It would be cool if the sound from the harp bow would build up sleep on enemies and build up faster the closer they are to you. You could spam more arrows and zone with the AOE lullaby.
I made a custom weapon like that for the bard in my homebrew D&D game. It was a wondrous item that transformed between lute mode and crossbow mode and bards could expend songs to charge bolts with deafening chords that could soundburst a target or have other effects.
I wish FS would make bows an actual thing. Yes, I'm aware it's possible to force them to sort of work, but here's a good rule about builds/playstyles: does it feel like a challenge run? If it does, then it's a meme build.
Maybe they could do a game that revolves around them. Like a Thief type stealth game, or a Green Arrow type thing, or something. The only problem is that you can’t really build a move set into a bow, really… ‘move arrow forward fast’ only really goes so far.
@@icycoatl3185 Monster Hunter enters the Chat. But in all seriousness unless it was some sort of Legendary Bow that needed some sort of Specialized Cinematic Moveset or someshit, the Normal just Draw String and fire is fine really. It just that, even in ER the Bow felt "Underpowered" and "Underwhelming" i mean all in all it all probably gonna dumb down into Stealth Archer Archetype or the Sniper Archetype anyway but atleast it's something.
imo they're pretty good in Demon's Souls, ok in DS1, and quite alright in DS2, but in the rest they're very meh or straight up bad. they're definitely always one of the weaker options you can pick in these games though, sadly. a shame since I really like using bows in many games
Honestly bows aren't terrible to use. If you play them correctly (having a backup melee weapon) they're excellent weapons. My well made bow build can hit for 1100 damage headshots on unaware enemies and deals 400 damage per shot
I personally think the old format is better as it gives you a form of suspense at which one of the best weapons is on top even through it's obvious sometimes
Alright alright, no one can agree we’re gonna have to compromise. So start with the best AND the worst then work our way down the list until we end in the middle. Surely no one could have any issues with that lol
@@monhi64no no. Better compromise! Start in the middle and alternate going down AND up! That way there's suspense about the best and the worst! Everyone will be happy now!
I always thought Arrows should work like flasks, you only get a certain amount with more or less depending on how strong they are, but they recharge on sit downs. Make it feel abit less terrible than having to farm to make my meh weapons usable.
Speaking on farming when I tried to do a bow only run I managed to make it to fire giant before realizing how painful it was to farm for rot arrows after the butterfly supply was exhausted making it to where you needed to farm frogs in lake of rot for an hour between every attempt
A thing of note about the Full Moon Crossbow is that it doesn't takes 2 hands to reload, the crossbow does it itself. This has the unique feature of allowing you to reload 2 of them functionally simultaneously allowing for a faster fire rate than most other crossbows when using 2 of them. I don't know when you would ever need to know that or have the chance actively use it that, but it's a thing.
I agree, also not much point in watching the rest of his hard worked made video after the 1st 3 on the list, and It builds some good vibes seeing the weapons get stronger the further you go, rather than sad the worse and more shit things get.
@@jty9631 this will probably sound meaner than intended but, if you’re looking for a guide just look up a guide, videos like these are more geared towards people looking for opinions who have already beaten the game and just want some entertainment
I think they actually messed up when making the Crepus Crossbow. It was definitely supposed to have more range and damage and synergize with the Black Key Bolts, but they may have just forgotten to implement it. There are a few cases of hinting item descriptions not matching the item at all, and this is one of them. Just a little oopsie from the devs
Imagine me using this thing to snipe those ballista guards on the bridge of sacrifice after reading its description. It took ages lol but it got me through there though Edit: i had to go up on a ledge to the side of the bridge in order to get a line on them
@@jacthing1it’s really bad I can’t think of any other AAA game that has had full blown typos (mostly incorrect descriptions of item mechanics) that made it to release much less past the frequent game updates. Especially a game that’s pretty light on text. But I forgive them, I suppose most of them must be relics from when they update how items work but somehow forget to change the description. Just because it’s unbelievable that the mistakes happened doesn’t mean it negatively effects gameplay much
As much as I love the tierlists and your presentation style, I have to admit the thing that excites me most about seeing a new video from you in my feed is the possibility of getting another chapter in this story you occasionally tell in your openings. As infrequent as these story openings are, I can't help but want to learn more about these characters and what they do next.
@@iSmartMan1 to be completely honest, I'm completely new to this channel. After being hooked to the story intro, I looked at his elden ring playlist and noticed not all vids have this opening. So I have no idea what other videos have story openings
@@noonehere6994 Well, what better excuse to go through his catalog and find them? As a heads-up, sometimes the story segments are at the ends of videos as well as at the start.
As an avid bow user for pvp and pve, I have to say the serpent bow is actually one of the best ways to apply poison, sleep, and bleed as it states that all arrows fired with the bow equipped gets the added 19 poison, this means with the serpent arrow giving 78 poison on hit pkus scaling and its aow mighty shot giving it a flat 170 more poison makes for 267 poison per ash of war shot and 76 poison normally, without his the added arcane scaling to the bow meaning these numbers increase with your arcane stat, this also means you can use ANY bow or ANY arrow in your main hand for +19 poison to the serpent arrows making barrage do 97 poison per arrow, OR use two serpent bows for 286 aow poison or just 116 per arrow. However, the Saint Trina's arrows can scale with arcane as well making them 96+ your scaling adding nore sleep per hit and 19 poison or use the aow for 266 sleep+ oer shot. On new game plus, you can 1 shot proc poison with one bow and arrow on several bosses, and in pvp you can 3 hit poison pretty much anyone with the arrows and 4 hit sleep most targets. I personally use an offhand serpent bow to start a duel to get the damage buff from poisoning them then use the black bow to apply sleep since it's more agile. And if you want bleed, just use reduvia, the bleed arrows are trash unless using the serpent bow. You can keep a light load with that setup. The Serpent bow is strong for those statuses only since there is no madness arrows, I can only hope.
Bows are a weapon type that’s always underrated but also never as great as I think they could be. I think it has something to do with From Soft’s obsession with bullshit 3D tracking that makes all enemies attacks track and hit you flawlessly, and prevents any of your attacks from tracking at all unless they’re specific magic spells that still get caught on that random bush over there.
You know what's really ironic? The only Souls game where a bow is *truly* good, not merely "okay" is, to my knowledge, Bloodborne. The one where everyone has a gun.
