[Archery] Suggestion for 5th property on Bows

[Mordha]

Hey guys, I recently remade my suit for my archer, he's a classic ABC and I'm trying to figure out what properties would be my target for the bows. My thought is SSI (need at least 10 but no more then 20), HLL, HML, HSL. I'm not sure where to go with the 5th. I was thinking HLA but had someone say hit area (match the elemental damage of the bow). Any helpful suggestions here would be great, thanks

 

[gwen]

Can be hit area , or slayer (especially lesser slayer) or hit lighting. Hit area is wasted if you fight solo target but good for big and weak spawn. HLD is also good if you do not use Mace and Shield.

 

[Keven2002]

Hey guys, I recently remade my suit for my archer, he's a classic ABC and I'm trying to figure out what properties would be my target for the bows. My thought is SSI (need at least 10 but no more then 20), HLL, HML, HSL. I'm not sure where to go with the 5th. I was thinking HLA but had someone say hit area (match the elemental damage of the bow). Any helpful suggestions here would be great, thanks

I found myself in a similar boat and posted the same question a while back and like most other things in UO, the answer is "it depends".

Not to completely throw a wrench into things but if you don't plan on taking that many hits (which an archer shouldn't given it's a ranged template) then I don't really think you need stam leech because you can use divine fury to regain any lost stam and save a whole property. Additionally if you only need 10 SSI then my suggestion would be to imbue all 5 properties on the bow and then use a forging tool (100% chance for enhancement) to add ash to the bow which gives it a 6th property of 10 SSI.

This is the bow I made before the serpent quiver came out that gave me the extra 10 DI I needed. As you see it has 7 properties given that I enhanced after imbuing all 5 properties.



Going back to your original question though....What are you using the archer for?

First assumption is that you have all the cameos or slayer talis you need because you need the proper slayer regardless of what you are fighting. The safest property that can be added in any situation would be HLD. Even with mace and shields you will be increasing your (and everyone elses) chance to land more shots. That said, there are options.

If it's something like the archlich event in Deceit then the property would be hit area effect (whatever matches the bow damage is usually typical) BUT for something like that you should be going magical shortbow instead of composite bow due to the lightning arrow special (hits additional targets); these swing faster than comp bows so you might not need SSI. If that's the case, I'd add the proper slayer (even if you are using a cameo) to the weapon because simply using the undead tali (super slayer) isn't enough to get you to the 300% DI cap. Enemy of One from Chiv can get your there but if you are fighting multiple targets that's going to end up getting you hit with additional damage from other mobs.

If it's more of a single target then it again depends. Are you solo'ing something? Will you be able to maintain your distance from it? If so then you would want the comp bow and you can use Chiv to get you close to that 300% cap with EOO so slayer isn't as important (you will want that max DI for max leech) and you probably want to go with hit spell (lightning most likely) or hit velocity. If you will be doing a lot of running and likely take hits then adding HLA would be helpful to limit the damage you take (plus the stam you would lose).

Lots of dependencies when it comes to an archer which is why my archer has like 15-20 bows for each situation and I carry 4-5 on me at all times. If you are looking for a jack of all trades bow then honestly the bow of infinite swarm is a good direction to go. Gives you everything you really need. It's 100% Physical damage but if you are looking to spam AI then you aren't using elemental damage anyway.

 

[dvv]

Isn’t stamina leech pointless on bows unless you’re getting hit with melee damage (something archers typically avoid)?

 

[Anon McDougle]

Isn’t stamina leech pointless on bows unless you’re getting hit with melee damage (something archers typically avoid)?

Try to avoid unfortunately the monsters still close and attack..

 

[Merlin]

If you're an ABC archer, how are you healing yourself? If you have Chivalry, you have Close Wounds. If you have healing, you have bandages. If you have Bushido, you have Confidence. Most likely, you will have a combination of these methods to heal yourself. Do you really need Life Leach on the bow too? Instead, you could consider enhancing the bows with Bloodwood, that will add a small bit of Life Leach and 2 HPR... and you can still keep your other five mods (see example in my bows below).

Hit Stamina Leach... if you're ranged, I don't think this is necessary. If you have Chivalry, you can use Divine Fury to replenish stamina in a pinch. Worst case scenario, if your Stam drops a little, you're swinging a slower for a few moments.

