One of the major balance goals for Path of Exile in the Conquerors of the Atlas expansion is to make bow skills more interesting and more viable, and the adjustments that are being shown off in the game’s most recent development preview are all aimed that way. For example, Explosive Arrows can now stack to any number and don’t refresh their duration upon additional application, thereby no longer forcing you to stop shooting and wait so that the stack explodes. Burning Arrow now deals additional damage against a target already set aflame by the effect, improving single-target damage. Shrapnel Shot has been renamed to Galvanic Arrow and now scales speed with its area of effect, making it more useful for covering big regions.
There are also smaller adjustments for a number of bow-related skills, tweaking the damage numbers so that players are encouraged to actually use the skills as they come up. You can see the three big reworked skills in the video just below along with some footage of a character using all of the bow adjustments in combat. If you’d rather delivery flaming explosive death via a pointy stick rather than magical acumen, it’s a solid approach.
Source: Official Site
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