Guild Wars 2

I like how LB rangers feel, and I like it as a class, but all I ever read around here is how rangers are so terribly useless and how longbow makes them even worse.

:c

Should I just ditch it for a longbow Warrior instead?

I have a level 80 guardian and it is sooooooo boring. I would think the warrior would be just as boring and I just finished leveling a ranger to 80 and it’s a fun class. People can say they are useless as much as they like but they usually don’t complain when my pet is rezzing them when they are downed.

So play one? Longbow is perfectly viable in PvE, keep a long distance to take advantage of the bonus damage, grab all the longbow traits (Quickdraw is very good) and you’ll be fine.

I’m 90% of the time using longbow, the only time I switch to Sword/Warhorn is when mobs are too close or I want to run faster using the Warhorn boost.

Honestly, stack power/precision and you’ll see how viable Longbow is… most rangers i see in Orr are using longbow with piercing anyway, shortbow becomes a little boring when you have 25 stacks of condition already on the boss :\

Rekuja.6318:

So play one? Longbow is perfectly viable in PvE, keep a long distance to take advantage of the bonus damage, grab all the longbow traits (Quickdraw is very good) and you’ll be fine.

I’m 90% of the time using longbow, the only time I switch to Sword/Warhorn is when mobs are too close or I want to run faster using the Warhorn boost.

Honestly, stack power/precision and you’ll see how viable Longbow is… most rangers i see in Orr are using longbow with piercing anyway, shortbow becomes a little boring when you have 25 stacks of condition already on the boss :\

Ok, please post your best pvE spec so the rest of us can see where you are going and then tweak for our own use.

pvE specs are VERY hard to find on the net, and it’s still not easy to find one for spvp or wvw. Every other profession has a billion websites, this one doesn’t even have enough to help many Rangers.

There is no one saying you can’t use certain weapons. There will always be people who use what others deem the worst weapons (like LB/GS) and make them good. I run LB/GS in paid tournaments. LB is viable in every aspect of this game. However, if you are going to use it in pvp you better not trait pure glass cannon.

atheria.2837:

Ok, please post your best pvE spec so the rest of us can see where you are going and then tweak for our own use.

pvE specs are VERY hard to find on the net, and it’s still not easy to find one for spvp or wvw. Every other profession has a billion websites, this one doesn’t even have enough to help many Rangers.

There’s tons of specs hiding in these forums. The thing is they are all almost identical. There’s really 3 specs with some slight variation:

Trapper (Condition Damage and Precision are main stats):
0/20/30/0/5 (decide where you want the other 10)

Glass Cannon (Power and Precision are main stats):
20/20/5/0/5 (decide where you want the other 20)

Bunker/BM (Healing Power and Toughness are main stats):
0/0/30/10/30 (there’s variations, I use a 0/0/15/25/30)

That’s about it really. The traits you take are the obvious ones. There’s really no questioning which traits are good and which are junk for those specs. You can also mix and match between those to get things like a Trapper/BM hybrid.

Although generally speaking every ranger spec starts with 0/0/5/0/5 then you decide where the other 60 points go based on weapons, are you using traps, and whether you want to be glass or bunker.

Edit: Here’s a basic frame for a longbow ranger:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQBgAY9AgA7rLgpAAG/CA

If you want traps the last 10 points goes in Skirmishing for Trapper’s Expertise (or I guess potency if you prefer), otherwise I’d drop it in WS for the protection on dodge or BM for faster pet swapping (more quickness). Depends on whether you want the defense or offense really.

Longbow is a good weapon in both PvE and WvW, it just performs really badly if you have low pwr/crit damage. Play with it some, with a decent dps build you’ll see that it’s fun, strong, and useful.