Great summary. I've completed a full bow playthrough where I went through the entire game, trying to really do all the content and side content and etc, with nothing but bows, while refusing to use status effects, and yeah. The Pulley Bow is the correct choice, which is funny to me as its the first non-greatbow in your list that you describe without talking about status effects. And to ANYONE who ever considers doing a bow build for PvE without status effects. Ignore Strength and Dex. They are useless. the difference in damage for a +10 Pulley bow between requirement stats and 50/50 str/dex, is a whopping 80-something damage, which is less points of damage then levels invested in those stats. So what I did was purely level Vigour, Mind and Endurance. The reason the Pulley bow outperforms the Black Bow in this situation is simple. Ammunition. Less damage but rapid fire is simply not valid when every area, every boss and every dungeon is a math problem of "do I have enough ammunition". Mighty Shot is love.
In my bow only run instead of using the ash of war that locks you in place I just used the jump shots, two shots per jump with quick recovery and normal buildup inflicts enough status for every boss fight while getting decent damage and creating range between you and the boss
I'm glad you take the opportunity to not just "a tierlist (tm)." You try and make the most out of it by making it well-researched (to the extent it it possible, mostly through math), and some genuinely funny bits. You don't always see that in RUclips tierlists, ya know? Is nice.
I’m gonna argue that it works for bows, because everyone knows that the lion and golem great bows are the best, and it’s more interesting to go beyond that
@MotherCelevrus New players or players who dont use bows wouldn't know whats 1st 2nd or anything. Inverse listing just makes the rest of the list uneeded and boring
Probably the most fun build I've done was offhanding the pulley crossbow to put enemies asleep and then using the Marais executioner swords' L2 on them. Even enemies that don't get properly put to sleep, like most humanoids, get staggered long enough to land a fully charged weapon art and completely shred them.
You didnt mention that the black bow has the moveset of a shortbow too - not just the skill! It means that rolling and jumping arrow shots are possible, which makes the black bow extremely viable for actual usage. Its just a shame a somewhat recent patch hurt its AR
Bows were my choice of weapon for my very first elden ring playthrough (A composite bow specifically, because my focus was being efficient with my arrow usage and barrage is literally burning arrows for marginally higher damage). I never finished that file, I got stuck at Malekith... But weirdly I had a lot of fun with that playthrough. The resource management and the relaxing pace of killing everything from a mile away were features that I quite enjoyed, even though the game doesn't reward the commitment as much as it should.
Props to you and your editor for the constant visual improvements and research for the video. I was actually surprised about the Harp Bow as last and listening to you descend lower and lower into madness with each item was quite entertaining. Best to Worst gets my vote.
Yeah I'm definitely on team "weakest to strongest" rather than starting at number 1. Sure the meta gonna meta and be somewhat predictable, but I feel more inclined to exit after the top 5 with this setup.
I think the pulley bow should definitely be higher up. If you're not trying to make a pure bow build (i.e. you are a normal person who loves themselves), then the primary reason to have a bow is to lure enemies in or snipe them from far away enough that they can't get to you, essentially making them bigger throwing knives. In this case, the higher range on the pulley bow makes it the best in its class for this purpose without the weight and stat issues of greatbows or ballistas
I've never really liked the premise that bows need to be underpowered in a melee-focused game when there are plenty of spells in these games with bow-tier range that are broken as all hell.
Cuz every time you drop a new video someone comments about you, “getting closer to the full weapon tier list.” I really never expected such and I just appreciate that you make these at all! Always digestible and informative and that’s already more than I could ask for
Black bow is underrated here. Barrage is good for status effects as much as any other shortbow, while the damage and short bow moveset gives the best damage when you're not using status effects are procced poison/rot. And against the jar canon and lion greatbow, the faster fire rate gives more mobility for dodging attacks. #1
@9:52 "If it's the range you're after, just use a greatbow; that gives you stopping power to boot." The *_problem_* with greatbows and ballistas, Rusty, is that the moment you fire something with them, you alert every single enemy in the neighborhood like if you've just awoken the horde, and if what you're shooting at happens to be a quick scamper, they will be alerted as well and immediately dash around towards you while accidentally avoiding your shot because you didn't expect an otherwise completely stationary enemy to suddenly dash to the right and then bolt your way. Trust me, I've given those weapons too many tries to count on the field. As such, the Pulley Bow to me is the next strongest bow that *_doesn't_* compromise my location and thus my well-being, and if you played any Sniper Elite game on the harder difficulties, you'd understand that not compromising both is good.
Greatbows are amazing. Thanks to golem greatbow, strength playthrough was the most enjoyable experience! Stockpile some big bones and you have a good ranged attack even if you are out of fp. Also yes poison is useless but the main benefit of serpent bow is arcane scaling. Pair it with skill increasing status buildup and st trina arrows can replace sleep pots and bleed arrows fill enemies bleed bar by half before engagement even starts.
I find that the Serpent Bow is great for pressuring people in PvP. On an arcane build, couple the innate heavy poison with rot/sleep arrows, land a couple shots and you'll find yourself with plenty of breathing room which makes it great when invading in particular. Poison does have its place even lategame too. Just because something has a massive health pool doesn't mean you shouldn't bother. Stack that shit with rot, blackflame and frostbite with whatever melee weapon you're rocking and it's just free DPS. Plus there are at least a few mid to lategame areas with annoying enemies you can poison from far away. If you don't like just running past everything then it's at least an option. In the open world, this just turns into the goofiest cheese strat in the world when you can poison some annoying boss or enemy and take 5 steps outside their "leash" range. They'll teleport back to spawn and the debuff will remain until it expires. Kinda feels like that old Demon's Souls cheese where you could kill one of the Maneaters before entering the arena but you can do it just about anywhere.
Now I’m not saying these put me too sleep, but I love watching these lists at night after work, engaging and very interesting but still calming, just enough to wind down and make me calm enough to sleep. Wonderful stuff
Yeah, I admit that I like the Best First set-up, because it feels more natural for Rusty to get angrier and more vulgar the longer the video goes - like he's mad he has to GO to the depths of the crappiest options at all lol This is also a pretty good resource for anyone wanting to make a Super Buff Bows mod, for how to change the scaling.
Sometimes I feel like nobody else realizes you can jump and fire with greatbows, allowing you to draw them as you land, making them much more mobile and easier to use in close combat than previous games; and its a little secret that only I get to enjoy.
Sleeping on poison, it's fully viable up through the end of the game Did a low level run and beat almost every boss at level 25-my main weapon was harp bow with barrage and poison arrows. Astel was almost exclusively poison arrows First thing I do in any boss fight is proc poison; it's free damage, even a large help against Fire Giant and Maliketh
Right before you dropped this video, I managed to defeat Malenia with the Black Bow. I love bows in video games. And yes, I’m the same fanatic who plays games only with them + knives. The power of bows is that you can not pay attention to such stats as strength and dexterity, but give priority to Vitality and Endurance. Your main advantage is survivability.
