Guild Wars 2

Hi folks! I’m really new to rangers, never played them too much, but yesterday i had this
“i wanna shoot arrows” feeling, so i created a ranger. I chose the longbow (with GS ) because I liked the LB skills GW1 version but i was totally shocked how underpower it is ( at least in my opinion don’t forget i’m noob with rangers )

The only enjoyable time in sPvP when i had the chance to support my mates from high positions, like in Temple of Silent Storm’s middle nod but when it came to 1v1 eh you can imagine…

I feel the mesmer’s GS way more supperior….

I thought about a few things i would changes, hope you guys like it:
-first i would increase the dmg of the auto attack. ( 700 dmg with full power build is unbearable… )
-i would either decrease the cast time on number 2 or make it a one hit spike dmg skill with a short charge up time.
-For last i really like the idea of barrage however it feels like all the other LB skills missing damage. I would increase its damage to meteorshower kindish level.

Ty for reading, feel free to comment, and please share with me your thoughs about how would you make this fabolous weapon better

I particularly don’t like the longbow, but I main a ranger so I think I can make some valid statements here.
Ranger is in an odd spot because the ANET definition of a ranger directly conflicts with game mechanics. Ironically, ANET defines rangers as being masters with a bow in a game where ranged combat is penalized. It is not a unique idea of GW2, but ranged damage tend to be lower than melee damage because of both ease of use and the relative safety ranged combat brings. Furthermore, your damage is further reduced by a low damage coefficient that was supposed to be justified by the pet’s damage output. Put those two factors together and many complain that rangers ranged attack is terrible. Unfortunately, the direction that many rangers go is that they think the longbow should hit like a warrior greatsword. There are a few points that are never mentioned or even realized by many ranger that I want to bring up, so you can take those into consideration.
-First off, it is shocking that many rangers simply ignore the pet mechanic. Many rangers completely ignore pet damage when taking their ranged damage into consideration. Some even don’t even take the proper pets to suit the occasion. Take canines for CC, drakes for cleave/blast finisher, cats/bird for dps. Birds and cats do great damage, especially when you take crit damage increase and might stacking in the precision tree.
-Because pets tend to be mainly melee, they can reduce the penalty of ranged attack because they equalize your penalized ranged damage with their normal melee damage. In this instance I do think the split damage is a great thing to have, and this advantage is never realized by most rangers.
-You shouldn’t take rangers as being the longbow primary stereotype, because the longbow honestly doesn’t have much place in many situations. Experiment with the other weapons. I recommend that you become proficient with the sword. It’s a completely different playstyle, but once you get good at it you’ll see that it does (including pet damage) respectable damage.
-I feel that a good ranger is one that is able to control their pets well. Learn the advantage each pet provides and learn their ai’s, it will significantly make you a better ranger.

The reason why I bring up these points is that I disagree that with your suggestions on these grounds. It seems that you’re focusing only on the pretty numbers on the screen without looking at the whole picture. Experiment. If in pvp longbow isn’t working out, try a different one.

Arachel.8132:

ANET defines rangers as being masters with a bow in a game where ranged combat is penalized. It is not a unique idea of GW2, but ranged damage tend to be lower than melee damage because of both ease of use and the relative safety ranged combat brings.

Which is highly unfortunate given the game has 10x more gap closers than it does gap creators for your ranged assault. Which makes for incredibly unbalanced combat between range and melee.

I am usually voicing a minority opinion, but since you asked, I like LB just how it is. I find it works best when used in very close proximity to your enemies. Think Desolation of Smaug. Its main strength is its ability to shoot through targets (so bring that trait) and its ability to apply vulnerability. In a group, stay right with melle ball, just 3-6ft behind them. Most META posters only care about individual high numbers and disregard the effects of debilitating conditions and combo fields, which is where the real damage output comes from. 25 stacks of vulnerability is equivalent to the loss of several 100,000 hit points on the tougher foes, in a group setting.

I don’t think ANet will change it much. They already reduced the vulnerability output because the 10 stack insta-spike was too much.

Kind of yes… if you want companions and hard dmg on distance, use Mesmer GREATSWORD and poop out the clones. At least one of those can hit 8-11k to a dodging foe, far more than our pet could ever achieve.

