Malenia Bow Only w/ Commentary on Bow Builds | Elden Ring

[@dexteritycheck]

good insights and totally agree that FS did Bows dirty in ER. The mechanics and systems in the game lend itself really well to have scaling bow builds. There would literally be no difference between a balanced bow build and a sorcerer build with Pebble. I feel like early on in development, they touted bows as a truly viable 'class' and then scrapped it.

[@alanshovelwhereshitgrows2021]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZCldZmhibacfaM

[@rohithpegadaraju1884]

Except pebble can do more damage at high INT cause of better scaling staves.

[@ericsilva9036]

@@rohithpegadaraju1884 no shit dude

[@dexteritycheck]

@@rohithpegadaraju1884 that's the point I'm making. bow builds SHOULD scale like other builds...

[@djlorius]

@@dexteritycheck i agree with u, a marksman class seems fun in ER

[@doole2134]

There is still hope for a future patch that increases the bow scalings to viable levels, and reduce the price of arrows like they did to smithing stones.

[@doole2134]

Now that I think of it, maybe the reason of the state of bows is that they can be used to cheese enemies in cheap ways like rot arrows from very far. Magic too but its no the same. They want bows in the game but with high limitations because of this.

[@Qutna]

@@doole2134 Perhaps, but they can still reduce the effectivity of the bow and it's effects at really long range or keep it as it is, perhaps buff so it can be a play style under the right condition but having to actually build the character for that, while buffing the close combat effectivity and playability. Why not have arrow that pierce shield and armor since we already have the rapier skills and spells that do so, or arrow that do high pose damage opening the target to crit headshots, using them with a short bow sound fun to me. Right now the bow is way to restricted and personally I love the bows in general but I hate them in Elden Ring.

[@bumpsy]

I feel like they've actually nerfed bows :) Malenia now dodges way more jump-shots. FromSoft really seem to dislike a portion of their players

[@SaHaRaSquad]

@@doole2134 But you can already cheese enemies in many other ways. Magic lets you one-shot certain bosses, you can literally kill the Royal Revenant boss through the fog gate. And I'd say if bosses can spam you with dozens of meteors or other projectiles, spew poison across the whole arena and teleport behind you for instakill grabs there's nothing wrong with decent bow builds. Rot arrows are cool but the required butterflies never respawn and the rot effect is slow enough to only matter in long fights. Cheesing enemies with bows is not that reliable because the smallest movement can make your arrow miss while sorcerers already start the game with homing projectiles. And then to rub salt into the wound they put OP enemy archers in the game that can spam 3 high-damage arrows within a second on a normal longbow. The Monster Hunter series has bows as main weapon category for a long time, with interesting mechanics like piercing arrows and it's still challenging.

[@RJMacReady1]

Hi, Im from the future. They didnt fix it.

[@TheOldMan-75]

Maybe their intention was that bows were just meant for pulling enemies. However, if that's the case then why would you put 11 different bows into a game and make them all suck.

[@alanshovelwhereshitgrows2021]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZCldZmhibacfaM

[@LilRarted]

@@alanshovelwhereshitgrows2021 cringe

[@soldiersweekly1877]

They only suck in your hands in the hands of an enemy they are heat seeking missiles

[@TheMicahArts]

I get that, but for months leading into the game they made it seem like bow builds would be viable. If they were meant to just pull enemies you shouldn’t even be able to upgrade it using a ancient dragon smithing stone, given that there’s a very limited amount of those in the game it would be useless using one on a weapon that’s meant to pull and pull only.

[@kjwong4730]

That’s exactly right

[@Emarrel]

I did a bow focussed run myself and while I generally had a good time, the lows were absolutely miserable. I just conceded to using a melee weapon on some bosses since it just wasn't having fun otherwise. I could understand the argument that longbows are meant to be for pulling from a distance but the light bow moveset (and Black Bow by extension) is specifically tailored to be used in closer quarters. You have way more upkeep than just running a mage build and every failed attempt is another one closer to going back to the Bloodrose and Bone mines. Quickstep on ranged weapons would have been really neat but you're basically told to get fucked on top of having awful scaling and it baffles me that crossbows can't be ashed at all.

[@Causener]

I don't even consider the lack of scaling on crossbows to be a detriment since the scaling on bows is hardly much better.

[@UVAmatsuo]

I think people failed to understand how many attempts it took to even get this good of gameplay.

[@sagaeinarsdottir8884]

Not that many, they're a way better archer than you 😏

[@archivelibrarian6818]

this guy isnt asking for praise or for people to "understand" his dedication. hes just discussing bows in the game with the gameplay as a side thing to keep the audience occupied. nobody needs you here attempting to make something of it. everybody already knows how much dedication this takes.

[@lackingmaturity6631]

@@archivelibrarian6818 You seem to not understand that Amatsuo's comment is also about how bad bows are. I.e. it took Phemeto this many attempts and he's already really good with the bow. And also, wth is wrong with giving a complement on Phemeto's dedication? Just because he didn't ask for it doesn't make giving it a bad thing.

