Bow + Fists MA Guide


1. Introduction:

The first thing I want to mention is do not expect to do as much damage as a shotgun
or assault rifle user with regular hits because you won't.
The real power of bows come from their alpha strike capabilities to drop a target
fast once you have the ip for all the specials.

All professions can attack with both fists and a weapon of any type once their
MA skill is 120 or more.
Before your MA skill reaches 120, use fists only in pvm to level up, it will be more efficient than bow only.
MAs greatest weakness is their incapicity to deal range damage and until Funcom
fixes thrown weapons (if they ever do it) the cheapest range weapon to use ip-wise
is a bow.


2. General pros & cons of bows:

Whatever the bow type, the following observations are more or less true:

Pros:
- Green skill: it means the weapon cap will be 120 higher than a dark blue
weapon skill at lvl 200. Higher attack skill = more chance to hit and crit.
You will also be able to self equip a bow much higher ql than any other weapon.
- Most bows are fairly fast (the slowest one is like a flamethrower, ie 2.5s
attack delay).
- Better damage than fists and any melee MA weapon (for high level category bows).
- Very fast equip/unequip delays for the best high level bows.
- Most bows have range special attacks.

Cons:
- Very slow equip/unequip delays for the low level bows.
- Low ammo clip on most models.
- Arrows are the most expensive ammo (not all bows use them).
- Require to max range init (dark blue).
- The best bows require points in some dark blue range skills like flingshot,
aimed shot, ... (generally about half the value of the bow skill).
- Can't use an unarmed special attack, brawl and dimach with a bow equiped. That's
why you will want a bow with some range specials even if they are dark blue to
compensate the potential damage loss.
- Only bows with energy damage get a boost from some of our fists line of nanos
(fists of shocking touch, fists of maelstrom, ...) and the only bow worth using
doing this type of damage is a bow blaster.


3. Not loosing damage over time with bow + fists (it applies to any weapon + fists):

The bow and fists attack delays must be the same, it is very important otherwise the delays
will interfer with each other and slow you dramatically.
I will apply the following rule which seems to be the closest to my observations with both range and
melee weapons:
- 50% agg bar = base weapon attack and recharge delays as shown when you shift+left click on it.
- 100% agg bar = -1s to both attack and recharge delays
- 100 range init = -0.1s to attack and recharge delays

By the time you will have 120 MA skill you should be around lvl 20 and your fists close to 1.0s
attack and recharge delays.
It means you can use efficiently use any bow with 2s or less delay with your fists without loosing
any noticeable speed.
At this level, you only get 10k ip per level so increasing specials with the other vital skills
(nano, evades, init, treatment, body dev, nano pool and abilites) is kinda hard. Mobs are still
weak and easy to kill so you should do well with a bow not using many specials.
At this time fast and lower damage weapons are the most efficient (mobs have low AC).

Bows that fit in this category (from best to worst):
1. OT Limb Bow
2. Pow Bow
3. Sapphistic Bow
4. Kevlar Bow
5. Light Tube-Bow
6. Spring Inc Tube-Bow

There's quite a big blank in choices between 2.0s and 2.5s delays bows which you can start using
with fists when your range init is at 450+. For this reason there will be a time when the best bow
to use to keep an optimum speed will hit the min damage demon. You will have to live with it for several
levels (roughly between lvl 80 and 100). When your range init is high enough it is time to switch
to one of the hard hitting bows (from best to worst):
1. Junior Urban Crossbow
2. Bow-Blaster
3. Reet-Tech Venom Compound Bow
4. Oneida Razor Half-Bow

For maximum damage once you are lvl 100+ you should ideally use a self-equiped Junior Urban Crossbow
with your fists and switch to fists only for specials like brawl, dimach and shen
(you should have enough ip to increase them to an acceptable value).
A fight should look like this:
1. go into sneak mode and use aimed shot
2. flingshot
3. unequip bow
4. shen
5. brawl
6. equip bow
7. punch and shoot 7 times
8. flingshot
9. unequip bow
10. rinse and repeat steps 5 to 9 until the target dies.
11. use dimach for emergencies