Yes. Game’s Rangers are the Warriors.
Meta’s Rangers are the Mesmers.
What are Rangers then? Lootbags, slot-stealers and map fillers.

If you’re new to the ranger and lb then please practice more before saying that it sucks. Thank you.

LB works great with GS.
You can use LB4 then swoop with GS.
Swap to GS when the enemy closes the gap and fight a little bit, use your block, hilt bash and maul. When the wep swap is off cooldown, swoop away from your enemy and swap to lb. Now you’ve got to auto-attack, rapid fire as foe closes the gap, knock foes back with LB4, keep pew-pewing. Then you also got LB3, which gives you enough time to fire off rapid fire a second time. Is enemy close? Swap to gs and repeat the whole thing. Is the enemy far away? Swoop in with gs and fight with it until swoop & weapon swap is off cooldown so you can create a gap for longbow.

(But I gotta say this is difficult in spvp because of narrow areas)

So many comments I like it

Arachel.8132: Thank you for the pet aspect. To be honets i was one of that player as well who don’t care much with his pet. I will definitely change that in my play style. On the other hand i do know rangers have excelent weapons, and builds, but I’m in LB mood so i looking for a way to play with that primarly and i couldn’t find one.

Archon.6480: I do like the idea of piercing arrows and vulnerability stack, because it grants field for spike builds which i also love but i was shocked when i saw my own single target dps. I know i suck for liking sparkling big numbers, but this is a power build, and its far more behind than any other.

solrik.6028: Hi! thank you for your reply. Bit harsh well but usefull. First of all I didn’t not say that LB sucks or it’s a sh*ty weapon. I said it disappointed me, and underpowered in my opinion. I also said that I’m new to rangers so what i say is not golden.

for the rest of the comment it seems nice. I hope it will give me chance in 1on1 situations because i had none till this point … What do you do with ranged builds? Like condi engies, necros ( power and/or condi) Pu mesmers or gs/staff mesmers for exampe

So In conclusion thank you again for writing back, i though more of you feel the same as me but it seems not which means i was wrong and LB is useable somehow in sPvP

If you willing to write me back more I would like to speak about barrage. Non of you wrote about barrage anything.. It gives me the idea, that non of you use it usually, which would be terrible ,because the concept of that skill is awesome.

Rangers are a bit of a sore subject for a lot of players. To this day it still doesn’t quite live up to the description, heck there’s even MULTIPLE screenshots of an ability on the Ranger class page that the Ranger doesn’t even have;
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/ranger/
Check out those top two screenshots of Spreadshot, we literally don’t have that skill lol.

In answer to the Barrage question; If you can get someone to stay in Barrage, it will do quite a lot of damage. It’s basically what you use first in some situations.

It’s not as much damage as that crazy Conjure Ice Bow but it’s pretty good.

In terms of helping you get the full potential out of your bow it would really depend on what you want to do with it – For most cases Signet build is your best bet when you want big numbers. They are all temporary of course but you do get to feel some Sniper feels.

Some time there was a CDI going on for the ranger class mechanics ( some 70 pages of suggestions)… Probably there will be some Changes to the rager in the future. But since this CDI was done we havnt Heard a single Word about when…

rtw/ sotf zerker build makes me happy… LB is a great wep if you spec/ utilize it correctly. Rapid fire could use a bit of help but other than that it is an amazing wep when used correctly.

LB is generally terrible for pvp because a lot of classes have great gap closers and CC, and a full zerker LB is so glassy it shatters in 1 hit. LB is workable in wvw, but in spvp it is a hard sell. (as others pointed out, due to the smaller spaces). Its so slow and awkward up close, thats why people are forced to run GS so they can bail out of melee fights.

That said I have met good pvping rangers who use the LB. But they are very few and far between. Most just get demolished. IMHO SB is far better for skirmishing and PVP.

solrik.6028:

If you’re new to the ranger and lb then please practice more before saying that it sucks. Thank you.

Guess you are. nvm…
Please avoid writing down scenarios that just won’t work in www/spvp.

