Guild Wars 2

Hi guys I’ve made a ranger, and today I revived a Shortbow. I loved the skills on it, and especially love how you cause sooo much condition damage if you flank opponent. Soooooooo if anyone has got advice on what sort of build I should have. Should I go for condition damage gear?

I would recommend against using the Shortbow but if you’d like to use it, all the power to you.

It has mediocre utility and while yes, it can apply a lot of bleed pressure while flanking you’ll rarely see that being useful. If you’re going for a condition damage Ranger, sword/torch, sword/warhorn, sword/dagger, axe/dagger, axe/torch, axe/warhorn are all much better options. Sword, although with less condition damage than shortbow, has far more utility via evades and a leap for things like fire fields (Monarch’s Leap + Bonfire for example).

If you want to get the most out of shortbow, I recommend using something of a hybrid build. Since the shortbow has a very high rate of fire, it can do quite a bit of physical damage in a short frame of time. Maybe a Celestial Ranger or Sinister would benefit the shortbow most. Just don’t go full condition damage otherwise you’re better off using a different weapon.

Here’s a trapper build I used to use when roaming. It can win most 1v1’s and cap camps easily but has very limited mobility for running from zergs.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV3YjMqUya5KurQ1aABhaVA0uGS2WgkittenBbQJfqC-TVyCABAcEAU4BAglyvLV/hiDCwM7PonuhxUCO9FAgUAnqsC-w

I advise sharpened edges trait, krait runes, an earth sigil, and condi damage gear with crit chance.

Generally build condi damage and spec for bleeds.

I run a bleed build featuring sb, very solid in pvp/ wvw. 1.4k (1.8 in wvw) condi dmg with 2k toughness, a lot of cc, and tons of condi removal.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAV8YjEqUzaDLusQ1aABhaVA0uGShWwd+eDfdJrIK-TpRAwAAeAAUuAAdOCAlLD45gA0b/BA

Once you get used to sword, you can be incredibly tricky.

what do you intend on using the ranger for?
Pve, dungeons, wvw, pvp?

I love shortbow in pvp arena and sometimes in WvW solo roaming but not so much in PvE. It’s honestly better to trait heavily into power over condition because it synergizes well with the fast attack speed of the shortbow and there are other classes out thier who make us look pitiful with conditions who are also fighting to apply them… conditions as a whole are unreliable due to the nature of how they apply. It’s like they compete against eachother instead of working togethe. You can get the most out of a shotbow beastmaster build utilizing Quickening Zeypher and Rampage as one you can burn down single targets in PvP quickly… but like I said… not very useful in PvE in situations where you are fighting multiple targets which is why you’d t to trait heavily into power and take the trait that causes arrows to pierce targets ( that’s the best you can hope for in terms of fighting multiple enemies).

Ryan.9387:

I advise sharpened edges trait, krait runes, an earth sigil, and condi damage gear with crit chance.

Generally build condi damage and spec for bleeds.

I’m in total agreement. Works very well.

i really enjoy the shortbow too, honestly the longbow is boring to play. i am doing well with it in pvp so far. i prefer muddy terrain over sharpened edges as it makes it far easier to position yourself properly against your target and is more helpful to your team overall. plus shortbow has an evade which i find more useful then a knock-back. add in the s/d and you become difficult to hit with all the evades.