Guild Wars 2

I’m surprised that there’s little representation for a bow among the scholar professions despite it being rather symbolic of a weapon and is sometimes the weapon of choice for back-line cloth-wearing classes from other RPG games. I think it’d fit nicely on Elementalist since they have no actual ‘direct attack’ weapon (all their weapons are more a focus for an element) and no casters use it yet, not to mention eles only have one option for a two-hander while mesmer gets 2.

So this weapon, I was hoping someone else would write up an idea for it but since no one has, I’ll give you my spin on it. It’s a long ranged (of course), mainly single target damage set. I could see Elementalist the class getting both short and longbow with different flavors of attack, but only focusing on Longbow.

Fire
1. Flame Bolt – shoot a bolt of fire from your bow at a single foe. Projectile Finisher, [1200 range]
—1.1 Meteor Bolt – conjure a meteor to strike down from the sky, damaging a foe and burning them. [1200 range]

2. Sun Shot – create a searing area at the target location. Pulses 4 times over 5 seconds that causes damage to all burning foes while converting blindness to might for all allies. [1200 range; 160 radius]

3. Heat Strike – fires a bolt that hits the target, damaging them while exploding in a brilliant burst of heat that burns nearby foes. [1200 range; 90 radius]

4. Salamander Tongue – your next spells get a touch of the fire salamander’s magic. Your next 2 longbow skills explode in a burst of fire that damages all foes in the area of the attack (note: that’s any longbow skills. attunement swapping doesn’t count however) [Instant cast; attacks get 160 radius]

5. Salamander’s Might – focus the salamander’s magic around you, creating a field of fire that grants you and allies might every few seconds. Combo Field: Fire. Does not actually do damage. [300 radius]

Water
1. Aqua Arrow – shoot an arcing shot that deals damage to the enemy and heals allies around the point of impact. Projectile Finisher[1200 range]

2. Blizzard Volley – rapid fire bolts of ice at an enemy and inflicts vulnerability with each hit. Chance of Projectile Finisher [1200 range]

3. Comet Arrow – quickly fire an arrow into the air that comes down to impact the target. Targeting an ally will heal them for a moderate amount of health while targeting a foe will freeze them in a block of ice. Either way, an ice field will be created under the target’s feet. Combo Field: Ice. [1200 range; 240 radius]

4. Crystal Slippers – shoot a quick traveling pulse of cold at your target that freezes their legs, chilling and immobilizing them. [900 range]

5. Dancing Waterfalls – create a pool of dancing water around you that grants allies within it regeneration and blocks 2 attacks for yourself only. Combo Field: Water[240 radius]

I’d settle for any new 2-handed ele weapon. Longbow, GS, Hammer, Rifle, whatever.

Air
1. Static Bolt – Fire a speedy arrow that streaks with electricity to shock your foe. Projectile Finisher [1200 range]

2. Blinding Shot – Fire a speedy arrow that blinds the target on impact. [1200 range]

3. Channel Hurricane – Create a slow moving ball of air that will knock back a target on impact [600 range]

4. Archer of the Skys – Empower all your longbow projectiles to pierce the target on the next two shots. Also grants swiftness to yourself and nearby allies. [Instant Cast; 500 radius]

5. Thunder God Arrow – Charge an arrow with all the sky’s power that flies out to strike the target for extreme damage. [1500 range]

Earth
1. Earth Splinters – Fire two arrow shaped splinters of rock that cause bleeding to the target. Projectile Finisher [1200 range]

2. Shatter Arrow – Fire a brittle arrow at the target that does some damage to the foe. Upon impact, the attack creates a small field of sharp gravel that cripples and bleeds those that walk through it. Projectile Finisher [1200 range; 90 radius]

3. Obsidian Arrows – Conjure powerful arrows of obsidian that will harm vulnerable foes greatly. The next 2 longbow skills deal heavy additional damage to bleeding foes. [Instant Cast]

4. Magnetic Pulse Arrow – Fires an arrow at the target location to create a bubble that reflects projectiles. [900 range]

5. Gravity Blow – Fire a large dense arrow of rock at the target location that weighs down the field in three pulses. With each pulse, it will cripple. Foes that are crippled will be immobilized and foes that are immobilized receive damage. Blast Finisher [900 range; 240 radius]

This is more of a WvW castle keep weapon. It’s somewhat versatile but it doesn’t have the AoE or support of staff, mobility of dagger or defense of focus. It’s specialty is, again, ranged ST damage.

