Question about ranged weapons (in General)

Pardon my ignorance but as I've been going 'mage' for the past month I hadn't really taken much notice of weapons in Cb2. Now I've gone archer with one of my chars I've re-read the changelogs and seen that the ranged formula has changed. Having started upgrading my compound it seems that the blacksmith costs are far more similar to say the claymore in CB1. And, looking through the item meta-stats I see that there is a compound currently at x45. So, seeing that there is a changed to the ranged damage, does that change make it more similar to the damage output of melee weapons in CB2? Does that mean that to even come close to the damage output of bows in CB1 we will have to be upgrading to the x100 area?

Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on it. Of course, everything is relative, so a x100 ranged weapon is not necessary right now to be effective. But yeah, I assume as characters and the game grow, ranged weapons will be upgraded in much the same way as melee weapons.

Many thanks =)