Ranged weapons

Pre-alpha Ranger bow modeled by Jon Arellano and concepted by Jeff Delierre.

A character may equip up to two hand weapons and also wear a ranged weapon on their back.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Characters performing ranged abilities will switch to the ranged weapon, then can switch back to the melee weapon and shield or two-handed melee weapon.^[1]^[2]
There will be a setting to determine if the ranged weapon or main/offhand selection is your primary weapon to use for Q or left-mouse-button basic attacks.^[1]^[2]

Let's say you use Power shot: You click Power shot, you quickly switch over to the ranged weapon, execute the skill, and you're back to your primary focus, which is the the sword and shield; and then for weapon attacks like your Q or your left mouse button, you would have the option to to set which is your focus, the ranged weapon, or the main offhand selection and you can swap back and forth between that as you want.^[1] – Steven Sharif

Rangers are going to have a minimum distance requirement where they are eligible to use their ranged weapons.^[4]

Augments can increase the range of certain skills.^[5]

While melee characters have a max distance proximity where they're eligible to use their sword and melee weapons, Rangers are going to have a minimum distance requirement.^[4] – Steven Sharif

List of ranged weapons

Ranged skills

Some abilities require a specific weapon to be equipped.^[6]^[1]^[2]

Skill	Icon	Rank 1	Rank 2	Rank 3
Airstrike		Leap forward in the direction the character is facing, raining down three projectiles that deal AoE damage and roots enemies in its path. The root effect is nature based.^[7]
Grapple		Takes aim for a moment before hurling a hooked chain in a line, damaging the first target it contacts and immediately pulling them to the caster. The target suffers a tapering snare for 3 seconds.^[8]^[9]
Longbow basic attack		A slower, powerful, longer range basic ranged attack. Tapping the basic attack button will shoot normally. Holding the basic attack button will charge the shot (and root the player) to cause added damage.^[10]^[11]^[12]
Quick Shot		Ranged attack that applies a debuff to the target. Each additional quickshot against the same target does increasing damage but consumes one of three charges that regenerate over time.^[13]
Shortbow basic attack		A fast, low power, short range basic ranged attack. Holding down the basic attack button will repeatedly fire.^[11]^[12]
Snipe		A powerful charged attack.^[14]

Gear slots

Alpha-2 character sheet work-in-progress UI.^[15]

We wanted to create something that would handle a couple of different roles, with obviously your equipment slots for what we call a "paper doll", which is that display of your character. Eventually it won't just be a image of your character, we hope to have the 3D character and be able to rotate around, look at what you're wearing. And then we wanted to support a couple of different features here, with some base stats; the equipment, which will show what equipment you have available to quick swap, so you don't have to have your inventory and the screen open; detailed stats for those people who want to get into all of the details; and then of course gear sets. So this is going to be able to swap to your sets of gear quickly; and being able to save different loadouts.^[15] – Colby Marchi

There are multiple gear slots in Ashes of Creation.^[15]

Artisan gear may be able to be equipped in an "undergarment" slot that can be toggled between adventuring gear and artisan gear.^[16]

Previously it was stated there were 16 gear slots.^[17]
- 8 Armor slots
- 5 Jewelry slots
- 2 Weapons slots
- 1 Ranged slot

Items on back and belt

Backpack sockets (slots).^[18]

The idea is to kind of move away from the mundane kind of application of belts in previous MMOs where they don't really have a lot of character so to speak. But in reality you know as an adventurer you come with a lot of tools and things that you have to use out in the wild in order to achieve what you're trying to achieve. So we wanted to kind of represent that on your character and give you something that can actually be tangible for your character and see there. I think it adds a lot of character and flavor to your identity.^[19] – Steven Sharif

Mage character with material components for spell casting attached to its belt.^[20]

A big component of the MMORPG that - half of that you know acronym is RPG role-playing game. And in order to role-play you need to be able to represent kind of what your character is doing in that world and you know part of what animation is doing is creating these sockets on the let's say the belt or the back that you know can plug in certain types of props or items that are created by the character team, like Carson, you know might be a scroll tube, it might be a potion, it might be whatever: Those players will have the ability as we've discussed in the past will have the ability to select what they want to be represented in those sockets and then animation will make sure that jibe well in movement.^[18] – Steven Sharif

Back slots include.^[3]

Weapon.^[21] Previously this was stated as a ranged weapon.^[22]^[3]
Shield.^[22]^[3]
Cloak/Cape.^[21]^[22]^[3]
Accessory (backpack etc).^[21]^[3]

Belt slots (hip slots) include.^[22]^[3]

Melee weapon (2 slots - one on each side).^[3]
Potion, pouch, scroll.^[22]^[23]

Players can set the appearance priority for the items they wish to show.^[22]^[23]^[24] Only one item can show at a time, and that is determined by player choice.^[3]

There'll be a priority system behind that that'll determine... do I show the Bow if the Greatsword is unequipped or do I show the Polearm if the Greatsword is unequipped.^[24] – Jeffrey Bard

Some ranged or melee abilities require a specific weapon to be equipped. Weapons that are equipped in the character's ranged or offhand slots will automatically swap in and out as required by the skill.^[6]^[1]^[2]