[@archivelibrarian6818]

@@lackingmaturity6631 it becomes a problem when you do it in a passive aggressive way towards the viewers. claiming that the viewers "fail to understand" something incredibly simple. this guy deserves the compliment, but i dont think he deserves his viewers to be insulted. just my take. its kind of like what you just did now. claiming i dont understand something incredibly simple even though its just unspoken knowledge to 95% of people who watched this video

[@lackingmaturity6631]

​@@archivelibrarian6818 You're taking it literally instead of looking at the context. Maybe you're right, and he's calling everyone stupid, but there's no need to assume the worst when there's a simpler assumption that also gives the benefit of the doubt. There's an implied 'some' (I highly doubt he actually thinks everyone "failed to understand"), i.e. "I think some people failed to understand..." Not only is it a reasonable statement, but the focus of his comment is clearly about bringing attention to Phemeto's efforts rather than to insult other viewers.

[@propheticrain-maker1486]

Bow criticism aside, (I 100% agree with all your criticisms) massive respect for the Bow only run.

[@loboalcurry]

Bow only runs are very easy imo

[@propheticrain-maker1486]

@@loboalcurry fair enough!

[@XFizzlepop-Berrytwist]

I still cant believe he beat Malenia with only a bow, and without a summon.

[@cobble3317]

Just did it myself, it's not worth it

[@kelbihunter6042]

Thank you so much for this. Started a fresh run with black bow and Albernac w/arrow rain (pure dex) and the early game felt so good! Killed margit easy and quick and honestly thought bows were gonna be better than ever. But... no scalling? I'm so sad. Gonna re-work this character now. Thanks again for saving me a whole playthrough to learn this.

[@idkfa1000000]

i mean at most you just wait until you can respec. you get like 15 respecs in this game anyways.

[@JotaFla]

@@idkfa1000000 When/where do you get your first respec? I'm about lvl 50 now, all into bow build and I'm already thinking of change since I will not be able to get atleast a bow with C scaling on dex :(

[@IceNinja18]

@@JotaFla You have to beat Ranala in Liurnia lakes. Then go find some larval tears and give one to her. Only place that I know of that gives you larval tears is Nokron city. Which the part that you want to get to requires you to be Radahn. There might be some more accessible larval tears though so I would just look it up.

[@jackvoss1527]

Tried using sleep arrows on her and they did not have much effect on putting her to sleep. She also dodged like 80% of them it seemed. This was really impressive.

[@Mermicus]

Thank you for this video, literally covered every question I had about bow builds in Elden Ring

[@dusk9910]

I've been using the giants greatbow and with 70 str, a head shot, and the usual damage boosting talismans as well as the blue dancer talisman and no armor I do about 2200 to general enemies. It 1 shots most everything exept tanky knights or ofc bosses. But it is quite effective. Unfortunately you're right it is the only bow of it's kind. The ballista/cannon does around 1800 with the same build and has a much slower recovery time which makes it difficult to use but it is also fun since it doesn't scale at all and you can use your stats for something else. Idk I still love them, it's my favorite way to play. They definitely could've given them more love across the board though.

[@privateerlarry]

Do you mean the golem’s greatbow? Seems like a fun build

[@dusk9910]

@@privateerlarry yes oops lol

[@ITBEurgava]

@@privateerlarry it's definitely fun. Try it.

[@ohanrahan3791]

I'm working my way through a bow-only playthrough myself and couldn't agree more with your points, just letting bows act like every other weapon in the game would be a massive step up from whatever they are now. Praying FromSoft hears some of the criticisms and gives ranged another look.

[@sladevalen]

I will admit I was truly sad to see how bad the scaling was because I intended to do a bow cleric as my second run and after getting the erdtree bow in the capital now (it scales off your faith so I was hopeful) I was very quickly underwhelmed with how little damage it did. Even with holy arrows to make the best use of it and it being a higher upgraded weapon that necessary for the area (I have it at +6 as a somber stone weapon compared to my melee weapon that got me here at +3) it hits for only 240-ish damage with 40 faith investment. I hope they make a patch to fix the scaling and I truly hope it was an error or oversight and this wasn't their intended vision for bows

[@FakeHeroFang]

Actually casters have spells that get around the AI sidestepping your casts all the time. Glintstone stars and the upgrade version have strong enough tracking to still hit enemies most of the time. This one is more of an AI exploit, but enemies dodge the initial cast of magic glintblade, not the projectile, so you can spam that one quite a bit and still get hits in. You also get melee casts so the versatility beats bows hands down outside of status effect variety. The arrow carrying caps could double and nothing would really change IMO. Str/dex builds already have no issue bleed and frost cheesing everything under the sun, it's not like giving them more arrows to use would make that any different, assuming they would even bother to farm for the crafting material.

