[Archery] ABC or Necro or Both?

[CorwinXX]

Also: armor pierce vs armor ignore? Trying to decide on a Composite Bow or a Yumi for my main bow to use. Anyone have any math done on which is more effective?

It depends on monsters you fight. Some monsters have 60-80 at their lowest resist.
Armor Ignore always does 100% of damage.
Armor Pierce does:
80 res: 30%
60 res: 60%
40 res: 90%
20 res: 120%
0 res: 150%

I don't know how it ineracts with 300% cap. The easy way to test it is to try it vs Fire Damage in The Abyss dungeon (-5% cold res), check damage you do with EOO+CW+Daemon Slayer and compare it with the damage shown in your stats.

Yumi: 13-17 damage, 3.25s
Composite Bow: 16-20 damage, 4.00s

With a Yumi you can easily get 1.25s without SSI on your weapon: DF + a turq ring. With a Composite Bow you need additional 25 SSI to get 1.50s (but you do 20% more damage per hit).

 

[CorwinXX]

Is there any math done (or any way to interpret) on the new changes for heavy armor and the LMC associated with them? Only reason that I'm asking is that I'm running 90 meditation right now with Leather armor and considering bumping myself up to something heavier for the base LMC bonuses involved and dropping meditation for Focus. Can't seem to do the math and figure out what would be more beneficial.

In PvM usually the main source of mana is mana leech and so lmc is always better than meditation. But when you're mana drained you often can do noticeable damage and can't leech.
IMHO If you have Healing and can heal yourself without mana it's better to use nonmed armor, especially if you have high Resisting Spells and don't stay long without mana (if you haven't I'd sugested to drop Meditation, get Resisting Spells and use nonmed armor).


I believe the answer to your questions depends on how you spend mana (for special moves or spells, which spells, etc).

 

[Gb8719]

In PvM usually the main source of mana is mana leech and so lmc is always better than meditation. But when you're mana drained you often can do noticeable damage and can't leech.
IMHO If you have Healing and can heal yourself without mana it's better to use nonmed armor, especially if you have high Resisting Spells and don't stay long without mana (if you haven't I'd sugested to drop Meditation, get Resisting Spells and use nonmed armor).


I believe the answer to your questions depends on how you spend mana (for special moves or spells, which spells, etc).

Good advice. I've thrown around the idea of taking up resist spells [to 90] instead of meditation since I can count how many times I've used it actively on one hand. I'm struggling with my gear to be able to get 40 LMC so I think the base LMC on the non-meddable armor should help out.

I'm spending my mana strictly on special moves. I rely on bandages, potions, apples, petals, etc. for cures and decurses.

Interesting points about the Yumi vs. Composite too. I'm almost wondering if the Yumi would be a better option since, if I understand it correctly, Mana Leech on a ranged weapon goes down with the more swing speed on the weapon. Seems the composite bow might do more damage but the Yumi would be able to leech mana back much faster?

EDIT: Just double checked online and looks like the Yumi is 4.5s weapon speed and the composite bow is 4s.

 

[CorwinXX]

EDIT: Just double checked online and looks like the Yumi is 4.5s weapon speed and the composite bow is 4s.

Have you checked this in the game?
uoguides says 4.5s and uostratics says 3.25s
I trust more the info on stratics becouse I believe that a weapon with 4.5s must have 18-22 damage (not 16-20 like uoguides states).

Mana Leech on a ranged weapon goes down with the more swing speed on the weapon

Yes. But I think than a 3.25s/0%SSI weapon has the same HML cap as 4.00s/25%SSI one.
I suggest you use reforging to get more HML (56% I believe).

 

[Gb8719]

Have you checked this in the game?
uoguides says 4.5s and uostratics says 3.25s
I trust more the info on stratics becouse I believe that a weapon with 4.5s must have 18-22 damage (not 16-20 like uoguides states).


Yes. But I think than a 3.25s/0%SSI weapon has the same HML cap as 4.00s/25%SSI one.
I suggest you use reforging to get more HML (56% I believe).

I double checked and you were correct about the swing speeds.

I'm almost done working Fletching right now to start working on the bow. Need to learn a bit about crafting. If I understand correctly, I'm going to want to make a bow and then reforge for hit mana leech, and then imbue max hit mana leech on it and swing speed? I'll need to also look into fitting HLD on the weapon since I'm using Hunter's Headdress instead of Mace and Shield.

 

[CorwinXX]

Well, I haven't tried this myself so there's an teoretical advice:

Get 120 chivalry and use DF for 15 HCI, 15 SSI, 20 DI.
In this case you needn't imbue SSI on your bow and don't reduce those 56% HML.

1. Slayer bow:
56 HML (reforged)
Super Slayer
40 DI (+15 from orb + 20 from di + 25 from ring/bracelet)
50 HLD
28 HSL (or may be more HSL and less HLD)

2. Balanced bow:
56 HML (reforged)
Balanced
40 DI
42 HLD
28 HSL (or may be more HSL and less HLD)
Use a macro to switch to balanced bow + ecru ring, drink str/dex potions and switch back.
With +30 dex from potions and +41 stamina from suit it's easy to get 190 stamina. So 15% SSI from DF and 5% SSI from turq/shame ring or shame bracelet is enough to get 1.25s.