Carraway's Guide to the New Archer: 1.18 and Beyond

[Viridiana]

i have raptor skin harness with +82 crit, a normal crab bow with +24 dex / my ifrit bow +30atk, felt bracers +50 atk /felt bracers with +30 dex which bow/glove combination do you think will do the most damage?

The Ifrit bow beats the Crab Bow, just due to the higher Damage stat on it. As for the bracers, assuming you don't need Acc at all, go with the +Attack ones since the bonus is higher even after taking into account their respective weights.

[knite23]

i agree noctisumbra

[Arya]

Would there be a way of making some kind of Excel table where you can put in values of different pieces of gear (making a custom set in each column) in order to be able to compare total stats (and therefore potential effectiveness)?

I'm pretty crap when it comes to making stuff like this, but I really do like to read about all the hard work everyone does (and the explaining into a little more simple language for someone like me ).

[Kiara]

Hi Carraway,

Just curious if you had a chance to finish your testing for STR / Attack Power on Archer yet?

Thanks!

[Spider-Dan]

- Blood for Blood adds a flat amount of attack power to your next ability, and WSs and Light Shots receive the same proportionate benefit from that flat increase. So ideally you should use Blood for Blood on every cooldown and simply attach it to your next attack, whatever it happens to be. Its benefit will decrease against high-defense targets.

I disagree with this. This would be sound advice if BfB added a flat amount of damage (e.g. +50 damage to Light Shot is no better than +50 damage to Wide Volley), but it doesn't; like most of these kinds of buffs, BfB affects a multiplier. Therefore, you're better off adding attack power to your hardest-single-hitting attack (usually Wide Volley unless you can't AoE, then probably Bloodletter) rather than a lighter-hitting attack.

[Penguin]

I disagree with this. This would be sound advice if BfB added a flat amount of damage (e.g. +50 damage to Light Shot is no better than +50 damage to Wide Volley), but it doesn't; like most of these kinds of buffs, BfB affects a multiplier. Therefore, you're better off adding attack power to your hardest-single-hitting attack (usually Wide Volley unless you can't AoE, then probably Bloodletter) rather than a lighter-hitting attack.

Is this based on your own extensive testing or just how you believe BfB works?

Carraway posted that information because of a very small amount of testing we did with a small sample size so it could obviously be wrong and the results we got could have been due to the variation of min/max damage weaponskills can do.

But from our tests the increase in damage given to Light shot/Heavy shot/Piercing shot or Wide Volley from BfB was between 80-90 points of damage, so even though wide volley would hit for 500 damage normally, with BfB it would only increase it to around 580ish compared to light shot which would do 200 damage and would be increased to 280ish.

Again the sample size we used was very small so it would be nice to clarify how BfB does work but i cant see it being a % increase in damage unless the numbers we got were completely messed up somehow.

[Spider-Dan]

BfB affects some sort of multiplier. Walk outside of town and do:

Light Shot
BfB+Light Shot
Wide Volley
BfB+Wide Volley

BfB adds more damage to Wide Volley than it does to Light Shot. Against higher defense targets, it's possible that this multiplier is not as noticeable (not unlike using a single Boost in XI), but it's still a multiplier, and should therefore be used on your strongest move.

[Penguin]

BfB affects some sort of multiplier. Walk outside of town and do:

Light Shot
BfB+Light Shot
Wide Volley
BfB+Wide Volley

BfB adds more damage to Wide Volley than it does to Light Shot. Against higher defense targets, it's possible that this multiplier is not as noticeable (not unlike using a single Boost in XI), but it's still a multiplier, and should therefore be used on your strongest move.

I thought what the hell even though it is probably the worst way to test an ability i would go try on the enemies outside uldah, i guess you were talking about the level 1 enemies since that is what most people seem to suggest for some silly reason.

So anyway.

Wide Volley unbuffed - Your Wide Volley hits the corroded coblyn for 4838 points of damage.
Wide Volley buffed with BfB - Your Wide Volley hits the corroded coblyn for 5655 points of damage.

Light shot unbuffed - Your Light Shot hits the corroded coblyn for 957 points of damage.
Light shot buffed with BfB - Your Light Shot hits the corroded coblyn for 2004 points of damage.

Unfortunately something that should be obvious is that damage variation on level 1 enemies is quite big so lightshots unbuffed varied from 800-1100 unbuffed and buffed they varied from 1800-2100, Wide volley was between 4600-4900 unbuffed and 5600-5900 buffed.

Looks familiar right?

Again as i said i haven't done extensive testing mainly because i don't really have much interest in FFXIV currently so i have been spending most of my free time playing other games.

If you would like to do some extensive testing to prove me wrong than that would be great and i would happily admit i am wrong about how BfB works and we would all benefit from knowing the exact mechanics of the ability.

Right now from what i have experienced i would say BfB adds a flat amount of damage based on the enemies defense and the level difference between you and the enemy, which is why on level 1 enemies it adds around 1000 extra damage and against level 50 enemies it adds around 90 extra damage.

But again unless someone does extensive testing this is pretty much speculation, BfB having a damage modifier however does not work with the numbers i and others in my LS have gotten when using the ability, unless the damage modifier effects different abilities in a different way which would make very little sense.

[tachikoma]

^ this

Right now from what i have experienced i would say BfB adds a flat amount of damage based on the enemies defense and the level difference between you and the enemy, which is why on level 1 enemies it adds around 1000 extra damage and against level 50 enemies it adds around 90 extra damage.

I vote flat increase with a lvl mod for amount.

[Kasumuni]

I recently purchased the gridanian shortbow because I was stupid enough to join gridanias grand company T_T

I wanted my bow to separate from the rest but turns out its the same model as the bow of owls.

Anyway back on subject.....

The Uldahn composite bow has clearly more DMG + some attack.....but the gridanian bow has nearly double the acc.

Do you think it weighs in close as to the acc + speed of the bow compared to the composite bow? I just hope I havent wasted my points on something that is gona b blown out the water next update T_T