Guild Wars 2

In all honesty this weapon needs a buff. There is no reason why this weapon should do less damage than the short bow under every circumstance. The only good use for this weapon is WvW.

Doesn’t even need anything drastic either buff the damage on 1 or increase it’s attack speed.

Side note bird pets should sit on your shoulders when out of combat xD

Honestly, if they buffed the projectile speed of our arrows I would be just as happy with that alone.

If they increased the attack speed, the short bow would lose one of it’s perks. Upping the damage could be an alternative.

What gear are you using? I have a friend who uses Knights armor with berserker weapons, and he absolutely loves the damage his longbow does.

Korain.1379:

If they increased the attack speed, the short bow would lose one of it’s perks. Upping the damage could be an alternative.

What gear are you using? I have a friend who uses Knights armor with berserker weapons, and he absolutely loves the damage his longbow does.

In almokittenll exotic berserk gear up to 80% bonus crit damage and roughly 2k power.

The damage is decent from the longbow however the short bow always outdoes it in dps even without calculating the bleed from crossfire or the poison from the volley :S. I ditched my old long bow for a shortbow since the dps difference was huge.

edit: Apparently almost and full when next to each other is worthy of the language filter

I roll almost exclusively longbow. I don’t switch to my shortbow unless the situation becomes close quarters or I need to kite something a lot. I spend 90% of my time with a longbow in my hands and I love it. I don’t feel weak at all. To each his own I guess.

The speed of projectiles would be nice, but generally speaking – this class is more and more in need of an overhaul when I compare to the battle-potential of most all other classes.

long bow has no reason for such a slow number 1 ability imo that is what kills the longbow.

Before buffs/nerfs I would rather Anet fixed bugged abilities/traits, as I imagine Signet of the Hunt and Moment of Clarity will affect the entirety of damage from channeled abilities, potentially making Longbow burst OP; especially if the effects stacked additively!

Xandax.1753:

The speed of projectiles would be nice, but generally speaking – this class is more and more in need of an overhaul when I compare to the battle-potential of most all other classes.

I don’t think too much needs to be done with the class overall. Imho Anet put too much power in the ranger pets and balanced them around 30 points in BM.

juicifruitz.6251:

long bow has no reason for such a slow number 1 ability imo that is what kills the longbow.

This is part of the reason, also why the hell does the longbow have the same range as the shortbow until traited?

Hell even reducing the cooldown of Hunter’s Shot would be a good start if Anet wanted the longbow to feel more like a powerful support weapon.

Kind of sad that longbow sucks so much.

Maeglin.7416:

Xandax.1753:

The speed of projectiles would be nice, but generally speaking – this class is more and more in need of an overhaul when I compare to the battle-potential of most all other classes.

I don’t think too much needs to be done with the class overall. Imho Anet put too much power in the ranger pets and balanced them around 30 points in BM.
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The issue is – as I see it – that the class has very little potential to outperform any other class. If player and equipment level equal – the Ranger feels more and more like fodder that could be replaced by another class easily.

In this game, most classes are jack of all trades. So even that isn’t something for the Ranger.

Now, I like my Ranger and enjoy playing the class. In PvE it’s is often like a knife through butter, but when it comes to PvP – then there IMO are issues en mass.

The thing is that longbow should reward u for staying at maximum distance. Atm max distance for longbow = same dps as shortbow.
Medium range should give the same dps as shortbow, max range rewards u and min range losing dps

Don’t see why it needs to be buffed… I use longbow and I’m having a blast, much more prefer it over shortbow.

I don’t like how the longbow cuts your damage by so much when you get closer to the enemy. Especially in normal pve, I don’t want to have to sit max distance to a mob and then have to run forward 1500 ft to loot it. I find myself waiting until 25%, then running forward while shooting, which makes me have to wait to fire 2 extra arrows since I’ve cut my damage down to 1/3. Pointless waste of time to loot a mob.

Sure I can switch weapons, but then to engage another mob at near max distance, I have to wait for the weapon timer…

I don’t mind the longbow’s speed; it’s designed as a slow hard hitting sniper weapon. But the range-to-damage ratio needs to be adjusted to be a little more forgiving. Staying on the back line to attack is fine, but nobody just stands still and doesn’t close the gap. Also, slightly harder hitting wouldn’t be bad, but if they changed the distance:damage ratio i’d be happy.
I would like to see skill #4 changed tho to a combo-field generator or something. We have plenty of evasion skills and the longbow is too slow to use #4 as a reliable interupt. Give us some fun stuff for longbow like the thief’s shortbow.