[@OMG-si3wn]

the ambush shard as well

[@soulechelon2643]

Yeah I had also thought bows would be pretty awesome, and planned on making a pure bow character (or at least, a character that mained bow and only switched to melee when out of arrows), but you're right - it seems bows are really just good for keeping damage or procs going at range or cheesing certain enemies. That's about it, and it's kinda sad to see. With all the crazy zany OP weapons and arts and spells available, it makes little sense bows are just so completely not as good. Oh and I totally agree about enemies side stepping or just slightly moving and bam - arrow misses. I swear the hitboxes in this game are awesome, enraging, and broken all at the same time. The slow arrow speed is also a huge hindrance.

[@Paydirt90847]

As a fellow bow user youve basically hit all the points nicely there. Good video and I hope this gets posted somewhere From get to see it. Bows have so much potential as a supplement to other weapons or even on their own as a build and are totally left in the dark. Personally I feel like bows should not only get better scaling, but also get a draw speed increase from their relevant scaling. Casting has this, why do bows not? Seriously From should look at some archers even now, the speed with and the weight some dudes can pull is actually mad scary, let alone when they were the popular ranged weapon of choice. Heck in the UK it was written into law that every young man had to practice archery on a set day. (might actually be one of those weird old world laws that still exists)

[@VB-92]

I've found I have a lot of fun in NG+ with a full bow build. As a melee archer of sort. But yea, if the damage will fall of hard later on, I'd imagine I will find I have a lot less fun since things dragging on can be a bit much. Which is too bad, because the melee archer dodging around jumping back stepping and throwing out and arrow while the enemy keeps trying to catch me is really fun. Night cavalry with this type of build has a very spectacular feel to it. It seems to mesh so well with established mechanics in the game. And having a dagger with assassin's gambit on me to move around and position well so I can swap to my long bow with mighty shot and take out some of a group from afar is also great fun. All in all a very neat way to play the game. Should most certainly do decent damage in order to avoid drawn out fights, and worse, costing you way more arrows than is within reason, since that means even more money/time spent on arrows. Time being a lot more precious, there should be a merchant that sells all arrow ingredients, or a bell bearing hunter that drops a fletcher bell bearing that has infinite of every type of arrow that can be crafted unlimitedly.

[@jakereynolds8897]

I really hope in future patches bows are buffed. I'm currently trying to do an Irvine from Berserk cosplay build, and while it can be fun, it's sometimes frustrating. I find myself switching to a sword to fight bosses

[@argylesoze4945]

Every time I want to fuck with a Bow Build, I come to these videos and change my mind.

[@Chyguy]

Its saddening that they seem to make the same mistake over and over again when it comes to bows despite having games where bows/ranged builds are actually good Just make them viable, From, please Let us infuse them, let their scaling be good, something, anything

[@SaHaRaSquad]

It's sad how they repeat every single mistake. Some features break in certain situations and always have, and FromSoft just ignores it. They deliver both consistent quality and consistent issues. They did fix the bow aim after Dark Souls 1 at least, but not in the Remaster for some reason.

[@iUsedToBeAMusician]

Bows are probably bad on purpose because the game would be a little bit too easy to cheese with bows.

[@cordynasty]

The sidestepping is my biggest gripe. Ive wasted hundreds of arrows simply cause enemies casually walking to the side.

[@kckurbtt7]

It's funny because bow enemies can be hundreds of feet away from you and hit you dead on while you are riding at a full spring with torrent

[@Teratoma..]

I went to try a bow build having not touched bows on my previous character, I was shocked to see you can't change affinity.

[@LionStaring]

i just thought Melania having a bunch of arrows on her body is hilarous

[@paddington2063]

Being able to use quickstep with a bow with a timed follow up akin to shooting after a roll would be game changing

[@Jack-la]

Yeah, when I first started I was hoping bows would get ashes and affinities like that. It feels really weird that it's so restricted.

[@dahSweep]

100% agree on everything you said. I'm on a bow build playthru now and while I have been enjoying it, right when I got to mountaintop and haligtree, the damage fall-off really started to hit me. It has been really fun, but I can't imagine anyone running this for any reason other than fun factor or for the challenge. There is so much going against bows, even when they are the worst weapon. The trash scaling and the hoops we have to go through to make our arrows (just let us buy every type of arrow, please!) make it unbearable sometimes.

[@AscendantStoic]

Maybe mid to late game bows start falling behind damage wise, but early game they are pretty powerful and outrange ALL spells and incantations early game (as well as throwables), I beat the first Crucible Knight using poison arrows and the Erdtree Avatar with fire arrows early on, there is also a chance that bows might still get a buff in future patches or an upcoming DLC. Also there are several special bows that say they "reveal their true potential when used with certain arrow types", I think that includes Radahn's Great Bow + his special arrows (which change the bows special attack), I also encountered a poison bow (that specifically boosts poison arrows) and a holy one (that boosts holy arrows), I haven't tested them thoroughly but I'm not sure what they mean exactly by "reveal their true potential" (it's obviously a buff but it's not clear to me how it's calculated). Personally I'm enjoying using Hand Ballista and Pulley/Repeater Crossbow as sidearms to thin enemy numbers before engaging in melee combat, specially in areas with lots of pitfalls or platforming sections with enemies, Pulley/Repeater Crossbow's main advantage is that it can be used in conjunction with a melee weapon or shield.

