I hope there will be an archer class

they were never trash, at least in PvE

I just want bows to be a viable main weapon option in PVE.

Bows and xbows have always been useful in souls games.

Yeah, I found it. It's a reward from doing the "Champion's Song" painting.

Sadly the harp weapon unless someone has found another purpose for it is just a lower damage varient of the dex scaling bows. More for style/flavor. A trumpet build will need one of these to function properly.

A strength based Shortbow? That is definitely worth a look!

Someone did the math on several builds and although all of these bows deal pretty close damage this one edges them out a bit when built right. They did alot of tests at several strength and dex combinations. This is also a good thing because this means if you use this bow you can also efficiently use many greatbows in the same build. Black bow is still by far the best since it gets regular bow scaling and light bow characteristics but I think this is a close second not counting great bows.

Uses barrage

Thats a longbow

Shortbow has E scaling only, so both red and composite are superior. If only by a little.

Composite bow will always out damage the short bow after meeting its requirements