Im very happy with longbow, very hard hitting long range crits and i can pick alot of people off in standoffs, barrage is one the deadlyiest abilities in WvW and good at stopping a enemy push.

when the target comes after me , pushback is nice then i switch to shortbow.

Also in skirmish situations i run with longbow out so i can knockback if needed (thief) but when i start the fight i open with vulnerability shot then switch to shortbow for snare and close range damage

arji.7192:

The thing is that longbow should reward u for staying at maximum distance. Atm max distance for longbow = same dps as shortbow.
Medium range should give the same dps as shortbow, max range rewards u and min range losing dps

The short bow still out damages the longbow at long range.

Longbow is fine.

I’ve played both longbow and short; I prefer long, with high crit, in PvE. I don’t PvP much, so I can’t say much about that environment — but in PvE, at level 80 with exotic gear focused on crit, I can kill stuff faster with longbow than short bow.

The longbow is a weapon only to be used in dungeons and during events, it is not useful for any other instances, and that can only be by design. You trait for 1500 range and then you stand far away from harm’s way to contribute some damage.

It may have some uses during WvW zergs, but at that range someone just has to step aside a little and the arrow will miss. Maybe it can be used to put a little pressure on defenders, I dunno.

It’s just too bad that one of the coolest looking weapons in the game was given such a boring role. Maybe it would be better if the shortbow did not exist at all, so the longbow could be given a more versatile role, then they would be forced to make it useful for pvp as well.

Shortbows just don’t look very cool, they’re too short even by realistic standards.. a real shortbow really isn’t as short and small as this, they look like toy bows. The abilities on the shortbow I find quite boring as well. The warrior longbow for example has some very cool abilities, it doesn’t do enough damage to be used as a main weapon, though still a lot more damage than the ranger longbow, but it has a cool design. In general it seems like the design team used all their creative energy on the warrior and then didn’t have any left for the rest.

Xandax.1753:

The speed of projectiles would be nice, but generally speaking – this class is more and more in need of an overhaul when I compare to the battle-potential of most all other classes.

You know, if they overhauled ranger and made it harder to play (IE raise the skill cap) i’d be absolutely ecstatic.. atm it’s just so… dull, to put it bluntly…

As for longbow, i don’t notice shortbow being better, then again i don’t go for damage and go for the utility of the weapon, shortbow has damage (duh) but longbow has the control factor down, it makes the shortbow look awful when you put it into control/utility comparison (which no one does)

This game is dead unless they start making these changes soon. Based on the speed at which GW1 balancing came….don’t expect anything out of LB anytime soon.

Yeah I’m sad to see so many people quit GW2 already.

A lot of people bought GW2 with a specific profession in mind they wanted to play, a lot of professions completely fail, so if they can’t have any fun with the profession they chose, they quit, and who can blame them.

A lot of people for example enjoy playing the mage class (elementalist), but there is just no point in playing that profession here, you need to tap your keyboard like mad and even if you do everything right, your damage, support and survivability are all multitudes lower than that of the other professions, no matter what your build is.

A lot of people enjoy playing ranger/hunter classes, using cool-looking longbows to rain down arrows on their enemies. But here the longbow is useless except to offer some moderate damage in dungeons from 1500 range away. So if people cannot do anything but dungeons with their weapon of choice, they just quit. Many people only feel comfortable playing one single profession, and if that profession fails, they quit.

I understand balancing takes a bit, but very obvious problems that don’t require time to consider, are just left as they are, and there is almost no feedback on the forums at all to ease people’s worries, so many are quitting sadly. I think it would help if the team would be active on the forums, to actually talk with the community instead of making short sporadic comments while ignoring 99% of the worries people voice.

For many people, just to have some feedback would already be enough to keep playing the game and buying new future content.

Maybe they should make this game subscription, so they have more money to spend on improving the game.. right now it seems they just don’t have any staff to take care of the problems and talk to the community. A lot of people would happily pay €15 a month if it meant feedback and better balancing.

I used to play a text game where people literally spent thousands of dollars to improve their character, even though it wasn’t really necessary to spend any money at all, and the game was simply amazing.

I hope GW2 won’t go down the same route of GW1 regarding the lack of work put in balancing professions. The game itself is so amazing, I don’t understand why they won’t fix these rather simple issues to massively improve gameplay. Professions like the warrior prove they have the potential to make it work.