[@f0ul0u]

Elden Ring bows are similar to DS3. In DS2, they are very good because enemies are slow and that bows can be enchanted with proper scaling. Also, you used to have 999 arrows instead of 99 which is more convenient than having to rest to refill arrows. I even want to try crossbows but OMG the reload needs input is annoying. This should be automatic similar to older souls games.

[@Pugtail]

am doing an archer knowing full well its supposed to be really bad but I don't mind. In most games, especially with pvp I play the worst thing on purpose and try to become the best cause is fun when you get there c:

[@ITBEurgava]

Try beating malenia with a greatbow/ballista. That's true mark of master archer

[@hhhnfryhgf9560]

Simons bow was so good, also it sounded good too. ER bows sound like twigs and are slow to draw. Bows should be just as viable as long range sorcery. I dont mind the damage its the draw speed, aesthetic how it the r1 shoots, and the sound of it.

[@bread1958]

I've been trying to do a bow character and ended up with, essentially, a dex build that happens to equip a bow to inflict status effects. Every once in a while I get into a ranged battle with an enemy I can't reach or a boss's aoe move makes me back off so I resort to chip damage, but mostly, bows are unusable in regular combat. They feel like a niche utility and I agree that they should be viable as a main weapon. I want my bow to be my weapon and my sword is a backup. My girlfriend has done a few mods and was thinking of trying to make a fix for bows. I hope she can do it, even if it would only work in offline mode. The Black Bow would be so fun with S dex scaling and stormhawk arrows or something. Oh btw, I actually find some use in rain of arrows. Large targets like trolls or dragons can get bled or frostbitten more or less instantly from it. That's kind of the only use. For chip damage in boss fights when they do some go away earth quake move, belch poison everywhere, fire pillars, whichever, mighty shot with shard of alexander + arrows sting talisman and potentially spear talisman does some ok damage.

[@ITBEurgava]

The thing about the so-called "utility" is that almost every other melee weapons can do it too, removing bow's necessity in the first place. Rarely see bows in PVP, do we?

[@MainTopmastStaysail]

One thing casters can do to avoid the sidestep dodges is use spells with a delay. Glintstone Blade or Stars of Ruin or any of the dragon breath spells can easily track a dodging enemy. Bows can't, and no bow skill can create a delay (enchanted shot sometimes track well enough to hit anyway, but it depends on how how far the enemy dodges). Should note that the talisman that increases bow range does basically amount to a damage boost, because damage falloff for bows starts way before you hit their maximum range. A small damage boost, but it does help.

[@AcidDBL]

I would recommend the serpent arrows as they have great poison build up and if you use the composite bow or the black bow it makes no builds so much easier

[@rudesthazard5769]

The most disadvantages. Almost no advantages. It really does make you wonder what the design intention is? If they require so much work, why are they such garbage? You're going out of your way to grind and craft them. You're literally firing your runes at enemies. Draw speed. Slow projective speed. No synergies. It's very frustrating and kind of baffling.

[@JotaFla]

Yeah, dude, I've spent hours grinding materials to craft arrows since bow is my favourite weapon in rpg games, but it doesn't seem very rewarding at all

[@danielwesterlund9408]

I think you need summons to really get the advantage of bows. It is also nice in co-op with rain of arrows that proc status effects while someone else is a brawler. For a boss that is constantly on the move melee is better. But I really hope they give some love to bows in the next big patch. Would be nice if draw speed scaled with dex or stamina. And as you say, some bows should have the C and B scaling.

[@bumpsy]

honestly I feel many things in ER have absolutely no design intentions. If you look at it in detail, the balancing in this game is a hot mess. FromSoft either took too big of a bite with the scale of this game, or their best days are behind them

[@ddd8828]

Bow build in DS3 Cinders mod is sick, if you haven't tried it out!

[@supaduc9]

is it bad that i didnt hear what you were talking about in the first viewing, because i was so mesmerized by your gameplay?

[@brightsuperstition]

With a lot of things in Elden Ring, it's clear that From Software still has very antiquated views on gameplay mechanics. In this specific instance, they still view bows as only side arms that aren't meant to be your primary damage dealer. The Nioh games are ironically more advanced in this regard. Even though bows, rifles and cannons are indeed designated as side arms in the Nioh games, you actually can have viable endgame bow-, rifle-, or cannon-only builds, and the ammo economy in those games requires very little grinding since optimized builds are designed in such a way that firing ammo only has a chance of using up ammo and, in addition, ammo is much, much cheaper in those games.

