Newbie Guide to Missile Weapons

From MUME

Newbie Guide to Missile Weapons

This guide written and published by p(Baca/Endo)

"To Legolas she gave a bow such as the Galadhrim used. The bow was longer and stouter than the bows of Mirkwood, and it was strung with a string of elf-hair."

JRRT, The Fellowship of the Ring

This guide is about using bows, crossbows, and slings with the Missile skill.

Many parts of this guide reference to the MUME help pages which can be found at: https://mume.org/help/help_index

Bold words can be looked up in the games help files. Like help shoot.


Missile Skills

The following suggested skills are NOT required to use missile weapons. Anyone can pick up a sling or bow and just start shooting. They will help you shoot better or maybe xp better when choosing to use a bow.

Some characters just use a missile weapon for a few lower levels, then switch to using different weapons or spells later. Some characters use a missile weapon as an occasional back up. Some characters use missile weapons as their primary weapon. Any way of doing it is fine.

You can always use Missile skill for a few levels, and then decay the skill later and get your practices back, if you just want to try it out, or use it for a few lower levels.

Here are some skills that will help out anyone using missile weapons. Over all scout or thief characters might find them more useful, but anyone can try them out and decay them later.

Missile

This Thief guild skill is the primary skill used for a shooter. For every 5% you practice Missile skill your M_OB goes up by 1%. M_OB stands for Missile Offensive Bonus and only applies when you are wielding missile weapons. The higher your M_OB the greater the chance you will hit a target with a missile weapon. You also might break your string less often or break an arrow less often.

Any item or spell that raises OB will also help M_OB, but raising your Str score will not help your M_OB go any higher. So items like 'fine soft leather gloves' or 'golden mantle' can still help out with shooting. Or a spell like Bless helps as well.

Escape

This Thief guild skill lets you escape from combat instead of flee from combat. That helps you avoid getting the -panic flag. The -panic flag lowers your OB some. You can also get to choose which direction you want to leave the fight, like escape east, or escape down. It does have a delay before you leave the fight, so sometimes you might want to use the flee command instead.

Escape also reduces the delay you get from being rescued in a fight. So you can assist or shoot faster after being rescued.

Attack

This Thief guild skill slightly helps you attempt flees faster, so it can slightly help you get out of a fight if you need too. Other then slightly better flees, it doesn't help missile weapons at all.

Dodge

This Thief guild skill helps increase your DB. For every 5% Dodge skill you practice your DB goes up by 1%. The more you dodge attacks, the more missile hits you can potentially get in.

Sneak

This Thief guild skill can help you to avoid being hit while you sneak around. That also means you can very often get off a first shot while not being hit. This sneak attack surprises the target, often allowing you to hit first. Also, while trying to shoot, you do not reveal your sneaking position until you fire the shot.

Parry

This Warrior guild skill helps increase your PB. For every 5% Parry skill you practice your PB goes up by 1%. The more you parry attacks, the more missile hits you can potentially get in. Also, PB can be a struggle with missile weapons as they do not come with any weapon Parry Bonus.

Wilderness

This Ranger guild skill helps you use movement points more efficiently in some types of terrain. When you are shooting, you might need to flee or sneak around some, and this can help your moves last a little bit longer.

Endurance

This Warrior guild skill slightly can help your movement regen. And movement points are important for shooting and moving in and out of rooms.

Missile Commands

wield or draw: these commands are used to wield or draw your bow, even from your shoulder

wear: this command helps you wear quivers on your back or belt

put or get: you can put arrows in a quiver or get them back out if needed

recover: this command will find, get, and put any missile ammunition you fired in the room back in to your missile container (quiver, bolt case, pouch). If the ammunition is on the ground or on any corpses, this command will grab them. If the missile is still on a living target, it will not get them. Corpse shadows also block recover command. This command has a short delay.

recover all: this command will find, get, and put any missiles it can find in the room back into your missile container, even if someone else fired them. This command has a short delay.

shoot: the most important command for missile, it must be used EACH TIME you want to fire an arrow, very normal to use shoot 6 times or more in a fight to kill a target. This command has a delay depending on the missile weapon shooting speed. If you get hit while trying to shoot, that shot is cancelled. It can seem very spammy using a command this much, but that's how missile weapons work.

load: a crossbow only command, lets you pre-load a bolt before a fight, has a slight delay to load the bolt, cannot be done in combat

reveal: the command reveal stone helps you find more slingstone ammunition, you have a much better chance to reveal some stones in some rooms over others

escape: this command can be used with the Escape skill to leave combat in what direction you wish without -panic

wear quiver belt, put all.war quiver

load, east, shoot bear, escape west, load, east, shoot bear, escape west, load, east, shoot bear, recover

follow <tank>, assist, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, recover

Archery Targets

There are archery target in several cities or towns in the game. You can practice your missile skill at these targets and using the missile commands. They don't break your arrows, and gives a good chance to get an idea of your shooting speed and getting a sequence of using some of the missile commands in the game.

