Guild Wars 2

Hey, couldn’t find another thread on this, and I didn’t want to add it to the QoL list because what I’m talking about is closer to being a buff than a QoL change, so here goes:
Remember when Mesmers’ Scepter autoattack chain would create a clone for you if you managed to reflect it? It was pretty broken if you happened to be using Tornado on an Ele, then the mesmer would be stuck fighting 2 tornadoes because of his own attacks. ANet acknowledged this was an issue and addressed it. Now, the part of their autoattack chain is no longer a projectile, so this can’t happen.
I’m asking for ANet to make Hunter’s Shot Unlockable because right now, if you happen to strike an enemy that is using a reflect effect, they will become invisible for 3 seconds instead of you.
Why is this a problem? Because Hunter’s Shot is the only defensive skill we have on longbow, and that right now there is too much projectile-hate going on, and granting your enemy invisibility when you desperately needed it is often synonymous to your death.
I realized that was particularly problematic when I dropped the Druid elite spec in WvW and was left with very little ways disengage (no Ancestral Grace on staff, no Celestial Shadow)

What do you guys think?

I think it will still be obstructed by the ground 75% of the time.
They need to just let the skill grant stealth whether it hits a target or not.

I actually like the skill as is. It’s a 2k range CnD on a fair cooldown with a very snappy activation time.

Justine.6351:

I actually like the skill as is. It’s a 2k range CnD on a fair cooldown with a very snappy activation time.

I’d be fine with it if they fixed the kitten obstructed bug in WvW. I was fighting a 1v1 in a camp yesterday and it failed 4 times in a row.

Give it unblockable and fury. It could use a buff it would not be op and useful and reasonable.
Why fury? Because OS proc and longbow has no natural fury application.

Jim Hunter.6821:

Justine.6351:

I actually like the skill as is. It’s a 2k range CnD on a fair cooldown with a very snappy activation time.

I’d be fine with it if they fixed the kitten obstructed bug in WvW. I was fighting a 1v1 in a camp yesterday and it failed 4 times in a row.

Cast jump it for now. I usually use it in melee range with a foward-dodgeroll+hunters shot combo so I don’t get many fails but I also like to jump+hunters shot when I feel like the terrain has some ant hills between myself and target. I use a similar combo when on a wall and want to pbs someone off a cliff like at hills or net.

Your timeline for changes to Mesmer Scepter is off. They fixed the bug with Scepter spawning clones for others a looong time ago by simply disabling that functionality once it was reflected. The change from projectile to an auto-hit ranged attack fairly recently (I believe it was in the balance patch prior to this most recent one) not because of the clone, but rather because having the attack as a projectile was slowing down the auto-attack chain when used at longer ranges, making the weapon less effective at long range than at short range.

But that aside, I don’t think Hunter’s Shot needs to become unblockable, although it probably wouldn’t be a big deal if it did since its not like it really does that much damage. They just need to do with Hunter’s Shot what they did with the Shortbow #3 skill and change the buff so that it just happens regardless of whether you hit with the projectile or not.

Assuming they CAN do that, anyway. Thinking about it, if they made the stealth happen the instant you activated the skill, the stealth might be instantly broken by the damage from the arrow which would happen a split second later. They do have the tech to make an “unbreakable stealth” that doesn’t end when you deal damage (Caithe had it as her elite during the LS2 episodes where you played her), so maybe they could give you a split second of something like that to cover the arrow and then switch to normal stealth or something.

I guess if that would be too complicated they could just make it unblockable as an alternative, though.

Justine.6351:

Jim Hunter.6821:

Justine.6351:

I actually like the skill as is. It’s a 2k range CnD on a fair cooldown with a very snappy activation time.

I’d be fine with it if they fixed the kitten obstructed bug in WvW. I was fighting a 1v1 in a camp yesterday and it failed 4 times in a row.

Cast jump it for now. I usually use it in melee range with a foward-dodgeroll+hunters shot combo so I don’t get many fails but I also like to jump+hunters shot when I feel like the terrain has some ant hills between myself and target. I use a similar combo when on a wall and want to pbs someone off a cliff like at hills or net.

I usually do but I was fighting a berserker using taunt and getting taunted in the air still bugs you out so you are perma taunted and can’t activate skills including stun breaks until you /dance or something.
….. I swear I feel like I’m fighting the games broken mechanics more than I am the other players.

Not sure about this, especially since with LB you are already at 1500 range most times. On demand invisibility is a bit much considering LB is the only one with native stealth access to begin with.

I’d rather more stability access than stealth. Though they nerfed stability before (remember when RaO didn’t pulse and stab couldn’t be removed using CC?), so not sure they’ll do anything.

Electro.4173:

Your timeline for changes to Mesmer Scepter is off. They fixed the bug with Scepter spawning clones for others a looong time ago by simply disabling that functionality once it was reflected. The change from projectile to an auto-hit ranged attack fairly recently (I believe it was in the balance patch prior to this most recent one) not because of the clone, but rather because having the attack as a projectile was slowing down the auto-attack chain when used at longer ranges, making the weapon less effective at long range than at short range.

But that aside, I don’t think Hunter’s Shot needs to become unblockable, although it probably wouldn’t be a big deal if it did since its not like it really does that much damage. They just need to do with Hunter’s Shot what they did with the Shortbow #3 skill and change the buff so that it just happens regardless of whether you hit with the projectile or not.