Leves.9035:

So many comments I like it

solrik.6028: Hi! thank you for your reply. Bit harsh well but usefull. First of all I didn’t not say that LB sucks or it’s a sh*ty weapon. I said it disappointed me, and underpowered in my opinion. I also said that I’m new to rangers so what i say is not golden.

for the rest of the comment it seems nice. I hope it will give me chance in 1on1 situations because i had none till this point … What do you do with ranged builds? Like condi engies, necros ( power and/or condi) Pu mesmers or gs/staff mesmers for exampe

Non of you wrote about barrage anything.. It gives me the idea, that non of you use it usually, which would be terrible ,because the concept of that skill is awesome.

Sorry, didn’t mean to be harsh. Ranged builds can be a bit more complicated.
I hate fighting against condi necros, but the key is range. You are safe if you keep a (fairly) big gap between you and the necro. There are some dangerous moves you can do; It is possible to just walk in close to the necro and waste both dodge rolls, which will probably (not always) avoid the condi spam they can achieve. You can also use GS Block & swoop to get in close and put some CC but you must be ready to create a gap if kitties hit the fan.

Use swiftness together with stealth to quickly move through the necro, ending up behind him (and PBS him when he figures out where you are). He probably wasted some AoE skills. Can’t say much more really, condi-necros are annoying.

Condi engies;
They tend to use all of their weapon skills early on, which means confusion and other annoying conditions. Evade that and you’ve got yourself a fairly big chance to win. At around half hp, they use their elite supply skill. BE VERY PREPARED for it because it’s a huge red ring that is easy to miss because of it’s size. Engies usually can’t do much at long ranges and you’ll probably lose the fight if you get pulled by their shield, so watch out for the light ray.

Mesmers;
I don’t have much experience with mesmers, but I noticed their blurred frenzy (Sword #2) is what deals a lot of damage indirectly. That is, you are rooted and is being hit by the phantasms & by the real mesmer. You’ll need to predict when they will stealth or do their burst and adjust accordingly. Falling to many times to the same trick will get you killed, but falling for it 2-3 times on intention can make the mesmer underestimate you and give you a chance for an easy win. LoS them, as much as you can and time your bow shots so that you don’t get obstructed when firing.

Barrage;
I barely use it. It’s a nice harasser in group fights but I honestly only use it if I just CC’d the enemy(ies) and have nothing better to do than to barrage ON MYSELF and move around in the aoe. (Makes kiting a whole lot easier). It is an awesome skill but too situational. I mean, you can use it on a thiefs shadow refugee but it won’t deal enough damage to scare the thief, or use it to destroy a mesmer’s minions but there is usually hardly any time to do that, or use it on a second ranger to kill his spirits (which works very well sometimes) but fighting the same class has the consequence that he knows exactly what you are trying to do.

Sorry for the long post, I tried to write as much detail as I could. Hope this helps. I am by no means a top tier ranger but I have played enough to know when my skills are off CD, when to evade and how to win most fights. Though I hate fighting necros/engies.

RoyalPredator.9163:

solrik.6028:

If you’re new to the ranger and lb then please practice more before saying that it sucks. Thank you.

Guess you are. nvm…
Please avoid writing down scenarios that just won’t work in www/spvp.

Do you want to start arguing, or what? Scenarios that won’t work? How do you know that? They work exceptionally well against warriors, guardians and other melee oriented builds (which doesn’t necessarily exclude ranged combat).

Please elaborate on why they wouldn’t work?

What you just did in different words is that you called me a liar, noob and a total idiot. Besides, I don’t understand what the point of your reply is because in a very very Very short version, it’s equivalent to saying “You are wrong” just because you can

I did flip your own call, so if you say I’ve called you “a liar, noob and a total idiot.”, that was what you said to us first, isn’kitten It is. But nvm again

But okay, i’ll write it down for you.
GS Block does not blocking all the dmgs, and whenever the foe gets close, it tries to make a knockback, which is good until you’re not playing against T1-2 WWW foes who just ignore x3 of these effects in a row. Honestly, I don’t know how. I’ts not about stability…

And then you’re there defendles. You may [Hilt Bash], which won’t work and if it does, its terribly short – compared to warrior hammer or static field. Or swap to LB and do a [Point Blank Shot], which may helps you to get your foe just in position for a nice launch attack or else, since there is no stealth on it. And this list can go very long…

We “all” know that our skills are underpowered, the damages are way low and the effects are not the needed ones or just way short in duration.

