Guild Wars 2

Can’t wait to try a piercing PB shot now and the new hunter’s shot sounds like skirmishing is going to be a lot more fun. I just wish the jag hadn’t been nerfed just so we could dance around in stealth while a stealthed npc crits the opponent constantly.

Also, thank kittening god that we finally get a blast finisher. Now we just need skills and traits that give boons to things other than just our pet and we will be set. Just make RaO give might on hit as an aoe and we would be actually desired in zerg combat.

HOLY BAT MAN IN HELL LONG BOW IS A GOOD WEAPON NOW NEVER THOUGHT WE WOULD SEE THE DAY!!!! YELLING FOR ENTHUSIASM FOR ONCE HAPPY WITH RANGER CHANGES COMPLEATLY AND DONT FEEL LIKE A kitten USING LONGBOW NOW IT FREAKING WORKS!!!!

when I say works I mean it flows the weapon skills work with traits and doesn’t feel weird to hit any attack at any given time, point blank shot is great now too, able to get people before they use a gap closer is awesome

we are going to get complaints about people in other classes saying its op though cause they are not used to use doing dmg with longbow or being able to survive while wielding longbow… screw em

would be nice if we got some good active utilities that didn’t rely on pets or staying in one area (traps and spirits), if we can we might have a really good power build on our hands in the future, hell we might actually be able to do a glass cannon build instead of the glass pellet gun we did previously!

Been to WvW, I absolutely love ranger stealth <3

Been backstabbed by a thief. As soon as he starts spamming, I use LB#3, reposition myself then use Rapid Fire. Most of the thieves that did that to me are squishy and went down after a Rapid Fire + some auto attacks

I just love the feeling of giving stealth thieves a taste of their own medicine <3

Best patch ever!

Xsorus.2507:

Rofl, I was playing with it earlier, I’d open with Rapid Fire on someone to apply every thing, when they turned to go after me, Boom I’d stealth

come out of stealth, Rapid Fire some more..

Get near me, boom Point Blank Shot (now 1200 range with Eagle Eye), time they got up, it was time for Stealth again.

yeah, the ranger was seen as annoying, but not hard to fight before. Because of the superb mobility and pet. Now, the annoying factor gonna skyrocket

Substance E.4852:

Can’t wait to try a piercing PB shot now and the new hunter’s shot sounds like skirmishing is going to be a lot more fun. I just wish the jag hadn’t been nerfed just so we could dance around in stealth while a stealthed npc crits the opponent constantly.

Also, thank kittening god that we finally get a blast finisher. Now we just need skills and traits that give boons to things other than just our pet and we will be set. Just make RaO give might on hit as an aoe and we would be actually desired in zerg combat.

the jag still hits hard. even without its stealth, in my current BM build, it does something like 1.2k constantly. and in stealth, it hits in excess of 2.5k. Sure its a slight nerf

Sarision.6347:

I would trade hit, hit, evade for harder hit, harder hit, harder hit.

No. Please just no. The GS is in a very good place right now. The evade is probably the best thing on the GS.

I don’t know why people are complaining about the GS. Its probably one of the best weapons for (power-based) rangers:
1. Most evades
2. #2skill is our largest spike damage
3. Best gap closer (#3 skill)
4. 3 seconds projectile block + knockdown
5. Daze & stun
Its got offensive/defensive skills + damage; its got everything packaged in one. Though I haven’t decided if I like the change to Maul.

Aridia.3042:

How is the ability to loose aggro ever useless in PVE?

Cause it’s not needed at all. In open world, we can just run away from mobs, in dungeons we’re not tanking.

Stealth on longbow is pure PvP addition and I wish to disable it in PvE.

Really no one is bothered that stealth stops auto-attack?

I´m tired of changing my play style every month. Its annoying and frustrating. “Pick GS then hit 1+3+4, then switch back to SB fart and jump the press 1 and roll if you can do that then you´ll be as good as a warrior pressing 1”. Answer: “play a warrior then tadaaa!”, NO, i like bows, archers, and “pew”. Answer: “Well rangers suck dpsing with bows pick a GS”, NO! BOW! Answer: “We decided to nerf SB so then you have no choice than playing with a GS”. AAAAaa!!! Answer: “Ok then when you hit 3 with the LB you become stealth!” NOOO! I said bow+archer not a thief. Answer: “Well the things is that when we wrote Ranger´s intro we didn´t mean unparalleled archers literally. Either way users don´t know what they want and always complain BUT we do care so in the next patch rangers will wear heavy armor to be able to take more damage while tanking with the GS”.
GW2 is becoming more like a QC job than an enjoyable game.
My feedback.

