Guild Wars 2

So I have been trying to figure out which one is the better option for straight up damage. Some people say the Longbow and many other people say the Shortbow. So I’m not the best math person in the world and these numbers are not 100% accurate so please bare with me.

Longbow (white auto-attacks)

Four auto-attacks total damage – 2560 (average 640 per hit max range)
Attack speed for four hits – About 4.797 seconds or about 72 attacks per minute (About 1.2 attacks a second)

72 attacks x 640 damage = 46,080 damage per minute

Shortbow (white auto-attacks)

Four auto-attacks total damage – 1720 (average 430 per hit max range)
Attack speed for four hits – About 1.891 seconds or about 230 attacks per minute (About 3.8 attacks a second)

230 attacks x 430 damage = 98,900 damage per minute

This is very rough math.. I am no math expert as said before, so if you see issues with my math feel free to correct it. Also, this is ONLY taking into account white auto attack damage. We are not counting critical strikes, bleeds, or abilities.. Just straight up auto-attacks. So my question is, is it intended for the Shortbow to destroy the Longbow in damage like this?

Yeah the short bow hits more damage but they are both for different things longbow has much longer range and then for closer combat you would switch to a short bow or sword.

I do mostly wvw, and I like to run with an Axe/Warhorn and Longbow. I very rarely get to the point where I’m just doing white damage. I start with the warhorn Call of the Wild, toss a Winter’s Bite to slow them down and cycle through Hunter’s Call and Splitblade. Then I switch to Longbow, apply a Hunter’s Shot and then Rapid Fire. I might toss a Barrage to slow them down or Point Blank Shot to keep them from running. Also, I’ve found Point Blank Shot to be a great situational ability – I’ve knocked people off cliffs, or just knocked back a pursuer when I was at low health and trying to get away.

Let me say that I am only 61, and am still (yep, even still) experimenting with weapon combinations and playstyles, so if you’re going to tell me that Shortbow is better, I’m not going to argue – but I’ve found that Axe/Warhorn and Longbow complement my style the best so far. Maybe I’ll switch by the time I hit 80, we’ll see

bad math is bad — impossible to tell from this.

(how is 50 attacks per minute 1.2 attacks per second?)

It’s really gonna depend on the 2-5 skills, your traits, and your gearing choices. A straight-up look at auto-attack will misrepresent.

WvWvW: The shorter range on the shortbow makes it a lot harder for me to hit targets without walking into AoE. It’s also just about impossible to hit people on the walls with the shortbow.

As well, if one of them comes after me, I can Point-Blank them back into the meatgrinder.

mulch.2586:

bad math is bad — impossible to tell from this.

(how is 50 attacks per minute 1.2 attacks per second?)

It’s really gonna depend on the 2-5 skills, your traits, and your gearing choices. A straight-up look at auto-attack will misrepresent.

LOL!

What happened there is that for the Longbow, I decided to count in my head for 60 seconds per auto attack.. I lost count and then said to myself “I think I was at 50”. I did the Shortbow differently, I just didn’t go back and do the Longbow the same way I did the Shortbow.. So let me fix that.

I think this game forever will be about what choice of weapons best compliments YOUR playstyle. That being said I use both a shortbow and longbow cycling between the two… it works great and it helps satisfy my love for bows. Although I’ll always prefer the Longbow

Piccolo.7296:

mulch.2586:

bad math is bad — impossible to tell from this.

(how is 50 attacks per minute 1.2 attacks per second?)

It’s really gonna depend on the 2-5 skills, your traits, and your gearing choices. A straight-up look at auto-attack will misrepresent.

LOL!

What happened there is that for the Longbow, I decided to count in my head for 60 seconds per auto attack.. I lost count and then said to myself “I think I was at 50”. I did the Shortbow differently, I just didn’t go back and do the Longbow the same way I did the Shortbow.. So let me fix that.

im confused why you would post if you weren’t sure/messed up…

Also people!!! you don’t stand still and hit your buttons you’re always moving!
Try different builds out and find out something that fits you well, don’t relay on peoples damage math… If you’re playing this game by rolling with the build that does the most damage just because someone said so, i suggest you back to your old mmo…

One word: stopwatch!

