End game bow

I have just acquired a Vampiric Short Bow of Shelter
15-28 damage
Damage +13%
Life stealing 4
Health regen -1
Armor +7

I have not even gone to get the extra 20% personalizing on this bow yet. What I want to know is whether this would make a good end game bow. I could add a poisoner's string and maybe trade for some good grips. Just unsure if this bow is worthy?

Also, I have heard some bad things about "Vampiric" items and don't want to pin my hopes on an item that won't help in the long run,

Thanks for your replies.

Nice bow, very pricey and quite nice (the+13 is unconditional!? :O)
The only thing you'll have to do is remember to switch the bow out via weapon set hotkeys, so you won't have the constant -1 when you don't need it... I personally detest vampiric items, so I would replace it with a poisoners...

Nice bow!!![/my 2 cents]

Vampiric is the bowstring, so if you add a Poisoner's String, you'll be destroying the Vampiric part. Which with a bow, isn't a bad thing. Since it's a shortbow, you'd be breaking even with +4/-1 vampiric while hitting, unless you use a speed-boosting stance or barrage. It's just not worth it.

15-28 damage

Damage +13% (condition??)

Vampiric String:
Life stealing 4
Health regen -1

Shelter Grip:
Armor +7


All in all, I'd say it's really not that special. You are already talking about replacing both the string and grip, and it's only got one built-in modifier that may or may not be useful.

I am new to the game as well...Level 8 R/Mo. Speaking of strings for bows...how do I aquire different parts for the bow?

If that damage is unconditional HELL yes this is a keeper.

Either way, you can upgrade over strings and grips with new ones, you will lose the old one, but still.

The vampiric mod is a matter of opinion, for healing, it's shit in my opinion. The only way to even heal with it is to use skills that let you hit more and even then you aren't stealing much. a 5 leech vampiric on a 2 sec bow (like shortbow) will gain you a whopping .5 health per second if you constantly attack.

So the reason for a vampiric is purely for the extra damage (on that bow being 4 each hit) which is no doubt nice.

Well I don't belive that is unconditional damager because he has not listed the downside to it if it were. If the condition for the damage is while enchanted or while above 50% health, then yes its a keeper.

Eskimo there are items with completly unconditional % damage.

There are the ones with things like greater than 50% life, while hexed, while enchanted.

Then there are the ones like -10 armor while attacking, -1 mana regen, etc.

THEN there are the pure ones.

I've seen 2 pictures of them, here is one.

http://img291.echo.cx/img291/3123/axescreen5bt.jpg

Neither of them looked photo shopped and no one has ever presented me with proof that these items don't exist.

I haven't ever seen one in game though.

Nice... but you need at least 2 bows in weapon set... one for range and pulling e.t.c. (i use my 15-28 poisoners Storm bow of fortitude) and a close ranger, either short (which you have) or half moon for their fast rate... Nice bow for short range, i use a 15-28 poisoners halfmoon bow of fortitude and its custom too. Works very well when using poison arrow/apply poison.

This is a great bow and with the vamp string your get +4 damage every shot that is not effected by armor. So if you think about it you fire every 1.7secs with a shortbow. so rounf it to 2 secs.

You lose 4hp every 2 secs but gain it back with a hit. Plus you do an extra 4 damage with each hit.

So at 1 shot every 2 secs that's 30 shots a minute or 120 extra damage

The only vamp strings worth have are the 4 or 5 cause then when you hit you actually loose no life and with a 5 you gain 1 per hit.

For healing they suck but for damage it is nice especially if you have barrage

The actual mods to the Vampiriac Bow are Damage +13% vs hexed foes and the armor is +7 vs physical attacks.

My other bow options are:

Poisoner's Longbow
13-25 Damage
Lengthens poison duration on foe
Quickens recovery from poison

Firey Short Bow of Markmanship
14-24 Fire Damage
Damage +12% while health above 50%
Markmanship +1 - 10% chance while using skills
Damage +20%

The last bow is the only 1 I have personalized and I still have the Poisoners string that I could add to any of the bows. But what I am now understanding from the responses to my initial question is that if I place the poisoners string on any of the listed bows that I will remove some of the mods already there. Is that correct? And seeing the other bows should I be using all of them depending upon the circumstances?
For instance the longbow for long range foes and one of the shorter for the foes closing in? And, of course, changing bows for the different monsters: not using a poisoners bow on the non-flesh monsters?

