Guild Wars 2

After a long hiatus, I’m happy to be back playing this build. It is a monstrous mutation of its former self after the recent buffs to RTW and signets. RTW rangers are everywhere, which is a nice change. Bad ones will be crushed, good ones can easily be counterplayed by other skilled glass. It looks like LB play is here to stay!

Here is the updated build for ranked pvp:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJARTjEq0yaJLOsQ1ag9gadA0Andrhw9BXEt9B/q9A-TpBFwACOCAIuAAy3fYxDAoaZAAHCAA

It actually has a ton of survivability. It’s not total glass but still hits like a truck. Not sure what the community has figured out about RTW over the last 8 months, maybe there is something new I can learn. But I wouldn’t play this build without SotF and the extra vitality. I feel that any 6/6/2 MoC build would leave you completely vulnerable to good thieves, engies and mesmers.

My favourite runes are Traveller and Speed for the extra stats and mobility. Ogre, Scholar, Ranger and Pack runes are very tempting for the extra offensive stats, but I’m generally finding my damage is excessive even without them after the recent LB buffs. I guess you can have too much deeps. With high vitality, on-demand condi cleanse and SoS, you can actually challenge many other builds on point by being more offensive with your GS.

Cheers

OLD DISCUSSION:

after about 5 days of testing in spvp only, im still really enjoying this build. ive gone up against some amazing (and well known) players, and learned a ton. some epic and some embarrassing moments as my skill with this build is pretty mediocre >.< and maybe i can only push it so far.

i more or less finalized the build above. below i will explain my choices:

- pets: wolf for the fear, river drake for the lightning breath aoe that synergizes with barrage for point aoe pressure. try with quickness =)

- i went with Pack Runes to remedy the weaknesses of low-ish base crit and lack of on-demand swiftness due to no points in Skirmishing. In this package you also get some more fury and a ton of power. i think most of the precision runes are also a nice choice. Speed and Traveler runes are wasteful imo.

- qz and LR are a must, but MT is not. MT CAN make a huge difference for a skilled coordinated team, which i dont have. i’ll take SoH instead to keep my roaming legit. my ranger feels sluggish without it.

- Entangle always over RaO because it’s a game-changer. i very rarely need stability and fury is almost perma.

- Keen Edge is your best choice in Marks mostly because of the extra fury
- RTW and piercing arrows are a must to maximize your applied dps. i wouldnt play LB without.
- Nature Magic Master tier choice depends. for me, there are only two choices: Evasive Purity and Strength of Spirit. I like the extra power as EP is situational, mostly for thieves (necros shouldnt be close enough to hit you).

- sigils: air + fire on the Lb for the deeps, and intelligence on the GS for the guaranteed burst.

Positioning is everything against skilled players. The biggest threat is a well played thief, which should be manageable if dealt with aggressively in return. sometimes they will embarrass you, other times you will 2-shot them. Also, good players wont allow you to stay at 1500, unless theyre bunking (in which case you will get them to pop their defensive cd’s for your team). You’ll have to learn which specs you can take 1v1, and when you have to “choose to leave” to do something else. swooping into your target is a huge commitment. it can either lead to an epic finisher, or your death if you dont time it well or miss.

From what I’ve experienced so far, this build does well against staff eles, some bunkers, power mesmers, rangers, necros (unless they get a jump on you), and any spec that may be glass. they cant tank your dps for long. good medi guards and scepter eles are always a gamble i find.

Other than that, roam. support your team with CC, massive aoe dps, peels, and decaps. sniping other squishies like nade spammers and staff eles will turn the tide for your team.

could you post this build by any chance? I would love to try this out

thanks man, looks to good!

mistsim.2748:

if someone starts stacking condis on you, or if you get caught in a necro’s fear chain you should never ever try to “outcleanse” them. you will die. condi necros are cake if you remain at 1200. you can always dictate range and reset fight on a necro. condi meta is still as strong as ever and you really cant defend against it because it still bursts hard. you can simply burst back, or run.

If you’re able to stay out of range from condition dmg then might as well take more quickness?
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMAQJATRnEqQLLWyC2CCVLGQWP2jABAaF4k3j0bWExCmUB-TgAg0CnIwRhjDHDOScs4A

Same build I came up with when I finally got to test those traits, but I use a little more defensive version.
I use signet of stone instead of muddy terrain and rune of earth. that way I get 2400 armor, to compensate for the loss of muddy terrain you can just use jungle spider. I know it immobilizes single target, but you also get access to poison.