I don’t know how skilled my ranger mates are, but I do know that I’m good and I’m usualy fighting against dumb people who wouldn’t survive me without being OP or running away 2 times faster than I ever could, like chicken on nitro.
How is that average guardians can run away from me with never dropping below 70% HP but even damaging me on the run? No, they ignore/outheal my stuns and knocks…

Anyway, the fight seems nearly equal;
Being OP and playing bad = being UP but really skilled.
It is challanging but not fair at all. I feel like should use my gamer skills to dominate, not to compete.

Pets are irrelevant in open field pvp.

Take the teleporting condi theif. he stealths. the pet stops and starts scratching himself. He teleports back and forth. The pet runs back and forth like its a game of fetch. The theif runs away, the pet misses his lunge.

Extreme example, but every class with the exception of maybe necros have the ability to keep your pet running in circles doing jack squat to help you.

Pets ARE Irrelevant.

Building a Longbow Ranger for PvP is Lunatic mode difficulty. Your weapon dmg is already penalized, and your pet adds nothing. You have to figure out a way to get around this double penalty.

RoyalPredator.9163:

I did flip your own call, so if you say I’ve called you “a liar, noob and a total idiot.”, that was what you said to us first, isn’kitten It is. But nvm again

But okay, i’ll write it down for you.
GS Block does not blocking all the dmgs, and whenever the foe gets close, it tries to make a knockback, which is good until you’re not playing against T1-2 WWW foes who just ignore x3 of these effects in a row. Honestly, I don’t know how. I’ts not about stability…

And then you’re there defendles. You may [Hilt Bash], which won’t work and if it does, its terribly short – compared to warrior hammer or static field. Or swap to LB and do a [Point Blank Shot], which may helps you to get your foe just in position for a nice launch attack or else, since there is no stealth on it. And this list can go very long…

We “all” know that our skills are underpowered, the damages are way low and the effects are not the needed ones or just way short in duration.

I don’t know how skilled my ranger mates are, but I do know that I’m good and I’m usualy fighting against dumb people who wouldn’t survive me without being OP or running away 2 times faster than I ever could, like chicken on nitro.
How is that average guardians can run away from me with never dropping below 70% HP but even damaging me on the run? No, they ignore/outheal my stuns and knocks…

Anyway, the fight seems nearly equal;
Being OP and playing bad = being UP but really skilled.
It is challanging but not fair at all. I feel like should use my gamer skills to dominate, not to compete.

GS Block blocks everything that isn’t melee or unblockable for 4 seconds. I honestly don’t care much about the knockback from it and use it more for blocking big hits. The knockback creates a just too big gap.

Then I’m not defendless, because I still have my utilities (and pet) and can double evade with GS1.

Just fyi, “Our skills are underpowered” is a wide topic, because not all skills are underpowered. But nvm that….

For guardians and their endless heals, consider poison as a remedy. It’s good to know how often they cleanse it too.

I admit the first post was a bit too simplified, but a good ranger should know that a fight is not the same as following exact instructions to the point, don’t you agree? We still have our utilities, pet and escape methods.

Anyhow, we obviously have different playstyles which means something that works for you probably doesn’t work for me and vice versa.

Lorelei.3918:

Pets are irrelevant in open field pvp.

Take the teleporting condi theif. he stealths. the pet stops and starts scratching himself. He teleports back and forth. The pet runs back and forth like its a game of fetch. The theif runs away, the pet misses his lunge.

Extreme example, but every class with the exception of maybe necros have the ability to keep your pet running in circles doing jack squat to help you.

Pets ARE Irrelevant.

Building a Longbow Ranger for PvP is Lunatic mode difficulty. Your weapon dmg is already penalized, and your pet adds nothing. You have to figure out a way to get around this double penalty.

The pets are not only used for dealing damage.

