After I somehow cheesed Radhan from behind, his Great Bow, his arrows and the Rain effect was as an indispensable weapon on my journey of helping my Mimic become Elden Lord.
Well, technically you can, you just can’t shoot them. You can do a melee attack though. The only bow melee attack in any of the Souls games as far as I know. Not really useful at all, but drive-by smacking dudes with a giant bow is pretty funny at least.
You missed something about the Erdtree Greatbow. If you fire Golden Great Arrows at the ground beneath you, it applies Golden Vow to you and any allies. This is a fantastic way to do a quick buff mid-fight, compared to casting Golden Vow.
It may be an unpopular option, but I love bows. Yes, they do have a lot of downs as they don't have proper attention in Elden Ring, but as long as you're fine with the slower style of combat, then it's super fun. All the types of arros make it very useful for exploiting enemy weaknesses, and all ya have to do is swap an arrow. Plus, when I start having less to do in game, I can always farm for supplies for arrows and it keeps me busy until the dlc comes out.
@Haikuza- I definitely think that would be pretty sick. Or, if you played Destiny 2, something similar to the wings of sacred dawn. You aim in the air, and you'll slowly fall for a good 5 seconds or so. It would be a super cool thing to do.
@frankiefromky I typically use the black bow for the damage but allows for the light bow move set. I know it's the main one people use, but for good reason. Best of both worlds. I keep a bunch of other bows with each ash of war, depending on the situation. That way, I have a nice variety for anything.
For the serpent bow, it's worth noting that you can set poison on most bosses with only 2 mighty shots on an arcane build and with using serpent arrows. It's not a total gamechanger by any means, but a good tool to have in the pocket.
If you're going to use bows a lot, then your best bet is to collect and level up ALL the bows (pretty much), and then pull out the one that works best for the current situation. For arrows, once you have access to a decent rune farming location, buy the best arrows you can get, get ALL the different kinds, stock up as much as you can, and use those. Craft some, too, or have crafting supplies on hand. Crafted arrows tend to be a little weaker than purchased ones, but for some types, you need to craft. For example, for bleed, you need to buy or farm bloodroses and craft the arrows. And for lightning, you'll need to farm fulgerblooms. I DO recommend you use flight pinions and craft fletched arrows. You will be glad of that additional range -- and being able to hit things at range is the whole point, isn't it? My favorite place to farm pinions is the Impassable Greatbridge Site of Grace. There are 3 Guillemots there, just a couple steps from the Grace. Guillemots have a higher drop rate for Fowl Feet than other birds. So you can farm for Feet and Pinions at the same time. Use Night Maiden's Mist or Adula's Moonblade to kill all 3 birds at once. For Bows and Ashes of War... First, (Long)Bows: My main everyday bow is the Horn Bow, as I get the best damage (of regular bows) with that and with its default skill, Mighty Shot. I choose arrow type to fit the enemy. If I'm trying to conserve FP (like if I'm going through a dungeon and trying to save all my FP for the boss at the end), then I'll just do regular shots and use more arrows. If I have plenty of FP, then I will often use the bow (with Arrow's Reach if needed) to entice an enemy at long range to come just a little closer, to where I can hit them with a spell like Comet or Night Comet. Rain of Arrows is fantastic for applying status effects. I also use it for large enemies or sometimes crowds, as you can turn 1 arrow into several hits. It uses a lot of FP, so I don't want to use it on my "default everyday bow" in place of Mighty Shot. I have RoA on my second best bow, which is the Albinauric Bow. But if I know in advance that I'm going to be using it for a fight, I'll switch it to my best (Horn Bow) for that fight. I would NOT put RoA on a greatbow. For a greatbow Rain effect, use the Lion Bow with Radahn's Rain. Sky Shot is great for enemies that are standing still (and outside or under a very high ceiling). It uses less FP than Mighty Shot and only does slightly less damage, so that's a very good deal. If one shot is not enough to kill the enemy, though, you can not use Sky Shot for the second shot, unless you wait patiently for the enemy to stop moving and stand still again. Sky shot will ONLY hit if the enemy is standing still, or if the enemy is HUGE. (Or sometimes if there's a crowd of enemies, then you might have a good chance of hitting one of them.) I have Sky Shot on my third best bow, which is a Longbow. Enchanted Shot is nice for the tracking, but I don't tend to pull it out much. I have it on my fourth best bow, which is a second Longbow. (I started as Samurai, which gave me a second Longbow in my first playthrough.) Barrage on the Black Bow is also very nice for applying status effects, and sometimes even just for fast damage. I often pull it out for tougher enemies that might be too small physically for Rain of Arrows to work well on. The Black Bow also has the moveset of a Light Bow, which means you can shoot while jumping and shoot again as soon as you land. That mobility makes it feasible to use the Black Bow during a boss fight in a tight arena, if you have the quick reflexes to do it! The Serpent Bow, which gives a little extra poison to each arrow, was my first upgrade from my starter Longbow. I made an excursion into Caelid just to get it, and I used it, with mainly cheap craftable arrows, or Serpent arrows for bosses, until I was able to get other options (and for ammo, until I was able to get better rune farming options, which let me buy unlimited status effect arrows and crafting supplies cheaply). I don't use it any more. The Pulley Bow has slightly more range than any other bow (and greatbows have the same range as bows, and crossbows have less, so the Pulley Bow has the highest range of any weapon in the game, as far as I know). It's worth keeping this one on hand just for those rare times when you need every little bit of range you can squeeze out of a weapon. If you can't *quite* seem to hit something, even with Arrow's Reach, then remember to try the Pulley Bow. The Erdtree Bow, I have not used. I suppose it might depend on your build whether or not this bow would be better than some of the others. For me, all the others are better. Light Bows: Not a lot to say. The Light Bows (or Short Bows) all have less range (30, except for the Misbegotten Shortbow, which has only 25). They all have Barrage, except the Composite Bow, which has Mighty Shot. The one good thing about Light Bows is the moveset: You can shoot while jumping, and shoot again when you land. In combination with Barrage, this makes for a very mobile, quick way of fighting. Other than just not having any other bow yet, this is the one reason to use a Light Bow. However, the Light Bows all do less damage, so once you have the Black Bow, which has the Light Bow moveset AND Barrage, you should put away your Light Bow(s) and switch to the Black Bow. The Harp Bow is interesting just as a novelty item. It makes a musical note when used, and resembles a harp, sort of. But it is very weak as an