Traits
-Blasting Staff would also improve the area of some of this weapon’s skills (area of Salamander Tongue, Salamander’s Might, Comet Arrow, Dancing Waterfalls, Magnetic Pulse Arrow and Gravity Blow).

-Conjurer would grant 2 extra charges to Obsidian Arrows, Archer of the Skys and Salamader’s Tongue.

Extras
-Salamander’s Tongue would basically work with any of your longbow skills. Even ones that don’t have a target, the blast would take affect around the caster.

-Archer of the Skys would only work on certain skills otherwise it’d fail. All of Air’s skills, Shatter Arrow and Earth Splinters, Crystal Slippers and Blizzard Volley, Heat Strike and Flame Bolt would all piece after using this skill.

-I’d like Obsidian Arrow to be able to cause damage to the target even if they are blocking, invulnerable or distorted, so long as they are bleeding…but that’s really overpowered :P

-I’d envision Thunder God Arrow as a really long cooldown Killshot with a bit of a charge up as well as flashy visuals.

Unfortunately, you can’t make a weapon JUST for WvW. It has to be thought out for both PvE AND PvP. Not saying that it couldn’t work, but rather coming at it from a “pvp only” perspective is missing the point, because WvW/PvP is only one aspect of GW2

Honestly? I was thinking PvE the whole time I was writing this out. But the reason I mention WvW is because in keep situations, you don’t really need mobility that much. PvP is all about mobility and this weapon isn’t it. You could use it in PvP, just like you could use staff in PvP, but it would be outshined in personal defense.

But in the defense of its PvP usability, I did try to give the weapon some attacks that aren’t reflectable projectiles which is much better than most ranged weapons but is rather standard for elementalist weapons. I’d actually consider my write-up on-par with current scepter and people use that in PvP also…difference being you can pair scepter with some mobility off-hand or a defensive off-hand.

I’ve always been a bow guy and I love this idea.

Currently only rangers and warriors have access to longbow, and in both it’s really subpar.

Personally, I am not too sold on the idea. There are two reasons for this. The idea of an ele using a longbow does seem odd to me. Then again few profession do and it isn’t that bizarre. Still, I just don’t like the idea much.
The main thing is that this weapon doesn’t seem to offer anything “new” really. It doesn’t look to be focused for single targets or aoe, more of a mix of the two. Same for direct damage and conditions. I mean compare your suggested water skill to the staff’s water skills. I won’t say they are exactly the same, but they are very alike (aoe heal for 1, vulnerability for 2, heal for 3, chill for 4, bigger heal for 5). I just don’t see any reason why I’d run this over staff, unless it just proves to be a stronger version of the staff.
If eles do get another weapon, I am hoping it will be something more unique from the weapons they have. This just looks too much like a new staff to me.

BioMasterZap.4350:

Personally, I am not too sold on the idea. There are two reasons for this. The idea of an ele using a longbow does seem odd to me. Then again few profession do and it isn’t that bizarre. Still, I just don’t like the idea much.

Perhaps I’ve just watched too many anime or something then. Or JRPGs because casters using bows and magical arrows doesn’t seem farfetched to me.

The main thing is that this weapon doesn’t seem to offer anything “new” really. It doesn’t look to be focused for single targets or aoe, more of a mix of the two.

I see your point. Although I feel the appeal of staff is it’s AoE versatility and damage, there may be a shift in viable spec since AoE (namely placed AoE attacks, I believe) are under the balancing eye for change.

Perhaps it’s because I play warrior, but there is a real importance to have a bow and a rifle as one is AoE while the other is ST. They have differing applications but fundamentally take the same place in a build (ranged damage) however they aren’t the same. If the different attunements are suppose to handle that, they fail. Air ST is weak, even if you manage 2 targets nearby.