I just tought this is a joke, when I read it.
Everything we ever wanted in ONE patch.
Stealth, blastfinisher, and so on.

SOOOOOO HAPPY!
THANKS ANET!

Eley.1907:

Aridia.3042:

How is the ability to loose aggro ever useless in PVE?

Cause it’s not needed at all. In open world, we can just run away from mobs, in dungeons we’re not tanking.

Stealth on longbow is pure PvP addition and I wish to disable it in PvE.

Really no one is bothered that stealth stops auto-attack?

It’s because that there’s no tank, that makes loosing aggro even more useful for pve.

Just did Kiel T4 with 4 people and stealth saved my bacon a few times.

rapid shot deal the same damage if u use remors first use hunter as allways, it stack the 5 vul from the opening, but your open recharg so just shoot your rapid it stacks again the opening. at the begining of the rapid you have 10 stacks but the end you have 20 stacks! (10+20)/2=15 your good old damage. but after rapid fire you deal more damage! tadaam! (and we have stealth)

Eley.1907:

Aridia.3042:

How is the ability to loose aggro ever useless in PVE?

Cause it’s not needed at all. In open world, we can just run away from mobs, in dungeons we’re not tanking.

Stealth on longbow is pure PvP addition and I wish to disable it in PvE.

Really no one is bothered that stealth stops auto-attack?

I’ll grant you that it isn’t very useful. I certainly don’t need stealth much. After using it few hours last night, it really does feel like a PVP addition.

It’s pretty essential in the valkyrie build to have that new hunter’s shot. I don’t know if you guys run that build, but it’s actually viable now to roam with IMHO using remorseless and longbow.

I’ve been running that build for about a month now and the 1v1 vs ranger valkyrie build just got a lot more fair for people like me who were running it.

Disregarding remorseless synergy, anyone who’s pvp’d a lot knows that they’re in trouble if they get in melee range with longbow. It used to basically be GG. Now at least we have an “out”.

Okay my first impressions of this update;.. (From a WvW perspective.)

Entangle; tooltip fix. lol, this wouldn’t be called an update if no tooltips were updated!

Rapid Fire; the channel duration still hinders this skill more than vunerability adds in its’ favor. Edit Keep in mind the Quickening Zephyr change, Rangers no longer have easy access to quickness so there is no easy way to work around it.

Hunter’s Shot; interesting change. Seeing this in use has its’ niches. But there’s a lot of requirements to meet before you finally get stealthed (and the random obstruction bug is still around.)

Point Blank Shot; combined with the stealth from Hunter’s Shot it’ll be interesting to use as a finisher (letting the enemy die from fall damage to prevent the downed state.) Otherwise I can not get my head around why this was changed, 900 range is a lot and if it works with the Eagle Eye trait it seems a bit much.

Maul; this change makes the Greatsword a better group weapon, but much worse for roaming and solo play.

Crippling Throw; this was a much needed fix.

Whirling Defense; interesting mechanic. I have yet to see this in use.

Call of the Wild; this was a much needed feature for the profession. Interesting choice to put it on the Warhorn.

Remorseless; opening strikes is a weird mechanic, using trait slots to make it work is rather poor design in my opinion. I will not be using this.

Everyone: remorseless and precise strike are for the valkyrie build. If you don’t know it, search 23k maul build. There’s too many people who still don’t know what that build is.

Chopps.5047:

Everyone: remorseless and precise strike are for the valkyrie build. If you don’t know it, search 23k maul build. There’s too many people who still don’t know what that build is.

I know what it is, but Precise Strikes is bugged atm. It doesn’t guarantee a critical hit with Remorseless.

