Guild Wars 2

I’ve been messing around with ranger builds lately and something I’ve noticed is that both the main hand axe and longbow could really use some work.

The main problems I’ve come across with the longbow is that it is lacking in burst damage, its auto-attack is dependent on a long range to deal reasonable damage, and the rapid fire channel is very long making it bulky. The weapon’s sustained damage in perfect situations is fine, but when rapid fire is canceled by you needing to dodge roll or heal, or if the enemy gets behind you which cancels the channel, you’re stuck using an overly situational auto-attack. The weapon seems to be designed to be used at a distance and to keep your enemy away via knockbacks and stealth, but the lack of burst damage makes it difficult to wear down an enemy before they can reach you.

The main-hand axe is fine in condition builds, but is also meant to be used in physical builds, in which it is lacking damage. Ricochet is your main source of damage but it doesn’t deal much to 3 targets, let alone if you are fighting a single target, and has an excessive aftercast that can block you from using other skills. Splitblade deals almost no physical damage and can result in a loss of DPS even if you connect with all 5 axes.

I feel the longbow and main-hand axe could be greatly improved with a few simple changes:

• Long range shot should deal the same damage at all ranges and instead deal varying stacks of vulnerability based on the distance the enemy is hit.
• Rapid fire should no longer cause vulnerability and instead fire all its shots in a shorter period of time.

• Ricochet should have its aftercast shortened, bounce an additional time, and also bounce off allies granting 1-2 seconds of fury.
• Splitblade should have its physical damage tripled, dealing the physical damage of 3 Ricochet hits if all 5 axes hit.

I have no issue with the axe except for split blade. Unless you are point blank range and all axes hit one target, the bleed is sub-par.

I like the idea you have for Ricochet.

If they combined split blade’s bleed from all 5 axes into one blade, and gave it a bounce 3x, bleeding all targets it hit, it would be much, much more useful.

I love these suggestions. Honestly, though, I am going to say something controversial. I know prysin disagrees with me at least: longbow needs a shadow step. It just does. It would function like spectral walk in a way, or thief sword. Basically teleporting back to a chosen location. This will allow the ranger to blink away when the gap closes. Or, if you want to make it clunky like the rest of the profession, you could make you the your pet swap locations.

Thats my stupid idea. Bri’s ideas are probably better for a few reasons.

The longbow just really needs something. Hopefully anet can do something cool. Maybe not though. They did just rework longbow once.

The longbow change would need to provide a large number of vulnerability stacks to offset the 10 you get from rapid fire. To make it properly replace rapid fire would also overpower it because you could probably get 25 stacks real quick.

I would sooner change it so the 0-900 had one set of damage. 900+ had another set. And give it a increased chance to crit at the 600/900/1200 marks.

Rapid Fire I think is a good way to deliver vulnerability in a balanced manner. I do agree that a second needs to be shaved off the spell though.

I am also still a firm believer that the best way to solve the burst issue with Longbow is to give it a aimed shot similar in function to the Warrior’s rifle burst skill. Remove barrage and give us an aimed shot. Barrage could then be made into a skill that replaced spike trap. It would be a great replacement for Spike Trap if you change Barrage to also immobilize on the first hit for 2 seconds. Since it’s a skill the damage could be improved as well so it’s no longer such a mediocre AE.

Axe I’m ok with overall. I’d like to see the auto-attack get a slight damage bump. I think the one place this class needs the largest improvement is group utility. What if they changed Axe 3 to AE? This way we’d have an AE chill on a relatively short cooldown.

Ricochet bouncing off allies needs to happen, it cant be left like it is. The single hit is insufficient to justify the weapon. It would make perfect sense for ranger then, having himself or his/her pet up close.

I’m not sure there is a problem with long bow, but an aimed shot does sound cool. I think the intention of opening strike is supposed to be our big hit but its not the same. Maybe buff opening strike?

Axe really only needs useability with splitblade, and a slight damage boost for the #1 initial impact hit. The #3 skill is already very good, two control debuffs in one skilluse.

I don’t think the Longbow is useless as such. But I do feel like 1. the distance should affect something else than damage, like granting a boon/special buff (Fury for the next shot or something?) at a certain range instead, and 2. The whole package is just less thrilling than the warrior longbow, it just lacks something… feelwise. But the second point is more me.