actual weapon. Crossbows: All crossbows have the Weapon Art Kick. Nothing special, and not changeable. All have a range of 42, except Crepus's Black-Key Crossbow, which has a range of 47. Which is still less than regular Bows, which have range of 50, or Pulley Bow, which has range of 55. The one crossbow that's really special is the Pulley Crossbow. This weapon fires 3 bolts at the same time. That can go through your ammo quickly, but what it really excels at is applying status effects. It may even be faster than the Black Bow for that (as long as you don't need the Black Bow's additional range). Also, you can buy burred bolts, which cause bleed, whereas for arrows, you need to craft to get bloodbone arrows. So especially if you're going for bleed, the Pulley Crossbow is an excellent choice. The Full Moon Crossbow does just about as much damage as my second best (Long)Bows (the Albinauric Bow), but it has less range. It is pretty, though. I'm not sure whether a regular bow or a crossbow technically shoots faster; with the regular bow, you have a slight pause while you pull back the bowstring, whereas with the crossbow, you have to press the fire button once to load, and again to fire. The crossbow may be slightly faster to fire, I think, overall. So the chioice between Full Moon Crossbow and Albinauric Bow may be just a matter of personal preference, really, unless you need the extra range of the regular bow. All other crossbows are pretty much the same -- vary in weight and damage, and only really worth using if you don't have a better option, IMO. Great Bows: The Lion Greatbow has the best greatbow Weapon Art: Radahn's Rain, which is basically the same as Rain of Arrows. It also gives a +20% buff to Radahn's Spears greatbow ammo. This buff also works if you hold the Lion Greatbow in your offhand and shoot with another bow. Against a large enemy that I *don't* want to use status effects on (maybe because it's resistant to all of them), and when I'm not stuck in a tight arena with the boss (which makes it hard to get shots out, and also hard to manouver while being heavily encumbered from carrying one or more greatbows), I will use Radahn's Rain. The Golem Greatbow is the highest damage-dealer of any type of bow, hands down. (Unless you count the Hand Ballista as a bow.) If I want to do high damage at range on an enemy that I don't want to / can't use status effects on and isn't large enough for Radahn's Rain to work well on, then I will use Radahn's Spears in the Golem Greatbow while holding the Lion Greatbow in my offhand for that +20% buff. The Erdtree Greatbow can be found very early in the game. That and/or the Greatbow will hold you over until you get something better. Other: The Jar Cannon does INSANE damage (but no status effects) and is hella fun to shoot. It easily beats all kinds of bows for sheer damage. Definitely use the exploding ammo. Add an oil pot before a shot for a +50% buff. Just watch out for the knockback. Don't stand with your back to a cliff while firing this -- the knockback may kill you. If you haven't tried it, you don't know what you're missing. You do need a bit of strength, but not as much as it says, since you have to 2-hand it to fire. You need 23 Str. The Hand Ballista also does more damage than any kind of bow. I haven't used it much, only because it's outclassed by the Jar Cannon. The strength requirement is slightly lower, at 20 (again, you will be 2-handing it).
I prefer the island with the church of Dragon communion myself, sure there's more ground to cover, but it makes up for it in the sheer quantity of wildlife you can hunt and harvest crafting materials for arrows off of.
@@zacharycunningham7669I like that area for sheep and such, too. But once you can buy bones, it's much faster to just farm the runes and buy the bones. Then you only need to farm birds for pinions and fowl feet. The popular site seems to be the beach in weeping peninsula, which does have a lot of birds, but it's not very close to the site of grace. I prefer the Caelid spot where the 3 birds are RIGHT next to the site of grace.
My first playthrough I used a bow build because someone said they were good and I loved playing as a Ranger character in fantasy RPGs since I was a kid. A lot of trial and error but eventually the Serpent Bow, Black bow, and Radahns Lion Greatbow came in clutch. Required a lot of farming towards the end to get the better arrows. I used the Great Shield Soldiers Spirit Summons from Nekron to keep most bosses at a distance. Been thinking of doing the DLC run the same way but undecided.
I hope that they take the monster hunter route and make basic arrows infinite and special arrows not But crank up the maximum held to 999 and make them cheaper
Well, Shadow of the Erdtree has been out and available for the past two to three weeks now, and other than a few new bows, such as the Bone Bow with it's Rancor Shot Ash of War, plus a couple of new talismans for bows specifically, the answer is no, they did not make a whole lot of major changes to ranged combat with bows and arrows.
There's one minor advantage light bows have over regular bows that you missed: they can be fired on Torrent without slowing him down. It's one reason (along with AoW flexibility, aesthetics, and Blue Dancer Charm compatibility) that I always favor the Red Branch Shortbow over the Black Bow for bow builds, since the latter still behaves like a regular bow on horseback. Granted, I never knew about the arrow damage falloff before now...but considering I use bows near melee range like I'm playing Monster Hunter, it doesn't affect me much!
Grate bows are a thing to have in general. You can craft the arrows for it and many areas in the game where you can use to knock back on many enemies to knock them over an edge. This is very true for when talking about enemies on places like on a tree route or near broken railings in places like that capital. So you just laugh while watching everything from Knights to tree guardians fall to their death and while you collect runes or any equipment they dropped. It really comes in handy on the tree routes where you might end up fighting more then one enemy at once and don't have a lot of room to maneuver around. Just shoot them off the route before they are aware of you or close enough to attack ya.
I've always wanted to do a full bow run, but everytime I make a character then spend an hour farming arrows, then they are all used up in 10 minutes, im like yeah screw it.
You really only need to farm at the beginning, and not that much tbh. Once you start getting some runes you can just buy them, and they are super cheap
I felt that pain until I killed the bell bearing hunter and now I have plenty of runes to spare for both bones and whatever arrows I want to buy. Pulley crossbow makes me poor though.
How I got my early game arrows in my bow build is to do the usual big dragon cheese by smacking its tail with a bleed weapon for it's runes. If you horseback ride back to the grace behind the big dragon and rest fast enough, you'll get the runes for killing it but it will not actually die for good like it should allowing for repeat kills. Then I used this lump sum of runes to max out regular arrows from kale, and get a nice stack of thin bones from the bone bell bearing. Saves a lot of time early on when you don't have the cash to spare, and many hundreds less dead sheep and deer.
