Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, so basically everything is in the title.

Does anyone have a good shortbow build that would work in the current meta ?

Yep, this is what I used to level the last few tiers of emerald to get into sapphire. Worked extremely well for me.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV3fnMqAVsidrAmrAUtgl/ADOtGXvrLvuMQAg5DE7mdlso0A-TZRHABeXGY89HA4gAIwTAI4LAAA

Shortbow has extremely good synergy with marksmanship line. Here’s why.

Your opening strike will hit for 25% extra damage AND inflict 5 stacks of vulnerability for 6 odd seconds. Remember, Vulnerability amplifies direct AND condi damage. Shortbow 5 will daze y our target though I would look to spam the other shortbow skills first, the poison and the crippling shot to get your enemy to proc there condi clears etc. Then shortbow 5 for the 2 seconds daze which should give you enough time to strike during the daze.

This is where it gets crazy. Druid skill ancient seeds will proc a 5 second immob and bleed on striking a player that is dazed, stunned, knock back etc. There world will come tumbling down. Use the immob time to switch to axe torch and pour on the bleeds and burns. They will not last long especially as you are taking the vipers ammy which extends condi durations by a whooping 37%, and at the same time still allow you to put on some nice direct damage.

Also note that we take the trait where should bow skills have a loser C and they pierce which is excellent in dealing with big groups .

Remember that opening stirke will always proc on weapon change so each time you swap weapons look for the pain to be dished out.

You will also notice i take a lot of trap utilities as these are easy to lay and do insane damage without you having to even been there. Great for defending points.

When you drop your healing spring (trap) try to stay in it for a bit and spam your projective finshers to proc a whole lot of regen. Remember the trapper trait give 60% extra condi and boon duration they apply, which is why i take healing spring. Its got a fantastic initial heal and you can trigger the combo fields with your projectiles to get a heck of a lot of regen going.

I also take entangle as my elite because I just dont see the value in any other elite.

Lastly, my pets. I tried a lot of of different combinations but the smakescale is probably my favorite followed by the Siamoth which are always useful. The drab back to this build is that its vulnerable to range attacks. So, better to stay on points with easy access to LOS.

@Royale
One flaw, though. You are extremely vulnerable to burst, condition bombs, stunlocks and everything that is going on at points and current meta. Which means if you are vulnerable even to ranged damage, you are vulnerable to everything.
I’d definitely go for Rabid stats in order to survive burst which is going to be your biggest issue. Your damage will not go down much. Power coefficients of your damage output are low anyways.

Apart from that the build looks like a promissing template.

Poison evade spam build

Quickdraw on SB2 and Dagger4

Spam: dodge skills, dodge roll, poison skills, swap weapon, F2, pet swap.

Easily stacks up to 20+ poison. Easy reapplication so don’t have to worried about people condi-cleansing your poisons.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV8YnMqAFsidrAmrAEtiFGBDupWV7qNjraVSjpAc5CAp8inw0C-TJxBQBGc/BzUGAAPBALcRAAA

Tragic Positive.9356:

@Royale
One flaw, though. You are extremely vulnerable to burst, condition bombs, stunlocks and everything that is going on at points and current meta. Which means if you are vulnerable even to ranged damage, you are vulnerable to everything.
I’d definitely go for Rabid stats in order to survive burst which is going to be your biggest issue. Your damage will not go down much. Power coefficients of your damage output are low anyways.

Apart from that the build looks like a promissing template.

I would say that all classes are vulnerable to what you described. I mentioned a vulnerability to range as the build lacks a block, or a gap closer. I play with another variant that eachews the shortbow for a greatsword but the op requested a shortbow build. Chain cc like that you see from dragon hunters and mesmers are something you should be looking to avoid anyway. The build does have a stun break which also causes daze. Using the stun break will daze your attacker causing them to be immobed. Take the opportunity to drop your traps. The spike trap launch will also proc the immob and 5k bleed. Like i said, its inportant to fight in your healing spring when yoi drop it. You also have celestial avatar to go into if you need a quick burst heal or condi clears.

