Has anyone ever used bows as a viable weapon in PvP?

I was doing a bows-only playthrough lately, even leaving my melee weapons in the BB.  Got invaded, and the guy was more or less just sidestepping my shots.  Is there any way to use these effectively, or are you always going to be at a disadvantage, all things being equal?

I've seen a few people use it well in PVP.

From what I've dealt with there are two effective ways of using the bow in PVP. Fighting with it unlocked and zoomed in, which isn't easy but once you get the hang of it the headshots work well against players.

Then using the DWGR with some form of stamina regeneration. It's a little simple all you do is dodge with you finger on the R1 and once they slip up and leave themselves open you shoot.

Still I can't say it's a very reliable weapon for PVP.

Depends on your level, I feel the higher level you are the more trickier it will be because your opponent would have high Vitality. I'm invading at level 5 so my opponents Vitality isn't going to be extremely high, this way I should be able to kill them easier as the bow does miss a lot of shots.

Depends on your surroundings. You need a LOT of space to evade enemies and create distance between you to be able to shoot safely. DWGR helps a lot.
Also, you'll need to manual aim the bow, because all shots can be evaded by simple strafing. No need to roll at all.
Bow backstab has been removed, so you can't use it to counter bs anymore.
Leo Ring and good timing will help you boost your damage.

As for equipment, make a quality build with 27/40 at least and go for Composite Bow. It doesn't shoot far and it has horrible right hand leading, but you can get used to it and aim it easily with some experience. With 27/40, Composite is the strongest bow in the game. Except for Greatbows of course.

Greatbows are super slow, but they are sure to stagger or send flying anything they hit. Switching between a bow and a greatbow is a great tactic that can keep people off balance and surprise them in many ways.

Bow only? Please don't. It is so incredibly obnoxious to chase someone around while they ninja flip away and shoot at you the entire fight. That being said, it's probably most effective to free aim without zooming in. Just hit R1, wait a moment so it doesn't cancel and then free aim. You can't hold your shots though.

I just hope I never fight a bow only, ninja flip, grass crest, child mask, green blossom munching build. Although I think I heard somewhere only a certain number of those will stack, not sure at all.

See, the problem is, I'm doing a bows-only playthrough, and I'm leaving all other weapons in the BB.  If I get invaded, I have no choice but to fight this way.

It can be done but only if you have fire,moonlight or poison arrows.You need something to push other players into attacking,otherwise they could stand there all day with their shield up.I recommend using your fist when necessary to backstab cancel as players will certainly try to do it to you when they get close.

You are asking this for advice about a build that is already made, but........Couldn't resist it.

http://mmdks.com/3bwb
Have fun fighting this.

I once invaded a guy in the burg who both he and his single phantom were using greatbows from atop a roof that I previously didn't even know players could get on. (right past where Chester invades) With two of them, while I was never really in mortal danger, that there were two of them made it basically impossible for me to hit them. The match took a long time and finally ended when one of them came down with a DKGS and killed me. Interestingly, I also have occasionally seen gankers in the forest use greatbows as a weapon (not an ambush one, an actual weapon) EXTREMELY effectively.

On certain builds of mine I've found myself using the bow as my main weapon somewhat frequently. Usually it's my 50fai and an Occult Comp Bow (which is a silly strong weapon) but I also have a qualityesque build that uses Leo and has a bow I often refuse to switch away from.

I can say the Occult/Enchanted paths are quite good for PvPing as I've found spells are the best compliment for a bow. WoG will keep people away real quick, so will dark bead. But any build could use BlackFlame in place of it's stronger stat dependent brothers.

Even in areas as small as the Burg dueling spot you have enough room to make use of the bow and dodge plan. You honestly will not be able to trade well against anything and aggression is your worst enemy(aggression from your opponent) Being good at parries and patience are vital to getting this to work. It's akin to the spear poke+roll that gets under some people's skin. You're essentially just being defensive and only attacking when it's safe, so again patience patience as unlike a spear you can't shield poke, and will have to swap if you want to backstab/riposte and at least stop 2handing to parry/block. To further complicate things you can't get too far from your target, or else they'll just back off, find a corner and heal up. You can interrupt almost any animation in the game with a headshot, and against a stationary target there is actually a "sweet spot" where if you lock on, lock off and look up just the right amount you'll get the head shot. This happens because locking on targets the center of the torso, so getting comfortable at different ranges lining up an unlocked headshot ASAP is important. Stoping Humanity heals is no problem, as is stoping most slower spells. Estus however, I can't recall getting anyone before the first sip.

Another good technique is the locked on roll headshot. While locked on there is a certain part of the roll animation that will get them headshot, it's towards the end as they come back up from the roll. The timing for the different roll speeds is similar but a little different, and I have yet to get it to work on a flip.(There is a part where if the flip is towards or away that you can hit their head with an arrow but it has I-frames right then)

just for fun here's my favorite build that ends up using it's bow more than anything.
http://mmdks.com/3c4g

GrinTwist wrote:I've seen a few people use it well in PVP.

From what I've dealt with there are two effective ways of using the bow in PVP. Fighting with it unlocked and zoomed in, which isn't easy but once you get the hang of it the headshots work well against players.

Then using the DWGR with some form of stamina regeneration. It's a little simple all you do is dodge with you finger on the R1 and once they slip up and leave themselves open you shoot.

Still I can't say it's a very reliable weapon for PVP.

 In Dark Souls II they will be far better, I'm sure. The mere fact you will be able to move and shoot at the same time (slower than normally but still) will give a big buff to bow-only combatants.

Bows are a very viable weapon. Maybe not so much as using it strictly as a main weapon, but they are very easy to end fights with.