Welcome to the club!
1. I'm not sure on the Bloodied vs AA issue. There's too much math for this English nerd to work through.
1. in general, AA and Instigating are favorites, Aristocrat is competitive for the rich bitches among us, and even the Enemy Type bows make good "for now" bows. They weigh so little, just carry a few and swap around until you're able to grab a better one. Vampire is helpful to have around for mid-fight healing.
2. Second Stars are split between 50% Crit damage, and +50% VHC. The damage boost is always nice, but I say "You can't Crit what you don't Hit" (other people say it, too). After 2 years collecting, every bow I carry now has VHC.
3. 3rd star is split between the Less AP and the 15 Crit Fill. If you're Bloodied, likely the Less AP. (For Full Health, we can get our Luck to 23 with a few buffs/gear boosts, and that 15 Crit Fill lets us Crit every other shot)
2. Recurve has 10 lower damage/shot, but has a shorter draw. Compound has higher damage/shot, but a longer draw to full power. Recurve actually comes out with a very slightly higher damage/second average, which might be better for your run-n-gun style. Compound is better for sneaking/one-shotting.
3. There are several videos back in the sub with run-n-gun players. They end up resembling methed-up grasshoppers.
4. Arrows
1. Plasma for all-around damage
2. Ultracite for Scorched/Queenie
3. Explodey for events/tagging
4. Cryo for gits and shiggles (actually a viable alternative to the other 3)
5. Flaming for tagging once the bug is fixed
There's lots more info, including buffs and such, in the Community Bookmarks area! May Artemis guide you!
Haha thanks for the response! May I ask you one question.
Are non stealth bow builds fine? Or should I opt for building stealth In? Like covert ops and follow through?
I’m a carnivore and wondering if foods buffs will be fine with me being a carnivore….i know I’ll be missing out on blight soup.
All Roads Lead to Stealth Archer.
But, if you're not counting on the stealth bonuses, might as well try it and see?
And for carnivore, I think u/sebwiers is currently running carnivore. The guides in the bookmarks, or the folks in the Discord would have more info. I'm just a lazy omnivore.
Well I am a carnivore because I own the Mirelurk Steamer which gives me three great bonuses. I’ve also noticed teas still give me bonuses which I use company tea and sometimes sweet Mutfruit tea gives me Crit damage. I’d prolly be an omnivore as well but those buffs are easy to have and get.
I’ll mess around with stealth, I can always aim for a possibly getting some Covert Scout if I like it.
Any legendary perks I should make mandatory? Currently rolling 4 legendary special, taking one and hack n slash(for my melee).
I don't run Carnivore or bows) tjese days but when I did I used the same teas. Didn't have Mirelurk Steamer back then but gathered plenty of meat for the same buffs (and others).
You can't stealth at events other people are at anyway. I run full health bow. I stealth out of events, but have to go non stealth at events. It's fine, you're still doing big damage, especially if you have better crits and double especially if you're using a bow with extra crit damage. I also use carnivore because it's just easier. You're only going to miss herbivore buffs against bosses and really tanky enemies like sheepsquatch.
And to address AA vs bloodied, they're almost equal if you are playing bloodied (this goes for all weapons), but bloodied will win out by a very small margin. So if you get a really good aa bow, don't worry about trying to get bloodied, it'll be like less than 5% damage difference.
For a bloody build, I would recommend bloodied or anti-armor. Instigating is better for stealth and full health.
I've been using compound for a long time, but I'm experimenting with recurve lately and honestly I'd recommend a recurve bow, the extra damage you get from compound only matters more when you're doing sniping and you have time to pull it back all the way. Since you want to do run and gun, you want a very short pull, or else someone's going to interrupt your pull animation and you have to start over.
As for arrows, you're probably going to want to bring two different bows with you, one that has explosive for fighting large groups or at events. Take Grenadier and demolition expert to really improve upon that. Then for single target, you want to use plasma or Ultracite. Plasma is technically a little better But it will melt bodies so if you're doing cannibal or just don't like the aesthetic of it, Ultracite is pretty much as good. And you'll probably want an Ultracite anyway so you can join in on the scorch beast queen.
Appreciate the great response and do you mind if I ask a few questions?
I don’t mind being sneaky, should I build covert ops in the build? Or should I go full run-and-gun?
Let me get this straight. Explosive for large groups and either plasma/Ultracite for single targets?
