Ranger BFG Observations
 

A nerd grail of mine was the BFG. Mostly for toying around. Overall it's been exactly that, fun dps for little spurts on mundane targets (Vindi, Fay etc) and confusing people in EC. Ive burned a couple thousand plat on Fletching so yea, nice to have a new hobby :).

My other weapon is a Crafted Velium Warsword (10/18). It's not great but seems a bit better than the Earthcaller and sometimes you just dont want the heat off that proc. I used to have a SBoZ but sold it prior to learning how to parse and I've been too distracted buying silly things than another one.

Last night I did a very informal parse on HoT TOV trash with the velium sword and the BFG in non-Trueshot mode using Tolan bracer arrows. Not enough mobs to really gain a perfect view of the weapon but:

10/18 & Swiftwind ranger buffs, VOG, Focus:
26 mobs @ 1247 seconds.
Peak dps mob: 65
Low dps mob: 32
Average of 26 = 48.5dps

BFG & Swiftwind ranger buffs, VOG, Dex capped, Focus:
16 mobs @ 628 seconds.
Peak dps mob: 76
Low dps mob: 43
Average of 16 = 60dps

Summary:

* 42 quickly killed mobs is not enough to get a concrete average of dps, levels varied and my own ability to get and stay on target. In this example while limited the parse was at least fairly accurate to the player, buffs, and types of mobs.

* Summoning arrows in a grind group like this would be horrible. I could usually click 4-5 stacks between pulls and would use less than 2. Due to bag space issues I just keep dropping them on my paperdoll to refill the ammo slot and quiver stacks (I was pooing spare arrows all over the place...). You can keep 8 stacks on the cursor if you keep the Tolan's Bracer equipped and dont plan to change spells so plan ahead.

* No Trueshot, no 8dmg arrows used in the parse, no Avatar. The BFG obviously has potential. I was just curious how it would fare as a normal weapon while keeping Weaponshield saved away. I attacked through an enrage and lived though...so that's a nice perk.

* In normal situations with less than capped haste this gives you an extra 20% from the quiver. I dont think you can break the cap but that's a nice thing as well.

* Aggro was fairly low. Would have been better on DS mobs too just for survivability.

* Dps did vary wildly with the BFG but 10-20% over the 10/18 is pretty decent if this holds up. No...it's not a Baton of Flame or whatever. It will work for a while though. I heard from a lot of people it's pretty much junk without 8dmg fletched arrows and Trueshot but that may not be true (to be determined). At least I had fun and kept weaponshield though the entire time.

* Killed 2 glimmers with an Exquisite Velium Bow and the same arrows simply to save my buffs. low to mid 30 dps with the same buffs. About 3x more than I expected but again, RNG can be like that sometimes.

BFG as a normal weapon is, as you parsed, not great. Gotta be against a non-rooted, stationary mob while you Trueshot. Summoned arrows are enough at that point. I typically just summon ~9-12 stacks of arrows. 1 in ammo, 6 in quiver, rest in whatever open slots I have left in my inventory.

Yea not great. Certainly sporadic even if peaking in the 70’s. It seems far better than the 10/18 but that’s a fairly low bar.

I already knew it works well with TS so this was just a curiosity run.

I like using it outside Trueshot but you touched on the real pita -the constant summoning after every fight. Because I'm lazy I'll use Earthcaller until a slowable mob is slowed (sometimes get a lucky land in before shammy and every little bit of slow helps!) and switch to another 1hander (Fayguard, Infestation or similar).

Will hit trueshot on stable non rooted targets (Vindi perfect example) and otherwise save disc for oh shit weaponshield.

BFG was super useful for levelling though, i was destroying named in KC 57-59 with trueshot

BFG generates almost no aggro due to it being archery.

I've managed to pull agro on every single Vindi I've ever used my BFG on, even when instant click mallets were a thing.

How many jolts did you do? I only have tried it once starting in at like 90%. A lot of jolts with fletched arrows. Prob just got lucky though. I think I only parsed 90dps though due to all the jolting.

is the BFG + trueshot + good arrows a game-changing deal for the ranger? I can see how it can be quite useful for dps during raids, but how about for soloing nameds? will it make it difference between not being able to kill some tough named and being able to do so? i'd imagine that rangers would prefer to fight nameds that you can root and that don't cast spells on you, in which case a good, traditional bow would be better so as to not take damage at all, but was just wondering. maybe i should make a ranger on green to try to get this mythical bow if it does make a big difference in soloing tough nameds

Yeah, that's the thing. If you're jolting you're losing DPS. Which would basically go against the "archery doesn't generate agro" comment. Archery definitely generates white damage agro, at least in melee range.

I've never attempted it but I would think you could burst down something (figure it's about a 50-75% dps increase depending on your weapons/buffs). It's also going to miss a lot more than when you're attacking a Vinditator from behind vs a named mob who will be able to mitigate.