Introducing the Rusty Bow: E scaling on every stat, upgrades with somber smithing stones and mentions that Hands are weak to fire whenever you shoot with it.
Imagine if someone would make a whole movie like this intro in elden ring, writing a original story, use npcs like this, boss battles, epic camera angles, insane pvp cinematic battles, I would definitely watch that.
I really hope that this whole "hunting Rusty" plot isn't hinting at him planning to retire. Like Counsilor executes Rusty, and suddenly the youtube channel ceases to exist.
I don’t hate this new order, it’s cool new breath of fresh air, but I think I still prefer the normal way, especially if there’s going to be an every weapon tier list.
I'm playing Lords of the Fallen right now (and im absolutely loving). The way that game does the range system is frankly brilliant. In short, it treats ammo types as spells and bows/crossbows as catalysts. Instead of a mana bar you have a ammo bar, and just like a mana bar it refills on rests and you can use a consumable to refill it (in fact, every world loot drop that gives you the mana restoring consumable will always also give you the ammo restoring consumable). Range weapons actually feel very good. with upgrades and stats you can actually kill enemies in 1-3 shots, just like a melee weapon. Frankly, its genius, and its puts the souls game to shame in this specific area. If you don't want to use magic or range weapons, then fear not, all characters have the "throwing hand" weapon (if bows/crossbows are catalyst then this would be the pyromancy hand), equip that and you can equip and use up to 3 different types of throwables, like javelins, grenades, knives etc. they use the same ammo bar mechanic. all classes have range options and all range options are super viable. throwables have good scaling, so if you have a strength character then you throw axes or mini-hammer that scale off strength and you will do actually good damage, not "5-10% of the enemies health, plus their agro" but more like "20-30%" of the health, and I've one shot weaker enemies with a crossbow. The whole system puts the limp dick consumables and lame ass "bows" in From games to actual shame.
I feel like the Strength stat should directly affect the base damage of a bow/crossbow, while the Dexterity stat should directly affect the knock/draw speed of a bow/crossbow. With this change, tertiary stats like Faith, Intelligence, and Arcane could directly affect unique bow/crossbow skills and the ammo used in conjunction with those skills.
I used the Crepus Black Key Crossbow for aggroing the bird at the Mohgwyn Farmwhile turning around to launch wave of gold. it would die running off the cliff as I got back to the grace so I got to work it into the farm. Also it locked on from that far away, so of the crossbows in that farm it serves a utility for... shamelessly adding birds to the slaughter of albinaurics lol
Hey, you know what would be kinda fun (aside from just buffing the hell out of bow damage)? Let us use Quickstep, Bloodhound's Step, and Raptor of the Mists on bows & crossbows. Maybe I _want_ my soulsborne combat to resemble Monster Hunter a bit.
From best to worse is better, and your videos are getting better. Showing the 3D model by its own is really great, you should keep doing it if possible. Great job
I prefer using bows and crossbows as utility items, like to pick off or weaken enemies before they get too close, or to hit enemies setting up an obvious ambush or disarming dungeon flamethrower towers.
The point of Serpent Bow is not to fire poison arrows, but bleed arrows or sleep arrows. It has Arcane scaling and Mighty Shot, which is better for actually inflicting status effects compared to Barrage. Barrage and Arrow Rain lower the amount of status build up per arrow. Mighty Shot INCREASES the status build up.
Ok, but did you consider using serpent arrows with the serpent bow, or does that just get lumped in with your poison argument regardless of the increased buildup?
Something I thought about a lot lately: The way the game wants you to play bow builds is to use different arrow types. But the game only allows you to hold two different ones at any given moment. So you have to deal with that or need to go into the menu and change it that way. Thats incredibly tedious and annoying. And there is a way to give us more versatility without giving up on anything. Instead of dedicating two buttons for one arrow type each, make one button change the current arrow type and use the other one to shoot. Using all the same buttons, but be able to increase the possible amount of arrow types at any given moment, without going into the menu, to at least thrice the usual amount. It'd would make the bow gameplay much more fun, without even increasing its potential by much. That bugged me already in dark souls, but they never changed anything about it to this day. And in this game it'd work even better. Which is very frustrating, given that a solution would be so easy imo.
I used bows quite a bit on my first playthrough, so I was kind of sad to see that all the bows I used had the worst rankings. Crepus crossbow, serpent bow, red branch bow - I used all those. Then I realized that even the highest ranking bows were still poop and I didn't feel so bad.
What makes the pulley bow more amazing than you are giving credit is that it is trivial to meet the stat requirement for and is reasonably light. It isn't a main bow but it is an ideal ranged secondary for people not willing to invest stats into it.
The serpent bow's arcane scaling does not buff damage, but will buff status buildup for bleed/poison arrows which is, in my opinion, enough as a resource efficiency boost to justify a higher placement.
the fun thing about the scaling is that specifically its _poison_ scaling is beyond nuts. like the bleed scaling is significant, it's the same sorta scaling everything else has, but the poison scaling? it actually has a _reverse softcap_ where 20 arcane is """only""" 75% scaling, which then skyrockets to _225%_ scaling at 40. and the 59 extra points for 99 arcane will still get you an extra 75% on top of that if you really wanna go all-in, albeit it's really the last 19 points that provide the most bang per rune at that point 'course, it's held back a bit by being only _poison,_ but still
Okay something that I discovered during my challenge run that I don't see anyone talking about with the black bow is Sprint Reset Kiting. A term I coined when I discovered it while fighting Radagon. Basically, hit your first arrow then immediately start sprinting a direction while spamming firing the Black Bow. It will fire sprinting shots at nearly the speed of barrage, but you're still moving and they're full damage and range arrows. This can be done with shortbows but at less damage. The only longbow this can be done with is the black bow as other longbows don't have sprinting attacks. It's akin to kiting in something like League of Legends with the way your character flips back and forth.
The "Harp Bow" sounds like it could be awesome if there was sheet music found throughout the game, and a troubadour NPC quest-giver who teaches players how to sing and/or play musical instruments/weapons, allowing players to create and benefit from their own music based off the rhythm of their attacks.
I had a relatively easy time pulling off a bow-only run using the black bow with bleed/rot arrows on bosses because chaining jump shots with the instant shot that comes out after landing actually results in not just decent damage, but even in melee range, you dodge most boss attacks due to the jump hitbox. As an added bonus, it teaches you to use jumps a lot more when playing anything else as well. My issue was trying to beat Radagon with a bow when he either dodges or deflects 80% of your shots, and as an added insult, is highly resistant to piercing and near immune to status conditions.