[@alanshovelwhereshitgrows2021]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZCldZmhibacfaM

[@slimelich]

ive thought the same about stomps and etc. when i was messing around with greatshields as a primary. it'd be great to have some of the hammer ashes like prelates charge or the gravity slam. buttslam even

[@purplatypus7405]

At least when you die after a boss attempt you get all your arrows back....Wait

[@feveredmushroomHD]

gonna like the vid in hopes this gets popping...also ya throwables are the strongest they have ever been, get determination early and u just win.

[@Symplasia]

Give shortbows quickstep, and slightly faster missile speed with a slightly improved scaling. Give longbows much better scaling.

[@easyesky6646]

Completely agreed. I am playing a bow, because it is a playstyle I have enjoyed in other games. But it feels like a last minute addition in Elden Ring. I have been running a triple bow setup so I can switch between Barrage, Mighty Shot and Enchanted on the fly. The Albinauric roof archers (in Ordina) have a lovely triple arrow self-tracking attack - can I have that please? The only positive is the extreme range option. But most boss fights are arena events. A reasonable portion earnt runes are funnelled into maintaining an arrow positive inventory. There are things like Shared Order to grant a slice of holy damage. But is minor gain on top of an already anaemic damage value. But switch damage types means opening up the inventory to switch arrows - if there is a faster toggle, someone advise?! - a way to increase the carry amount of arrows - ashes that can add alternative damage types - more arrow vendors, and at budget prices - enchanted shot available earlier on the game - ashes to shoot a horizontal spread of arrows - pierce option on something else other than a great bow - add scaling to cross bows. - S or A scaling on any Bow.

[@michelmangelo]

SO many great points. not going to lie this is kind of discouraging my bow build but im going to keep going with it anyways. maybe they will buff It later if archers make enough noise

[@BigVEE]

>crap scaling >no infusion >limited skill access >few item synergies >needs actual farming >bad manual aim Final destination? NOTE: Would it kill them to have a Talisman or some such for buffing bow headshot critical? Seems like there is a TON of room for improvement here with patching.

[@ThanhLai5]

I'm currently stuck at Malekith with bow only build and consider giving up. In phase 1 he's like nothing but in phase 2 he jumps all over the place so my arrows couldn't hit him all. And of course he deals a ton of dmg as well. Awesome fight with Malenia btw.

[@ITBEurgava]

Small bone to craft arrows costs 150 rune. You need 3 bones to make 10 arrows. Meaning bone arrow is 45 rune each. Whatever flavor you want to add? Blood, rot, fire, means more runes or more farming. Meanwhile, you only need 1 bone that costs 250 to craft 5 greatarrows. Meaning every greatarrow costs only 50 rune. I use greatbows for this reason.

[@MorbidGames666]

Great video, you might wanna bump up the brightness a bit.

[@potprince2169]

I'm doing a bow build right now, it's pretty good, i just poison and rot enemies, then bleed arrow them down or whatever their weakness is. I use the blue dancer charm, and ritual sword with the arrow talismans. My build gets ridiculous damage. You just gotta be creative. I also like using throwing knives and pots for extra damage or status build up

[@potprince2169]

And rain of arrows melts big bosses like radahn or dragons, and even mohg and morgott

[@cody4110]

Fingers crossed that the more attention this issue gets, the sooner bows get a little buff

[@kabuki2804]

Ok I want to make a bow build! You have inspired me c:

[@sorsofsufring]

I agree that bows are disappointing but ur efforts are respected. hopefully ur still having fun with the game :)

[@erllun]

I couldn't agree more. It's definitely a dev oversight and I think the scaling going to be fixed anytime soon.

[@victorhugo-rf7py]

Bow were always shit in any souls game how its a dev oversight

[@jonatasbraz3539]

All games i played, always played as an archer. First time playing a game from fromsoftware and my thoughts about bow is that it's not terrible, but that's probably because i didn't play with other weapons in this game. Anyway, the saddiest part for me is (as you said) that some talismans just don't work with bows lol. It would be easier if we could buff our jump attacks or buff our last attack of a combo

[@heartlessxandra6365]

Spear talisman works on jump attacks and dodge attacks for bow

[@dantucho203]

In dark souls 1 bows are super powerful. They deal very good damage and are super fun to use, even though they don’t have special rolling or jumping attacks.

[@ITBEurgava]

And in dark souls 2, your arrows can seek the enemy you locked on, and certain great arrows have AoE shockwave on impact

[@Jess_Jones]

I feel this video. I’m struggling with my bow build…. Bleed and frost save me

[@borgazar]

Totally agree. I maxed a composite shortbow bc I thought it'd be handy for my quality build but it does fuck all damage and has D D scaling. Idk where to buy bleed arrows but gave up grinding for feathers to craft them

[@ltcolrayquaza]

My major complaint for bows is you have to buy arrows if you want decent damage and they are reletivly not cheap some early/mid game enemies may take 20 shots and at 20 a piece for normal arrows sure but for better arrows it's like 150 a shot it's not alot for one guy, but then you factor in multiple enemies and it adds up. Melee, faith, incantations doesn't need to spend runes outside a few spells and/or buying the weapon. The astrologer glintstone peble will carry you through the game for free, the starting arrows will run out before torrent, unless you just skip everyone.