Also that 23k maul build is a one trick pony. It’s even described as not being a fun build, just a build to maximise the damage from 1 attack. It might get a bit more viable for non-gimmick use if Precise Strikes gets fixed, but as it stands now; (and I repeat…) I will not be using this.

Two things:

1) Yes remorseless is broken, I’m sure they’ll patch it.

2) I don’t run that exact build. I go 30/10/0/30/0 unless I really want the crit damage and the huge burst. I’m found 30/10/0/30/0 to be pretty strong in zergs. It’s also viable in every 1v1 I have tested it with. Yet, I lose some of those battles, unlike apothecary which I almos always win. Why is that? Well, the valkryie build isn’t so forgiving. You have to watch their animations and beat them by reacting. Therefore, I consider it more of a skill build.

I just had to post something even though I´m on my cousins laptop on vacation. I don´t see these changes being the saving grace to the longbow, but they are a step in the right direction. For anyone trying to work on a build, I would suggest a mix of valk/soldier gear focusing on power/toughness/vitaility/crit damage. The idea being that you have the power and survavibility you need to hit hard, stay alive, and abuse remorseless for the crits. 30/10/30/0/0

the longbow is now better with this patch,
but anet was speak on sotg of put 2-3 skills toghether and crearte 1-2 new skills Oo
pls do that. i like the stealth on longbow rly now, but the skills on longbow feels still not so good on pvp. just my mind.

barrage feels so bad, because i have to stay and the dmg is low.
when i fight ppls i never use it…
it would be so more useful when i can run when cast barrage and it casts only one times barrag with full dmg and cripple.

maybe like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kErSOqASlKM
3:23 is how i would like barrage

next skill i dont like is rapid fire.
its not bad, but its also a long time cast skill.
most time i eat much dmg in this time when i cast it and often i have to interrupt it myself if one go offensive vs my glass canon build.
for example i fight some builds 1vs1 with new longbow.
barrage i never used and when i used rapid fire i eat always dmg like mesmer pistol or the necro marks, just because in this long cast time im not dodging and have to go offensive.
for sure there are combos like go invis > point blank shoot > rapid fire
but dont know. i would like rapid fire ~3 arrows with the dmg of full rapid fire…

Durzlla.6295:

Btw guys, the vuln applied from Hunters Shot was 10 for 8s, the new Vuln on rapid fire is 10s per stack, so the vuln will be up longer than it would have been on hunters shot, granted it won’t be up at peak strength as long, but it’ll still be up for a while, and assuming it takes a full 2s to apply all the vuln then it’s literally a buff and means the vuln is up LONGER than before, that is all.

Uptime is the thing to look at. Also, not sure why you would assume it only takes 2 seconds to apply the vulnerability on a 4.5 second channel. Even QZ won’t let you hit the 2 second mark.

This patch barely changed the vulnerability you can apply with the longbow. Hunter’s shot without marksmanship and cooldown reduction was 66.7% uptime. Traited (cooldown and 30 MM) it had 108% uptime. Now it’s 68.9% uptime untraited and 104% uptime traited. Before and after patch, we had 0.5 seconds of overlap when traited. As long as there’s an overlap you should be able to keep 10 stacks on the target at all times.

The big difference is that you can’t apply 20 stacks of vulnerability as quickly at the start of combat. If you use opening strike, alpha strike, and rapid fire with 30 MM, you have a 2 second window where your target has 20 stacks of vulnerability. Before, you had 6.5 seconds of it, which allowed you to place the stacks early and then follow with a weapon swap -> swoop -> maul.

Killsmith.8169:

Durzlla.6295:

Btw guys, the vuln applied from Hunters Shot was 10 for 8s, the new Vuln on rapid fire is 10s per stack, so the vuln will be up longer than it would have been on hunters shot, granted it won’t be up at peak strength as long, but it’ll still be up for a while, and assuming it takes a full 2s to apply all the vuln then it’s literally a buff and means the vuln is up LONGER than before, that is all.

Uptime is the thing to look at. Also, not sure why you would assume it only takes 2 seconds to apply the vulnerability on a 4.5 second channel. Even QZ won’t let you hit the 2 second mark.

