Saturday, February 9, 2008

Arrowed!: A Guide to Ranged Ammunition Part 1

First off, the title "Arrowed!" is a reference to a particularly amusing Homestar Runner cartoon.

*coughs*

Anyways!

One of the neat things about ranged weapons in WoW, is that we aren't just keeping track of our bow or gun, but we're also keeping track of the ammunition for it. There is a staggering variety of it; Wowhead tells me that there are 21 types of arrows and 26 types of bullets in the game. Seem intimidating? I'm not surprised! Furthermore, each type of arrow or bullet adds damage to your shots. Now in general, the higher you get in level, the bigger your ammo selection will be, so you will slowly be able to work your way up to the higher DPS shots.

Let's take a closer look here:

Normal Buyable Ammo:

This is the stuff that you can buy around Azeroth at any Bowyer or Gunsmith. You can typically find them at major cities and in some towns:

[Rough Arrow] / [Light Shot] (1.5 DPS)
[Sharp Arrow] / [Heavy Shot] (3.5 DPS) (Requires level 10 to use.)
[Razor Arrow] / [Solid Shot] (7.5 DPS) (Requires level 25 to use.)
[Jagged Arrow] / [Accurate Slugs] (13 DPS) (Requires level 40 to use.)
[Wicked Arrow] / [Impact Shot] (22 DPS) (Requires level 55 to use.)

Now you get into the Outland, and added to the basic selection are:

[Blackflight Arrow] / [Ironbite Shell] (32 DPS) (Requires level 65 to use.)

So those are your basic, buy-at-any-vendor arrows and bullets.

But wait... there's more!

Special Buyable Ammo:

Here is the ammunition that is buyable from a vendor, but only if you meet certain requirements, aside from the normal level ones:

[Scout's Arrow]
(26 DPS) (Requires level 61 to use and requires a Friendly reputation with the Cenarion Expedition.)

[Halaani Razorshaft] / [Halaani Grimshot] (34 DPS) (Requires level 66 to use and can only be bought if your faction is controlling Halaa.)

[Warden's Arrow] (37 DPS) (Requires level 68 to use and requires a Revered reputation with the Cenarion Expedition.)

[Felbane Slugs] (37 DPS) (Requires level 68 to use and requires a Revered reputation with Honor Hold. Alliance only.)

[Hellfire Shot] (37 DPS) (Requires level 68 to use and requires a Revered reputation with Thrallmar. Horde only.)

[Mysterious Arrow] / [Mysterious Shell] (46.5 DPS) (Requires level 70 to use and requires a Revered reputation with The Violet Eye.)

[Timeless Arrow] / [Timeless Shell] (53 DPS) (Requires level 70 to use and requires an Honored reputation with The Scale of the Sands.)

Each of these special arrows and bullets, with the exception of the Halaani ones (you have to physically go to Halaa if you want those), can be purchased from the Speciality Ammunition Vendors in Shattrath City. You don't have to do anything special; if you meet the requirements for a certain type of arrow or bullet, it will show it as being available to you.

One of the interesting things about these reputation-based projectiles is that you might have to grind different rep depending on if you have a bow or a gun. For example, currently I use a crossbow and am Revered with the Cenarion Expedition, so I use [Warden's Arrow], which gives me an increase of 37 DPS. If I were to start using a gun, and I wanted to gain the same DPS bonus of 37, I would have to become Revered with Honor Hold so I could use [Felbane Slugs]. And if I was Horde, I would have to get Revered with Thrallmar so I could get [Hellfire Shot].

However, for the most part, all the arrows have a bullet equivalent with similar requirements, and vice versa. (A noticeable exception would be [Scout's Arrow], for which there is no bullet equivalent.)

Wow... that's a lot of ammunition. And we've only scratched the surface! I've yet to cover craftable ammo and ammo that you get as quest rewards, and other such special types. However, in the interest of preventing my readers' brains from exploding, I'm going to save all of those for another post.

I'll see you next time for the next installment of "Arrowed!"


Level 29 Tawyn shows off her [Quiver of the Night Watch] and [Razor Arrows]. (I love the fact that I've taken billions of screenshots throughout my WoW career. Although poor Tawyn must feel like I'm the mom pulling out all the embarassing baby pictures. =P)

7 comments:

Viktel said...

Holy Crap!!
I had no idea I could get my Warden's Arrows in Shatt. I've been flying out to Zangar to refill.

You just saved me some in game time with that one. Thanks.

Something else that is cool is the Arrow Making Machine that engineers can make. It'll crank out 1000 Arcanite Stingers which I use for raiding.

C-ya

Anonymous said...

@viktel
That happened with the 2.3 patch before that you had to go to the CE camp in Zangarmarsh to refill.

Yeah I wish I had some "baby shots" of my char but I don't take a lot of screenshots or when I do I'll forget about it and end up doing another copy which overrides my screenshot. Oh well.

Anonymous said...

Why would u use Warden's Arrow, when Adamantite Stingers are easily obtainable in the AH or thru a friendly engineer. Mats don't cost much at all and there's a big difference from 37 dmg to 43 dmg.

Pike said...

Viktel - I had no idea either until recently! I think it was Drotara at "Less QQ More Pewpew" who had a post about it and that's how I learned.

Adelorac - Good idea, but those tend to be rather expensive on my server and I'm cheap. (And too lazy to find an engineer.)

Viktel said...

If there are any Engineers reading: I would much rather buy the Machine itself than the Arrows Seperately. I like to carry extra ammo into raids for those really long fights.

This helps to take up less bag space.

and...
I switch between the two because the Warden arrows are cheaper and the smaller dps is easier on the pet aggro while grinding.

Anonymous said...

I'm an engineer so I always use my crafted arrows/bullets. I just gotta make sure to do auto shots initially or I'll pull from pet real quick.

@pike
Getting the mats for an engineer to make isn't too hard even if you aren't a miner. The adamantine bars are going to the most expensive part of it. The fel iron bolts for the arrows are sold by some vendors http://www.wowhead.com/?item=23783#sold-by. And the elemental blasting powder also has a chance of being sold by those same vendors

Anonymous said...

nice guide pike, heres i lay it down with the ammo...
for farming and pvp [only do daily pvp quest] i use wicked arrows 22dps [dont laugh] i just dont see point in using phat ammo on a mobs that u know u could kill easy without much effort

for boss encounters which we have on farm i use wardens arrow 37dps i use these for heroics aswell but thinking off using blackflight arrows instead

and for boss encounters we are learning or wiping i use timeless arrows 53dps
it does take a lot off space in my bags carrying different types off ammo aswell as pots/flask/food/petfood/ and all my cute non combat pets iv picked up on way and a couple stacks off snowballs,i would go look for an engineer for crafted ammo but i like to be independant not dependant.


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