Creating a bow character

[Resist]

Hi all. I have made a bow character. With almost pure str. Like 80% str maybe. Im currently lvl 21 and have selected ice for my primary skill. I have already mastered ice to lvl 20 but i still have 1600sp points. But now i dont know what to choose. I have heard that fire does more dmg, but ice is the best for bow because you can freeze on distance. But honestly i find my dmg to be a little too low. Should i go with fire or stay with ice?

Also wtf is that lvl 30 nuke skill? Is it something you can fire out with your weapon, and do you need to be pure int to use it? Im str so should i just go with the first ice skill that freezes ppl and max it?

I really want to build a pvp character because i think thats more important than pvm. Also because im about to start up with the trader/thief/hunter thing.

Thx

[theCoder]

Definately Fire.

My experience with ice, is that it is much better suited for an int character, as the passive gives better physical protection, not something you are in general need of being str heavy. Keep in mind, you are a str heavy hybrid, and your nuke will not do as much as a pure int.

I fell in love with pure str/ fire characters through my own bow character. She does insane damage, and I have never had an ice character close to my level get any edge over her with autopot on. There is no wind up for double or triple arrow, and it can do some serious damage with imbue on, right after getting frostbitten.

Ok, now I have let my secret out.

Fire complements str characters the best.

[Resist]

Thanks for the advice. But you do think i should create a new character or is it not too late? Now that i have spend SP points on maxing the cold mastery to lvl 20 ? And i should not get the nuke skill then? But instead invest points into the first fire skill?

[theCoder]

No you do not need to start over.

There are many ice archers who are very happy with their build. Just add fire, and if you are finding that you are not using cold anymore, then do the curst heart quest (can get from any herbalist) and save up some cash. You can get 80% of your SP back from that skill.

Nukes are for int-heavy characters. There are a lot of str buffs with fire, but the 3 fire skills you should avoid (beccause they are either int-based or depend on a shield) are mentioned in Fry's stickied post for the 4 best builds.

[hellsharpt]

I have a level 45 strength Ice bowman (I went all strength after level 20). I love it.

I don't want a build that everyone else has. That makes me more valuable and less interchangable in a group fight. That's not to say that my build is weak, far from it. I can take out a nuker of my level fairly quickly, as my ice skills interrupt his attacks (and if he doesn't have pills he's in alot of trouble).

You will need to do PVE to level up and for that Ice is great. It slows down or stops the monsters before they get to you allowing you to kill them without getting hit much or at all.

Strong (spirit) bow is the strength bow nuke. Takes a few secs to power up but does great damage.