What doesn't make sense about reloading the Hand Ballista? You're pulling the lever at the top to re-prime the bowstring because it'd be too heavy to pull back with one's bare hands.
I would say the Serpent bow is far better than depicted in the video simply because if you use the Serpent Arrows along with it you can stack poison insanely fast even on things with high resist.
2 things. 1 YES we got the 3d models again, that shit is clean my dude! And secondly the further into the video of not seeing the serpent bow just made me happier and happier because knowing that was the only bow I used on my bow run and here comes the community/Rusty to say how shit it is just makes me feel wonderful.
I just can't agree with the Serpent Bow placement, that thing carried me on my first playthrough! It can proc poison in one mighty shot, that's enough for it to be higher imo.
The Radahn’s Greatbow benefit works even if you’re not currently wielding it. Just offhand it, then use your main hand bow, and you still get the benefit from both bows
I appreciate the "best to worst" format. no dicking around, no waiting 10-20 minutes for you to get on with it. just straight to the point. Here's the best bow, here's why. now that you got the info you wanted, im going to go through my thoughts on the rest of them, feel free to listen if you wish.
The Black Bow benefits from roll-shoot-jump-shoot-land-shoot-roll-shoot combos, giving it a real combat feel. Low key the BEST bow in the game. I wouldn't do another bow run without it. Its quick shots function exactly like a short bow.
tbh the erdtree bow is criminaly underrated its such a damage cannon with just a bit of set up like just the holy cracked tier i did a faith run and bassicly used the rest of the game after pissfrey
Shortbows are fun since they can fire after rolling and backstepping, and I think when sprinting too. The flexibility is very welcome for when something is on top of you. It doubles as a _"melee"_ weapon at point-blank range.
The best Bow in the game is the "Black Bow". It has a lightbow moveset with the damage of a longbow. Its very versatile and has the amazing barrage weapon art. Those greatbows you mention, specifically Lions greatbow are amazing on enemies with large hitboxes due to its damage but those are a small part of the game. Not to mention the arrows are expensive and the bow fires slow. With the Black Bow you can literally use it against anything in the game and deal quick status effects aswell as big damage with barrage. Even humanoid bosses are great with the Blackbow cause of the quickshots you can pull off.
I'm probably late to mention this, but Golden Great Arrows are co-op ammo. They have the added mini Golden Vow splash effect at the arrows impact (around 60% effectiveness of the spell) making it useful even against enemies that resist Holy damage to reapply buffs to your melee summons mid fight.
I want to tell you a story, When i was doing first playtrough, i was doing it blind and was evading any and all videos about Elden Ring as plague, my build was Faith and holy damage, basically big numbers in stats screen which don't mean anything, late game was a travesty, doing no damage, evading and enduring through, i've played every dark souls game and was really thinking that late game bosses are too tanky, little did i know that except of some mini bosses like mariners and death birds and mini dungeons with skeletons, holy damage is useless. I really think that was deliberate and my first blind playtrough was a challenge run, but good thing is, i can fly through NG game cycle like it is nothing NG+1 is nothing special ether on any other build except of faith.
To be brutally honest about the Hand Ballista, the loading animation makes sense... But at the same time, I think something like that would probably have a hand crank rather than a lever to pull the strings back. As a downside, it'd take a lot longer to reload, but it would definitely be easier on the muscles.
Another step closer to “all weapons tier list”.
He is doing everything in his power to avoid it at this point lol.
Every day... we get one step closer to the "all weapons tier list."
There is going to be a weapon tier kid, tier list
And all pots tierlist… I believe. (Cope)
You are insatiable! Does thy madness know no end!?!
It would be cool if the sound from the harp bow would build up sleep on enemies and build up faster the closer they are to you. You could spam more arrows and zone with the AOE lullaby.
Being able to fire one powerful sleep arrow with a decent splash AOE as an ash of war would also be very cool imho.
I like that idea and my DnD bard agrees.
That actually sounds really cool, it would also be cool like if we used the Lion's Greatbow and fired Rain the bow roars a little or something
I made a custom weapon like that for the bard in my homebrew D&D game. It was a wondrous item that transformed between lute mode and crossbow mode and bards could expend songs to charge bolts with deafening chords that could soundburst a target or have other effects.
@@igor_kossov Sick, now I wanna be a Bard!
I wish FS would make bows an actual thing. Yes, I'm aware it's possible to force them to sort of work, but here's a good rule about builds/playstyles: does it feel like a challenge run? If it does, then it's a meme build.
Maybe they could do a game that revolves around them. Like a Thief type stealth game, or a Green Arrow type thing, or something. The only problem is that you can’t really build a move set into a bow, really… ‘move arrow forward fast’ only really goes so far.
@@icycoatl3185 Monster Hunter enters the Chat.
But in all seriousness unless it was some sort of Legendary Bow that needed some sort of Specialized Cinematic Moveset or someshit, the Normal just Draw String and fire is fine really.
It just that, even in ER the Bow felt "Underpowered" and "Underwhelming" i mean all in all it all probably gonna dumb down into Stealth Archer Archetype or the Sniper Archetype anyway but atleast it's something.
A bow build might be fun and even work yes yes, until you encounter an enemy with a shield or a dodging AI! It happened to me, I was sad 🥲
imo they're pretty good in Demon's Souls, ok in DS1, and quite alright in DS2, but in the rest they're very meh or straight up bad. they're definitely always one of the weaker options you can pick in these games though, sadly. a shame since I really like using bows in many games
Honestly bows aren't terrible to use. If you play them correctly (having a backup melee weapon) they're excellent weapons. My well made bow build can hit for 1100 damage headshots on unaware enemies and deals 400 damage per shot
I personally think the old format is better as it gives you a form of suspense at which one of the best weapons is on top even through it's obvious sometimes
I agree completely, better vibes, a point to watch the video after the 1st 3, and you dont get sad seeing everything get shitter through the video
Yes! Please keep the old format!
Alright alright, no one can agree we’re gonna have to compromise. So start with the best AND the worst then work our way down the list until we end in the middle. Surely no one could have any issues with that lol
@@monhi64no no. Better compromise! Start in the middle and alternate going down AND up! That way there's suspense about the best and the worst! Everyone will be happy now!
I always thought Arrows should work like flasks, you only get a certain amount with more or less depending on how strong they are, but they recharge on sit downs. Make it feel abit less terrible than having to farm to make my meh weapons usable.
