Guild Wars 2

So i think i am going to start out a ranger and i was wondering whats the best build to use with the longbow, and for the record, i spend most of the time roaming in pve and doing dungeons.

Thanks in advance.

Don’t bring a longbow to dungeons they’re subpar (you can hardly ever get at max range, and if you do, it’s usually a detriment to your team) and doing so makes other rangers look bad. There are situations where you can use the LB, but they’re very… well, situational.

In open world pve, it really doesn’t matter. Bring a tanky pet (bear, drake, etc) and it will hold aggro while you pew pew things down. This strategy won’t work in dungeons though! And in Orr, the AI is smart enough to ditch the pet and go after you instead.

In dungeons, bring a shortbow or an axe if you want to range, but Greatsword will be your best friend and sword is fantastic if you’ve mastered it and the encounter.

Read this for info on how to use rangers in PvE.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Guide-PvE-Meta-Ranger/first

If you insist on running longbow, as long as you only join groups that say “play how you want” or something similar, just go as glassy as possible. Without looking at the traits, probably 6 in MM and skirmishing. None of your boons will affect your allies and you’ll be a terrible teammate, so there is no point in bringing group support like frost spirit, spotter or healing spring. Don’t even bother trying to join normal LFGs as you will quickly get kicked.

Edit: My post reads more hostile than I’d like. If you want to run longbow in dungeons, I just wanted to emphasize people will hate you. But if it’s fun, find like-minded peeps and go with it.

I am a pretty die-hard longbow enthusiast, as such I did what I could to make it work in dungeons, but it’s strictly a back-up weapon there. Sword/Horn Frostspotter is a must.

I run 6/5/0/3/0 and use Remorseless and Quick Draw, other traits are all the usual dungeon running stuff. That way I can stack vuln super high on my own when heading into a bigger fight, of I can constantly contribute to high vuln stacks if I need to take a breather and back off with my longbow.

But yeah, it’s generally not a good idea.