I would suggest going Hit Mana Leach, Hit Lower Defense, Hit Area, Swing Speed Increase... and then you still have a fifth mod for anything from using a Slayer, using a Hit Spell or Hit Velocity, using Balanced so you can chug pots, Hit Lower Attack, or even adding a stat such as FC1, and so on. Lots of options here. I would suggest you have a wide array of different bows for different situations. Test and find out what works best for you in different situations.

Good luck!

 

[Merlin]

I very recently rebuilt my ABC archer's armory, here are two examples of my bows, one a slayer weapon without SSI, another a non-Slayer weapon with SSI:

 

[Mordha]

I probably should have included some more details.
My ABC has 120 Archery, 120 Tactics, 120 Bushido, 120 Chivalry, 120 Anatomy and 120 Healing.
I'm using M&S Glasses, Feudal Grips, Ozzies Obi, Vambraces from recent event, SSI Epaulettes, Serpent Skin Quiver, Anon's Boots, Blackthorn's LT "Sash", and Solaria's Secret Poisons (I'm 5 over on HCI with these equipped). I also have 5 of the 6 Cameo's (I keep trying to get the 6th one).
Here are my stats without a weapon (note the SSI is showing 45 because I invoked the town bonus last night out of habit)



My crazy idea was to enhance the bows with yew, for the 5 HCI (so I could do away with the earrings)
I was looking at 5 bows to start with to cover the 5 elemental damages, then add bows on an as needed basis after. This is why I was looking at the mods I listed above, HLL, HML, HSL and SSI.
I did do some testing last night and found I wasn't missing the HSL, so I might take that off the list. And I'm back to being lost again, lol
Velocity sounds like it might be a worthy add. I'm really not sure about the hit areas, not taking them off the possible list but my thinking is, wouldn't I get mobs mad at me if I use the hit area? and then I'm hoping to not be hit, so I can stay at range?

 

[Keven2002]

@Mordha - What do you plan on fighting? That's going to be a pretty big factor in what properties to add.

Without knowing exactly what you plan on fighting; this is my 2 cents:

1. Generally speaking there aren't a lot of earring options for a warrior, period, so going with the HCI earrings isn't a bad choice; I probably wouldn't swap them out for anything else currently available (I'm assuming you're elf and get the auto nightsight & mana). If you stick with those earrings, you don't need yew wood and can enhance with ash wood instead to get your 10 SSI that puts you at 55 SSI (with town buff) and 1.25 swing at 210+ stam.
2. Make sure everything you are wearing is non-mage armor. I see you are are 46 LMC so I know some of it is but if you are all metal armor; swap to some studded/bone in spots you can so that you get the extra 3% LMC. Aim to be at least 50% LMC for spamming AI.
3. Refine your armor!! It doesn't make sense not to with an archer because they don't really need 45 DCI and you are at 30 DCI anyway which means you can add an additional 15 points of max resist with literally no drawback to DCI cap. You already have some non-med armor so it only makes sense to refine those pieces.
4. Careful what you add HLL to. I have a couple HLL bows that are useless when it comes to fighting Scalis and monsters with tainted leech life. Kind of defeats the purpose of using an archer instead of a sampire for things like that in my opnion.
5. Assuming there is a slayer available; using properties of Slayer+HML+hit velocity+hit spell will hands down give you the most DPS. The most complimentary property for this would me HLD so you are maximizing how often you hit and your max potential damage. Your build is similar to one of my builds where I don't have resist spells so this character for me, majority of the time, is designed to be a glass cannon.

Like I said, I don't know what you plan on fighting but remember that if your plan is to use a comp bow because you want to spam AI then having an 100% element isn't really as useful (again depends on what you are fighting) because the weapon is doing physical damage. When I'm fighting something that has higher overall resists and I know I will be spamming AI; I just use a legendary bow like below (you could enhance this with ash to get your 10 SSI) so I'm hitting fatigue/mana drain. In the event you are group fighting and it's something that getting a big debuff (discord/rune corruption/conductive blast/etc) and the resist will be pretty low; I'd roll with a 100% element Yumi. This will not only allow you to apply armor pierce to help everyone out but also will likely give you more DPS (and you won't need SSI at all).

