Bows | Dark Souls 3 Wiki

You use bowglitch to queue sacred flame with lightning arrow on a caestus and regain all your estus

I use it to put the storm ruler wind effect on random stuff to make annoying noises at all times

We are not the same

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bows are good.

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Bow glitches are just what bows deserve after the middle finger fromsoft gave them. I mean, seriously, in ds1 the regular longbow had no problem reaching the damage the dragonrider bow struggles to reach in ds3. Even ds2 pays more respect to bows.

And don't you start with the "balancing" nonsense, straight swords's dps fkd up balancing from day one.

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looking for a good bow? , look no further than the DRAGON RIDER BOW , it has the highest ar of "normal" bows and deal acceptable damage....... all and i repeat , ALL "normal" bows are trash , only use dragon rider bow or simply go big with millwood greatbow or go for composite bow for a faster option

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IMPORTANT INFO

each arrow have their own stamina cost , a wood arrow cost about 20% less stamina than standard , which allow archers to use less stamina to proceed to a dodge or preparing an other shot with more stamina remaining

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From what i know, composite bow is best for quick shots, dragonrider for highest damage per shot, white birch to ambush in pvp and black bow is middle ground between speed and strength. Feel free to add your thoughts below.

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I hate how ds3 made you unable to infuse ranged weapons, despite giving you the ability to do so in previous games. The inability to infuse has made the elemental arrows nearly completely useless.

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Haven't really been around this page in particular, but I usually use a crossbow on my off-hand, so I recently decided to give them a shot at the arena. I gotta, I've a new-found appreciation for them. But mostly the Short Bow & Composite Bow. If only their WA wasn't so weak in damage.

I prefer melee weapons, so I just use them to open fights and soften the other guy a bit, get around 2-3 arrows in for about 150-290-ish damage depending on their armor. I usually switch to my main if they get too aggressive & up-close. But for people who don't know how to deal with the bow, they seem to panic roll a lot and eventually roll into me for a roll attack. In most cases, I just hold until their exit their roll and catch/interrupt them during their startup frames. Though if I notice they're using heavy weapons like Great Axes or UGS, or a Great Sword with heavy armor, I roll instead, since they might poise through it. But when I do, and if I'm lucky, I get +200 damage from counter thrust with the Leo Ring, a headshot that staggers them, or both.

The most damage I ever dealt to one guy in a single shot was 410 damage, though that was likely a counter thrust and because he was lightly armored. Bows are also really good at countering mages, though it's hard to fight people who spam Lightning Arrow, because it has a faster projectile speed.

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Does anyone have a proper measurement of how fast arrows fly? I have, no idea how you'd measure something like that considering weapon range has to use Shield Pokes instead of like an actual centimeters conversion

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Too stupid.... Can’t resist the urge to mention a Greatbow even though it has a dedicated page...MILLWOOD OR GO HOME! ...and you know, like bad souls youtubers, spam spook and hidden body 500 times. You can turn a 6 minute run into a 40 minute video of you cowering! The ad revenue fairy is literally at the door!

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[Top 3] Dark Souls 3 Best Bow And How To Get Them

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as someone who uses bows a lot in this game and with the game getting a bit old i will share some of my secrets, and the gimmicks that make it good and that have worked for me
PVP

Duels: you will need to get comfortable with free aiming because you will need to lead your shots when they start bobbing and weaving to close the distance. I personally keep a rapier in my left hand to punish them for being too aggressive with a stab or just parry them but you use what works for you. You can dodge while drawn but there is a short period of time you are unable to roll after shooting so be aware of that. You can head shot stagger people out of everything even during i frames and out of poisey weapon arts. If someone rolls into you stand your ground, you can shoot them before they can attack if your quick. I would highly recommend staying under 30% equip load because the spacing it give is extremely valuable when using a ranged weapon. try to out space attacks and shoot them. Use rope firebombs to punish there aggression. When running into poise casted lighting arrow, dont give up or get demoralized, start knocking an arrow to bait there attack and dodge it then when your at neutral you can knock faster than them, you have to manually shoot them in the head so aim fast. Make sure you have a knights ring and or hoove ring on standby for turtles. for when people try to hide behind cover throw firebombs to get them out. Now explosive bolt crossy boys are a real threat especially if they are using a fast loading crossbow like the light crossbow, all i can say is that against this you better not miss and you better i frame those explosions. If your particularly insidious you can have black flame on the ready for people running up to you while blocking and you will break there guard, though this is an expensive gimmick. You may feel like your not hurting them much but all that damage adds up and if you play perfectly they really cant do anything. I would stick to using the short bows and longbows in this environment particularly the composite bow and the black bow of pharis

