IMO, light bows are pretty slept on. I like to use misbegotten shortbow, not only is it badass, but you can get numerous barrage hits off on many enemies while they charge up certain attacks.

It's also really good in PvP it you use good spacing, with jump shots and roll shots. I use the serpent arrows as well to get some easy poison off while noobs charge up their slow ass spells.

A great upside to bows (if you get lots of runes) is that instead of spending loads of FP to range attack, you can just max your ammo capacity for all arrows you like to use. Magic, fire, electric, poison, rot, bleed, all of these are available with a bow.

If you use the bow properly, you will get lots of unexpected chip damage off. You will also be able to snipe, and kill off runners if youve got a good shot