Great work on this - I know it took a lot more work because it's a different format, and it may not get as many views, but it's a pretty good complete overview of bows, their ashes of war, how to use them and which bows to use. All rolled into one video, great job man.
Agreed. Really the only thing they'd need to do is add an enchantment that makes it so you don't lose arrows you fire for like 40 seconds after enchanting the bow. Then you'd only need 99 of each arrow. Maybe make it cost a decent chunk of FP(It could also have multiple FP requirements that increase the times. Maybe like every 15 FP is 15 seconds. up to like 90 seconds), and have a long cast animation. So you may still need too use some of your arrows in a boss fight if you can't kill the boss in 40 seconds, but you'd be able to actually be able to easily play a bow build. Especially if they added it so you can find the spell early game in the base game, but i'd be fine with early DLC too. So I can use it in a NG+.
Surprised you didn't talk about the different arrows and the synergies with certain bows - like using serpent arrows with the serpent bow, or the golden great arrows providing a buff equivalent to the ash of war golden vow in an aoe where they land
I do really love using the serpent bow. Takes care off small trash from a distance to not get ambushed and procs a status effect really fast on big targets before i switch to my main weapon
On my first ever playthrough of elden ring and absolutely loving it. That said, I just stepped foot in the reya lucaria academy and desperately need some long range damage. Thank you for the guide!
Thank you so much for finally making this! I put my own twist on your bloody bowman build when Elden Ring first came out and since then I’ve been in love, thank you again ❤
I ran a bow build on a character for a challenge and it was fun. The cons is spending time creating all the status effect arrows. I carried the Black Bow and Radahn’s Great Bow. Funny enough it was tough to beat Radagon in the end but worked over the Elden Beast easily with a bow.
You missed some details. Firstly, the Black Bow does not get the full light bow moveset. Its only applicable for jumping and rolling attacks as regular and horseback shooting still use regular bow animations instead of those found on short bows. Also, using jump shots can make greatbow draw speed a bit faster.
Great range and ash study for bows there fextra!! my fav one would be the black bow just for being a middle ground between the archtypes and that makes it easy to use...
It might be a carry-over from my Skyrim days but I always have a bow equipped in Elden Ring and use it a lot. Might try upgrading my Albinauric bow since I have one sitting unused in my inventory. By the time I got it, I had already fully upgraded my boring old longbow. I also like the Serpent bow with serpent arrows, 2 hits to get poison status effect going on some targets which can be really useful if you are like me and tend to get hurt easily lol. Great video
I’ve been using the horn bow this whole time(beat the game once) mainly because I’m running an int build.😂. I’m def going to try out the pulley bow and at least one of the other bow types. Thanks for the video👍
One thing to add, if you not use the arrow reach talisman while using a rain of arrow, sometimes your arrow reach reduces, making them rain over your head 👍
Just a few observations about Serpent Bow: If you have relatively low arcane and use mighty shot on an enemy's head with serpent arrow and you are almost certain to poison the enemy with 1 shot
If you use Mighty Shot on the head of an enemy with high arcane with serpent bow with bleeding arrow you can cause bleeding with 1 shot on certain enemies
If you have the serpent bow equipped in your left hand and are using another bow in your right hand, the passive effect of the poison serpent bow applies to the other bow. Anyway Serpent Bow is a very unique bow, I like it, I hope Dlc brings new unique bows like this :D
You can use Mighty Shot while aiming to aim for headshots, effectively negating Sky Shot's advantage over it and allowing you to headshot with increased damage indoors and from pretty much every angle. Moreover, if the enemy moves even slightly from its place Sky Shot misses so yea, it's worthless
The shot from above is a bad WA as it works fine only on unaware stationary targets, so the mighty shot might be easily used instead for much better results. Tip: you can get the sacrificial axe early on, use it in offhand to return some FP on kill and you'll able to easily clear up areas of weaker enemies with mighty shots with much less FP issues.
Played bow only up until level 109 when I got to Mountaintops of the Giants and my motivation ran out. Bow-only was a very easy playstyle for me, and I found it very agile and enjoyable, but the amount of farming required, the hours I spent killing that ONE bird for runes or running around picking up roses to make bleed arrows, wore me out in the end. Here's hoping the DLC improves things!
Unfortunately I think bows are actually about to become worse in the DLC because it seems like many of the new weapons have ranged attacks on melee weapons.
Here are some tips that I think he missed.. golden great arrows give the golden vow buff if you hit the ground in front of you. Great arrows are loud, which can be used to pull most enemies to different locations. Always aim for the head if possible on an enemy, especially when using mighty shot for significantly more damage. Head shots also apply more status buildup... works well with the serpent bow, which scales with arcane.
Heh, when it comes to actual ranged weapons, I'm more of a crossbow guy. You can use it with just one hand, so they are handy to swap and shoot, to finish off any low health target. My INT caster carries one on offhand for this reason. I patiently wait foe your "Crossbows are best weapons in the game" video, lol. x]
You don't have to do a strictly bow build to use a bow. I think they're useful for picking off enemies, separating them, or dealing with annoying ones. There's a few golden pages with repeater fire crossbows that load instantly. They 1 shot most builds through a shield and 40 vigor. There's a mage that fires big magic arrows in Liurnia tower bridge. If you run up to her you're surrounded by other mobs while she continues to pelt you from high ground. There's so many enemies where they're together like double tree sentinel or double Lyndell knights in a tunnel. Hitting them when their back is turned with a throwing knife draws them out so you can fight them one at a time. Raya Lucaria's burger king mages casting 3 sets of glintstone pebbles nonstop. The samurai starts with a bow and katana equipped, hinting that you can play both.
don't get fooled by black bow. it is very nice bow and good choice to pick if you just want one bow to upgrade. it has the lightbow attacks, but attack frames are still longer than other light bows have. you cannot chain attacks as fast as with other light bows. if you focus your game for light bows and want to utilize them to greater extend: then pick one of the lightbows available. black bow is the do it all bow that does it in good enough fashion.
The only bow of any type that goes beyond D scaling - Golem Greatbow, gets a C in strength. Also greatbows can be used on horseback as melee attacks. Light bows can be used full speed on Torrent even while aiming but longbows will not.