 

[Merlin]

I probably should have included some more details.
My ABC has 120 Archery, 120 Tactics, 120 Bushido, 120 Chivalry, 120 Anatomy and 120 Healing.
I'm using M&S Glasses, Feudal Grips, Ozzies Obi, Vambraces from recent event, SSI Epaulettes, Serpent Skin Quiver, Anon's Boots, Blackthorn's LT "Sash", and Solaria's Secret Poisons (I'm 5 over on HCI with these equipped). I also have 5 of the 6 Cameo's (I keep trying to get the 6th one).
Here are my stats without a weapon (note the SSI is showing 45 because I invoked the town bonus last night out of habit)

View attachment 139193

My crazy idea was to enhance the bows with yew, for the 5 HCI (so I could do away with the earrings)
I was looking at 5 bows to start with to cover the 5 elemental damages, then add bows on an as needed basis after. This is why I was looking at the mods I listed above, HLL, HML, HSL and SSI.
I did do some testing last night and found I wasn't missing the HSL, so I might take that off the list. And I'm back to being lost again, lol
Velocity sounds like it might be a worthy add. I'm really not sure about the hit areas, not taking them off the possible list but my thinking is, wouldn't I get mobs mad at me if I use the hit area? and then I'm hoping to not be hit, so I can stay at range?

Some thoughts here...
How much are you using Bushido and what abilities are you frequently using? You have other methods to heal, so if you're mainly using for Confidence, 120 might be a bit high. Only 50 Bushido required to use Yumi's. You might have some wiggle room to reduce this and raise something else.

Same with Healing. Enhanced bandages work as if it give you +10 Healing. If you're using those, then 110 Healing is usually suffice. And considering you have multiple methods to heal, even GM or 80-90 skill points is probably enough.

Might not be alot of skill points saved, but could invest a few points into Focus or something for a little bit of extra mana regen and stam regen.

Building on Keven's point above... In terms of enhancing bows for HCI... if you take off the HCI earrings, what are you going to use in their place? If it were me, I would rather be overcapped 5 HCI and enhance with something you will get better use out of since there are not much better options in the Earring slot.

Which Mastery are you using?

 

[Mordha]

Ok, I'll keep the HCI earrings, sounds like I'm better off with them then without
Merlin is correct, I don't have anything else that would make sense for the earring slot.

I'm using archery 3. I have Bushido 2 and chivalry 3. Interesting idea about adjusting skills some. But for now, I'll stick with what I have, but will keep in mind adjusting skills. I'm getting back to my archer, so I'm still relearning everything.

My hope is to eventually have a mix of bows, composite, yumi and possibly some magical short bows. It's sounding like the HLL is a bad idea, so I'll skip that. Maybe go with some mix of HML, Velocity, hit area, HLA, HLD (even though I have that on glasses) and SSI (composite) or DI (but lowering to 10 if the bow has DI). I'll also plan some slayer bows.

As for mobs to fight, going to be mostly group stuff, like Doom, Scalis or other things. I don't have anything really specific in mind.

 

[gwen]

@Mordha the more you dive deep the more complicated it becomes. You better don't do all sets for everything. Start with some content you like to do now (to start with 1-2 slayers only . Because different bows will need different other gear. While Comp bow need huge SSI and Stam , magical short one allows you to stack HP regen on your toon, be in wraith form (so need little to none no HML) . Yumi need a mount to ride. repeating crossbow need you to carry bolts .

Also look into named artifacts : Halawa bow , Ironwood (Fey slayer), Blight of tundra , Swarm bow (mentioned here already), Driftwood (from SOS Mib) is also often overlooked. You can even dive into Juka Lord bows if you have nothing else to do.

With 120 Bushido you can ride lesser Hiryu , which has grasping claw and up to 108 wrestling( you have Chiv to keep it alive and macro to mount it when boss switches to pet)

 

[Keven2002]

Ok, I'll keep the HCI earrings, sounds like I'm better off with them then without
Merlin is correct, I don't have anything else that would make sense for the earring slot.

I'm using archery 3. I have Bushido 2 and chivalry 3. Interesting idea about adjusting skills some. But for now, I'll stick with what I have, but will keep in mind adjusting skills. I'm getting back to my archer, so I'm still relearning everything.

My hope is to eventually have a mix of bows, composite, yumi and possibly some magical short bows. It's sounding like the HLL is a bad idea, so I'll skip that. Maybe go with some mix of HML, Velocity, hit area, HLA, HLD (even though I have that on glasses) and SSI (composite) or DI (but lowering to 10 if the bow has DI). I'll also plan some slayer bows.