Lastly, and i probably shouldve mentioned this the first time. My pets are always on passive until i trigger their f2. This means for example the smokescale and proc smoke field right on me when i need it. Handy for stomping or blind spamming. The siamoth also gives me inviz or plasma. Again crucial for the way i play and a big help in mitigating damage.

Lastly you can take signet of the wild in marksmanship instead of clarion bond which procs stab and swiftness and a lot more dmg at 50% hp. The runes of durability are doing it for me at the moment though. As you say, the build is prone to all you mentioned but then again most builds are.

The key is avoiding them. Ive not had any issues 1v1 anyone on point.

Royale.5863:

Tragic Positive.9356:

@Royale
One flaw, though. You are extremely vulnerable to burst, condition bombs, stunlocks and everything that is going on at points and current meta. Which means if you are vulnerable even to ranged damage, you are vulnerable to everything.
I’d definitely go for Rabid stats in order to survive burst which is going to be your biggest issue. Your damage will not go down much. Power coefficients of your damage output are low anyways.

Apart from that the build looks like a promissing template.

I would say that all classes are vulnerable to what you described.
…
…

The point is that standard meta builds provide higher access to stun-breakers, stability, more CC, and potentially much and much much more sustain and ways to mitigate damage.

You are suggesting evading the abilities. Something that everyone can do – that has absolutely nothing in common with the build itself. You can’t point out the game-wide mechanic as a feature for the build. You might have had a point with Sword/Dagger in your hands.

PvP has not been about 1v1 for a long time.
If you are this vulnerable as you are in this build – you might as well roll a mesmer instakilling, chain AoE-CCing everything in your grasp, with better rotating options. And I dare to say even better chance of survival since you force your enemy into defensive as well as having Class-evades to mitigate burst.

That’s what I’m talking about. It’s not about being able to kill your enemy 1v1. Even Raid Boss runs out of HP eventually. The point is that you could potentially bring as much reward for less risk if you invest more into defenses, since you bring absolute zero burst as a condi Ranger.

Its not a 1v1 build….it provides excellent team fighting through all the trap fields. Entangle, aoe torch skills, split shot bleeds on axe, split shot poison, aoe traited healing, not to mention celestial avatar abilities.

I mean if you didnt look at the build properly take another look at the skills. Cripples, immobes, aoe condi pressure. Entangle. Points become killing fields while you dodge away and spam condis from mid range. You win points by taking down players before they take you down. And im in no way relating this to meta builds. The op asked for a shoutbow build. Shoutbow wont be meta any time soon.

Royale.5863:

I mean if you didnt look at the build properly take another look at the skills. Cripples, immobes, aoe condi pressure. Entangle. Points become killing fields while you dodge away and spam condis from mid range. You win points by taking down players before they take you down. And im in no way relating this to meta builds. The op asked for a shoutbow build. Shoutbow wont be meta any time soon.

But …
… I know all that.
All I said was that your team contribution with soft CC and condi pressure is not worth for being that glassy. You’ll be the 1st to go down since you don’t have weapons with evades or defense.

That’s why I said it’s better to go for that defensive Rabid stat, or probably the Settler if the person prefers the sustained skirmishing.
The template has the potential but it really is a suicide bomber in it’s current form.

Hey guys,

Thanks for sharing the buils, I’ll try both of them and see what I like.

And don’t worry even if some of the things doesn’t go as well as wanted in the meta, I’ll just try it out and see what I like. I just wanna play shortbow a bit for a while because it seems fun and changes a bit from the current meta on ranger/druid.

Thanks again for sharing your builds guys, that’s great

Shiiroi.6035:

Hey guys,

Thanks for sharing the buils, I’ll try both of them and see what I like.

And don’t worry even if some of the things doesn’t go as well as wanted in the meta, I’ll just try it out and see what I like. I just wanna play shortbow a bit for a while because it seems fun and changes a bit from the current meta on ranger/druid.

Thanks again for sharing your builds guys, that’s great

I’ll be dead honest, the poison build is not amazing. But its the best I’ve got for SB.

Well we all play differently so to each their own

Hmmmm, I had been thinking of making a build with SB. Note I’m on my phone so no builder and this is an untested theorycraft.