Same for direct damage and conditions. I mean compare your suggested water skill to the staff’s water skills. I won’t say they are exactly the same, but they are very alike (aoe heal for 1, vulnerability for 2, heal for 3, chill for 4, bigger heal for 5). I just don’t see any reason why I’d run this over staff, unless it just proves to be a stronger version of the staff.

Well that’s the idea. It’d be a stronger version of staff…versus single targets. I imagine, if the auto-attacks are all ST only, they could be balanced upwards to deal better damage than staff autos that can hit multiple targets. My longbow write-up does let you do AoE damage but it’s limited (the ‘charges’ give you flame bursts and/or piercing) or situational (such as if the foes are burning, bleeding or standing in a line).

Lastly, it’s about the culmination of all the skills and what role they play. Staff feels like it’s meant to support melee fighters whereas weapons like the focus feel like they help ranged allies better. You can almost say this is a mix of staff and focus where you can lay down your flame wall to fire projectiles through or smack-down enemy shots.

Namely, it’s built to hold down a position to fire down from that staff doesn’t really do.

[EDIT]Also, you pick on water! Yeah water is somewhat similar to staff water, but it sort of needs to be. Across all weapons, water attunement has these things: heal, regen, chill and vulnerability. If this weapon didn’t have those, you probably couldn’t call it water. But the main difference it has over any water attunement: it has blocks and it has immobilize.

This just looks too much like a new staff to me.

I could name the differences for you, if that’d help:
-Longbow has a snipe!!!
-It uses a charge mechanic similar to conjures to multiply or enhance the effects of its attacks.
-Notice its combo fields are generally centered on yourself or allies. It’s meant to be used in conjunction with projectile finishers where staff’s is best used by the party.
-Rather than huge support by swapping through attunements, you get bigger damage by combining your charges.
-SNIPE!!!

But anyway, I personally think it is unique from our current weapons. I mean, how unique do you think we can get before things are so overly specialized that they can’t be universal? As is, we don’t have ‘condition damage’ weapons or ‘direct damage’ weapons like the other professions, we have attunements for that…and if we did, the weapons would be unsusable by a subset of the profession players. All in all, I’d forsee this being unique. Why? Well, it’d probably be backed by a build naturally strong with conjures (get more charges with the attack enhancers? Indeed!) if you wanted to focus on the weapon but it’d still be usable if you just wanted to swap it in for boss fights.

Anyway…this was just my spin on a single-target ranged weapon for elementalist. If you have ideas for weapons, please post. I enjoy reading that stuff…but if it’s not bow then it’d probably be better to put it in that other ele weapons thread….

I smell Fairy Tail, hehe.

I think that a longbow would be quite neat. We already have conjure Frost Bow, so why not. I love the idea of having an Arcane Archer option though (D&D).

Range seems to long in the posts. Half the range or quarter and sure.

Just to mention a bit more on what I was getting at. The staff doesn’t have a ton of AoE to start with, or at least damage wise. On Water and Earth, the auto attacked are single target. On Air, it does bounce which is nice AoE but can also over aggro easily. And while Fireball is AoE, it is a very small radius and slow cast time.
So your Water 1 is pretty much exactly the same as Staff 1 in terms of AoE. Earth 1 just bleeds instead of weakens, which isn’t a bad thing. The other Auto Attacks are single target though, but I would be more worried that they just outclass the staff’s attacks. It is hard to tell without range, cast time, recharge, and damage on skills though.

Still, the longbow offers about as much aoe as staff while having stronger single targets on the 1 attacks. You see how that could just end up becoming the better weapon. I mean Sun Spot sounds like a stronger Lava Font. Heat Strike sounds like a stronger Flame Burst. Salamander Tongue seems to turn any shot into a slightly better fireball. So the staff really only has Meteor Shower over the Longbows fire; but as awesome as it is against some things, it is a total waste against others so I don’t think it would be a deal breaker to lose.
I understand that Water should keep in theme, but it just looks a bit too similar to me. Also, the vulnerability attack sounds a lot like the frost bow’s vulnerability attack. The air 2 sounds a lot like a quicker version of the staff’s 2 for blinding. Earth 2 sounds bit like eruption, which is probably the most notable aoe damaging skill outside of fire.