Also for traits, Keen Edge instead of Steady Focus – i think it’s better because now it’s considered survival, so every trait works on it, and you can’t keep 100% endurace all the time.

As for weapons, sigil of air and sigil of accuracy for LB and sigil of energy and sigil of intelligence for GS (you don’t fight using gs much, just few hits, block, stun, swoop away and get back to LB)

Still, I’m glad someone else saw this

ah yes sigil of intelligence on the GS looks very good. missed that one.

i ran with keen edge but it essentially just gives you a little bit extra condi cleanse, which is not on demand. the damage from it is unnoticeable. at least with steady focus, if you do a good job dictating range, youre doing some extra dps.

kiwituatara.6053:

If you’re able to stay out of range from condition dmg then might as well take more quickness?

conditions will always clip you. even when fighting a condi engie or necro, they will land some burns and bleeds from 900 occasionally. you want to be able to cleanse those and reset the fight. many specs can apply immobilize from a long distance, so it’s nice when QZ can cleanse that if LR is on CD.

Thats my build too, Ive been using very similar up until now, swapping the 10/30 to WS to get EB but now I dont have to.

Only thing is I havent let go of Signet mastery + signet of stone, it is just too useful when I want to get in deep with my GS and things go sideways. Its a very versatile well rounded power ranger spec that hits very hard.

I am very tempted however to take RTW and zephyr instead though!!!

yes with survival of fittest, you can cleanse an immobilize basically any time, swoop out and reset the fight. with two stun breakers i never have a need for things like SoS and Protect Me.

I’m going to play around a bit more… but might come to the same conclusion. The addition of immob to LR is huge, glad I got that in the first page of the CDI for a suggestion.

Its about playstyle. I find LR/dodge/swoop isnt enough for a lot of the situations I find myself in, probably because I like to be a bit fearless with my GS.

either way, there is a ton of potential with this trait layout. tons of stuff to play with. for once i feel like i have options.

btw, if u LR>swoop, most of the time youre going to eat a bunch of stuff during the swoop animation. what makes a big difference for me is LR > #4 block > dodge > swoop > dodge, or turn around and LB #4 or #3.

i only use GS for getting out, and guaranteed kills with burst. stealth > qz > swoop > bash > maul + pet f2 > get out.

Yea, the build is definitely solid for fights, but you really have to rely on good teammates to keep points contested or else you’ll still lose the game to being outcapped. That’s just one of the straight-up disadvantages to ranged builds and stealth-based thieves encounter similar issues.

Still, I hope to see something like this become strong in the meta. Spirit rangers are really getting old. =P

In a very organized team a ranged power build for ranger could work but it is very hard to win a 1v1 with a build like this.

Dave Pare.2069:

In a very organized team a ranged power build for ranger could work but it is very hard to win a 1v1 with a build like this.

Actually, it’s not hard to win a 1v1 with a build like this, you just have to know when to dodge, what to dodge, have good reflexes and know when to say “kitten the bow!” And swap into your Melee weapon for the added survivability and damage all our Melee weapons come with.

That being said, builds like this absolutely excel in team fights where they can sit out of the fight and drop people like flies one after another, not to mention this build is AMAZING at “counter sniping” aka killing the enemies LB ranger/Nade engie/staff necro etc.

Durzlla.6295:

Dave Pare.2069:

In a very organized team a ranged power build for ranger could work but it is very hard to win a 1v1 with a build like this.

it’s not hard to win a 1v1
just have to know:
1- when to dodge
2- what to dodge
3- have good reflexes
4- know when to say “kitten the bow!” And swap into your Melee

Changed the format just for the looks, yeah … looks easy. ;D

Anyway, looks really solid build. I’ll give it a try tonight for my dailies.

I stumbled onto this same trait point allocation. Like Kilger, instead of RTW I still use the signets. I like having the option to switch freely between sigs and surv skills on my bar depending on the situation.

I’ve noticed thieves using shadow-steps a lot more than regular stealths lately. Makes LB#2 less useful. Anyone else notice this?

