Zealous Strings and You!

Well, we all know the basic effects of the Zealous Bowstring

1 Energy gain on hit
-1 Energy regeneration.

At first glance, the zealous bowstring seems to be a very good mod for bows, hey! its only a loss of 1 energy regen for a gain of 1 energy every hit! This seems to be the general view of many people i've encountered. People put zealous strings on recurve-class bows for interuption, or for other reasons. However, is this trade off really worth it? After working the math, I've come up with something that might help some rangers out, especially those thinking about using the zealous bowstring.

Rangers can natually have a maximum energy regeneration of 3 pips. This makes calculating really easy. Basically, 1 pip of energy regenration is 1/3 energy per second, or 1 energy per 3 seconds. Therefore, 3 pips of energy regenration brings us to the simple and easy 1 energy per second. This is a ranger's natual energy regeneration. If we slap on a zealous bow, we loose 1 energy regeneration, which brings us to 2 energy every 3 seconds.

Now, if we put a zealous bowstring on a shortbow, concidering it is constantly attacking, we see, that over a span of 30 seconds, the weilder gains a net total of only 5 energy. (for those that dont know, the Shortbow's rate of fire is 1 arrow every 2 seconds.)

Natural Energy gain after 30 seconds: 30 energy
Energy Gain after 30 seconds under zealous effect: 20 Energy
Arrows fired with a shortbow after 30 seconds: 15

As shown, the net energy gain of using a zealous shortbow that is constantly fireing for 30 seconds, is 5 energy.

However, if we put a zealous bowstring on say... a recurvebow, that is constantly firing for a span of 30 seconds, we see an even smaller marginal energy gain. (for those that dont know, a recurve bow's refire rate is 1 arrow every 2.5 seconds)

Natural Energy gain after 30 seconds: 30 energy
Energy Gain after 30 seconds under zealous effect: 20 Energy
Arrows fired with a shortbow after 30 seconds: 12

That is 2 energy, if the zealous bow is constantly firing, for a straight 30 seconds.

After this math, it should be obvious that the Zealous bowstring is honestly not a very great source of energy, even worse is if your going to put the bowstring on a recurvebow class to manually interupt! (your not even firing constantly if your attempting to manual interupt, and therefore are probably loosing energy, not gaining anything from the zealous bowstring.)

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I really don't know why I made this post... it just bugs me when people say "oh use a zealous bowstring on that recurvebow and go interupt stuff"
Maybe anet needs to buff the zealous bowstrings (and hammer hafts for that fact) to something like this?

1 Energy Gain on hit
1 Energy additional energy gain on hit (50% chance)
-1 energy regeneration.

I understand your point but you're limiting your view on particular builds. And your solutions comes as something that would be way overpowered in PvE. A Zealous string is an absolute need in certain tricky PvE builds that uses Barrage (solo or not). The effects are incredible.

"Rangers can natually have a maximum energy regeneration of 3 pips. This makes calculating really easy. Basically, 1 pip of energy regenration is 1/3 energy per second, or 1 energy per 3 seconds. Therefore, 3 pips of energy regenration brings us to the simple and easy 1 energy per second. This is a ranger's natual energy regeneration. If we slap on a zealous bow, we loose 1 energy regeneration, which brings us to 2 energy every 3 seconds."

Just a small correction but using your system for energy regen (idk if its right or wrong ive never bothered to figure it out XD), anyway energy regen with the zealous ow srting would be 2/3 of an energy a second no 2

Istari

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Thanks for doing the math and posting it. It's good for people to know that there are better strings out there. Thanks for not being lazy like me and others, keep it up!

Ah but for instances when you using barrage (if hitting 3+ oponents with expertise high its basically a free shot) dual shot or tigers fury the margin changes, for something like Barrage runs to the HoH with Read the Wind, Tigers fury and a Zealous bow u can keep shooting all day - true its more of a tactical thing based upon the area and skills ur using but what in GW isnt?

You also fail to realize that a Zealous String basically lowers the cost of EVERY BOW ATTACK by 1 energy.

barrage plus zealous plus IAS= AWESOME! I never have enrgy problems running this with a zealous bow string:

1.barrage
2.savage
3.dual shot
4.distracting shot


spamming constantly


2 bow strings all my bows have zealous and vampiric!

I've never seen how its fair that Axes/Swords get 1/-1 at 1.33 seconds a swing, yet Hammers and Bows get the exact same at almost twice to 2.5x the speed.

Please stop going on about Barrage... that skill is so f*cking overrated its stupid We all know that as it hits more than 1 target your obviously gonna get more energy back, stop pointing that out ffs! Not every ranger uses Barrage 24/7 like it seems half the people in this forum do. Whether you choose to believe it or not, Zealous Bow Strings do not have the words 'req Barrage' written on them.

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That always bothered me. Daggers can get to about 1 second a swing with high enough mastery to get the double strikes, and they get their 1 energy back. Yet bows/hammers are screwed because they attack so much slower. Making the vamp mods 3:1 max instead of 5:1 was a step in the right direction but I think there needs to be improvements made in the zealous area concerning the bow/hammer attack speeds.

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Also take skills like Tiger's Fury into consideration... the 33% attack increase has quite the amazing effect on Zealous bows.

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Does flight time affect how frequently you shoot? Does the 2 second timer on a shortbow not start counting until the arrow hits? I haven't formally tested that or anything, but that's not how I seem to recall things working.

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[sarcasm] I love how people put their bashing-caps on whenever they see a thread that's actually helpless to some. [/sarcasm]

What Reikai explained in his first post was that rangers actually hardly benefits from this. Of course there are exceptions, but I think this sentence describes pretty well what his intentions were; "oh use a zealous bowstring on that recurvebow and go interupt stuff". Obviously, interrupting with a Zealous Bowstring would be way less of a benefit than the same Zealous Bowstring used with Barrage. But believe it or not, but I can't find anything in his post that translates to "zealous bowstrings suck!"

It's bashing like this that keeps people from posting anything helpful.

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