[Quote]The whole package is just less thrilling than the warrior longbow, it just lacks something… feelwise. But the second point is more me.[/Quote]

Nope, I feel the same way. It isn’t interactive, and you don’t line moves up. There is a lack of synergy. I think opening strikes should be 4 seconds of swiftness. I think LB1 should increase critical hit chance the further away you are, or, should simply have a decreased cast timer for closer distance. I think LB4 should be removed with a move that causes higher damage the closer you are(with an immobilize lasting longer the closer you are). I think barrage should have a shorter time, but be instant cast.

Longbow is absolutely fine except for its auto-attack. The stealth update makes a whole world of difference, especially since it makes #5 useable in 1v1’s.

Main hand axe should, imo, deal either 20% more damage on its auto or deal bleeding and vulnerability randomly on hit.

Atherakhia.4086:

I am also still a firm believer that the best way to solve the burst issue with Longbow is to give it a aimed shot similar in function to the Warrior’s rifle burst skill. Remove barrage and give us an aimed shot. Barrage could then be made into a skill that replaced spike trap. It would be a great replacement for Spike Trap if you change Barrage to also immobilize on the first hit for 2 seconds. Since it’s a skill the damage could be improved as well so it’s no longer such a mediocre AE.

I think the ranger longbow is a overall better weapon with barrage. An aimed shot might be better in certain PvP situations, but I find having an 1,200-1,500 range AoE with a decent radius to be very helpful in PvE and WvW.

That’s not to say it couldn’t use some work though. An immobilize like you suggested for barrage would be great. It’s just too easy to dodge roll or walk out of at the moment. Removing the delay when first casting before it hits an enemy, which I also think shows a red ring before any damage even starts, would also help.

Something else I just thought of was an improvement to hunter’s shot. What if it gave the pet 3-4 seconds of cripple with their next attack? This would help you get some distance from the target while stealthed or slow down a retreating opponent.

Chopps.5047:

I love these suggestions. Honestly, though, I am going to say something controversial. I know prysin disagrees with me at least: longbow needs a shadow step. It just does. It would function like spectral walk in a way, or thief sword. Basically teleporting back to a chosen location. This will allow the ranger to blink away when the gap closes. Or, if you want to make it clunky like the rest of the profession, you could make you the your pet swap locations.

Something like that sounds cool, although with the evasion tools the longbow already has it might become a bit overpowered and where do we put it? Maybe hunters shot could be changed so if you press it again while stealthed you’ll shadow step to your pet or switch places with it?

This might be a great deception tool. Much of the time when I stealth the enemy knows where I was and 3 seconds isn’t much time to get much distance from them, leading to me taking hits. But if you could switch places with your pet they might think you swapped your pet, leading them to attack where your pet is, while you’ll actually be behind them. If you could shadow step to your pet they would think you were still in the location you vanished and would be attacking nothing.

The option to shadow step would allow you to fool players who were aware of this mechanic. You could intentionally swap your pet after a hunters shot instead of a shadow step, leading them attack your pets old location, not knowing you never switched places with it.

Or perhaps a shadow step would be better suited for a new utility or pet F2 skill, where you switch places with your pet, or better yet teleport to it since pets stick to targets fairly well.

I think several of the ranger weps could use a little love. Longbow #1 should add a condition. Longbow 3 should give u swiftness not your pet. Shortbow 1 should bleed all the time. Shorbow 2 needs a longer duration. Shorbow 3 needs a longer duration of swiftness. Sword 1 should add a condition. Sword 2 should be reversed so you leap to your target like warrior sword 2 and then can leap back away. Sword 3 maybe a lil duration increase on poison. Axe 1 needs a condtion Axe 2 needs all bleeds to hit if any axe hits Axe 5 just needs to be reworked completely. Greatsword 1 needs a condtion GS 2 should switch condtions vul sux. GS 5 should be reworked or at the very least always stun for 1 sec. Dagger off hand is fine.

Longbow just needs it’s mechanic reworked so it does something like adds 2% crit damage at 500+ range and adds 5% at 1000+ range. Its a big enough buff to make sniping at long range feel most powerful but doesn’t penalize you when the enemy inevitably uses a gap closer and cc on you.

