Archery vs Melee - chance to hit %

[Sarge]

My Melee skill is double my Marksmanship. The q of my stone axe is virually identical to my bow (and I think this goes to damage anyways and not chance to hit).

I miss more than twice the amount of attempts at melee as I do with ranged. Eg. Including misses, I take a lvlX fox down consistently with 4 - 7 arrows. I can not get anywhere near taking a lvlX fox down with melee, it puts me to sleep well before that, even though I give it a good case of pneumonia with all the missed hits.

What is it I'm missing here (other than the enemy with my axe)? This makes no sense to me...

[Potjeh]

Bows indeed hit a lot more often than melee weapons, but melee weapons do more damage. IIRC, you can consistently hit every animal (including X bears) with ~50 marksmanship.

[Sarge]

But that's not right then is it?

[warrri]

Why? Marksman has no special moves, you cant dodge or block well because you skilled marksman and not ua/mc, you need to gather your arrows, you make less dmg.
Its pretty balanced i would say

[Sarge]

Why? Marksman has no special moves, you cant dodge or block well because you skilled marksman and not ua/mc, you need to gather your arrows, you make less dmg.
Its pretty balanced i would say

That's a good point, but I don't know man, i still think it's still too much weighted one way. I'll even quote my stats this time to explain:

I have 50 marksmanship and I hit 75-90% of arrows fired against lvlX creatures, even bears. I have 100 melee and hit around 20% of axe swings against lvlX foxes (can't gauge vs boars and bears, they put me to sleep before I get enough fresh air swings in to judge a %'age).

A calculated guess indicates that I would need to get my melee very close to 200 (if not more) if I want to get a similar hit % as my current 50 markmanship. That is 4x more melee points than markmanship.

It's even worse if you convert that to the amount of LP needed to get 50 markmanship vs 200 melee, and that is the actual reality of it, much more grinding than 4x more.
50 markmanship = 127 400 LP
200 melee = 2 009 900 LP
= 15.77 times more LP

That to me is not balanced at all, even considering your very good point.

[warrri]

You still forget the special moves which hit more often, axes doing 4x the dmg of your bows, and not wasting time on pickup up arrows.
Marksman is a great starting skill for hunting, but you shouldn't push it above 50, once you reach 100 or more melee you will see its advantage. Also note that Chop hits way less than Sting (axe/sword).

[Sarge]

You still forget the special moves which hit more often, axes doing 4x the dmg of your bows, and not wasting time on pickup up arrows.
Marksman is a great starting skill for hunting, but you shouldn't push it above 50, once you reach 100 or more melee you will see its advantage. Also note that Chop hits way less than Sting (axe/sword).

Going to take your word on it for now, ven though my melee is already at 100 and it is still a great disadvantage compared to archery. Also, as mentioned, my stone axe is the same q as my bow and even with strength buffed (bear cape), the axe does maybe 5% more damage atm.

What special move hits more often with an axe please, 'cause chop SUCKS? Or what special move is best to use with an axe?

Also, what combat move is best to be used with an axe, eg. shield, bloodlust, dodge, etc.?

*I'm trying my damdest to find the "other" cave entrance for 3 seperate mines I have successful readings for in caves and moving overland is near impossible for me still *

[Blaze]

Cleave and Valorious strike come to mind.

Cleave requires 3 initiative AND 3 combat advantage. Valorious strike can only be used on full combat advantage.

Considering how difficult it is to gain ANY advantage or initiative with the slow chop recovery, it's barely used at all.

There is no *best* combat maneuver for any given weapon. Shield relies on your melee skill, and everything else relies on your unarmed skill.

[Sarge]

OK, thank you - at this stage then, the problem lies with me and my lack of knowledge of combat mechanics, techniques and effective application - time to do some reading.

[Myta]

does range affect accuray? can i shoot in melee?
if bow is useless in melee, how to kill anything with a bow, since most animals seem to be quite fast?