This patch barely changed the vulnerability you can apply with the longbow. Hunter’s shot without marksmanship and cooldown reduction was 66.7% uptime. Traited (cooldown and 30 MM) it had 108% uptime. Now it’s 68.9% uptime untraited and 104% uptime traited. Before and after patch, we had 0.5 seconds of overlap when traited. As long as there’s an overlap you should be able to keep 10 stacks on the target at all times.

The big difference is that you can’t apply 20 stacks of vulnerability as quickly at the start of combat. If you use opening strike, alpha strike, and rapid fire with 30 MM, you have a 2 second window where your target has 20 stacks of vulnerability. Before, you had 6.5 seconds of it, which allowed you to place the stacks early and then follow with a weapon swap -> swoop -> maul.

It also makes it so rapid fire doesn’t benefit from the vulnerability from the beginning, so longbow burst actually went down.

On Hunter’s Shot, can we trade pet gaining swiftness for YOU gaining swiftness? My pet does not need swiftness to help it when I go into stealth, I do to make my time in stealth most effective.

Arcade Fire.4895:

Robyn Yew.6072:

Arcade Fire.4895:

Kal Spiro.9745:

Arcade Fire.4895:

Erasculio.2914:

I honestly don’t see the point of giving stealth to Hunter’s Shot. IMO, it would be perfect for the shortbow after the range nerf, but the longbow is meant to be used at very long range, where it’s easier to avoid ranged attacks, and it already has a counter against melee attacks in Point Blank Shot.

I’ve been trying to point this out but people keep shouting me down otherwise.

It’s a longbow. You should be at quite a bit of range. We basically lost DPS for slight utility that honestly doesn’t even do that much good. I’m aware you can stealth+rez but you will not get the rez off in time and the dps loss IS NOT WORTH IT.

There is no such thing as being at quite a bit of range. Things run at you, and no matter how good you are at mobility they will catch you. Stealth helps give you breathing room.

That’s why you’re supposed to kite and keep moving about.

Do you pve only? Just a question.

I wvw/spvp. SB+GS.

I know that this is irrelevant but I am fairly experienced in terms of mmo pvp. 2500+ Hpal, 2400+ frost dk, 2200+ feral druid/warrior/resto sham/disc priest on WoW.

First off, you’re right, those are complete and utterly irrelevant, and pointless bragging.

Second, Short Bow is not Long Bow. Just isn’t.

Third, I will admit that my build makes me much less in need of mobility because it’s hard to kill, but no, that is simply not a thing.

Unless you have some specific build in mind and you feel that anyone who isn’t using that specific build is bad, which is ludicrous, I really can’t imagine where you even get this from.

In any case, now that I’ve had the chance to play with this power, even though I don’t run any of the skills that would really make it shine, I do enjoy the stealth if for nothing else than what the Dev pointed out. Being able to start off Barrage unmolested, even when completely surrounded by mobs.

Prysin.8542:

if anything, you just got a DPS increase on Rapid Fire. As each shot will do +1% damage squared more then the last. if the game mechanics isn’t completely up-side-down

Until you realize you used to be able to do +10% damage across the board by hitting hunter’s shot first, then Rapid Shot. So the first hit now does 10% less damage, and while the next shot does 1% more than the first, it’s doing 9% less than before. It isn’t until the last 3 shots that you’re actually doing full damage again.

I’d rather have the extended vulnerability on my long range shots rather than rapid fires.

Also I like how people say long bow burst is gone, and then in the same post mention that rapid fire takes too long to channel to be considered burst. Wut?

Kal Spiro.9745:

Prysin.8542:

if anything, you just got a DPS increase on Rapid Fire. As each shot will do +1% damage squared more then the last. if the game mechanics isn’t completely up-side-down

Until you realize you used to be able to do +10% damage across the board by hitting hunter’s shot first, then Rapid Shot. So the first hit now does 10% less damage, and while the next shot does 1% more than the first, it’s doing 9% less than before. It isn’t until the last 3 shots that you’re actually doing full damage again.

you’re assuming you hit on the first shot. Assuming the enemy for some reason doesn’t cleanse the vulnerability before you can get the entire barrage in.

Yes your initial 2-3 shots will do less damage, but the total damage you will inflict will rise.

