Rowan's

So me and my friends and guild mates have been debating whether to use rowan's before I get some bow from icc, and from reading old threads it seems to me to be the best option but I wanted to ask here too if there is someone disagreeing with it and why? And also if I should write the gearscore of it when I'm looking for a pug/guild message. Thanks in advance.

Apart from it being the easiest ranged weapon to get for a fresh 80, the crossbow from PoS HC is a lot better in terms of stats. You can also get a 239ilvl bow/xbow for VPs which will be an even better upgrade. But if you don't have another choice the gun will do for starters. Then you can change it from the previously mentioned PoS, ToC or ICC

Yes, Rowan's sheer DPS stat makes it superior to virtually everything before ICC (roughly equal to or slightly weaker than the TOC 25 bow, not sure about the specifics). I wouldn't change it before then, especially considering the gearscore loss (as well as the fact that your DPS will barely increase, if it even does). I don't particularly like prioritizing gearscore either, but it DOES help you get into raids much easier, so that to me is a far bigger bonus than having a bit more DPS on bosses you can't fight anyway since you can't get into the raid in the first place.

There is no better weapon pre ICC than Rowans, it might give agility instead of strength/dodge but its still a decent DPS loss,so it is basically worse than Rowans (bow from POS)