With regards to the bow: by default, it’s really bad in crowded situations because the Special doesn’t do that much damage, and the Attack can only hit several enemies if they’re lined up for piercing damage. Plus, both the Attack and the Special open you for hits since it takes a bit to fire.:
What makes combat easier in my opinion:
- Get the Deadalus upgrade that will let the arrow bounce around and hit up to 3 additional enemies. This makes crowd control easier and also enables to hit enemies that are out of your line of sight. Combined with boons like the ones from Ares, Poseidon or Zeus, this allows for some decent damage.
- Upgrade the Special with boons from Ares or Zeus. Base damage is low, but the boons will add to the punch.
- Upgrade the Aspect of Chiron - that will result in all your Special arrows automatically seeking the most recent enemy hit by your Attack. That means all of them will hit that target. This works up to three times if executed right after an Attack. (After which the Special will return to its standard spread form until you hit an enemy with your Attack again.) This makes things a lot easier against normal enemies and bosses because after you hit an enemies with your Attack, you always get to fire up to three Specials while being able to to zip around and don’t care where the enemy is because those Specials will hit regardless. You’ll usually be able to keep distance and even hit successfully while standing behind an obstacle. Goes without saying that you definitely want to add a boon to your Special for extra effects.
As for the Poseidon combos, I’ve mentioned it previously: Upgrading the Attack or the Special depending on the weapon and then getting the Wall Slam boon, the Wave Slam boon and the Legendary that will shove enemies twice is going to turn you into an unstoppable beast against groups of enemies. Especially in Elysium and Styx, enemies always end up getting slammed against walls or other obstacles.
The latest update may have rebalanced the boon distribution though, so it might be more difficult (or nearly impossible) to get all of the above in one run.