Fired Weapons

[Ambroas]

I'm wanting to know why a bow can't be used with a shield.  Most classes with it have these in common I'll explain:

Dual Wield: double damage, but lower defense for attack.
Pugil: Awesome defense, damage is great too!
Shield- Same defense, less offense.

I don't understand why our characters stop mid combat never put their weapons away and shoot a bow... On the other hand a shield can be strapped to the arm so that the hand is free to grab other supplies and watch the read.

[f0xx]

Dude, give yourself a break.

[Magick]

Real wold applications vary with the size of the shield.  You're unlikely to be able to shoot effectively with a tower shield, but you probably could with a buckler.  Let's also add that while you might be able to hold a smaller shield and draw a bow, the weight of both will quickly fatigue that arm.  Let's also put out there that most people knock the arrow in the same side as their supporting arm, which is also the arm bearing the shield.  Accuracy may suffer, shield size depending.

But this is a game, so there's two words I can use:

Balance reasons.

[the_nightmare]

 He watches too much manga animes.

[Ambroas]

Haha nah too much D&D and history.  Balance is actually the reasoni asked this.  2h staff gets as much defense as shield & 1h and more offense with pugil.  Dual wield gets more offense and dual damage types.  These also get the bow.

Shield & 1h gets less offense and losses bow which makes me think unless I am a shield lore it's useless.  The only benefit I see is disarm shield is rare so you would keep a defense more often, loose all defense with disarmed staff, loose half offense with disarmed dual wield.  Is this the only perk of a shield?

Sorry if I ask too many questions I just don't want to write off a weapon combo and be wrong.

[Volgathras]

No one's tried for that cool boomstick we invented.

[Ambroas]

May search around for that, haven't heard of it!

[Volgathras]

These are original inventions. Maybe I forgot to mention it, but when an invention is created a special upgraded edition is made, and a copy given to the originator. Dilorry, for instance, discovered the Gerbil of DOOOOOOOMMMMM, though I think she ended up rarely using it.

You can read about inventions here, though sadly I haven't had the time to keep up with it. I do very much want to, though.

[mya]

Because, else warriors would be able to block arrows and shot arrows at the same time.

[Mmm Coffee]

Gear questions aside, if we're talking about unrealistic....the fact that you can shoot a bow while engaged in MELEE is one of the most unrealistic combat scenarios.  Unless you're like Legolas from LOTR.

[Magick]

Just because the game shows a wall of text doesn't mean that they're constantly within 10' of each other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijRh9CG5pTo

Can't find the invoker/mino warrior mashup using Golden Axe (?) sprites, so that'll have to do.

[hotspring monkey]

18 minutes ago, Magick said:

Can't find the invoker/mino warrior mashup using Golden Axe (?) sprites, so that'll have to do.

 

[Magick]

That's the one.  Thanks @hotspring monkey.

[Ambroas]

That video was epic but my concern hasn't been addressed.  Is a warrior/ranger using a 1h & shield combo deciding to nerf himself vs using staff & bow or dual and bow?  Mya said then they can block arrows and fire arrows so it's balance but that's only for shield lore warriors.  For the rest of these guys it's a fighting style that seems the worst choice and is ineffective since there are much better combinations that give the same defense and more offense or much more offense.

[mya]

39 minutes ago, Ambroas said:

That video was epic but my concern hasn't been addressed.  Is a warrior/ranger using a 1h & shield combo deciding to nerf himself vs using staff & bow or dual and bow?  Mya said then they can block arrows and fire arrows so it's balance but that's only for shield lore warriors.  For the rest of these guys it's a fighting style that seems the worst choice and is ineffective since there are much better combinations that give the same defense and more offense or much more offense.

Yes. And I had an immortal tell me something similar recently regarding rangers using shields.

[f0xx]

9 hours ago, Ambroas said:

That video was epic but my concern hasn't been addressed.  Is a warrior/ranger using a 1h & shield combo deciding to nerf himself vs using staff & bow or dual and bow?

Hey @Ambroas, try to test stuff and find answers for yourself in the game. No offense, but you can easily find the truth for yourself by doing your own tests than to rely on people's biased answers and less than knowledgeable advises.

Using a weapon and shield as a melee is stupid unless you are specialized in that via warrior selections.

Using a staff is good if you want a stance that allows you relatively good defense while maintaining relatively good offense.

Dual wielding is good if you want to cap your offense, but then your defense sucks.

 

Quote

Is a warrior/ranger using a 1h & shield combo deciding to nerf himself vs using staff & bow or dual and bow?  Mya said then they can block arrows and fire arrows so it's balance but that's only for shield lore warriors.  For the rest of these guys it's a fighting style that seems the worst choice and is ineffective since there are much better combinations that give the same defense and more offense or much more offense.

That's exactly how it is. Why is it like that? Well noone can really answer you the questions with absolutely certainty, because noone of the people who initially wrote the code are around. Many years ago the code of this game was stolen from another game, then heavily modified first by Virigoth, then by many other coders, most of which had more desire to roll the playerbase with their characters than to preserve balance and develop the game.

That being said, the code is subject to modifications, and if you wish to suggest a change to it, you are always welcome to do so. But asking questions like "why is something acting the way it is" will very often be answered with guesses and more of justifications for the way things currently work, rather than real answers.

Just like it currently happened when Mya told you that you can return fire using the shield lore so it would be unbalanced to allow you wearing a bow of your own. The change that you can block and return arrows with your shield is a very recent one and did not originally exist, so her explanation is flawed, since the people who coded that you can not use a bow when wearing a shield did not code the arrows returning properties of the shield lore path.

As in real life, so in this game, you will learn more from critically attacking the rules, then blindly following them. That's my advise to you. Attack the rules, make mistakes, form your own impressions and experiences.