Guild Wars 2

Hi all since many are talking about shortbow rework i think that i may share my few cents on the subject from perspective of ranked play.

Firstly off i love the shortbow and i find it a very good weapon if used right (and given your enemies aren’t all mesmers, eles, scrappers and guards).

Now the shortbow shines as a team damage support weapon (easy flanks if you snipe inside mid-chaos), pursuit weapon (that sweet cripple, enemies contantly exposing their back to you which sb loves) and overall annoyance with constant condi/direct damage pressure.

With above said, i would like a few tweaks to it that help it perform in above roles, rather then trip over it’s toes in situations where it’s supposed to shine by default.

So here’s my take on it’s skills and upgrades they could use, followed by explanation why such changes.

1. crossfire – fine as is.
2. poison volley – fine as is.
3. quickshot – remove swiftness, add stealth (2s), increase cd to 12s, but reduce it to 9s if succefully evaded an attack using quickshot. Breaks out of immobilize. Triggers light on your feet trait bonus.
4. crippling shot – add swiftness (which is taken from quickshot).
5. concussion shot – fine as is.

Ok now the “why” part.

Quickshot is quite flawed atm – swiftness+ backhop work great as escape tool, but are completely contradictory to eachother when chasing enemies (swiftness good, backhopping bad), which is one of primary scenarios for sb usage. Diversity suffers.

So instead of swiftness i propose stealth which works great as a defensive tool, and can be used for better positioning , something a guerilla combat weapon such as shortbow badly needs. Being an immob breaker would also add to it’s movement oriented playstyle and follow up on one of it’s best uses – as often the only escape you have when immobilized.

4. crippling shot – now this is the skill where swiftness should go to. Cripple + swiftnes is a sweet movement control package, and here are no evasion/hopping shanenigans that would prevent you from using this skill for it’s primary purpose of gaining movement speed upper hand. Ofc there is a price to such approach – both advantages being on one skill only means that if you fail to land it, then double your loss. No free lunch, kids!

You made diamond, so make your own thread?

You’re starting off wrong when you consider the SB a ‘’team damage support weapon’’.
The weapon has zero support, AoE or escaping capabilities. It is a 1v1 weapon, but one that is designed badly.

Poor choice of words on my part there. What i meant is that shortbow helps teammates nail down an enemy and finish him fast. Poison, crippling, daze/stun, and aa that constantly bleeds and strips that aegis off guards are the tools to cripple enemy’s defenses and mobility ensuring faster kill for teammates.

Many a time I saved our close from would be decapper thanks to crippling and/or stunning them with shortbow, which let me catch up to them if not outright killing on the spot with condi bombing while ancient seeds held them in place.

I can’t expect a bow to have some huge leap or other major mobility skill like greatsword or staff but i agree escape game needs improvement. That’s why i suggest stealth and immob break on quickshot, while the crippling shot would give you mobility advantage (cripple on them, swiftness on you) that works great for both chases and escapes.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Poor choice of words on my part there.

Not for me, I understood immediately what u meant ^^

So wait, if I roll then use 3 I get light on your feet twice? Even if not were looking at 10s or 7s of recharge time on a stealth skill that breaks immob, as who wouldn’t take light on your feet trait.

This doesn’t factor in WvW where trapper runes are a thing. With two or three traps that’s nearly permanent stealth.

That’s if you can use the stralth, kitten is heavy on AA, so you’d never be able to reposition.

Guess I’m in the minority of wanting more flanking bonuses spread out among the rest of the skills. I’d even be fine now with bleeding on Crossfire by default, with the exception of it being reduced to 2s and an increase to 4s when flanking.

For those who think sb#3 stealth would be too much (well WvW wise i suppose, i’m spvp’er and there stealth is not such big issue due to losing points if you stealth) there is an alternative approach to #3. Allow for the dash from the skill to be directed by player. If i use it and press forward, then make it leap forward rather then away from target, something like thieve’s unhindered combatant trait, along with a shot and swiftness. If that is implemented, then #3 can be used for both escaping and chasing, and not just escaping.

I still stand vehemently that the skill should break immobilize and activate light on your feet, given it’s not that big of a boost, and it shouls stack duration, not intensity.

The problem with adding stealth to Short Bow is that Long Bow already has such a skill, without an evade, and it has 12 seconds of recharge. That’s not going to happen and asking for stealth is just aping the design of another (much better albeit) weapon.

Short Bow should stick with the theme of skill shots and flanking. I would much rather see these skill shot rewards added to existing skills:

Skill #2, Poison Volley, inflict 1 stack of vulnerability for 5 seconds per arrow that hits while flanking.

Skill #3, Quick Shot: grant 2 seconds of super speed on a successful evade.

Skill #4, Crippling Shot, immobilize for 1 second when flanking.

Skill #5, Concussion Shot, successful interrupts inflict weakness for 5 seconds.

Short bow is fine as is except the range .It was completely broke dropping its range to 900.We can thank all those people using farming bots for that nerf.Instead of fixing the botting they killed the short bow .

The shortbow needs three things to be a competitive weapon.
1. A trait for 1200 range or even baseline

2. Skill two needs to be poison arrow. Explodes a poison cloud on hitting enemy.

3. Either skill 3 or skill 4 needs an immobilize for 1-1.5 seconds.

I like your swiftness on skill 4 so put the immobilize on skill three. Then skill three is your run away skill. And skill four is your chaser. Gg shortbow fixed.