PS: Unspecified is spot on with his build breakdown. I’m amazed when I see builds that don’t have 5 points in WS and BM

Nothing wrong with Longbow, not the first choice out there but certainly has its strengths…..find a style that suits you and if it includes the longbow then run with it. I have run a LB/SB spec since 80 with a little dabbling in other weapon/specs and I have no issues in either PvE or WvW play with Longbow as one of my weapons.

longbow//Shortbow builds are good for both WvWvW and PVE — if you carry a axe or sword (for when you need to melee a certain boss/mobs in PVE) and a warhorn for the swiftness buff its very viable.. if your going for all out crit chance then you gotta go 30/30 and the rest is up to you.. but i suggest putting atleast 5pts in the beastmastery line for the extra swiftness buff (zephyrs’s Speed — Very useful)

If you play a LB ranger with good stats in dungeon PuGs you’ll be one of the best members of your party. (Because you won’t be in downed state all the time like everyone else :/)

But if you start running with a specific group you’ll start to find that you wished you rolled a warrior instead. At the moment warriors are perfect for dungeons and most of the best ranger strategies basically do roughly the same thing warriors do, just with less damage.

I love playing my ranger, all time favorite class to play , but as soon as I get my warrior geared up I’m going to need to switch over in the interest of optimizing my guild’s dungeon runs and such.

We’ll see what the update tomorrow brings though.

The main problem with every ranger weapon is actually pets. I just said I love playing ranger, and ironically this is completely in spite of pets. If there were builds that completely disabled pets I would use them. Don’t get me wrong, I love collecting them and their F2 skills can be really great but the lil furry fellas suck at dungeons.

You know when you are forming a PuG and there’s alwsays that one guy who doesn’t dodge roll, gets everyone killed, attacks in the wrong direction, has a slow reaction time, doesn’t rez people despite standing over their bodies and aggros everything? Rangers have that guy with them every second of the day.

Now I imagine the ranger weapon damage is balanced around having pets alive. So that’s why I believe that despite the fact that we have so many threads about weapon X is not as good as the warrior’s weapon Y, that wouldn’t be as much as a problem if our pets were actually useful in PvE.

Unspecified.9142:

Edit: Here’s a basic frame for a longbow ranger:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQBgAY9AgA7rLgpAAG/CA

I took this basic outline and ran with it. I dropped the last 10 points in beast mastery for quicker pet swapping. I’m liking it so far, but I have just a couple minor problems.

I feel a tiny bit squishy despite running knight’s armor and valkyrie trinkets. This is probably because I’m used to playing a guardian. I plan on trying life steal food as a solution.

I find myself using a lot of survival skills, and I really want to pick up wilderness knowledge. But in order to do that, I have to drop 5 points from somewhere else. If I take 5 points from beast mastery, I lose my faster pet swapping. If I take 5 points from skirmishing, I lose quick draw. If I take 5 points from marksmanship, I’ll have to choose between piercing arrows, and eagle eye. I’m not really sure what to sacrifice.

I have tried a few builds out

1. 30/30/0/10/0 with healing spring, signets of renewal and the hunt, muddy terrain, and RaO and the 5% of vit to power,
http://www.intothemists.com/calc/index.php?build=-Fo-7-CFxEFu-f2NEV-0;9;4TT-9-079198;14N

This build had a fragile pet (use devourer) and I would focus upon keeping buffs up while applying Longbow. It worked out OK, with zerk gear could have big hits (but low survival in WvW). Rage as One was used for stability getaways in PvP.

2. 20/20/0/0/30 with healing spring, signets of wild, hunt, and renewal with rage as one,

http://www.intothemists.com/calc/index.php?build=-Fo-F-CFxEFu-f2kDV-0;9;4JJ;0T07-19;505Bz

I am playing this up with sword/warhorn + LB right now and reef+salamander drakes, and am using berserker gear. Typical AoE pull is send in drake with warhorn 5, then warhorn 4, swap, dump barrage, line up piercing hunters shot by picking far target and strafing, then rapid fire and long range shot. For pets, use the F2 on the first one and let it get its opening salvo off, then swap and use the F2 on the 2nd. This destroys AOE stuff fast for general questing etc. I am 78.5 now and will refine it for WvW once I finish the questline for my back piece and hit 80. I wanted a tough build for pets that could tank, and I have soloed champions with this build and judicious pet swapping.

For grinding out stuff as you clear zones, most trash you can mop up with sword on autoattack. You do get locked up in that animation and it is best to turn off autoattack and mash the 1 key so that you can evade as desired. If it is nasty, stand back and use the bow. If stragglers make it through your opening salvo, swap to sword and finish them. There was a nice video on this board on how to use sword 2 to jump gaps and get away. Sword hits much much harder than axe and I think is a better choice for a power build.

