Well, firstly I agree that compared to other weapons most bow ability perks are weak, but I disagree of calling some of them as completely useless for pvp.
Enfeebling Poison Shot is very good to use in short distance, before you go into melee to apply Weaken and reduce your enemy’s dmg. Due to the short distance it is also not that difficult to hit it if you are a good bow player.
Energizing Evade Shot is actually useful, but the numbers make it meaningless. Additionally, the ability is currently not functioning at all. It would need a buff, because +18 Stamina is nothing. But if it would give enough Stamina for a full dodge (30), I see at pretty much viable in PvP. Everything allowing you more to iframe is good.
Fortifying Rain of Arrows needs skill to hit, but it is truly a gambling ability. I mean you apply Bleed, Slow and Dmg if you hit, with the perk you even get Fortify that reduces you being a sitting target. How many abilities with upgrades and perkl are there in the game creating 3 status + dmg. It is strong, but maybe they have to increase the radius a bit again.
Penetrating Rapid Shot is bit more controversial. Another ability making you a hitting target, but for wars not quite that bad if you are defender on the wall not requiring evade shot. So additional armor pen on the last hit is something. I mean bow perks must be build around rewarding the player for hitting. Yet, if only one shot from rapid shot hits giving armor pen for the next attack after the ability would be bit too strong compared to the other perk.
Refreshing Penetrating Shot has the issue of being next to power shot the strongest range single shot ability. Therefore its perk giving an additional buff would make it maybe too much stronger. As it is, it is truly a useless ability, even if ones uses penetrating shots for execute. 14% CDR are completely meaningless and it requires a buff to maybe 50-75% CDR or a complete change that slightly rewards the player for hitting it.
Empowering Splinter Shot is complicated. I mean Empower (+% dmg) can stack to give max +50% damage. Musket players gets empowered by headshotting what is easier looking from the sniper zoom. We, bow players on the other hand only get +15 % after dodging that is active for only 5 sec, giving you a very short time to align your shot.
If you play a bow build maximazing your single target bow dmg rather than stacking single ADS shots, you would seek the Keenly Empowered perk (+15% dmg for 5 sec), the empower dodge upgrade and Splinter Shot perk for +50 % (55) dmg on the following shot that would be optimally Pen Shot. Giving up poison, rain or rapid for this may be questionable, but as I said it is useful used like this.
What many players don’t understand, especially those who main certain weapons is that some weapons/abilities/perks are useful in certain situations or useless in others depending on many factors. The goal of AGS should be regarding the Bow perks to reward us for hitting our targets. Therefore naturally, we should receive buffs of the ability type.
For example:
Evade Shot is a defensive ability, so we should get a defensive buff what could be additional speed (but already exisiting as rune upgrade), additional protection like Fortify or additional defense utility as it is now by extra stamina. The stamina should be increase to at least 30 though.
Poison Shot and Rain of Arrows are mostly debuff abilities. Means they apply debuff with some additional damage like poison, bleed or slow. Therefore, the perks should either give additional status effects as debuff or buffs or strengthen the already applied debuffs. The later should rather be done through the rune upgrades which are good for rain but require some changing for poison. Last Hit should be change places with Infected Arrows and Infected receive a significant dmg buff; I mean seriously? +2% dmg for a rune point, it is not worth at all to get Infected Arrows! This poison change would also make the Poison perk viable. Rain of Arrows should meanwhile should not give a defensive status effect on hit. I mean it is already a gamble to use it, since you make yourself an easy target. I would therefore prefer changing it into rewarding the player for hitting several targets with it like “hit additional eniemies +% dmg” or sth. An offensive weapon doesn’t need defensive buffs, evade shot is enough, we don’t need Fortify. Also, think about not moving the Poison perk with Infected Arrows, longer duration for hitting rather than additional debuffs. Debuffs should be on the skill tree!
Rapid Shot and Splinter Shot are offensive abilities as is Penetrating Shot, but the prior two doesn’t allow you to use them from the moving making them somewhat similar to Rain of Arrows. The last shot from Rapid Shot is the strongest and naturally any buffs giving from perk should apply to it. I don’t see a problem with both perks. I mean the only issue is on the skill tree as it is for poison shot. Final Blow should change place with Rapid Accuracy and the later should be changed. Hitting all three shots and only getting 50% CDR?? No, not worth a Skill Point at all as for Infected Arrow. Make the perks viable by making the abilities more viable by such skill placement changes. Splinter Shot’ Calculated is similar to Rapid Accuracy, where I would even say to change the Empowering Splinter perk to that Skill Upgrade - like each succesful splinter hit gives 5% Empowering. The perk is useful for Empower builds, but change Calculated to make the ability truly viable.
Penetrating Shot is also an offensive ability and the strongest single target bow ability. The ability upgrades are acceptable, but the perk isn’t worth it as it is for only 14% CDR. I mean should Rapid Accuracy and Calculated stay, we Bow player may not need additional CDR, yet if the cdr pen perk should stay changing it to 50-75% CDR (not stacking) would make it truly worth seeking. It may look scary on the paper, but on the field it truly difficult to get consistent pvp kills with pen for pen shot to become a gatling.
That’s all I have to say regarding this.
