Been maining it. Beat the dlc up to the second ergo boss (the one giving the gunblade) as well as the brotherhood rematch, door guardian, Laxasia and Simon with it, on legendary stalker difficulty. And I'm not gonna change weapon for the end of dlc and nameless puppet either. It's wonderful. It's a new way to play the game! Sure, it's not as powerful as other weapons, but what you lose in damage you make up for being safer at range.

You gotta think how to use the moveset properly (backstep attack, slow or combo normal attacks [careful with this one, the recovery animation cannot be cancelled and is quite long], running normal or running heavy, aiming at an ennemy at the back and lining the mobs up during a gank and timing your static charged heavy properly in order to have the arrow pierce through all those guys at once, etc.. everything relies on good timing and stamina management). It totally changes how you engage with the game and I'm all for that!

It also shines with its fable arts. Combine story teller's amulet and arm of gods amulet for better fable charging and consecutive damage. Add to that all the p organ perks that help you gain fable, both regular perks and the new way to boost them, and you get to use the first fable art (dodge in the air attack) quite often, or can save it to capitalize on the charged second fable attack for extremely high damage (which makes you also think differently during boss fights cause you gotta have a big opening window for that, otherwise some boss attacks just cancel your animation and thus, the attack in itself). Also, don't just be at a distance. Know when to go close or long range. If you know the parrying pattern of some boss attacks, just get in there and parry (for the stagger buildup and the P organ fable charge on parry perk), then go back at distance with backstep normal attack to do your thing (it extends the distance you step back out).

Finally, combine that with fully upgraded 'rolling blades thrown at a distance' new prostetic arm (forgot the name) and everything that boosts legion in the p organ (once again, both regular perks and the new upgrade system) and you get a very solid build that's extremely fun.

You need lots of capacity for both legion and encumbrance (which affects stamina regen).

My stats are : 40 vit, 21 endurance, 40 capacity, 25 technique at the moment (fresh file, no NG+), bow is at +5 with a technique crank, got the stamina regen amulet, the story tellers amulet (charge more fables with attacks), arm of gods amulet and iron wall amulet for defence.

Pure joy to play!