How would I suggest to improve it then? The best thing I can think of is to change order of the skills. They are usually arranged in order of recharge. So I expect Sun Spot to be the quickest to recharge on the weapon. I’d rather see the AoEs moved to 4 or 5 for most skills and more powerful single target attacks on the 2 and 3. Also, moving around some of the effects to different spots will help it feel less like a staff copy. E.g. water’s chill could be 2 and vulnerability 4.
I am all for a stronger long range single target weapons for Eles. I just would prefer it feel like the opposite of the staff; not like a staff with a few more single target skills and less support aoe. If this were to be a weapon, it would really concern me that it could just end up being a better version of the staff for everything due to the number of short recharge aoes and higher single target spike. Considering I get half my good staff AoEs from utility as it is, you can see how this weapon could have a bit of an issue there.

As for a bow being fitting for a ele, I guess I am more use to the old sterotypes of classes. (e.g. mage=staff, ranger-bow, warrior=sword). A bow conjured of frost seems perfectly normal. But a bow made of wood is just weird =P Then again I didn’t expect eles to have daggers and they ended up pairing well with the profession, so who knows…

Has Anet said they intend to add more weapons to professions ever?

Just curious because I see a lot of these threads full of ideas to bring new weapons in, but have no clue if that’s something even remotely on the table.

BioMasterZap.4350:

The staff doesn’t have a ton of AoE to start with, or at least damage wise. On Water and Earth, the auto attacked are single target. On Air, it does bounce which is nice AoE but can also over aggro easily. And while Fireball is AoE, it is a very small radius and slow cast time.

When I did the write up, I had the wiki pages of Elementalist skills, Warrior Rifle and Longbow, Ranger Longbow and Shortbow and and Thief Shortbow open just to get a tally on how to look at a new weapon in respect to all of those.

Specifically for Ele staff, I made sure to tally its AoE. As you mentioned, it has moderate AoE damage and you’re probably right that my write up has nearly equal ‘effective’ AoE damage as Staff, but Staff’s AoE is also centered heavily around support and control. The longbow write up I intended to have ‘effective’ AoE too, but it’s all situational whereas Staff AoE is always unconditional.

Staff Fire = All its skills are AoE
Water = has 2 damaging skills. The auto-attack is ST but the #2 attack 240 radius (bigger with blasting staff) that recharges in 4 seconds and does very high damage while applying vulnerability. Don’t underestimate this AoE skill. It’s only downfall is it’s in an attunment with no other decent DPS skills.
Air = Only its push skill is ST. auto bounces which is semi-AoE and surge is a 120 radius AoE (240 with blasting staff) and of course the gem of the set, #5 is AoE damage, CC and a combo field that can increase damage.
Earth = Only ST skill is its auto.

So yeah, Staff does have a lot of AoE. It does only have a moderate amount of ‘effective’ AoE damage but it’s all unconditional.

So your Water 1 is pretty much exactly the same as Staff 1 in terms of AoE. Earth 1 just bleeds instead of weakens, which isn’t a bad thing. The other Auto Attacks are single target though, but I would be more worried that they just outclass the staff’s attacks. It is hard to tell without range, cast time, recharge, and damage on skills though.

Technically, it’s exactly like Ice Bow #1, the difference being it’s also a projectile finisher. Anyway, I deliberately left out cast, recharge and damage but I did include ranges and radii to give a scale to the attacks that could then be balanced around. But the main difference is, Staff is the unconditional AoE set with support and my Longbow is conditional AoE and damage.

I mean Sun Spot sounds like a stronger Lava Font. Heat Strike sounds like a stronger Flame Burst. Salamander Tongue seems to turn any shot into a slightly better fireball. So the staff really only has Meteor Shower over the Longbows fire; but as awesome as it is against some things, it is a total waste against others so I don’t think it would be a deal breaker to lose.

