Archery and PVP

I must say i managed pretty well in PVE with archery. Spent whole sunday before the tournament leveling south of the misterious swamp, killing large grizzlies and patriarchs without much trouble. I went solo for maybe two levels (22 - 23) and then my girlfriend tagged along with her full plate warrior, so things sped up.

Just logged in for a bit and thought about adding some data here. Went to Ravensmoor in single player and this are the observations for ten fights more or less, most of them against skeletal mages (since my character is waiting in the respawn while a write this)
- Greatest hit 45 damage by disabling shot, second greatest 36 damage from Piercing shot; none of them were critical strikes.
- One critical auto attack made 37 damage.
- Haven't done the math, but i'd say average damage counting auto attacks and skills is above 15; i see more two figures numbers.
- Attacks doing 1-4 damage are not common, but they happen more than i'd like (even with skills!).
- I don't see any difference between the damage my skills or auto attacks does. It seems more random than i'd like.
- Stood at melee range fighting with an Elder wolf (moved to Mysterious swamp) and one figures came more than usual... second fight a melee with another Elder wolf gave also numbers around 10... but a couple of 20 showed up.

I'm reluctant to made more observations since this is just casual data i'm collecting by looking at my combat log... For what is worth, my attack skill (on character stats) is 64, and i'm attacking with an Elven bow (which says damage goes from 5 to 15... i'd love to know from where ones and twos come).

Railing back to PVP, I think that damage range is far too wide for all the weapons. My only conclusion is that combat math tries to simulate every possible outcome, from a poor shot (misses still happening) to a stab-to-the-heart-through-your-right-eye. If i'm right, i feel is not a bad approach, but i'd prefer a more stable damage outcome; net damage output could stay constant, and in that way defensive mechanics could have more meaning... i used them in previous release (the ones in Light armor) but i removed them because after using them i got smashed in the same way. Sir... that's not what i defended for!

 

Hmm... can't say I was lucky enough to get those kind of numbers A lot of shots scored damage in the teens, and some in the low to mid- twenties....

 

Yeah, sometimes I feel that Wand or Staff is better than bow. At least against targets with heavy armor. They at least do some damage and do not cost you arrows. Though against light armor bows seem to be better option.

 

I'm going to come out in the open by saying that the first time I got my bow to work - I didn't realize you needed arrows in your inventory. All I was using were the special skills like aimed shot , disabling shot - all the while wondering where the auto attack was.

After reading how arrows really worked from the forums (and feeling very stupid as I read that) , I picked up some from the barkeep and went bear hunting with my level 7-8 char in Kings Road. It did go faster that time but I ran out of arrows rather quickly. At which point the (air) discharge spell + aimed shot = electric arrow combo came into play. I killed stuff a LOT faster and didn't bother loading up on arrows again. Bow + physical arrow is definitely underpowered at this point.