Invasions: while all the things i had mentioned before are useful this environment allows you to get crafty, you should never willingly engage in a fair fight or fight anyone head on unless you have been backed into a corner. The great bows particularly the mill wood are great for knocking people off bridges and ledges there are countless areas this is useful, also the rope bridges can be broken with great arrows or maybe it was the mill woods weapon art. If you choose to go with something like a longbow you will have to slowly widle them down. Head shot them while they try to fight enemies, they will be hit with counter damage. shoot explosive barrels with fire arrows, in the early game this is an insta kill. Bait them into doing stupid things like jumping off ledges without cat ring or following you into a staged ambush. Utilize the obscuring ring to take pot shots, keep in mind that they can see you knock the arrow with sharp eyes so mix up your position, also the white birch bow has invisible arrows. try your best to stay unnoticed for as long as possible, and think of a good way to get the jump on them. It may seem fruitless but making them waste estus by peppering them with arrows is very potent especially if they only have 1 or 2 by the time the engage you. Always be looking for creative ways to hurt them. Always make sure that before you engage there is somewhere to run. I would recommend sticking to the great bows and longbows in this environment due to there range. The black bow of pharis is a great choice due to its range and shot speed, the mill wood can achieve some insane damage and knock people off ledges, and the composite bow is not a bad option either though id recomend using hawk ring with feather arrows. You can get some insane range with black bow hawkring and feather arrows.

PVE

regular enemies: you can cheese most enemies with a bow by shooting them from somewhere they cant reach. You can headshot stagger most humanoids. Try not to fight more than one enemy at once. You can bait enemies into a safer area to fight. explosive barrels can be very useful. Most enemies arent built to deal with you so you can just kinda hit and run until there dead.

Bosses: you can head shot stagger many of the bosses in this game or hit weak spots that might not otherwise be exposed making it a refreshing way to approach some of the bosses. You will have to learn there long ranged moves and this usually includes move that will one shot you but you will see bosses do things you never knew they could. you can cheese some bosses by using the arena to run away and never really engage with them.
I may have left some important stuff out but i think i got most of it down
Hopefully some of you found this helpful and give a bow build a try :)
~Alba Corvus

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I did a "Just bow" run. The best bow is Pharos and Millwood. The dark moon bow is trash (magic arrows are too expensive), compost bow is just for poison arrows, and onislayer is for pvp. Rings: Leo, Mist, Flynn and Red tearstone. Tips: Use normal arrows all the run, heavy just for bosses You can use poison arrows + composite for poison build Don't use big bows on normal enemies, are too slow to use them You shouldn't have to use the Hawk ring in all the run Friede is the easiest boss in this run, and Deacons/ Wolnir the hardest You can use this buil in PVP, but you shouldn't be able to do anything Luckily, you aren't too mad to do a run like this

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2018: who uses bows lol noobs. 2019/2020: oh god he has a bow in the offhand RUN

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So, turns out the weakest and most useless weapon class can actually break the game nowadays.

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I was recently a noob or still am. Not sure but I did get most trophies and defeated all bosses and in the beginning i was hoping bows would be good but none of them are. It's funny how a glove (caestus) can do more damage than a bow. Totally sucks because most games with bows. I like using them. It's a shame fromsoft nerfed them from what I can tell since most have trash scaling and bows in the wiki of the first show it to have had good scaling. Why did they do this? Why did they nerf these? Guess im gonna have to get remastered after I get platinum in this one.

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The greatbows are in a different section, people.

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Oni slayer bow. From profaned capitals bonfire run down the ladder and walk on the brige be carefull of (fireballs and gargoyle) keep on the right side, you sould see platform. Jump on it and behind is the Oni slayer bow. Milwood bow is located in Ashes of Ariandel. From the first bonfire, or from the one thats near bridge go where the wolfes are. From the first bonfire walk straight, until snow collapses than run straght from wolfs and turn left (on the very end) than run alongside buildings and keep left (be aware of milwood warriors) there should be path and walk straight. You'll encouter wolfs and millwood archer. The bow is under him. From bonfire near bridge you need to go up the mountain turn left, run straight and turn left again and the road is the same.

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Does the hornet ring boost head shot damage? Would love to know

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I wish the was a bow that can be used a socery catalyst but only use soul arrow and farron dart and a great bow that can fire soul spears and great soul arrows

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For the record, it's so bizarre players can't infuse these. It was possible in 1 and 2. Why not now? The only one that even works with a magic build is the Darkmoon Longbow, and that's with intelligence. Shame!