Carrion Amulet, Durability Runes.
Shortbow, Staff : Energy/Geomancy Geomancy/Doom
Skirmishing: 331
Nature Magic: 312
Druid: 333

Healing Spring, Flame Trap, Poison Trap, Stunbreaker of Choice. I’d go with Glyph or Lightning Reflexes. Strength of the Pack as the elite because you need stability, but Entangle if you’re brave. If super brave and don’t want the stunbreak either, Signet of Stone for tankiness, signet of the wild for more astral force regen.

Basically, you’re looking to have as much CC as possible and spam traps. Quickdraw on SB 2 or 5, staff 3 or 5, those are the priority skills to get the proc on. Lockdown easily harassed targets as much as possible.

I can’t say how the build will perform, it’s an idea that’s been in the back of my head since HoT dropped that I haven’t tried.

jcbroe.4329:

Hmmmm, I had been thinking of making a build with SB. Note I’m on my phone so no builder and this is an untested theorycraft.

Carrion Amulet, Durability Runes.
Shortbow, Staff : Energy/Geomancy Geomancy/Doom
Skirmishing: 331
Nature Magic: 312
Druid: 333

Healing Spring, Flame Trap, Poison Trap, Stunbreaker of Choice. I’d go with Glyph or Lightning Reflexes. Strength of the Pack as the elite because you need stability, but Entangle if you’re brave. If super brave and don’t want the stunbreak either, Signet of Stone for tankiness, signet of the wild for more astral force regen.

Basically, you’re looking to have as much CC as possible and spam traps. Quickdraw on SB 2 or 5, staff 3 or 5, those are the priority skills to get the proc on. Lockdown easily harassed targets as much as possible.

I can’t say how the build will perform, it’s an idea that’s been in the back of my head since HoT dropped that I haven’t tried.

That works for me though I would take 332 in skirmishing since you’re using a shortbow. I would definitely go with glyph of equality for the stunbreak as its got the lowest cooldown and it has an AOE daze which can proc your Druid skill Ancient Seeds also.

What pets would you take?

Hey thanks for the new builds, I’ll try those too !
I actually found a fun build aswell. I’m still trying to tune it so it’s far from being perfect, any suggestions would be welcome.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV3YjEqQNL2yCOsAVLWMEM4s6YNtyEAGdlum3VwqFUxUFA-TZRAABA8AAo4KAUWZge2fo7DCAA

I’m still hesitating between quick draw or Light on your feets. First one is pretty good on 1V1 situations, but the piercing arrow and extra condi damage is nice during teamfights.
I’m also testing for the sigils if I should go full bleed (agonie ) or use also torment.

For the amulet, I’m testing also things such as wanderer, sinster and viper. I like rabid for the moment for the extra toughness.

Shiiroi.6035:

Hey thanks for the new builds, I’ll try those too !
I actually found a fun build aswell. I’m still trying to tune it so it’s far from being perfect, any suggestions would be welcome.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV3YjEqQNL2yCOsAVLWMEM4s6YNtyEAGdlum3VwqFUxUFA-TZRAABA8AAo4KAUWZge2fo7DCAA

I’m still hesitating between quick draw or Light on your feets. First one is pretty good on 1V1 situations, but the piercing arrow and extra condi damage is nice during teamfights.
I’m also testing for the sigils if I should go full bleed (agonie ) or use also torment.

For the amulet, I’m testing also things such as wanderer, sinster and viper. I like rabid for the moment for the extra toughness.

I would drop sharpening stone for quickening zephyr. It is way more versatile skill and if you attack from the back or the side you will output those 5 bleeds stack as fast as the sharpening stone.

Also maybe give go to the sigil of frailty + sigil of torment on your shortbow. Since vulnerabilities boost condi dmg and the sigil has a 1 sec internal cooldown, the vulnerability might get cleansed protecting some of your damaging condis. And the torment stack is also one more condi that might get cleanse.

For pets, Lynx + wolf would be good… Wolf is a must have for alot of situation (aka safe rez, safe stomp, kiting or chain cc with the knock down).

^ Yeah that’s the standard shortbow trait build. There’s really nothing better with the Druid variant. Personally I suggest Wanderer’s or Viper’s because the Expertise/condition duration makes a big difference.

