New to MO here but this is my opinion from what I have seen, full archer builds suck. I fully understand and agree with how archery works now for the most part but, I think if you want to focus as an archer you should be more effective than all the other FF’s that pick up a bow. Weakspot on heads only is a joke. And the additional skills currently associated with archery are extremely lacking.
I suggest allowing Weakspot hits on full body with a bow BUT locking this behind the Marksmanship skill. I do not know the exact numbers related to Weakspot other than it’s affected by DEX. I suggest the chance be less than daggers though as daggers should be much more effective at this. This would make full archer builds viable even against heavies if they spend the skill (marksmanship) and ability points (dex), to do so.
TL;DR: Change the marksmanship skill to allow torso weakspot chance with bows.
I think head shots are legit but should hit WAY HARDER. It's hard to hit people w/ arrows in general. Some luck is required or a really steady bow to hit at range. Hitting someone with a crep bow is like lobbing grenades at them, to tag someone in the head who is moving takes really good predictive + mechanical skill.
Arrows in general do too low of dmg for how long it takes to pull a bow. On a MA, this isn't as bad for various other reasons, but foot archery is A JOKE, you are right. Still it's gonna save you vs a mount. You should outstrip a FF with full ranged combat by way more, you are right. Body weak spots w/ marksman is cool, I dunno if I'd lock it tho, just make it more. But that's slightly biased cuz I am always gonna roll 'dex bowman.' Sounds like a dude's name... arrow dmg is is too low, tho, if I'm taking 20s-30s with a bow in the kinda armor I wear, that's unacceptable. V steel or whatever it's like lol. I understand people don't want huge archer lines just crushing everyone, but still. Like I said: cool story, I rolled a char in 100x beta, 121 str Thursar to try out 121 longbows. I fully admit the longbow I use was prol not the best longbow at 121, just some stuff I grabbed off broker. I saw some dude who I knew from miscreants (vetis!) at the EQ and I was standing a little outside of Bakti. I y'd dude I'm about to shoot you with this bow, and he said OK. lol. I plugged him w/ a long bow, long bow arrow IN THE HEAD... he was NOT wearing steel, maybe like iron bone or some shit. It was a heavy armor, but by the color I couldn't tell what it was. It wasn't mola or incis. 44 dmg. 44 dmg. I deleted the char. You know how hard it is to hit someone in the head w/ a bow during actual combat? 44 dmg? on Meh armor? Stop it. I deleted.
Still tho I'm always gonna have my crep bow and every elf I have is gonna have archery even if I don't take the str gifts. I love the skill aspect of archery (altho I can tell just by looking aiming w/ o arrow tip is easier. I WANT A BONUS ALSO FOR AIMING WITH ARROW TIP!! The arrow actually comes out of the bow at a different angle then. Seems WEIRD. Like why couldn't they just leave the tip, everyone is there to help you understand you aim with the tip, it was one of the cool 'features' of MO.)
@ Shmer, what kinda dmg are you seeing on da best long bows? You realize they take a long ass time to draw + stam use, and require special arrows. They are basically a perch wep or a grief wep. Plus being only ground. Are you talking about the dmg they do to your horse, cuz I can def see how that would be wild haha.