question about bows in diablo 1

[FireIceTalon]

At any rate, these bows are very unpredictable

True, but not in a way you seem to imply. The reason you can get much higher damage as 314 is because the used formula is not correct.

For elemental bows, damage is applied in 2 steps. First comes the normal damage, which is character damage (based on level and stats) plus physical weapon damage (including any bonus from Merciless and the like). Then, a number of elemental attacks are processed (9 for fire and 7 for lightning, as stated). Each of these attacks require a separate check for hitting the target, and as a result, total damage can be very little or even nothing. The damage from each elemental attack is character damage plus elemental weapon damage, which is far more as just the elemental damage, ofcourse. So, for level 50 rogues using a big merciless burning bow, maximum total damage could well be over 1000. Shooting warriors like that can hardly be called dueling, if you ask me

The direction of the shot does matter, but only in such a way that certain angles cause the elemental damage to be applied on the wrong tile, resulting in no elemental target-damage at all. In a similar way, a target might get struck by elemental damage even if the shot missed, when that target is standing before a wall.

From the extensive tests and duels (of which ive literally done thousands), I dont see this being plausible. If the elemental dmg was administered in this fashion, I would be getting 1-hit kills left and right but this is a verrrrrrry rare occurrence. Typical dmg with the bug is anywhere from the mid 200's to maybe 450, with 600+ dmg being recorded once in a blue moon. Dmg of 1k would imply that a level 50 rogue could break a the mana shield of a sorc with 1k mana/max resists in 2 hits, and i have never had this in my duels, or heard of this occurring in any instances involving other PvP players. I do think this would be possible if the -33% dmg provided by mana shield was null in PvP, but it is there so thats irrelevant. My guess, from years of experience and doing tens of thousands of duels, is that max dmg for these bows on a clvl 50 rogue is in the 650 neighborhood, and this in itself has a very very small probability of happening. 300-400 is not uncommon though, and can be more than enough to bring down a warrior that is trying to heal or is slow to pot.

Some warrior duelers do indeed hate these bows because of their potentially high dmg and unpredictable nature, but truth be told, I only recommend using these bows if you are experienced in PvP. A warrior has to be more wary due to the extreme dmg of these bows, but the rogue has to be even more careful because the lack of fast attack gives her less control over the warriors freedom of movement, meaning it is easier for him to get teleports in, time his healing, or even walk to the rogue using a 'bob and weave' movement if the distance is close enough. Massive Swiftness is certainly a much safer choice against most warriors, it allows the rogue to suppress his offense more. In general though, warrior has the upperhand in RvW either way, but elemental bows in the hands of an experienced rogue dueler is not to be taken lightly.