Bocek Bow Analysis [updated]
TL;DR: The bow is too quiet, does too much damage, and has tactical advantages that profoundly imbalance gameplay.
[Note: Having put in more hours and games with the bow, I'm reposting with edits.]
Overall, the bow strikes me as an excellent aesthetic design. It's a blast to use, and represents a great deal of utility (I'm a big fan of Horizon Zero Dawn, and the Apex bowplay is almost as good). That said, it royally sucks to be on the receiving end of a volley. It's clear the bow has a host of advantages beyond other AL weapons, and every player I've spoken to finds the bow oppressive.
First, the numbers and handling don't fit the weapon meta. It beats the longbow in headshots, which is simply bizarre for a non-explosive arrow, and easily outclasses most sniper and marksman weapons in medium-range fights. Intuitively, the Bocek deals too much damage relative to its accuracy and rate of fire (in the real world, AR bullets hurt much more than arrows). The velocity on the arrows also seems high. At range they should arc more, and I don't see any on the 2x or 3x scopes (even compared to heavy and sniper rounds).
Second, the bow is too quiet (and arrow shots sound really annoying). Apex's core gameplay relies on gunfire to provide audible cues that feed directly into reflexive player behaviors. They are a vital affordance that we use to correctly judge split-second decisions. Currently, the bow and arrow noises are easily covered up by, or confused with, other game sounds. This means that players won't (or can't) have the information they need to react appropriately to a Bocek attack. In a mixed-fire scenario, most players will instinctively focus on the loudest sounds first, remaining blind to the quiet arrow damage. If a third-party presses with a bow attack it's often impossible to tell what's happening, allowing a solid crew to down a full squad in seconds.
Third, the bow has tactical advantages that disrupt the weapon meta. Since there's no magazine on the bow, the shooter isn't forced to pause between volleys. This allows Bocek users to apply unmatchable pressure. Along with quiet fire, this reduces the penalty of a missed-shot, enabling less-accurate players to leverage the bow's other advantages more easily. Compared to the Triple Take or Longbow, the bow's quietness and speed multiply the first-shot advantage: a solo shooter can knock mutiple targets before a squad knows they're hit.
Consequently, Bocek shooters are much harder to localize, get to fire more shots with fewer consequences; Bocek targets have less time to react, and less information to react with/to. This imbalance leads directly to feelings of oppression, bewilderment, and victimization. It's highly one-sided, and unprecedented (not counting arc and kraber sticks, which feel earned). Objectively, this kind of imbalance results in less competition and weakened gameplay.
To fix the issues, I'd nerf the headshot bonus to sit just under the longbow, buff hipfire damage a little, retool bow-fire sounds so that they're easier to localize, and introduce a cooldown after a reasonable number of consecutive shots. Conceptually, the Bocek seems to be a servo-assisted compound bow. Have those servos whine when firing, overheat to force a pause or weapon switch, and reopen space in the sniper meta for the longbow (which still deserves less bullet drop). Or, you could add a quiver to the bow.
Overall, the bow is a really interesting addition to the game. It's fun to use, but definitely OP and exploitable. In addition to a damage nerf, it would be great to retool the sounds as well.
- Neb