Obsidian.1328:

I stumbled onto this same trait point allocation. Like Kilger, instead of RTW I still use the signets. I like having the option to switch freely between sigs and surv skills on my bar depending on the situation.

I’ve noticed thieves using shadow-steps a lot more than regular stealths lately. Makes LB#2 less useful. Anyone else notice this?

I have noticed a lot of thieves switch from a super stealthy builds (aka I’ll sit in stealth all day) to actually using builds where they spend most their time out of stealth, if they use stealth at all.

It’s a nice change of pace imo

In WvW most thieves use daggers and lots of stealth. In PvP most thieves use swords and SBs and lots of shadowsteps. Or at least they have been, not sure what the PW nerf will do to the thief meta.

I’ve had the luxury of playing with Ikiro all morning today – his ranger build is insanely good.

Burst hard as thieves, from a distance.

while i dont like 1v1’ing with this build unless i absolutely have to, ive been holding my own. like i mentioned, against condi engies and necros, i just keep my distance at 1200-1500 and whittle them down. if they get an opener on me, i reset the fight. with SOTF, yes we can actually reset fights now! against thieves it’s like playing Russian Roulette, but i win more often than not. other glass, especially GS mesmers, i totally annihilate due to range advantage.

that being said, i roamed with a thief backcapping, killing npcs, and spiking stragglers while we had 2 mid and 1 home and it was hilarious fun. nothing could live through our burst. so with an organized team, you really see the potential of this build while 1v1’s arent too bad at all.

What is S-keying?

Hitting the S key.

Fluffball.8307:

Hitting the S key.

Which means what?

In WASD, S moves you backwards.

Meh.
Longbow still isn’t really scratching my sniper itch, to be perfectly honest.

I kind wish you guys wouldn’t use that term. It’s not really entirely appropriate for how Longbow is. Sort of sets up a certain expectation for gameplay, that GW2 just doesn’t bring to the table.

After 2 days of testing this trait, I can say it’s good. RtW makes some difference once you get your range advantage and it’s easy to notice. It doesn’t, however adress the biggest issues with LB like spike burst, kiting, lack of slow CC (apart from unreliabe Barrage). But it works and it does it’s job better than SotBM or Remorseless. 6/10

As for SotF – I really like this trait. Without any deep duration speccing, it gives me 9 seconds of fury on every survival skill and works nicely with new changes. I’d like to see some Healingskill being Survival now, too. Heal as One maybe? Overall, 8/10 trait

rtw and sotf synergize. sotf allows you to kite, while rtw gives you significantly more range (~300) and greatly increases applied dps. this is the sniping build everyone has been asking for. adding an instant cripple ability to LB would be outright excessive. i prefer to hit harder and micromanage my distance with GS. oh, GS has a 900 range cripple, look at that. and dogs have cripple and are more responsive now. interesting. it takes more skill and it’s more rewarding when you pull it off. if we had an on-demand cripple, they would have to nerf the damage. no thanks, i dont want another SB.

your burst comes from air and fire sigils, and qz. if your pet is on the target, even more.

I theorycrafted out a build like this using Runes of Rage on a tankier setup in WvW that still has about 35% crit chance/damage (the chance is without fury).

Not sure if it’s as necessary on the PvP version though. I appreciate the extra fury uptime and critical damage though, but I need to work through a more optimized PvP specific build.

I’ve just been too busy enjoying my perma chill builds hahaha.

For your longbow, do the Fire and Air sigils stack? I didn’t think they would since both are the same “type” and are activated by getting a critical strike.

Xermaran Kos.7861:

For your longbow, do the Fire and Air sigils stack? I didn’t think they would since both are the same “type” and are activated by getting a critical strike.

Yes, they do. They can even proc at the same time, on the same attack, as long as both are off their respective cooldowns.

I’m still not convinced there’s any additional range advantage from the trait. I’ve tested it with multiple combinations and the range is always same.

I’ve been trying it like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMAQNBjYDbkQlOWbZxkFqWDArH71HAtCc6eganAcxKnMB-TkAigUB5CyEkMIbQjOWfsBB

Marksmanship grand master: Read the Wind
Nature magic grand master: Survival of the fittest
Second sigil on longbow: superior sigil of intelligence
Trinket: Cavalier’s, but if you can’t afford that then go with Valkyrie.
I am not sure if they care what gear you use in PvP nowadays, but I am using Knight’s (Toughness Power Precision ).

