My take on bow: it's underestimated. But only the Archer should sink points into it. The Archer is a very mediocre class outside of the Bow skill. I am currently running a party with 3 archers and 1 cleric (AAAC). It's surprisingly strong, even with a bow skill of just 18. I am using swift bows. I can easily take down Titans with bows. You don't need the lowest recovery for bows to be effective. The damage from Grandmaster bow is in the 30s at level 18 already. And that's per arrow, so you're looking at 60 with two arrows. The issue is getting to Nighon early and doing the Master Archer promotion quest ASAP. Invisibility scrolls solve that problem. Getting these scrolls requires a lot of reloads in front of a shop. Outside of Bow, don't waste your time with magic. Expert Leather is good enough. I am unsure if spending a lot of skill points into GM chain is worth it. My characters are level 30, soon 40 after training. I am 2/3rds through the game. I feel like my party is strong enough to beat the final stage right now. It's just weird to play a hybrid class like the Archer, only to reach Expert Leather and sink all skillpoints into Bow. I also use a bunch of skills at level 1 like Spear, Merchant and Learning. Level 1 Spear is frankly impressive, it over-performs. Ultimately, context matters when evaluating skills. And I frankly prefer thinking about party compositions.
