Guild Wars 2

What is this bearbow cliche? I’ve seen it mentioned in game and on forums, but cannot find it in wiki.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&profile=default&search=bearbow&fulltext=Search
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&profile=default&search=bear+bow&fulltext=Search

It’s a slang term for a very common newbie ranger build – using a bear pet (which has very high health) as a tank while you stand at range and attack with the longbow.

It’s an obvious way to use the ranger (especially now rangers start with longbows) and works ok in most PvE but it gives you absolutely no reason to learn a lot of the games mechanics because most of the time you don’t need to do anything except stand there and wait for enemies to die.

Which then causes problems if those players try to do anything other than open-world PvE, particularly dungeons, WvW, Living Story etc. where enemies and the environment often make this setup ineffective.

As a result it gets a lot of hate – mainly from people who have to deal with those players joining their group or map and then not knowing things like how to dodge or that you need to stand near the rest of your group to share boons. But it also causes issues for the people using it because it gives the impression that either the ranger profession or the game itself has a very steep, sudden learning curve at level 80.

I don’t think it’s the kind of thing that’s worth having a wiki page for though, because it’s not an actual in-game term and as a rule the wiki doesn’t document specific builds.

Okay thanks. My ranger is lvl 26, and I only just put poar bear on my pet switch thing (haven’t used it though). I mainly use Fern Hound, Wolf, and currently using Devourer. Is it that polar bear is “bad”? Or is it just overused?

There is nothing wrong with any of the bears, or with the longbow. Like any pet or weapon (or pretty much any other part of your build) the trick is knowing what their strengths and weaknesses are and when and how to use them effectively.

Bears are tanks – they have high health and toughness but relatively low power and precision so they can take a lot of damage but don’t give out as much as other pets. So when you can use them as a tank they’re great, but if you need to kill an enemy quickly, they’re using a lot of 1-hit KO attacks which will overwhelm even the bear or you’re not able to keep enemies focused on them and not you or your allies you’re better off using something that will do more damage instead.

The same is true for the whole bearbow set-up. No part of it is automatically bad on it’s own, it’s the combination and trying to use it in areas of the game where it doesn’t work that’s the problem.

In open-world PvE you can use pretty much anything. It might make the game harder but it won’t be impossible. But it’s a good idea to experiment as you’re levelling up so you can get a good idea of what your options are, then you’ll be able to switch things around when you need to.

There is also frequent and inappropriate use of longbow skill #4, Point Blank Shot. -_-

Khisanth.2948:

There is also frequent and inappropriate use of longbow skill #4, Point Blank Shot. -_-

There is. Although I’ve also found that some people will blame rangers for every single inappropriate knockback, even when they’re not using a longbow.

It happened to me once in the Mad Kings Labyrinth, even though I kept explaining that I was using a shortbow and sword/torch and therefore didn’t have a knockback skill.

In the end I sat a fight out (literally sat to one side with my pet on passive) and surprise, surprise enemies still went flying. At that point people suddenly “remembered” that other professions have knockbacks too. In this case it was a guardian’s Hammer of Wisdom.

Unfortunately the end result was that the vocal idiots in the group then expanded their list from ‘we should be able to kick rangers from the map’ to ‘we should also be able to block guardians from using any utilities’ so I still went looking for a new map.

Knockback is an interrupt. I use it a lot. If people don’t like it tough on them.

Hume.2876:

Knockback is an interrupt. I use it a lot. If people don’t like it tough on them.

Why not try some of the other skills that don’t move targets out of other peoples melee range? That’s why people complain. Here’s some skills you could use to mitigate damage and not annoy anyone around you -

List of Ranger evades -

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Power_Stab – skill 3 on the Greatsword auto attack chain
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Swoop
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hornet_Sting
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Serpent%27s_Strike
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stalker%27s_Strike
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lightning_Reflexes

List of Ranger Interrupts (with no movement) -

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hilt_Bash
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Concussion_Shot
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Thunderclap – only applicable if downed

As said earlier, the main reason the overall “bearbow cliche” is a problem is that you don’t learn the mechanics of the game and your profession well enough. Below are several:

For many mobs (but not all), toughness and proximity matter for deciding who to aggro on. This often means that the bear will take the aggro while the ranger can safely range. While easy and safe, you do not get to learn what skills you need to dodge, and what you can easily absorb. Problems occur when you get a mob that doesn’t follow the typical aggro rules, or if there is a 1-shot that can even kill a bear.