For WvW I will likely gear towards toughness/vitality/healing gear to fill in the holes. Without all of the evasion stuff you get in WS, you have to stand off and not go toe to toe as much. I do miss the longest range for longbow, but it seems autoattack is bugged on that anyway (only turns on for range 1200 or less?). Piercing and faster CDs on longbow attacks were my goals from the first 2 lines.

PvE longbow rangers are great, WvW not so much.

I’ve only found them useful for siege in WvW. Send the pet down or up the walls and AoE the heck out of em, also has a bit better range.

If you have to directly engage the LB is terribad imo. SB has a lot more utility(cripple,bleed,stun,poison, extra dodge) and better damage overall.

No one is going to stand in your aoe long enough to make it worth it, and the damage on it is pretty bad.

Fact is as a SB ranger I laugh at LB rangers and purposely hunt them down.

If you like the longbow, but don’t like the lower damage it has compared to short bow, do this:
Use short bow and longbow. Use the shortbow as your main source of damage, but swap to the longbow to use 5, 3, then 2. Once this is up, swap back to short bow.

The longbow is good aside from the number 1 skill, so you can supplement a short bow build by doing the above. This is what I use for my PvE dungeon build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQJAVziEVRWsWCili9EoWBOxZcIG9PkeA;ToAg0CnooyQlgKLVOqkUtyYkB
(copy and paste for link to work)

Longbow sucks atm. Ranger class imo sucks. Sure you could profit off trap builds or be annoying as an evasion tank but ranger cant run any viable power crit builds and longbow in pvp is just overall bad. Maybe in wvw its decent, but only if you are perched on a wall pew pewing, when enemies get too close longbows damage shrinks by 50%. Pets need to scale off a rangers stats imo but I hate having a pet anyways. Longbow is bad for many reasons, Id name them but I dont feel like dealing with trolls, u could pm me and Ill tell ya the problems Iev noticed with longbow if needed. I wouldnt waste my time with this class unless you like throwing traps and having a crappy pet.

Do not listen to that guy at all.

Invite me in game if you want to see how a ranger can be effective.

If all I was able to do was pew pew from the battlements I’d be kitten too, too bad that’s not what we are about though.

Every class in the game sucks if you plan on sitting in one spot using only weapon skills. No character in the game has burst me down single handedly from range.

Quarktastic.1027:

Unspecified.9142:

Edit: Here’s a basic frame for a longbow ranger:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQBgAY9AgA7rLgpAAG/CA

I took this basic outline and ran with it. I dropped the last 10 points in beast mastery for quicker pet swapping. I’m liking it so far, but I have just a couple minor problems.

I feel a tiny bit squishy despite running knight’s armor and valkyrie trinkets. This is probably because I’m used to playing a guardian. I plan on trying life steal food as a solution.

I find myself using a lot of survival skills, and I really want to pick up wilderness knowledge. But in order to do that, I have to drop 5 points from somewhere else. If I take 5 points from beast mastery, I lose my faster pet swapping. If I take 5 points from skirmishing, I lose quick draw. If I take 5 points from marksmanship, I’ll have to choose between piercing arrows, and eagle eye. I’m not really sure what to sacrifice.

If you lose the 10 bm points and put 5 in ws and 5 in skirmishing, you’ll have my build exactly The faster pet swap is very good, but by dropping it u get faster survival reload and the extra flanking damage from 25 points in skirmishing. Plus 50 toughness, 50 precision, and 5% crit chance.

I like longbow, good for helping to tag mobs. Also in WvW it can be pretty funny when you are being chased by a warrior who thinks you are an easy kill. As most warriors on my tier do, they open with bulls charge so i just hit em with point blank shot for lawls. Switch to shortbow to hit em with crippling shot, and either run away laughing or kill them.

P.S. I know this is about longbows, so this is a bit off topic: but off hand axe with whirling axe against a rifle warrior can be pretty funny. Even more funny when they pop Frenzy and you can watch em melt from their rifle hitting them with reflected projectiles

Linkisdead.9647:

Do not listen to that guy at all.

Invite me in game if you want to see how a ranger can be effective.