If you don’t mind losing the condition damage from your rune, try Rune of the Mad King for bleed application burst. The ravens hit 16 times (it’s the same as the warhorn’s Hunter’s Call skill) which processes Sharpened Edges and sigils like crazy and does ~2k damage. Plus even though it’s a Power-oriented rune it has just 5% less bleeding duration increase than Rune of the Krait. Personally I prefer it, especially when people pop their condition removals or go into stealth early.

And I agree with Klonko about sigils, though maybe Sigil of Earth instead of Sigil of Torment because the latter’s 5 second cooldown.

Alright, I’m gonna try that, it looks good
Thanks for the tips guys.

Oh and I forgot to say— I recommend Refined Toxins over Ambidexterity. It’s basically a better version of Sigil of Doom that also applies to your pet. The constant poison application will be more useful than the extra condition damage and offhand skill cooldown reduction because it also applies while you’re using the shortbow, which you’ll probably have out 80%+ of the time.

I also highly recommend Light on your Feet over Quick Draw because it is incredibly useful for cleaving enemies in downstate with good positioning and getting through to a target blocked by other enemies or minions. Plus if you’re using Viper’s Amulet that 10% damage boost is actually quite nice.

All in all this is the build I’d recommend for shortbow Druid: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV3fjEqQLLWyCOsAVLWMEM4s6YNt28uSdtAmAwor0B-TZRFABtt/w5lBA4JAUwFAQhDCAA

Torch can be swapped for Dagger, Sigils can be changed up, Signet of Stone can be changed for Spike Trap or Glyph of Equality (both great for enemy rez denial), Rune of the Mad King can be swapped, swap for Viper’s, etc.

Personally I run this with little problem, mainly reflects.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV3fjMqQNL2sCmrAVLWMEM4t6YNt+cAeW1OmAwor0VyzSB-TJRFwAAuIARLDo4JAka/BA

Though I haven’t really been in PVP much, so I haven’t tried defense runes with viper amulets.

To Iao :

Yeah that’s almost the builds I have, I’m still testing out amulets between wanderer, viper and rabid. Rabid gives a little better survavibilty. The increase power on viper add a little of damages, but not so much as short bow have really low damages so I am still hesitating, plus you are really squishy. Wanderer is basically a rabid with less toughness but little better crit and condi (thanks to increase duration ). For the rune, mad king works better with viper due to the fact they are both power based as well as condi, but with rabid and wonderer I tend to like the krait more, and it also deal multiple condi on my elite which is a nice bonus against condi cleansing. I also think Light on your feet is overall better, but in some situation quick draw is nice too.
I’m testing out with sword dagger on the other hand at the moment for more survavibilty (evades) because overall the build is quite squishy.

But yeah overall it’s similar to what I’m doing atm
Btw as I have you on my friend list (I played the sniper warrior when we met) we can test or play together if you want !

To Natzo :

I think your build is working better in PVE, and I’m more PVP oriented. The spirits aren’t so good in PVP due to their lack of mobility. I understand it’s nice because you can stack some good burn with bristleback’s ability but it will probably be tough to use well in PVP.

Royale.5863:

jcbroe.4329:

Hmmmm, I had been thinking of making a build with SB. Note I’m on my phone so no builder and this is an untested theorycraft.

Carrion Amulet, Durability Runes.
Shortbow, Staff : Energy/Geomancy Geomancy/Doom
Skirmishing: 331
Nature Magic: 312
Druid: 333

Healing Spring, Flame Trap, Poison Trap, Stunbreaker of Choice. I’d go with Glyph or Lightning Reflexes. Strength of the Pack as the elite because you need stability, but Entangle if you’re brave. If super brave and don’t want the stunbreak either, Signet of Stone for tankiness, signet of the wild for more astral force regen.

Basically, you’re looking to have as much CC as possible and spam traps. Quickdraw on SB 2 or 5, staff 3 or 5, those are the priority skills to get the proc on. Lockdown easily harassed targets as much as possible.

I can’t say how the build will perform, it’s an idea that’s been in the back of my head since HoT dropped that I haven’t tried.

That works for me though I would take 332 in skirmishing since you’re using a shortbow. I would definitely go with glyph of equality for the stunbreak as its got the lowest cooldown and it has an AOE daze which can proc your Druid skill Ancient Seeds also.

