a question

[ellemennopea]

I want to make a 6 socket bow to put my damage jewels in, but I don't know which bow is best because it is very possible that I have never seen the best bow. I need to know how many sockets each bow has, what the damage is, what the base speed is, and what the name of each bow is. How can I find this information?

[Khan]

Well there is the best class specific bow, the Nimbrethil Bow (maybe needs a better name , it is level 78, has damage 21-34 at a speed silightly better than the best elite long war bow. This one is the Vanyarin Royal Bow. It is level 85, has damage 20-50 and also six sockets. Then there is the Noldorin Crown bow which is faster, has damage 25-40 but only 5 sockets.
Then there's of course the exceptional longwarbow, the Elvish Greatbow at level 80 with damage 15-40 and also 6 sockets.

The respective exceptional and elite longbattlebows have also six sockets (Long Siege Bow at level 62, dmg 10-40, Vanyarin War Bow at level 77, dmg 18-42)

Long battle bows are speed 10, long war bows are speed 20 and short war bows are speed 0. So I guess the short war bows (Mallorn Bow and Noldorin Crown Bow) are normally the best choice regarding speed and damage but they only feature 5 sockets on the other hand...
It comes down to choices, or to what item you find

[ellemennopea]

heh, dang... I dont have any characters that are that high a level. Perhaps I will just stick my jewels in an armor so that they affect any weapon I use. How does % damage jewels in armor work? Do they use the base damage of the weapon?

[Khan]

Yes that's how they work. For midlevel characters I'd recommend the Short Siege Bow, it has damage 15-25 and a very nice speed -10, it is level 52 (level requirement 31). An item of that level is found in act 3/4 maiar diff.

BTW to get a chance for more than 4 sockets on any bow the source of the items has to be at least level 40. For the above mentioned bows and the short siege bow this is of course no problem since they cannot be dropped by anyone below level 52.

Oh I forgot the second best class specific bow, the Doriath Bow. It is level 52 (required level 32), has damage 16-26 (dex req 140 btw) and speed -10! and also 5 sockets.


oh and there there are of course the crossbows, slow but... for example the Great Siege Crossbow at level 72, damage 25-60, only 4 sockets though...

[ellemennopea]

I don't need to find one with sockets. I was going to use the 3 jewel recipe to make one normal, then use the gem recipe for the sockets. Are the levels in your other post the level requirements or the level of the monsters that can drop them?

[Khan]

They are levels - level reqs would be about 66% of that. I hope you are aware that you need 32 perfect gems for 6 sockets or 16 perfect gems for 5 sockets using the cube recipes to make sockets in baseitems...

[ellemennopea]

I am quite aware of the gem amount it requires. Don't worry, I have plenty to use. So, is the requirement for the vanyarin royal bow around level 57 or so? Because that isn't too bad and would be easily accomplished (my roh is already 52). Also, an item being cracked or damaged doesn't affect an imbue, right? I wouldn't think it would, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

[Khan]

The requirements for the Vanyarin Royal Bow is level 51, str 100 and dex 140. The main problem is finding it. Only monsters in act 4 and 5 Valar diff can drop these. Though I know of course that many people have characters of level ~50 playing in these areas. We couldn't balance all chars/skill combos

[ellemennopea]

Dang, I remember finding a cracked one... I threw it away. I should have imbued it.