Guild Wars 2

So basically I made a thief and i really enjoy the shortbow, but most people i ask say it’s useless… So does anyone know a thief build that utilises the shortbow and is really effective in pve/wvw?

Those people are idiots and i really suggest never taking advice from them again. There’s a reason almost every single thief build (and i do mean every) uses a shortbows as an off-swap. That said it is more of a utility weapon, something you swap to only when you really need it,, or for bigger groups.

Here is a pure shortbow build i put together. You want to swap bows on cooldown to get initiative, extra dodges, and life stealing. You’ve also got insane initiative regen so you can spam cluster bombs for days

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQJAVVl0Mp7p9OxwJ8PNBPBt9AmdA8KKdHkaMDA-T1xHwACuCA+U+5VXgq9HirEEwjAQv6PkCwclRA-w

The short-bow on thief is a must have, gives you great mobility and AoE for the group fights in WvW.

That said you shouldn’t build for it because there are more important and useful things, but you should definitely have it.

It’s a support thing. You have a spammable blast finisher on Cluster Bomb, and a good escape tool on Infiltrators Arrow, but that’s about all it’s good for. Don’t build about the shortbow, it’s awful for combat.

SB is mostly “glued” to a Thief’s second weapon set because whenever you don’t have it as a second, you always wish you had it. However, it’s an atrocious choice for the first set.

Thief Short-bow is far from useless, but I’m not sure it should be your main weapon. It has plenty of utility uses, but it’s base damage is lacking any serious punch.

One other thing is that I’m thinking it is the only class/weapon combo that does not have any specific traits that improve it’s use directly. Not sure why that is.

As mentioned above, this is usually ALWAYS my Thief’s 2nd weapon.

Im an odd thief that I never use SB. I used it while leveling, and once I hit 80 and the age of damage, I dropped it in favor of P/P and S/P for pve content.

If you are fighting in WvW or PvP, however, shortbow MUST be on list. It is invaluable utility that thieves need.