A lot of people have been speculating about the best ranged weapon in the game, and therefore I've been checking the damage and the charging time of various ranged weapons, and here are the results I came up with in hitpoints per minute. For the purposes of these calculations, I used that weapon's average damage per shot. Note that most of these numbers are theoretical; for many throwing weapons, your actual DPM will be limited by how fast you can switch hotbar slots. Also, the fierce modifier, if applicable, will increase your damage by 1.6 times.
Ranged Weapons[]
Plates & Chestnuts[]
Range: Plate: Medium, Chestnut: Short
Both of these weapons do 1 HP per hit. Since you can throw up to 240 of these per minute, this means that your DPM comes to 240. As throwing weapons, they can't receive bow modifiers.
Slings[]
Range: Short
Although the sling has low damage per shot, it has a very high RPM, and thus its DPM comes to 360, with up to 576 possible given the fierce modifier.
Tauredain Blowgun[]
With its high RPM, this weapon deals approximately 960 DPM, and 1,536 with the fierce modifier.
Crossbows[]
Range: Medium
Despite their high damage per shot, these weapons have a low RPM of around 16, which means that their DPM isn't nearly as high as you might think. They are also somewhat hindered by their range, which is somewhat less than that of a bow. Notably, even the mithril crossbow deals less damage per minute than the sling.
- Bronze: 232
- Iron: 240
- Uruk: 272
- Mithril: 296
- Mithril with Fierce: 474
Spears[]
Range: Medium
Since all spears have a charge time of around 20 ticks (I assume), their RPM comes to around 60. I am not sure whether melee attack modifiers have any effect on throwing weapons such as spears.
- Bronze: 690
- Iron: 780
- All spears that deal 5.5 HP of melee damage (Gondorian, Rohirric, Mordor, etc.): 780
- All spears that deal 6 HP of melee damage (Black Uruk, Uruk, Utumno, High Elven, etc.): 930
- Utumno: 990
- Mithril: 1,230
Bows[]
Range: Long
When it comes to bows, the Free Peoples definitely have the advantage:
- Gundabad Uruk: 460
- Black Uruk: 480
- Mallorn: 540
- Ranger: 540
- Rohirric: 540
- Vanilla bow: 540
- Orc: 540
- Harad: 600
- Dalish: 660
- Rhunic: 675
- Blackroot: 690
- Utumno: 720
- Mirkwood: 771.4
- Gondorian: 810
- Galadhrim/High Elven: 1,237.5
- Galadhrim/High Elven with fierce: 1,980
Throwing axes[]
Range: Short
With their high RPM (in theory, up to 240), these weapons feature the greatest DPM of any ranged weapon in the mod. They do, however, not have a very long range (10-12 blocks at most). They can receive melee weapon modifiers, too.
- Bronze: 1,320
- Iron: 1,440
- Dwarven/Blue Dwarven: 1,680
- Dwarven/Blue Dwarven with Legendary: 2,400
Conclusion[]
Judged solely by the theoretical damage dealt per minute, throwing axes are unbeaten. However, it is almost impossible for a player to deal this much damage in a minute as they could never refill their hotbar fast enough to achieve this high DPM. In actual fact, once reloading is taken into account, the best ranged weapons are probably the Galadhrim and High Elven bows, owing to their speed, strength, and long range, although the Gondorian bow is up there too.
Although crossbows have a fairly low DPM (lower than that of a sling), their advantage is that they can be fired instantly once locked and loaded. Of all the weapons that can be shot instantly, they deal the most damage per shot, and thus are a great way to weaken your opponent before closing in for the kill using other weapons. In fact, it is possible to one-hit many regular NPC's if you use a mithril crossbow with the fierce modifier, as it deals, on average, 40.8 HP, which will bring down almost all humanoids in one, or at the most, two shots.
This review also proves that plates and conkers (especially conkers, as they can be recovered) can be formidable weapons.
In the end, good combat strategies and adequate supplies of ammunition are the most important factor dictating whether or not you will win a fight.