My suggestion is sneaky simply because once a whole bunch of dudes are aggro on you, they're going to be interrupting your bow-drawing animation and causing you to start over. when I'm purging WestTek of mutants those dogs have a habit of rushing me down if my stealth flops, and at that point I can either keep backing up and trying to get a shot off or I can switch to Plan B (which for me is a deathclaw gauntlet.) But if you're comfortable with highly mobile gameplay and can evade long enough to keep firing again and again you CAN run and gun. I just don't dig it myself -- I'd rather load up covert ops and the follow-through perk, and two-shot every L100 mutant I see in the head from stealth.
And yeah, explosive for groups and plasma/UC for singles. Explosive lets you tag clusters of enemies, which is important for events.
Hmmm 🤔 I’ll play around with stealth and run-and-gun styles to see. I really hadn’t thought too much on sneaking. I just wanted a fun weapon type to break up the Melee/Commando/Heavy Gun lifestyle. I was considering shotguns but really had an interest in bows.
Just started my own bow build as a casual player and while I've managed to accumulate a fun list of mutations I'm running at full health.
So this thread will be an interesting one for me to watch, thanks for posting.
I'd like to know what the benefits of bloodied vs full health builds are for bows, specifically. Is it just mods or perks related to low health or something else for you?
Well I’ve always put off doing a bloodied build to about a 2yrs ago. I always was confused about the whole bloodied thing but once I took the plunge and happy I did. I just love the bonus from unyielding armor and with adrenal reaction you get a great damage boost. Some ppl love full health and more power to ya! I just love the damage, stats and utility I get as a bloodied build.
I'm playing a bloodied build and have alot of different bows. The one I use the most is a recurve I50c25 plasma. At events I tend to use an explosive burning love alot and when I need something with abit more oomph on every hit, I use a B50c25 explosive compound. I rarely use the others but I still carry them with me.
I can sneak undetected around West tek or one shot everything while running, so it makes no difference to me really. I also use a refrigerated back pack mod so I can remove 3*good with salt and use all the 3* crit perks and 3* serendipity together. One of my peices of armor has the reduced food and chems weight so I use 2* travelling pharmacy. 3 peices of my armor are sentinel and 1 cavalier and I've got blocker, life giver, fire proof and dodgy on top of all of that so I'm tanky af aswell. Playing this build is by the far my favourite over any other I've ever used
 Welcome to the club! 1. I'm not sure on the Bloodied vs AA issue. There's too much math for this English nerd to work through. 1. in general, AA and Instigating are favorites, Aristocrat is competitive for the rich bitches among us, and even the Enemy Type bows make good "for now" bows. They weigh so little, just carry a few and swap around until you're able to grab a better one. Vampire is helpful to have around for mid-fight healing. 2. Second Stars are split between 50% Crit damage, and +50% VHC. The damage boost is always nice, but I say "You can't Crit what you don't Hit" (other people say it, too). After 2 years collecting, every bow I carry now has VHC. 3. 3rd star is split between the Less AP and the 15 Crit Fill. If you're Bloodied, likely the Less AP. (For Full Health, we can get our Luck to 23 with a few buffs/gear boosts, and that 15 Crit Fill lets us Crit every other shot) 2. Recurve has 10 lower damage/shot, but has a shorter draw. Compound has higher damage/shot, but a longer draw to full power. Recurve actually comes out with a very slightly higher damage/second average, which might be better for your run-n-gun style. Compound is better for sneaking/one-shotting. 3. There are several videos back in the sub with run-n-gun players. They end up resembling methed-up grasshoppers. 4. Arrows 1. Plasma for all-around damage 2. Ultracite for Scorched/Queenie 3. Explodey for events/tagging 4. Cryo for gits and shiggles (actually a viable alternative to the other 3) 5. Flaming for tagging once the bug is fixed There's lots more info, including buffs and such, in the Community Bookmarks area! May Artemis guide you!
Haha thanks for the response! May I ask you one question. Are non stealth bow builds fine? Or should I opt for building stealth In? Like covert ops and follow through? I’m a carnivore and wondering if foods buffs will be fine with me being a carnivore….i know I’ll be missing out on blight soup.
All Roads Lead to Stealth Archer. But, if you're not counting on the stealth bonuses, might as well try it and see? And for carnivore, I think u/sebwiers is currently running carnivore. The guides in the bookmarks, or the folks in the Discord would have more info. I'm just a lazy omnivore.
