Guild Wars 2

So this latest patch has completely jacked with my fight rotation with my long bow. I’ve always started out with Hunters Shot to get the vulnerability then right into Rapid Fire for max damage.

So far, while the change has condensed my rotation to a single button, it has been a pain in my butt. Can someone explain to me why going stealth and breaking from combat for 3seconds is a good thing?

Because the only mode you should be doing is anything involving pvp, says the man at the top.

In PvE, I’m seeing a trend were competitive rangers are forced into melee weapons which I’m not liking.

On a constructive note however, they NEED to consolidate some MM traits to make picking a bow not so kitten trait intensive. That was the real issue. Now we have an even more awkward LB in PvE which leaves too much dead time between cooldowns.

If anything this patch showed the true weakness of the LB that no one wants to touch; the janky rotation and an underwhelming AA that arena net refused to allow greater damage at closer ranges. Hell the SB in power spec still out performs the LB.

The changes are awful. I explained why in my thread.
Even for PVP it sucks.
Rangers aren’t rouge like characters they are dps/tanky DPS geared, not sneeking assassins.
if I wanted to play a theif i’d play a theif… I wanted to play a ranger.

All rangers who used longbows used that rotation…. add piercing arrows and you have an excellent mass damage mechanic.
Now? Nope.
Because applying mass vunerablities with one skill isn’t strong enough for players to use their aiming to maximize damage output.

I’m afraid to say that I have to agree. The changes might be nice for pvp or some such, but in pve it has really hurt my rotation and damage output. I’ve stubbornly clung to longbow all this time, but now I just feel sad and discouraged.

Previously you had to be very lucky to apply vulnerability to multiple targets because you had one shot at it. Now it’s really easy, I mean who doesn’t saw through mobs with Rapid Shot. Rapid shot is also up more often than hunter’s shot, by 2 seconds, so you get to use it more too. So while your damage has gone down, you’re spreading out your conditions more often.

So you can start with Rapid Shot, sawing vuln through a mass of mobs, then pop the new hunter’s shot, making them stop in their tracks. They don’t lose agro on you, but they lose targetting and just stand where they are, or cluster on your pet. While they’re being stupid you position your barrage over them, with more consistent vuln damage per hit across the group, and have until the first arrows land before anything even has a chance to interrupt you. Get some distance and if anything gets too close point blank them all the way back to where they came from with increased range.

Silanae.2856:

I’m afraid to say that I have to agree. The changes might be nice for pvp or some such, but in pve it has really hurt my rotation and damage output. I’ve stubbornly clung to longbow all this time, but now I just feel sad and discouraged.

They hate the long bow so they are pushing rangers away from it… I swear.
They have been with every patch as it is.

The single best thing from the patch is that now we have a reliable blast finisher, and not one reliant on kitten y pet A.I. But…

I’m not very fond of it being in the warhorn, simply because I’ve pretty much decided on GS/LB as my final weapon choices. Warhorn is great for zergs, but for small-man and roaming the GS outshines all. And the only way I could keep both the GS and the Warhorn is if I don’t use a bow at all…which would be a big let-down for power-build rangers(current LB patch notes notwithstanding).

Personally, I would rather they made Maul the blast finisher and just extend the recharge to 10 seconds(currently 6) to make up for it. 35 seconds(28 secs traited) on the warhorn is a long time to wait…especially when I see all those guardians next to me letting loose a hammer blast every 4 seconds…QQ.

I was about to add how I like the axe’s effects, but simply hate the animations(I mean…who the hell runs around chucking axes at everything?!?…it’s silly), but then I realized the root of the problem for all of these weapon qq’s on the forums: we can’t choose our weapon skills.

As long as that remains a rule, ANet will be furiously patching and repatching weapon skill mechanics for an eternity trying to satisfy everyone in the player-base. Why they thought such a massive player population and diverse gaming demographic would accept it is beyond me. It probably has a lot to do with the deletion of the trinity in the end, but at any rate it’s becoming clearer and clearer how much that affects the game.

It’s about the interaction and synergy of traits and weapon skills.

If you want to make that commitment, the LB is now capable of keeping a greater number of vulnerability stacks on a target over a longer period of time. This further defines the role of the LB as being bursty ranged dps. Which further defines your role as a player if you choose to go this route.

I would always use #3 then go straight into rapid fire #2 for maximum damage. I always get to 9-10k damage (non crits) on the practice dummies doing that.

With the new patch, all I do is hit #2, and I’m lucky to get up to 6k damage on a dummy now. I want my dps back please

It was a nerf in disguise. The stealth (goggles) do nothing! (Except in pvp the stealth is ok). WvW it’s awful, AWFUL

stealth doesn’t break combat, you just break target lock on you for 3 sec. but as far as the rappid fire burst is you still get it after the recharge on rappid fire so it isn’t gone it is just delayed.