There are archery targets in Bree, Rivendell, Fornost, Lorien, Rohan Fort at Eyot, Ingrove, and Goblin Town.

See help targets

Types of Missile Ammunition

Every type of missile weapon uses a specific ammunition. If you don't have the correct ammunition, you can't shoot using that missile weapon.

-slingstones: are used with slings. One cool feature with slings is that you can get free ammunition!! If you are using a sling, type reveal stone in some rooms for a chance to get find ammunition to use. It's the easiest ammunition to get in the game.

  • slingstones and round stone

-bolts: are used with crossbows. You can buy them in weapon shops. The metal-cased bolts can only be purchased in Blue Mountains, so try and find a nice dwarf and ask them.

  • bolts and metal-cased bolts

-arrows: are used with bows. You can buy them in weapon shops. They do load on a few mobs in the game, so check out a quiver if you kill something with one. War arrows can be purchased in Fornost, ash arrows in some elf towns like Rivendell or Lorien.

  • arrows, war arrows, ash arrows, fletched arrows

-magical or enchanted ammunition: some arrows in the game are magical, all ammunition can be enchanted. If ammunition is magical OR enchanted it is considered NO BREAK. That means that the missile will never break no matter how many times you shoot with it. There is a quest in Bree from the fletcher to get a quiver of no break leaf-shapped arrows.

  • leaf shaped arrows, silver-tipped arrows

Types of Missile Containers

All missile weapons require a container for your ammunition. You can actually put ammunition into any containers, like a backpack or a large sack. But it will only shoot correctly if put in the correct missile container. The missile containers only work with the commands if worn on your back or worn on your belt.

You can also use missile containers to hold other items as well, but it takes up space that you could be using with your missiles. So, sure you can put bread in our quiver, but doesn't really do you any good to do so.

It is fine to mix ammunition types in a missile container. For example you can have bolts and metal-cased bolts in a bolt case mixed in. Or ash arrows with war arrows or normal arrows.

There is a limit the the maximum amount of ammunition any missile container can hold, and it can even vary on the type or types of missiles you have in it. It is based off the ammunition weight, so missile containers can over all hold more lighter ammunition then heavier ammunition. An example is an arrow quiver can hold more regular arrows then heavier war arrows, or a bolt case can hold more regular bolts the metal-cased bolts. You can try mixing and matching in game to see how much ammo any container can hold.

You can wear more then one missile container, say 2 quivers, or a quiver and a bolt case. If you recover, it will put the appropriate missile into the correct container.

Your missile container is used with the command recover. You recover ammunition into your missile container the missile was fired from.

-leather pouch: used for slingstones with slings

-bolt case: used with bolts for crossbows

-quiver: used with arrows for bows

Types of Missile Weapons

All missile weapons use the same game commands and the same Missile skill. But there are reasons to choose some missile weapons over others. It could be shooting speed, weight, ease of getting ammunition, etc...

-slings: they are VERY affordable and cheap to use, and not very heavy. They also have the benefit of shooting at a very fast rate. They are also pretty light compared to other missile weapons. But the draw back here is they are low damage and low OB. A fine missile weapon to use at lower levels, or when you are broke. But might want to upgrade at later levels for improved damage and attacks.

-crossbows: are heavy, the heaviest option of missile weapons to use. The bolt cases also do not hold as much ammunition as some other choices. They also shoot the slowest of all the missile weapons. But the damage is good. And another benefit, they come with an option that none of the other missile weapons do, loading. You can load a bolt for the first shot in a fight, and this first loaded shot shoots very fast. Making loaded crossbows one of the fastest missile weapons, for one shot only.

-bows: over all the most popular missile weapon, decent shooting speed, medium weight, can also deal out alot of damage. Quivers can also hold alot of arrows. Some types of arrows are fairly easy to get, like regular arrows or war arrows.

