Why Are Bows So Weak Now? (Phys build)

Hello, I am a level 81 shadow.

The build: Frenzy + Added fire + q_Culling + Faster attacks + Lmp. (In a 5L)

The passive tree: most phys bow passives taken, most attack speed nodes taken. I am as squishy as it gets with just 3.7k hp.

The bow: This is the best bow I have gotten in the 81 levels of gameplay + 60 Levels on my marauder, take a look:




A little comparison:

Back in closed Beta I had a 170-307 dps bow and it was pretty average for level 70+. Many people had much better bows.

How bows are now:
1. Every single blue bow that drops I identify for possible high phys rolls.
2. Every Imperial bow I find I chance. (The rares it gets are always garbage).
3. Got a iLev77 Imperial and Thicket bows - 30 chaos orbs used. Nothing.
4. In every party I ask people to check stash for high dps bows.
5. Random guy in $trade links me a slightly better Thicket bow than mine,
says its iLv75 and he wants 20 exalted for it. (Really?)
6. Bows on forums go for at least 10 exalted. (Yep really..)
7. I have seen 3 exalted in the whole game so far and only 1 of them is mine.

Now, being a phys bow Frenzy shadow I start to lose faith in my build.

Why?

Asked a random guy who was using LA and one-shoting absolutely everything on screen, what was his DPS.
It was 1100. He isn't even using a 5L or a good gear...
Sigh..
Stack-shock Lightning Arrow.

Isn't it sad..
-Casters have insane DPS
-Melee needs a buff overall but despite that duelists and shadows get 5-8k with no problems.

Probably every build out there outperforms a phys bow build by a long shot.

So, why are bows so weak?

Or should I rephrase it to: "Are bows only viable for elemental builds?"

Thanks for your time.

I'm feeling the same way, my 7 frenzy physical ranger is doing 2k DPS but in a group compared to LA its like lolwut?

My only saving grace is culling strike

I'm sure they nurfed the phys dmg rolls on bows, no idea why tho

Probably because of LA since it coverts half physical -_-

LA seriously needs a nerf to 2X max dmg increase during shock or split the bows into elemental and physical.

I agree, I think lightning arrow is really what the problem is

I must say that physical damage bower--be it ranger or shadow, even duelist can do it--is rather under-performing sub-class. My lvl80 ranger is reaching 10k DPS with 7xFrenzy charges and buffs (in DPS set but I do not wear it because IIR&IIQ rule this game) but I'm squishy as hell. You cant produce reasonable DPS without focusing on critical hits, which in turn make you very very vulnerable to physical damage reflect mobs.

My IRL friend started to play this game just recently so I decided to level up elemental bow marauder with him. I'm total trashing Cruel difficulty with sky-high DPS and twice as much HP I had with my ranger when I did it first time.

One of the issues I see is that getting even half-decent elemental rolls is rather easy but getting decent physical damage bow is crazy--you need to get high % damage increase, flat damage increase, attack speed and crit chance/multiplier to make the bow decent. Second thing is that elemental damage users still benefit from physical damage on bows because skills convert that damage into elemental but it does not work the other way around. The benefit of elemental damage for bow user is absolutely miniscule.

So yes, I would appreciate if physical damage mods are better scaled or more easily achievable. Additionally, physical damage nodes should be made more potent--think about Catalyse cluster for physical damage--so players can focus bit more on survival.

PS. Fix armor along the way because it is completely useless even for ranged char as a protection from other ranged attacks--skeleton archer can trash me with same effectiveness as heavy hitting melee.

I made a duellist BM phys/crit bow user who took most of his skills on the right side of the tree.


It is a good mix between hp and specific bow-node-clusters with nice phys and crit nodes. I leveld him to act 3 cruell (50). I have nice gear, and a nice bow. In act 3 for the 1st time i was a bit shocked by the lack of damage. I needed so much hits to take mobs down: so i started a new duellist:

This time i went to the templar starting area after picking up BM, together with the same starting nodes as my first Duellist, but this time going trough the middle and then to Templar. Especialy Catalyse cluster and ResoluteTechnique made this build so much more stronger, it wasnt funny. When reaching 50 with my new duellist i could take his gear and compair the 2 builds. Again i was a bit shocked. My new duelist was cutting butter, while my bow-node-specialist was one big joke and is waiting for a reset of the tree.


So in short:I have the feeling that GGG needs to test bow-node-clusters becouse they are a joke. Elemental damage is way stronger then anything else. Good that it is still beta!

"

ganjarak a écrit :

LA seriously needs a nerf to 2X max dmg increase during shock or split the bows into elemental and physical.

Why always going for the nerf route?

I think lightning is fine as it is. It is a strong and fun skill when you can link it to support gems.

The real problem is that other builds and skills need a buff! I like it when we have way more good and strong skills which can be scaled nicely and rock @ higher levels. I dont like the idea nerfing all good skills, which are already way to few.

Yeah I'd rather see the physical portion get buffed instead of lightning arrow getting nerfed. Problem is figuring out how. Increasing physical damage will make the elemental builds stronger since they convert physical. Maybe a increased bow physical damage support that adds flat physical as it levels up, that way I doubt an elemental would sacrifice a slot for it. Culling strike kind of does that but I think a flat bonus would be better.


Also another thing is maybe adding something like 5% more damage effectiveness per frenzy charge could help all physical builds out in general