Ranged combat | Combat Middle-earth: SoM Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
The bow that the protagonist of Middle Earth: The Shadow of Mordor is armed with is not used, in combat, as often as the other elements of his weaponry. Still, this does not mean that ranged combat does not play any important role. Ranged weapon is, first of all, helpful in situations, in which you want to weaken, or kill, opponents that are harder to reach. This mainly means the enemy archers that often occupy ledges on height and watchtowers. It is much easier to eliminate such an opponent with the ranged weapon, than to get to his position and use melee the weapon.
There are several interesting issues, connected with the bow. After you stat aiming, time slows down and this effect remains active up until the concentration bar is depleted. You can make this bar longer by obtaining certain attributes (the chapter entitled Character Development), although in its initial form, it is sufficient to take a well-aimed shot. To ensure yourself with a more effective ranged attack, remember to aim at the enemies' heads and about waiting with the shot until the bowstring is fully drawn. This will allow to shoot the arrow with more power and, as a result, to deal more damage to the opponent (many opponents die after the first well-aimed attack).
Unfortunately, you cannot use the bow infinitely. The supply of arrows that you carry is limited and you need to replenish it, on a regular basis. You can obtain arrows, e.g. by draining energy from the opponents that you defeat. To do that, try to search out single monsters because, by default, the draining process is long and it can be interrupted by the other opponents. An alternative way to replenish your supply, is to find them directly in the game world. The advantage of finding the arrows is that you do not need to become temporarily defenseless and you can use the bow again, right after you collect the arrows.
Just like in the case of melee combat, you need to know that abilities connected with ranged weapons become available only later into the game. They may depend on your progress into the campaign mode, or on the purchases that you make in the main character window. To learn more, see the chapter entitled Character Development. Thanks to new abilities, you can access, among others, throwing knives that are a nice alternative for the bow, especially that it does not require you to aim (the knife is thrown towards the opponent currently observed by Talion).
An even more interesting thing is the Shadow Strike attack, which you can obtain while completing one of the main missions. This ability upgrades the bow by one additional function, which is the ability to teleport towards the enemy that you are currently aiming at. There are two upsides to that - you can move around the battlefield quickly and cut short the waiting time to resume melee combat. Later into the game, you can make this attack even more effective and make the weaker enemies be killed automatically after teleportation.