Bowkatana still viable to play ?

Hi guys.. I have been play 2hs for awhile seemingly hitting the bored-stage.. I have been looking many hybrid build and this really caught my attention.. I have maxed out in all the items and heard that this class requires heavy geared.. just wondering will be it fair well in boss battle such as venena and other high mobility bosses? And does the combo could be mixture of katana and how instead of just fixed on one type of weapon skill combo..
Basically below are my questions if u don't feel like reading my lengthy post.. haha
1. Bowkatana viabale for bosses?
2. Does the combo require to be lengthy (multiple skills)?
3. Can it be mixed with both weapon skills yet be short combo like 4-5 skills?
4. What's the down sides of this build?
5. Able to compare ths vs bowkatana?

 

First things first, I don't play bowtana, but I guess I could answer some of your question.
1. I guess so. What class isn't viable, really?
2 (and 3?). I don't think so. Your auto atk range is your bow's range, so most of the time Decoy will be able to continuously provide MP. Long combos are not that good in general.
Your combos will probably be the usual CF release combo, a Snipe combo (maybe?), and a Tenryu starter combo. You start charging CF manually, and manually use Magadachi and Zantei to parry.
4. I'm guessing you'll need a lot of skill points? And you'll have to balance your equips between a bow and katana build.
5. I don't know about this one.

 

1.yes
2.katana itself is very technical with the way the cycle of skill works, both with or without combo, the idea of bowtana is to have more ranged mp recovery and have filler skill between cross fire, or you could also think of cross fire as the filler instead.
The playstyle would be:
1)cast cross fire
2)cast tenryuu ransei, then magadachi/zantei till you reach 10stack
3)use snipe
3)release cf and or garyou tensei

One thing that is advantageous with the bow tana is the decoy shot range, make use of it and use a combo of impact>tenryuu spam. Not only it's to dish out more damage out of tenryuu, but also increase the garyou stack count. The next best thing is the counter skills and invincibility frame such as tenryuu ransei zannou, zantei settetsu and triple thrust

3. yes, both tenryuu and crossfire only needs short combos, with tenryuu you'd only need impact>tenryuu(swift) >closer
Magadachi, zantei and crossfire cast is used manually, the crossfire release could be kairiki ranshin>crossfire(smite) >impact (cons), snipe could be used manually, or in a combo but the main use of it would be the active armor break ailment.

if you go with the basic skills, it won't be too costly, you only need to add the snipe and crossfire tree as addition to the common katana build. It's likely you need to give up on passive and support skills such as brave aura, warcry, and unsheathe skills such as godspeed and flash blast

4. Here is what you lose with bowtana :

1) elemental advantage from arrows, so you need to get your katana statted with every element which would be quite costly
2) stability from arrow, as well as lower stability from bow's base
3) 2 handed passive bonus of katana tree, which is a massive 1.5 damage modifier

5. if we want to compare it, we should do it with bowtana vs bow, not Ths. It's definitely a downgrade from pure bow or tenryuu katana in term of damage output. Pure Ths is likely to be more powerful with same grade of gears. The main selling point of bowtana is the utility, not a damage comparison.

The verdict? It should be a fun class to play that keeps you engaged with lots of mechanics. But I don't think you could play it to boast about your damage and such. It's more of a novelty build to me

 

Very very insightful! I'm not looking at best class or best dps since that's not the point for this game.. I really excited to try out non meta and fun build! I am going to change to this bow katana and satisfied my desire.

 

Hm? Does element on katana work for bowtana? IIRC it doesn't work.

 

Ah, I meant the bow, not katana

 

*The Self Proclaimed Ambassador of Bowkatana Rydalis Darx has entered the building*
Just kidding, I just used it as my main ever since katana came out.
Bowkatana, at least in my runs, is basically a balanced archer build, where you can do pretty much anything with a good degree of success.
I find this more viable against more bosses than Bow+Arrow, due to the fact you have more things to do when one tactic does not work out. Mixing close range and long-range playstyles you are able to adapt nicely to your surroundings and deal more in the process. It has very large utility and actually does not do the worst damage in the world either.