[@Pl4sm0]

Believe me or not, I manage to cheese most of the open world bosses while keeping distance and pew pew, the one I couldn't cheese them, went full melee :)

[@JotaFla]

Damn, I thought the Black Bow were C in Dex, I was looking forward on getting that. Maybe a STR build with the Golem Great Bow would work?

[@burningknight7]

So the rain of arrows ash of war on bows and greatbows is definitely powerful especially when used with status inflict arrows too but for Malenia, because she is so agile and also very thin, the attack doesn't really hit as much. the 2nd phase is always just "try to not get hit and quickly attack her" fight. Which is boring. Edit: Watched the video completely, dude what the hell are you talking about, rain of arrows is really good for so many enemies, remember to also use the range talisman as it increases the range at which you can "rain" those arrows. Plus you kinda have to time it right so that bosses become mostly stationary as you hit that attack. Get a good spacing and time it as they end their combos.

[@malkoram7555]

"Bow is not viable" Proceed to kill malenia bow only effortless

[@ElDrHouse2010]

I play a doble katana meta af samurai the bow is great because it adds the option to add chip damage.

[@NaetheMage]

I agree with you about a lot of things. But one more point is that arrows flyes really too slowly... Hope for the DLC to bring some content for making trues Archers like me finally viable.

[@Blacksmith__]

Bows should get a big damage boost, at the cost of how many arrows you can hold at a time. That would put them more in line with magic, which does high damage but has more limited uses. They should also greatly increase the number of arrows you get from crafting recipes/merchant purchases so you don't really need to grind to restock.

[@Blacksmith__]

I really agree that you should be able to change their scaling like any other weapon

[@audreyii5087]

I defintely agree that bows would feel better with just a bit more scaling. My first run was Arcane/Dex, and I definitely wished my 80 Arcane was reflected more in the Serpent's Bow DPS lol. That being said, I still used bows a lot in boss battles just for well they applied statuses, and I thought that was super fun playstyle wise, especially when paired with the Kindred of Rot talisman. I actually felt like a DnD Rogue going for poison and rot procs before switching to my blood daggers lol

[@sammy_vee]

try using a pully crossbow + Seppuku? It seems like an OP bleed build. For some reason, it applies to the bleed buff on crossbow when you use seppuku on the right hand. Just switch out the crossbow to apply the ash then back to the crossbow. It applies the buff for some reason.

[@justinw8916]

He did this on mohg! He absolutely shredded him

[@wolfves2280]

so true! I came to the last boss on my bow only run and thought lets clear the other bosses and im facing malenia so its just doing 200 something damage to everything while any other melee outscales bows, its just painfull and magic being this strong it doesnt make any sense bows are so underpowered. I might go throwable only run after this to see how they fare against bows.

[@gavinrenney7627]

Crossbows with PvP is amazing, especially if there a mage put sleep bolts while there casting a spell.

[@ericsilva9036]

It's still early in elden ring's release so hopefully they tweak bows. I've always loved bow style gameplay

[@kjwong4730]

I completely agree with this rant. You can’t design a game and have some weapons scale great but others don’t scale at all. Also what happened to S scaling like in previous souls games? I think they need to patch this in the future to make it so that all weapon are viable if you choose to use them.

[@jeanmiranda8651]

100% true, I did like 50% of the game strength build and like 50% dex, I would love to do another play through with just a bow build but they sucks in this gameright now if they just release a patch to have them scale better.

[@Polopollo75]

I agree with you with bow. But the jump with 2 weapons is maybe easier for a pro gamer for you, but to me the enemies were too agressive. Like I needed to a crazy build to make it work compared to magic builds or bleed builds.

[@WladcaPodziemia]

Sad to hear confirmation of what I was seeing with bows... I hoped with good STR golem's gret bow and black bow could be good, but yeah... it is not very viable, out side of cheesing some enemies

[@bishop631]

Yeah i totaly agree with everything said. Eldenring is my first fromsoftware game and i decide to play a bow build with daggers to switch to when enemies closed in or i ran out of arrows. I pretty much cheesed or dotted everything to death until i got to mountaintop of giants and i was just so feed up at every slightly tanky enemy being a struggle and a complete clutch win i just switched to a generic bleed and frostbite build with dual blades and that feels so much better and i was literally using the same stats and as soon as i switched weapons i could actually kill stuff. Bows are fun but sadly so not viable as a main weapon and are just good for cheesy strats atleast when you start out.