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some bows are missing from the list

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What's your opinion on the best bow ? Going bow only :)

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What's with the description for the Black Bow of Pharis? Drop by a 'mini cleric beast-like enemy', they're called Elder Ghru and those things are not mini. The bow is held by one of the three Elder Ghru huddled while another of them is holding the hat of Pharis.

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If you practice bow enough you can punish players who roll towrads you. This is actually really good, just use like a lightning arrow execept you need to shoot more precisely. If you perfectly roll catch, you can headshot him, dealing extra damage and staggerd enough to recover your stamina for next move.

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the milwood bow isn't even here what is this

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PVP: DamnNoHTML had a PVP bow build based around a composite bow. He suggests Leo ring and trading with people as they roll into you. He was also using free aiming to catch people waiting for you to shoot before rolling, though not much success. Might need some serious practice to be effective. Says Shield Turtles and hyper armor weapons counter.
PVE: Can be super easy for PVE. Aim for the head, use no armor/rags, Flynn Ring, Lloyd's Sword Ring and Hidden Body for max damage. I like to use the Storyteller's Staff as a catalyst with this for the poison art, can save a lot of arrows against tough enemies. Pharros Bow is likely the way to go, so you don't need much strength.

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These definitely need a serious buff. Reasons: A; Can't be infused B; Poor projectile tracking C; Poor projectiles speed. They are still viable if you are doing a pve build, but not so much in higher level pvp. I think they could fix this simply by either giving the arrows better lock on tracking mechanics similar to that of the AI or by increasing the speed at which the arrows travel.

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"Acquired From" for composite bow says "Bought from the Shrine Handmaid for 3,500 souls after giving her the Dreamcaster's Ashes." and links to a nonexistent page. It should say "Dreamchaser's Ashes" and link to Dreamchaser's Ashes.

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What rings are there that complement bows/great bows

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Dude, Onislayer. Seriously, how is this missing?

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Cannot is written as one word

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So I was thinking about making a Bow/twin swords build. Is that viable in PvE?

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I miss it, would have been a good feature on them.. I found the damage of bows very.. very lacking.

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Has anyone been able to use bows in pvp? Ive been trying and it feels impossible.

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There's a bow missing that you can get from the silver knights after Sulyvahn right before you reach Anor Londo

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How do u use puncture on ps4

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Would bows actually be an effective MAIN weapon for PVE?

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What is the best bow for strength builds?

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Anyone else got beef with the fact that the arrows of all the npc enemies have amazing tracking, but all of our projectiles suck? Not to mention that npcs can get the lock-on tracking from way outside lock-on range?Also, I wanted to see a "Snipe" battle art that allowed archers to, after somewhat of an overdraw animation, fire an arrow that traveled REALLY freakin' fast with greatly lessened arrow drop.

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Was impressed by the weapon arts of the bows. I want a build revolved solely around bows, but how do I go about one? Should I level up the magic stats (INT/FTH) for the elemental arrows and their unique bow counterparts or go pure quality and stay low level? Or should I go 20/40 and dump 40 in Luck for a SL100 Meta build?

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If you off hand a bow, pressing L2 immediately ready's that bows' weapon art, without the animation and additional input of switching to two handing it inbetween. So it's a nice way to get a ranged shot follow up off (Like Flaskers!) really quickly after using your main right handed weapon. Works especially nice with Rapid Fire because its so fast.

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Note that you can't infuse bows I feel like bow oriented playhtroughs are significantly. You use to be able to infuse bows with the same tire if element arrow you were using for significantly increased damage. Chaos for fire arrows, magic fit darkmoon arrows, dark for dark arrows, and so on. Now that you can't their damage is harder to make acceptable. Black bow and darkmoon SRM like the clear winners here.

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still needs onislayer greatbow

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DragonRider for Str, Darkmoon for magic, other bow for dex. Faith got none. Really ?

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Title

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Which bow has the fastest fire rate?

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Anyone know the keys for rapid fire on keyboard? Cant get it to work...

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can you not infuse bows anymore or is that only until you find a coal?

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Hey guys, how about putting the bow range into the main table above as well? Bow range is just as important when choosing a viable bow for your character...

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Time to reroll and make a thief since you can't get the shortbow anywhere else.The longbow sucks in comparison, and the reduced damage and increased weight of the composite is not a fair trade off imho.

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Can you range and after firing sb could you switch to 2h in mid pvp combat and still get the hit?

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Can you buff BOWS?

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How high is the chance that this are all the bows ...?Pleaaaaas Give me Back my Bow of Want :'-(

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dragonrider bow man

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Are they really going to make bows viable? oh man, i'd love to se that

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