Damn, thats such a great idea and an easy sollution
I know you can buy most of the weapons
can't go for this, even though I don't use bows. ER is a game that doesn't limit its players
Speaking on farming when I tried to do a bow only run I managed to make it to fire giant before realizing how painful it was to farm for rot arrows after the butterfly supply was exhausted making it to where you needed to farm frogs in lake of rot for an hour between every attempt
Yeah! Pots magically repair themselves, too. Why can't arrows?
A thing of note about the Full Moon Crossbow is that it doesn't takes 2 hands to reload, the crossbow does it itself. This has the unique feature of allowing you to reload 2 of them functionally simultaneously allowing for a faster fire rate than most other crossbows when using 2 of them.
I don't know when you would ever need to know that or have the chance actively use it that, but it's a thing.
Pulley Bow 4 LYFE.
I'm a sucker for clockwork/steampunk crap.
you can sortof act like the archer marionette i suppose? doublehand crossbows
I prefer the descending order over this ascending one, it makes it just a little more surprising.
I think a lot of people who are looking for guides rather than entertainment will appreciate it
@@jty9631 not being rude
You can’t just assume someone’s a redditor. /s
(I also would have preferred the alternate ordering.)
I agree, also not much point in watching the rest of his hard worked made video after the 1st 3 on the list, and It builds some good vibes seeing the weapons get stronger the further you go, rather than sad the worse and more shit things get.
@@jty9631 this will probably sound meaner than intended but, if you’re looking for a guide just look up a guide, videos like these are more geared towards people looking for opinions who have already beaten the game and just want some entertainment
I think they actually messed up when making the Crepus Crossbow. It was definitely supposed to have more range and damage and synergize with the Black Key Bolts, but they may have just forgotten to implement it. There are a few cases of hinting item descriptions not matching the item at all, and this is one of them. Just a little oopsie from the devs
Or someone forgot a colon or something somewhere. Considering the size of the game it wouldn't surprise me at all.
I hope for a buff, the visual design demands it
Imagine me using this thing to snipe those ballista guards on the bridge of sacrifice after reading its description. It took ages lol but it got me through there though
Edit: i had to go up on a ledge to the side of the bridge in order to get a line on them
I used to think the horse hoof shield patches sells you causes torrent to run faster
@@jacthing1it’s really bad I can’t think of any other AAA game that has had full blown typos (mostly incorrect descriptions of item mechanics) that made it to release much less past the frequent game updates. Especially a game that’s pretty light on text. But I forgive them, I suppose most of them must be relics from when they update how items work but somehow forget to change the description. Just because it’s unbelievable that the mistakes happened doesn’t mean it negatively effects gameplay much
0:08 PLEASE FIX YOUR SMOKE DETECTOR LMAOOOO
As much as I love the tierlists and your presentation style, I have to admit the thing that excites me most about seeing a new video from you in my feed is the possibility of getting another chapter in this story you occasionally tell in your openings. As infrequent as these story openings are, I can't help but want to learn more about these characters and what they do next.
I wish there was like a playlist of all of these
@@noonehere6994 Why not make one yourself?
@@iSmartMan1 to be completely honest, I'm completely new to this channel. After being hooked to the story intro, I looked at his elden ring playlist and noticed not all vids have this opening. So I have no idea what other videos have story openings
@@noonehere6994 Well, what better excuse to go through his catalog and find them? As a heads-up, sometimes the story segments are at the ends of videos as well as at the start.
@@iSmartMan1 ah, thanks for letting me know. Am I only looking at their elden ring videos or all videos?
As an avid bow user for pvp and pve, I have to say the serpent bow is actually one of the best ways to apply poison, sleep, and bleed as it states that all arrows fired with the bow equipped gets the added 19 poison, this means with the serpent arrow giving 78 poison on hit pkus scaling and its aow mighty shot giving it a flat 170 more poison makes for 267 poison per ash of war shot and 76 poison normally, without his the added arcane scaling to the bow meaning these numbers increase with your arcane stat, this also means you can use ANY bow or ANY arrow in your main hand for +19 poison to the serpent arrows making barrage do 97 poison per arrow, OR use two serpent bows for 286 aow poison or just 116 per arrow. However, the Saint Trina's arrows can scale with arcane as well making them 96+ your scaling adding nore sleep per hit and 19 poison or use the aow for 266 sleep+ oer shot. On new game plus, you can 1 shot proc poison with one bow and arrow on several bosses, and in pvp you can 3 hit poison pretty much anyone with the arrows and 4 hit sleep most targets. I personally use an offhand serpent bow to start a duel to get the damage buff from poisoning them then use the black bow to apply sleep since it's more agile. And if you want bleed, just use reduvia, the bleed arrows are trash unless using the serpent bow. You can keep a light load with that setup. The Serpent bow is strong for those statuses only since there is no madness arrows, I can only hope.
Bows are a weapon type that’s always underrated but also never as great as I think they could be. I think it has something to do with From Soft’s obsession with bullshit 3D tracking that makes all enemies attacks track and hit you flawlessly, and prevents any of your attacks from tracking at all unless they’re specific magic spells that still get caught on that random bush over there.
You know what's really ironic? The only Souls game where a bow is *truly* good, not merely "okay" is, to my knowledge, Bloodborne. The one where everyone has a gun.
Wish we had ashes of war that are somewhat like how sekiro characters use them
The fact that spells track but arrows don't really makes no sense indeed. It's a tragic oversight.
Great summary. I've completed a full bow playthrough where I went through the entire game, trying to really do all the content and side content and etc, with nothing but bows, while refusing to use status effects, and yeah. The Pulley Bow is the correct choice, which is funny to me as its the first non-greatbow in your list that you describe without talking about status effects. And to ANYONE who ever considers doing a bow build for PvE without status effects. Ignore Strength and Dex. They are useless. the difference in damage for a +10 Pulley bow between requirement stats and 50/50 str/dex, is a whopping 80-something damage, which is less points of damage then levels invested in those stats. So what I did was purely level Vigour, Mind and Endurance. The reason the Pulley bow outperforms the Black Bow in this situation is simple. Ammunition. Less damage but rapid fire is simply not valid when every area, every boss and every dungeon is a math problem of "do I have enough ammunition". Mighty Shot is love.
I respect you, I tried myself a bow build (the black bow) and I got sad and tired of it.
In my bow only run instead of using the ash of war that locks you in place I just used the jump shots, two shots per jump with quick recovery and normal buildup inflicts enough status for every boss fight while getting decent damage and creating range between you and the boss
Violet Rose of SC2 modding fame? I’m a big fan!