[@danielwesterlund9408]

It would be neat if enemies dropped arrows more frequently and if you could pick up at least some arrows from fallen enemies. That would save a lot of time from crafting new arrows. Draw speed should also increase slightly with either Dex, Str or End. Arrows should travel faster with End so you could hit more arrows on moving targets. Or at least make Storm Arrows really fast since those are pretty rare to have loads of. The Talisman that increase Dmg with successive hits should work with bows, at least if you use Barrage. More scaling options in Ashes of War and some more Ashes of War would be fun. Thank you! :)

[@mightyo3122]

They should add ashes to bows and maybe add gun like weapons. I would like to See more ranged builds besides magic stuff

[@ruinmaniac1411]

One thing about the talismans affecting bows, does this games "leo Ring" affect arrows? I know that was a thing in a previous game. Or at least I think so. Probably wouldn't make the big difference, but y'know.

[@Rukir]

Do you think they could majorly change bows in the future? Does from soft/bandai namco do huge sweeping changes like that?

[@piotrdworowy183]

I am still convinced that ,when I finally get my PC upgrade and but ER ,my first choice will be Samurai - archer.

[@piotrdworowy183]

I mean maybe not only nowa,but mainly focus on them,and some katanas ,but only in emergency.

[@AkaiSuzume]

I feel like the only rpg that did bows justice, was dragon's dogma. I don't know why devs don't pay attention to bows.

[@GothicXlightning]

is hard not to get distracted by her naked Red sonja/Phoenix force look and get a few slashes in the face i do love Archery in this game, it seems pretty powerful for all i been experiencing most hate the stupid 99 Arrow cap per slot wish it was at least 150

[@Algahiem]

Bow only builds in Elden Ring are like Whip Builds in Dark Souls 1: Sure , you COULD beat the game in that if you put the time and effort into it, but WHY would you want to? I seems that Bow builds are mostly impractical (especially in late game) and are only good for a masochistic, self imposed challenge. Even builds that rely primarily use the more powerful long range weapons, such as the Pulley Crossbow, the Lion Greatbow, the Ballista or the Jar Cannon have huge downsides: -The Pulley Crossbow has potentially high DPS (especially with the right bolts) but eats you ammo in seconds -The Lion Greatbow has knockback, good at poise/stance breaking and amazing Ash of War, but like all greatbows, it plant you in the ground when you fire a shot, can't be used on horseback and it only does slightly more damage than the Albinauric Bow. -Both the Ballista ant Jar Cannon boast incredibly high damage and bolts that have AoE, but have most the the same downside as greatbows and have a even slower rate of fire. And while they can be used as melee weapon on horseback, the “pistol whip” damage isn't that remarkable. I seem to me that bows/crossbow and other ranged weapons in Elden Ring are more of a optional supplement than a primary ingredient and are best used as a sniping tool for taking out weaker or slower enemies at a safe distance as means to help conserve you health. But If you in a situation were you're being relentlessly piled on by aggressive opponents, switching almost any other melee weapon is better. Hell, using a build the relies on the Torchpole is more recommender is better than using a Bow only builds. But if you really want to play as an effective “archer build”, just grab a glintstone staff and use the Loretta's Greatbow/Mastery sorceries.

[@gasfella1342]

In your opinion, what are the best arrows to have?... Great video btw

[@thecreator4333]

Blood

[@13buthead]

bleed arrows, he always says this

[@gasfella1342]

@@13buthead Sorry if I wasn't clear enough... I wanted to know the other best arrow types worth purchasing/crafting, apart from blood arrows of course

[@13buthead]

@@gasfella1342 seems to be that only bleed arrows. Poison arrows and bleed bolts can be bought late game, which by then rune cost isn't a problem. But poison is just a minor help. Rot arrows are good but idk how to farm them.

[@ITBEurgava]

My pet peeve is in the bow animation. It's frickin slow. In a world where you can somersault with a claymore or dual wield monument pillars, we should have been able to speed the regular shots the same speed you do rolling shot. Barrage should be the standard animation instead of being ash of war, then smallbows could use quickstep or something.

[@shawnhorton2000]

My puppy now goes 435 damage and in the 500’s with mighty shots no idea what have you are playing

[@t0uchme343]

What I get from this is, if I want a bow build, I'll need to stick to loretta's greatbow/mastery.

[@Reevahn]

I'm sorry to hear you were disappinted by the the Elderring Bows. I hope you'll at least find some solace inthe throwable build. I would love to see a gameplay comparison between the builds

[@ASTRAnight]

yeah in a game where everything feels so cohesive physical range weapons just seemed like an after thought, very sad. I usually lean heavily towards range physical builds

[@dandancctube]

I started the game hoping there would be better arrows later on but it never came. I still use horn bow to pick off enemies or draw aggro but yeah, the further I get into the game the worse it feels; I've been switching to consumables lately. I don't know why they made it like that, and I really hope there's a patch to make bows worth the investment. For something with such long "cast", high use of stamina and FP and necessitating long farm sessions one would guess the dmg would compensate, alas it doesn't. Weird implementation.

[@freddew]

Bows is not bad, str build is not bad, caster build is not bad. Its just that dexterity arcane bleed build is SOOOOOOOO GOOOOD, all other specs fall behind.

[@danielwells1734]

And to think I was enjoying infinite arrows with my black bow. So what, even a fast casting glintstone pebble is better?