But then you have to remeber to weapon switch whilst not fighting, i've died before because i wasn't concentrating on the bow i was holding. I am not a fan of zelous or vampiric bow strings, which is why i refuse to use them. I also am not a fan of elemental bow strings, especially if it is a good bow, you end up doing less dmg over all unless you JUST fight one type of enemy that is weak to that element. I find that as a ranger using a poisoners string, and using skills like applypoison/poison arrow is much more effective. If that is not for you then a good % sundering string is the way.
I would recommend having a short bow, long bow (or equivilent ranges) in your weapon sets. And for the other two sets fill them up with opposite elements, i like having, icy, and fiery in those sets. Good bows i've found to have as elementals is once again halfmoons/short bows so you can pump them fast. Always use long ranged bow for pulling, then switch to your short range when they get close.

Went slightly off topic but yeh...

If the damage is uncondition, that is a very nice bow. You might consider sticking a Defense grip on it instead of Shelter cause Shelter only works vs physical damage. Oh, and when you're not in combat, use a different bow cause that -1 health degen will annoy the hell out of your healer.

So the poisoner's longbow and the firey bow are ONLY doing the elemental damage? I don't understand what you folks are saying. I understand about the vampiric bow stealing my health; what I am unsure about is using, for instance, the poisoner's bow against a poison immune monster. Am i getting no PHYSICAL DAMAGE from the bow - all poison damage?

And if i use the skill apply poison, will all of the damage being done from my bow be poison? If I apply poison damage to a firey bow will I be doing 2 elemental types of damage or 3 with physical damage?

Sorry I am getting confused.

To answer your question on Poisoner's Bow, a Poisoner's Bow would simply lengthen the amount of time your target suffers from poison; it does not convert, as you say, your attacks to poison attacks or damage. When using a Poisoner's Bow, to effectively use the Posion aspect of it, it needs to work in conjunction with Apply Poison or Poison Shot.


Edit: Posion is not an Element. If you use your Poisoner's Longbow on non flesh enemy, you'll still do your normal damage; and there is no reason whatsoever to use the skill Apply Poison or Poison Shot on a non-flesh enemy.

If damage is unconditional then this is a keeper. Lose the string though, while attacking you will barely break even and while not

I beleive he stated later that the damage was condition (over 50%)...why would you drop the string so quickly? For every target you hit, you steal an additional 4 HP; this might not seem like a lot but over time, it adds up quite nicely, and plus you can hit up to 5 targets with barrage (and that's a possible 20 HP total stolen). If you find yourself simply recharging, just swap out the bow for another one so you regain the 1 pip.

For most items with unconditional +% dmg there is always a penalty of either -1 hp degen or -1 energy degen

As a necromancer, this is an awesome bow...if it doesn't require marksmanship. We can balance the -1 regen with Life Siphon, so they lose EVEN MORE while we stay constant, plus gain 4 life every hit. Depending on what you have to balance it, this is a beautiful bow!


A free web-based wargame you can play from anywhere!

I'm a bit lost to be honest, from those spec, i don't see why everyone is going crazy about this bow (no offence intended atall in this)... Yes it's a nice bow, but it's still only your short range bow, and yes that fits in with the vampiric string (more hits per time than a long bow etc) But i come across many bows like that and have plenty my self... I don't like zelous or vampiric bows whatsoever, but i do have the strings incase i wanted to use them.

Yes you probs won't find a bow with better stats... but you will find many of them if you try (as in trading, not pick ups) and it would be a much 'nicer' bow imo if it was a less common bow than shortbow... maybe storm, eternal, halfmoon even.

Hahaha!

Can you say PHOTO-CHOP?


Take a closer look.

There is no unconditional damage. Period.