Light Bows | Elden Ring Wiki

Cringe in pvp. With light-rolling, it's straight up cancer. And no, I'm not salty, I have been using these myself just for fun but turned out it's the most busted weapon in game. If you're half-decent, you just free win on everything. Even swiftshard mages with maxed cast speed. It ain't even fun.

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These are not as bad as people say. Not as good as consumables (pots etc.) but as a secondary weapon, not bad.

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I am vaguely curious why Shortbow's range has gotten reduced so much. In all other souls games it's only ever been slightly worse than the Longbow, while here it's almost half the range. Mighty **** and Enchanted Shot kinda render this moot, but it's still an odd change from tradition. Was the roll-shot really so good in DS3 that it needed this nerf?

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"However, Light Bows are unique in their ability to quickly notch and fire an arrow immediately after rolling or landing from a jump, allowing a more aggressive and mobile playstyle."

I think this ability deserves way more credit than it gets. I have countless playthroughs documented in all the souls games but I've never made an archer. To me, bows have always felt supplementary at best and never something to be focused on. Once I learned about light bows and this little quickshot ability, that all changed. My current character is high dex and only uses a composite bow, a dagger, and a buckler and its probably the most fun I've had in this game yet. Even if the enemy closes the distance the quickshot after rolling does wonders to finish them off (and is usually quicker than the enemy can perform an input-read dodge).

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Everytime I use bows in PVP I usually got pointed down by enemies. It's really funny that some people don't get mad at one shot bonkers or 99 int casters, but they get mad just by being killed by bow poking lmao.

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Are there any reason to use light bows instead of using Black Bow? Can someone tell me about advantages of these?

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Heres the thing about bows: They aren't about dealing crazy damage, theyre about constant chip damage. You can constantly stay out of range of most threats, peppering foes with arrows. You won't kill them fast, but you will eventually kill them, and you'll kill them safely. Its like a tank, but more focused on evasion than tanking.

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People likes to Sht on bows because of the low damage but this is the 2nd easiest PVE gameplay right after pewpew mage. The only downside is the tedious farming and long fights against input reading enemies(which can easily be circumvented by attacking only after they attack). Imagine if they let us carry 999 arrows like DkS2.

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Honestly, if there was a Bell Bearing Hunter for Trina's Lily and Aeonian Butterfly then I would have no complaints about bows in this game.

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Why does this class exist? Just lump them in with normal bows.

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Even at 80 strength 18 dex and two-handed, the classic Shortbow, which have a better strength scaling (25.5 str 25.5 dex scaling) have less damage than the composite bow (22.5 str 45 dex scaling). Then there's the Misbegotten Shortbow that have around 14% more damage (not counting arrows) but the range start to be too low.

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Shortbows also have the advantage that Torrent doesn't slow down when you draw the bow (I don't know if the black bow shares this attribute but theoretically it should), but because of the speed that arrows travel and the difficulty of leading shots they are best used when facing an enemy charging you directly, or stationary targets.

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I did some testing on the Spear and Greatshield soldier by the gatefront grace with this and the Shortbow. 42 Str, 22 Dex, both bows upgraded to +16 using standard arrows. This text is copied from the Misbegotten Bow page.

No Talismans:

The Misbegotten Bow did 120 to 122 damage while RIGHT ON TOP of the grace, it could go up to 135 if I moved about a foot or two in front of the grace closer to the Soldier

The Shortbow did 125 to 128 damage while RIGHT ON TOP of the grace, damage could go up to 140 if I moved closer

Testing with Arrows Reach Talisman:

Misbegotten did 220 on top of the grace, moving forward didn't increase damage, moving back did decrease it to 210, 209

Short bow did 195 on top of the grace, moving forward didn't increase damage, moving back over a meter brought it down to 189

CONCLUSION:

The Misbegotten bow only appears worth it if you use the Arrows Reach Talisman or are at very close range as it drops off hard at range, as at the same range, the short bow outperforms it due to it's increased range

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Why is there a crossbow here?

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Bows probably wouldn’t be so bad if enemies didn’t move at the speed of light and have a hitbox of a beanpole

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If they ramped up the scaling, allowed the use of grease/magic to buff and got rid of the input-reading instant transmission dodge that enemies like the lion gaurdian have I would love to do an archer build.

