells, it's a lethal combo in PvE.

As far as the original question is concerned, my character is 4-skill balanced (10+2 marksmanship, 8+1 expertise, 8 healing prayers, 9 smiting prayers) and I do very little damage with my bow. However, I don't rely on my bow, nor do I expect much from my bow. I rely on my ability to shutdown casters and to apply smiting skills to my tanks.

The typical skills I carry around with me in PvE:

Distracting shot
Concussion shot
Heal other
Healing breeze
Rebirth
Favorable winds
Shield of judgement
Balthazar's aura

Granted, shield of judgement is an elite skill and you won't be getting it until post-ascension, but I use it to keep certain party members alive when they get ganged up on. Specifically, when PvE archers focus fire on a party member, I toss shield of judgement on them and laugh while the mobs fall over every time they shoot that party member.

Through many trials and errors, I've determined that the ranger class is all about utility and not about damage. Rangers (and mesmers) are great at adapting to most situations presented to them. Have an area in which fire damage is inherantly bad? Pull out Winter and use it as a preparation. Need to shut down casters? Use concussion shot/debilitating shot. Need to stop giants from stomping, or want to keep that warrior mob from using healing signet? Use distracting shot.

I have yet to find a single ranger mob in the game that was incredibly difficult to kill and did enormous amounts of damage. Warrior, Necro, and Monk bosses are usually the toughest to kill (favoring monk bosses in this category.) Mesmer, elementalists, and rangers are the easiest bosses to kill. However, there is NOTHING as irritating as going into a fight against 6 rangers all with ignite or incendiary arrows and peppering my party. And nothing makes casters mad like shutting down one or more of their skills for 20+ seconds. Having had that happen to me by mobs, it's really, really, awful.

In summary, don't expect to be the damage dealer. Expect to be the enabler. The ranger can make the fight a success by simply shutting down the healer(s) in the fight.

As a Ra/El, get conjure fire to increase your attack damage with the fiery bowstring. I have not tried it yet. Fiery bowstrings are very common post-ascension. Poison bowstrings are common too, but I have not found frost bowstring or the others yet.