Ranged Multishot

That skill shoots 8 arrows in 1 shot hitting multiple targets in front of the caster. That tends to waste a bunch of arrows since there are seldom 8 targets directly in front of the Archer.

What about if the targets are close then the targets would get hit with all the arrows, if there is 1 then because of the spread the arrows shoot the 1 target gets hit with 3-4 max, if there are 2 targets then each gets hit with 3-4 arrows (if none misses), if there are 3 targets then 2-3 each, etc.
If there is 1 target close & 3 further away then the close because of the spread gets hit 3-4x & the others far away gets hit once. The way it works now is pretty wasteful most of the time & just drawing others closer when you don't want them.

 

Ummmm... I also want to point out that I saw an assumed newbie in Deep Revenswood mowing down Wolves with this skill. The damage done was immense! I'd like to keep an eye on the possible OP of this skill...

 

The damage is not immense, it is a regular hit per target, the rest of the arrows are wasted.

That was likely not a newbie, it is far more profitable to hunt leather in starting zones for an experienced hunter because things die easier & give the same amount of leather

 

I don't know if "multi-shot" is the same as "money-shot" but I'm willing to devote some of my resources to this.

 

Heh.

 

I find myself in such a situation quite often, well maybe not 8 enemies but... If there is only one enemy, multishot is indeed a waste of time and resources. But with wolves and spiders and other mobs attacking in large numbers it is a most welcome addition - kind of equivalent to multitarget polearm and sword attacks.

When placing multiple arrows on the bowstring, I don't think it is possible to control that much where they go. It's like a blast from a shotgun with a barrel sawed off. So some of the arrows will certainly always miss, unless there is a wall of enemies.

Both of the new ranged attacks are actually quite nice, but certainly in terms fine tuning they are the first iteration. Here's how I think they could/should perhaps be tuned.

• I love the new rapid shot - damage appears to be (haven't measured it yet) more or less comparable to aimed shot but it is much better if one wants to virtually guarantee at least some amount of damage (with rapid shot at least a some of the arrows will almost certainly hit, with aimed shot it's either a hit or a miss). It seems to be already well balanced, given that it's a high level attack. Focus cost could perhaps be a bit higher if one wants to tone it down, also the range should perhaps be adjusted down a little bit (e.g. range 20 -> range 15) - this is because when shooting arrows in quick succession one can't make a full draw.
  
  
• The multishot should perhaps be toned down a bit. Range should be the first one to go for the sake of realism - as the kinetic energy is divided more or less equally among the arrows, the range simply can't be the same as with any of the single arrow attacks. I think a range of 10-12 would in any case be more appropriate for this attack -- currently it is 20 in the beginning as with all other attacks. As with rapid shot I think damage is more or less ok but focus cost could be upped if one wants to tone this down (reasoning -- it demands quite a bit of concentration if one wants to actually hit anything more challenging than the wide side of a barn with this one).

 

After experimenting some more with this attack I have to say that I was wrong with many of my previous comments, which I made when I had not leveled it up that much, and were based on the assumption that the attack would somehow improve with the skill level -- guess what? It does not, at least not to any meaningful extent.

I raised it to GM level just to test it out, and in its current incarnation it actually feels worse than a level 40 piercing/blinding attack. In an earlier comment it was suggested that some folks would be "mowing down" high level wolves with this attack, I can assure that I can not "mow down" even a bunch of Small Wolf Spiders with it, let alone a pack of high level wolves.

Well, I can kill such things with this of course, by taking 2-3 times more time and effort than with my usual ranged attacks. This is partly because the attack is dealing very low base damage (for such a "high" level attack) but especially because the attack is very unreliable. There are some occasional mediocre criticals, but not enough to justify its use. One could try stacking the glyphs, but again the unreliability and low damage does not currently justify wasting valuable deck space. The picture inside presents an all too typical case of multishot. I picked low level creatures on purpose just to make a point, in this case I'm in a deathmatch against two lower-than-low level critters, that I could usually one-shot quite easily.

Spoiler: R26 multishot

Multishot vs two small wolf spiders. One is dealt with 19 dmg, the other target is missed completely.

Yes this is shot with both the attack and the ranged base skill at GM level.

What's more, the attack has a 1 second execution time, which means that in most situations that might be relevant for this attack (lot of mobs coming at you from certain general direction) there is not much hope trying to shoot it more than once every now and then. Which kind of negates the whole point of the attack - most higher level critters just heal back the small amount of damage done to them.

Of course, one could perhaps imagine group combat situations where this might possibly be useful - one could possibly "soften" the mobs with this, as there would be enough companions to finish them off? Nay, even then I would choose single-target, higher-damage, debilitating attacks any time over this. I haven't tested this scenario though.

I would very much want to like this attack, but first it would more than a little love to make it useful. It is quite doable, the basic idea is sound. Some suggestions:

• Down with range. I said it before and it still applies. Frankly it looks and feels quite ridiculous to have this kind of attack have the same kind of range as the one-arrow-at-a-time attacks.
  
• Make the attack actually useful, by one or two of the following modifications:
  • Improve base damage
  • Improve criticals
  • Reduce execution time
  • Improve reliability

Then, if there is need to tone it down somehow, increase focus cost. Double it. Whatever, triple it, just please make the attack actually useful first. Thanks!