What pets would you take?

Smokescale and either Bristleback or Wolf, depending on if I felt I need damage or control.

Shiiroi.6035:

To Iao :

Yeah that’s almost the builds I have, I’m still testing out amulets between wanderer, viper and rabid. Rabid gives a little better survavibilty. The increase power on viper add a little of damages, but not so much as short bow have really low damages so I am still hesitating, plus you are really squishy. Wanderer is basically a rabid with less toughness but little better crit and condi (thanks to increase duration ). For the rune, mad king works better with viper due to the fact they are both power based as well as condi, but with rabid and wonderer I tend to like the krait more, and it also deal multiple condi on my elite which is a nice bonus against condi cleansing. I also think Light on your feet is overall better, but in some situation quick draw is nice too.
I’m testing out with sword dagger on the other hand at the moment for more survavibilty (evades) because overall the build is quite squishy.

But yeah overall it’s similar to what I’m doing atm
Btw as I have you on my friend list (I played the sniper warrior when we met) we can test or play together if you want !

To Natzo :

I think your build is working better in PVE, and I’m more PVP oriented. The spirits aren’t so good in PVP due to their lack of mobility. I understand it’s nice because you can stack some good burn with bristleback’s ability but it will probably be tough to use well in PVP.

Oh cool man I didn’t realize that was you! The thing about Rune of the Mad King is you’re gonna be processing many more conditions than Rune of the Krait offers for your elite (I’ll assume Entangle). With Fury and Wanderer’s it comes to around 8 bleed stacks on average and ~2k damage, while Krait only gives 1 of each of the three conditions. So it’s better for burst potential which is where I think the build really shines. But yeah, it’s certainly a matter of preference.

Well right now I’m also trying mad king and viper. I ended up fighting a few diamond skin ele and with the wanderer / krait I have so low direct damage and as they heal pretty well, I can’t get them under 90%, meaning I can’t stack condi on them. So I’m testing out mad king / viper, or maybe sinister for the extra crits.
What do you think between sinister and viper ? Basically sinister will allow me to stack more bleeds thanks to the higher crit chance, but viper makes the stacks last longer and I get around 50% crit with fury on (basically all the time due to skrimishing line and my utilities).

Full Dire with Krait runes. Shortbow and Axe/Torch.

Play as human so you have access to the racial condi-clear skill.

Super tanky and loads of damage.

Imho, (ab)use the attack rate – use “on crit sigils” (and traits) with low cooldown. Oh, and make use of that bleed.
Other than than, since they nerfed this weapon into oblivion (compare: revenant #1), it’s pretty lackluster. The nerf to the attackspeed some 3 years ago still hurts…

Hey guys,

First, TheHeretic, what you said might be interesting but doesn’t apply to me as I’m focus on sPVP so racial skills and so doesn’t apply there ! But thanks for the tips anyway

Otherway I wanted to give a little update on the build for those who followed. I’ve been playing around with it a lot during the week and I tested many things. I still have to test again and see more things but I got a pretty good thing atm that works fine (saphire rank with this build).

So basically I have two version of the builds and I’ll post it here :
- Krait Wanderer : http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAsYVjEqQJLWzCusAVLWMEM4s6YNtyEAGdlumOQqrFUyK6C-TpRAABAcIAA5BAsfZAKOCAecCA6Z/BA
- Mad Viper : http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAsYVjEqQJLWzCusAVLWMEM4s6YNtyEAGdlumOQqrFUyK6C-TpRFABM8AAab/BzLDAwRAogDBgCnAAA

So to explain the strong points.

KRAIT WANDERER :
- It is the build that will let you stack the most bleeds, it has really good sustained damages and you can easily get about 30 stacks on an ennemy (more crit than viper).
- It is a little more tanky thanks to the aditional toughness.
- On your elite you’ll stack a few conditions, allowing you to “survive” better against condi cleaning.

MAD VIPER :
- It has little more hybrid damages than the other build. Allowing you to fight better the diamond skin’s ele and other condi tanking character. Well you mostly deal condi damages but still about 1/3 of your damages will be direct damages. And as a bonus you’ll deal a decent amount of damage with the sword basic attack.
- The elite skill is amazing for stacking bleeds thanks to Mad King. It becomes super powerfull in teamfight because the ravens will crit a lot (you get about 50% crit with viper + fury that you gain from your survival skills).