After a day of playing around with stealth on hunter’s shot… wouldn’t it make more sense if it were on point blank shot instead? Knockback that puts you into stealth, but at 900 range.

I’ll have to play around with hunter’s shot more, but I feel like I’ve lost a dps skill. For most of my open world pve fights I just use 1 and 2 now, even more boring than before.

racta.4250:

Also I like how people say long bow burst is gone, and then in the same post mention that rapid fire takes too long to channel to be considered burst. Wut?

Yeah pertty much this

Eley.1907:

Aridia.3042:

How is the ability to loose aggro ever useless in PVE?

Cause it’s not needed at all. In open world, we can just run away from mobs, in dungeons we’re not tanking.

Stealth on longbow is pure PvP addition and I wish to disable it in PvE.

Really no one is bothered that stealth stops auto-attack?

… Are you serious, bookah? o_o

Just in case the devs are ignoring the other threads relating to the longbow changes, I want to toss my hat in the “I hate these changes” pile. Why? Allow me to explain.

As a PvE player, stealth on a longbow does me absolutely no good. My pet tanks for me while I attack from long range. And I have an area of effect cripple. And I have a knock back. Stealth simply brings nothing to the table for a PvE longbow user. So Hunter’s Shot is now a dead spot on my already limited skill bar.

Expanding on that, Rapid Fire now applies 10 stacks of vulnerability. But it does so gradually, one at a time. So it will never benefit from the full 10 stacks, whereas it could with the old Hunter’s Shot. And because Rapid Fire is now a condition applier, it’s role has changed. It used to be something held in reserve for when targets made it inside the Long Range Shot’s damage drop-off (1000).

Where I used to open a fight with 20 stacks of vulnerability with Hunter’s Shot and Opening Strike from me and my pet and held Rapid Fire for close-ranged enemies I now open with 10 vulnerability and have a completely useless weapon skill.

If the idea was to get people to use the longbow with Remorseless, I don’t think that’s going to work. Between Eagle Eye, Piercing Arrows, Spotter, Steady Focus, and the signet traits, there’s just too many good traits competing for too few slots to justify resetting Opening Strike once every 12 seconds.

tl;dr – I hate the change. I implore to change the longbow back and add a stealth skill whenever you roll out your new skills and traits system latter this you if you feel you must give the longbow a stealth skill.

darkace.8925:

Just in case the devs are ignoring the other threads relating to the longbow changes, I want to toss my hat in the “I hate these changes” pile. Why? Allow me to explain.

As a PvE player, stealth on a longbow does me absolutely no good. My pet tanks for me while I attack from long range. And I have an area of effect cripple. And I have a knock back. Stealth simply brings nothing to the table for a PvE longbow user. So Hunter’s Shot is now a dead spot on my already limited skill bar.

Expanding on that, Rapid Fire now applies 10 stacks of vulnerability. But it does so gradually, one at a time. So it will never benefit from the full 10 stacks, whereas it could with the old Hunter’s Shot. And because Rapid Fire is now a condition applier, it’s role has changed. It used to be something held in reserve for when targets made it inside the Long Range Shot’s damage drop-off (1000).

Where I used to open a fight with 20 stacks of vulnerability with Hunter’s Shot and Opening Strike from me and my pet and held Rapid Fire for close-ranged enemies I now open with 10 vulnerability and have a completely useless weapon skill.

If the idea was to get people to use the longbow with Remorseless, I don’t think that’s going to work. Between Eagle Eye, Piercing Arrows, Spotter, Steady Focus, and the signet traits, there’s just too many good traits competing for too few slots to justify resetting Opening Strike once every 12 seconds.

tl;dr – I hate the change. I implore to change the longbow back and add a stealth skill whenever you roll out your new skills and traits system latter this you if you feel you must give the longbow a stealth skill.

I’ll throw my hat in that pile as well. Stand strong because there are a lot of opinions out there that can’t see past pvp.

Can anyone confirm the changes to Entangle – was the tooltip just incorrect before or did it get a nerf? Because mine used to list 29k damage and now only 14k.

There is just as much that can’t see past pve.

Seetoo.9316:

There is just as much that can’t see past pve.

All this crap comes up because there are just too many variables in each setting and not enough options to choose from.

