How to use the Sarnak Bow to the greatest effect?

[TwistedFaith]

OK so I got my hands on one of these bad boys and yes it's a killer bow and I love it. I have 66% haste as unbuffed.I'm curious how other rangers put this bow to use, the auto attack is so high that i'm starting to think a few of our melee attacks are not worth using whilst I can sit back and auto attack. thoughts?I'm not a lazy ranger and never have been but I raided with the bow last night and I couldnt quite decide what was the best approach to take to make the most of it. Continue what I was doing before and using all my CA's or just sit back and concentrate on the ranged CA's and our backstabs.

[USAFJeeper]

<P>Considering I am critting on auto attacks for over 8K with the Sarnak, only Sniper gives me a harder hit.  That being said I prefer auto attack to CA, so I do not queue of CAs anymore, I fit them in between autoattacks.  It is stunning what a difference this bow and the Ichorstrand have made in my DPS.  Its just a [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] shame we need such rare bows to give assassins a run for their money.</P> <P> </P> <P> </P><p>Message Edited by USAFJeeper on <span class=date_text>10-30-2006</span> <span class=time_text>11:40 AM</span>

[TwistedFaith]

Damm I dont have the ammo yet, but 8k auto attack crit hit huh. I had a few 6k crits but we really are slack on debuffing so maybe sometime soon.

[Prandtl]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> USAFJeeper wrote:<BR> <P>Considering I am critting on auto attacks for over 8K with the Sarnak, only Sniper gives me a harder hit.  That being said I prefer auto attack to CA, so I do not queue of CAs anymore, I fit them in between autoattacks.  It is stunning what a difference this bow and the Ichorstrand have made in my DPS. <STRONG><FONT color=#ff0000> Its just a [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] shame we need such rare bows to give assassins a run for their money.</FONT></STRONG></P> <P>Message Edited by USAFJeeper on <SPAN class=date_text>10-30-2006</SPAN><SPAN class=time_text>11:40 AM</SPAN><BR></P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>I'm with you. It is pretty rediculous that we need one of the rarest drops from one of the tougher mobs in the game just to do the DPS we are supposed to be doing.  As a neophyte raider I doubt very seriously that I'll ever have one of those bows in my hand<BR>

[Crychtonn]

<P>It all comes down to timing and getting a rythem for the bow.  Auto attack is now going to be your biggest weapon in your arsenal.  But that doesn't mean forgetting about and not using all your other weapons.  You'll still want to keep using all your other skills but like the other poster said you want to time them between auto attacks.  At self buffed 66% haste the 8 sec delay drops down to just over 5 sec and if your group buffed to 100% haste it'd be 4 sec.  So in between auto attacks you'll want to try and do that many sec worth of CA's.  And when using melee CA's stay back in the sweet spot range and hit ranged auto attack after using them.  Also try and pay attention to auto attacks when using Focus Aim.  Especially if you have 100% haste which will allow you to get off three auto attacks instead of just two if timed correctly.  At only 66% haste it's not as important since you'll always only get off two auto attacks.</P> <P> </P>

[Lev]

I have not personally used Sarnak so my info is abit out on that.. but 100% haste does not take 50% of the attack speed. not the way the math works.. don't have the formula here but it is closer to 35%.. Also autoattacks trigger automaticly between CAs so I don't think timing your CAs would do anyting but maybe take your dps down a notch.. not sure on this, but thats the way I understand how it works.<div></div>

[Torrin]

Question: What and where does the Sarnak bow come from? I'm currently using the Bow of Searing Missles.. while it's not the hardest hitting bow I can get my hands on ((PvP Bow 90+dps)), It helps greatly against runners and casters.. I can easily stay out of the caster's range since I have further reach than they do I've noticed.. stack those snares and they're cake.But my advice with any bow;  Always use the following in PvP situations: Confounding Arrow (Group PvP, increases target's hate toward next person to Melee attack them), Devitalizing Arrow (That CA seems to Crit for me like every other shot it's insane lol) and of course if you have fast stealth / fast cast Veiled Fire.  Other than that if your boy AutoAttacks that hard, I'd say just use those few skills and use AutoAttack the rest.. Oh and Leg Shot (I love the 62% Snare haha).Also if you fully self buff it's easy to hit 100% dps 100% haste, I do it constantly (Focus Aim + Killing Instince = 100/100) Which I am actually self-buffing for roughly 120/130 dps/haste but the max hasn't been raised to 200/200 yet.. soo it's capping at only 100/100.   My problem is once I start unloading on someone they run away.. which is why I stick with the 45m bow.  I can get about 3 extra shots on them before they get out of my range.  <div></div>