I tested both the builds at max damages on the invulnerable golems and I calculated the damage using a legal damage calculator. Both builds deals about 4K damage per second. The max stack of bleed I could get (I had to use agony sigil) was 56. Of course you will never get that much in a real fight because there is no ennemy that will just stand there letting you stack that many bleeds, but I often get 30 stacks.

TIPS AND COMBOS :

- I use Sharpening Stones as often as I can. It has a 35 sec CD and last 30 sec. Meaning you can prepare it before a fight, get there use your five stack of bleeding, keep on attacking and get back your five stack a few second after. It will stack 10 bleeding that deal about 1K each, which is pretty good for a utility skill.
- Your main combo is to activate the Elite, then Quickening Zephyr and spam your shortbow skills to stack a great amount of bleeding and let the ennemy bleed to death.
I also often engage a fight by using the Crippling Talon skill from dagger and then swapping to ShortBow.
- During a fight you’ll be about 80% of the time with Shortbow equiped. When an ennemy come close, or when you need to dodge a lot of damage, swap weapons and use the sword and dagger’s evades to survive for a while. With this build you got 4 evades : Shortbow 3, Sword 2 and 3 and dagger 4.
- I’m most of the time using sharpening stones, because in the current meta where everything and damages comes from conditions, you’ll need a little extra damage to get them down and aditional condi removal. But if the ennemy team get a more bursty comp, you should swap Sharpening Stones for Signet of Stone.

GOAL ON THE GAME :

- Most of the time you’ll try to aim for little fighting ongoing at some points. You can get there, land your full combo and let the ennemy bleed to death.
- The builds works not too bad in teamfight as your arrow pierces and your elite is a great AOE immobilize / bleed and other condis if you picked Krait.
- The build do quite alright in 1V1 even if it’s not the main goal. If you get into 1V1 situation try to take down the ennemy quickly but if it start to last too long (bunker mesm, etc…) you’d rather run away and get where you can help the most.

1V1 SITUATION

- As I was saying this build is quite alright for 1V1, it’s acutally better than longbow in my opinion because it has more sustainable damage where longbow has a good initial burst from far, but get weaker when ennemy come close (even with GS).
- You can fight most classes and do quite alright, even if some of them will be a bigger trouble. The most annoying thing you can have is a tanky diamond skin ele. If he plays alright he’ll manage to keep is HP over 90 % and as our build is mostly condition based it’s really hard to get hime under the 90%. But usually they don’t have enough damages to kill you quickly so you should rather abandon this fight.
- If you fight against a malyx rev, it’s pretty tough because he can keep resistance for quite a while. But you can still beat it. Actually, while he is on malyx form he’s mostly gonna attack and ignore all conditions you put on him. In that case you can just stack a lot of bleed and when he has no more energy or swap back to shiro he’ll die super fast even if he use Crystal Hibernation.
- Reaper is a little tough because they are quite tanky and deal a lot of damages. It’s actually way easier to kill them during a teamfight when you come from behind. In 1V1 against them, don’t use your burst combo, but keep your survival skills as condi removal. As soon as he stack 2 condis on you, use QZ or SS to remove it and keep on using your attacks. Watch out for is Plague Signet that can send back conditions to you every 24 sec. You can actually beat them but it’s a really tough fight. You need to make a really good use of condi removal skills. If he land a condi burst on you (more than 5 condi), it’s a good time to swap to astral form, clear condis, heal a bit and go back to DPS.

CONCLUSION

Overall this build has pretty good DPS, it really shines when you can come in a little fight and quickly take down an ennemy.

Of course this build isn’t the most OP build you can get, I just like it because it changes from the basic meta with celestial druids…
I’m not a pro and if you have any more tips I’ll be happy to listen

Yes but you somehow have to convince ANet to roll the clock back to release. SB was really good back then. Since it has seen nerf after nerf including some fun stealth-nerfs making it a lessor weapon compared to other options.

Yeah but I’m having a lot of fun with this build