As far as the axe goes either the idea about bouncing it off your pet or increasing the damage but making it so it can’t hit the same target twice with a bounce would do it.

Atherakhia.4086:

I would sooner change it so the 0-900 had one set of damage. 900+ had another set. And give it a increased chance to crit at the 600/900/1200 marks.

Rapid Fire I think is a good way to deliver vulnerability in a balanced manner. I do agree that a second needs to be shaved off the spell though.

Hedgehog in the fog.1053:

I think LB1 should increase critical hit chance the further away you are, or, should simply have a decreased cast timer for closer distance.

Substance E.4852:

Longbow just needs it’s mechanic reworked so it does something like adds 2% crit damage at 500+ range and adds 5% at 1000+ range. Its a big enough buff to make sniping at long range feel most powerful but doesn’t penalize you when the enemy inevitably uses a gap closer and cc on you.

A critical hit damage or chance increase based on the range sounds like a good idea.

As an alternative to my original suggestion:

• Long range shot should deal the same base damage at all distances but have a higher critical hit chance (0%, 5%, 10%?) the further away the enemy is.
• Keep rapid fire the way it is, but with a shorter channel time allowing quicker vulnerability stacking and burst damage.

Thoughts?

Make the max range shot damage the default damage at all ranges. Even without anything else, that would increase the weapons viability significantly against everything that isn’t a target dummy. Anything else is bonus, sure I’ll take it, but not strictly necessary.

Cut Barrage’s cool down in like half. Leave it as is, just let me do it more often, a lot more often. I feel that’s the real issue with Barrage, it has a pretty good effect to drawback in it’s usage, except for it’s cool down.

Rapid fire, I’m not really sure what to do with it. It basically exists to give Longbow a short range damage option but when we default the 1 to any range, Rapid fire becomes sorta moot. I guess you can troll thieves with it once in awhile. Dunno!

Really, I think a lot of LB’s issues for us are tied to all it’s support traits. Too many, impossible to pick them all up yet the weapon seems to assume you have them all anyways.

Turn Remorseless into the 25 point minor in marks. Put precise strikes at 15 in marks, roll Alpha training into the 5. I’ve never liked Remorseless as a 30 pointer, it’s just not that strong to justify a 30 pointer AND without it the entire Opening Strike minor trait line is virtually useless without Remorseless.

Eagle eye is the other one I really feel should just be innate to the weapon. LB default 1500 and get rid of this one. Roll the 5% damage into spotter or piercing or whatever.

Random brainstorming here but what if Splitblade was changed to this?

When you use split blade you initially throw the 5 axes how it is now but when any of the axes hits, that axe that hits ricochets off 2 more enemies giving you a potential hit count of 15 if all axes were to hit.

It sounds op but it would be beautiful seeing bouncing axes everywhere and give us a bit more AOE which we lack.

I still think opening strikes should grant quickness. So when you trait properly, it reset on LB3. This gives you a choice. Run using the 50% increased run time, or use a quick LB2.

Axe would have been great if Thieves hadn’t stolen all our poison skills, Personally split blade is very lackluster and needs a rework imo.

Winters bite isn’t much of a bite 3 sec chill really :/ with the cooldown is not something i’d call great, if it added Poison chill and vulner or a combo field: ice it would feel like a bite.

I could live with LB #1 as it currently is if the shorter ranges also pinned the target like Warrior LB #5 does. The less damage is then justified by the arrow sticking through the enemy’s foot/armour instead of being a body/head shot. The closer the shot, the longer the pin.

The problem with LB isn’t so much PvP as it is PvE. If you at that maximum range, you aren’t getting the buffs from your party. However if you are in range to get the buffs, you are limiting your damage.

Thats the big design flaw. The LB is great is solo play. However when you are in a dungeon it is sub-par. The whole “LOLBEARBOW” are just people who are attempting to play the way they think they’re supposed to “Distance pew pew”

Well, longbow can be well played in a dungeon in certain instances, I believe. But I don’t consider longbow being unused in pve an issue. It’s not a problem because no one really goes ranged for a primary weapon in pve. Ranged is antithesis to nearly the entirety of the dungeon experience in gw2. So I don’t mind ranged weapons not being used there. Do you see longbow warriors in pve? How about staff ele’s? I don’t see that stuff.