Many would go for a CF + Filler DPS combo which is probably the most optimal, but always remember that you have access to 5 exceptional DPS skills and great passives and buffs. You are able to switch between CF, Snipe, Zentei, Tenryu and Garyou for damage output which gives you many things to do if either long range or close range dont work out (and even Zentei for some tanking if you happen to be tank for a little while). But the best thing, is the fact you get the full use of Kairiki, Meikyo, Shukuchi, and Decoy. Kariki + Decoy + Tenryu buff is probably the most AMPR you'll need, and with so much MP every second you will always feel comfortable using 4-5 MP skills. This also means you can afford smaller combos with more firepower as well. Meikyo allows you to sub out crit gears and focus on crit damage (though understand that crit resist may screw you). And Shukuchi will allow you to send out Katana skills rapidly from your distance.

There are some glaring downsides, which would mainly be damage and time. While you are able to meet the decently high 800k CF + 600k Garyou + 200k Snipe + 400k Zentei + 45*4k Tenryu you will not do the most damage in the game, since you're subbing out some damage for utility. You wont have arrow for element and stability and you are basically using katana skills at 3/4 of its power without two handed. Also, bowkatana relies heavily on high damage over time, since the biggest damaging skills need some time to charge and set up. On fast kills, you wont be doing much unless you choose to Zentei tank which is getting harder to do with some high difficulty bosses.

Rydalis here again to throw you another essay about Toram builds yet again.

 

You know.. As I was writing my reply last night, I kinda considered to make a bowtana. Mainly because I have a nice looking bow and katana (yeah...) and because pure CF is too brainless. But then again I'm not sure if I will always play with katana sub. Not to mention I don't have much time to grind either. So I'm quite confused haha

 

It's a lot of work to get used to, and to perfect the awkward playstyle of "willingly thrusting yourself into danger" is one you'll need a lot of practice with. I started with a Snipe+Zentei tank build for my bowkatana before t4 skills were released, and it was good at being a tank + armour break support with some DPS.
Bowkatana is really fun when you learn how to use it, and I can say that when you have a really good run with it, you feel amazing. (You feel even better if you happen to take attacker with a non-DPS build)

 

I've been in a lot of situations where I intentionally put myself within range of Venena's second sweep attack just to Zantei (also some people didn't know the attack hits twice, lol?). The only problem with bowtana is the Shukuchi range which is 10m, meaning you'd have to run closer manually.

Edit: I just remembered you could just use any mononofu skill and you'll automatically dash within range :v

 

Shukuchi is a livesaver a lot, like in Hell Reaper final stage where I can keep up Crossfires and stay alive with T.Thrust with Shukuchi.
Really if you want to be stubborn and use everything, I tend to just thrust myself into danger to use skills when I could easily just Snipe stall XD

 

Been playing with my bowtana a while so I can give some answers to this.
1. It's far more viable to boss than standard cf. Good defense, high mp recover, 2 skills for armor break, 2 main dps of cf and garyou.
2. You want combo to be short and burn mp as crazy as you can
3. Possible, but use combo seperately for bow/tana simplify your skill use
4. Need around 270 Skill pt to reach optimized state for the build. Also need very high mp pool (16+) for short combo. Equipment for 2s S+ bow is not at high price so worry about getting the venena xtal for mp. Also skills are complicate to use: Decoy, charge cf, charge garyou with pulse blade or tenryu, snipe, cf, recharge cf, snipe, garyou and repeat. Put in kaikiri and zantei in middle sometimes as well. Even more, burning skills produce hell lot of aggro.
5. Hard to compare with ths, but the armor break make bowtana bit more favorable at high def/difficulties bosses. Compare to bow it is an upgrade version. To katana, it can't keep up with the tenryou, and garyou is 2/3 w/o two hand skill so it slightly behind katana.