I'm glad you take the opportunity to not just "a tierlist (tm)." You try and make the most out of it by making it well-researched (to the extent it it possible, mostly through math), and some genuinely funny bits.
You don't always see that in RUclips tierlists, ya know? Is nice.
Oh wow, it's basically a bow per minute. Rusty is truly evolving.
This is a great "BPM" pun. Thank you.
never rank them inversely again pls
I’m gonna argue that it works for bows, because everyone knows that the lion and golem great bows are the best, and it’s more interesting to go beyond that
@MotherCelevrus New players or players who dont use bows wouldn't know whats 1st 2nd or anything. Inverse listing just makes the rest of the list uneeded and boring
Probably the most fun build I've done was offhanding the pulley crossbow to put enemies asleep and then using the Marais executioner swords' L2 on them. Even enemies that don't get properly put to sleep, like most humanoids, get staggered long enough to land a fully charged weapon art and completely shred them.
This makes me want to try this with misericorde. Forget the stagger damage, just knock them unconscious.
@@gengarisnotinsmash...If I remember correctly, sleep doesn't proc critical hits, but I could be wrong
@@TildeQ Backstab, I believe, Was their point.
@@milokiss8276 That makes sense, I was only thinking about bosses
@@TildeQ it does, but not on every enemy. Some (read: most) just shake it off and don't actually go to sleep, but when they do they can be crit.
You didnt mention that the black bow has the moveset of a shortbow too - not just the skill! It means that rolling and jumping arrow shots are possible, which makes the black bow extremely viable for actual usage. Its just a shame a somewhat recent patch hurt its AR
Bows were my choice of weapon for my very first elden ring playthrough (A composite bow specifically, because my focus was being efficient with my arrow usage and barrage is literally burning arrows for marginally higher damage). I never finished that file, I got stuck at Malekith...
But weirdly I had a lot of fun with that playthrough. The resource management and the relaxing pace of killing everything from a mile away were features that I quite enjoyed, even though the game doesn't reward the commitment as much as it should.
Props to you and your editor for the constant visual improvements and research for the video. I was actually surprised about the Harp Bow as last and listening to you descend lower and lower into madness with each item was quite entertaining. Best to Worst gets my vote.
Yeah I'm definitely on team "weakest to strongest" rather than starting at number 1. Sure the meta gonna meta and be somewhat predictable, but I feel more inclined to exit after the top 5 with this setup.
I think the pulley bow should definitely be higher up. If you're not trying to make a pure bow build (i.e. you are a normal person who loves themselves), then the primary reason to have a bow is to lure enemies in or snipe them from far away enough that they can't get to you, essentially making them bigger throwing knives. In this case, the higher range on the pulley bow makes it the best in its class for this purpose without the weight and stat issues of greatbows or ballistas
The channel is turning to a fancy Fextralife for VIPs and I love it
I'd watch hours of rusty info content if it meant I didn't have to look at a fextralife page for answers ever again
Yeah its even worse now that they have their stupid stream on the left@@claytonschmohe1786
I've never really liked the premise that bows need to be underpowered in a melee-focused game when there are plenty of spells in these games with bow-tier range that are broken as all hell.
I like better from worst to best. The best thing about these videos is guessing what the top is going to be and all that.
*I like worst to best better
@@DecartesGreatStar mb
The wandering noble build cosplay
Cuz every time you drop a new video someone comments about you, “getting closer to the full weapon tier list.” I really never expected such and I just appreciate that you make these at all! Always digestible and informative and that’s already more than I could ask for
I want Rusty to eventually do a tier list of of all his tier list videos 😂
Black bow is underrated here. Barrage is good for status effects as much as any other shortbow, while the damage and short bow moveset gives the best damage when you're not using status effects are procced poison/rot.
And against the jar canon and lion greatbow, the faster fire rate gives more mobility for dodging attacks.
#1
But, have you considered healing next to a revenant?
That is, an interesting take, a completely new one I dare say...
But, did you know that fire resets frostbite?
@@coolfishron6668 Really?
Feels like the next thing you're gonna tell me is that madness spells deal fire damage...
@@irtendor5885
Nah, I was gonna say that Lord of Blood Exultation Stacks with White Mask.
Did you also know you can skip Radahn's arrow phase by moving away from him??
@9:52
"If it's the range you're after, just use a greatbow; that gives you stopping power to boot."
The *_problem_* with greatbows and ballistas, Rusty, is that the moment you fire something with them, you alert every single enemy in the neighborhood like if you've just awoken the horde, and if what you're shooting at happens to be a quick scamper, they will be alerted as well and immediately dash around towards you while accidentally avoiding your shot because you didn't expect an otherwise completely stationary enemy to suddenly dash to the right and then bolt your way. Trust me, I've given those weapons too many tries to count on the field.
As such, the Pulley Bow to me is the next strongest bow that *_doesn't_* compromise my location and thus my well-being, and if you played any Sniper Elite game on the harder difficulties, you'd understand that not compromising both is good.
Greatbows are amazing. Thanks to golem greatbow, strength playthrough was the most enjoyable experience! Stockpile some big bones and you have a good ranged attack even if you are out of fp.
Also yes poison is useless but the main benefit of serpent bow is arcane scaling. Pair it with skill increasing status buildup and st trina arrows can replace sleep pots and bleed arrows fill enemies bleed bar by half before engagement even starts.
Ranking all Elden ring arrow types has to be next
But in randomly fashioned this time.
Radhan's bow stacks too iirc. If you have one on you back and are shooting another the spears do way more.
I find that the Serpent Bow is great for pressuring people in PvP. On an arcane build, couple the innate heavy poison with rot/sleep arrows, land a couple shots and you'll find yourself with plenty of breathing room which makes it great when invading in particular. Poison does have its place even lategame too. Just because something has a massive health pool doesn't mean you shouldn't bother. Stack that shit with rot, blackflame and frostbite with whatever melee weapon you're rocking and it's just free DPS.
Plus there are at least a few mid to lategame areas with annoying enemies you can poison from far away. If you don't like just running past everything then it's at least an option.
In the open world, this just turns into the goofiest cheese strat in the world when you can poison some annoying boss or enemy and take 5 steps outside their "leash" range. They'll teleport back to spawn and the debuff will remain until it expires. Kinda feels like that old Demon's Souls cheese where you could kill one of the Maneaters before entering the arena but you can do it just about anywhere.
"This great bow is the cornerstone example of why you should never fall in love with potential"
I felt attacked in many ways
Some of these videos are so random, and I love it. The intro is also really cool, I can’t imagine how long that took you.