As for mobs to fight, going to be mostly group stuff, like Doom, Scalis or other things. I don't have anything really specific in mind.

I like using Archery mastery for the warrior gifts passive bonus (+5 str / +5 HCI / +5 to 300% Damage Cap) which come in handy for getting closer to that 150 str cap and 300% cap.

I'm not sure why you would add damage increase to the bows if you are already at 100 DI (which your status bar showed). Adding DI when you are already 100% would be a wasted property. If you are doing something like Scalis then I'd recommend the Bow of Swarm, which is what I typically see there because you don't want HLL at that point and you are swinging max speed while leeching max mana.

 

[Mordha]

I like using Archery mastery for the warrior gifts passive bonus (+5 str / +5 HCI / +5 to 300% Damage Cap) which come in handy for getting closer to that 150 str cap and 300% cap.

I'm not sure why you would add damage increase to the bows if you are already at 100 DI (which your status bar showed). Adding DI when you are already 100% would be a wasted property. If you are doing something like Scalis then I'd recommend the Bow of Swarm, which is what I typically see there because you don't want HLL at that point and you are swinging max speed while leeching max mana.

I'm not sure why this keeps being brought up. I ask about imbue mods but you and another mentioned drops. I do have Bow of Infinite Swarm and I find it to be a very nice bow. Probably the nicest drop bow in game.

As for the remark about DI in your post. Not to sound nasty here but I'm not rich, so to invest a large amount of gold into whetstones is something way beyond my capability. What I said was, I'll lower DI to 10 on these bows. Crafted exceptional bows come with 40 DI, so my plan is to lower the DI to 10 to maximize the room for the other 4 mods.
Going back to my original post, the 5 composite bows I have were gifted to me by a friend who went the extra mile to remove the DI on those bows. I can't count on that kind of kindness for all the bows, so I have to accept there will be some DI and yes, it is a wasted mod.

 

[Mordha]

I very recently rebuilt my ABC archer's armory, here are two examples of my bows, one a slayer weapon without SSI, another a non-Slayer weapon with SSI:

View attachment 139177
View attachment 139178

The 2 examples you gave me here are very much what I was looking for. Thank you sir.

However, I do have a question. If you had to make those bows but didn't have the gold to spend on whetstones (buying several of them at 13m each is something I really don't want to do), which mod would you sacrifice in the creation of the bows you have shown me here? My guess would be HLA on the yumi? And Hit Lightning on the composite? Or would you pick another mod?

 

[gwen]

The 2 examples you gave me here are very much what I was looking for. Thank you sir.

However, I do have a question. If you had to make those bows but didn't have the gold to spend on whetstones (buying several of them at 13m each is something I really don't want to do), which mod would you sacrifice in the creation of the bows you have shown me here? My guess would be HLA on the yumi? And Hit Lightning on the composite? Or would you pick another mod?

Why sacrifice if you can buy normal bows from vendor and reforge non-exceptional ? Lots of Imbuing capacity there . You will get your 5 properties without whetstone. At least for elemental bow. And then you can go and make them in Shame.

 

[Keven2002]

I'm not sure why this keeps being brought up. I ask about imbue mods but you and another mentioned drops. I do have Bow of Infinite Swarm and I find it to be a very nice bow. Probably the nicest drop bow in game.

Your original post says:

Hey guys, I recently remade my suit for my archer, he's a classic ABC and I'm trying to figure out what properties would be my target for the bows. My thought is SSI (need at least 10 but no more then 20), HLL, HML, HSL. I'm not sure where to go with the 5th. I was thinking HLA but had someone say hit area (match the elemental damage of the bow). Any helpful suggestions here would be great, thanks

You said nothing about looking for solely imbued bows. That's why people are guiding you towards artifacts because those are the most versatile (and affordable which I will address later) bows out there.

As for the remark about DI in your post. Not to sound nasty here but I'm not rich, so to invest a large amount of gold into whetstones is something way beyond my capability. What I said was, I'll lower DI to 10 on these bows. Crafted exceptional bows come with 40 DI, so my plan is to lower the DI to 10 to maximize the room for the other 4 mods.
Going back to my original post, the 5 composite bows I have were gifted to me by a friend who went the extra mile to remove the DI on those bows. I can't count on that kind of kindness for all the bows, so I have to accept there will be some DI and yes, it is a wasted mod.