If all I was able to do was pew pew from the battlements I’d be kitten too, too bad that’s not what we are about though.

Every class in the game sucks if you plan on sitting in one spot using only weapon skills. No character in the game has burst me down single handedly from range.

Im more than willing to bet I can beat u on any toon you have with any build with 1 one of my toons. Im also willing to bet my ranger can beat yours. Wouldnt matter, Longbow still sucks, rangers atm are pigeon holed into trap builds and maybe evasion tank builds. When anet decides to make glass cannons viable like they are on every other class except maybe ele, then Ill play it and admit its worth a kitten Atm our power traits have no synergy with the weapons and our weapons do low damage because pets, also our utilities seem to be biased towards condi builds with little to none being made to accomidate power builds. I go on my 100nades engi, get 10 times the burst with 3 times the survivability without sacrificing damage. I get a stealth or stability baked into my survivability utility skill and a shield block + tons of CC, mobility, speed, and damage. On my ranger I can only pull off decent damage if I forgo all survivability and get a super squishy raven or jag.

Ranger needs tons of love atm, and Im only interested in longbow, they make that worthy and I wont have a problem. Also they should give us options to not have pets. Atm ESO is the game that will take me away from gw2 for good unless this is implimented.

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Atm ESO is the game that will take me away from gw2 for good unless this is implimented.

And you’ll still be here, complaining about how much rangers suck.

long bow in wvwvw is great for holding back zergs and making people scatter. i find myself using number 4 to smack people away a lot as well. 1 is meh and 2 only works effectively vs stunned/rooted enemies.

it can do decent dmg if they can’t dodge all the shots. 3 is always helpful to help take down fleeing targets etc…

personally i think the longbow is far better for group pvp than the shortbow which has no AoE.

Ditching ranger for a longbow warrior would not help. It’s still slow and not the best damage for that profession. The f1 AOE field can be useful when sieging walls in WvW but you won’t see many longbow warriors around for a reason – for most situations there are better options.

Quarktastic.1027:

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Atm ESO is the game that will take me away from gw2 for good unless this is implimented.

And you’ll still be here, complaining about how much rangers suck.

No I wouldnt. Id probably never touch this game again. I love anet as a company and love gw2, but my main reason for playing is ranger, however I hate being forced into having a pet. And whats worse is longbow is near unuseable in viable big boy pvp. So I have a right to complain seeing as I paid for the game. Also its not like Im spreading false info on the ranger, Im very good at ranger and very good at playing in every aspect so Ive a good grasp on how things work. Atm, rangers dont work unless you are traps, if you werent a casual player or played more than 1 build/class you would know.

quickthorn.4918:

Ditching ranger for a longbow warrior would not help. It’s still slow and not the best damage for that profession. The f1 AOE field can be useful when sieging walls in WvW but you won’t see many longbow warriors around for a reason – for most situations there are better options.

Actually Ive read reports from players atleast in spvp that longbow has more damage than rifle, more utility too. Ive rarely experimented with it as I find rifle skills awesome but thats what Ive heard, he even broke it down with math but it made my head hurt so I stopped reading.

vespers.1759:

long bow in wvwvw is great for holding back zergs and making people scatter. i find myself using number 4 to smack people away a lot as well. 1 is meh and 2 only works effectively vs stunned/rooted enemies.

it can do decent dmg if they can’t dodge all the shots. 3 is always helpful to help take down fleeing targets etc…

personally i think the longbow is far better for group pvp than the shortbow which has no AoE.

Only if people stand in it. Honestly I find barrage better in spvp because people have to stand on cap points so you just barrage that spot and they either stay and absorb the damage or move and lose the point. However its not that longbow cant do decent damage, its just that against good players it most likely wont. Barrage doesnt really do enough damage to warrant moving out of it but its stupid not too because of the cripple. Most good players move out of it, there goes 8-10k damage, then you knock them back and go for a rapid fire + QZ burst, and they pop a defensive cd, there goes that 6-8k damage, then you are screwed, your only other damaging attack requires you to be further away and in pvp thats rarely possible if people see you. My engi avoids all that damage, magnets u towards me and blows you up for 15k damage in the time it took you to cast your heal. Ranger needs love. I didnt mention pet because they die so easily, not worth mentioning against good players.