Guild Wars 2

Hi guys,I intend to carry along a ranged weapon with me when I go for Dungeons/Fractals

Which Bow you guys think,would be better?

Thanks for any help

Willycat.7310:

Hi guys,I intend to carry along a ranged weapon with me when I go for Dungeons/Fractals

Which Bow you guys think,would be better?

Thanks for any help

You should try longbow and shortbow combo .. Really great for fractals imo
No need to choose then xD

Shortbow is more condi based while the longbow is more power based. I would choose either one or the other to support your build. I know people favor stacking and DPS in dungeons so I would recommend longbow. Take my advice with a grain of salt, however, as I’m bad at PvE. XD

jokke.6239:

Willycat.7310:

Hi guys,I intend to carry along a ranged weapon with me when I go for Dungeons/Fractals

Which Bow you guys think,would be better?

Thanks for any help

You should try longbow and shortbow combo .. Really great for fractals imo
No need to choose then xD

Nooo! Please dont be another bearbow in fractals.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Shortbow was a bit more DPS at close range or on average, but I feel Longbow has better #2-5 skills and burst.

LB#2 Helps party DPS slightly with vulnerability.

LB#3 is a good disengage and aggro drop

LB#4 when used intelligently will help strip defiant or knock back bosses when you are trying to rez allies.

LB#5 is useful for some of the fights you want a ranged on like Grawl Shaman and Archdiviner.

Casmurro.9046:

jokke.6239:

Willycat.7310:

Hi guys,I intend to carry along a ranged weapon with me when I go for Dungeons/Fractals

Which Bow you guys think,would be better?

Thanks for any help

You should try longbow and shortbow combo .. Really great for fractals imo
No need to choose then xD

Nooo! Please dont be another bearbow in fractals.

Zerk ranger with no bears .. But thanks for assuming 8D
And I have ALL weapons in my inventory ..

Sword/Warhorn + GS is the ideal primary weapon setup for most rangers in dungeons. Axe and torch offhand are situationally useful. Shortbow and Longbow have their uses as well but they are rarely used as primary weapons in dungeons.

Its very situational, if you can stand at max range for the entire fight sure take longbow. But as the cast with most fights you will be stacking or not at max range in which case the shortbow can be a better option.

I crit for 3k at max range with longbow in the mists (no might) and 1k with each shortbow auto attack. Considering the shortbow attack is much faster aswell it is probably more viable when you have to get close.

Of course I havn’t actually worked any maths out on that, its just how it feels to me.

Shortbow has less utility though, so there’s that.

Not had any experience of axes in terms of damage though, how do they compare?

Jebster.2539:

Not had any experience of axes in terms of damage though, how do they compare?

Worst Single Target DPS for rangers by far. It’ll do about half the damage of the ranger sword. It is also infferrior to sword and GS in cleave situations, better for AoE than SB/LB w/o piercing arrows or enemies lined up perfectly.

Would you ever use it in a situation that called for ranged damage? Perhaps if there were 3 targets? Or is shortbow/longbow just better?

Jebster.2539:

Would you ever use it in a situation that called for ranged damage? Perhaps if there were 3 targets? Or is shortbow/longbow just better?

There aren’t really any fights that favor long range sustained AoE from the Axe bounces. Closest thing would be the first boss in Harpy Fractal, but in that fight single target burst is better and if the shaman and ettin are close enough for axes to bounce, you’re doing it wrong.

Hypothetically, if there was a 2-3 target fight where you must range and the targets are far away enough from each other that you can’t cleave or hit with piercing proejctiles, then axe would be the weapon to go.

The only fight I use axe MH on is grawl shaman and I still haven’t figured out the ideal build for that fight yet.

I find axe to be rather incredible as a backup in open world pve, given axe #3. It helps tackle really tough fights solo. It’s definitely better for tagging than other ranged options, but not as fast as GS if enemies cluster up.

However, on the topic of bows I kind of prefer longbow due to its utility, but it always sucks to keep in mind too-small buff ranges. :/ Wish they’d look at that.

Cool, looks like I wont bother investing in an axe for my zerker buid. I would advise looking into shortbow instead of long bow DPS wise. It feels like it does more, but I havn’t done any maths on it, anyone know if they have?

Does shortbow do more damage than a longbow in a zerker build?

To answer your original question. Short bow if you have a crit or condi build, longbow if you are fighting a ranged boss. Ranged bosses do exist, so don’t discount a bow.

TurtleDragon.3108:

The only fight I use axe MH on is grawl shaman and I still haven’t figured out the ideal build for that fight yet.