When running with a group, there are often shared buffs between group or party members (Banners, shout, virtues, Phalanx Strength, and blast finisher might, blast finisher healing are only some examples). These buffs typically have a fairly small radius from the source. If the majority of your group is in melee, or in short range (longbow has a longer range when traited than anything except grenades), for optimal power the longbow ranger will have to be away from the group. Therefore, the ranger will not benefit from any shared party buffs.

While longbow has great burst potential, its sustained damage is a bit lower than greatsword and a lot lower than sword/x (albeit, one handed sword can be frustrating to use). In addition, the traits needed to boost the power of longbow tend to be “selfish”. They only boost the power of the ranger, rather than boosting the power of the party (ie Spotter, traited Frost Spirit).

Point Blank Shot, as said earlier, is another common annoyance. When used well, this skill is a huge help to a group. When used haphazardly, this skill is extremely frustrating. Pushing something into a wall so the melees can keep it in place, pushing a ready to explode Risen Plague Carrier out of a melee group, removing a stack of Defiance, and knocking someone off a cliff in WvW, or off a point in sPvP are great uses.

While Point Blank Shot is an interrupt, interrupts in GW2 are far weaker than they were in GW1. Aside from a few skills, interrupting a mob’s dangerous attack in GW2 will only put the skill on a 4 second (IIRC) cooldown. The extremely short cooldown can be dangerous for the group as they may have burnt dodges and are now low on resources.

There are situations where bears and longbows in combination are very useful, but there are also far more situations where they are not. Eventually you will want to carry one of each weapon, and swap weapons, utilities, pets, and traits depending on what you’re encountering. We just need templates like GW1 to make the swaps easier.

Point blank shot is a lifesaver when youre on your own. Used with care, it can be a lifesaver elsewhere too. Mostly for the interrupt.
Its a common belief that rangers are able to predict the future, as a ranger should be aware that someone with a leap attack is running up from behind you, and just as you use your point blank shot to stop the mob youre fighting from rushing you, you ruin the other players impressive leap. On purpose, no doubt about it.
Still, seeing the impressive leaper later, on the ground with a mob gnawing off his right leg and only use autoattack to try to save him, oh Im so sorry, didnt manage to kill it fast enough to save you. Could of course used my knockback, but I thought you didnt like that. WP please, youre scaling

Since this thread is about rangers, I have one thing to add.

Do not spam point blank shot to knock back enemies when in a group or zerg. It’s incredibly annoying for melee players and you disrupt their attack chains.

JoeytheHutt.1742:

Point blank shot is a lifesaver when youre on your own. Used with care, it can be a lifesaver elsewhere too. Mostly for the interrupt.
Its a common belief that rangers are able to predict the future, as a ranger should be aware that someone with a leap attack is running up from behind you, and just as you use your point blank shot to stop the mob youre fighting from rushing you, you ruin the other players impressive leap. On purpose, no doubt about it.
Still, seeing the impressive leaper later, on the ground with a mob gnawing off his right leg and only use autoattack to try to save him, oh Im so sorry, didnt manage to kill it fast enough to save you. Could of course used my knockback, but I thought you didnt like that. WP please, youre scaling

We’re not talking about screwing up leap attacks. It’s more a case of players are already in melee range, until point blank shot comes out, whereupon the group’s damage output drops by at least 50% in trade for the ranger doing 25% more damage. Gloryhunter much?

Bob F It.5701:

JoeytheHutt.1742:

Point blank shot is a lifesaver when youre on your own. Used with care, it can be a lifesaver elsewhere too. Mostly for the interrupt.
Its a common belief that rangers are able to predict the future, as a ranger should be aware that someone with a leap attack is running up from behind you, and just as you use your point blank shot to stop the mob youre fighting from rushing you, you ruin the other players impressive leap. On purpose, no doubt about it.
Still, seeing the impressive leaper later, on the ground with a mob gnawing off his right leg and only use autoattack to try to save him, oh Im so sorry, didnt manage to kill it fast enough to save you. Could of course used my knockback, but I thought you didnt like that. WP please, youre scaling

We’re not talking about screwing up leap attacks. It’s more a case of players are already in melee range, until point blank shot comes out, whereupon the group’s damage output drops by at least 50% in trade for the ranger doing 25% more damage. Gloryhunter much?

I’ve often tried to explain to people why they shouldn’t use that skill when playing with a group and in my experience it’s extremely rare for it to be a deliberate attempt to push an enemy away from other players. There is absolutely no benefit to them in doing that. In the vast majority of cases they have no idea they were causing it.