Naturally the above posted link doesn’t do justice to the actual numbers (attack is at least 3K and crit chance is 38%), perhaps once they update the website it will make more sense, moving on….

I am quite surprised how much support you can provide to the group, granted that you think as a ‘sniper’ when you have the longbow at hand, and properly place yourself in a location to provide those big numbers, stomp + heal + skill interrupt. Not to mention that you can beat the life our of someone on melee (unless you don’t kill them then run for your life, muddy terrain, entangle and lightning reflexes for the win!).

So why the extra range? positioning, positioning, positioning. I was able to provide support against further range and I could tell it made a difference, especially when enemies were on the run, I can’t tell you how many times I brought down an enemy thanks to the extra range and forward thinking positioning.

The only problem I have is that positioning is not always optimal, especially if you are stuck with the longbow on weapon-swap cooldown, and all the enemies want to kill you and you alone. Tips? If you get good positioning, use Call of the Wild, jungle stalker F2 ability and begin by choosing the enemy who is most likely to get plumetted by you and target them. If the enemy you chose is a necromancer, unless they are solo, do not target them, with that double health pool they have you will likely have to deal a lot of damage to bring them down, save your burst for someone who deserves it. Also, why entangle? Why not, its a very decent crowd control option when you’re pugging it and not dealing with ‘been there done that’ pros.

Ultimately, I’ve found Read the Wind to still be a bit lacking in sPvP since it works best with Eagle Eye and 1500 range isn’t very useful with the small map designs.

However, I have been using a build similar to the OP with a few changes. Here’s the IntoTheMists guide I’ve posted on it.

The build is 2/4/2/6/0. Instead of going deep in Marks to get RtW, I’ve put 20 in Skirmishing to get the reduced cooldown on bow skills. I did still keep 10 in Marks for Keen Edge since it’s a nice extra condition removal.

I know it’s still early and the meta is still forming, but this build seems to be very effective at assisting with team fights since it counters many of the popular builds that focus on dropping AoE conditions on top of the point. With this, you stand back and provide assistance in DPS without becoming another target. If an ally goes down, use wolf or Point Blank shot to come in and rez.

I dont see the point of your build, no offense. Lb is weak without rtw because your dps becomes unreliable. I cant imagibe doing lb without it. U can hit from 1500 (ish) without eagle eye. With rtw and eagle eye it becomes about 1800. Try it out on the golems.

Reliable long range dps is the only factor that allows you to go zerker and kite people around. Rtw gives you the ability to keep dps on fleeing targets making the ranger the best long range assassin in the game.

The community has been asking for Legolas and you’ve been given it. At least take the time to test it out properly.

mistsim.2748:

Lb is weak without rtw because your dps becomes unreliable. I cant imagibe doing lb without it. U can hit from 1500 (ish) without eagle eye. With rtw and eagle eye it becomes about 1800. Try it out on the golems.

yes, I know you can really hit from 1800 using Eagle Eye if you don’t rely on the autocast, but that much range has very limited use in sPvP because of how compact the maps are.

You really just need enough range to stand off point and in those cases, your dps is still reliable enough without RtW.

Now, if we start talking about WvW, then RtW + Eagle Eye definitely becomes a really strong combination.

mistsim.2748:

Reliable long range dps is the only factor that allows you to go zerker and kite people around. Rtw gives you the ability to keep dps on fleeing targets making the ranger the best long range assassin in the game.

The community has been asking for Legolas and you’ve been given it. At least take the time to test it out properly.

I’ve tested it and I’ve found the shorter cooldown on bow skills to make a bigger difference than RtW+EE, at least in sPvP. If you’re 1500+ range in sPvP, the enemy will just line of sight you, then take a back way to capture an objective. I’ve also found that having more knockbacks and AoE has more of an impact in sPvP where you will frequently need to kick stomps or enemies rezzing their allies.

Thing with your build is you don’t need quick draw pet prowess or furious grip. To me it’s a waste of traits. If you’re gonna go with lb, might as well go long range all out!

