Composite Bow?

[Wenin]

My character is a Ranger, I'm proficient with bows. I bought a composite bow, and when I examine the bow, it says that it is of the bow category. I'm also an expert in bows.

When I wield the bow, it gives me the following message.

You don't even know which end of a composite bow is up!
You hold a composite bow in both of your hands.


What am I missing here?

[Nylo]

That's a known bug. It's giving you the proficiency message for clubs, rather than bows. It does this regardless of whether you have combatmode: ranged turned on or off. However, it will still roll off your skill with bows as it's supposed to do.

[Raona]

That's a known bug. It's giving you the proficiency message for clubs, rather than bows. It does this regardless of whether you have combatmode: ranged turned on or off. However, it will still roll off your skill with bows as it's supposed to do.

With a composite bow, it is actually reflecting your skill with staves, because a composite bow is wielded as a staff when used as a melee weapon. You can ascertain this by examining the composite bow with
COMBATMODE +RANGED
set. With
COMBATMODE -RANGED
set, it will show that it uses the bows skill for ranged attacks.

Setting
COMBATMODE -RANGED
will cause you to use the bow only as a ranged weapon, even in melee, and only draw on your skill with bows; but you will always get the echo reflecting your skill with staves when you equip it. (That's a known bug without an easy fix.)