In pvp however, longbow builds are just lacking relative to other ranger builds out there.

Hedgehog in the fog.1053:

The problem with LB isn’t so much PvP as it is PvE. If you at that maximum range, you aren’t getting the buffs from your party. However if you are in range to get the buffs, you are limiting your damage.

Thats the big design flaw. The LB is great is solo play. However when you are in a dungeon it is sub-par. The whole “LOLBEARBOW” are just people who are attempting to play the way they think they’re supposed to “Distance pew pew”

Well the LB does less damage than a melee weapon so it’s not going to be worth using right off the bat. On top of this, shortbow actually does more damage at anything but max range so if you know you’re not going to be able to stay at max range the whole fight it’s not worth using in that scenario either.

Now as for the buffs you’re absolutely right and this is why fortifying bond should work the other way around if not work both ways.

Chopps.5047:

Well, longbow can be well played in a dungeon in certain instances, I believe. But I don’t consider longbow being unused in pve an issue. It’s not a problem because no one really goes ranged for a primary weapon in pve. Ranged is antithesis to nearly the entirety of the dungeon experience in gw2. So I don’t mind ranged weapons not being used there. Do you see longbow warriors in pve? How about staff ele’s? I don’t see that stuff.

In pvp however, longbow builds are just lacking relative to other ranger builds out there.

Yes longbow is lacking. However I think there are changes that can make long bow more viable in both PvE and PvP.

I know its against the trend and that the game is melee centric now. However that doesn’t mean we can make changes to make the ranger a viable range option in PvE.

Ill admit it, I chose ranger for the archetype of a guy with a bow, with a pet. I want to play that way. I want it to be viable. Im fine with melee options as well, but if I can have bow/melee, and be viable I am a happy camper.

Oh my god, I would love it so much if Ricochet bounced off allies to give them Fury (namely my pet). More pet synergy, yes please.

I think it has a good chance of being overpowered, though. Since its an auto-attack, it would pretty much be perma-Fury on a single ally, even if it was only a 1-second duration. Perma-Fury in itself isn’t nessicarily broken and can be achieved in other ways, but most of those other ways require traits, specific gear, specific rotations, ect. With something like this, it would be nothing more than “use mainhand Axe”.

Definitely agree with reducing the aftercast, though. It may have a purpose (perhaps smoothing the animation or something) but it hurts the effectiveness needlessly, so its gotta go. Letting the axe bounce off allies for no boon, but simply to increase single-target damage, would also be nice, though it should of course prioritize enemies if there are more than one.

As for Splitblade… I’d vote for a complete overhaul of the skill, personally. Having to be at melee range to use a ranged skill effectively is bad, especially since mainhand Axe is our only ranged 1H option and other than Splitblade, it seems designed specifically to stay as far away as possible (Chill to slow the enemy and keep them away, coupled with the pets natural ability to draw agro and allow you to stay at range). And Shortbow is already the semi-brawling ranged weapon (getting behind the enemy is much easier at closer ranges), so let axe be full range. Make it a targeted AoE where you throw an axe that shatters on impact, doing damage and bleeding enemies (maybe 3 stacks of bleed) from the shrapnel.

Winter’s Bite is fine, its a great skill for the Chill and pet-inflicted Weakness. I would like to have it become a Physical Projectile finisher, though. Especially if Splitblade was changed as above (thus no longer being a Projectile finisher).

Bri.8354:

Chopps.5047:

I love these suggestions. Honestly, though, I am going to say something controversial. I know prysin disagrees with me at least: longbow needs a shadow step. It just does. It would function like spectral walk in a way, or thief sword. Basically teleporting back to a chosen location. This will allow the ranger to blink away when the gap closes. Or, if you want to make it clunky like the rest of the profession, you could make you the your pet swap locations.

Something like that sounds cool, although with the evasion tools the longbow already has it might become a bit overpowered and where do we put it? Maybe hunters shot could be changed so if you press it again while stealthed you’ll shadow step to your pet or switch places with it?

This might be a great deception tool. Much of the time when I stealth the enemy knows where I was and 3 seconds isn’t much time to get much distance from them, leading to me taking hits. But if you could switch places with your pet they might think you swapped your pet, leading them to attack where your pet is, while you’ll actually be behind them. If you could shadow step to your pet they would think you were still in the location you vanished and would be attacking nothing.