Which Missile Weapon to Use?

Missile weapons have different values that may help you choose which one is right for you. It could be:

-ease of getting ammunition, like buying more arrows after some break or reveal slingstones

-weight, some are light weight like slings or shortbows, while crossbows are heavy

-shooting speed, slings and shortbows are fast but crossbows are slow, loaded crossbows shoot very fast for the first shot

-OB, longbows and crossbows tend to have higher OB

-damage, longbows and crossbows tend to have higher damage

Gear for Shooters

There is gear that is good for shooters, but it is somewhat split up between solo play where you are tanking while shooting, or shooting while assisting.

Dodge or DB gear is what is needed if you are tanking and shooting solo. Higher DB means you get hit less and there for can possibly land more shots. So cloth gear that raises DB, like plain clothes, forest green cloaks, and any other way to improve your DB.

Another way to help your DB is to travel light weight. Carrying too many furs, pelts, meat, or loot will weigh you down reducing your chance to flee and lower your DB. Get rid of extra weight.

Also, sometimes while solo tank shooting, faster missile weapons are better, so that would be slings, and types of shortbows. That way you can get shots in between being hit.

If you are assisting while someone else is tanking, you want more OB, like fine soft leather gloves, or golden mantle. And longer shoot speed weapons are good, like a longbow or a crossbow.

However as a warning about OB gear, the bonus from gear to M_OB is LESS then it is to regular OB. You will notice that OB items still can give M_OB but at a reduced rate. It seems that the OB bonus granted is split between your OB and M_OB with items that grant that bonus.

There is an item called an archer's wrist guard. This item is +5% M_OB but -1% PB. Pretty nice for any shooters.

Pros and Cons of Missile Weapons

There are good reasons to use missile weapons and good reasons not to use them. Some players find that missile weapons really fit their play style while other players do not care for them much. Also some character builds are very favorable to using the Missile skill, and others are not. Missile weapons will be most effective on characters with higher Dex and Per. This tends to be for scouts, thieves, and defense warriors. But some casters also use them as a back up choice.

This will be some lists of the pros and cons of using missile weapons in MUME.

Pros for Missile Weapons

-attack targets that are not in combat with you - shooters are very good at attacking targets outside of the combat they are directly working on, for example, you can shoot that additional large bat that comes in and joins the combat, and very quickly kill it. Clearing low level parry splitters is fast and easy to do with missile weapons.

-missile weapons shoot past the "keep at bay" feature of targets wielding spears, you can shoot right past that special defense and ignore it, doesn't affect many targets, but still nice.

-vs fleeing mobs - missile weapons are useful vs fleeing mobs. Some mobs flee as soon as attacked, like rabbits. Others flee after they are <bad> or <awful>. In both cases missile weapons are very effective against fleeing mobs. You can get a shot on them before they try to flee.

-xping on low level mobs - little mobs like birds, fleeing animals, fish, insects, rodents, missile weapons make quick work of at lower levels. Some players who are making a caster start their character out as a shooter first, then after a few levels, transition them over to a caster later.

-even at later levels, some casters in the game find missile weapons as an effective back up while assisting their tank, to help keep their damage from being poor

-high damage output and attack speed - over all missile weapons are one of the top ways to deal damage in the game. The amount of damage they can dish out is impressive in a short amount of time. This is one of the main reasons higher level characters sometimes use missile. Over all missile weapons can achieve some of the higher sustained damage in the game, with the right gear and pracs.

-missile weapons really shine while assisting - shooting works best when doing it from behind a tanking character. You are not being hit to interrupt your shots. This can lead to some impressive assisting damage.

Cons for Missile Weapons

-string can 'break' - this is the weapon fumble for missile weapons, all weapons have a fumble chance, for missile weapons it is a delay where you cannot attack while you quickly repair the missile weapon in combat

-ammunition can break - all missile ammunition can break unless it is enchanted or magical. This means occasionally having to resupply and stock up on more arrows to replace those that break. The chance to break increases if you have low missile practiced or against some types of mobs. Luckily most missile ammunition are fairly cheap to replace.