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Here me out, what if they made the bow’s arrows increase the enemies weight by some percentage with a limit of 5 or 10 arrows stuck on the enemy. So when u hit enemies they get heavier. I know it could be barely any difference but people light rolling could be regular rolling and regular to fat rolling. Now there’s more rewards trying to risk hitting an enemy specially in pvp.

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How best does a bow/light bow fit into a build? All I’ve found is dedicated archer builds

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"Hey what if we gave bows some cool new options that make them more fun to use, but not give any of them the stats to actually be able to be fun? And what if we made all of them just reskins with better stats? And what if we made aiming suck? And made enemies dodge you 90% of the time? And what if we also didn't increase the arrow speed so enemies have time to just turn slightly in the 2 seconds it takes for an arrow to reach them? And what if-"

I like using bows in this game but they can really be such a pain sometimes.

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Is it missing the black bow?

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If you want to do a bow build, These are what id recommend for boss fights since their roll attack, back step attack and running attacks allow for quick shots. So far my favorite has been the composite bow.

Light bows also have access to barrage which will make it even quicker and able to apply status effects quickly. Arrow rain is a good alternative for large enemies.

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The harp bow is so cool, i wish it was more useful

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With how low the scaling is for shortbows is build seems irrelevant, how much scaling are you really gonna gain by going 50/50 rather then 80/16? Or for DS caps 40/40, 60/16? 10 AR?

The scaling is so pathetic overall theyre similar to crossbows in how they deal damage, but instead of no scaling, high damage, its low scaling, moderate damage, very good maneuverability

Just use what bow you want tbh

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Guys if you are also upset. I suggest going to the bandainamco website and leave elden ring feedback regarding bows with them. If a few people give the feedback it might be enough for them to look into bows

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I did some AP test if anyone is interested with +24 bows (Weapons/ 30str 80dex /55str 55dex / 80str 30dex), Composite/302/299/280, Red Branch/295/292/274, Shortbow/276/282/272.

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The most unfortunate thing about bows is that we can’t infuse them to be occult, magic or something similar to have better damage for specific arrow types. A bow build that does nothing except shoot magic arrows and does like 70% magic damage would be nice and allow for them to deal with shields among other things a little better. Unfortunately that isn’t the case, though it would certainly open up more for archers in the way of options.

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Black bow renders all of these obsolete. However, even then, all bows are obsolete, in comparison to crossbows, by virtue of crossbow AR

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Honestly very disappointing that the scaling is so bad for bows

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All we need to make bows viable is for the game to allow you to use quickstep or bloodhound step on them, or some kind of bow only mobility move

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So the best light bow discovered so far is the Misbegotten Shortbow, which scales mostly off Strength. Doesn't seem fair.

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I found a black bow in the capital where the tree is, can't remember where exactly. I'll log on and post it.

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The Pulley Bow isn’t a light bow in case anyone is wondering

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I have not found an ash of war with keen on it for bows, do they really not exist? Seems lame that i cant increase the dex damage for my bows.

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Can someone confirm the stats on the composite bow? I feel like a bow with more weight and higher stat requirements can't possibly do the same damage and have the same scaling as the short bow? Same with the red branch

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To all the people who post new weapons/armors, it's useless if you dont tell us where/how you acquired that item, or if it's dropped by a specific and rare enemy...
It's like a YT video tha showcase a build, but not the stats and gears =)

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Red Branch Shortbow drops from 2 enemies in Tombsward Ruin.
1st run dropped on my mage, then 10 runs in on my Samurai

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Harp Bow stats, acquired by solving a painting from The shaded castle. 62 base, 29 range. Str E, Dex E. Str 9, Dex 9. Uses Somber Smithing Stones.

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I found a bow called Serpents bow that is supposed to 'show its full potential when using poison arrows.'

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Found a new one, Misbegotten Shortbow, drops from killing the harps in castle morne. 68 base, 23 range. Str D, Dex E. Str 16, Dex 8

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Hmm... Has no one found that harp looking shortbow yet? The one that was shown in the overview trailer?

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Will there be more bows or just one? I hope there’s more.

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Please don't let bows be trash, i beg of thee Miyazaki.

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