I like to use both bows/ throwing knifes as a utility more than a weapon. I use them to aggro one enemy at a time in dangerous areas so I don't get surrounded by multiple enemies at once.
13:00 Horn Bow, there is a recipe for Magic Bone arrows in the magic ghost academy... the magic arrows from minotaurs aren't the only option available... this bow is a great mage option... granted your other builds are better for bows, but sometimes, as a Mage, you need that extra range to kill some annoying massive AoE enemy (like dragons) and your options are more range, or melee. and as a ranged fighter I prefer more ranged, though I do go sword and staff... there were also some places where I just didn't have enough magic to get through to the next grace, so I pull out my trusty bow. Magicbone arrows use 3 small animal bones (best farmed with a glintstone staff and beast repellant torch in the carion sheep farm with the giant shepherd dogs...) as well as a flight pinion (kill birds, they can be found around the starting area, and there is sheep there too, though not as many) and 2 glintstone fireflies... these can be found on crystal formations at the end of the carion canyons you ride up to and find lots of ruin orb things. so it's VERY easy to grind up materials to feed the bows lust for death... and as I said, its a great backup for mage builds
You don't need to farm for dwelling arrows, you can just buy an unlimited number them from the vendor in Mohgwyn Palace (or if you're heartless, murder him for his bell bearing so you can buy them from the twin maiden husks). Dwelling arrows are stronger than the crafted magicbone arrows, too.
Question about shots. When I watched a challenge runner use bows and crossbows in previous souls games, they did less damage if you shoot and the shot depletes your stamina completely. Is it the same here? you need to make sure you got enough stamina for each shot? or is even 1 stamina enough for full damage.
Note, you can Mighty Shot while aiming and go for a headshot, you missed that, so no, Sky Shot isn't better than mighty shot, what sky shot offers you is a bit of a delay for a follow up.
bows and crossbows were always underestimated in fromsoftware games crossbow actualy shines in a vanilla NG if you know how to times your attacks and reload bows are simply OP if you re a good roll dude (and you must be in froms games)
I really hope bows get a massive rework in the DLC, especially now that we have throwing weapons. Bows lack of scaling and zero damage limit them heavily to status only. The fact you have to farm and craft for a bow only run sucks hard.
Feel like the answer is yes, but does jump shooting count as a jump attack, for the talisman? P.S. Love my Erdtree bow with 80 faith and didn't know it also boosted fire arrows, thnx for that.
I've always thought arrows should replenish at rest, just so you're not wasting all your money just being able to use your weapon. To compensate though, enemies will only drop 1 at a time, and merchants will sell either limited amounts and/or at a higher price.
Bows r awesome in their own way the only thing that i dont like is that u can equip a crossbow and a bow without switching arrows but u cant equip a bow and a greatbow at the same time without ammoswitching.
The black bow slander is....slander. I literally hop into co-op and solo bosses with the black bow, its so fun having a ton of arrows and machine gunning everything
After I somehow cheesed Radhan from behind, his Great Bow, his arrows and the Rain effect was as an indispensable weapon on my journey of helping my Mimic become Elden Lord.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
😮
"We have Elden Lord at home."
You missed one con for Greatbows: you can't use them while riding Torrent.
Well, technically you can, you just can’t shoot them. You can do a melee attack though. The only bow melee attack in any of the Souls games as far as I know. Not really useful at all, but drive-by smacking dudes with a giant bow is pretty funny at least.
@@hobojoe9717In Dark souls 2 the bows and greatbows have jump attacks
@@hobojoe9717in even dark souls 1 the bows would have a melee swing / push thing
That would be so cool if you could ride and launch a freaking dragon spear arrow
@@hobojoe9717 I mean have you seen the golem bow? Thing would make a pretty decent cub on it's own in weight alone!
You missed something about the Erdtree Greatbow. If you fire Golden Great Arrows at the ground beneath you, it applies Golden Vow to you and any allies. This is a fantastic way to do a quick buff mid-fight, compared to casting Golden Vow.
Never heard about this before, great info.
That buff is from the golden great arrows not from the greatbow
@@miguelangelcastillablanco1512 Correct, I use that buff with the standard Greatbow and Golden Great arrows.
It may be an unpopular option, but I love bows. Yes, they do have a lot of downs as they don't have proper attention in Elden Ring, but as long as you're fine with the slower style of combat, then it's super fun. All the types of arros make it very useful for exploiting enemy weaknesses, and all ya have to do is swap an arrow. Plus, when I start having less to do in game, I can always farm for supplies for arrows and it keeps me busy until the dlc comes out.
Short Bow move set rox!
There should be a winged bow that lifts you in the air when you use its ash of war and let's you shoot in the air for a couple seconds.
@@Haikuza-Like the misbgotten archers?
@Haikuza- I definitely think that would be pretty sick. Or, if you played Destiny 2, something similar to the wings of sacred dawn. You aim in the air, and you'll slowly fall for a good 5 seconds or so. It would be a super cool thing to do.
@frankiefromky I typically use the black bow for the damage but allows for the light bow move set. I know it's the main one people use, but for good reason. Best of both worlds. I keep a bunch of other bows with each ash of war, depending on the situation. That way, I have a nice variety for anything.
For the serpent bow, it's worth noting that you can set poison on most bosses with only 2 mighty shots on an arcane build and with using serpent arrows. It's not a total gamechanger by any means, but a good tool to have in the pocket.
Takes down a majority of side bosses, The Veterns Standard was secured by this method. It’s what stole me away from my Alburanic Long Bow tbh
If you're going to use bows a lot, then your best bet is to collect and level up ALL the bows (pretty much), and then pull out the one that works best for the current situation.
For arrows, once you have access to a decent rune farming location, buy the best arrows you can get, get ALL the different kinds, stock up as much as you can, and use those. Craft some, too, or have crafting supplies on hand. Crafted arrows tend to be a little weaker than purchased ones, but for some types, you need to craft. For example, for bleed, you need to buy or farm bloodroses and craft the arrows. And for lightning, you'll need to farm fulgerblooms.