Assuming they CAN do that, anyway. Thinking about it, if they made the stealth happen the instant you activated the skill, the stealth might be instantly broken by the damage from the arrow which would happen a split second later. They do have the tech to make an “unbreakable stealth” that doesn’t end when you deal damage (Caithe had it as her elite during the LS2 episodes where you played her), so maybe they could give you a split second of something like that to cover the arrow and then switch to normal stealth or something.

I guess if that would be too complicated they could just make it unblockable as an alternative, though.

They would use the same mechanic as thief’s Cloak and Dagger (damage and stealth)

Damage would probably come first in the algorithm as not to negate the stealth

Lol. Throw this on the marksmanship longbow trait. *that*’ll get people out of nature magic.

~ Kovu

Kovu.7560:

Lol. Throw this on the marksmanship longbow trait. *that*’ll get people out of nature magic.

~ Kovu

Lol true story, although some druids, such as myself, don’t run NM and do run Marksmanship. Having this in MM will def help move people some over.

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

Kovu.7560:

Lol. Throw this on the marksmanship longbow trait. *that*’ll get people out of nature magic.

~ Kovu

Lol true story, although some druids, such as myself, don’t run NM and do run Marksmanship. Having this in MM will def help move people some over.

Doesn’t help those of us that prefer the skirmishing line though….

Jim Hunter.6821:

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

Kovu.7560:

Lol. Throw this on the marksmanship longbow trait. *that*’ll get people out of nature magic.

~ Kovu

Lol true story, although some druids, such as myself, don’t run NM and do run Marksmanship. Having this in MM will def help move people some over.

Doesn’t help those of us that prefer the skirmishing line though….

This is where thoerycrafting comes in. To take MM or not to take MM? DO I replace anything else in my build to compensate for something I will be missing?

All part of the GW2 fun (for those that like thoerycrafting and not just grab something off metabattle)

Jim Hunter.6821:

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

Kovu.7560:

Lol. Throw this on the marksmanship longbow trait. *that*’ll get people out of nature magic.

~ Kovu

Lol true story, although some druids, such as myself, don’t run NM and do run Marksmanship. Having this in MM will def help move people some over.

Doesn’t help those of us that prefer the skirmishing line though….

what would that matter, we wouldn’t take it over quick draw anyhow.

Justine.6351:

Jim Hunter.6821:

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

Kovu.7560:

Lol. Throw this on the marksmanship longbow trait. *that*’ll get people out of nature magic.

~ Kovu

Lol true story, although some druids, such as myself, don’t run NM and do run Marksmanship. Having this in MM will def help move people some over.

Doesn’t help those of us that prefer the skirmishing line though….

what would that matter, we wouldn’t take it over quick draw anyhow.

I should have worded my response better, I just meant not all of us run nm/bm/druid.
My argument was the stealth should activate whether it hits or not since the buggy game obstructs the shot so often.
Making it unblockable doesn’t help that no matter what trait line it’s in.

Please don’t. Let the weapon set have some skill component

I’m okay with it being blockable. Personally, I’d like it to grant 2 seconds of Super Speed for repositioning.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I’m okay with it being blockable. Personally, I’d like it to grant 2 seconds of Super Speed for repositioning.

Came into the thread thinking I agreed with OP, now I want this. Let it be blockable but if it hits, 2 secs of super speed for the stealth.

That would be awesome.

Longbow is good as it is. It’s a perfectly balanced weapon

The stealth duration of the skill is so short you can’t really capitalize on it.

2 secs of super speed would help with repositioning, and it’s not like it’s some major buff, just a small QoL thing.

For example if I’m running LB/GS, I might use hunters shot and then swap to GS and use untargeted swoop to generate some decent distance.

Likewise with sword 2 or staff 3 if I’m speced druid.

If hunters shot were given 2 secs of super speed to compliment the 2 secs of stealth, this wouldn’t affect that basic strat.

Super speed doesn’t give you extra distance on weapon skills.

It would only help the LB by itself be better at respostioning with the precious little stealth it gets. There’s no foul in that.

The thing I really think needs help is the arbitrary obstructions I keep getting whilst shooting someone in a flat area. I’ve even been obstructed shooting slightly downhill. Its kind of annoying. If the bug (I assume its not intended) itself can’t be fixed, arch the longbow projectiles slightly so this is less of an issue.

The sheer number of reflections in this game is getting a little out of hand, too. Even in small scale fights I find myself switching to staff or greatsword and not wanting to switch to longbow for fear of being stuck with a useless weapon for 9 seconds because everything reflects. Kind of silly.

~ Kovu

Nila.7813:

Longbow is good as it is. It’s a perfectly balanced weapon

Agreed but barrage should have the same area of effect as similar skills like meteor shower.Since each meteor has its own area, they may hit outside the skill’s AoE circle if the center or a meteor’s AoE is close enough to the border.

Mokk.2397:

Nila.7813:

Longbow is good as it is. It’s a perfectly balanced weapon

Agreed but barrage should have the same area of effect as similar skills like meteor shower.Since each meteor has its own area, they may hit outside the skill’s AoE circle if the center or a meteor’s AoE is close enough to the border.

Ya except barrage hits everything in its massive aoe circle everytime where as meteor shower only hits small areas inside.