Seetoo.9316:

There is just as much that can’t see past pve.

I don’t think there is. I think the PvE player recognize the desire PvP and WvW players have for stealth. The thing is they robbed Peter to pay Paul, and I think it’s pretty clear who’s Peter and who’s Paul in this situation.

Sube Dai.8496:

Can anyone confirm the changes to Entangle – was the tooltip just incorrect before or did it get a nerf? Because mine used to list 29k damage and now only 14k.

tooltip was incorrect – or that’s an official version
(in patch notes there is “fixed tooltip to view right dmg for bleeding” or something like that)

I was skeptical of the stealth change to Hunter’s Shot at first, but now I really like it. It keeps saving my life in PvE, though I HAVE noticed my damage is lower now.

Prysin.8542:

if anything, you just got a DPS increase on Rapid Fire. As each shot will do +1% damage squared more then the last. if the game mechanics isn’t completely up-side-down

SaraFjellskoge.4168:

I’ll also point out that the ten stacks of vulnerability that used to be applied with hunter’s shot are now spread out onto each of rapid fire’s ten shots. Before the patch, you could fire hunter’s shot for the 10 stacks, then fire rapid shot, allowing all 10 shots to reap the full benefit of the vulnerability. Now the vulnerability gradually grows throughout rapid shot, which amounts to an overall damage decrease. This -again- puts pressure on longbow rangers to trait for Remorseless so that they can make up for lost DPS.

Prysin.8542: sorry bud, but you are wrong. It is a damage decrease.

SaraFjellskoge.4168: Exactly! I do not like the fact our #2 got a damage reduction. Especially since in WvW rapid fire can be dodged more easily than hunter’s shot could.

RoyalPredator.9163:

I miss the Vulnerability on Hunter’s Shot.
Now we have even less damage, sicne we can’t start on 10 stack of Vulnerability on the foes.

My suggestion:

• Hunter’s Shot: Applies 10 stack of vulnerability and grantss the ranger stealth for 5 seconds.
  Why? It’s not OP, we can decide to attack the target within 5 seconds, or stay back hidden.

I honestly would not mind this at all.

darkace.8925:

Seetoo.9316:

There is just as much that can’t see past pve.

I don’t think there is. I think the PvE player recognize the desire PvP and WvW players have for stealth. The thing is they robbed Peter to pay Paul, and I think it’s pretty clear who’s Peter and who’s Paul in this situation.

As a PvE player, I agree with you – I CAN’T see it because I DON’T PLAY IT. ATM, from my perspective, it feels like my PvE play style has been somewhat nerfed by this change (particularly the decreased Vulnerability) so you could have Stealth (something that feels USELESS to me as a perma-might SB/LB constant-swap archer who relies on my pet for damage while I stand at range).

Seems like the earlier idea re: “allow Rangers to utilize stealth via Traits instead of as core skills” would be the best thing: that way, I can (hopefully) build a PvE character I like and YOU can build a WvW/PvP/Whatever character you like. You’ll not get much traction with long-time PvE MMO players though making a “I just want to feel more powerful in PVP!” argumement, seeing as how virtually EVERY MMO I’ve played in the last 8-10 years has been FUBARed on the PvE side by changes intended for the PvP crowd…

Just sharing some observations I’ve made while toying with this

In theory Rapid Fire doesn’t get to capitalize on it’s vulnerability, but in practice I find that I rarely ever have to fire off a ‘dry’ Rapid Fire. It’s true that without any investment in MM, you don’t have any condition duration and your Rapid Fire will fall off completely before the next one is ready. But if you have either 30 MM OR Quick Draw, the vulnerability stacks from your previous Rapid Fire will still be around when you’re doing the next, and you’ll ‘catch’ the stacks as they’re falling to push them back up to 10 (With 30 MM you’ll catch it at 4 to 6 stacks, with Quick Draw you’ll catch it at 2 to 4 stacks.) If you have 30 MM AND Quick Draw they overlap, so you’ll be doing Rapid Fire with all 10 stacks still on from the previous Rapid Fire.