As I've said (and others) in previous post; archery requires many different bows for certain situations. It's a bit ironic that you say you aren't rich so you aren't going to invest in something like a whetstone but you also have fully re-outfitted your fully scrolled archer ( items like feudal grips / SSI epps/ etc), have almost all the cameos, and are open to using the forged artifact. So using a 10m whetstone (cheaper if you just go get them yourself) should really just be a drop in the bucket when talking about this toon. I'm not sure why anyone would "do it right" 95% of the way there and then decide to skimp on the last 5%.

You are completely wasting money if you are going to leave the DI on your bow (it's a wasted property) and then use the forged artifact to add something like 10 SSI to it. In fact, using a whetstone and using a charge of the forged tool are ballpark same price, you'd be better off using a whetstone instead so that you are getting 5 meaningful properties with a chance at adding more down the road with the artifact (enhancing with tool).

Sticking with the topic of money, this will limit the number of different bows you have (which has already been stated you will want many) and really what it comes down to is that you are asking for a "jack of all" type bow, at least for the time being. That brings us back to using the bow of infinite swarm (that you already have). This is going to be the best all round bow for you to use while you save up money to buy some whetstones in order to make all the different bows you will need.

 

[Merlin]

The 2 examples you gave me here are very much what I was looking for. Thank you sir.

However, I do have a question. If you had to make those bows but didn't have the gold to spend on whetstones (buying several of them at 13m each is something I really don't want to do), which mod would you sacrifice in the creation of the bows you have shown me here? My guess would be HLA on the yumi? And Hit Lightning on the composite? Or would you pick another mod?

You got it. I would get rid of the HLA and Hit Lightning. Happy to show you some others or talk shop in-game sometime.

And I fully understand that Whetstones aren't cheap... especially if you're going for a full Slayer set. If you were to go for a Slayer set, I like your budget-savvy idea of lowering DI and then going with 4 imbued mods. If you could do a cheap Slayer set with four Mods... then maybe have just one or two other bows that you do get a whetstone for so you could have a more general five-mod bow that could be your "go-to" weapon.

 

[gwen]

You got it. I would get rid of the HLA and Hit Lightning. Happy to show you some others or talk shop in-game sometime.

And I fully understand that Whetstones aren't cheap... especially if you're going for a full Slayer set. If you were to go for a Slayer set, I like your budget-savvy idea of lowering DI and then going with 4 imbued mods. If you could do a cheap Slayer set with four Mods... then maybe have just one or two other bows that you do get a whetstone for so you could have a more general five-mod bow that could be your "go-to" weapon.

Budget save idea is to use non-exceptional bow to reforge and get 5th property imbued as you want , not 10%DI you don't need
You will have room for like 20-30% of HLA or HLD instead of 10%DI

 

[Keven2002]

Budget save idea is to use non-exceptional bow to reforge and get 5th property imbued as you want , not 10%DI you don't need

Well said. Ultimately you would only lose 50points of properties (ie 10%) rather than 100% loss of a usable property. Exceptional bows get 500 point weight vs non-exceptional get 450 points.

@Mordha - I threw together the bow you are thinking about having DI below (rough estimate). DI is a total waste so you might as well have it at 1 instead of 10 (this would give you 398 points used) but as you can see that even if you went with 10DI; you are only getting to 416 total property weight. Why waste a GM made bow when you could use an NPC bought bow and get 450 points AND another usable property (even 20% velocity would be better than 10 DI when you already have 100 DI)?

Your call but going the budget route would best be suited for non-GM bows to maximize overall property/intensity.

 

[Mordha]

Your original post says:



You said nothing about looking for solely imbued bows. That's why people are guiding you towards artifacts because those are the most versatile (and affordable which I will address later) bows out there.




As I've said (and others) in previous post; archery requires many different bows for certain situations. It's a bit ironic that you say you aren't rich so you aren't going to invest in something like a whetstone but you also have fully re-outfitted your fully scrolled archer ( items like feudal grips / SSI epps/ etc), have almost all the cameos, and are open to using the forged artifact. So using a 10m whetstone (cheaper if you just go get them yourself) should really just be a drop in the bucket when talking about this toon. I'm not sure why anyone would "do it right" 95% of the way there and then decide to skimp on the last 5%.