[@SaHaRaSquad]

100% agreed. Farming feathers is mindnumbing and tedious. Also I hope I'm not the only one who thinks aiming & target lock with bows is just garbage. Sometimes you randomly lose the target lock while your character draws the bow to shoot, making you miss the shot. Sometimes you can hit a target perfectly with a normal shot but when using the charged shot weapon art a random rock will catch the arrow. And good luck trying to aim up and down. Elden Ring is a great game but it's ridiculous how the developers just ignore issues that have existed since at least Dark Souls 1.

[@MGC-XIII]

I saw that Fextra life was talking about doing an Arcane Archer build where you use spells a lot to compensate.

[@ITBEurgava]

Play like Loretta

[@MGC-XIII]

@@ITBEurgava Loretta the boss?

[@bike4aday]

The fact you beat Malenia with just a black bow shows it's perfectly viable. I think anything-only is going to be a struggle because different situations require different tools. Bandit comes with a dagger and a shield and in some situations those will be way better than a bow. Im running longsword + shield and black bow and I find both options fit almost every situation. Longsword gets a lot of work done when it's easy to get in their face and then black bow is my mid/long range HP chipper. I agree with everything you said, but I am still loving my bow. I see it as a tool I could not live without rather than the only tool I need.

[@Criminalupper2200]

but why? is it the bow relegated to just being a side weapon when "the archer" is like one of the best known combat staples. why are bows not allowed to get any real scaling? why can't they use other ashes of war? an open world with a much broader upgrade system like this game had is BEGGING for archery build characters. you can be incredibly op with spell casting, so why did they feel the need to nerf archers into the dirt? bow isn't viable just because he beat Melania with it. He beat her becase he basically played the fight perfectly, avoided every attack and learned her moves. he could have done that fight 2-3X faster with just about any other style of build besides archer and still not have taken any more damage. it's like saying an unupgraded club is viable because 1 really skilled expert player was able to kill a boss with it after 20 mins of play.

[@bike4aday]

@@Criminalupper2200 Again, I do agree with all the points made in this video. The limitations on bows seems sus. It would be nice to hear FromSoft's reasoning for these decisions. I do wish it was more viable to run bow-only the whole game, but I also recognize that by giving up those expectations I have had a lot more fun and feel way better. I like to ask myself "how is this fight supposed to go down" rather than "how do I make my bow and limited/expensive ammo work here". I guess my point is, don't use a hammer for screws or a screwdriver for nails. Sure you could make it work with a lot of skill, but if it feels like you're fighting against something that isn't meant to be then you probably are. This game presents a wide variety of different situations that call for different approaches. I think that is very special and attractive about it, especially because you can override this if you want with mechanical mastery. I understand the frustration here because I want to run bow-only too and I'm a huge archer DPS main in most games.

[@LofusRose]

Weirdly, I think Malenia is made kinda easier if you have a bow (not taking anything from this guy, "kinda easier" still means she's absolutely wreckingly hard and I wouldn't do her with a bow like ever). It allows you to stay quite far, which means more chance to dodge her flurry rush, and you can also spam her when she's blooming in phase 2.

[@bike4aday]

@@LofusRose Yeah that's a good point! There's a few bosses I've found way easier with bows, Godskin Duo to name another.

[@WumboGuy]

It would be incredible if bows could use more of the ashes.

[@OldScorpion]

I agree with you 100%, they need to do something with them just a scaling would be nice and the poison props and bleed

[@Syrus7sk]

100 hours in as a pure dex archer and I'm just not feeling bows. I'm also regretting not spending more points in int, fth and arc.

[@lementime]

They should fix scaling for bows, you however beat her faster than I did with my strength build

[@killerking2346]

The pain of a Gunner trying to find their place in other games.... I feel you bro. As A GunlanceBro, there is really nothing out there quite like it, and the closest I got visually only was in a shitty MMO.

[@whiteboyy413]

My thing with the crafting for arrows is the fact you get one feather per bird, it's a bird covered in feathers an my guy takes one lmao come on from.

[@TheBlakamon15]

One feather pinon gets you plenty of arrows. It is not one for one.

[@whiteboyy413]

@@TheBlakamon15 not really, do you know how fast they get used, getting one feather a kill is not worth it, specially when you go through a dungeon/boss you use up alot of arrows so one feather is not enough.

[@shawnhorton2000]

Savages bows then proceeds to take down the hardest enemy in the game like a walk in the park :/

[@ZzVinniezZ]

with every bows / crossbow in the game...none of them actually serve a decent purpose, arrow too slow to connect to enemies, literally everyone that beside the slow corpses can dodge your arrows with ease...the only time they get hit it because they was in their attack animation and the damage from +25 or +10 bows are laughable...i also heard that Arcane doesn't effect status arrow...which even more hindered for those who want to play archer

[@TheBlakamon15]

It effect arrows when the weapon scales with arcane. So the Serpent Bow.