Around lvl 150 you will have the ip to use an Oneida Razor Half-Bow for a full alpha strike 
(remember that it's 3 more dark blue skills to increase to use one).
Ideally you start with the Junior Urban Crossbow equipped and repeat steps 1 to 5 above then:
6. equip Oneida Razor Half-Bow
7. Use burst and full auto
8. unequip Oneida Bow
9. equip Junior Crossbow
10. follow steps 7+ from above.

For pvp you can use all specials while being on full defense (agg bar at 0%) because they have nothing to
do with the weapon and fists delays. Switch back to 100% agg for regular bow + fists attack if the target
ain't dead yet.

This is what has worked the best for me so far but feel free to experiment.


4. Detailed information on all bows:

Here are the stats of all the bows I mentioned at different QL for you to choose (alphabetical order):

Bow-Blaster:
- QL 40: 4-99 (38), 2.5s att/rec, 1s equip time, 20m range, 20 ammo clip
- QL 100: 5-221 (80), 2.5s att/rec, 1s equip time, 20m range, 20 ammo clip
- QL 200: 8-426 (150), 2.5s att/rec, 1s equip time, 20m range, 20 ammo clip
- Specials: aimed shot, flingshot
Notes: this model does the most normal damage of all bows, uses energy ammo (cheap) and does
energy damage (good to use with energy based fists buffs). A very close 2nd to the Urban Crossbow,
with a higher bonus it would be the best (and can be considered better for pvm for anyone not buffed
with a MA crit).

Junior Urban Crossbow
- QL 40: 6-88 (93), 2.46s/2.5s att/rec, 0.25s equip time, 16m range, 10 ammo clip
- QL 100: 5-209 (189), 2.4s/2.5s att/rec, 0.25s equip time, 16m range, 10 ammo clip
- QL 200: 4-402 (350), 2.3s/2.5s att/rec, 0.25s equip time, 16m range, 10 ammo clip
- Specials: aimed shot, flingshot
Notes: this model is considered the best by all bow users, it has the highest crit damage of
all bows which makes aimed shot a fearsome special. It can also be equiped in a blink making it great
for a brawl/shen/dimach switch.

Kevlar Bow:
- QL 40: 12-45 (77), 1.44s/1.5s att/rec, 7s equip time, 15m range, 3 ammo clip
- QL 100: 25-84 (158), 1.35s/1.5s att/rec, 7s equip time, 15m range, 3 ammo clip
- QL 200: 48-150 (292), 1.2s/1.5s att/rec, 7s equip time, 15m range, 3 ammo clip
- Specials: aimed shot
Notes: quite a crappy bow with an horrible equip time (never use it in pvp) and a very low ammo clip.
Speed is ok to use it at low level for pvm and the minimum damage isn't bad.

Light Tube-Bow:
- QL 40: 4-34 (29), 1s/1.13s att/rec, 4s equip time, 19m range, 3 ammo clip
- QL 96: 4-72 (65), 1s/1.13s att/rec, 4s equip time, 19m range, 3 ammo clip, +15 energy AC
- QL 191: 4-138 (124),  1s/1.13s att/rec, 4s equip time, 19m range, 3 ammo clip, +60 energy AC
- Specials: aimed shot
Notes: poor damage, low crit and low ammo clip. The only good thing is the speed (hit at max possible
speed with base range init). Use it only if you can't find anything else.

Oneida Razor Half-Bow:
- QL 40: 4-57 (45), 2.55s att/rec, 0.5s equip time, 13m range, 10 ammo clip
- QL 100: 4-135 (85), 2.55s att/rec, 0.5s equip time, 13m range, 10 ammo clip
- QL 200: 3-266 (150), 2.55s att/rec, 0.5s equip time, 13m range, 10 ammo clip
- Specials: aimed shot, burst, flingshot, full auto
Notes: it's the only bow with burst and full auto. The damage is too low to use it for anything else
than part of an alpha strike. Very good equip time to switch it fast. Ammo clip large enough to use all
specials without reloading.

