Guild Wars 2

Hey there.

I’m a full WvW ranger, and I was wondering if this would be a good change. I usually do really well with the traits that give me bonus range and piercing power in WvW because it lets me hit a lot of people from a really good range, but sometimes it’s just really sad to see the arrows not even touching an enemy because he’s too far, even if he’s in range, since he can easily dodge them.

The idea might be selfish because some people might actually like having it in Marksmanship instead of Skirmishing, but, hey, that’s why I’m asking, since I’m a pretty newbie ranger :P

Greetings

Greetings fellow Ranger.
Your idea is actually pretty in place. There was a debate on RtW actually – and many of us agreed that RtW is currently not attractive enough to be picked.

The problem is that it doesn’t give you anything you might competitively like in any environment besides WvW – and there as you already said – we have more appealing choices (Bonus Range + Piercing Shots).

This trait was made to make Longbow more Reliable against moving targets – while in PvE targets are stationary and in PvP you prioritize bunkering – where Longbow isn’t used for Long Ranged Sniping. Not in competitive scene – that is.

It might be a good trait – but definitely not a choice for the most offensive Trait Tree. It could be nice to swap it with Poison Master in Wilderness Survival. It would even be logical. A Marksman can be poison master (See shortbow) and Read the Wind is a technique used for wilderness survival.

I’d personally say that the RtW as is it now really needs an improvement of a kind. Probably merging piercing shots and RtW into a new trait (better velocity means piercing – logical) and giving the Marksmanship another 2 tier Trait choice (life improvement, not damage increase).

Ive been running it a bit in WvW and i gota say, its beautiful. Giving up the free crit from Remorseless is rough, but when you see your DPS go up because you no longer miss? Mmmm..

Xenos.1072:

Ive been running it a bit in WvW and i gota say, its beautiful. Giving up the free crit from Remorseless is rough, but when you see your DPS go up because you no longer miss? Mmmm..

But the thing is, that we are the only class using LongBow for DPS, not utility cooldown using.
It’s sad we NEED to use this trait to use LB in a reliable way. No other class has these problems. Not so big as we do.
RtW could even be baseline for us – without even being too powerful. We don’t have burst, not even the best DPS … We could at least welcome a reliable mechanism on our dmg pattern.

Every time this comes up I point out that in zergs, you don’t need faster arrows. In roaming you don’t need piercing arrows.

It’s the best trait in the game as far as I’m concerned. Even combined with Eagle Eye my shots never miss. Noone can avoid being hit by mere movement. It was my number 1 annoyance with the longbow and this fixed it.

I very much think it should stay in Marksmanship together with Eagle Eye. Those traits are perfect together.

It also allows the new build 30/0/5/30/0, which is quite good.

I personally went back to 30/30/x/x/x, so it would improve my build if it was moved to Skirmishing (I’d replace Moment of Clarity with Piercing Arrows), but I’d still rather see it in Marksmanship.

I’d rather see Piercing Arrows and Eagle Eye merge and also work for shortbow. Then they could add a new trait that doesn’t improve the longbow. Maybe a sword/greatsword trait or another signet trait.

Holland.9351:

It’s the best trait in the game as far as I’m concerned. Even combined with Eagle Eye my shots never miss. Noone can avoid being hit by mere movement. It was my number 1 annoyance with the longbow and this fixed it.
…

And this is what I’m talking about. It’s not exactly an improving trait. It’s a fixing trait for something that is kinda broken.

More importantly : What is the trait best for? tPvP? PvE environment (dungeons / bosses) ?
WvW ? (solo / group)

As you can see – for Dungeons melee is the answer. If you are using longbow – you are in NO NEED OF RtW because shots cannot be faked by NPC in 95% of cases (mostly stationary ranged targets).
In tPvP you should be focusing on taking the points, not sniping from bushes or walls where you are taking zero objectives.
In group WvW your shots always hit a nice number of targets and you don’t need to hit exactly your primary target – you are trying to hit as much as possible.
In solo WvW – it’s fine. But there are still options that could be better.

~ the summary is that the RtW is not attractive anywhere besides ONE environment – and is not even best at it.

Yes, I agree RtW shouldn’t cost anything. It should be a stock skill.

Is it worth it to spend points on? Pretty much anyone that has used it in WvW says it is.
Comes down to theory vs reality.