Sadly though, how beta balancing was handled, the insane overnerfing of professions to the point where they become unplayable, such as the elementalist and necromancer, doesn’t give me that much hope anymore. A lot of these broken professions are only played by new players who have no idea what the state of their chosen profession is. I’m forced myself to play a build/profession that doesn’t attract me, simply because none of my prefered choices are viable.

@Zsymon you have no idea what you’re talking about… good elementalists destroy people and are horrifying to go against, longbow isn’t bad people are just using it for the wrong purpose…

And i have no idea what you’re talking about with a lot of people quitting… my server has become more populated overall, not less… i’d imagine the others are doing about the same!!

PS: A lot of people are leaving because this game isn’t a wow clone which they were expecting it to be, and frankittenhose same people would be kittening that it is a wow clone if it were.

I guess all those people in the profession forums saying the total opposite as you, must be wrong?

Durzlla.6295:

longbow isn’t bad people are just using it for the wrong purpose…

People are using the Longbow for the wrong purpose you mean damage, that thing it is tied to being in our power and crit trait lines.

Sorry but except for WvWvW the shortbow has just as much utility more dps ( Even without the bleed on Crossfire) and mobility than the longbow. The only thing the longbow has going for it is 300 extra range when traited and barrage’s aoe.

I really love the feel of it but why bother using it when my shortbow gets the job done better and faster?

Ya, the longbow should hit really hard.. in real life an arrow from a longbow will instantly kill a heavily armored knight no matter where the arrows strikes, because it has so much force behind it. Even a leg shot will rip the arteries apart and make you bleed to death.

A shortbow is made to be agile and easily handled, to shoot fast, to shoot while running or from a mount, it does a lot less damage than the longbow, and it has much less range. Right now shortbow damage is more or less fine, but the longbow by any means should have more dps, more burst in the form of an aimed shot for example, such as the warrior rifle burst skill. Right now warriors are far superior at range than a ranger can even come close to being.

Imo, longbow damage should be massive, the penalty on shorter ranges should be removed entirely, but a minimum range should be applied, so you cannot use longbow skills at point blank (except point blank shot ofcourse). So while you are at range you would be doing massive damage with your longbow, but if the enemy comes close you would be forced to switch to another weapon.

That way you do a lot of damage, but it wouldn’t be overpowered, as your opponent can negate that damage by coming up close.. plenty of gap closers anyway.

It would also be nice to have actual arrow animations, to see an arrow nocked on the bow, and to have quiver animations.. not quiver items, just the animation depending on the bow when it is equipped.

Maeglin.7416:

Durzlla.6295:

longbow isn’t bad people are just using it for the wrong purpose…

People are using the Longbow for the wrong purpose you mean damage, that thing it is tied to being in our power and crit trait lines.

Sorry but except for WvWvW the shortbow has just as much utility more dps ( Even without the bleed on Crossfire) and mobility than the longbow. The only thing the longbow has going for it is 300 extra range when traited and barrage’s aoe.

I really love the feel of it but why bother using it when my shortbow gets the job done better and faster?

It hardly has more utility… it can apply poison, a 2 second cripple, and a daze to the enemy, and then it can give you a second dodge.

The longbow has a 10 stack of vuln (good for everyone in your team), a burst skill that’s essentially a shortbow with quickening zephyr, a big aoe cripple field that also punishes anything that stays in there, and a knockback with a really short CD. Shortbow totally doesn’t have it beat…

Actually Durzla, players that have tested this say that shortbow auto attack does more damage in the same time the longbow #2 takes to finish casting.

Shortbow doesn’t do too much damage, longbow just doesn’t do anywhere near enough, the longbow is only useful in situations where you can shoot at a stationary boss target from a really long range, so his attacks cannot reach you.

I find the longbow skills way cooler and much more fun to use, it just doesn’t do enough damage to justify using it.

Durzlla.6295:

Maeglin.7416:

Durzlla.6295:

longbow isn’t bad people are just using it for the wrong purpose…

People are using the Longbow for the wrong purpose you mean damage, that thing it is tied to being in our power and crit trait lines.

Sorry but except for WvWvW the shortbow has just as much utility more dps ( Even without the bleed on Crossfire) and mobility than the longbow. The only thing the longbow has going for it is 300 extra range when traited and barrage’s aoe.

I really love the feel of it but why bother using it when my shortbow gets the job done better and faster?

It hardly has more utility… it can apply poison, a 2 second cripple, and a daze to the enemy, and then it can give you a second dodge.

