Ranged Weapons

Ranged weapons are all weapons that use a base launcher of some sort to hurl ammo at a target. Generally, there are two types of these weapons in GemStone IV: a bow and a crossbow.

Bow have a FIRE roundtime determined by the base roundtime subtracted by one's strength bonus divided by ten. So, in order to get a 3 second RT using a long bow, the archer needs a strength bonus of 40. The strength bonus takes into account spells, enhancives, and Surge of Strength. Sniping (shooting a target from hiding) and aiming (using the aim verb with the option of anything but random) each add one second to the shooter's roundtime. These are cumulative, so a shot with a long bow from hiding that is aiming at the left eye will incur a nine second roundtime when shooting without any strength bonus. The minimum firing roundtime is 3 seconds, including if sniping/aiming.

Crossbows must be COCKed and LOADed before firing. Both cocking and firing incur roundtime. Cocking has a base roundtime of 6 seconds for light crossbows and 9 seconds for heavy crossbows and is reduced by the strength bonus divided by ten; however, in practice there is often some random variation that adds extra roundtime. The base firing time for crossbows is a flat 2 seconds, plus an additional second each for sniping/aiming. Crossbow firing roundtime is not affected by strength.

Max Ranks and Training Point costs

Type	Square			Semi			Pure
Profession	Rogue	Warrior	Monk	Bard	Paladin	Ranger	Cleric	Empath	Savant	Sorcerer	Wizard
Max Ranks Per Level	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	-	1	1
Training Point Cost	3/1	2/1	4/1	4/2	6/2	3/1	9/3	14/3	-	14/3	14/3

Damage Factors and Attack versus Defense

Weapon	AG	Cloth	Leather				Scale				Chain				Plate				RT	Min RT	Damage Type	STR/DU
	AsG	1	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Short bow	DF	.325	.225				.275				.250				.100				5	3	Puncture/Slash	35/180
	AvD	20	27	26	25	24	20	18	16	14	31	27	23	19	27	21	15	9
Composite bow	DF	.350	.300				.325				.275				.150				6	3	Puncture/Slash	50/225
	AvD	25	35	34	33	32	30	28	26	24	42	38	34	30	36	30	24	18
Long bow	DF	.400	.325				.350				.300				.175				7	3	Puncture/Slash	60/315
	AvD	25	33	32	31	30	29	27	25	23	42	38	34	30	38	32	26	20
Light crossbow	DF	.350	.300				.325				.275				.150				6	4	Puncture/Slash	50/285
	AvD	25	31	30	29	28	25	23	21	19	39	35	31	27	32	26	20	14
Heavy crossbow	DF	.425	.325				.375				.285				.175				7	5	Puncture/Slash	60/315
	AvD	30	36	35	34	33	31	29	27	25	46	42	38	34	40	34	28	22

Attack Strength

Ranged attack strength formula:

AS

=

Dexterity bonus + Ranged Weapons skill + Truncate[(Perception ranks - 40)/4] + Truncate[(Ambushing ranks - 40)/4] + (Bow enchant + Arrow enchant) + crossbow kneeling bonus

Perception + Ambushing ranks - Perception only gives additional AS up to 2x ranks per level, even if a character can train more ranks or uses skill enhancive items. For example, at level 50, up to 102 ranks in Perception will count towards ranged AS. The bonus from Ambush can exceed 2x with enhancives.

Note that the -40 to ranks in the formula never results in a negative number. The bonus does not start till you have 40 ranks in either.

Bow enchant + Arrow enchant - These values combine up to +50, or a 10x enchantment.

Kneeling bonus - While firing a crossbow, kneeling or lying down adds +30 AS.

Resources

• The Art of the Bow: Guide
• List of woods
• Puncture critical table
• Sighting
• Starchitin's rogue sniper guide
• Saved posts
• Missile Weapons, on Play.net
• Officials folder
• The Archery Haven guide, on Archeryhaven.com
• QRS Script, on GSGuide.net