Guild Wars 2

Is this trait worth it? I’m currently traited at 20-30-10-0-10 but thinking of retraiting to 20-30-20. I have full knights and full berserkers I’m just wondering if piercing arrows would benefit. I’m a LB/SB ranger. Currently have eagle eye and was wondering how much damage that actually boosts?

Piercing arrows doesn’t boost any damage, it just makes the arrows hit any target in the path of the arrow, so your arrows become a line AoE.
If you are running with a zerg it is really nice in WvW, in sPvP there isn’t many times where you can shot people in line, in PvE is depends, if you don’t want to get some aggro then don’t use it.

Well it does boost damage, provided you hit more than one target.

If you are doing areas that have large numbers of bunched up enemies (think dredge fractal) then piercing arrows is extremely valuable.

A 1k crit with shortbow can hit 5 enemies, making it a 5k hit in total.

Well I meant the damage boost from eagle eye. anyone know how much that is?

It kind of depends for what you use your ranger.. I’m specced 20/30/20/0/0 with full berserker stats and I normally roam solo with my toon, flipping camps and sentries.. And trust me: Piercing Arrows + Entange = Sweet. Hold them all in one place, find the arrow line that pierces most targets, and get to some mayhem.. Also bear in mind that effects also pierce, so interrupting an entire line of enemies, it really is cool to see..

restoration.2806:

Well I meant the damage boost from eagle eye. anyone know how much that is?

If I’m not mistaken (can’t access that much GW related sites at work), eagle eye only ups your precision..
So it will depend on the crit chance you have to start with + the critical damage you have.. 100% crit chance with 0% crit dmg will yield not that much net gain..

Eagle eyes : longbow damage +5%, increase longbow range to 1500

meikodesign.6471:

Eagle eyes : longbow damage +5%, increase longbow range to 1500

Thanks for clarifying.. Well, I don’t think that the 5% increased dmg will make up for the lack of piercing arrows then..

When I autoattack a mob at 1.000 dmg, it will yield only 50 extra dmg.. However, if I had traited into piercing arrows, I could hit more than one mob (meaning 1.000 dmg * x hits)..

Of course, the extra range is handy on the longbow but not required (for my play style, that is)..

I typically swap them out depending on situation.
Either Eagle Eye or pierce.
Never had a situation where I needed a 1500 range pierce anyway

2 bows and no pierce? :O
There are only a few times I need 1500 range, and those times I don’t need pierce so I switch. Notable occasions include Claw of Jormag and Evolved Destroyer in CoE3

Nowadays I run Steady focus, Piercing arrows and spotter. 150 precision gives about 7% extra crit rate. Piercing arrows is the best damage trait when up against multiple enemies. Plus use a proc on crit sigil (for example fire), this is really yummy expecially in zergs

You shouldn’t underestimate the 1500 range. It will make you able to keep up with a target for a very long range, and harass a target in much the same way as a Thief can. I love using Swoop from the greatsword to gain range on a running opponent, then switch to longbow and kite him down endlessly. It’s very powerful to have a weapon that can continue to deal damage, when an opponent think he’s safe.

Piercing Arrows is absolutely essential if you run a bow, let alone two bows! To me it’s one of the most important traits across all my characters, it doubles or triples my damage output. I only substitute it for Eagle Eye in very specific situations where I really need the extra range, like defending walls in WvW or certain dungeon encounters.

too much traits what we need to be a good archer. i hope next patch give us some good skill merge. other classes can trait on 2-3 different things. longbow-shortbow combo doesnt count becaus thats a boring and useless set.

McWolfy.5924:

too much traits what we need to be a good archer. i hope next patch give us some good skill merge. other classes can trait on 2-3 different things. longbow-shortbow combo doesnt count becaus thats a boring and useless set.

Oh, I see we have an expert ranger amidst ourselves here..

Care to elaborate why the LB/SB is useless?
Also, whoever said that a ranger was an archer? Ranger can trait for greatsword and stuff as well (not to mention the tons of offhand traits :p ) And we can trait for pets..

Tribio.8531:

Also, whoever said that a ranger was an archer? Ranger can trait for greatsword and stuff as well (not to mention the tons of offhand traits :p ) And we can trait for pets..

Anet says so: “Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows.”

But we are a versatile class indeed. And I won’t say I concur that sb/lb combo is useless. I just prefer a ranged and melee combo. And lb still fires way too slow. I miss how it was in Beta, it used to fire a lot faster.