Conclusions of the first Great Archer Debate: AB vs. DS

Background: There have been a great many debates on archer forums across many forums. The following conclusion came from the Sleepywood forums, and there is a great amount of evidence behind this conclusion:

Double Shot is stronger than Arrow Blow in all circumstances and better than Arrow Blow in almost all circumstances.

* Critical is +100%, not 200%, and Critical may occur for every arrow you shoot. Hence maximum damage of Arrow Blow is 260% + 100% =360%. Maximum damage of Double Shot is (130% + 100%) * 2= 460%.
* As a result, DS has a higher average damage(~340% damage) than AB(~300%) has, rendering the AB skill weaker for BOTH Hunters and Xbowmen. Furthermore, having only one shot, AB is unstable (dealing either high — 40% chance of 360% damage or low — 60% chance of 260% damage) while DS is more stable with two shots (DS, when activated, has 48% chance to deal average damage, which is one critical and one normal hit, hence the stable damage. Take note that this 'average' damage is 360% damage, equal to a critical shot AB. Furthermore, DS has 16% chance to deal 460% damage, which rocks).
* DS has a higher average damage than AB (340% compared to 300%), a higher max damage (460% compared to 360%), and an equal minimum damage (both 260%).
* On higher-level monsters, DS is still stronger than AB despite the weapon defense of the monster, since defense is applied BEFORE the damage multiplier. This will be discussed more thoroughly in the formula section.
* Rebuttal: At low levels, i.e. 30, attacking a stone golem with DS often results in 1 damage per arrow. However, AB will produce minimum damages of more than 100 damage. Analysis of this phenomenon indicates that weapon defense is applied AFTER the damage multiplier. Further confirmation can be derived by observation that AB's damage is MORE than 260% of a normal attack, indicating again that defense is applied AFTER the damage multiplier.
* The only saving grace of AB is the ability to knockback. Because AB has higher damage in one hit, it is much easier to flinch higher-level monsters with AB. However, knockback ability alone is not enough to warrant maxing AB instead of DS.
* Despite all the flaws of AB compared to DS
* Arrow Blow gives you 141% damage with just 1 point in it for a cheap-but-effective attack for your first point when you become a Bowman. Pursuing it further makes no sense because Double Shot accomplishes a different effect, and 1 point of AB is complimentary to DS, which you should pursue.

Ultimately, it should be noted that regardless of whether a player invested in AB or DS or both, once the player reaches level 70 and invests in Strafe, AB and DS will hardly be used, so even if a player does invest in the "wrong" skill, getting Strafe will more or less rectify that.http://strategywiki.org/wiki/MapleStory/Bowman_Guide/Builds