It’s true that you can no longer get 6 seconds of 20 stacks at the start of combat.
But for what it’s worth with Remorseless you can get 6 seconds of 15 stacks every 12/9.5 seconds. You just have to reverse the order. Instead of Hunter’s -> Rapid, you do Rapid ->Hunter’s -> LRS/PBS.

Well I wanted to give the patch some benefit of the doubt, but now I have managed to face 3 different rangers in open field solo WvW combat. All had longbows of course.

The verdict? Its as pointless to fight Rangers as it is to fight Thieves now.

Rangers already had very high mobility and the tougher builds where almost impossible kill due to rapid health regen. Now instead of seeing them fly away and regen, I simply see them stealth, re-appear 30m off in the distance and then they come back with 100% HP.

Fighting 10+ minutes and end up nowhere, great fun! Every one of those fights I wished that I had fought a Thief instead – at least a good Thief can end the pain quickly.

So congratulations ANet, you’ve managed to make the stealth even more annoying than before. Everyone want less stealthing and limitations to the entire stealth mechanic… Ranger get 1 weapon skill that gives more stealth per minute than 4 Mesmer skills combined (lets just not mention Thief).

Dear Anet,

I love this unexpected and wonderful change, and I love this thread. Thank you for the hours of endertainment from then till now. Never stop being awesome.

<3, vindicated ranger.

RoyalPredator.9163:

I miss the Vulnerability on Hunter’s Shot.
Now we have even less damage, sicne we can’t start on 10 stack of Vulnerability on the foes.

My suggestion:

• Hunter’s Shot: Applies 10 stack of vulnerability and grantss the ranger stealth for 5 seconds.
  Why? It’s not OP, we can decide to attack the target within 5 seconds, or stay back hidden.

I would like to see more skirmishing and stealth abilities in the future. – for the Hunter game style.

I love this idea. It lets people who like the new functionality of Hunter’s Shot keep it, and it lets people who enjoyed the old functionality keep that as well. Please, Anet, do this, so that both PvE and PvP players can be happy, instead of one getting screwed for the sake of the other.

Miflett.3472:

darkace.8925:

Just in case the devs are ignoring the other threads relating to the longbow changes, I want to toss my hat in the “I hate these changes” pile. Why? Allow me to explain.

As a PvE player, stealth on a longbow does me absolutely no good. My pet tanks for me while I attack from long range. And I have an area of effect cripple. And I have a knock back. Stealth simply brings nothing to the table for a PvE longbow user. So Hunter’s Shot is now a dead spot on my already limited skill bar.

Expanding on that, Rapid Fire now applies 10 stacks of vulnerability. But it does so gradually, one at a time. So it will never benefit from the full 10 stacks, whereas it could with the old Hunter’s Shot. And because Rapid Fire is now a condition applier, it’s role has changed. It used to be something held in reserve for when targets made it inside the Long Range Shot’s damage drop-off (1000).

Where I used to open a fight with 20 stacks of vulnerability with Hunter’s Shot and Opening Strike from me and my pet and held Rapid Fire for close-ranged enemies I now open with 10 vulnerability and have a completely useless weapon skill.

If the idea was to get people to use the longbow with Remorseless, I don’t think that’s going to work. Between Eagle Eye, Piercing Arrows, Spotter, Steady Focus, and the signet traits, there’s just too many good traits competing for too few slots to justify resetting Opening Strike once every 12 seconds.

tl;dr – I hate the change. I implore to change the longbow back and add a stealth skill whenever you roll out your new skills and traits system latter this you if you feel you must give the longbow a stealth skill.

I’ll throw my hat in that pile as well. Stand strong because there are a lot of opinions out there that can’t see past pvp.

Guys, the longbow is an extremely powerful weapon in PvE, almost too strong. Due to the pet mechanic you can sit back and fire away to your heart’s content while your pet holds aggro. In PvP it’s a really poor weapon due to the impossibility of maintaining range. This change took a very small amount of damage off a strong PvE weapon, but made a very weak PvP weapon a lot more playable. And personally I’m finding the stealth useful in PvE as well. So when you talk about PvE vs PvP, you have to acknowledge that the benefits to the longbow in PvP far outweigh the marginal dps loss in PvE.

The greatsword change on the other hand is far more annoying, it’s a sugarcoated nerf that takes a lot more dps out of my PvE cycle than the LB fix.