U don’t need shorter cd on LB because if you’re not spamming #1 from max range ure not doing it right

mistsim.2748:

Thing with your build is you don’t need quick draw pet prowess or furious grip. To me it’s a waste of traits. If you’re gonna go with lb, might as well go long range all out!

U don’t need shorter cd on LB because if you’re not spamming #1 from max range ure not doing it right

You’re missing the point. You can’t just sit at max range and spam 1 all the time in sPvP and even when you can, that’s not always what benefits a team fight the most. There is too much Line of Sight in a lot of cases and in others, the best place to perch for ranged attacks isn’t at max range.

Examples:
Forest if Nifhel – the best place to stand for mid is the side platforms that won’t let you get to 1500 range. The side points also have barriers in front of them so that 1500 is impossible.

Battle of Kyhlo – Side points are the only place where you can hit a target on point from 1500 range. Even shooting mid from the top of clocktower is less than 1500.

Skyham – Again, very few places will even allow you a 1500 range shot and none of them will hit someone on a point. The best perches for mid are much shorter than this.

So, unless you just pray that you get a map like Forest or Legacy, you will have some traits that will do almost nothing for you.

In the meantime, Point Blank Shot is an ability which can turn the tide of a fight faster than killing an enemy by preventing a stomp or enemy rez. It also can allow you to decap a point, such as by knocking someone off the Clocktower point in Kyhlo.

Oh, and yes, furious Grip doesn’t do a whole lot, but Tail Wind does give additional mobility. Example: kill the beast or defend home, then swap to melee weapons for swiftness and run to the perch on mid. By the time you get there, you’ll have weapon swap off cooldown and can switch to bow.

Dahkeus.8243:

mistsim.2748:

Thing with your build is you don’t need quick draw pet prowess or furious grip. To me it’s a waste of traits. If you’re gonna go with lb, might as well go long range all out!

U don’t need shorter cd on LB because if you’re not spamming #1 from max range ure not doing it right

You’re missing the point. You can’t just sit at max range and spam 1 all the time in sPvP and even when you can, that’s not always what benefits a team fight the most. There is too much Line of Sight in a lot of cases and in others, the best place to perch for ranged attacks isn’t at max range.

Examples:
Forest if Nifhel – the best place to stand for mid is the side platforms that won’t let you get to 1500 range. The side points also have barriers in front of them so that 1500 is impossible.

Battle of Kyhlo – Side points are the only place where you can hit a target on point from 1500 range. Even shooting mid from the top of clocktower is less than 1500.

Skyham – Again, very few places will even allow you a 1500 range shot and none of them will hit someone on a point. The best perches for mid are much shorter than this.

So, unless you just pray that you get a map like Forest or Legacy, you will have some traits that will do almost nothing for you.

In the meantime, Point Blank Shot is an ability which can turn the tide of a fight faster than killing an enemy by preventing a stomp or enemy rez. It also can allow you to decap a point, such as by knocking someone off the Clocktower point in Kyhlo.

Oh, and yes, furious Grip doesn’t do a whole lot, but Tail Wind does give additional mobility. Example: kill the beast or defend home, then swap to melee weapons for swiftness and run to the perch on mid. By the time you get there, you’ll have weapon swap off cooldown and can switch to bow.

I agree with your points. However, RtW ensures that no one can side step your LB shots, which is definitely worth going 30 into. Without it, you may struggle with more experienced players and an overall DPS loss from missed shots for more uptime on LB 4.

Playing with this build is awesome and knowing you can hit any target barring LOS is awesome (esp. with zq).

You absolutely can sit at max range and spam 1 most of the time. That’s the point of the build and its strength. Otherwise reset the fight and dictate range. I find your trait allocation wasteful and not really on topic because I’m mostly just discussing the synergy between rtw and sotf. The build you propose is something entirely different, and I’m not sure what tbh. Anyway I just wanted to give my impressions of the 30/0/10/30/0; feedback and your experiences with it are appreciated.

So the other reason you want rtw is the extra “reach” you get probably an extra 300 units or so. It really makes the arrows hit with laser precision and people can’t run from you.

Just wondering what everyone’s opinion on MT is. I find it’s very situational due to its long cast time….I’m finding myself slotting SoH instead to improve my roaming and burst. Any suggestions on runes?

RtW doesn’t really increase the range, I’ve been testing it.

