I’ve been playing this game since closed beta as dps tank and healer, in this release Im playing spear/bow, Im 60 and the situation of the bow is pretty bad in pvp.
The concept of the bow is to stay in range and do a lot of damage, more distance means more damage and our talents buff distance damage and headshots, well in PVP is the opposite, you have to stay close to hit someone, wìth a light/medium armor with zero chance to run away if you are dying cause bow have no escape vs a melee class
Bow has nothing to do with New World PVP right now, no way to hit a HS, no way to hit someone zigzaging far away, no way to reach a melee running away from you, no way to run away from a melee running towards you
We need something like human tracking or some sprint buff to run away from a melee like a melee can zigzag from a ranged or the possibility to fire while moving or something like a stealth, some sort of buff vs plate armors, something to feel as a ranger long range class and not a light armor archer forced everytime in a close range, with no escape chance, fight aiming at a cricket jumping fullplate warrior blindly smashing you
The videos on youtube showing ppl killing with a bow/spear only support my theory, you can only kill turkeys in this game with a bow/spear
I will say it feels like the hit boxes are off when it comes to arrows. Many times in PvE I see the arrow go through body parts such as heads. It’s very discouraging. In PvP it is a bit worse, especially with the movement. I hate to say it, but maybe the bow does need a tad of a rework. It feels that the PvE bow users have a massive homing aim assist, not sure if it would help, but maybe we could have a bit as well?
Completley agree, I’ve been a bow main since the beginning and I’m currently sitting at level 40, what I’ve noticed is in PVE the bow does a great job because mobs are fairly predictable so making up for the inaccuracies of the crosshair, drop and distance is far easier, I can consistently score headshots on mobs.
In PVP though, I burn through arrows trying to score hits because of how agile a player wearing heavy armor, running around with a stupid powerful GAxe is, these guys can close gaps faster then I can roll away and evade.
I personally feel like arrows should stun slightly longer if they want to keep it skill based instead of aiding with the shots. I currently combo piercing shot with poison and if I’m even off by a millisecond on that combo the guy can roll away, tie that in with trying to score hits on unpredictable players and I’ve had many wasted abilities because I hit a moving target, had to bring the crosshairs back and as I fire an ability they roll away.
For me I say slightly longer stuns on heavy attacks/abilities that stun, and either a slight movement buff for light armor/bow combo or up the haste time in the passive skills, 2 seconds gets me absolutely no where faster then my enemy
Musket should have been the only ‘long range high damage’ single target weapon that needs a direct LOS to land hits.
Bow should have been implemented as a hybrid physical/magical weapon. Aka each shot consumes a small amount of mana and small amount of stamina. There is a reason for this though: Arrows are arc up & down homing projectiles.
Light Attack: single target hit. 100% weapon damage. Needs direct line of sight to aim. Hitscan targeting locks the target and arrow will fly and hit it where you aimed it (head/leg/torso) even if target moves around.
Heavy Attack: aoe attack. 75% weapon damage in AOE in area around your aimed point. Basically its Rain of Arrows.
Essentially the bow would be the only weapon that can fire at targets behind cover. Special skill attacks will split the arrows horizontally to hit targets behind trees, others will arc up to go over high cover, etc.
One tree would focus on single target, the other tree on aoe attacks.
Basically turn bow into using hitscan for ‘target lock’ and then the time it takes the arrow to reach target will give opponent the chance to get behind a cover that is not compatible with the bow shot (aka a vertical arc shot would hit a tree top as it comes down… a horizontal arc shot would not work if opponent seeks cover behind something as tall as his avatar is (if crouched or prone, the object can be shorter) and puts that object between him and the incoming side-seeking arrows.
This way you can have archery without the issues of netcode.