The longbow has a 10 stack of vuln (good for everyone in your team), a burst skill that’s essentially a shortbow with quickening zephyr, a big aoe cripple field that also punishes anything that stays in there, and a knockback with a really short CD. Shortbow totally doesn’t have it beat…

Longbow utility: Vuln, AoE Cripple and a knockback.
Shortbow: AoE Healing debuff, cripple and a daze/stun.

Rapid fire is the basic Shortbow attack speed.

You also completely ignored my point that the shortbow does more dps without the inclusions of its DoTs. Shortbow has the Longbow beat in everything bar WvWvW. People have the math and graphs showing the dps difference in other threads.

Imo, shortbow should have the most utility, and longbow should have the most damage. Longbow should be able to burst someone down in a glass cannon build, while the shortbow should be for kiting and skirmishing and roaming, skilled spvp play and WvW duels.

How it should be (which isn’t that amazingly different as it is right now.)

Solo pve: both longbow and shortbow. (right now only shortbow is viable)
Events: both longbow and shortbow. (shortbow does more damage)
Dungeons: longbow would be best. (shortbow does more damage)
WvW zergs: longbow would be best. (is good as it is)
SPvP: shortbow would be best. (is good as it is)
WvW Duels: longbow as easy to use glass cannon but low survability, shortbow as skilled play with higher survability and less raw damage. (right now only shortbow is viable)

The only thing needed for this list of purposes to be achieved, is to keep shortbow damage as it is, viable for both condition as well as burst builds, but to make longbow bring more burst damage than the shortbow, and equal sustained damage than the shortbow. Total damage output by using rapid fire on cooldown, would be higher than anything the shortbow can do, unless you can flank with a condition build.

Sounds complicated, but it’s just numbers, no skill changes, testing might take a bit but implementation would be very easy, as all you need to do is adjust numbers.

Maeglin.7416:

Durzlla.6295:

Maeglin.7416:

Durzlla.6295:

longbow isn’t bad people are just using it for the wrong purpose…

People are using the Longbow for the wrong purpose you mean damage, that thing it is tied to being in our power and crit trait lines.

Sorry but except for WvWvW the shortbow has just as much utility more dps ( Even without the bleed on Crossfire) and mobility than the longbow. The only thing the longbow has going for it is 300 extra range when traited and barrage’s aoe.

I really love the feel of it but why bother using it when my shortbow gets the job done better and faster?

It hardly has more utility… it can apply poison, a 2 second cripple, and a daze to the enemy, and then it can give you a second dodge.

The longbow has a 10 stack of vuln (good for everyone in your team), a burst skill that’s essentially a shortbow with quickening zephyr, a big aoe cripple field that also punishes anything that stays in there, and a knockback with a really short CD. Shortbow totally doesn’t have it beat…

Longbow utility: Vuln, AoE Cripple and a knockback.
Shortbow: AoE Healing debuff, cripple and a daze/stun.

Rapid fire is the basic Shortbow attack speed.

You also completely ignored my point that the shortbow does more dps without the inclusions of its DoTs. Shortbow has the Longbow beat in everything bar WvWvW. People have the math and graphs showing the dps difference in other threads.

Have you read ANY of my other posts? I’ve flat out said shortbow does more damage, that’s the point behind it… Longbow is more for controlling the enemy, not doing super 1337 damage

Durzlla.6295:

Have you read ANY of my other posts? I’ve flat out said shortbow does more damage, that’s the point behind it… Longbow is more for controlling the enemy, not doing super 1337 damage

Except that it should be the other way around, the longbow should be there for doing massive damage without having much control, while the shortbow should do lower damage than the longbow but have higher utility. That’s the only way for this to make any sense. I’m not saying decrease shortbow damage, I’m saying increase longbow damage.

Basic logic says longbow arrows come slow but very hard, with low utility, focused on doing the most possible sustained and burst damage. The shortbow is fast and easy to handle, the arrows are weaker but come faster, and utility is increased due to a smaller bow being more easily handled.

Right now longbow arrows come slow and hit slightly harder, but not anywhere near hard enough.. an arrow fired from a longbow should hit slower but much harder than a swing from a greatsword.

I would also replace rapid fire with an aimed shot, a single piercing shot that does massive damage + knockdown, but is more easily avoided due to a long charge. Because firing so fast with a longbow makes no logical sense. This would be the most damaging single attack in the game. All you have to do is dodge, but if you don’t, you will lose 70% of your health, same principle as 100 blades, except 100 blades takes 100% of your health.