I DO recommend you use flight pinions and craft fletched arrows. You will be glad of that additional range -- and being able to hit things at range is the whole point, isn't it? My favorite place to farm pinions is the Impassable Greatbridge Site of Grace. There are 3 Guillemots there, just a couple steps from the Grace. Guillemots have a higher drop rate for Fowl Feet than other birds. So you can farm for Feet and Pinions at the same time. Use Night Maiden's Mist or Adula's Moonblade to kill all 3 birds at once.
For Bows and Ashes of War... First, (Long)Bows:
My main everyday bow is the Horn Bow, as I get the best damage (of regular bows) with that and with its default skill, Mighty Shot. I choose arrow type to fit the enemy. If I'm trying to conserve FP (like if I'm going through a dungeon and trying to save all my FP for the boss at the end), then I'll just do regular shots and use more arrows. If I have plenty of FP, then I will often use the bow (with Arrow's Reach if needed) to entice an enemy at long range to come just a little closer, to where I can hit them with a spell like Comet or Night Comet.
Rain of Arrows is fantastic for applying status effects. I also use it for large enemies or sometimes crowds, as you can turn 1 arrow into several hits. It uses a lot of FP, so I don't want to use it on my "default everyday bow" in place of Mighty Shot. I have RoA on my second best bow, which is the Albinauric Bow. But if I know in advance that I'm going to be using it for a fight, I'll switch it to my best (Horn Bow) for that fight. I would NOT put RoA on a greatbow. For a greatbow Rain effect, use the Lion Bow with Radahn's Rain.
Sky Shot is great for enemies that are standing still (and outside or under a very high ceiling). It uses less FP than Mighty Shot and only does slightly less damage, so that's a very good deal. If one shot is not enough to kill the enemy, though, you can not use Sky Shot for the second shot, unless you wait patiently for the enemy to stop moving and stand still again. Sky shot will ONLY hit if the enemy is standing still, or if the enemy is HUGE. (Or sometimes if there's a crowd of enemies, then you might have a good chance of hitting one of them.) I have Sky Shot on my third best bow, which is a Longbow.
Enchanted Shot is nice for the tracking, but I don't tend to pull it out much. I have it on my fourth best bow, which is a second Longbow. (I started as Samurai, which gave me a second Longbow in my first playthrough.)
Barrage on the Black Bow is also very nice for applying status effects, and sometimes even just for fast damage. I often pull it out for tougher enemies that might be too small physically for Rain of Arrows to work well on. The Black Bow also has the moveset of a Light Bow, which means you can shoot while jumping and shoot again as soon as you land. That mobility makes it feasible to use the Black Bow during a boss fight in a tight arena, if you have the quick reflexes to do it!
The Serpent Bow, which gives a little extra poison to each arrow, was my first upgrade from my starter Longbow. I made an excursion into Caelid just to get it, and I used it, with mainly cheap craftable arrows, or Serpent arrows for bosses, until I was able to get other options (and for ammo, until I was able to get better rune farming options, which let me buy unlimited status effect arrows and crafting supplies cheaply). I don't use it any more.
The Pulley Bow has slightly more range than any other bow (and greatbows have the same range as bows, and crossbows have less, so the Pulley Bow has the highest range of any weapon in the game, as far as I know). It's worth keeping this one on hand just for those rare times when you need every little bit of range you can squeeze out of a weapon. If you can't *quite* seem to hit something, even with Arrow's Reach, then remember to try the Pulley Bow.
The Erdtree Bow, I have not used. I suppose it might depend on your build whether or not this bow would be better than some of the others. For me, all the others are better.
Light Bows:
Not a lot to say. The Light Bows (or Short Bows) all have less range (30, except for the Misbegotten Shortbow, which has only 25). They all have Barrage, except the Composite Bow, which has Mighty Shot. The one good thing about Light Bows is the moveset: You can shoot while jumping, and shoot again when you land. In combination with Barrage, this makes for a very mobile, quick way of fighting. Other than just not having any other bow yet, this is the one reason to use a Light Bow. However, the Light Bows all do less damage, so once you have the Black Bow, which has the Light Bow moveset AND Barrage, you should put away your Light Bow(s) and switch to the Black Bow.
The Harp Bow is interesting just as a novelty item. It makes a musical note when used, and resembles a harp, sort of. But it is very weak as an actual weapon.
Crossbows:
All crossbows have the Weapon Art Kick. Nothing special, and not changeable. All have a range of 42, except Crepus's Black-Key Crossbow, which has a range of 47. Which is still less than regular Bows, which have range of 50, or Pulley Bow, which has range of 55.
The one crossbow that's really special is the Pulley Crossbow. This weapon fires 3 bolts at the same time. That can go through your ammo quickly, but what it really excels at is applying status effects. It may even be faster than the Black Bow for that (as long as you don't need the Black Bow's additional range). Also, you can buy burred bolts, which cause bleed, whereas for arrows, you need to craft to get bloodbone arrows. So especially if you're going for bleed, the Pulley Crossbow is an excellent choice.
The Full Moon Crossbow does just about as much damage as my second best (Long)Bows (the Albinauric Bow), but it has less range. It is pretty, though. I'm not sure whether a regular bow or a crossbow technically shoots faster; with the regular bow, you have a slight pause while you pull back the bowstring, whereas with the crossbow, you have to press the fire button once to load, and again to fire. The crossbow may be slightly faster to fire, I think, overall. So the chioice between Full Moon Crossbow and Albinauric Bow may be just a matter of personal preference, really, unless you need the extra range of the regular bow.
All other crossbows are pretty much the same -- vary in weight and damage, and only really worth using if you don't have a better option, IMO.
Great Bows:
The Lion Greatbow has the best greatbow Weapon Art: Radahn's Rain, which is basically the same as Rain of Arrows. It also gives a +20% buff to Radahn's Spears greatbow ammo. This buff also works if you hold the Lion Greatbow in your offhand and shoot with another bow. Against a large enemy that I *don't* want to use status effects on (maybe because it's resistant to all of them), and when I'm not stuck in a tight arena with the boss (which makes it hard to get shots out, and also hard to manouver while being heavily encumbered from carrying one or more greatbows), I will use Radahn's Rain.
The Golem Greatbow is the highest damage-dealer of any type of bow, hands down. (Unless you count the Hand Ballista as a bow.) If I want to do high damage at range on an enemy that I don't want to / can't use status effects on and isn't large enough for Radahn's Rain to work well on, then I will use Radahn's Spears in the Golem Greatbow while holding the Lion Greatbow in my offhand for that +20% buff.