It’s more simple – the arrow travels faster so it gets full benefit from range. Slower arrows may be outranged because the game counts the range from the place you made the shot. It’s a big difference on moving targets and feels like you’re able to hit even further.

It still does arc so the range is obviously increased.

Rym.1469:

RtW doesn’t really increase the range, I’ve been testing it.

It’s more simple – the arrow travels faster so it gets full benefit from range. Slower arrows may be outranged because the game counts the range from the place you made the shot. It’s a big difference on moving targets and feels like you’re able to hit even further.

It still does arc so the range is obviously increased.

Yea, the extra range isn’t RtW. The longbow will allow you to hit targets even when you’re farther away than where you need to be for the autocast to keep 1 casting. This has pretty much been the situation since launch.

As for MT, it’s a good skill. It’s not a great ability, which is why I wouldn’t take it without Wilderness Knowledge and Survival of the Fittest, but it gives you a reliable immobilize that helps out a good bit. If nothing else, it’s worth tossing just to cleanse conditions at times since it has such a short recharge.

Personally, I like using Point Blank Shot to knock someone off point and then immobilizing with MT to keep them off while the point decaps. This can work well against tanky targets standing solo on a point.

I’ve used this build for only about 90 minutes or so, but so far the results have been very good for hot join at least (yeah, not super organized). I was able to get about 6 matches in. The only problems I ran into were really aggressive grenade engineers, or when I got 3v1 sitiations. Most 1v1 situations weren’t much of an issue, as well as capping and decapping.

Just need a WvW variant now. Good stuff.

Sorry let me rephrase…Rtw increases applied dps on FLEEING targets. Correct. Arrows don’t drop off out of range as the target moves away.

I know MT is a great skill on paper but its cast time makes it extremely unreliable from my experience. In fast paced fights I just never seem to get it off in time. I generally don’t have the luxury of using point blank to combo into MT.

mistsim.2748:

Sorry let me rephrase…Rtw increases applied dps on FLEEING targets. Correct. Arrows don’t drop off out of range as the target moves away.

I know MT is a great skill on paper but its cast time makes it extremely unreliable from my experience. In fast paced fights I just never seem to get it off in time. I generally don’t have the luxury of using point blank to combo into MT.

It’s not an issue with MT but an issue with lack of you using the skill, as you use it you learn how to lead with it so you’ll be able to catch em in it.

Very very very rarely do I actually start casting the skill UNDER the target, it’s normally off to the side or something so they run into it.

Durzlla.6295:

mistsim.2748:

Sorry let me rephrase…Rtw increases applied dps on FLEEING targets. Correct. Arrows don’t drop off out of range as the target moves away.

I know MT is a great skill on paper but its cast time makes it extremely unreliable from my experience. In fast paced fights I just never seem to get it off in time. I generally don’t have the luxury of using point blank to combo into MT.

It’s not an issue with MT but an issue with lack of you using the skill, as you use it you learn how to lead with it so you’ll be able to catch em in it.

Very very very rarely do I actually start casting the skill UNDER the target, it’s normally off to the side or something so they run into it.

Definitely this. It also has some very nice lockdown/control potential for teamfights.

I don’t know: honestly RtW looks like a joke trait to me but if so many players found it so powerful I will give it a try. I tryed out this version of a power build after the patch but I found it too squishy (even if dealing so many damages that could work with high skilled players):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMAQJATRjEqUyaLLesQ1aAYpYv+YKSkR3DU9EgTWR0kA-ToAg0CnIUSpkTJjSSlsKNsY9B

(I was using sigil of fire+air on LB and fire+energy on GS)

dominoeffect.4216:

Durzlla.6295:

mistsim.2748:

Sorry let me rephrase…Rtw increases applied dps on FLEEING targets. Correct. Arrows don’t drop off out of range as the target moves away.

I know MT is a great skill on paper but its cast time makes it extremely unreliable from my experience. In fast paced fights I just never seem to get it off in time. I generally don’t have the luxury of using point blank to combo into MT.

It’s not an issue with MT but an issue with lack of you using the skill, as you use it you learn how to lead with it so you’ll be able to catch em in it.

Very very very rarely do I actually start casting the skill UNDER the target, it’s normally off to the side or something so they run into it.

Definitely this. It also has some very nice lockdown/control potential for teamfights.

