Ammo management in .11

[tasonir]

So now that all ammo is effectively +3, how can you conserve ammo to play a ranged character all game long? Should you avoid using flaming/freezing ammo because (I believe) that still has double the mulch rate?

Are you likely to find enough ammo to go pure ranged once you clear several centaur/yak packs for arrows/bolts? Any general tips? I started one planning on dying early but somehow have actually lived. I have polearms as a backup melee skill, but would rather go as much ranged as possible, I'm just not sure how long +3 ammo will last. Planning a 3 rune game.

I'm using bows, specifically - does heavy armor slow down bow combat? Raise dex, str, or some of both? Not planning on casting.

[ontoclasm]

The HEHu I played a while ago was slightly low - as in, down to 60 arrows or so - after Lair, but had something like 2,500 arrows lying around in piles by the end of 15 runes of arrow spamming. Bolts are probably more of a pain, but as soon as you get deep enough to see centaur/yaktaur packs ammo is effectively infinite.

It is, however, still heavy, and I did occasionally run out due to only being able to carry two hundred or so.

Heavy armor doesn't slow ranged combat at all. Shields halve your firing rate though.

[cerebovssquire]

Launcher brands don't increase mulch rates, only arrows themselves do. Yay for consistency! And using the arrows is better than letting them lie around any day - they are great against vulnerable enemies. They're useless after one use, if they mulch - they're never useful if you never use them
CommanderC told us that STR is better for ranged, and carrying arrows is cool in addition to the damage boost it gives.

[crate]

Flaming/freezing ammo also does the most damage against anything neutral to it, so you should probably use your flame/freeze ammo.

[tasonir]

Alright so just to sum up mostly for myself: use a flaming/frost bow, normal ammo - does more damage, doesn't mulch more. Still use flaming/frost ammo at some point because even 1 shot is better than 0. Holy wrath is presumably still best (about even with speed) for extended, but I personally won't run that this game.

One thing I don't know: Flaming/Frost branded bows are generally better than velocity? I thought velocity was +30% on ranged, and elemental ones 25% on non-vuln/resistant mobs?

[crate]

Velocity bows are better because frost/flame arrows fired from a velocity bow get both bonuses.