The option to shadow step would allow you to fool players who were aware of this mechanic. You could intentionally swap your pet after a hunters shot instead of a shadow step, leading them attack your pets old location, not knowing you never switched places with it.

Or perhaps a shadow step would be better suited for a new utility or pet F2 skill, where you switch places with your pet, or better yet teleport to it since pets stick to targets fairly well.

Cool idea in principle but it’s not deceiving unless the pet changes. If they see the same pet teleport they know you teleported instead of swapped. The only way I can think of to make that work would be to summon an ally identical to your secondary pet and/or just summon the secondary pet. The reason why I said ally was because what if your secondary pet is on cooldown? You’d have to be creative (design wise) to get around that.

I doubt so very much we’ll ever get a teleport. We are in the runny, jumpy group of movement themes and I don’t see Anet doing away with that.

I still think LB4 should be a move that causes higher damage the closer you are, and causes a root that lasts longer the closer you are. So…

900-1200- 1 second (X damage)
600-900- 1.5 second (1.5X damage)
0-600- 2 second (2X damage)

That way you could LB4, LB3, and get away. Kind of makes it interesting. Once again if opening strikes caused quickness… and specced right, would make it even better. Use the stealth to run? Or use it to get a rapid LB2?

I like the idea of lining moves up though…. Makes it more interactive with combos…

The only enjoyment I get out of LB anymore is knocking people off cliffs. I’d prefer to keep that move

Atherakhia.4086:

The only enjoyment I get out of LB anymore is knocking people off cliffs. I’d prefer to keep that move

100% with yea on that one. Knocking people off ledges is keen.

Electro.4173:

Oh my god, I would love it so much if Ricochet bounced off allies to give them Fury (namely my pet). More pet synergy, yes please.

I think it has a good chance of being overpowered, though. Since its an auto-attack, it would pretty much be perma-Fury on a single ally, even if it was only a 1-second duration. Perma-Fury in itself isn’t nessicarily broken and can be achieved in other ways, but most of those other ways require traits, specific gear, specific rotations, ect. With something like this, it would be nothing more than “use mainhand Axe”.

I also love how bouncing off allies with synergize with the pet, which the ranger could really use more things like, but yeah, fury would probably be overpowered. Maybe stacking something like 1 stack of might for 2 seconds would be better.

Chopps.5047:

Cool idea in principle but it’s not deceiving unless the pet changes. If they see the same pet teleport they know you teleported instead of swapped. The only way I can think of to make that work would be to summon an ally identical to your secondary pet and/or just summon the secondary pet. The reason why I said ally was because what if your secondary pet is on cooldown? You’d have to be creative (design wise) to get around that.

Having used the longbow a lot today, my opinion on a pet location based shadowstep has changed. It would be far too reliant on an alive and well positioned pet and wouldn’t be helpful enough.

What hunter’s shot, and the longbow in general needs, is better movement. All you have is point blank shot to keep the foe away and hunter’s shot when they get close, but once they get close hunter’s shot isn’t going to help much because you don’t have the movement tools.

Maybe while stealthed hunter’s shot could allow you to aim it at a location within 600 range (900 while traited with eagle’s eye) that will shadow step you to that location. Since you need to hit a target to stealth the ranger couldn’t use this to gain a movement advantage outside of combat like the thief, and it could be given a 24 second cool-down to limit its use.

No thanks, I like Hunter’s shot at it’s current cool down :P

The 24 second cool-down only needs to apply to the shadowstep skill which replaces hunter’s shot while stealthed, not hunter’s shot itself. This would allow you to use hunter’s shot as normal, but every 2 hunter’s shots you would have the option to shadowstep to better reposition yourself.

The long bow has two design flaws and the both have to do with Long Range shot; you aren’t able to stay close enough to your group to really provide or benefit from the group (other than having them hopefully keep a wall in between you and the enemy/players of course lol) and that the ranger lacks the tools necessary to stay at a range where the long bow is actually effective. Everything else about the long bow is just minor in comparison.

As for the main hane Axe; all they would really need to do is something with Splitblade. If they made the physical damage much higher on it I think it would be fine; something like if all five axes hit, you would do about 3x the physical amount it currently hits (so if it hits for about 380 now, then it would be somewhere around 1k physical damage if all hit).