Leves.9035:

-first i would increase the dmg of the auto attack. ( 700 dmg with full power build is unbearable… )

i’m not sure how you’re doing 700 damage with a full power build O_o
i have a sniper build which i play for fun sometimes and it crits 2-3k from your autos, (6k after an interrupt).

note: this is not a serious build,
its just for having fun getting somewhere high and nuking people from 1500 :P
incase you’re interested: here it is
shoot them (to get in combat), swap weapon (giving you fury), activate quickness and 1 1 1 1 1 1 and enjoy the spam 3k crits all of the blank slots (and the last 10 trait points) on the build are optional for your preference.

also my favourite spot to sit is by joining blue team on Legacy of the Foefire and crossing the bridge just south of graveyard, that cliff is sniper heaven,
you can also shoot the gate from up there with eagle eye.

happy sniping!

solrik.6028:

Lorelei.3918:

Pets are irrelevant in open field pvp.

Take the teleporting condi theif. he stealths. the pet stops and starts scratching himself. He teleports back and forth. The pet runs back and forth like its a game of fetch. The theif runs away, the pet misses his lunge.

Extreme example, but every class with the exception of maybe necros have the ability to keep your pet running in circles doing jack squat to help you.

Pets ARE Irrelevant.

Building a Longbow Ranger for PvP is Lunatic mode difficulty. Your weapon dmg is already penalized, and your pet adds nothing. You have to figure out a way to get around this double penalty.

The pets are not only used for dealing damage.

Pet’s primarily apply their effects via attacks.

IMHO the biggest problem of the bows is that features that should have been bundled in the weapon for free are traits instead, like piercing arrows or read the wind.

Having to invest 6 points just to make a weapon viable while other classes get much more consistent buffs for similar investment is kinda jarring.

Also, the trais are boring and skill-less. instead of “you can now cleave like everyone else” “20% less cd” or “you can now hit moving stuff” we should have more fun stuff like:

-Splinter arrows: On crits arrows explode in splinters, homing in nearby targets and bleeding them
-Intercepting arrow: Arrows now have a chance to destroy enemy projectiles mid-flight if timed right. The closer you are to the enemy, the higher the chance.
-Piercing arrows: after each cleave the arrow gains 10% damage and a bleed on the next pierced target
-Spotter: No longer an aura, but applies the effect to all nearby teammates to the target hit (also makes more sense for its name)
-Broad head arrows: Allows to “charge” #1 by keeping it pressed, firing an arrow with a much higher arc on release, easier to dodge but with more damage – max charge gets a blast finisher.

Does any of you arching in real life? I do.
We can’t leave the fact some things aren’t THAT realistic/logical when it has to fit a game, but our longbows are like 40lbs draw-weight Starter bows used by an average weekend-archer.

If we’re the masters of it, it has to be at least 60lbs, mastered to 70lbs, including ROF, Velocity and even bit of range.

All this means; Our Mastered state are IRL’s average…

I do archery IRL. I even make my own wooden bows. Now a 70 lb bow is good. However why settle for the mundane in a game with matchlocks, elementalists and giant robots in one world? Ranger should be using a 120 lb warbow with ease. Our shots should have hard CC. Knockdowns and piercing should be inherent.

120lbs? Well, thats True Professional! I’ve only met a 80lbs hungarian reflex bow yet, and let me say, that was arrrgh for me. yet.
In most of games where Rangers do exist as a standalone class, they’re far more powerful than our “sustained” dmg. And some screen effect should help us feel some power too.

P.s.: Would you gift me a bow of yours? ^^

How is a physical arrow going to knock someone down/back if it pierces right through them?

Chrispy.5641:

How is a physical arrow going to knock someone down/back if it pierces right through them?

Momentum transfer is what knocks things down. If you have enough momentum you can pass through something and still have enough left over to keep on going…

But physics aside, I really do prefer the short bow to the longbow on my ranger. Outside of standing at the top/bottom of a wall in WvW, I just cannot find a space the LB feels comfortable to me. The auto-attack just pulses so slow (compared to SB) and its so reliant on a range that nothing interesting to fight is going to let me maintain.