Actually, it’s Sun Shot. I did name that as a sort of play on the term Sun Spot since the attack is more a channel that calls down sunlight on an area rather than shooting an arrow. But again, Sun Shot only does damage if the target is burning and your 2nd chain in the auto attack that causes burning is single target. Also Lava Font is a fire field while Sun Shot is not. Heat Strike has a 90 radius while Flame Burst has a 180 radius, which means it might help Sun Shot deal its damage but you have to work around the small radius of the burning. Lastly, Salamander’s Tongue does let your attacks become better than Staff’s Fire ball…but only for 2 shots (4 with traits). Likely the cooldown on Salamander’s Tongue will allow less than 25% uptime without traits…basically, the charges aren’t specifically meant for spamming autos. You have to make each use count.

I understand that Water should keep in theme, but it just looks a bit too similar to me. Also, the vulnerability attack sounds a lot like the frost bow’s vulnerability attack. The air 2 sounds a lot like a quicker version of the staff’s 2 for blinding. Earth 2 sounds bit like eruption, which is probably the most notable aoe damaging skill outside of fire.

Actually, Water Longbow is almost exactly like Frost Bow barring the AoEs. The difference, again, is Longbows are projectile finishers. One handy support combo for this is laying down your #5 skill under you and firing auto attacks at the enemy so you heal and grant regen to teammates at the same time…which can’t be done with Water staff…but staff has direct heals in its water fields.

Again, Staff’s air blind is AoE. Lonbgow’s is ST. You can use Archer of the Skys to blind in a line but that’s very different from blinding in a 240 radius and that requires 1 of 2(4) charges of that particular skill and once it’s used up, you’re waiting for its cooldown.

Longbow Earth 2 is nothing like eruption. Eruption has a 240 radius (bigger with blasting staff) does AoE direct damage and bleeding. Shatter Arrow only does ST damage and creates a small field (listed as 90 radius) that cripples and bleeds those that walk over it. It’s more a combo of a single target skill and unsteady ground, actually.

How would I suggest to improve it then? The best thing I can think of is to change order of the skills. They are usually arranged in order of recharge. So I expect Sun Spot to be the quickest to recharge on the weapon. I’d rather see the AoEs moved to 4 or 5 for most skills and more powerful single target attacks on the 2 and 3. Also, moving around some of the effects to different spots will help it feel less like a staff copy. E.g. water’s chill could be 2 and vulnerability 4.

You can rewrite your ideas too, or even start over :P

My idea for the skill order is like you say, generally arranged by recharge. The ‘conjured charges’ I put as #4 and #3 because they are the set’s AoE (generally) and recharge slowly. The #5 is utility and/or support that recharges slower (and in earth’s case, it’s AoE damage/blast finisher).

The rational behind the Fire skills, since that is the set in the quoted paragraph your started to analyze, is the 1/1.2 attacks are the bread and butter, doing ST and burning on the 2nd. Sunshot is an AoE you place under the target that does damage while you do more damage with the auto because the auto causes ST burning. If you can bundle a few enemies really close or your teammates take advantage of your fire fields to cast burning on any other foes inside Sun Shot, you’re rewarded with AoE damage. But your only good AoE in fire would be Salamander’s Tongue but you only get 2 flame burst AoEs out of it. More or less, you will do less AoE than an equivalent staff elementalist but nearly the same (barring Meteor Shower) if your team can burn foes for you.

I am all for a stronger long range single target weapons for Eles. I just would prefer it feel like the opposite of the staff; not like a staff with a few more single target skills and less support aoe….

I understand but I think you’re overestimating the amount of AoE I put in the write up, and that’s basically Sun Shot (if targets are burning), Salamander’s Tongue(2/4 flame bursts) , Archer of the Skies (2/4 lines) and Gravity Blow(If the target is immobilized). It’s other utility AoEs are Comet Shot (AoE chill/ice field) and Shatter Arrow (creates a small bleed/cripple field).

