Bow Strings?

Hello I did a search for "bow string" and even "why use bow string" but all I got back was page after page of auctions so...

what does a bow string like icy or lightning do for you? I am making a ranger/monk and I noticed I had an icy bow string I looted in my bank.. what would this do for me and why icy over fire or lighting, etc?

thanks a ton

if your a secondary ele you can use the conjure fire/frost/lightning etc to boost your dmg whilst not using a prep, so you could have a large amount of extra dmg by using an icy string with conjore frost and kindle arrows.

bow strings are upgrades (duh lol). and each one gives you something different.

-there's the 4 elemental bow strings (firey, icey, shocking, ebon)
-poisoner's; one to increase poison duration
-sundering (added armor penetration bonus; +10%/ chance 10%)
-zealous (-1 energy regen/ 1 energy gain on hit)
-vampiric (health degen -1/ heath added on hit 1-5)

i believe thats all of them

as for their uses (in pvp at least), i use an elemental bowstring to get past a warrior's bonus AL against physical damage (can also be used to bypass a necro's bonus AL against piercing damage)

elemental strings in conjunction with its appropriate conjure (lightning, fire and ice, no eath ) gives you a lil added bonus to damage.

i see sundering as useless since you cant depend on the chance to do the added bonus, and 10% isnt all that much either.

barrage + 5:1 vampiric string + big pack of enemies = decent hp gain~

I see. So Ranger/monk has much less use for an icy bow string than a water based Ranger/Ele? But if I want to go heavy on poisoning for example a poision bow string would help me out, right? ty

Having a poison bow string prolongs the duration of the poison applied to the target...so it helps just in the duration. If you are looking for a simple damage modifier for your R/Mo then I would recommend a 5/-1 Vampiric Bow String.

I'm curious and possibly confused -- why Conjure Frost and Kindle Arrows? Wouldn't Kindle Arrows cancel the Conjure Frost since KA causes your arrows to do fire damage?

Or are you saying that the Icy String still causes you to Conjure Frost on your arrows, and then Kindle adds additional Fire damage meaning you're hitting with two separate forms of elemental damage simultaneously?? Can you confirm this to be the case, as it isn't really making sense to me at the moment done that way..


Otherwise I'm wondering if you didn't mean Ignite Arrows? Because it seems to me like IA's AoE Fire damage is actually treated as separate from the actual arrows themselves (meaning the arrows are still plain ol' piercing/physical dmg). In that case, I suppose one could have multiple forms of elemental damage going on! Could be pretty sweet, actually!

Gotta go do some testing, I suppose.. Now I'm wondering if IA's AoE damage would itself trigger extra damage from a Conjure Flame.. hmmmmmm

The string itself is what's causing the ele dmg, then add in the 2ndary ele conjure "fire/air/water/earth" to add to the dmg....I think....I don't think the conjure would replace the built in ele dmg of the bowstring.

Kiszen - Depending on the area of the world you're fighting, each element has its uses and mobs are more prone to diff types - I get base 50 dmg on dwarves when smiting a hex off a nearby foe but 100 dmg on their bone minions (holy dmg vs undead ;-) )

Yeah, I understand that. In fact, unless your bow string and conjure match, you'll get no added damage from the conjure; it will do nothing for you.

When the conjure works, on the other hand, you see two sets of numbers for damage dealt; the arrow itself is doing cold damage, and the conjure adds cold damage separately.

That's why I was asking for clarification over what happens when you throw Kindle Arrows in there (and remember - the original example I was asking about was Icy String + Conjure Frost + Kindle Arrows)... I'm thinking it negates the conjure and just gives you fire damage instead because KA - at least as far as I can tell - actually causes your arrows to deal direct elemental damage (one number only) and would conflict with the CFrost.

Ignite Arrows on the other hand, would seem not to conflict with the conjure, as it appears that (assuming a normal bow string) your unmodified arrows are doing physical damage, and you're throwing some fire damage out there. If that's the case, then it would appear that adding an elemental sting to that scenario would mean you could use a compatible conjure to deal more than one type of elemental damage at once.. or perhaps simply even more fire damage by using CFlame.


I'm positive someone out there knows for sure..

Well I plan on Pve 95% of the time and was looking for a chara to take from pre-searing to ascension like I did with my W/N. I was thinking lightning sniper type. Is this viable?

Also, if I have a bow that has poison stats on it (I am at work atm and forget exactly what it says) is there any point in getting a poison bow string too? How about getting a lightning bow string (that would be air spells, right?) and get both bonuses? Or would the bow string cancel the inherent bow ability?

Poisoner's String lengthens poison duration by 33%. I suppose if your bow already had "Lengthens Poison Duration on Foe" as an inherent property of the bow, you could add a Poisoner's String to it to get 66% increased duration, but I'm unaware of any such bows existing.

If the name of the bow is "Poisoner's XXXBow of YYY" then it already has the string on it (and you can decide if the 33% extra duration is worthwhile to you), so adding a Poisoner's String would just waste the string.

If any of your Warriors has a Poisoner's weapon, you're better off with letting them increase the duration of Apply Poison and using something else on your bow, IMO..