Finally I have enough moolah for me to upgrade my Dark Elven Bow but am finding myself torn between the Slow Gastraphetes and the Very Slow Strengthened Long Bow......just how much difference in rate of fire am I looking at here?
do you party with a buffer?
CowBeack is right, go for a dagger w/focus until a grade. Its us much cheaper on shots and will kill as fast or faster than a bow at your levels.
Dagger is generally the cheaper way to go till 52. However, if I rolled an archer, I'd want to shoot my bow, and if you feel the same way, go with the Strengthened Long Bow.
Slower and hits harder which means you use less arrows and shots. Technically makes it easier to kite, too, since it takes longer till you can shoot another arrow, thus giving you more running time.
Last but certainly not least, you'll probably use less mana per kill as well.
if u wana use bows I would recommend Gast vs strengh.long bow. Gast uses less soulshots i belive its 8 per shot when streng.lb uses 12 ss. and its slower.
Gast will allow u to cut down leveling time by running less. As i recall both kill mob with same number of shots (unless u find that specific mob with threshhold HP difference) and st. longbow ends up overdamaging last blow wasting SS.
if u wana use bows I would recommend Gast vs strengh.long bow. Gast uses less soulshots i belive its 8 per shot when streng.lb uses 12 ss. and its slower.
Str LB requires 10
and st. longbow ends up overdamaging last blow wasting SS.
Don't use SS on the last blow or find harder mobs.
Slow and Very slow bows fire the EXACT same amount of arrows per second/minute/hour.
The difference is that a Slow bow has 1.5 seconds reuse timer, but faster attack speed. This allows you to fire the arrow faster and more time for running/kiting.
A Very slow bow has a 1.1 seconds reuse timer and a slower attack speed. Less time to run between shots.
I repeat. It's balanced so that you fire the same amount of arrows in any given time frame.
The big difference is when using skills like double or stun shot, a slow bow will greatly outperform a very slow bow both in executing the skill and faster reuse of the skill (any physical skill).
Example: Back in the A-grade days I used a +7 Carnage Bow, even though it had less patk than the Soul Bow I could start my stun shot AFTER seeing my opponent start the skill, and finish before him/her.. and I have 200 ping.
I prefer Slow bows for that reason, and that kiting is MUCH better.. and I feel like a couch when I use a very slow bow because it just feels slower and I can't handle the huge difference in kiting ability.
I'd still go for the Str Long Bow since D grade mobs don't hit you for crap, and you'll end up killing the mobs 1 shot sooner or the last shot won't need SS.
edit: Well, actually. I'd save an extra few hundred grand and get a light xbow
Dagger is generally the cheaper way to go till 52. However, if I rolled an archer, I'd want to shoot my bow, and if you feel the same way, go with the Strengthened Long Bow.
Slower and hits harder which means you use less arrows and shots. Technically makes it easier to kite, too, since it takes longer till you can shoot another arrow, thus giving you more running time.
Last but certainly not least, you'll probably use less mana per kill as well.
You obviously don't know much about archers.
If you realy like archers and you create one, the last think you would enjoy is killing mobs with dagger.
Plus it is slower xp than using a bow.
There are hunting areas where you barely have to move. Just change target and shoot :)
Kiting is much easier with a slow bow.
Mp consumption is not a factor unless you xp in cata.
MP herbs ensure you won't be left without mana.
I even use to overhit mobs and still had no problem with MP.
Overhitting mobs is also easier with slow rather than very slow bow.