Now I’m not saying these put me too sleep, but I love watching these lists at night after work, engaging and very interesting but still calming, just enough to wind down and make me calm enough to sleep. Wonderful stuff
I do think the fun of the serpent bow is if you already want to use rot arrows, why not try and build up a tiny extra bit of dot while you're at it
Also for the monsters who want to run away from the host for even longer
This video came out just in the right time, I wanted to choose a bow for my current character build, not as a main weapon but as an option and utility
Yeah, I admit that I like the Best First set-up, because it feels more natural for Rusty to get angrier and more vulgar the longer the video goes - like he's mad he has to GO to the depths of the crappiest options at all lol
This is also a pretty good resource for anyone wanting to make a Super Buff Bows mod, for how to change the scaling.
Sometimes I feel like nobody else realizes you can jump and fire with greatbows, allowing you to draw them as you land, making them much more mobile and easier to use in close combat than previous games; and its a little secret that only I get to enjoy.
Sleeping on poison, it's fully viable up through the end of the game
Did a low level run and beat almost every boss at level 25-my main weapon was harp bow with barrage and poison arrows. Astel was almost exclusively poison arrows
First thing I do in any boss fight is proc poison; it's free damage, even a large help against Fire Giant and Maliketh
Right before you dropped this video, I managed to defeat Malenia with the Black Bow.
I love bows in video games. And yes, I’m the same fanatic who plays games only with them + knives.
The power of bows is that you can not pay attention to such stats as strength and dexterity, but give priority to Vitality and Endurance.
Your main advantage is survivability.
Crossbows can be nice in PvP as an off-hand. The near-instant hit that can be reloaded later adds some nice pressure
Introducing the Rusty Bow: E scaling on every stat, upgrades with somber smithing stones and mentions that Hands are weak to fire whenever you shoot with it.
Imagine if someone would make a whole movie like this intro in elden ring, writing a original story, use npcs like this, boss battles, epic camera angles, insane pvp cinematic battles, I would definitely watch that.
I really hope that this whole "hunting Rusty" plot isn't hinting at him planning to retire. Like Counsilor executes Rusty, and suddenly the youtube channel ceases to exist.
Bows are very useful for luring a single opponent away from a group and towards you.
Ending tier list when? I want to hear more of that hatred you have for Ranni
Reverse-ranking is the structure I never knew I needed.
This was so crazy thinking this was “worst to best” at first, thinking you were just slowly getting angry at the viable options
I don’t hate this new order, it’s cool new breath of fresh air, but I think I still prefer the normal way, especially if there’s going to be an every weapon tier list.
The intros to these videos are singlehandedly better than every Marvel movie ever made
I liked the "From Best to Worst" idea
The only list channel to watch about this game, all lists on this channel are objectively correct
I'm playing Lords of the Fallen right now (and im absolutely loving). The way that game does the range system is frankly brilliant. In short, it treats ammo types as spells and bows/crossbows as catalysts. Instead of a mana bar you have a ammo bar, and just like a mana bar it refills on rests and you can use a consumable to refill it (in fact, every world loot drop that gives you the mana restoring consumable will always also give you the ammo restoring consumable). Range weapons actually feel very good. with upgrades and stats you can actually kill enemies in 1-3 shots, just like a melee weapon. Frankly, its genius, and its puts the souls game to shame in this specific area. If you don't want to use magic or range weapons, then fear not, all characters have the "throwing hand" weapon (if bows/crossbows are catalyst then this would be the pyromancy hand), equip that and you can equip and use up to 3 different types of throwables, like javelins, grenades, knives etc. they use the same ammo bar mechanic. all classes have range options and all range options are super viable. throwables have good scaling, so if you have a strength character then you throw axes or mini-hammer that scale off strength and you will do actually good damage, not "5-10% of the enemies health, plus their agro" but more like "20-30%" of the health, and I've one shot weaker enemies with a crossbow. The whole system puts the limp dick consumables and lame ass "bows" in From games to actual shame.
I feel like the Strength stat should directly affect the base damage of a bow/crossbow, while the Dexterity stat should directly affect the knock/draw speed of a bow/crossbow.
With this change, tertiary stats like Faith, Intelligence, and Arcane could directly affect unique bow/crossbow skills and the ammo used in conjunction with those skills.
Don’t you mean ranking bows from worst to worst?
I used the Crepus Black Key Crossbow for aggroing the bird at the Mohgwyn Farmwhile turning around to launch wave of gold. it would die running off the cliff as I got back to the grace so I got to work it into the farm. Also it locked on from that far away, so of the crossbows in that farm it serves a utility for... shamelessly adding birds to the slaughter of albinaurics lol
Its a shame the black bow isnt very strong, it looks so sleek!
Hey, you know what would be kinda fun (aside from just buffing the hell out of bow damage)? Let us use Quickstep, Bloodhound's Step, and Raptor of the Mists on bows & crossbows.
Maybe I _want_ my soulsborne combat to resemble Monster Hunter a bit.
From best to worse is better, and your videos are getting better. Showing the 3D model by its own is really great, you should keep doing it if possible. Great job
I prefer using bows and crossbows as utility items, like to pick off or weaken enemies before they get too close, or to hit enemies setting up an obvious ambush or disarming dungeon flamethrower towers.
love this channel and how each episode feels like getting slapped in the face by cold salami but I can't get enough of it.
Well done.
The point of Serpent Bow is not to fire poison arrows, but bleed arrows or sleep arrows. It has Arcane scaling and Mighty Shot, which is better for actually inflicting status effects compared to Barrage. Barrage and Arrow Rain lower the amount of status build up per arrow. Mighty Shot INCREASES the status build up.
Ok, but did you consider using serpent arrows with the serpent bow, or does that just get lumped in with your poison argument regardless of the increased buildup?
Something I thought about a lot lately:
The way the game wants you to play bow builds is to use different arrow types. But the game only allows you to hold two different ones at any given moment. So you have to deal with that or need to go into the menu and change it that way. Thats incredibly tedious and annoying. And there is a way to give us more versatility without giving up on anything. Instead of dedicating two buttons for one arrow type each, make one button change the current arrow type and use the other one to shoot. Using all the same buttons, but be able to increase the possible amount of arrow types at any given moment, without going into the menu, to at least thrice the usual amount.
It'd would make the bow gameplay much more fun, without even increasing its potential by much. That bugged me already in dark souls, but they never changed anything about it to this day. And in this game it'd work even better. Which is very frustrating, given that a solution would be so easy imo.