Lastly, I will round up more thoughts about my write up if it wasn’t clear in my OPs. I still think staff has great AoE damage because it’s easy to apply…it’s just not high burst unless you’re swapping through your attunments to barrage the highest bursts. This is why I don’t think Staff has high ‘effective AoE’. You might be using it for field effects, to cripple foes, daze/vulnerability or saving water for when you actually need the heal (but Ice Spike is REALLY good if you don’t consider the wait for the damage and just swap to another attunement). So yeah, it’s more about the sustained AoE with Staff.

The Longbow write up, I intended it to have about the same effective AoE as staff but it’s situational. Basically, it’s higher but limited by charges/cooldowns and circumstance so less sustained AoE resulting in good burst AoE when it’s up.

Consider using Archer of the Skies in conjunction with, say Blizzard Volley, would be very good but you can only do that if you have the charges (2! or 4 traited!). There’s also Thunder God Arrow for high burst damage in a line but again, you need that piercing charge and TGA would have a hefty charge up + cooldown. You could also make Shatter arrow into a piercing shot, creating a line field of bleed/cripple but again, you need a charge for that.

Obsidian Arrow simply adds extra damage to foes you attack that are bleeding. This can change any AoEs you have into strong attacks, but again the charges. In conjunction with Salamander’s Tongue, which changes any attack into an AoE, you can get good damage on any AoE…but to combine both Obsidian Arrow and Salamander’s Tongue, you have to use one, swap attunements then use the other…so that will take up 1 charge just by combining them leaving you only 1 attack you can used with both effects combined…

Very long and thorough reply. I guess when you explain it in more detail I can see the how the aoe is less than staff. Personally, I wish staff had a bit more damaging AoE. And you can see how a weapon to rival the range of the staff with aoe and stronger single target can be worrying to a staff player like myself. I mean I love staff, but longbow does sound very good if used right.
I probably should have noted the radiuses of the skills a bit more. But when you don’t have a listed recharge and damage it can be still be vague. Although I personally wouldn’t have listed damage and recharge; it gets too tricky to balance and is best left for professionals =P
While I still feel it could have a better assortment of more “unique” skills, it does seem like a nice choice. You seemed to have put much more thought behind this than I originally assumed.

Also, one thing that would be nice to see more of is chain skills for ele. I am not sure if your Fire 1 is meant to be a chain or just an alternate possibility. Either way, I could see that being a nice thing for a longbow. Pretty much arrow, arrow, arrow with a condition/effect.

Side note: I am not sure if they said they are adding more weapons. But I do remember a comment about possibly adding 2h axe in the future when someone questioned why it isn’t there. It is probably more likely to see brand new weapon types than current classes getting current weapons though.

BioMasterZap.4350:

Very long and thorough reply. I guess when you explain it in more detail I can see the how the aoe is less than staff. Personally, I wish staff had a bit more damaging AoE. And you can see how a weapon to rival the range of the staff with aoe and stronger single target can be worrying to a staff player like myself. I mean I love staff, but longbow does sound very good if used right.

I wasn’t a big fan of staff for much of my playtime as an elementalist, but having got all my weapons exotic (with several of some for different stats) and playing more and more with each in PvE, I’ve come to appreciate staff along with my focus and scepter. That said, the state of staff may change if the shift in AoEs A-net has planned is drastic enough. Personally, I like it’s AoE and wish more of them transferred conditions (although many do) to help it as a primarily support role, but that’s just wishful thinking on my part.

Heck, a weapon idea like mine may not even groove with the intent of the profession because it does lack support (Focus kind of does too, but it makes up some of that in personal safety).

Also, one thing that would be nice to see more of is chain skills for ele. I am not sure if your Fire 1 is meant to be a chain or just an alternate possibility. Either way, I could see that being a nice thing for a longbow. Pretty much arrow, arrow, arrow with a condition/effect.

Yes, it’s a chain. I envisioned it’d chain rather quickly and this making a bigger impact for DPS when attuned to fire. The other auto-attacks wouldn’t be as handy.

Side note: I am not sure if they said they are adding more weapons. But I do remember a comment about possibly adding 2h axe in the future when someone questioned why it isn’t there. It is probably more likely to see brand new weapon types than current classes getting current weapons though.

I’m hoping for both to happen, personally. Either could make good use of available assets.