[Gerdos]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> rain420 wrote:<BR><BR>But my advice with any bow;  Always use the following in PvP situations: Confounding Arrow (Group PvP, increases target's hate toward next person to Melee attack them), <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>Thats not how it works anymore.   The hate gain goes to whoever the mob is currently targetted when you hit with Confounding Arrow.  If you start a fight with Confounding Arrow, i'd assume you would get the additional hate gain regardless of who hit the mob next.  The best use for this CA, is to use it early in a fight, after your tank has pulled it to help him gain a bonus to hate.</P>

[Torrin]

<div><blockquote><hr>Gerdos wrote:<div></div> <blockquote> <hr> rain420 wrote:But my advice with any bow;  Always use the following in PvP situations: Confounding Arrow (Group PvP, increases target's hate toward next person to Melee attack them), <div></div> <hr> </blockquote> <p>Thats not how it works anymore.   The hate gain goes to whoever the mob is currently targetted when you hit with Confounding Arrow.  If you start a fight with Confounding Arrow, i'd assume you would get the additional hate gain regardless of who hit the mob next.  The best use for this CA, is to use it early in a fight, after your tank has pulled it to help him gain a bonus to hate.</p><hr></blockquote>I always use it in PvE after the tank pulls the mob.. I never attack the mob until I see movement on it's health that way I know the Tank has atleast decent agro, then first attack is Confounding Arrow then I click off Autoattack for half a second then Devitalize then the normal routine..  this way it's debuffed best I can (Since I'm always max range and i can't hit it with Corner then) and the Tank has a little extra hate added to him to help hold agro.. works especially well when stuck with a Monk tanking as I find those groups hardest for tank to hold agro.  But PvP wise I assumed it would work as it says.. Gains hate for next person to hit it but that's interesting if it doesn't. </div>

[Mirdo]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> valleyboy1 wrote:<BR>Damm I dont have the ammo yet, but 8k auto attack crit hit huh. I had a few 6k crits but we really are slack on debuffing so maybe sometime soon.<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>You'll need to be buffed for +DPS if you want to see autoattacks crits that high. 6k-6.5k is about right with low/no +dps. At +100% DPS the biggest I've noticed so far has been about 8.5-8.6k (with the T8 ammo).</P> <P>One tip is that if you are sweet spot fighting make sure you don't creep inside minimum bow range - with a slow, high hitting bow, missing an auto or two is going to kill your parse.</P> <P>With self haste at 66% I always try and get into +DPS grps rather than +haste. </P> <P>Mirdo.</P>

[Jayad]

<P>Yes, an auto-attack that is ready to fire will go after your CA finishes casting.  However, let's say you have a 2 second CA casting time.  Due to the timing, your auto-attack is next ready to fire off as soon as .5 of the 2 seconds have elapsed.  The remaining 1.5 seconds you spend casting are *lost* in terms of auto-attacks off because the next auto-attack doesn't start its delay timer until the previous fires.  Therefore, you want to minimize the time in casting while auto-attack is ready to fire to maximize your DPS.  This becomes more and more important the better bow you have and the more haste/dps buffs you have. </P> <P>As a simple rule, if you aren't sure your auto-attack timer is longer than your cast timer of your CA, then wait for it!  This includes under Focus Aim.   You will lose a lot of DPS if you are missing auto-attack potential.</P>

[Anjin]

<DIV>IIRC, if you examine the CA and click on the PvP tag, you'll find that the hate gain is only applicable in PvE.</DIV>