Dragonslayer Greatbow?

Is the Dragonslayer Greatbow, or any bow for that matter, worthwhile in any Dark Souls PvP setting?

Apologies if this is too silly a question. I haven't done any PvP yet, just bought the game actually. I'm trying to build my first character as something that can work for both PvE and PvP. I'm piecing various builds together on info I gather here. Right now I like my strength build Warrior, but I'm not sure if going up to 20 Dex for the Dragonslayer Greatbow is just throwing points away as far as PvP is concerned.

It can be used and I have seen a few videos of it and other bows being used in PvP. I think the best way to describe it is tricky, lag and your opponents dodging abilities may hinder it, but with enough patience and practice I bet you could do it :p

one of my favorite pvp video's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHWtgGGx5aQ

and it is now known that you can backstab with a bow! so you won't need a back up bs weapon like this guy!

Yes, it can be done. There's also a hilarious video out there somewhere of someone using a dragonslayer bow to invade the catacombs. They'd get down on that ledge near the great scythe and then knock people off the bridges with it. Also works well in the tomb of giants and sen's fortress. If you're doing your first run through the typical tactic is to overlevel/spend points on everything so you can experiment. Then make a specific PvP build later. It's hard to stay focused on your first runthrough because you'll keep finding all these neat weapons and spells that are just a few points out of reach, and suddenly you have a 30 in everything.

Thanks for the input.I was hoping to avoid as much trial and error with my first character as possible. From what I've seen of the game so far I'm not too excited about spell casting. I figure that a good strength build will let me use a large variety or weapons and armor, as well as to force me to get comfortable with the basics ie. movement and attacks.

Here's what I was thinking of for a PvP/PvE Strength Build (Dragonslayer Greatbow & Black Knight weapon friendly)...

Soul Level 120
Starting Class: Pyromancer
40 Vitality
12 Attunement
40 Endurance
61 Strength
20 Dexterity
12 Resistance
10 Intelligence
8 Faith

If there are any glaring faults with this build please let me know.

no need for that much str, max req in game is 58 for smoughs hammer and scaling begins losing effectiveness after 40-50 points next time put those points into vit as you've got end at the right lvl.

sparkly-twinkly-lizard wrote:no need for that much str, max req in game is 58 for smoughs hammer and scaling begins losing effectiveness after 40-50 points next time put those points into vit as you've got end at the right lvl.

Great! Thank you, that's just the kind of info I needed.

I found the Dark Souls Stat Planner by Mud-Chan and played around with the numbers. In order to get the highest damage, before diminishing returns, out of the Dragonslayer Greatbow (and the Composite Bow +15) you need...

Strength: 27
Dexterity: 40

Does that make any sense? That seems like a very random number combo.

it s because two handing at 27 str is equal to 40 str but that two handing function does not apply to bows so that calculator is wrong the diminishing return is at 40/40, str/dex

sparkly-twinkly-lizard wrote:it s because two handing at 27 str is equal to 40 str but that two handing function does not apply to bows so that calculator is wrong the diminishing return is at 40/40, str/dex

That sucks. If I want to max out my bow damage I'm left with no room in points at level 120 to have enough intelligence or faith for utility spells. Do most people stop at level 120 btw? Is there any reason to not just continue leveling up?

Soul Level 120
Starting Class: Pyromancer
41 Vitality
12 Attunement
40 Endurance
40 Strength
40 Dexterity
12 Resistance
10 Intelligence
8 Faith

I've got it in my head that I should get my Faith to 12 for the heal and Intelligence to 16 various utility spells like Remedy, Resist Curse, Chameleon (that one looks fun) etc. If I really don't need any of that for a PvP character how does the above build look, and what kind of weapons and armor would mesh well with the Dragonslayer Greatbow?

Can you really backstab with bows? I can't find any video of that occurring. It would look cool as hell if you backstabbed with one of the DSGB's arrows

For a pvp build, I wouldn't worry about raising your faith to 12 for heal. You'll probably never heal in heated combat. 16 is also one or two points too high for int. Resist curse and remedy are completely unecessary, as you are likely to never be cursed, and poisons can be addressed with consumables. Chameleon, hidden weapon, and hidden body are a lot of fun (14 int for all of these). Great magic weapon is also pretty useful with the oolacile catalyst (15 int, which gets you about 200 magic damage). However, you can't enchant your bows, so 14 probably suits your purposes.