Weapon Guide: Bow

The **Bow** at one point was the most powerful weapon in the game. However due to recent significant nerfs of the weapon(April, 25th 2018), the bow has been balanced weapon since then. The great nerf of the bow led to the other ranged weapon, the **Ice Staff**in a sudden increase in popularity.

**Please check out the updated mechanics of the Bow if you had not, read through the *weapons*** page first.

## **General Theory**

Along with the **ice staff, t**he bow is quite a versatile weapon in terms of surviving in gamemode fort, or supporting your teammate in a 2v2 browars match. It is very annoying to fight experienced archers, which they know how to dodge melee attacks or counter them.

As a bow user, your main offensive action is charging a bow and releasing the arrow, alongside with the special being propelling a flaming arrow which knocks down your opponent.

In the recent update, the damage per shot of the bow has been buffed slightly. Now, 5 shots with a roll, shield bash, or a kick would send your opponent to death. **Just five arrow hits from afar would kill your opponent**, so don't panick to spam arrows like in the previous versions of the game.

## **Stamina Control**

Currently in game, each bow charge would use up one tile of your stamina bar. However, sprinting is inevitable for archers to **move '***to dodge melee attacks. '*By doing so, you consume a lot more stamina than simply charging and shooting the bow while standing statically. With this being said, it is recommended to **not spam arrows,** because this would give your opponent chances to catch you short in stamina, and unable to dash away from an opponent dash attack. **Charging your bow and not releasing it immediately**is recommended when shooting afar, because this signifies that you can release the arrow in any second, which gives your opponent lots of pressure in trying to pre-kick or pre-shield your expected incoming arrow.

## **Dealing Damage**

When one wants to deal damage with the weapon of bow, one's arrow must hit the opponent. In response, the opponent can either kick, shield, or dodge the incoming arrow to deny your offense. **This makes the archer's capability to aim** very important.When attempting to deal damage, aim for the opponents transition between movements(e.g. shielding and kicking, find time between those 2 movements and launch your arrow)

## **The Classical Shield-Bash**

A common move is done among the majority of experienced archers, which is the shield bash. As mentioned before, your opponent would attempt to pre-kick or pre-shield your incoming arrow. In this situation, you would want to gradually advance in closer to your opponent, and shield bash when your opponent is kicking.

## **Special Attack: Flaming Arrow - Explained**

The special attack for the bow is launching a flaming arrow, which deals a little bit more damage than normal arrows, and also **knocks down your opponent** if the strike is successful. Also, considering that **the launching of the flaming arrow does not require charging time**, this makes the flaming arrow especially dangerous, and hard to predict. Here are a few ways in using the flaming arrow:

* Launching it toward your opponent just as the opponent rises from a knock-down.
	+ Because the instincts of some players tell them to run first. This exposes them in a extremely short period of vulnerability, especially fast flaming arrows. (This concept also applies to the ice staff's freeze too)

* Dashing to another location and firing the flaming arrow. This may shock your opponent with the sudden dash and make them panick. Then you fire the fast propelling flaming arrow to deal damage. (The move is also pretty cool ;))