Which goes back to what we were saying earlier about the problem with bearbow being you never learn a lot of basic mechanics. That includes what your skills do. If your approach to the game is to select a target, push buttons and wait for them to die you’re unlikely to make any connection between what button you push and what happens to the enemy.

Bob F It.5701:

JoeytheHutt.1742:

Point blank shot is a lifesaver when youre on your own. Used with care, it can be a lifesaver elsewhere too. Mostly for the interrupt.
Its a common belief that rangers are able to predict the future, as a ranger should be aware that someone with a leap attack is running up from behind you, and just as you use your point blank shot to stop the mob youre fighting from rushing you, you ruin the other players impressive leap. On purpose, no doubt about it.
Still, seeing the impressive leaper later, on the ground with a mob gnawing off his right leg and only use autoattack to try to save him, oh Im so sorry, didnt manage to kill it fast enough to save you. Could of course used my knockback, but I thought you didnt like that. WP please, youre scaling

We’re not talking about screwing up leap attacks. It’s more a case of players are already in melee range, until point blank shot comes out, whereupon the group’s damage output drops by at least 50% in trade for the ranger doing 25% more damage. Gloryhunter much?

Not sure what a gloryhunter is.
I know what “we” are talking about, and I agree with most of it. Rangers have pushed mobs away from me to. It is annoying, sometimes its probably trolling, but most of the time I think its not. I also agree that dungeons can be a nasty surprise for ppl who have ranged away behind their pet to lvl 80.
BUT, some people have a thing about blaming the ranger, almost like some hate the zerker meta, or dungeonselling. And, as I tried to point out with my true story, the blaming isnt always justified. It is a part of the package though, and something newcomers should be aware of.

I can think of a lovely time to use the knockback: At Amber in SW, when the Husk Slingers persist in standing out of cannon range. Get behind the slinger, and fling it into a withering fusillade from the ramparts. (I’ve done that on my thief using the Steal knockback we get from husks, it’s glorious).

Donari.5237:

I can think of a lovely time to use the knockback: At Amber in SW, when the Husk Slingers persist in standing out of cannon range. Get behind the slinger, and fling it into a withering fusillade from the ramparts. (I’ve done that on my thief using the Steal knockback we get from husks, it’s glorious).

I’ve managed to use knock back form time to time to do something similar. I think that the lesson here is that bear bow can benefit greatly from moving. Don’t just stand around and pew-pew. Ranger has great mobility, and the pets are a bonus if used correctly.

Unfortunately, the “Bearbow” playstyle teaches (and thus rewards) lazy, immobile ranged combat with nearly no dodging practice.. The likely hood of a Bearbow only player knowing what to do in a situation that insta-kills their pet and then drops more HUGE damage on them is nearly zilch.

Not saying all players that use the Bearbow combo are like this (I use longbow with a Drake or Cat with my own Ranger), but I’ve seen far too many in-game examples to state the cliche does not have it’s reason to exist….

Brother Grimm.5176:

Unfortunately, the “Bearbow” playstyle teaches (and thus rewards) lazy, immobile ranged combat with nearly no dodging practice.. The likely hood of a Bearbow only player knowing what to do in a situation that insta-kills their pet and then drops more HUGE damage on them is nearly zilch.

Not saying all players that use the Bearbow combo are like this (I use longbow with a Drake or Cat with my own Ranger), but I’ve seen far too many in-game examples to state the cliche does not have it’s reason to exist….

Exactly. Not everyone who uses bearbow is a bad ranger and in itself it’s not a bad build.

It’s only really a problem if you start using it very early on because then you miss the opportunity to learn a lot of mechanics, and may not even realise you’re missing anything.

I have to say I count myself lucky that I found it kind of boring and wanted to build my ranger along the lines of my main character in other RPGs – where I usually use a sword as my main weapon.

Danikat.8537:

Exactly. Not everyone who uses bearbow is a bad ranger and in itself it’s not a bad build.

No, it really is a bad build. The bear is tankier than any content in the game requires even for terrible players. A drake is much higher DPS, cleaves, and has a blast finisher, and can tank any boss in-game as needed if you need that bulk. The loss of DPS from the bear is so significant that the Ranger as a whole becomes lower DPS than any other class with a proper build (and even many without).

Ranger with a meta build is already ranked 7th in term of dps, so using a Bearbow build on top of that is just terrible. But for casual solo play, it’s a great build.

Ranger with a meta build since the introduction of Predator’s Onslaught, the DPS buff to LB2, and the fixing of FS very nearly ties with a Warrior in terms of DPS, and is definitely not ranked 7th.