Bows

Empyrean longbow screenshot from Alpha-2.^[1]

Bows are a type of ranged weapon in Ashes of Creation.^[3] Bows are projectile-based weapons. Players crossing into the path (of an arrow in flight) may be struck.^[4]^[5]

Shortbows have faster, less powerful, shorter range basic attacks.^[6]^[1]
- Holding down the basic attack will repeatedly fire the basic attack rather than performing a charged attack.^[6]

The direction that we went with the shortbow was a lot more- I almost want to say acrobatic- like you can use this a lot more freely movement. It doesn't slow you as much. It's a higher rate of fire. Basically this is the more mobile feeling, lightweight version of the longbow: So it's not quite as powerful because you're making some trade-offs here with range and attack speed.^[6] – Tradd Thompson

Longbows have slower, more powerful, longer range basic attacks.^[6]^[1]
- Tapping the basic attack will shoot normally.^[1]
- Holding the basic attack button will charge the shot (and root the player) to cause added damage. These may also be able to be comboed with normal shots to create damage spikes.^[1]^[7]

Bows will not require ammo.^[8]

Instead the developers are considering per-use consumables/buffs that can be applied to weapons.^[8]

We are thinking about unique buffs that can be applied to your weapons that are on a per-instance basis of the attack; so, for example, you might have a quiver that you can activate on a cooldown, and that quiver might apply some type of rider effect on the basic weapon attack that you have equipped. Or, you might have some type of alchemical consumable that applies it to your melee weapon. Those I think are interesting because they add an element of horizontal gameplay, depending on the adversary you're facing or the challenge you're up against.^[8] – Steven Sharif

List of bows

- None -

Bow abilities

Skill	Icon	Rank 1	Rank 2	Rank 3
Longbow basic attack		A slower, powerful, longer range basic ranged attack. Tapping the basic attack button will shoot normally. Holding the basic attack button will charge the shot (and root the player) to cause added damage.^[7]^[6]^[1]
Shortbow basic attack		A fast, low power, short range basic ranged attack. Holding down the basic attack button will repeatedly fire.^[6]^[1]

Bow cosmetics

- None -

Ranged weapons

Pre-alpha Ranger bow modeled by Jon Arellano and concepted by Jeff Delierre.

A character may equip up to two hand weapons and also wear a ranged weapon on their back.^[9]^[10]^[11]

Characters performing ranged abilities will switch to the ranged weapon, then can switch back to the melee weapon and shield or two-handed melee weapon.^[9]^[10]
There will be a setting to determine if the ranged weapon or main/offhand selection is your primary weapon to use for Q or left-mouse-button basic attacks.^[9]^[10]

Let's say you use Power shot: You click Power shot, you quickly switch over to the ranged weapon, execute the skill, and you're back to your primary focus, which is the the sword and shield; and then for weapon attacks like your Q or your left mouse button, you would have the option to to set which is your focus, the ranged weapon, or the main offhand selection and you can swap back and forth between that as you want.^[9] – Steven Sharif

Rangers are going to have a minimum distance requirement where they are eligible to use their ranged weapons.^[12]

Augments can increase the range of certain skills.^[13]

While melee characters have a max distance proximity where they're eligible to use their sword and melee weapons, Rangers are going to have a minimum distance requirement.^[12] – Steven Sharif