The Erdtree Greatbow can be found very early in the game. That and/or the Greatbow will hold you over until you get something better.
Other:
The Jar Cannon does INSANE damage (but no status effects) and is hella fun to shoot. It easily beats all kinds of bows for sheer damage. Definitely use the exploding ammo. Add an oil pot before a shot for a +50% buff. Just watch out for the knockback. Don't stand with your back to a cliff while firing this -- the knockback may kill you. If you haven't tried it, you don't know what you're missing. You do need a bit of strength, but not as much as it says, since you have to 2-hand it to fire. You need 23 Str.
The Hand Ballista also does more damage than any kind of bow. I haven't used it much, only because it's outclassed by the Jar Cannon. The strength requirement is slightly lower, at 20 (again, you will be 2-handing it).
Thanks man
I prefer the island with the church of Dragon communion myself, sure there's more ground to cover, but it makes up for it in the sheer quantity of wildlife you can hunt and harvest crafting materials for arrows off of.
Wow! Best in depth comment I’ve read in a good while. Thank you for such a wealth of information.
@@kelsofox369 You're welcome!
@@zacharycunningham7669I like that area for sheep and such, too. But once you can buy bones, it's much faster to just farm the runes and buy the bones. Then you only need to farm birds for pinions and fowl feet. The popular site seems to be the beach in weeping peninsula, which does have a lot of birds, but it's not very close to the site of grace. I prefer the Caelid spot where the 3 birds are RIGHT next to the site of grace.
My first playthrough I used a bow build because someone said they were good and I loved playing as a Ranger character in fantasy RPGs since I was a kid. A lot of trial and error but eventually the Serpent Bow, Black bow, and Radahns Lion Greatbow came in clutch. Required a lot of farming towards the end to get the better arrows. I used the Great Shield Soldiers Spirit Summons from Nekron to keep most bosses at a distance. Been thinking of doing the DLC run the same way but undecided.
The DLC is apparently introducing projectile weapons as a class with unlimited ammo. I wonder if they will also change the way bows/arrows function.
I hope that they take the monster hunter route and make basic arrows infinite and special arrows not
But crank up the maximum held to 999 and make them cheaper
@@nockcone that'd feel like a good solution. I just want bows to be able to be more than just a sidearm
Yeah i would totally play a ranged character if arrows where infinite. Special arrows should work like a buff. 1 Minute buff.
Well, Shadow of the Erdtree has been out and available for the past two to three weeks now, and other than a few new bows, such as the Bone Bow with it's Rancor Shot Ash of War, plus a couple of new talismans for bows specifically, the answer is no, they did not make a whole lot of major changes to ranged combat with bows and arrows.
No
There's one minor advantage light bows have over regular bows that you missed: they can be fired on Torrent without slowing him down. It's one reason (along with AoW flexibility, aesthetics, and Blue Dancer Charm compatibility) that I always favor the Red Branch Shortbow over the Black Bow for bow builds, since the latter still behaves like a regular bow on horseback.
Granted, I never knew about the arrow damage falloff before now...but considering I use bows near melee range like I'm playing Monster Hunter, it doesn't affect me much!
Now I'm waiting for "Crossbows are OP"
I agree.
Pulley crossbow, use any status bolt. Poof.
I was expecting crossbow can works like Bloodborne pistol. But truth disappointed me.
@@killzone110adpulley crossbow with those burred bolts are ridiculous on bosses…
Grate bows are a thing to have in general. You can craft the arrows for it and many areas in the game where you can use to knock back on many enemies to knock them over an edge. This is very true for when talking about enemies on places like on a tree route or near broken railings in places like that capital. So you just laugh while watching everything from Knights to tree guardians fall to their death and while you collect runes or any equipment they dropped. It really comes in handy on the tree routes where you might end up fighting more then one enemy at once and don't have a lot of room to maneuver around. Just shoot them off the route before they are aware of you or close enough to attack ya.
I've always wanted to do a full bow run, but everytime I make a character then spend an hour farming arrows, then they are all used up in 10 minutes, im like yeah screw it.
You really only need to farm at the beginning, and not that much tbh. Once you start getting some runes you can just buy them, and they are super cheap
I felt that pain until I killed the bell bearing hunter and now I have plenty of runes to spare for both bones and whatever arrows I want to buy. Pulley crossbow makes me poor though.
How I got my early game arrows in my bow build is to do the usual big dragon cheese by smacking its tail with a bleed weapon for it's runes. If you horseback ride back to the grace behind the big dragon and rest fast enough, you'll get the runes for killing it but it will not actually die for good like it should allowing for repeat kills.
Then I used this lump sum of runes to max out regular arrows from kale, and get a nice stack of thin bones from the bone bell bearing. Saves a lot of time early on when you don't have the cash to spare, and many hundreds less dead sheep and deer.
was literally looking at bows 2 minutes ago and saw this get posted in the chat
I love that they added the Black Bow as a nod to Pharis from Dark Souls. One of the best in the game
they literally did that in Dark Souls 2 too.
Great work on this - I know it took a lot more work because it's a different format, and it may not get as many views, but it's a pretty good complete overview of bows, their ashes of war, how to use them and which bows to use. All rolled into one video, great job man.
I still hope we get a bit of an overhaul to bow balancing in the dlc...
Agreed. Really the only thing they'd need to do is add an enchantment that makes it so you don't lose arrows you fire for like 40 seconds after enchanting the bow. Then you'd only need 99 of each arrow. Maybe make it cost a decent chunk of FP(It could also have multiple FP requirements that increase the times. Maybe like every 15 FP is 15 seconds. up to like 90 seconds), and have a long cast animation. So you may still need too use some of your arrows in a boss fight if you can't kill the boss in 40 seconds, but you'd be able to actually be able to easily play a bow build. Especially if they added it so you can find the spell early game in the base game, but i'd be fine with early DLC too. So I can use it in a NG+.
use mods, problem solved. Game is garbage without mods anyway
L take@@robosergTV
Surprised you didn't talk about the different arrows and the synergies with certain bows - like using serpent arrows with the serpent bow, or the golden great arrows providing a buff equivalent to the ash of war golden vow in an aoe where they land
One thing I’m surprised you didn’t mention about great bows is that if you jump and shoot it dramatically reduces your arrow draw time.
