Guild Wars 2

Since the reduction in range happened, I can not find a situation, especially in WvW where I need the shortbow.

It’s not that great in roaming, it not good in zergs.

Has anyone found a new sweet spot for the bow that I’m just not seeing?

i’ve been running double bows in WvW since the patch but i’m thinking of dropping it for either S/x or GS. i just don’t find myself using it very often….

Shortbow in WvW does seem pretty hard pressed to find an ideal role.

The only unique role it has currently is probably in tpvp for people running Spirit Builds, so that they can maintain range while keeping their Spirits up and out of cleave, poking opponents to try to land the bleed and eventual burn. I’d say it’s very similar to the way thieves use their shortbows in fights.

I never used SB in WvW, I run either LB/Axe+Horn while roaming or GS/Axe+Horn while zerging.

Now I finally dropped the SB in PvE (and I was a big fan) because when we go to dungeons my party can easily put 25 stacks of bleed on any mob, plus poison and poison is kind of always on . Given the range, I prefer to use Axe+Horn and use LB #3 to disengage.

I actually dropped my double bow setup and playing with a Condition/Bomber setup setting the table for our guild groups bombs with Combo Fields/AE attacks

Axe/WH (Solo) Torch (Group) and LBow grouped/SB Solo

I used to use it on and off on my condi trap build but after the nerf + buff to axe mainhand I quit entirely. I have no builds with it.

I’ve been thinking the same question. I tried switching to the longbow/shortbow for WvW after the recent patch and I had to drop the longbow. Not because it was bad; but because it far out-performed my shortbow and I found myself hardly using it at all. The reason i’m so attatched to the shortbow? I crafted the Dreamer months ago and I’m not shelving my legendary just because the longbow is better. Fingers crossed that something gets changed on the shortbow to give it a decent nitch. It’s terrific for kiting but that really doesn’t help against anyone unless they are melee based.

I still use shortbow while roaming as a skirmishing weapon, range reduction killed it for ZvZ use for me because piercing arrows lost a bunch of it’s effectiveness. ZvZ / GvG scenarios I am running sword/torch, axe/warhorn.

It’s a sad thing for me because what I really WANT to use is short bow + longbow…

Shortbow is my main weapon I would say, been trying very hard to like longbow after the recent buffs to it, trying to see how much I can make use of that stealth but I just can’t the weapon is completely useless unless you have the protection of others and can safely snipe with it in my opinion there are of course some specific niche uses on it for lack of a better word but in the end I find you’ll simply be less effective than with any other weaponset at our disposal so I went back to using mostly the shortbow.

I do miss the range on shortbow though very often you find people able to disengage from you without being able to do much about it.

I use it on my Dazer Build and my Rampager Build, other then that though, no

We definitely need more bow love from Anet, that’s for sure. Especially for a master of bows to use melee weapons mostly.

Yes this is also my issue with Ranger atm. I use to run with SB/LB but after nerfs i dropped it and completely redid my skills for max crit with GS/LB. Honestly i’m having more fun with this setup also then i did with SB/LB, i can 1-shot people with a 15k hit from GS or do a rapid fire for around the same with LB.

Still the fact that “Rangers” a job that should be “ranged attacked heavy” must now use GS over a ranged set up because of nerfs points out the many flaws that still exist for the job.

PS.. i use to play a game called Final Fantasy 11 and we also had a Ranger job class that only used bow’s and a job class that used axes and charmed/controlled pets Beastmaster. GW2’s Ranger is like a combination of the 2 but lacks the power they had in FF11.

Yes it still has an interrupt plus a faster firing rate than longbow. I like both bows and feel they have different uses. The short bow range barely bothers me to be honest the pet range bothers me.

Like I said before, if you want to use Shortbow and want to kill people incredibly fast who are occupied with others, go Rampager and equip as many bleed things as you can.

You can stack 25 stacks of bleeds on someone in an absurd amount of time, less then 10 seconds.

I’m still running full zerker SB/LB in WvW, but I have noticed that the amount of SB users has dropped..
In PvP the most used build for rangers at the moment is the Spirit Ranger, and he needs his shortbow for the conditions..
Have tested this setup also in WvW, but not as cool to play in comparison with the zerker setup..

It is sad isn’t it? I re-rolled my original ranger as an Asura just for shortbow aesthetics.

I agree with everyone else, but I still find use for it in chasing down pests and knocking out control point guards. I like it better than longbow for keeping the guard in my combo field and the interrupt on heal ends the moment without blowing him out of my pets melee zone. Even with an average 360 condition damage, my shortbow takes out the guard about 3 seconds faster than my longbow.

So what do we change? It’s one of the few weapons where I like every skill.

I still use SB
Although I would consider swapping to LB if the range =/= dmg was removed and made the weapon deal the max range dmg on all ranges.

I typically keep one of each Bow type, then S/D for melee. I’ll go heavy SB if I’m playing trap/Condition, LB for Zergs/Shout & Signet work. The only issue with Bows – nay, range in general – is ANet’s coding of ranged damage being < melee.

I use my short bow all the time nearly anywhere, I know how to get myself within ranger of whatever I need and in WvW I know to engage with siege instead of my weapons if the battle turns to be out of range for me.

I also agree with Advent, to get high damage on bow you need to sacrifice a huge ton of survival, not very viable in end game situations. Whereas a melee counterpart has many more survival options while maintaining high damage.

Still my main ranged weapon on ranger

Still full melee.

Puandro.3245:

Still full melee.

The SB still tends to be a good weapon when traited to pierce if you are defending a keep or tower where pretty much every target is going to be in 900 range.

As far as open combat goes you might as well just use the axe if you really want to do ranged damage within gapcloser/cc range.

only in spvp or tpvp , do shortbows shine.

I still use and love my SB. Its still ideal for skirmishing in a condition build. Axe+Dagger are my alt set and are great for applying lots of conditions quickly, but lack the constant and mobile flare of the SB.