I think RTW should be a grandmaster, granted I would like it to gain some other effect ontop of what it currently does because I think it’s bullkitten to have a trait only useful in 2/3rds of the game (as in there’s literally 0 reason to take it in one mode at all)

I’ve never understood the way LB’s #1 works.
So, basically, you can deal a lot (which isnt that much really) of damage, but in order to do that, the target has to be at +1000 range. Seriously, what enemy is gonna stay at that range when there’s no need to? And, then, we have the issue with the slow flying arrows… I basically think Anet went full kitten there. Keeping the enemy at +1000 range is already hard enough as to having to be worried about your arrows missing.

I like most of the ideas from this thread (having it in a passive way, mixing it with another trait…). Sadly I’m not Anet, lol.

Tragic Positive.9356:

More importantly : What is the trait best for?

I should have been more specific. I meant for WvW it’s the best trait for Longbow (in my honest opinion).

It’s very much a fix that costs a grandmaster trait – yes, but we have no other choice. It’s the fix the longbow needs. So, use it.

I think my “dps” skyrocketed compared to not having RtW. I like staying at max range with Eagle Eye and before many of my shots used to miss, but now none of them do. Except, of course, if they dodge/block/reflect/evade/etc, but that’s completely fair.

Holland.9351:

I think my “dps” skyrocketed compared to not having RtW. I like staying at max range with Eagle Eye and before many of my shots used to miss, but now none of them do. Except, of course, if they dodge/block/reflect/evade/etc, but that’s completely fair.

But then you lose a lot of AoE, since our only AoE with LB is #5 (it’s not like we have tons of AoE with other weapons anyway xD), but Piercing Arrows increase that AoE a tooooon. So you either lose that nice AoE with Piercing Arrows or lose the extra damage and range. It’s not like we have too many choices xD

I’m trying Read the Winds in zerging and the difference is awesome. I actually hit all of my targets (unless they dodge/reflect/etc them, ofc), WOW!!! I had to lose Piercing Arrows tho, which really sucks. It forces me to be switching between PA to RtW when defending from walls, since it’s way harder to hit multiple targets from above.

But yeah, PLEASE Anet, PLEASE!!! Consider mixing RtW with some of these useful traits for WvW, or just give it to us by default

Piercing Arrows & Spotter are mandatory.
So RtW gets left behind

for SPvP and WvW i could see RtW being picked

geogyf.5087:

Piercing Arrows & Spotter are mandatory.
So RtW gets left behind

for SPvP and WvW i could see RtW being picked

Neither for sPvP. You’d like to hit as many people as possible to grind rank points.
… If you don’t want to grind points but win the game – you don’t need the trait at all since you rarely fire more than 2-3 shots from 1000+

I find it quite usefull in tpvp. if you want to pick up that pesky necro/zerk staff ele or other target from the sideline, this trait is golden.With the new build 6/0/2/6/0, you can burst down a target on the other side of the node pretty fast, and then be able to switch targets to help your team. I think it’s good were it is, haven’t tried in in wvw/pve because i don’t use a longbow there

I’d say combine Eagle Eye and Read The Wind into a single trait. From what others are saying on this forum, there isn’t any reason why you would take one and not the other.

Tragic Positive.9356:

geogyf.5087:

Piercing Arrows & Spotter are mandatory.
So RtW gets left behind

for SPvP and WvW i could see RtW being picked

Neither for sPvP. You’d like to hit as many people as possible to grind rank points.
… If you don’t want to grind points but win the game – you don’t need the trait at all since you rarely fire more than 2-3 shots from 1000+

You DO know that in PvP, the score you accumulate during the match has nothing to do at all with how much rank you receive, right?

It doesn’t matter at all whether your score is 80 or 300, the only rank you receive is the win/loss reward and 5 additional rank points for every top stat you receive, like top revives, etc.

This change was made a fairly substantial amount of time ago to discourage rank farming and encourage people to play the game correctly, as far as match objectives go.

jcbroe.4329:

You DO know that in PvP, the score you accumulate during the match has nothing to do at all with how much rank you receive, right?

Yup, but if we assume we hit more targets – we get more points for participating in kills – and if all goes well – you can go and cap them.
If your party fails to win the fight – you simply pack you bags, leave them there because you have a huge range and start assaulting another point with the same scenario.

You are practically an aspirant for 3 top stats with this method. The only one that is not favorable is the resurrection one.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Yup, but if we assume we hit more targets – we get more points for participating in kills – and if all goes well – you can go and cap them.
If your party fails to win the fight – you simply pack you bags, leave them there because you have a huge range and start assaulting another point with the same scenario.

You are practically an aspirant for 3 top stats with this method. The only one that is not favorable is the resurrection one.

Why do you care what your personal points are?