I’ll try practicing with it some more. You’re assuming I don’t lead with it but I very much do. Problem is people are constantly blocking, dodging, leaping, etc. Cast time is too long for fast paced play. Gonna have a hard time giving up SoH while roaming.

Traveler runes are a must for roaming if you plan to use LB. Utility bar space is just too precious to keep SotH there and rune itself gives both good stats and boon+condi duration which are honestly very good choice

mistsim.2748:

dominoeffect.4216:

Durzlla.6295:

mistsim.2748:

Sorry let me rephrase…Rtw increases applied dps on FLEEING targets. Correct. Arrows don’t drop off out of range as the target moves away.

I know MT is a great skill on paper but its cast time makes it extremely unreliable from my experience. In fast paced fights I just never seem to get it off in time. I generally don’t have the luxury of using point blank to combo into MT.

It’s not an issue with MT but an issue with lack of you using the skill, as you use it you learn how to lead with it so you’ll be able to catch em in it.

Very very very rarely do I actually start casting the skill UNDER the target, it’s normally off to the side or something so they run into it.

Definitely this. It also has some very nice lockdown/control potential for teamfights.

I’ll try practicing with it some more. You’re assuming I don’t lead with it but I very much do. Problem is people are constantly blocking, dodging, leaping, etc. Cast time is too long for fast paced play. Gonna have a hard time giving up SoH while roaming.

Have you guys thought of any power build dueling specs with 30 SotF? Or hybrid even, it may be interesting seeing the possibilities…

Edit: @Rym How about SoH? Roaming with the 150% burst on pet may work well with glass cannon pets (assuming you mean wvw)

dominoeffect.4216:

mistsim.2748:

dominoeffect.4216:

Durzlla.6295:

mistsim.2748:

Sorry let me rephrase…Rtw increases applied dps on FLEEING targets. Correct. Arrows don’t drop off out of range as the target moves away.

I know MT is a great skill on paper but its cast time makes it extremely unreliable from my experience. In fast paced fights I just never seem to get it off in time. I generally don’t have the luxury of using point blank to combo into MT.

It’s not an issue with MT but an issue with lack of you using the skill, as you use it you learn how to lead with it so you’ll be able to catch em in it.

Very very very rarely do I actually start casting the skill UNDER the target, it’s normally off to the side or something so they run into it.

Definitely this. It also has some very nice lockdown/control potential for teamfights.

I’ll try practicing with it some more. You’re assuming I don’t lead with it but I very much do. Problem is people are constantly blocking, dodging, leaping, etc. Cast time is too long for fast paced play. Gonna have a hard time giving up SoH while roaming.

Have you guys thought of any power build dueling specs with 30 SotF? Or hybrid even, it may be interesting seeing the possibilities…

This is working extremely well in WvW for 1vs1 and/or group fights. On the Shortbow, use Battle and Purity Sigils. With 45% Boon duration and constant pet and weapon swapping grants you with 12-15 stacks of might – on your own – throughout the fight.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMAQNBlYDbkQlWW7YxfFqWEEtCcipg/I6VI9uH+vTA4kP8MJA-z0BBYjCyUIwkIBK7sIaslhFRjVrETDjIqmUARsMC-w

The truth is that in many PvP maps RtW does help due to a few factors:
1. You are aware that you need ally support to properly engage with longbow.
2. In many PvP maps you can definitely find spots to snipe from that can take advantage of the terrain, meaning you are covering close to or around 180 degrees with your range of view. From this vantage point you are vulnerable to a melee class who wants to hone in on you, however if you position yourself outside the capture point, more likely than not the enemy will fight your ally who is at the capture point.
3. RtW is useful because of the motion that occurs while you try to snipe, in which you can not say that all 100% of your shots will hit, especially if you use long range to maintain a viable vantage point and your enemies are moving all over the place (retreating or engaging).

Knowing that I can reliably hit enemies from long range truly made a difference in my book. Otherwise you have to rely on real life experience, where you know your shots can miss, therefore the best time to engage an enemy who keeps on moving is only when they are the ones engaging into combat; during the retreat phases you will likely lose DPS due to their movement.

Not to mention this build does well against all the condition damage you get, the only drawback is in healing power… you have to watch your lifeline carefully despite having near 3k armor and near 20k health.