Anyway, just a pipe dream suggestion, basic fix is just increasing longbow numbers.

First of all to those saying longbow is fine, pve doesnt count, and if you are talking about pvp, you are fighting newbies. Any skilled player has a much easier time against a longbow ranger than any other class/weapon combo even if played by skill players. To those saying longbow should only be used for control and utility…gtfo. Longbow is supposed to be a high powered sniper weapon, with shortbow being the control/utility/slight condition weapon. Ive used both, and Im a kitten good player and while I refuse to play the shortbow condition build because playstyle I gave it a shot and spent about 2 days pvping with it so I can compare.

It did so much better than longbow its not even funny, no I wasnt using longbow wrong, I used it to snipe from near max range and stay out of the fray while raining death on my enemies. But instead of death I rained annoyance. Sure my rapid fire can hit for 15k on super squishies, but thats only once every 120 secs when signets are up.

If I had to make some changes to ranger Id say scrap sig of beast master trait and make traits have that effect anyways, and lower the cd on signet of stone to 90 secs so rangers have an oh kitten button like everyone else that doesnt need to be traited. Protect me sucks, it not only kittens our damage but kills our pet unless we roll as a beast master.

Give us a trait called read the wind (Oh the nestalgia) to make longbow arrows move twice as fast, make hunters shot like kill shot, slow attack high damage reward, increase longbow range even more, maybe to 1500 untraited ( this is just wishful thinking ). Make rapid fire like warriors volley, same damage crammed into 5 attacks with a 2.5 sec cast time. Lower the penalty to long ranged shots damage drop when in close range by alot. Also combine quickdraw with piercing arrows to be like warriors crack shot.

All of this would make non shortbow rangers competetive without being op, signets would allow power/crit rangers to have survivability+ damage while using traits on say piercing arrows, longbow would have more damage, less penalty, a sniperish feel with the hunters shot buff but still being easy to dodge, and a actual rapid fire. Read the wind ideal would make it so longbow arrows dont vear off into some random kitten direction if our target moves.

Here is a video of what a real longbow looks like, arrow flight time, accuracy, ect…

Also buff longbow damage by 20%, it was fine when it was bugged and did 20% more damage.

I don’t think the longbow design was meant for this weapon on rangers to be useful for anything but dungeons.. kind of like the warrior longbow support build.

If longbow ever becomes viable in pvp, which would require a major changes of skills #1 and #2 to make it useful at close and mid range, I will play it right away. Longbow is so cool, but you can’t use it to play anything but dungeons, where its only purpose is keeping you out of harms way at 1500 range against stationary bosses.

The only reason people use longbows, is because they can’t stand the root of the sword, the kitten damage of the greatsword and the silly toy look of shortbows, they are just too small and short, and its boring skills.

I do not agree. In beta longbow seemed far superior, that could be because most beta players are noobs and cant dodge arrows but it just seemed better. When longbows eagle eye was bugged and it gave 25% damage instead of 5% longbow seemed perfect damage wise, now it just seems mediocre. Im also confident they meant it to be a hard hitting sniper weapon, otherwise why give all these supposed damage buffing traits to it? Warriors longbow was always meant to be a aoe weapon, and if you think its damage sucks you are mistaken badly. Its number 3 skill can do all of rapid fires damage in 1 burst like a aoe kill shot, Ive seen it crit for almost 10k on 5 people. I just want a reason to play ranger besides the cool medium gear we get. Im a pvper but atm every time I pvp on ranger I get annoyed since rifle warrior feels more complete. I dont mind pets but I do wish they would make us less dependant on pets for damage if we choose.

did tests in the mist and even at melee range where the 1st long bow skill does it’s lowest dmg the difference in the time for killing the target is around 2-3 seconds max

if they change something it has to be a tiny bit

Lol uh, no. Im doing it now and at the lowest range shortbow kills much faster, on max range they are about even with maybe longbow being a bit ahead if I use rapid fire. Longbow needs massive overhauls.

arcaneclarity.5283:

arji.7192:

The thing is that longbow should reward u for staying at maximum distance. Atm max distance for longbow = same dps as shortbow.
Medium range should give the same dps as shortbow, max range rewards u and min range losing dps

The short bow still out damages the longbow at long range.

He wishes that Longbow deals about the same damage as Shortbow without bleed at medium range, and comes at least close to the damage of a flanking Shortbow at long range, not stating that it currently behaves like that.

Well lets hope they fix it or buff it, until then I guess Ill keep fingers crossed.