Suggestions and tips for bows

I find the bow very interesting as a weapon, I own a few already jus thit to prepare. But I know little about the finer aspects of it. I'm sure there are others like me, so I figured I'd ask some basic questions to help myself and others.
What skills are particularily beneficial to the weapon?
Which bows are must haves for High Rank and higher?
Which armoursets cater to bowing best?
What are some key things to remember?

Also, is Barioth Z ok for bowing? It looks really cool so I might look into obtaining it.

Awaken
Bombardier
Kelbi Bow

You're welcome.

Haruno that takes absolutely no skill to be good at just knowing how to evade.


Anywho for bow skills you might want a focus load up depending if you don't already have a level four shot, and if it is worth it at at all. Evade+1 can be very useful when you are first learning how to use it, and any shot boosts you can possibly fit in a set if it suits the situation. For bow to be really effective try to make the majority of your shots hit a monsters weak point. If not sometimes a hunt can really get dragged out.

Yey that's the kind of post I want to see, thanks for the tips. I'm gonna aquire the G-rank Deus bow then practice offline with it probably.

I like to use any type of shot up: Rapid, Spread, or Pierce. Focus makes me pretty happy. If you use slime, bombardier is very nice, AuX is good, ADR, Evade Dist/ Evade, Stamina Recov, Crit eye.

Those are just some skills I've had on my bowsets in the past.

Barioth Z provides both Evade+1 and AuM at base, so this looks promising.

A small tip for if you ever hunt underwater; using the lock-on feature can make hunting with the Bow a lot easier; especially when first hunting underwater. Arc Shots are a fair bit trickier to pull off while underwater, considering the monsters you'll be fighting tend to move around a lot, save for Gobul. Arc Shots are REALLY effective against him when he buries himself though, sometimes working like a Sonic Bomb when he's sleeping (except you can do it any time he buries himself) and immediately ejecting him out of hiding.

Skills like Precision, Reload Speed (iirc; not tested, but logically, it may affect Coating application speed? Something I'm yet to test out myself, but it likely doesn't affect Bow users) and Recoil are things that Bows don't need, so unless an armour set has something else on it that is more beneficial to Bowing, you can generally just ignore it. As you'd probably guess, it works both ways, since any armour sets that have a negative effect on recoil and precision can be used without having to gem out the negatives.

If you're having trouble with running out of Stamina all the time, the Stamina and StamRecov skills are for you! They work together almost like a Mega Dash Juice, except your stamina still depletes... but really slowly, and it recovers twice as fast. Not sure if the combination still works in MH3U, as I've yet to see an armour set that accommodates both skills, but it certainly worked in MHP3rd, since I've used it. It could be a good skill combination you start with until you get more comfortable with Bowing, if you have access to them.

Yuki wrote:

Haruno that takes absolutely no skill to be good at just knowing how to evade.


Anywho for bow skills you might want a focus load up depending if you don't already have a level four shot, and if it is worth it at at all. Evade+1 can be very useful when you are first learning how to use it, and any shot boosts you can possibly fit in a set if it suits the situation. For bow to be really effective try to make the majority of your shots hit a monsters weak point. If not sometimes a hunt can really get dragged out.

yeaa it's not as simple as shooting at its weakes parts, to make a bow "really effective" you gotta have a fluidity between the monsters your facing off with and the capabilities of the bow you're packing.

cutting tails with bows is a chore, best bet is a pierce bow + power coating (still wouldn't recommend it tho unless you have the patience)
Exhaust coating should only be used on heads to get the best effects outta it.
Slime/SlimeBadier arching is best used on tough parts like ura's chin/barro's head/etc. (y'know, when you're actually trying to use it as a strategic set. not the typical Speedrun archer set that combination as become)
C.Range + Spread shots on most desired breakable parts of the monster.

Bows do everything that any other weapon can do. if you wanna use a bow to it's fullest pay attention to the combination of the arrows each bow shoots at specific charges, and what coatings/abilities best compliment them. From there you pick the armor/skills that best support the bow.
you won't need any other weapon when you find that balance that works for you when it comes to arching

I had started on this a while back: https://mhwiki.forumotion.net/t9548-bow-guide-fun-with-arrows

Still a work in progress but it may help out some. In fact it lead me to doin this: https://mhwiki.forumotion.net/t9663-just-restarted-my-game

It's been very difficult for me to find a bow set I like for skills so I pretty much just went for looks. Though I have noticed that while yes some skills do help, overall well placed shots and knowing how to use the arc shots seem to be key. Especially underwater.

dcj91x wrote:

It's been very difficult for me to find a bow set I like for skills so I pretty much just went for looks. Though I have noticed that while yes some skills do help, overall well placed shots and knowing how to use the arc shots seem to be key. Especially underwater.

Skill wise Volvidon is a good start out with. Evasion for beginners, AUS with easy accessibility to up to AUM, and Rapid up damage. Works best with The Hunter Bow path and the Nibelsnarf path.
I went with Hunters bow mainly because my 1st talk was a sleep coating +8, so every coating I need for a quick run was present at the get-go for me. Im currently at G-Rank and that set is still my main so it sure has something going for it.

^ oh you missunderstand. I never saw a point in evasion for me as I never had a problem evading in any MH game. And as far as other skills.. Ehh I tend to try to find ones that match my play style not necessarily the generally accepted "best skills".

However yes, I would agree that for most people especially gunners/bows evasion is always good.

As far as beginner bows, I have yet to really find one I like better than the Arca Raptora. It gives you blast arc which is great for breaking body parts and using status up with its coatings is really good in battle.

^ i was moreso just giving a suggestion of a set in general. providing an answer to your statement, yes. but mainly an examplefor anyone else wanting to bow but not easily sure where to begin. I wouldn't doubt evasion would be a meh skill for you anyways. I personally don't need it, but I like having +Rapid Arrows and gemmed-in AUL tagged on with my coating effects method (plus now it's overkill with my Seahorse Bow,)

All around it's a good starting set. But i've yet to even bother with a custom set or anything. So until then it's what I use, and it does what it needs to with the best of them.

I can agree with that Oto. One of the things I like about MH is that everyone, even with the same weapon type, can have a different play style and different likes and it still works. Very few other games offer that I feel.