You are completely wasting money if you are going to leave the DI on your bow (it's a wasted property) and then use the forged artifact to add something like 10 SSI to it. In fact, using a whetstone and using a charge of the forged tool are ballpark same price, you'd be better off using a whetstone instead so that you are getting 5 meaningful properties with a chance at adding more down the road with the artifact (enhancing with tool).

Sticking with the topic of money, this will limit the number of different bows you have (which has already been stated you will want many) and really what it comes down to is that you are asking for a "jack of all" type bow, at least for the time being. That brings us back to using the bow of infinite swarm (that you already have). This is going to be the best all round bow for you to use while you save up money to buy some whetstones in order to make all the different bows you will need.

I'm not sure why I have to explain this but I will. I didn't buy any of those items. I even said I have 5 of the 6 cameos and I keep trying for the 6th. In other words, I'm running Shadowguard. I also scrolled this toon many years ago, long before the pet revamp made power scrolls crazy priced.
I also find it interesting you highlight that sentence about properties on my bows, then totally ignore the following sentence where I ask about properties, like SSI, HLL, and etc. I guess I should have said more like "what properties should I look at to imbue onto bows". Maybe then it would've been more clear what I was asking?

It's not that I don't appreciate the input, I do appreciate all of the input. It's just I feel like I'm asking for one thing and the answer I get is something else, like I go for a new battery for my Dodge Ram truck and someone there says I should consider using a Honda Civic. Not sure if that makes sense but that is how I feel this is going.

The idea of using npc bows is one I did not consider going that route, simply because I know there is a loss of total intensity. I'll keep that in mind, thank you @gwen and @Keven2002

 

[Mordha]

You got it. I would get rid of the HLA and Hit Lightning. Happy to show you some others or talk shop in-game sometime.

And I fully understand that Whetstones aren't cheap... especially if you're going for a full Slayer set. If you were to go for a Slayer set, I like your budget-savvy idea of lowering DI and then going with 4 imbued mods. If you could do a cheap Slayer set with four Mods... then maybe have just one or two other bows that you do get a whetstone for so you could have a more general five-mod bow that could be your "go-to" weapon.

That would be great, thank you sir. My home is Atlantic shard

 

[Keith of Sonoma]

Why sacrifice if you can buy normal bows from vendor and reforge non-exceptional ? Lots of Imbuing capacity there . You will get your 5 properties without whetstone. At least for elemental bow. And then you can go and make them in Shame.

Because you get 50 more imbuing "weight" with an exceptional bow.

 

[Keven2002]

I'm not sure why I have to explain this but I will. I didn't buy any of those items. I even said I have 5 of the 6 cameos and I keep trying for the 6th. In other words, I'm running Shadowguard. I also scrolled this toon many years ago, long before the pet revamp made power scrolls crazy priced.
I also find it interesting you highlight that sentence about properties on my bows, then totally ignore the following sentence where I ask about properties, like SSI, HLL, and etc. I guess I should have said more like "what properties should I look at to imbue onto bows". Maybe then it would've been more clear what I was asking?

It's not that I don't appreciate the input, I do appreciate all of the input. It's just I feel like I'm asking for one thing and the answer I get is something else, like I go for a new battery for my Dodge Ram truck and someone there says I should consider using a Honda Civic. Not sure if that makes sense but that is how I feel this is going.

The idea of using npc bows is one I did not consider going that route, simply because I know there is a loss of total intensity. I'll keep that in mind, thank you @gwen and @Keven2002

Honestly, it's more like you said you need a battery for your Dodge Ram TRX (100k truck) and I said "well depends... if you are looking to get everything out of your truck for max performance then you should go with something like an Optima Yellow Top" and your response is "I'm not rich @$$hole; I just wanted to know if I should get a Die Hard battery from Walmart for my 100k truck"

I think everyone here has just tried to be helpful based on your original post which said nothing about imbuing or budgets. You started introducing variables into the equation after the fact and being kind of a jerk about it because you apparently didn't like the answer. You also seemed to have disregarded my second answer based on your newly discussed budget build.

I'm not trying to be a jerk here but you can take or leave the advice; I just hope others that might have a similar question about what properties should go on a bow can use what everyone has provided based on the original question / thread topic title. Best of luck.

