Is the Banshee Bow over powered? (or Bull Helm)

[Kazenawa]

[...]I can see aggressive banshee setups are clear winners as they "steal" the kill 100% of the time when such situation occurs.
[...]OTOH bansheers do far more damage in extreme setups than any mage could ever dream.[...]

Apparently, the drop deserves to the player who dealt the more damages on the target. Archers, and especially bansheers, are much more defensively vulnerable than any other class. To keep their power balanced againts other classes, it's pretty clear that they have to take advantage of their weakness by dealing more damages. The opposite would be unbalanced.
Warriors have the advantage to be resistant in order to survive monster's hits. They can nicely survive alone with proper setups. Then why would they have a better exp/min than archers ? Plus, archers pay to fight (especially bansheers), such as mages, while warriors don't pay anything (anyway everyone uses healing items, and in events warriors are healed by mages everytime they need it). Isn't it normal to have a little "advantage" when you pay for something and when you die nearly instantly if you get hit ?

You can't only consider damage/time to balance classes (getting drops and exp/time is associated with it), but you have to consider how weak the class is and how much it costs.
You seem to associate warrior class with God-like class, where you get everything (exp, drops), while not spending money nor defensive bonuses. This is, in my opinion, the worst balaced thing it could ever happen. Plus, such class would be really boring to play since you wouldn't have any surviving challenge while getting everything fastly at no cost. It would be funny at first, but surely boring after some time using it...

Yet I still somehow won crown once - next time I probably should try to win million in lottery, probability is about the same .

I don't know exactly about the exact probability, but for sure it's useless to hit the GM before it has only few life points left. Here, even a slow or weak player is able to win. The trick is only to deal the last hit, which means being lucky to hit at the right time.
Results certainly shows that high leveled players wins way way more than low leveled ones, but among high leveled ones, there isn't such difference about exp/time to talk about a probability of 1/1000000. As bansheers have an higher hit/time than the others, they may have a better probability of getting the crown, but i'm nearly sure it's not even 10 times higher than the other classes.
If you were able to give the last hit at proper time everytime, no matter your level of the class you play with, you would win everytime...

[Hello=)]

Apparently, the drop deserves to the player who dealt the more damages on the target.

Sure. But does not means banshee owners should have all XP & drops.

Archers, and especially bansheers, are much more defensively vulnerable than any other class.

Not really true IMO.
1) Archers can wear heavy armor withouh big penalties, unlike mages. Btw, IMO heavy armor should have severe dex/agi penalty.
2) Other illia items come with def. malus as well. Both helm and robe. Robe also makes owner 15% slower -> more hits.
3) All classes can select between good def but bad damage vs crappy def but good damage. Though tanked archer is a pointless thing. Tanked mage is a very special supportive role. Tanked warrior ... ok, most logical thing after all. But its not really fair to blame warriors for that. Technically other classes can be "tanked" as well. Maybe except mages who cant really afford strong magic and good armor at same time. Though tanked itenplz'rt
4) For some reson archers cursing things around if they get betsanc, which trades attack speed to extra def. Since archers actively refuse extra def, its invalid to admit it as problem .

Warriors in RPGs usually splitting to "tanks" (just keeping monsters busy, strong damage is not mandatory) and "damage dealers" (who inflicts damages but often do not have enough health to kill hard monsters alone). Damage dealers supposed to deal decent damage comparable to damage dealers of other classes. All supportive roles are special things which only have some use during team actions. In TMW all classes can be tanked or damage optimized. Yet tanked archer is strange thing and mostly unused. But technically possible. Warriors cant use overaggressive setups since they have to withstand monster hits on regular basis unlike archers or mages. The more aggressive setup used, the more heals required, so IMO its not really valid to consider aggressive warriors setups 100% free vs hard monsters.

As for heals and banshee: mages cant see damage inflicted by bow. Then aggressive banshee archer requires so many heals that mage haves no time to regen mana. And at the end of day, if overpowered chaingun outshotting others by factor 2x-3x dies, overall gameplay tends to get far more balanced (where is trollface smile?!). TMW game mechanic was never meant work well for such levels of damage from single player.

Also, I dont mind if all classes would have some expensive powerups to make them comparable with extreme banshee setups. But now other classes cant really compare, even optimized "damage dealers" setups. Because neither warriors nor mages have anything to counter to terranite arrows. Mages also unable to use speed/damage potions.

N.B. And it's really wrong to blame me for praising warriors since I play as mage most of time. Yet I wish to have balanced gameplay where all classes of same level are more or less comparable. When all players inclined on putting self over others go for one specific class and take all XP and drops it just boring. Then it not fun to play most events as result is getting quite predictable.

[Frost]

does not means banshee owners should have all XP & drops.

In my experience, they don't. My "aggressive" rager can use potions and keep up with banshee archers. But then, he needs a lot of healing, so that's similar to the archer. My speed mage is good too, but the iron is so expensive.

Archers, and especially bansheers, are much more defensively vulnerable than any other class.

Not really true IMO.

I agree. In fact, I think that mages are most vulnerable, except tanked mages. Except that warriors don't have ranged attack, so they take more hits. Actually, I guess a warrior with 110 Str is vulnerable, like my mage with 110 Int. Maybe I just play tanked mage too much.

1) Archers can wear heavy armor withouh big penalties, unlike mages. Btw, IMO heavy armor should have severe dex/agi penalty.

That seems reasonable.

2) Other illia items come with def. malus as well. Both helm and robe. Robe also makes owner 15% slower -> more hits.

Do you suggest the banshee bow trade the self-damage malus for a defensive malus?

3) All classes can select between good def but bad damage vs crappy def but good damage. Though tanked archer is a pointless thing. Tanked mage is a very special supportive role.

My banshee archers have 60+ vit, because that seems to be just enough to stay alive on continuous waters. That's almost as much as my tanked mage. By the way, I much prefer tanked mage instead of speed mage at Candor and Cindy and Illia quest. Rewards are better if you live until the end.

4) For some reson archers cursing things around if they get betsanc, which trades attack speed to extra def. Since archers actively refuse extra def, its invalid to admit it as problem .

Archers and warriors, because betsanc slows physical attacks and not magical ones. Your facetious argument that they "actively refuse extra def" could be turned on mages who actively refuse better armor.

Warriors in RPGs usually splitting to "tanks" (just keeping monsters busy, strong damage is not mandatory) and "damage dealers" (who inflicts damages but often do not have enough health to kill hard monsters alone)....Yet tanked archer is strange thing and mostly unused.

I have several "light tanks" or "medium warriors" or whatever, with 60-70 vit and sometimes 62 luck. In fact, I have no heavy tank at all right now. Also, my banshee archers have minimum 60 vit (sometimes more). I'm fine to dance around with 5 Vit and Forest Bow, but the Banshee damage kills me quickly. I also tried Banshee with 85 Vit to save money, but that was slow.

aggressive banshee archer requires so many heals that mage haves no time to regen mana.

Exactly. I don't sacrifice myself to heal banshee archers, and why should I? XP from healing is nice, though.

It sounds like you found a much better Banshee Archer than I have. Can you offer advice? At level 90, I use:
1 Str / 87 Agil / 60 Vit / 1 Int / 100 Dex / 1 Luck