Another interesting idea that could bring it much more in line would be to have Winter’s Bite become an aoe on hit, freezing a small area around the target hit by Winter’s Bite.

Something I want to see on all weapons though are more pet synergy abilities like Sword 1. Each weapon could buff the pet in different and/or similar ways. Greatsword for example could provide the evade to both you and your pet (or at least provide 1s of protection to your pet too), Axe Ricochet could provide a certain amount of fury for each enemy it bounces off, etc.

They really need to build in more of this synergy though based on what and how the player chooses to play.

Bri.8354:

Chopps.5047:

Cool idea in principle but it’s not deceiving unless the pet changes. If they see the same pet teleport they know you teleported instead of swapped. The only way I can think of to make that work would be to summon an ally identical to your secondary pet and/or just summon the secondary pet. The reason why I said ally was because what if your secondary pet is on cooldown? You’d have to be creative (design wise) to get around that.

Having used the longbow a lot today, my opinion on a pet location based shadowstep has changed. It would be far too reliant on an alive and well positioned pet and wouldn’t be helpful enough.

What hunter’s shot, and the longbow in general needs, is better movement. All you have is point blank shot to keep the foe away and hunter’s shot when they get close, but once they get close hunter’s shot isn’t going to help much because you don’t have the movement tools.

Maybe while stealthed hunter’s shot could allow you to aim it at a location within 600 range (900 while traited with eagle’s eye) that will shadow step you to that location. Since you need to hit a target to stealth the ranger couldn’t use this to gain a movement advantage outside of combat like the thief, and it could be given a 24 second cool-down to limit its use.

Simply giving us a trait to reduce the cooldown on weapon swap would solve a lot of the mobility issues we have. It would also solve a great deal of the burst problems we have since we could swap to greatsword, use our 3 hit combo, and swap out.

I’m not a ranger expert but why is axe even ranged? LB covers long range, SB covers short/medium range. Why not just have have MH axe be melee? A condition melee weapon that goes well with dagger or axe offhand and then the next weapon for rangers could be rifle?

MH axe is ranged because ANET wants Rangers to have a ranged 1h weapon and doesn’t like Rangers with guns. Which is why we probably won’t be getting rifle any time soon either.

Fordel.3208:

MH axe is ranged because ANET wants Rangers to have a ranged 1h weapon and doesn’t like Rangers with guns. Which is why we probably won’t be getting rifle any time soon either.

Oh okay, that makes sense but then again Anet don’t like rangers to have working pets or a clear theme for them either. /meoow~

That is a disappointment, I was hoping rangers would get to use hammers when I first bought GW2.

We clearly have a theme, runny jumpy nature people. :P hehe

Sunshine.4680:

I’m not a ranger expert but why is axe even ranged? LB covers long range, SB covers short/medium range. Why not just have have MH axe be melee? A condition melee weapon that goes well with dagger or axe offhand and then the next weapon for rangers could be rifle?

I love the Axe being ranged. Would not want to change that all.

Vaxx.3178:

Sunshine.4680:

I’m not a ranger expert but why is axe even ranged? LB covers long range, SB covers short/medium range. Why not just have have MH axe be melee? A condition melee weapon that goes well with dagger or axe offhand and then the next weapon for rangers could be rifle?

I love the Axe being ranged. Would not want to change that all.

The axe feels clunky ranged tho. Maybe it’s just the skills.

Axe auto: remove one bounce increase dmg on first bounce. reduce dmg on 2nd bounce. allow axe to return to ranger and grant one stack of might. syncs well with the boon sharing trait in nature magic trait line.

split blade: reduce the cast time. have it shoot out in the same arc and return back to the ranger in the same path. reduce the return dmg on the return applying another stack of bleed. the return should also be fast.

long bow auto: this may sound odd but i think the dmg based on distance should be kept. the catch would be that is now a chain atk like most auto atks. dmg increasing with each part of the chain. last part of the chain should apply a 2 sec cripple. this will help the ranger kite and give the a bit more burst even in close range situations. for kittens and giggles add a sort of charge animation and different arrow animation for the 3rd atk. keeps with the theme of the long bow being a powerful ranged weapon that takes advantage of its range and power.

and just for eye candy the animations on long bow and axes should use animations similar to sword dagger and great sword. let the LB: 5 rain down shadow crows with matching sound effect. or the knock back shoot out the head of a boar.

axes should use some kind of wolf animation for the split blade and swirling claws of a cat on the number 5.

