Guild Wars 2

I typically play ranger/hunter/archer types classes. However, GW2 offers 3 classes that can use bows. I am curious which I should choose if I want to be the traditional bow-wielding type character.

I play PvE dungeons, world events, and WvW. I don’t mind playing a support role, just so long as I can pew pew arrows.

Thief: The greatest fictional archer ever, Robin Hood, was a thief. So this makes sense, but can a thief use a shortbow as a main weapon and be effective?

Ranger: Standard beastmaster/ranger type class, so this is obvious, but I hear a lot of negative stuff about how ranger melee weapons are superior to bows.

Warrior: Heavy armor and a bow? Sounds pretty tough, but like the thief, can a warrior use a bow as a main weapon and be effective?

What would be an secondary weapon swap for these professions if I used a bow as a main weapon?

Thanks for your help!!

Among my characters, I have a thief, two rangers, and a warrior. For open world PVE, I’m going to say that my warrior is the most fun to play when it comes to mowing down foes with a bow. I seldom do dungeons or wvw so I can’t say how the warrior would fare or compare there.

My thief, in addition to her shortbow (slingshot), generally uses two daggers.
My first ranger uses an axe with a war horn or torch, and a shortbow.
My second ranger, still a work in progress, is currently mostly using a greatsword and a longbow.
My warrior uses an axe and a mace, and of course, a longbow.

A side note in regard to rangers: I still tend to think of rangers as warriors who range through the wilderness rather than ‘archers’ who attack at range. This is due of course to the influence of Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings, as well as the ranger class from 1st and 2nd edition AD&D. Further, I really wish the GW2 ranger could leave their pets at home, like their GW1 counterparts of old.

Rangers aren’t bad. They have the longest range in game and the long bow does decent damage. Recent changes to some longbow skills also added some minor improvements towards them. If you want to play a true archer ranger is the way to go. If you just want to pew arrows, thief and warrior are equally good classes. Thief has shortbow with 1200 range I think? or was it 900 and warrior has rifle which has between 1200-1500 range (depends if you trait) and longbow which is 1200. I however, prefer a rifle on my warrior.

Ranger has by far the longest, 1500 + another 100 something if you trait for it.

Thief short bow makes a fine main weapon in PvE, but it is usually a secondary weapon in PvP. You don’t really feel like an archer though, more like a guerilla, infiltrator, or even saboteur.

The ranger feels the most like an archer, and in PvE their melee weapons are not in any way superior to their ranged, they just work a little faster, like fractions of a second off each mob. If you’re not a farmer, you won’t even notice.

No idea on the warrior, I’ve played one but never with the longbow. I lurv my hammer too much

EDIT: Just played around with the warrior bow a little bit, it feels… really heavy. Not sure what aesthetic they were going for but it feels slow and impactful, almost like a walking siege engine, a ballista for example… with fire, lots of fire.

To tell the truth, it feels like what the Ele staff should have felt like, had ANet not utterly failed on that front.

Lafiel.9372:

Rangers aren’t bad. They have the longest range in game and the long bow does decent damage. Recent changes to some longbow skills also added some minor improvements towards them. If you want to play a true archer ranger is the way to go. If you just want to pew arrows, thief and warrior are equally good classes. Thief has shortbow with 1200 range I think? or was it 900 and warrior has rifle which has between 1200-1500 range (depends if you trait) and longbow which is 1200. I however, prefer a rifle on my warrior.

Ranger has by far the longest, 1500 + another 100 something if you trait for it.

Incorrect, ranger has 1200 range and 1500 if you spec for it. And iirc, Engi can have 1500 range too with grenades.

I personally have played ranger using one of the two bows since release, and have never felt an archer feel. Might just be me, though,

Ranger is da best archer imo.

To me, Ranger is like a cross between Warrior and Thief with superior archery skill and they have decent melee capability too. And you will not feel lonely ever because Teddy is always there for ya.

Ranger. They use short and longbow. My ranger usually has both weapons set to those, using lognbow for long range, and shortbow for close up fights.

Warriors can only use longbow, and thieves can only use shortbow.

Ranger has the best “archer” feel. Can use longbows and shortbows, where-as warriors can only use longbows (and rifles) and thieves are limited to only shortbow. With a pet fighting by your side, you can stay at range far easier with ranger too in open world PvE. In dungeons, warrior longbow damage isn’t reliant on a pet that dies often if not properly managed. Thief shortbow is more a flavor weapon than main source of damage. It’s fun, but best used in conjunction with other skills.

Both Thief and Warrior use their bows as their ranged aoe option. They both are very good at killing multiple enemies and filling a more support role, however neither are great as a main weapon. The Ranger has the option to use both the short or longbow or even both at the same time, which definitely has its place as the longbow excels at extreme ranges and the shortbow excels at mixed(pure and condition) dps and mobility at mid to short range. The Ranger’s downside is that pets make up 30% of you overall damage and have a habit of dying in high aoe situations which has a large effect on your potential damage output in those situations.

As far as the traiting archetypes the Ranger definitely has the most traiting options for bow, followed by the warrior and finally the thief.

Some additional notes: Both the thief (cluster bomb range lowered from 1200 to 900) and the Ranger(all shortbow lowered form 1200 to 900) recently had a nerf to their shortbows so many players of those 2 classes & weapon set have done a fair amount of complaining on forums lately. Rangers and thieves also have a reputation among the elitest dungeon crowds of not being good party members for dungeons, but that doesn’t have a great effect on the average dungeon group and likely won’t effect the soon to come dungeon group finder.

There isn’t really a ranged class in GW2, also when at ranged in a group you are very weak and a weak link in the group. Gw2 combat mechanics encourage all classes to be in melee no greater distance from each other than a dodge roll for maxium effect.

Having said that Warriors are probably the strongest ranged with a bow now…

Ranger recently got heavily NERFED by having there shortbow range reduced by 25%, all 5 skills!?! So SB is rubbish now, axe is probably better. Also, Longbow still has a major flaw in that the 1 skill, which is always going to be your most used skill is very, very bad and always has been.

Thief shortbow range got nerfed as well, 1 skill by 25% but its not a bad weapon, no cooldowns make it pretty good.

I would always advise having a melee weapon as your alternative.