question about bows in diablo 1

[FireIceTalon]

This is correct, although Massive starts at 96 rather than 93.

You are right, but my point remains valid: A brutal LWB of swiftness with +93% does excactly the same damage as a massive LWB of swiftness with +99%.

Another thing:

Merciless Burning: 119-170 (includes the 1-16 fire dmg, which isnt shown on the char screen) Smile
Merciless Thunder: 119-174 (1-20, though Burning actually has a higher dmg potential because of the elemental bug, which is multiplied up to 9 x on Burning bows, only 7 x for Thunder)

Merciless elemental bows are truly lethal, ive killed a lvl 50 warrior with 600 hp (with max resists and full life globe) with ONE arrow before in duels, using my Merc Burning. Pretty rare for this to occur, but its possible.

How is this possible? With the numbers you've given the max damage should be 174+9*16=314. In that case it would take two arrows to kill the warrior.

Me and a friend of mine who did some tests had an interesting discussion about this some time ago. The formula you posted is indeed correct, but during our tests we noticed the elemental dmg seemed to be greatest when the rogue was above the idle target about 4 tiles away. The elemental dmg would occasionally break through the shield and the dmg resulting produced numbers considerably larger than the maximum 314 that was thought possible, though indeed the average typically was in the 250's. My only guess is that these bows have another intrinsic element in the bug involving a doubling of the actual dmg received (similar to a warriors critical hit) that can occur from time to time (if very rarely). At other angles, getting over the 300 mark seemed to be rare, compared to the rogue hitting an idle target from above or a moving target that was walking the same line toward the rogue when below. At any rate, these bows are very unpredictable which can make them quite fun to use in both PvM and PvP, though in PvP id only use them vs. a warrior.