With this new video, we are one step closer to a complete Weapons Tier List
I used bows quite a bit on my first playthrough, so I was kind of sad to see that all the bows I used had the worst rankings. Crepus crossbow, serpent bow, red branch bow - I used all those. Then I realized that even the highest ranking bows were still poop and I didn't feel so bad.
The fact the serpent bow is a longbow is what holds it back as a status tool
What makes the pulley bow more amazing than you are giving credit is that it is trivial to meet the stat requirement for and is reasonably light. It isn't a main bow but it is an ideal ranged secondary for people not willing to invest stats into it.
The serpent bow's arcane scaling does not buff damage, but will buff status buildup for bleed/poison arrows which is, in my opinion, enough as a resource efficiency boost to justify a higher placement.
Agreed. You can proc poison in one mighty shot with serpent arrows, which at least should mean a higher placement than most crossbows.
the fun thing about the scaling is that specifically its _poison_ scaling is beyond nuts. like the bleed scaling is significant, it's the same sorta scaling everything else has, but the poison scaling? it actually has a _reverse softcap_ where 20 arcane is """only""" 75% scaling, which then skyrockets to _225%_ scaling at 40. and the 59 extra points for 99 arcane will still get you an extra 75% on top of that if you really wanna go all-in, albeit it's really the last 19 points that provide the most bang per rune at that point
'course, it's held back a bit by being only _poison,_ but still
Okay something that I discovered during my challenge run that I don't see anyone talking about with the black bow is Sprint Reset Kiting. A term I coined when I discovered it while fighting Radagon. Basically, hit your first arrow then immediately start sprinting a direction while spamming firing the Black Bow. It will fire sprinting shots at nearly the speed of barrage, but you're still moving and they're full damage and range arrows. This can be done with shortbows but at less damage. The only longbow this can be done with is the black bow as other longbows don't have sprinting attacks. It's akin to kiting in something like League of Legends with the way your character flips back and forth.
Rusty makes video.
I click
The "Harp Bow" sounds like it could be awesome if there was sheet music found throughout the game, and a troubadour NPC quest-giver who teaches players how to sing and/or play musical instruments/weapons, allowing players to create and benefit from their own music based off the rhythm of their attacks.
Thank you for your S tier rankings Rusty!
I had a relatively easy time pulling off a bow-only run using the black bow with bleed/rot arrows on bosses because chaining jump shots with the instant shot that comes out after landing actually results in not just decent damage, but even in melee range, you dodge most boss attacks due to the jump hitbox. As an added bonus, it teaches you to use jumps a lot more when playing anything else as well. My issue was trying to beat Radagon with a bow when he either dodges or deflects 80% of your shots, and as an added insult, is highly resistant to piercing and near immune to status conditions.
Your political takes might be utter dogcrap, but the rankings are funny.
What doesn't make sense about reloading the Hand Ballista? You're pulling the lever at the top to re-prime the bowstring because it'd be too heavy to pull back with one's bare hands.
… so all I can think of in relation to the Erdtree Greatbow is, that if I’m leveling faith I’m probably throwing around fire not picking up bows.
I would say the Serpent bow is far better than depicted in the video simply because if you use the Serpent Arrows along with it you can stack poison insanely fast even on things with high resist.
2 things. 1 YES we got the 3d models again, that shit is clean my dude! And secondly the further into the video of not seeing the serpent bow just made me happier and happier because knowing that was the only bow I used on my bow run and here comes the community/Rusty to say how shit it is just makes me feel wonderful.
I just can't agree with the Serpent Bow placement, that thing carried me on my first playthrough! It can proc poison in one mighty shot, that's enough for it to be higher imo.
The Radahn’s Greatbow benefit works even if you’re not currently wielding it. Just offhand it, then use your main hand bow, and you still get the benefit from both bows
I appreciate the "best to worst" format.
no dicking around, no waiting 10-20 minutes for you to get on with it. just straight to the point.
Here's the best bow, here's why. now that you got the info you wanted, im going to go through my thoughts on the rest of them, feel free to listen if you wish.
The Black Bow benefits from roll-shoot-jump-shoot-land-shoot-roll-shoot combos, giving it a real combat feel. Low key the BEST bow in the game. I wouldn't do another bow run without it. Its quick shots function exactly like a short bow.
I didn't expect Rayman 1's ost but I am so glad I noticed it in the background!
tbh the erdtree bow is criminaly underrated its such a damage cannon with just a bit of set up like just the holy cracked tier i did a faith run and bassicly used the rest of the game after pissfrey
i've done three bow only runs, love it and Horn bow over black bow? breh
Shortbows are fun since they can fire after rolling and backstepping, and I think when sprinting too. The flexibility is very welcome for when something is on top of you. It doubles as a _"melee"_ weapon at point-blank range.
If the pulley bow had like a triple shot aow it would actually be a valid alternative to the black bow
The best Bow in the game is the "Black Bow". It has a lightbow moveset with the damage of a longbow. Its very versatile and has the amazing barrage weapon art. Those greatbows you mention, specifically Lions greatbow are amazing on enemies with large hitboxes due to its damage but those are a small part of the game. Not to mention the arrows are expensive and the bow fires slow. With the Black Bow you can literally use it against anything in the game and deal quick status effects aswell as big damage with barrage. Even humanoid bosses are great with the Blackbow cause of the quickshots you can pull off.
I'm probably late to mention this, but Golden Great Arrows are co-op ammo. They have the added mini Golden Vow splash effect at the arrows impact (around 60% effectiveness of the spell) making it useful even against enemies that resist Holy damage to reapply buffs to your melee summons mid fight.
Rusty, staring at the inevitably approaching all weapons tierlist: "Ugh..."
that font joke was fucking amazing
Using the normal Longbow during Stormveil was so good, luring enemies to you and killing them one by one was a good tactic for me.
I want to tell you a story, When i was doing first playtrough, i was doing it blind and was evading any and all videos about Elden Ring as plague, my build was Faith and holy damage, basically big numbers in stats screen which don't mean anything, late game was a travesty, doing no damage, evading and enduring through, i've played every dark souls game and was really thinking that late game bosses are too tanky, little did i know that except of some mini bosses like mariners and death birds and mini dungeons with skeletons, holy damage is useless. I really think that was deliberate and my first blind playtrough was a challenge run, but good thing is, i can fly through NG game cycle like it is nothing NG+1 is nothing special ether on any other build except of faith.
To be brutally honest about the Hand Ballista, the loading animation makes sense... But at the same time, I think something like that would probably have a hand crank rather than a lever to pull the strings back. As a downside, it'd take a lot longer to reload, but it would definitely be easier on the muscles.
They way you said golem made suddenly expect to see Gollum from LotR