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I've been playing a Ranger as one of my PC's (the other is a cleric) and I've noted that while she has a ton of special arrows for just about any situation I never seem to use them because they use more AP.

Generally at the start of any fight I have a choice of firing one special arrow and a normal attack, or I could do three normal attacks. Every time I'll do more damage with three normal attacks. Also since my Expert Marksman is maxed out now it seems like the special arrows aren't even doing as much damage anyway.

Sure once in a while there is a need for one, maybe get someone wet so my mage can zap them, setting some oil on fire, etc., but in general use they don't seem to be that good. I've also tried the charm arrows a few times but they always fail as I'm fighting higher level enemies now, so they are all but pointless.

Has anyone else made some actual good use with special arrows over just shooting extra normal ones?

Thanks.

I mix it up. If i can i will typically use the explossive arrow against tight mobs (or tele 1 or 2 together, and hope they stay) or use the fire or explosive arrow after creating a poison cloud. electric arrows for rainy areas, diamond for high def and the regular arrows for puny humans or quick dispatches. i dont normally use the charm, disease or really any other outside of fire/ice/elec/diamond/poison

Probably depends a lot on your party make-up. For example if you had a geo mage you'd probably get a lot more use out of fire arrows.

Do you mean the high bb/wp means charm arrows have a low hit rate, or that the enemies are higher level than you (do special arrows not scale with dex? I play coop with a friend and he is the ranger)?

The charm arrow always hit, it just has a 'Charm Failed' message after hitting them. I'm working against the higher level resistances and such of higher level enemies which is making many of these special arrows useless.

Knockdown and Freezing Arrows are actually undercosted. 5AP for a 100% chance to inflict a status (unless the target makes its saving throw) as well as damage is absurdly good; even Quickdraw archers should be loving these. These two are by far the best special arrows in the game. Both of these should be 6AP.

Silver, Poison, and Water Arrows seem overcosted to me. Reducing armour is nice and all, but it's not on the same level as stuns in terms of status effects; same thing with the Poisoned status' damage over time (and, unlike Fire Arrows, Poison Arrows aren't good for explosions). Wet is an underrated status as well, but it's still not worth costing that high. These should all be 5AP.

Smokescreen Arrow also seems a bit overcosted; should be 4AP.

I believe all the other arrows have appropriate AP costs. The only one which maybe should be changed is Explosive Arrow, not because it isn't balanced at its current cost (it is) but just because it feels a little too much like Fire Arrow, and it should feel more different. I think it might be cool to make Explosive Arrow cost one more AP, making it the only 7AP special arrow, but have a noticeably larger area of effect.

What I was doing with my mage was the following: I did not engage in combat but tried to get as close as possible to the enemy and blasted them with a high ap spell to initiate the fight. You get one attack off for free (no ap cost) and strike first. I think you could do that with a ranger too. Get close and fire a special arrow to start the combat. Havent tried it though

Take a look at the combat log. It should tell you the saving throw for the enemy. Also, if the enemy is immune it will come up with immune to charm, so that isn't the issue.

If special arrow hit chance doesn't scale then base chance is always 100%. If you're higher level than the opponent it should go up 10% per level and the reverse if you're lower level. Additionally, each bodybuilding or willpower that the opponent has will reduce the hit chance by 10%. So the problem may be that later in the game enemies' higher bb/wp will reduce the chance of hits.

If special arrows don't scale, rapture most certainly has a higher charm chance (goes up 5% extra for each dex point above the base dex requirement).

Personally I think special arrow hit chance should stay pretty much the same throughout the game, that would be nice.

Also, I'm sure silver arrow > one autoattack to set up the rest of your team will be better than 3 autoattacks vs tough enemies. Is there a disease arrow? Can't remember seeing one...

At the start of Evelyn fight I used a static cloud arrow to stun all of the enemies.

I think that's kind of the supposed idea of the special arrows; that in some situations you can make a fight a whole lot easier. I don't think they were meant for everyday DPS usage.

You should be using special arrows to get yourself out of tight spots or to set up combos/opportunities for your party. The only time they should be used for DPS is poison cloud + fire combo.

You should also always be aware of the enemy's bodybuilding and willpower stats and choose your arrows accordingly. For example, don't use a knockdown arrow on something with 80 bodybuilding, use a stun or slowdown arrow instead. Usually only bosses have high bodybuilding AND willpower, which means that most enemies are vulnerable to at least some of your CC arrows.

As a final note, special arrows always have the same chance to apply their status effects (most of them are 100%, some are slightly above 100%). This makes them very powerful early game, but since they don't scale with level or dex, most of them get outpaced by the equivalent mage spells.