by Sentiel Sat Jun 29, 2013 5:30 pm
Another thing to consider is the bow. Each have different firing speed, range and arrow flight path deviation.
Shortbow fires quickly, has standard accuracy and range, but it's weak.
Composite Bow also fires quickly, but has shortest range, biggest arrow flight path deviation, However, if you have above 20 Str, Composite Bow will outdamage other bows.
Longbow fires slowly, has standard accuray and range, but it's strong. It's the second strongest Dex bow.
Black Bow of Pharis has unique stance and it's arrows fly especially far away and are especially accurate. It has the highest damage for Dex builds, but the firing speed is slow.
Then we have Greatbows.
Dragonslayer Greatbow requires 20 Str to use, but it's arrows are stronger than the usual arrows and have extremely strong knockback effect. However, it's firing speed is extremely slow and you can't move while you aim it.
Gough's Greatbow is from DLC. It has slightly longer range than Dragonslayer Greatbow and it's also much more powerful, however it requires 27 Str to use.
There is another bow that scales with your Faith.
Darkmoon Bow has identical properties to Shortbow, but it does Magic damage, so if it's used with Moonlight Arrows it will prove to be very strong, maybe even stronger than the regular bows, but it largely depends on the enemy you fight and it's resistance to Magic damage.
And lastly, as Animaaal said, if you're an Intelligence build, you can use Enchanted upgrade path for your bow. It won't be as powerful as your spells, but it will still do a lot damage. It will be on par with Darkmoon Bow, with Echnated Composite Bow +5 being the strongest.
There are also arrows to choose from.
Wooden Arrows are the weakest, but they're also the cheapest.
Standard Arrows are just that.
Heavy Arrows are the strongest, but they create flight path deviation and have reduced range. They work great if you use them while being locked on your target.
Feather Arrows are slightly stronger than Standard, but weaker than Heavy. They have increased range and accuracy, making them ideal for manual aiming and sniping.
Poison Arrows has the same damage and properties as Standard, but they inflict Poison Aux upon hit. Mostly used for cheesing bosses and in PvP.
Fire Arrows do split pPhysical and Fire damage and are best used with Fire, or Chaos upgraded bows. These are great for low SL builds that don't have stats to use other upgrade paths.
Moonlight Arrows inflict Magic damage and are best used with Magic/Enchanted, or Divine/Occult upgraded bows, or Darkmoon Bow.
Greatbows have two types of arrows.
Dragonslayer Arrows, which are the standard.
Gough's Greatarrows, which are slightly stronger and have bigger range than Dragonslayer. However they are expensive and can be purchased only in DLC, from Gough himself.
Lastly.
Most enemies have hitzones, which determine the damage received. On human type enemy, if you hit it's torso, it will receive the standard damage. If you hit it's legs, the damage will be slightly lower. However if you managed to hit it's head, the damage will be significantly higher. This is a critical hit, similar in functionality to a backstab, or riposte. It will stagger the target and cancel whatever it was doing without exception. This can be used to cheese some bosses, like Quelaag, or to prevent Artorias from buffing himself. It's also usefull in PvP as it stops anything the other player does. If the player is bowing whilst casting a Miracle, or Pyromancy AoE spell, locking onto the player and shooting, will result in instant headshot, that will cancel the spell casting if done soon enough.
I'm exhausted...