That’s one of the very few places in PvE a longbow shines, IMO. I liked barrage and entangle on the lava eles, and the longer range and harder hitting of the LB is good for when the boss is up. Longer range means whatever random position you find yourself in (i.e. getting away from someone with the AoE blasting on them) you can still hit. I did often have axe/WH on swap for that one though. The eles are very fragile so barrage does a number on them, but axe is not bad for finishing off stragglers.

The highest fractal I’d done back in the day was like 78 or something though, but that was obviously a very long time ago and I don’t know what tactics people use anymore, and I’m not sure how the fractal update changed anything. So…

Fluffball.8307:

TurtleDragon.3108:

The only fight I use axe MH on is grawl shaman and I still haven’t figured out the ideal build for that fight yet.

That’s one of the very few places in PvE a longbow shines, IMO. I liked barrage and entangle on the lava eles, and the longer range and harder hitting of the LB is good for when the boss is up. Longer range means whatever random position you find yourself in (i.e. getting away from someone with the AoE blasting on them) you can still hit. I did often have axe/WH on swap for that one though. The eles are very fragile so barrage does a number on them, but axe is not bad for finishing off stragglers.

The highest fractal I’d done back in the day was like 78 or something though, but that was obviously a very long time ago and I don’t know what tactics people use anymore, and I’m not sure how the fractal update changed anything. So…

Yep, Longbows are quite decent on this fight. I don’t bring it anymore because I try to melee the fight. GS + Axe/Axe 4/5/5/0/0 Honxed Axes + offhand training (aka the Lupi solo build) is what i’ve been running lately. Strat for the fight is pretty much the same as before. In uncoordinated groups and PUGs, you just blindly zerg the boss’s 40 stacks down. In coordinated groups, you CC the boss for as long as possible and kill as many elementals as you can before removing the 40th stack. Traited whirling defense is nice (although, you’ll stack a ton of burning on yourself and will probably get targetted by a fire storm), Path of scars does high damage and does a crappy job of grouping up elementals and Winter’s bite helps stack chill.

TurtleDragon.3108:

Fluffball.8307:

TurtleDragon.3108:

The only fight I use axe MH on is grawl shaman and I still haven’t figured out the ideal build for that fight yet.

That’s one of the very few places in PvE a longbow shines, IMO. I liked barrage and entangle on the lava eles, and the longer range and harder hitting of the LB is good for when the boss is up. Longer range means whatever random position you find yourself in (i.e. getting away from someone with the AoE blasting on them) you can still hit. I did often have axe/WH on swap for that one though. The eles are very fragile so barrage does a number on them, but axe is not bad for finishing off stragglers.

The highest fractal I’d done back in the day was like 78 or something though, but that was obviously a very long time ago and I don’t know what tactics people use anymore, and I’m not sure how the fractal update changed anything. So…

Yep, Longbows are quite decent on this fight. I don’t bring it anymore because I try to melee the fight. GS + Axe/Axe 4/5/5/0/0 Honxed Axes + offhand training (aka the Lupi solo build) is what i’ve been running lately. Strat for the fight is pretty much the same as before. In uncoordinated groups and PUGs, you just blindly zerg the boss’s 40 stacks down. In coordinated groups, you CC the boss for as long as possible and kill as many elementals as you can before removing the 40th stack. Traited whirling defense is nice (although, you’ll stack a ton of burning on yourself and will probably get targetted by a fire storm), Path of scars does high damage and does a crappy job of grouping up elementals and Winter’s bite helps stack chill.

Coordinated or not, you want to remove all 40 stacks as soon as possible.

ItIsFinished.9462:

Coordinated or not, you want to remove all 40 stacks as soon as possible.

It depends on your strategy, but it’s far easier to kill the elementals without the shaman shooting arrows and placing fire storms on your party.

Would be neat to have a skirmisher trait, “point blank” that simply reverses the longbow damage scaling to most damage close up and least damage far away. That way you could stack with the rest of them!

KevlarZero.6849:

Would be neat to have a skirmisher trait, “point blank” that simply reverses the longbow damage scaling to most damage close up and least damage far away. That way you could stack with the rest of them!

They’d have to make the auto attack do like 15k to compete with the faster, higher damage cleave of melee.

Why has nobody suggested the shlongbow? Mine brings all the ladies to the yard AND scares off all those overly self-conscious warriors who think hammer-time is still impressive.

Both work. Just make sure you bring both a melee weapon in addition to your bow for dungeons/Fractals, as there will be situations where you’ll want to be up close with your party, not staying back at a distance.