Which bow is which?

Fanny_Adams

Returning player, so pretty ignorant on all the new stuff. I've just managed to GM my bowyer and have some of the recipes for the magical bows. The resource cost in gems is a bit daunting, especially for doing BODs. Can anyone give me a run down on the relative merits of the different bow types? I have been mining with my GM Miner but still only have 10-12 of each gem type - which bows are worth the diamonds/rubies/etc? Are there any types that sell well? I'm not likely to fight with any of them but wanted to put some up on a vendor - which ones would you buy? What enhancements would be best? I do have a couple of runic fletching kits and another char that is working on imbuing, but I have no idea what to try for.

Fanny_Adams

PS: Where do you get Brilliant Amber? It hasn't turned up when mining and the Amber you buy from the Jeweller isn't right

Mariah

Brilliant Amber is a rare resource from lumberjacking

Fanny_Adams

So my LJ is at 98 - does he need to GM before I get Brilliant Amber?

Mariah

I'm afraid so. The page I gave the link to has a table with skill needed to get each resource

Rock

Welcome back, Fanny.  I've decided not to do BODs for the bows requiring gems (which I'll call enchanted).  IMO, the reward doesn't match the extra resources necessary. You can still earn high bowyer BOD rewards without those items.

I don't know enough about the various enchanted bows to say which are best for what purpose.  The UOGuide fletching page provides links to pages describing each bow type. And from those you can further link to the special moves of each bow type. Some bows go beyond enchanted level and are classed as craftable artifacts, such as Faerie Fire and Blight Gripped Longbow.  For these you need several resources each, some of which come as loot from high-end bosses. I would hope that the demand for these would be relatively high, due to the difficulty in acquiring the resources.

Two bow types are special yet require neither recipes nor any resource but wood.  One of these is the Magical Shortbow, which uniquely has the Lightning Arrow special move.  This allows an archer to fire without using ammunition.  (He'll use mana instead, so it is not an infinite capability.)  The other is the Elven Composite Longbow, which offers the unique Serpent Arrow special move.  Using this is the only way archery can be used to poison a foe.  Arrows are not poisoned via the Poisoning skill; instead, the higher the archer's Poisoning skill, the more deadly the poison when the arrow fired with this move hits.

Ash and bloodwood are my two favorite materials for wooden weapons.  Ash gives a 10% swing speed increase, while bloodwood offers both 2 HP regen and 16% hit life leech.  You won't be able to get bloodwood until you are a GM lumberjack, and even then it is quire rare.  Note that two facets are special to lumberjacking.  The first is Felucca, offering doubled resources.  For eqch swing of your axe you get double the wood, making a lumberjacking session relatively quick.  The downside is that the other resources (Brilliant Amber, bark fragments, etc) are not doubled.  Since you will be swinging less often there will be less drops of these additional resources.  The other is Ter Mur.  While resources are not doubled, it is the only facet which gives lumberjacks a chance at getting crystal shards.

Slightly off topic, mining in Felucca also offers doubled resources.  Also when gems drop you always get two instead of one.  That means that there is no downside to mining there.  (Some people worry about reds, but the actual danger of reds bothering a miner or lumberjack nowadays is miniscule, based on personal experience on Baja, Origin, and Sonoma.  Perhaps there are shard(s) with an active random murderer culture, but I have not experienced it.)  Note that if you switch your shovels to mine for granite instead of jewels, only one granite appears at a time, so there is a minor downside for that case.

Fanny_Adams

Thanks so much, Mariah and Rock.