 

[Keven2002]

Because you get 50 more imbuing "weight" with an exceptional bow.

Correct BUT in this instance where the person is basically just keeping on DI because they can't afford to use a whetstone (even though they are at 100 DI already) it's a total waste of a property and you might as well make it DI = 1. If that's the case the property weight is around 400 (that's 4 other properties MAX weight). A non exceptional bow gets 450 (vs 500 for exceptional) so it's really negligible using an exceptional bow and keeping the DI on there.

You would be better off going with non-exceptional to get 450 points with 5 properties rather than leaving 100 points on the table due to DI property not mattering.

 

[gwen]

Correct BUT in this instance where the person is basically just keeping on DI because they can't afford to use a whetstone (even though they are at 100 DI already) it's a total waste of a property and you might as well make it DI = 1. If that's the case the property weight is around 400 (that's 4 other properties MAX weight). A non exceptional bow gets 450 (vs 500 for exceptional) so it's really negligible using an exceptional bow and keeping the DI on there.

You would be better off going with non-exceptional to get 450 points with 5 properties rather than leaving 100 points on the table due to DI property not mattering.

I'll correct you : 500 for non-exceptional and 550 for EX bow. 450 is for one- hand weapon non exceptional (melee or thrower). 450 and 500 (for melee EX)is where it makes sense to leave some DI even you have no money to buy or courage to make a whetstone. Then you get some small free property .
@Keven2002 , next time don't be lazy and pick up bow instead of keeping field empty : this way it counts overall capacity like for soul glaive (450/500 normal and EX) and you end up with wrong intensity.

@Mordha , your desired 10SSI and other 4 full capacity mods fit in non-exceptional bow too. Allowing you to enhance your bow later for some HLL and HP regen , or whatever.
Or check out 3-Rd screenshot for wraith form pirate hunter bow.

 

[Mordha]

Honestly, it's more like you said you need a battery for your Dodge Ram TRX (100k truck) and I said "well depends... if you are looking to get everything out of your truck for max performance then you should go with something like an Optima Yellow Top" and your response is "I'm not rich @$$hole; I just wanted to know if I should get a Die Hard battery from Walmart for my 100k truck"

I think everyone here has just tried to be helpful based on your original post which said nothing about imbuing or budgets. You started introducing variables into the equation after the fact and being kind of a jerk about it because you apparently didn't like the answer. You also seemed to have disregarded my second answer based on your newly discussed budget build.

I'm not trying to be a jerk here but you can take or leave the advice; I just hope others that might have a similar question about what properties should go on a bow can use what everyone has provided based on the original question / thread topic title. Best of luck.

Curious, I saw I needed to provide more info, I do that and I'm the jerk?

In the meantime, you tell me get a Bow of Infinite Swarm and "how the heck did you get all those items if you're not rich?" is a kind answer and you're not being a jerk for saying so.

Honestly, I really don't get it. I realised with the early responses that I needed to give more info and to also explain what I was asking in a better way. I'm not dismissing what you are saying but it is clear you didn't like that I worked the Deceit event for the Vambraces and SSI Epaulettes, I worked Doom to get what is needed for the gloves and I am working towards getting the cameos, by working Shadowguard. The chest, gorget and legs were crafted by me. So I'm not sure why is this a sore spot for you? I don't have so much gold that I can buy whatever I want in game, who cares? I'm happy with what I have and where I am in game. Gold shouldn't be used to define a player or the experience.

I do see this with what Mods I should look to add is a divisive thing. And yes, I should have said Imbues in the original post, yet it feels like you want to hang this over my head as a major fail and make me out as the one that is wrong for not including everything in the first post. I would like to think we can move beyond these errors on my part of not being thorough in my asking.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry I mislead you on what I thought was clear in my head as to what I was asking. I'm sorry you feel I'm being a jerk about not saying thank you so very much for helping me with answering my badly misrepresented questions. And I'm also sorry that I tried to provide more info to help those that were trying to help me.

In the end, I did get help. I also learned a few things along the way through this. In the future, I'll put everything into the first post and be super clear as to what I'm asking for.
I also learned, that some imbuing mods are not needed, like HSL, working with npc bows is a viable option.