Daemon.4295:

Miflett.3472:

darkace.8925:

Just in case the devs are ignoring the other threads relating to the longbow changes, I want to toss my hat in the “I hate these changes” pile. Why? Allow me to explain.

As a PvE player, stealth on a longbow does me absolutely no good. My pet tanks for me while I attack from long range. And I have an area of effect cripple. And I have a knock back. Stealth simply brings nothing to the table for a PvE longbow user. So Hunter’s Shot is now a dead spot on my already limited skill bar.

Expanding on that, Rapid Fire now applies 10 stacks of vulnerability. But it does so gradually, one at a time. So it will never benefit from the full 10 stacks, whereas it could with the old Hunter’s Shot. And because Rapid Fire is now a condition applier, it’s role has changed. It used to be something held in reserve for when targets made it inside the Long Range Shot’s damage drop-off (1000).

Where I used to open a fight with 20 stacks of vulnerability with Hunter’s Shot and Opening Strike from me and my pet and held Rapid Fire for close-ranged enemies I now open with 10 vulnerability and have a completely useless weapon skill.

If the idea was to get people to use the longbow with Remorseless, I don’t think that’s going to work. Between Eagle Eye, Piercing Arrows, Spotter, Steady Focus, and the signet traits, there’s just too many good traits competing for too few slots to justify resetting Opening Strike once every 12 seconds.

tl;dr – I hate the change. I implore to change the longbow back and add a stealth skill whenever you roll out your new skills and traits system latter this you if you feel you must give the longbow a stealth skill.

I’ll throw my hat in that pile as well. Stand strong because there are a lot of opinions out there that can’t see past pvp.

Guys, the longbow is an extremely powerful weapon in PvE, almost too strong. Due to the pet mechanic you can sit back and fire away to your heart’s content while your pet holds aggro. In PvP it’s a really poor weapon due to the impossibility of maintaining range. This change took a very small amount of damage off a strong PvE weapon, but made a very weak PvP weapon a lot more playable. And personally I’m finding the stealth useful in PvE as well. So when you talk about PvE vs PvP, you have to acknowledge that the benefits to the longbow in PvP far outweigh the marginal dps loss in PvE.

The greatsword change on the other hand is far more annoying, it’s a sugarcoated nerf that takes a lot more dps out of my PvE cycle than the LB fix.

They made a boring weapon to play in PvE even more boring in my opinion with the addition of stealth. I like fast paced gameplay and proper switching of pets to maintain aggro control while flanking. I guess I wouldn’t be so kitten if I could say shortbow was a great power weapon over melee.

If it’s here to stay, which I guess I can live with it unhappily, we’re going to need a MM trait consolidation. Taking power + bows in pve is too trait intensive and for a master of bows, most rangers are now using melee as a main source of dps.

Agreed with the greatsword.

For me, the stealth is the most interesting change here, but it seems to be catered more towards the pvp crowd.
I would’ve liked them to include a change to PVE Long Range Shots range modifiers such as 0-350, 350-700, and 700+ would allow full damage.

They should simplify Long Range Shot to two coefficients: one for 0-1000 and one for 1000+.

And Rapid Fire needs cast compression.

I’m pretty happy with these changes. While I see a lot of posts complaining that stealth isn’t useful in PvE, I have to say, it actually can come in handy sometimes. It provides a means of improved escape, that can allow pet to retake aggro, and master regain range. And the synergy with remorseless is also welcome.

And I don’t see how people can say that our damage output is reduced by this change, as the vuln was moved to Rapid Fire. This means vuln is harder to block or fully interrupt, and has slightly shorter cooldown. Our vuln isn’t gone, just moved and spread out a little a more, and had duration increased and cooldown decreased. Yes, our front-loaded damage is reduced a little, especially since our first salvo of Rapid Fire doesn’t get to take advantage of full vuln, but overall DPS over time isn’t significantly different.

I do feel that LB still could use improvement, and general build variety (in terms of useful, viable builds), and usefulness/desirability for groups and dungeons both still need some improvement. But considering most of us weren’t expecting any real changes to the class for another month yet, I am very pleased with the fact that ANet chose to make these changes now.