I do really love using the serpent bow. Takes care off small trash from a distance to not get ambushed and procs a status effect really fast on big targets before i switch to my main weapon
I really wish you could change the art on the black bow.. would have been the perfect bow if you could
On my first ever playthrough of elden ring and absolutely loving it. That said, I just stepped foot in the reya lucaria academy and desperately need some long range damage. Thank you for the guide!
Thank you so much for finally making this! I put my own twist on your bloody bowman build when Elden Ring first came out and since then I’ve been in love, thank you again ❤
great info, i love this series
Come on all game bow build next week…
I ran a bow build on a character for a challenge and it was fun. The cons is spending time creating all the status effect arrows. I carried the Black Bow and Radahn’s Great Bow. Funny enough it was tough to beat Radagon in the end but worked over the Elden Beast easily with a bow.
You missed some details. Firstly, the Black Bow does not get the full light bow moveset. Its only applicable for jumping and rolling attacks as regular and horseback shooting still use regular bow animations instead of those found on short bows. Also, using jump shots can make greatbow draw speed a bit faster.
Great range and ash study for bows there fextra!! my fav one would be the black bow just for being a middle ground between the archtypes and that makes it easy to use...
Love that Serpent Bow!!!
It might be a carry-over from my Skyrim days but I always have a bow equipped in Elden Ring and use it a lot. Might try upgrading my Albinauric bow since I have one sitting unused in my inventory. By the time I got it, I had already fully upgraded my boring old longbow. I also like the Serpent bow with serpent arrows, 2 hits to get poison status effect going on some targets which can be really useful if you are like me and tend to get hurt easily lol. Great video
Great video! Thank you.
Erdtree Bow & Golden Arrows is my favorite.
My first and only character is a bow build. Currently using Harp Bow and rainbow arrows XD
I'm imagining your character is constantly followed by chirping birds and flute music.
you should play skyrim instead
@@NeutralDrow I used the black bow to death, but now my enemies die at the hands of my swag.
@@pushthetempo3125 I got a pretty little red hood on too in the game.
@@c3ramicsoh, ok then, stay, I see you've even prepared for the dlc
Fextra, you are a god amongst men for all your guides on the wiki. Thank you so fucking much bro. Seriously.
Thanks for doing bows before the DLC.
I’ve been using the horn bow this whole time(beat the game once) mainly because I’m running an int build.😂. I’m def going to try out the pulley bow and at least one of the other bow types. Thanks for the video👍
It's bow time! Aka how to find bones in Elden Ring
it turns elden ring into a farming/hunting game aka bird murder the game
Just started working on bloody bowman build last night, nice timing 🤘
Thank you for the info I like how bows are cool and helpful in any build
One thing to add, if you not use the arrow reach talisman while using a rain of arrow, sometimes your arrow reach reduces, making them rain over your head 👍
Just a few observations about Serpent Bow: If you have relatively low arcane and use mighty shot on an enemy's head with serpent arrow and you are almost certain to poison the enemy with 1 shot
If you use Mighty Shot on the head of an enemy with high arcane with serpent bow with bleeding arrow you can cause bleeding with 1 shot on certain enemies
If you have the serpent bow equipped in your left hand and are using another bow in your right hand, the passive effect of the poison serpent bow applies to the other bow.
Anyway Serpent Bow is a very unique bow, I like it, I hope Dlc brings new unique bows like this :D
19:27 if you shoot a golden great arrow near you feet, you can get the same buff as golden vow thus freeing up a spell slot
I’ve been fighting myself over doing another black bow/lion bow run to start the dlc
You can use Mighty Shot while aiming to aim for headshots, effectively negating Sky Shot's advantage over it and allowing you to headshot with increased damage indoors and from pretty much every angle. Moreover, if the enemy moves even slightly from its place Sky Shot misses so yea, it's worthless
I used poison bow alot on my first play thru, Dex /Arc , it was very useful in pve and pvp!
The shot from above is a bad WA as it works fine only on unaware stationary targets, so the mighty shot might be easily used instead for much better results.
Tip: you can get the sacrificial axe early on, use it in offhand to return some FP on kill and you'll able to easily clear up areas of weaker enemies with mighty shots with much less FP issues.
Played bow only up until level 109 when I got to Mountaintops of the Giants and my motivation ran out. Bow-only was a very easy playstyle for me, and I found it very agile and enjoyable, but the amount of farming required, the hours I spent killing that ONE bird for runes or running around picking up roses to make bleed arrows, wore me out in the end. Here's hoping the DLC improves things!
I can imagine if this guy was to make a compilation video of this series, he would name it "every weapon is the best weapon in Elden Ring" lol.
Unfortunately I think bows are actually about to become worse in the DLC because it seems like many of the new weapons have ranged attacks on melee weapons.
Definitely hoping for a crossbow video even though I'm sure the pulley bow is just the best bar none (disregarding the DLC)
Ive been waiting for this video. WHERES MY NEW BOW BUILD VIDEO
one huge thing is: pair rain of arrows with greatbow and golem arrows to annihilate enemies with the golem arrows wind proc
Here are some tips that I think he missed.. golden great arrows give the golden vow buff if you hit the ground in front of you. Great arrows are loud, which can be used to pull most enemies to different locations. Always aim for the head if possible on an enemy, especially when using mighty shot for significantly more damage. Head shots also apply more status buildup... works well with the serpent bow, which scales with arcane.
Heh, when it comes to actual ranged weapons, I'm more of a crossbow guy. You can use it with just one hand, so they are handy to swap and shoot, to finish off any low health target. My INT caster carries one on offhand for this reason.
I patiently wait foe your "Crossbows are best weapons in the game" video, lol. x]
You don't have to do a strictly bow build to use a bow. I think they're useful for picking off enemies, separating them, or dealing with annoying ones. There's a few golden pages with repeater fire crossbows that load instantly. They 1 shot most builds through a shield and 40 vigor. There's a mage that fires big magic arrows in Liurnia tower bridge. If you run up to her you're surrounded by other mobs while she continues to pelt you from high ground. There's so many enemies where they're together like double tree sentinel or double Lyndell knights in a tunnel. Hitting them when their back is turned with a throwing knife draws them out so you can fight them one at a time. Raya Lucaria's burger king mages casting 3 sets of glintstone pebbles nonstop. The samurai starts with a bow and katana equipped, hinting that you can play both.
