I remember reading somewhere that the ranged combat had been addressed in Dark Souls 2, has anyone had a chance to play about with it? I'm talking high-dex based bows and crossbows rather than magic. Has there been any improvement to the aiming or ranged mechanics?

I remember Ian saying during Load Our Last Souls that he played a range-heavy character, though my own experience was that bows were only useful for pulling mobs as oppose to general combat. Is this still the case?

You can shoot while moving and you prep/shoot the arrow faster. Does great single target, not as great for many targets but you're just going to have to figure out how to deal with those situations anyway and there's certainly ways to go about doing it with a bow/firebombs instead of melee.

I suppose I should tell you where the boss soul guy (well the one I've found) is: The petrified guy in the tower, though you should probably open the gate near Majula with your first branch. Dragonrider might be a really easy boss but he sure has a nice bow to give you via that guy; just have to trade it and 1500 souls; no weapon ascension. Requires 20 strength/18 dex, scales better with strength than with dex and also scales with int (B/D/C); doing 250 damage per wood arrow. I still do maybe 85% melee but it's still nice.