For axe 1 just increase the damage of the first hit and have it decrease in damage with each bounce, if all 3 hit it would be the same damage as it is currently but the first hit being stronger will alleviate 1v1 situations.

Rangers should totally get Hammers, I’m actually surprised they gave us GS instead of hammers. Thumper rangers (hammer rangers) were popular in GW1 .

Tutankhamun.3679:

Axe auto: remove one bounce increase dmg on first bounce. reduce dmg on 2nd bounce. allow axe to return to ranger and grant one stack of might. syncs well with the boon sharing trait in nature magic trait line.

split blade: reduce the cast time. have it shoot out in the same arc and return back to the ranger in the same path. reduce the return dmg on the return applying another stack of bleed. the return should also be fast.

long bow auto: this may sound odd but i think the dmg based on distance should be kept. the catch would be that is now a chain atk like most auto atks. dmg increasing with each part of the chain. last part of the chain should apply a 2 sec cripple. this will help the ranger kite and give the a bit more burst even in close range situations. for kittens and giggles add a sort of charge animation and different arrow animation for the 3rd atk. keeps with the theme of the long bow being a powerful ranged weapon that takes advantage of its range and power.

and just for eye candy the animations on long bow and axes should use animations similar to sword dagger and great sword. let the LB: 5 rain down shadow crows with matching sound effect. or the knock back shoot out the head of a boar.

axes should use some kind of wolf animation for the split blade and swirling claws of a cat on the number 5.

I like the idea of a weapon chain on LB1. However the range restrictions aren’t good because of melee buffs and stacking requirements. Now, there should be some benefit to going far out, but doubling damage makes it a necessity.

Longbow:
LB1:
Hunters Shot: 1/2 sec cast time. 317 base damage.
Stalkers Shot: 1/2 sec cast time. 176 base damage. Causes 1 second cripple.
Shot of Opportunity: 1/2 sec cast time. 229 base damage.
0-500- 10% chance to proc Shot of Opportunity
500-1000- 20% chance to proc shot of Opportunity
1000-1500- 30% chance to proc shot of Opportunity

Shot of Opportunity: A second arrow is sent almost instantly after your previous shot. Base damage of 229.

LB2: Fire multiple arrows at your foe. 4 second cast time

LB3: Fire an arrow that grants you stealth when it hits an enemy.

When stealth:
Camouflaged shot: Grants group swiftness and causes 1 second of immobilize on target

LB4: Push back your foe with a point-blank shot. The closer they are, the farther it pushes them back. 1/2 second cast time

LB5: Masters Mark: Impale the target, your pets attacks cause 100% increased damage to the target for 5 seconds. 1/2 second cast time. 25 second cool down.

Spike Trap is replaced by Barrage.

Just a thought

Hedgehog in the fog.1053:

Longbow:
LB1:
Hunters Shot: 1/2 sec cast time. 317 base damage.
Stalkers Shot: 1/2 sec cast time. 176 base damage. Causes 1 second cripple.
Shot of Opportunity: 1/2 sec cast time. 229 base damage.
0-500- 10% chance to proc Shot of Opportunity
500-1000- 20% chance to proc shot of Opportunity
1000-1500- 30% chance to proc shot of Opportunity

Shot of Opportunity: A second arrow is sent almost instantly after your previous shot. Base damage of 229.

Although I personally would enjoy changes to the auto-attack… did you crunch the numbers? Assuming that the Shot of Opportunity would be cast “instant” or does not keep you from auto-attacking (because anything else would not make any sense) you basically ask for:

• 119% damage increase at low range
• 33% damage increase at max range
• perma-cripple on auto-attack

Especially perma-cripple on AA at the range of the LB makes me feel uneasy…

Xaylin.1860:

Hedgehog in the fog.1053:

Longbow:
LB1:
Hunters Shot: 1/2 sec cast time. 317 base damage.
Stalkers Shot: 1/2 sec cast time. 176 base damage. Causes 1 second cripple.
Shot of Opportunity: 1/2 sec cast time. 229 base damage.
0-500- 10% chance to proc Shot of Opportunity
500-1000- 20% chance to proc shot of Opportunity
1000-1500- 30% chance to proc shot of Opportunity

Shot of Opportunity: A second arrow is sent almost instantly after your previous shot. Base damage of 229.