-weight - you have to carry a missile weapon, ammunition, and a container. Separate, these items do not weight too much (except for very heavy crossbows), but by the time you add them all up it can be quite a bit of weight: weapon + pile of ammo + container

-mobs or players can flee away, and take your ammunition with them

-it is very easy to forget to recover and leave some of your ammunition behind OR you had to flee and leave your ammunition behind

-running out of ammunition in combat - exactly what it says, other weapons never run out of ammo

-corpse shadows prevent recover command - this is one of the main reasons to NOT play using missile command. Humanoid mobs over lvl 16 have a chance to leave behind a corpse shadow that will prevent you from getting your ammunition back. This is HIGHLY FRUSTRATING and can even lead to losing your ammunition in some cases.

-have to spam commands - you have to do a recover command after each combat encounter, and to attack you have to do spam shoot command for every single hit. No, there is no auto shoot command. It is also VERY easy to over spam shoot command and use up some moves.

-being hit interrupts shot - every time you are hit in combat by any effect, it cancels that shoot command this even includes poison or wound effects

-effective vs missile - a few mobs in the game are effective against missiles. This means they take 25% less damage from a missile attack. And it seems they might have an increased chance to break arrows fired at them. Over all this is not a huge issue because you simply do so much damage anyway.

-missile weapons do not help with your Parry Bonus, and do not grant a weapon PB bonus like a sword might.

-change mood does not affect your M_OB or PB - when using missile you cannot move your M_OB or PB up or down by changing your mood, it' is somewhat like you are always aggressive while wielding a missile weapon

-cannot inflict any wounds - with all missile weapons or ammunition, you can never give any targets a wound at any time. However, in between shots it is possible to punch a target and maybe leave a light wound

Missile Related Quests

  • Grey Havens Elven Trapper

Just north of Grey Havens Forlond is a Hunters Cabin with an elven trapper. It's a hunting shop that sells missile supplies and buys furs, skins, and pelts. If you sell enough furs and pelts to the shop, the elven trapper offers up a quest for you to earn a yew longbow and a quiver with some ash arrows. It's a pretty decent missile weapon, and is a good quest for a lower level character.

  • Bree Fletcher

In the town of Bree north of the weapon shop is a fletcher who needs help with getting an order of archery supplies. The quest involves a trip to Fornost and northern Bree land. You can get a reward of a quiver with 20 leaf-shaped arrows. The great thing is that these arrows are magical, +10 M_OB, fairly light weight, and NO BREAK. A wonderful start for a lower or mid level character. They also sell for good pile of silver if you need some cash.

Advanced Missile Techniques

Bash shoot

Used by a few combo war scouts and some defense warriors is the bash shoot technique. You bash a target, then immediately switch over to a missile weapon, shooting them 2 or 3 times while they are bashed. One reason why this works well, is while a target is bashed, they are not hitting you. Which means none of your shots will be interrupted. And missile attacks tend to do pretty good damage. This technique works well against solo mobs or targets. It can really up your damage compared to using your parrying, defense, slashing weapon.

Blind shoot

This technique is mostly used by cleric characters, especially for leveling up. Once a target is blinded by the Blind spell, using a missile weapon against them makes for a really effective combo attack. Many clerics, cleric/mage combos, and shamans use this missile technique at one time or another. It can be a very efficient way to gain some levels for a casting class that can struggle with getting a fast xp rate.

Sneak shoot

This sneaky technique is used by some scouts and thieves. You sneak into a room and shoot a target that won't hit you because they can't see you (your sneaking). Then after a shot or 2, you can flee or use the Escape skill to leave combat. Then sneak back in and get another sneaky shot in. It takes some time, and some moves, but can often let you take down some mobs you would have difficulty soloing, or would hit you for alot of damage. This technique works even better if you are using a loaded crossbow. It's a high damage sneaky hit! It can end up being a great way to xp.

Max Perception Shooting

Using a high missile character with a high Perception score can end up with a higher then average "shoot the gaps in armour" attacks. One way to push this even further is to combine it with a Seeing Potion for +3 and later +2 to Perception. It is pretty easy to achieve a 20 Per with this style. You will often shoot for gaps in armour, slightly pushing up your damage. This works very well when doing assist shooting with a tank on a high missile character wearing gear that increases OB or M_OB.

Envenom shot

You can use the Envenom skill on missile ammunition and shoot someone with a poisoned arrow. This mostly sees action in PK or PvP, and isn't really used that often with xping. A sneaky, poisoned, loaded crossbow bolt can be a nasty surprise from an Orc!

Link back to the wiki guides:

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