Bow speeds

I am a boltslinger archer and I do tend to run and gun. I have gotten better about going slower and using the arrow bomb when there are mobs with ranged weapons around, but run and gun is my usual/preferred style of play. I keep a guardian angel up almost constantly but other spells are more as needed in a pinch, not really part of strategy (except for the aforementioned use of bombs sometimes). Arrow storm and Escape are relatively infrequent.
Anyway, my simplified method of choosing bows is fast=good, slow=bad. Yes, I also look at what the tradeoffs are for other attributes and how much punch it has, but I have tried a few slow bows (not switching primary, just trying out a good drop) and did not care for it, but I had a bias going into the test.
Is there more to the story?

 

Attack speeds matter a lot less now (unless you're a tierstack melee user).

In 1.20, Life Steal and Mana Steal had a % chance to trigger on a melee attack, with the rate increasing the slower your attack speed got. Now, Life Steal and Mana Steal trigger 100% of the time, but at reduced values the higher your attack speed is

It's also worth noting Powder Specials have their charge time altered depending on the attack speed (Slower attack speeds = larger % of your powder charging). This hasn't changed from 1.20 as far as I'm aware.

Unless your build is relying entirely on Life Steal and Mana Steal for sustain, I wouldn't worry about attack speed and just use what fits your playstyle

 

But my play style makes attack speed really relevant. I thought maybe I wasn't remembering my prior experiment correctly and that it meant something different, so I grabbed an Eruption at a decent price on the market; I will just turn it around after my experiment. It does mean what I remembered. I compared an Eruption to the Thunderbolt, which as about as far apart as you can get. With the Thunderbolt, in the short to medium range, I can have 2 to 3 shots in the air at a time. With triple shot, that's 9 arrows. With the Eruption, the first shot lands well before it will take a second. It does have significantly more impact (bows aren't apples to apples to begin with). A solid single shot did take out some lv 40+ mobs, but it usually took 2. Missing is a big problem, because I had them in my face. With the Thunderbolt, it may take 4 or 5 shots, but they are rapid fire and a miss here and there is less of an issue. The Eruption seems like more of a sharpshooter bow. I can see carrying it for bomb shots. I hate what it does to my walking speed op top of the shooting speed.

 

You could use Homing Shot alongside Triple Arrow to increase your hit chance. Don't add Focus to your ability cuz TriArrow is the worse pair for Focus. Homing with TriArrow and Fast+ AS sounds like a nightmare to me if I ever fight you. My suggestion is to find a bow that has a slow to fast AS and find an armor that could increase your AS like Soarfae(assuming you're max leveled) and use it alongside my ability suggestion.

 

I am not sure all those are compatible; some boltslinger abilities block some sharpshooter. Not sure where homing is; just looking over the tree. But the misses I am talking about are often in situations where homing wouldn't help; it's more likely the wrong one out of a group. It's from the habit of using really fast bows with triple shot; I start firing while still turning.

 

Faster attack speed weapons tend to be weaker damage wise since you're hitting enemies more often.

I mentioned tierstack earlier, which is taking a slow attack speed weapon and increasing the attack speed using gear (probably the most popular playstyle regarding Melee).

It's possible to get triple shots and homing arrows together but it's unreliable when paired with Focus. You're better off sticking with a singular arrow and grabbing Power Shots if you care more about building up Focus to deal more damage (that or you have to risk being in close range with your opponents if you want to guarantee Triple Shots actually lands)

 

I don't have much trouble with aim when I stop and shoot. It's with the run and gun style of play I enjoy when I am kind of missing on purpose to aim, if that makes any sense; swinging toward the target already shooting and stopping when I am in the right spot. Thunderbolt is a pretty strong bow, but absolutely requires multiple shots on the lv 40+ mobs.
I am not sure there is gear out there that would close the gap between the two I experimented with - Thunderbolt and Eruption. It's a factor of 4 or 5.

 

Yeah getting +tier attack speed is a bit tricky early game, it's definitely easier to get at late game