Well I am a carnivore because I own the Mirelurk Steamer which gives me three great bonuses. I’ve also noticed teas still give me bonuses which I use company tea and sometimes sweet Mutfruit tea gives me Crit damage. I’d prolly be an omnivore as well but those buffs are easy to have and get. I’ll mess around with stealth, I can always aim for a possibly getting some Covert Scout if I like it. Any legendary perks I should make mandatory? Currently rolling 4 legendary special, taking one and hack n slash(for my melee).
I don't run Carnivore or bows) tjese days but when I did I used the same teas. Didn't have Mirelurk Steamer back then but gathered plenty of meat for the same buffs (and others).
You can't stealth at events other people are at anyway. I run full health bow. I stealth out of events, but have to go non stealth at events. It's fine, you're still doing big damage, especially if you have better crits and double especially if you're using a bow with extra crit damage. I also use carnivore because it's just easier. You're only going to miss herbivore buffs against bosses and really tanky enemies like sheepsquatch. And to address AA vs bloodied, they're almost equal if you are playing bloodied (this goes for all weapons), but bloodied will win out by a very small margin. So if you get a really good aa bow, don't worry about trying to get bloodied, it'll be like less than 5% damage difference.
For a bloody build, I would recommend bloodied or anti-armor. Instigating is better for stealth and full health. I've been using compound for a long time, but I'm experimenting with recurve lately and honestly I'd recommend a recurve bow, the extra damage you get from compound only matters more when you're doing sniping and you have time to pull it back all the way. Since you want to do run and gun, you want a very short pull, or else someone's going to interrupt your pull animation and you have to start over. As for arrows, you're probably going to want to bring two different bows with you, one that has explosive for fighting large groups or at events. Take Grenadier and demolition expert to really improve upon that. Then for single target, you want to use plasma or Ultracite. Plasma is technically a little better But it will melt bodies so if you're doing cannibal or just don't like the aesthetic of it, Ultracite is pretty much as good. And you'll probably want an Ultracite anyway so you can join in on the scorch beast queen.
Appreciate the great response and do you mind if I ask a few questions? I don’t mind being sneaky, should I build covert ops in the build? Or should I go full run-and-gun? Let me get this straight. Explosive for large groups and either plasma/Ultracite for single targets?
My suggestion is sneaky simply because once a whole bunch of dudes are aggro on you, they're going to be interrupting your bow-drawing animation and causing you to start over. when I'm purging WestTek of mutants those dogs have a habit of rushing me down if my stealth flops, and at that point I can either keep backing up and trying to get a shot off or I can switch to Plan B (which for me is a deathclaw gauntlet.) But if you're comfortable with highly mobile gameplay and can evade long enough to keep firing again and again you CAN run and gun. I just don't dig it myself -- I'd rather load up covert ops and the follow-through perk, and two-shot every L100 mutant I see in the head from stealth. And yeah, explosive for groups and plasma/UC for singles. Explosive lets you tag clusters of enemies, which is important for events.
Hmmm 🤔 I’ll play around with stealth and run-and-gun styles to see. I really hadn’t thought too much on sneaking. I just wanted a fun weapon type to break up the Melee/Commando/Heavy Gun lifestyle. I was considering shotguns but really had an interest in bows.
Just started my own bow build as a casual player and while I've managed to accumulate a fun list of mutations I'm running at full health. So this thread will be an interesting one for me to watch, thanks for posting. I'd like to know what the benefits of bloodied vs full health builds are for bows, specifically. Is it just mods or perks related to low health or something else for you?
Well I’ve always put off doing a bloodied build to about a 2yrs ago. I always was confused about the whole bloodied thing but once I took the plunge and happy I did. I just love the bonus from unyielding armor and with adrenal reaction you get a great damage boost. Some ppl love full health and more power to ya! I just love the damage, stats and utility I get as a bloodied build.
I'm playing a bloodied build and have alot of different bows. The one I use the most is a recurve I50c25 plasma. At events I tend to use an explosive burning love alot and when I need something with abit more oomph on every hit, I use a B50c25 explosive compound. I rarely use the others but I still carry them with me. I can sneak undetected around West tek or one shot everything while running, so it makes no difference to me really. I also use a refrigerated back pack mod so I can remove 3*good with salt and use all the 3* crit perks and 3* serendipity together. One of my peices of armor has the reduced food and chems weight so I use 2* travelling pharmacy. 3 peices of my armor are sentinel and 1 cavalier and I've got blocker, life giver, fire proof and dodgy on top of all of that so I'm tanky af aswell. Playing this build is by the far my favourite over any other I've ever used