Forever archer here, really hoping for some more love with bows in the DLC!
Love me the black bow
I used one when I first rolled a samurai but only used it for the first hour maybe 2
don't get fooled by black bow. it is very nice bow and good choice to pick if you just want one bow to upgrade. it has the lightbow attacks, but attack frames are still longer than other light bows have. you cannot chain attacks as fast as with other light bows. if you focus your game for light bows and want to utilize them to greater extend: then pick one of the lightbows available. black bow is the do it all bow that does it in good enough fashion.
The only bow of any type that goes beyond D scaling - Golem Greatbow, gets a C in strength.
Also greatbows can be used on horseback as melee attacks. Light bows can be used full speed on Torrent even while aiming but longbows will not.
I like to use both bows/ throwing knifes as a utility more than a weapon. I use them to aggro one enemy at a time in dangerous areas so I don't get surrounded by multiple enemies at once.
About time, I love the black bow in PVP most people can't deal with it, I pray they get into the headshots
This was a great help
I did a few bow play throughs and still use them they're fun
Rain of Arrows + bleed arrows was how I got my first Astel kill.
13:00 Horn Bow, there is a recipe for Magic Bone arrows in the magic ghost academy... the magic arrows from minotaurs aren't the only option available... this bow is a great mage option... granted your other builds are better for bows, but sometimes, as a Mage, you need that extra range to kill some annoying massive AoE enemy (like dragons) and your options are more range, or melee. and as a ranged fighter I prefer more ranged, though I do go sword and staff...
there were also some places where I just didn't have enough magic to get through to the next grace, so I pull out my trusty bow.
Magicbone arrows use 3 small animal bones (best farmed with a glintstone staff and beast repellant torch in the carion sheep farm with the giant shepherd dogs...) as well as a flight pinion (kill birds, they can be found around the starting area, and there is sheep there too, though not as many) and 2 glintstone fireflies... these can be found on crystal formations at the end of the carion canyons you ride up to and find lots of ruin orb things.
so it's VERY easy to grind up materials to feed the bows lust for death... and as I said, its a great backup for mage builds
You don't need to farm for dwelling arrows, you can just buy an unlimited number them from the vendor in Mohgwyn Palace (or if you're heartless, murder him for his bell bearing so you can buy them from the twin maiden husks). Dwelling arrows are stronger than the crafted magicbone arrows, too.
@Dryskle to do this, you need to reach that vender first... you can get magicbone arrows much earlier.
So should you focus your stats into STR or DEX?
worth mentioning: you can manually aim with many of these ashes of war, including Mighty Shot.
Every time I have tried to use a bow I just get bored immediately… but thanks for the video 🙌🏻
you gotta do this for the DLC. the new content is gonna be crazy
Question about shots. When I watched a challenge runner use bows and crossbows in previous souls games, they did less damage if you shoot and the shot depletes your stamina completely. Is it the same here? you need to make sure you got enough stamina for each shot? or is even 1 stamina enough for full damage.
It's been over 2 years and i am still waiting on the Shields video!
Gunna need to try the serpent bow and combo it with the Reduvia. Near and Far.
Note, you can Mighty Shot while aiming and go for a headshot, you missed that, so no, Sky Shot isn't better than mighty shot, what sky shot offers you is a bit of a delay for a follow up.
bows and crossbows were always underestimated in fromsoftware games
crossbow actualy shines in a vanilla NG if you know how to times your attacks and reload
bows are simply OP if you re a good roll dude (and you must be in froms games)
I really hope bows get a massive rework in the DLC, especially now that we have throwing weapons. Bows lack of scaling and zero damage limit them heavily to status only. The fact you have to farm and craft for a bow only run sucks hard.
I wish they would make long-range weapons more viable in Elden Ring. I really love how guns and bows work in Nioh.
I have a bow only build it’s quite effective . Not sure how it will fare in the dlc though 😂
The DLC seems to favor bows a little more than the base game. That’s what I heard anyway.
@@maiafay cool . Dlc is awesome so far . It’s huge
According to FromSoft, the dlc will have 10 new bosses. Man can’t wait for it
10 new MAIN bosses
10 story (main) bosses!
Personally i prefer longbows. As you can still jumpshoot, wich allows quick shots. Your legs from what i know have no hitbox while you jumb btw.
Feel like the answer is yes, but does jump shooting count as a jump attack, for the talisman?
P.S. Love my Erdtree bow with 80 faith and didn't know it also boosted fire arrows, thnx for that.
Hopefully the throwing weapons will fill the void i had hoped bows were going to.
Mighty shot combined with a well aimed headshot, that's the stuff.
Can't wait to cheese all the encounters in the dlc with these👌
I've always thought arrows should replenish at rest, just so you're not wasting all your money just being able to use your weapon. To compensate though, enemies will only drop 1 at a time, and merchants will sell either limited amounts and/or at a higher price.
i've never used a bow in elden ring so this is like a whole new game to me lol
The two handed sword talisman works with bows and both arrows sting talismans can be stacked
True with all FromSoft games.
That's why the mechanics to use tbem are so convoluted and unwieldy while in battle
Looking forward to the seals and staffs
Light bows are great on horseback as well.
Time for Torches are the best weapon in Elden Ring
Bows r awesome in their own way the only thing that i dont like is that u can equip a crossbow and a bow without switching arrows but u cant equip a bow and a greatbow at the same time without ammoswitching.
The black bow slander is....slander. I literally hop into co-op and solo bosses with the black bow, its so fun having a ton of arrows and machine gunning everything
Will you redo the vids for the new dlc weapons?
can bow jump attacks be affected by the ravens cloak and claw talisman?
If the projectile speed was increased bows could be much more viable but enemies can walk out of your shot which is frustrating.
is archery a good build to play entire game? i want to try, but i dont want it to be unwinnable by me
You said Horn Bow is the worst, but when you use it with Dwell Arrows and Enchanted shot, it's probably the strongest one.
Next: "Perfumes are OP"
Think the DLC have greatly changed your bow builds? Or is it just the new talisman and all else works well?
Does Rotten Wing Sword Insignia/Millicents Prosthesis increase DMG while using Barrage? That'd be badass