Kindle Arrows and a Fiery Bowstring...

...does Kindle Arrows add anything to a fiery bowstring? Or, is it JUST Conjure Flame that adds?

I guess, is an Elemental bowstring ONLY worth anything to a Ranger if he./she is and Elem secondary?

Does a Fiery bow add damage to Ice Imps or not?

Does an Icy bow add damage to Fire Island foes, if no Winter spell?

I do know that Winter adds to an Icy Bowstring, or seems to.


I have searched and these questions have been posed, but no GOOD answers have yet to be given. So I pose them again:

Is there anything to elemental weapon upgrades if you are not an Elem secondary?

Well I would think that the firey bow string would add the fire damage to kindle arrows.

I don't know that the bow string would add damage due to your secondary though as I don't recall the ele's having a type of fiery physical attack without having to cast a spell.

I could be wrong on the last part but I believe that I read about the added damage of the bowstring in the forums before. Someone pls correct me if wrong.

Elemental mods cause all damage to be of that elemental type. So if I have a Fiery sword hilt, it causes me to deal fire damage instead of slashing damage. Or Ebon causes a bow to deal earth damage instead of piercing damage. Elemental staffs/wands already have that mod "inherent" so an earth staff that deals earth damage deals the same type of damage as a sword with an Ebon mod.

Although I'm not sure if they add that sort of damage to all skills, or just when you're hitting without skills. But they won't affect the amount of damage unless foes are susceptible to that type of damage. Just like how my Fire Ele hits for more damage against those enemies that drop icy lodestones (I can't believe I just forgot the name lol), but not so much against Ring of Fire enemies.

PvP-wise, if I have the elemental Pyro armor (higher defense vs. fire), you'd deal more damage to me using any sort of ele mod other than fire.

EDIT: In case you were wondering, lightning weapon mods DON'T increase armor penentration like the ele lighning spells do. I wondered that for awhile myself until I found the answer

An elemental string converts your damage to the appropriate elemental type, but adds no damage directly. The arrow may do more/less damage than a regular arrow depending on the target's resistances; overall you'll do more damage to warrior-types, since you ignore any physical damage resistance, and more damage to people/creatures with a weakness to that element (ie. more damage against Ice Imps with a fiery string, more against Inferno Imps with an icy one). On the downside, you deal significantly less to ranger-types and others with resistance to the element you're using (ie. a fiery string will do less damage against somebody wearing Pyromancer's armour). Also keep in mind that a bow using an elemental string (or Kindle Arrows, see below) doesn't trigger effects based on physical damage (like Mark of Pain).

Kindle Arrows converts your arrow damage from penetrating to fire damage (if it isn't already from a fiery string or the effects of Greater Conflagration) and adds additional fire damage to each attack.

Conjure [element] (fire/cold/lightning) adds bonus damage of type [element] to each arrow that *already does damage of that elemental type*. Most commonly used is Conjure Flame in conjunction with Kindle Arrows, since that doesn't require you to use a fiery bowstring; the downside is that Kindle only lasts 24 seconds to Conjure's 60, so you may have to reapply Kindle to continue to get the bonus damage from Conjure during a long fight. You can also use Conjure Lightning with a shocking string and Conjure Frost with an icy string.

So, short version - is there anything to an elemental string if you're not an Ele secondary? Sometimes. They're great for shooting warriors, and they can be very handy against anything with an elemental weakness (particularly to cold, since you can change either fire or lightning to cold via Winter). An alternative is to carry Greater Conflagration, but I'd rather keep that one for specific builds and carry an extra bow (and if you're a ranger, why aren't you carrying at least three at all times?)

I'd like to add Spinal Shivers+Icy Bowstring combo for necro secondary.

Good point - I forgot that one. Throw in Marksman's Wager to avoid energy deficits or work with a Necro running BiP/wells, and you've got a brutal interrupter.

i Don't know bout u guys.. But i have a ra/ele n i used my kindle arrows with a icy bow string along with Conjure Frost. now i could just b a noob .. but i thought that it was gonna do 3 type of dmg.. bow kindle n conjure but it just ignore kindle n went with conjure. Any 1 else can confirm this?? or was i just cancell them out? =)

Can't check to confirm right now, but I suspect what was happening was that Kindle changed your bow damage to fire, ignoring the icy string, and so ignoring Conjure Frost. Try running this with Ignite instead of Kindle, and it should work, since Ignite doesn't change your base damage type (unless this has been changed recently).

Correct!


Wondering what would happen to the original Kindle+Icy+Frost combo when under Winter though.. I've never tried that.

Oh there is another good ranger string/spell combo...Poison string/apply poison, since the string lengthens the duration of the poison

I have 6, but want to verify usage of each under certain circumstances. Thx

Fire enemies and cold enemies I think have +AL to their respective elemental type. So while a cold bow woud ignore that extra AL a fire creature had, so would an ebon or shocking bow, and even a standard piercing damage bow. Elemental strings really are useless unless you are Ele second.

yea it works the ignite with conjure.. but i don't think its worth it.. its just a waste of attribute points =) + kindle or ignite does more dmg than conjure so i think u should just keep your attribute points on marks or something more usefull. it sux that earth magic spell doesn't have a conjure weap skill >.<

Yes, Kindle and Ignite will do more damage at the same Attrib. level than Conjure will. On the other hand Conjure lasts more than twice as long, so you generally don't run out in the middle of a battle, and you can choose your element to suit your needs (OK, you can change Kindle/Ignite to cold, but that's eating up another skill slot for Winter). More importantly, Conjure stacks with Barrage, which Kindle and Ignite don't, so you can stack an extra 8 or 10 points on top of the bonus damage you get from Barrage, which leaves you with comparable damage to what you'd get from a decent Kindle.

Ever gone out into Grenth's Footprint and smacked an Ice Golem upside the head with a Fireball? You will note the large amount of resulting damage which would indicate that Mr Golem has a deficit in defense against fire, and fire only. There is some evidence then that certain enemies do have a weakness to certain types of damage, perhaps similar to that set of Necro armour that increases damage received from Holy attacks.

Fiery Bow string = your weapon attacks with fire, regardless if winter is in play.
However, the string applies to your item, meaning conjure flame will work even if winter is in play. The string changes your damage type to fire, yet the damage received by the enemy will be, in turn, altered to cold. Even with a winter spirit in play. Your conjure fire damage will still register, but it should be cold damage again with winter on the field.

Hope this helps.