If you can't stand at melee and dodge them then the only other options is to poach or keep retreating.

With poaching you run the risk of losing ammo, but using store bought ammo that doesn't matter.

I'm survival primary so I was able to stand at melee and train my stick bow till I hit stompers, I then started using the retreat;retreat method because player-crafted ammo gets expensive to replace, and it was safer.

I'm tempted to just work shield to 50 and then backtrain the bow (or bows if I decide to grab LX too), since that seems to be when you unlock shields.

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Let's save us all some time: I'm a troll who rarely has anything helpful. There.

i disagree with the advice in this thread

>With poaching you run the risk of losing ammo

poach from pole on non-charging creatures and never lose ammo.

here's my script section for this, not including all the details of the gosubs. %facing is the range of the creature i'm facing, with 1=melee, 2=pole, 3=missile:

action var facing 3 when ^You assess your combat situation...
action var facing 1 when You.are facing.at melee range.
action var facing 2 when You.are facing.at pole weapon range.
action var facing 2 when ^You slip through the shadows to quickly advance upon your foe.
action var facing 3 when You.are facing.at missle range.

gosub hide
gosub asses
if "%facing" = "1" then gosub ret
if "%facing" = "3" then gosub advance.to.pole

to be fair, i rehide quickly, and load in hiding, which can add 1 second to load rt depending on guild.

>I poach with my shield on

Isn't there a big round time hit?

Your gargoyle-hide shield makes the task more difficult.
You reach into your backpack to load the short bow with a basilisk head arrow.
Roundtime 8 sec.

vs.

You reach into your backpack to load the short bow with a basilisk head arrow.
Roundtime 3 sec.

If your script is decent, you should rarely if ever get attacked.

I did fail to mention that I do advance after aiming. That's part of the key to not losing your arrows. I highly discourage loading from hiding, unless you are in the act of advancing. I have lost ammo that way in the past because the added time in hiding caused the critter to leave the room with my ammo stuck in it, only to go poof.




You also see a shiny scorecard and a shiny scorecard.
Obvious paths: none.
> read scorec
A shiny scorecard reads:
"Liurilias - 747"
> read other scorec
A shiny scorecard reads:
"Zerreck - 2456"

>I highly discourage loading from hiding, unless you are in the act of advancing. I have lost ammo that way in the past because the added time in hiding caused the critter to leave the room with my ammo stuck in it, only to go poof.

If you're sitting at pole, you're not advancing, and the creature isn't going anywhere.

>He's a barbarian so he can load a stick bow without penalty while wearing a small shield.

Fair enough. Still the offensive reduction with no real upside, assuming your script is good.

For your ranks Yan, it's probably more than close enough.

I was under the impression the real benefit/boost to capped bows doesn't start up till a few hundred ranks.

Also have to tease the Yan.

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Let's save us all some time: I'm a troll who rarely has anything helpful. There.

So, I just wanted to clarify something with training stick bows and the defense penalties that come with it. I apologize ahead of time if there is a post explaining this already, but i could not find it. I mainly train my longbow via advancing in hiding and sniping, but i wanted to play with just standing toe to toe and shooting things faces off too. I know parry is utterly useless in this situation, and i consider shield to be only slightly better than parry due to the 8 sec RT. I have decent evasion/multi for my level and i'm curious as to how best to take advantage of this. I might just be crazy, but i could have swore i saw some post about being in Dodge stance hurts your chances(doesnt make much sense, but if that is so, i'd rather have confirmation about it so i'm not gimping myself)?

So, question being: should i stance evasion 100% and DODGE, or should i use some other combat maneuver than DODGE while making pin-cusions?

IIRC you don't take a defensive penalty until the bow is loaded. Once it's loaded, evidently your movements are restricted because you have to use both hands and maintain a steady hand. All I know is I get smacked regardless of stance if I use a bow at melee without hiding.

Elvis has left the building.

100% evasion and DODGE. If you aren't dodging, you're taking a defense penalty

With the characters I play, I always go full dreadnaught with bows(load;advance;aim;fire).

It teaches better.

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IM: Dannyboy00001111

"Fool proof system do not take into account the ingenuity of fools, nor the power of numbers."

>>Why bother putting yourself into harms way more than you have to by advancing

Defense training.

Up until I got to post gryphons (celp/zombie level) I trained the same as Gort said. I use the retreat method now because hits at this level a hit can ruin a hunting session, but I have noticed that my evasion has slowed since I switched.