 

[Mordha]

I'll correct you : 500 for non-exceptional and 550 for EX bow. 450 is for one- hand weapon non exceptional (melee or thrower). 450 and 500 (for melee EX)is where it makes sense to leave some DI even you have no money to buy or courage to make a whetstone. Then you get some small free property .
@Keven2002 , next time don't be lazy and pick up bow instead of keeping field empty : this way it counts overall capacity like for soul glaive (450/500 normal and EX) and you end up with wrong intensity.

@Mordha , your desired 10SSI and other 4 full capacity mods fit in non-exceptional bow too. Allowing you to enhance your bow later for some HLL and HP regen , or whatever.
Or check out 3-Rd screenshot for wraith form pirate hunter bow.

Thank you for showing some examples. You and Keven and Merlin have given me great input and ideas for what imbuing mods I should look at adding to my bows. It's very mush appreciated

 

[gwen]

Thank you for showing some examples. You and Keven and Merlin have given me great input and ideas for what imbuing mods I should look at adding to my bows. It's very mush appreciated

You are welcome .
Don't forget that different mods need different imbuing weight. While hit area or hit leech are 110 , hit spell or velocity are 140 . Lesser slayers need less than big ones. If you plan to kill dragons , don't do reptile and so on. Use imbuing planner, play with it . After you done with website you can test : imbue lower intensities where you don't need void orbs or raptor teeth(e.g 42% hit area ) . Try it in action then either throw away (put cheap on vendor for poor players) or imbue to full capacity knowing that light version worked and you will get even more with max one . This way you will loose only POF if it goes wrong.

 

[Mordha]

You are welcome .
Don't forget that different mods need different imbuing weight. While hit area or hit leech are 110 , hit spell or velocity are 140 . Lesser slayers need less than big ones. If you plan to kill dragons , don't do reptile and so on. Use imbuing planner, play with it . After you done with website you can test : imbue lower intensities where you don't need void orbs or raptor teeth(e.g 42% hit area ) . Try it in action then either throw away (put cheap on vendor for poor players) or imbue to full capacity knowing that light version worked and you will get even more with max one . This way you will loose only POF if it goes wrong.

Excellent suggestion! Never really thought about going with a lower imbue to test. This is something I can do easy enough and I'll keep the 5 bows I was given, until I can see what works and what doesn't. I know my friend invested gold in whetstones on those 5 elemental damage bows and really don't want to screw them up.

 

[gwen]

Excellent suggestion! Never really thought about going with a lower imbue to test. This is something I can do easy enough and I'll keep the 5 bows I was given, until I can see what works and what doesn't. I know my friend invested gold in whetstones on those 5 elemental damage bows and really don't want to screw them up.

It is great that you got the idea. Thing about making cheap weapon is not to make it high end. If you agree to test it without 10DI or 10SSI from enhance (which is 5-8M per charge) then you only will spend ingredients for slayer properties. Ask yourself do you really need to be at 100% DI when killing weak things or they die perfectly with just 90.
I suggest elemental and undead as starting point cuz those vials and undying flesh are easiest to get for Archer. With vendor (non Ex) bows and Consecrate from Archery you don't need reforge to elemental. Or you can start reforge vendor bows now and use all those 60% bows people usually throw away.
5 expensive bows can collect dust for a while.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

I like using Archery mastery for the warrior gifts passive bonus (+5 str / +5 HCI / +5 to 300% Damage Cap) which come in handy for getting closer to that 150 str cap and 300% cap.

Archery Mastery also gives you "Playing the Odds" ability (+45% HCI/+30% SSI/Halves bow range for 60 secs), which is very powerful in a party for counteracting debuffs like Aura of Nausea/Howl of Cacophany from Lady Melisande/Monstrous Interred Grizzle/Bard Captains. It also applies to pets, so is useful for buffing party damage even outside of those specific fights (pets land more hits due to +45% HCI, and can still swing at max speed even when dropping below 150 Stamina due to +30% SSI).

When I'm fighting something that has higher overall resists and I know I will be spamming AI; I just use a legendary bow like below (you could enhance this with ash to get your 10 SSI) so I'm hitting fatigue/mana drain.

Hit Fatigue is pretty damn useful, even for an Archer. Dropping the opponent's Stamina makes them move slower (easier kiting them then), and they also attack slower, so is useful in a group fight (the tanks will thank you) and when you're facing off against ranged monsters.