Question Concerning Bows... (in General)

Well the idea of using melee weapons only came up and I proposed the idea of someone using only their bow as a weapon. You could equip a significantly bigger bow without a melee weapon and the damage gap would make up for the firing every other round.

But my main question is if Ax/ExBows drain during melee rounds. If they did, that might be a possible new strategy that would be pretty significantly damaging to tanks. Ideally, the AxBow would drain all of the tank's DX so they couldn't hit you, which would more than make up for the penalty of DX with only a bow equipped.

I have a minion with only an AxBow equipped, but I also have one with just an ELS...

Something I wanted to do for a long time, but with recent changes it is actually possible/effective now :-P

Actually, someone with a big enough ExB should try it. An AxB will reduce DX, but it doesn't affect PTH. A tank team that can't do big damage sucks, which is why an ExBow might be better.

you've also got a massive penalty to DX (over 50%) I can't remember it and firing every other round, I Believe.

Some people do it, those with Walls that have ST and DX have just an AX/EXbow equipped.

Ranger did it for a while, at least that is what it looked like, you may want to ask him how effective it was. I think he removed it because the Axbow alone was 30 mil? and it was an unnecessary addition to PR.

Op, why not do a two minion team with both Axbow and Exbow? Then not only will you reduce all tanks to dust, you will be able to still use both to do damage, since you will have a large str and dex advantage.

Your only real prayer with an ex/ax combo is to go 4 tank enchanter team, with RoS to protect, I would say AS maybe GS. DX can almost be manufactured with PTH.

as a for instance:

#1 trains HP and GS and base Decay
#2 trains DM and Haste uses axbow
#3 wears RoS trains AMF and AS uses exbow
#4 trains HP DX ST uses SoD and Morg

If their DM or EC gets significantly over your ED's and your RoS you are toast. If multiple MM's smash your Morg guy before he can really do his thing, you are toast If possible you could TSA MgS your Morg guy to better protect him.

Got HP and AS on your front and back minion. Got your decay up front if he dies oh well. Got you morg after both the ex and ax bow guys do their thing. Got all of them after your Decay. Each minion only has two spots to train. Your AMF/DM combo pretty much assures you nerf something of theirs. With enough + on the ex/ax bow, who knows it might work.

Biggest weakness would be MM teams, massive DM or EC teams, and tanks you cannot hit.

thats similar to my strat now seft .. id switch the front minion to Eva not hp ... if DM nerfs the GS and haste the extra HP wont help you so and id stick the sod on that minion with the decay that means your morg hits in the first round of melee
and id take the hp off the forth minion for the above reason

but keeping 4 big weapons will be a pain but its about the only strat i could see you being able to use the two bows with decent effect

Sefton, why not just toss an AoI on the Morg guy and stick him in front?