I see some items go for millions, and I don't understand why. And then I see items that look great that go for a couple thousand. Is there a guide out there that explains how you can tell if you have a good item, or what to look for as far as mods and stats? So far, I understand that hit% lightning and hit% fireball on weapons is good. And if it's a bow, only balanced ones are really worth considering, right? What else?
There is no reasoning behind how people price weapons any more, JUST so you know. There used to be a pricing guide a while back on Atlantic that pretty much governed everything. I found it to be quite accurate frankly.
Nowadays there are people who post prices for 70 million and such but quite frankly a lot of those weapons are garbage.
The best weapon I ever knew had 50 leeches, every single leech along with 50 magic arrow and that guy would get offers of up to 50 million or so for his weapon. Now THAT, was a fair price considering how RARE something like that truly is.
In terms of bows, as long as you have a good mix, some DI, some SSI and depending whether you are PvPing or not, you can consider balanced and some other traits.
Please keep in mind that balanced isn't the be all end all. You can easily setup quick equip macros through UO Assist and well for me?...I hardly ever miss a beat. Balanced bow or not.
Good item for a weapon for PvM =
1. Slayer (depends...basically the major types: elemental, reptile, arachnid, undead, and demon). Probably a few class types I forgot at the moment.
2. DI
3. Mana leech
4. Stamina leech
Anything else is debatable. Balanced, hit spell etc. blah blah...is debatable.
PvP rule of thumb is as you already have mentioned.
Lower requirements can be important if you are going with a lesser STR setup. Additionally, Hit Lower Attack is probably the most underrated mod there is on a weapon. Few people seem to understand it for whatever reason.
Additionally hit lower defense is nice to have on a weapon.
That said, don't go paying millions and millions for weapons that have WEAK stats on them.
Also don't pay for weapons (bows and dexxer weapons) that have -1 on spell casting (SC) and/or don't have DI on them.
Reason being is self explanatory. The reason they are selling them is for that reason.
My rule of thumb for -1 SC stuff is if you have 3/3 casting or better AFTER equipping the weapon then...buy it perhaps.
If no DI on it?...Don't bother. Waste of gold.