Best Single Target Weapon

[Yoda]

all well and good but until they change the respawn to be a timer from the moment of death

all of this is splitting hairs, and not really that poinient

[Muolke]

Yumi? Hands down one of the best and most versatile weapons in the game, esp. on single targets. With high Discord, a Yumi that can do damage to single targets and has a high trigger for AoE can be nearly broken.

But that said, Iltar's bow is incredible. It is also one of a kind. There's only one other person with a bow similar to Iltar's and he hasn't been around in months. He's probably the only one that has the best bow even above Iltar's, stats and all. From what I recall said bow in question has a chance to not spend arrows, and has a 50% chance of shooting a Lightning Arrow. Aside from that, all the Ancient Yumis and other Ancient weapons aren't as powerful as they could be, even with Iltar's bow, even with its high percentages and leeches, EVEN with its abnormally high base damage that's only rivaled by an elemental Elven Bow. Despite high damage, nobody uses the Elven Bows since Force Arrow and Serpent Arrow don't come close to how effective a Yumi's base abilities are.

The idea and strategy behind Iltar's bow does make it unique. Changing it over to Elven bow increases base damage from 18-20 on a Yumi to 19-22 on his bow. That's 1-2 more base damage per hit. Having said that, he only has 2 hit spells on his bow at 60% (fireball and lightning) and Magic Arrow is at 20%. This is a huge mistake IMO. Obviously it was an Ancient Yumi base so he could not have gotten all 4 hit spells up but you want everything on a weapon to cause damage or add to it.

The reality is that even a looted 4 x 58 (non-ancient weapon) with 3 direct hit spells maxed out will do more damage than Iltar's converted bow because of hot he leveled it. His argument is that he wanted HLA because he gets hit less but if you are running around with these kinds of weapons you likely have 500-600+ HP or more and mobs hitting you actually does quite a bit of damage to them. While I don't run around with 50% physical resist like John Warren, I do believe RPD plays an important role. As I upgrade my relayers I will even avoid adding DCI because of it.

[Iltar]

I didn't want to make single target bow anyway, its more for whirlwind. But I do regret 20% magic arrow, perhaps stamina leech or hit harm would be better.
For single target you just need Mana leech/Lightning/Fireball/Harm/some HLD, no area.
For whirlwind priorities imo generally are Lightning>Mana Leech(for double strike/crushing blow)>Fireball>Life Leech>HLD 20%>Harm>Stamina Leech>HLA 20%, and also Hit area might be important too if you want to pull mobs faster and attack good-aligned monsters easier(though there are situations when you don't want hit area). HLD/HLA lasts 10 seconds if landed, so 30% is enough of them.
You can't have everything on one weapon, and depending on where you hunting they all can be useful. All those stats do add value on weapons, though spending points on them depends what one wants from weapon: speed, convinience or keeping hp high. Anyway HLD/HLA are good to have, but if weapon doesn't have them 58% by default, then spending points on 20-30% of them is worth it.

[Yoda]

not to mention that fussing about what EVERYONE ELSE is using

, how they are using it
, how they should have done it
, etc etc

its really sorta... creepy worry about your own darn game LOL
since what this guy or that guy fight with doesn't have any effect on you.

But.. to iltar's point of not having everything on one weapon (true), whirlwind specific etc.....

wait isn't this post kinda pointless anyway..