OT Limb Bow:
- QL 40: 14-61 (37), 1.5s att/rec, 3.4s equip time, 24m range, 12 ammo clip
- QL 81: 23-109 (66), 1.5s att/rec, 3.4s equip time, 24m range, 12 ammo clip
- QL 200: 50-250 (150), 1.5s att/rec, 3.4s equip time, 24m range, 12 ammo clip
- Specials: none
Notes: the best low level bow, it has everything needed. Only req is bow skill, decent damage and crit for its category,
very good min damage, good ammo clip for a bow, good range. With a faster equip time it would be perfect.

Pow Bow:
- QL 31: 3-20 (119), 0.6s/0.8s att/rec, 4.5s equip time, 28m range, 5 ammo clip, +8 dodge range
- QL 91: 7-49 (297), 0.6s/0.8s att/rec, 4.5s equip time, 28m range, 5 ammo clip, +16 dodge range
- QL 181: 14-91 (564), 0.6s/0.8s att/rec, 4.5s equip time, 28m range, 5 ammo clip, +28 dodge range
- Specials: aimed shot
Notes: the fastest of all bow (and almost all range weapons), very low normal damage but the crit bonus
is close to those of a low-end shotgun. The range is fairly high too. A decent bow to use with a nice crit
buff before lvl 70.

Reet-Tech Venom Compound Bow:
- QL 40: 4-92 (29), 2.4s att/rec, 7.5s equip time, 18m range, 3 ammo clip
- QL 100: 4-213 (67), 2.4s att/rec, 7.5s equip time, 18m range, 3 ammo clip
- QL 200: 4-414 (130), 2.4s att/rec, 7.5s equip time, 18m range, 3 ammo clip
- Specials: aimed shot, flingshot
Notes: stats close to a bow-blaster but with a very long equip time and a low ammo clip making any switch
during combat not an option. Damage is high enough to not hit for min in pvm.
Only use one if you can't find a bow-blaster or a crossbow of the same QL. 

Sapphistic Bow:
- QL 31: 2-34 (80), 1.25s att/rec, 5.6s equip time, 24m range, 5 ammo clip
- QL 90: 2-78 (199), 1.17s att/rec, 5.6s equip time, 24m range, 5 ammo clip
- QL 181: 2-146 (382), 1.03s att/rec, 5.6s equip time, 24m range, 5 ammo clip
- Specials: aimed shot
Notes: low damage, medium crit, slow equip time, decent range and fast. Only good to use at low level.

Spring Inc Tube-Bow:
- QL 40: 8-75 (49), 1s/3s att/rec, 5.5s equip time, 20m range, 3 ammo clip
- QL 100: 8-165 (109), 1s/3s att/rec, 5.5s equip time, 20m range, 3 ammo clip
- QL 181: 8-287 (191), 1s/3s att/rec, 5.5s equip time, 20m range, 3 ammo clip
- Specials: aimed shot
Notes: this bow would be good to use at low level if it wasn't for its horrible recharge
delay that interfers with fists and once your range init is high enough to optimize it, the
damage is too low to keep using it as well as the ammo clip.

All stats gathered from antiguardians.org items database (02/25/2002).

P.S.: Funcom is currently working on special arrows on the test server. In the next patch
bow special attack req will be removed from all bows and put on special arrows to be used with any bow.
From the report I got (thanks to Chronita) there will be 5 special arrows, working like unarmed special attacks
(timer, damage and special effect):
- cold arrow
- fire arrow
- chemical arrow
- poison arrow
- radiation arrow

More to come about special arrows when they will be implemented on the live servers.


Lethalfire, master 5th dan of The Dojo, RK-2