Although I personally would enjoy changes to the auto-attack… did you crunch the numbers? Assuming that the Shot of Opportunity would be cast “instant” or does not keep you from auto-attacking (because anything else would not make any sense) you basically ask for:

• 119% damage increase at low range
• 33% damage increase at max range
• perma-cripple on auto-attack

Especially perma-cripple on AA at the range of the LB makes me feel uneasy…

Maybe a little over tuned. However, the main point was the Shots of Opportunity. It could be a fun little mechanic. It would also be as simple as taking the code from LB2 and putting it in. That being said, the 100+% increase is a reflection on the low damage at short distances more than anything else.

Yeah…the cripple may be much. Half a second? Enough to slow the target down.

I’ve long wished for LB to have a skill like Sniper Shot, or the similar one from Southsun Survival. It would be nice if it could be charged and fired on the run, but even if it rooted, I love the idea of a chargeable long range nuke on the bow.

I wouldn’t normally want to give up any of the other major skills, but I quite like Bri’s idea of merging LRS and RF – if LRS applied vulnerability and had a smoother or flat damage/distance curve, I don’t think there’s much reason to keep RF, except for its ability to track through stealth.

If LRS and RF were merged, RF could be replaced with a hypothetical new LB2 skill. In the grand tradition of borrowing skill names from GW1, maybe Called Shot (in GW1, the arrow that moves 3x as fast), since warriors got Pin Down?

Perhaps something like this:

Cast time: 0.5-2.5 seconds. Rooted for 0.5 seconds when the skill is released. A quick tap would be a 0.5s root/cast, and if you charged it for the full 2s, the root/cast would happen at the end.
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Damage coefficient: 1.0-4.0 (386-1158 @ base power, LRS is 0.9 @ 1000+ range)
Distance: 1000-2000 (1250-2500 traited)
Projectile speed: 1.0-3.0x
Immobilize: 1-2 seconds

Examples:
LB auto @ 1000+ should do about 342 DPS @ base power.
Tap and release: 0.5s cast, 1.0 coefficient normal speed arrow, with 1s immobilize.
(Used on CD, average DPS ~362)
Hold 1 second: 1.5s cast, 2.0 coefficient double speed arrow, with 1.5s immobilize.
(Used on CD, average DPS ~364)
Hold 2 seconds: 2.5s cast, 3.0 coefficient triple speed arrow, with 2s immobilize.
(Used on CD, average DPS ~366)

With the increase of the coefficient by 1.0 per second, it won’t change average DPS much, but you trade off the cast time for a longer immobilize, faster arrow, longer range, and higher initial burst.

I like the concept of segmented charge attacks, but I think the reason we don’t see them on any weapons outside of minigames, even though early versions of the weapons had some, is because they interrupt the flow of play. Having to hold down a skill, possibly rooting you, just isn’t as good as a passive channel that allows you to focus on other things.

Maybe they could tweak how they function to make them less clunky to use. Don’t root the player when its active and instead of having to hold the skill down make it a toggle where you press it once to start charging and press it again to shoot.

There’s also the matter of how a charged skill would synergize with other aspects of the ranger. It would be great with hunter’s shot, but the longbow wouldn’t get much out of rampage as one or companion’s might if the charge only fired a single arrow. Maybe after it hits the enemy with the initial hit, dealing 60% of its total damage, the remaining 40% damage would be dealt as a lasting effect, ticking twice a second for 5 seconds.

Axe (without items and traits)

Autoattack:
220 dmg
1 stack of bleeding, 8s, 340 dmg, hits only one target, remove combo finisher
(like warrior sword auto attack)

Skill 2:
transform bleeding into torment, no other skill changes

Skill 3 is ok, no skill changes

I have a problem with turning the axe auto into a bleed applicator. Especially if it gets a damage increase as well. With both the axe and bow being 900 range now you have to be very careful about keeping both weapons unique. There is already too much overlap between the 2.