:P

I personally prefer the shortbow just because I can actually put out more damage just because of the firing speed. That alone is an upgrade from the raw damage from the longbow, plus I might get the occasional bleed in. I can control where I am in combat (3) and control their movements with 4 and 5, as well as traps. So if you run shortbow, take the time to get skill points for at least the basic and fire traps for if you have to kite.

But, if you want more control and AoE, longbow’s the way to go. I personally use longbow in WvW simply for the range and Barrage’s AoE – which can clear out a large circle of players very quickly. For WvW I find myself alternating between longbow and shortbow mainly, with axe/warhorn or torch. If I’m fighting on top of a keep, I’ll equip my longbow. If I’m going to be jumping down to get in everything, I’ll throw my shortbow on so I can stack bleeds on anyone I’m chasing (and skill 5 would also knock them down for a second or two).

In PvE, I usually just stick with the shortbow with axe/warhorn or axe/torch just because I can always kite and throw down my traps if it gets close.

I use and have both….different tools for different jobs / mobs. Though I tend towards shortbow about 70% of the time.

But I keep other weapons in my pack all the time depending on the mobs.

Raf

I mostly run with the long bow. In normal PvE it works well. Most 1 or 2 enemy fights my pet will take all the aggro and I just light them up from a distance. Group Events I’m usually good with the longbow as well as I can put down a lot of damage from a long distance without being in range of the boss’s attacks. Also Barrage is nice for large groups of enemies. Point blank shot is nice for getting enemies away from you or knocking them back into some AoE. I’ve also got this trait that allows my arrows to penetrate which does wonders. Generally I can aim for the furthest enemy and my arrows will hit everything in between so that nearly all the enemies die at the same time. Very useful imo.

But lately in my personal story quests (which I’ve been doing solo) I’ve had trouble sticking with the longbow. The enemies often ignore my pet and come right at me. There’s only so much I can do to keep them away so I’ve been switching to short bow for those kind of fights since I’m much more mobile. Adding the condition damage you get with shortbow is really nice and the number 3 skill makes you jump back and gives you swiftness so it’s great when you’re in a pickle. All shortbow skills seem to recharge much faster so I feel more able to react to multiple enemies trying to close the gap on me.

mulch.2586:

bad math is bad — impossible to tell from this.

(how is 50 attacks per minute 1.2 attacks per second?)

It’s really gonna depend on the 2-5 skills, your traits, and your gearing choices. A straight-up look at auto-attack will misrepresent.

blue.8629:

Piccolo.7296:

mulch.2586:

bad math is bad — impossible to tell from this.

(how is 50 attacks per minute 1.2 attacks per second?)

It’s really gonna depend on the 2-5 skills, your traits, and your gearing choices. A straight-up look at auto-attack will misrepresent.

LOL!

What happened there is that for the Longbow, I decided to count in my head for 60 seconds per auto attack.. I lost count and then said to myself “I think I was at 50”. I did the Shortbow differently, I just didn’t go back and do the Longbow the same way I did the Shortbow.. So let me fix that.

im confused why you would post if you weren’t sure/messed up…

Also people!!! you don’t stand still and hit your buttons you’re always moving!
Try different builds out and find out something that fits you well, don’t relay on peoples damage math… If you’re playing this game by rolling with the build that does the most damage just because someone said so, i suggest you back to your old mmo…

You guys need to lighten up some. He made a mistake. He divided the number of seconds in a minute by the number of attacks (60 / 50 = 1.2), which gives the number of seconds per attack, rather than dividing the number of attacks by the time in seconds it took (50 / 60 = .83) to get the number of attacks per second. It is a simple mistake, not a crime against humanity. After all, it has been proven that 5 out of 4 people have problems with math.

I also noticed that the Short Bow seem to deal more damage, or at least faster than the long bow.
For now, I will use the Short Bow more often.
Indeed, the range is not the same as for the Long Bow, but you can’t have everything

The way I’m seeing it;
Longbow = PVP due to range, and group events due to AOE
Shortbow = Standard PVE, due to superior dps

I mean extra damage for extra distance can be annoying in dungeons when you don’t always have the space, and most of the time you can keep up around 10bleeds at a time. Alot of ranger builds have alot of conditional damage too – giving shortbow even more dps.