Guild Wars 2

Honestly, I’d rather roll warrior if I wanted to use Longbow for anything. I came into this game like I come into most, I want that wierd, not as popular race with the same for the class and right when i saw the classes thief & Ranger pulled me in and although I do like Thief. Ranger was very underwhelming compared to other games in terms of usefulness, DPS compared to the typical warrior-type class and just fun to play was lacking. I get so bored when using LB on ranger because there’s no benefit to killing a mob or player(WvW/PvP) and actually using your 3,4 or 5 because you get most DPS from spamming 1 and hitting 2 when you can.

Do you like Longbow on rangers?

Would you like to see more people use Longbow?

And, would you like to see changes to longbow skills?

Longbow is mostly fine, and will be even more fine after the Dec 10 patch. 3, 4, and 5 are utility-oriented (not every skill can be for DPS, lol) and can be very useful (especially 5, though it could use modest buff).

Warriors’ Longbow can be very good but is highly specialized and therefore quite ineffective as a primary weapon.

Yes. Longbow is great in plenty of situations.

Yes, but i fail. to see the point where more or less people using it would affect my enjoyment with the weapon.

Yes. I believe they are buffing the 1st and 2nd distance treshold, i guess that will penalize less ppl shooting below the 900 range mark. On the other hand, can’t seem to understand why can’t i do barrage while moving.

I actually like the longbow and the skills it has but I feel it could use a slight damage boost on all skills and slight cd reduction on all skills ontop of the midranger/closerange damage buffs it’s getting for it to be a good weapon, as it is it’s really not very good for anything but sniping if you can hide behind walls or blobs, it should be said it’s not a terrible defensive weapon though with the stealth in certain cases however it would take alot to actually kill someone using longbow alone in open combat atleast for me.

The 3stages of damage on longbow is kittened, it should work the other way do more damage the closer you are it might be easy to close gaps in this game but it’s still safer to be at 1500/1200 range then 200, I would like a charged skill like the one archers in Tera had that was a 2second charge or similar that did more damage the longer you charged and also more damage the closer to target you were something that gave you a nice damage bonus for taking the risk.

I find Longbow pretty boring.
I kind of think the game as a whole could honestly stand to shift more of the gameplay away from spamming #1 skills. With Ranger in general probably being the worst off of all the classes.

Very hard to make competitive PvP use of it outside running with zerg blob. Reducing #1 range penalty will not really change anything, Rangers are just not build currently to perform as Archers. While LB can be good support weapon (decent range, knockback, stealth for stomps) for other weapon set, I clearly can t see the competitive purpose and greater idea behind that weapon.

Longbow will never be a viable weapon so long as the burst and AE capabilities for this class are so awful. This doesn’t mean you have to tie more burst and AE directly to the weapon, only it’s a power weapon with no means of actually finishing a target.

The longbow can have 1500+ range. That’s something that makes the Ranger unique. It’s especially fun in WvW. In sPvP and PvE it doesn’t really have a place.

However, some things aren’t that good:
1) The traits are kind of wrong for the Longbow. It has 4 good traits to choose from in Marksmanship, but it can only choose 2:
Piercing Arrows (Marksmanship Master)
Eagle Eye (Marksmanship Master)
Spotter (Marksmanship Master)
Remorseless (Marksmanship Grandmaster) (only Longbow has stealth)

Piercing Arrows and Eagle Eye are basically required for where Longbow shines in WvW, so there is no room for Spotter nor Remorseless.

On top of this, the cooldown reduction trait is in another trait line:
Quick Draw (Skirmishing Master)
Skirmishing also has nothing for Longbow to put in the Grandmaster slot.

2) The Longbow requires 50 trait points to invest, but even then it can only choose 3 out of 5 good traits. With 50 trait points invested, you only have 20 points left to spend on the rest of your build (other weapon set, pets, utility, etc).

3) The damage on the Longbow is rather low. You need to go full berserker build to be able to make it do any noticable damage. This is apparently because the Ranger has a pet, but pets don’t work where the Longbow shines in WvW. This makes you very likely to die if someone targets you.

Although the Longbow has these issues, I still like the gameplay in WvW. Any improvement would be very welcome, especially requiring less trait points, but it works for me. It makes the Ranger unique. 1500+ range on all skills is one of the things that has kept me playing Ranger.

I’d like to see a charge shot added to #4 as stated above in combo with the knock back. Makes more sense.

I couldn’t give two shilacks about WvW or PvP. Even more so about PvP since they’ve ruined so many good things about the game because of balancing around PvP.

50% boost of damage to barrage and make it a channel while moving……

Oh, and make the pet optional so I can get preparations

Remove #4 and it’s a fine weapon.

DaShi.1368:

Remove #4 and it’s a fine weapon.

1. is like the best skill on it. Knockback on a mere 15 second cool down or even 12 if traited. How can you not like that?

Soilder.3607:

DaShi.1368:

Remove #4 and it’s a fine weapon.

1. is like the best skill on it. Knockback on a mere 15 second cool down or even 12 if traited. How can you not like that?

Pretty much.

The failure of the weapon truly is barrage. It’s a weak AE, it provides a very weak form of CC, it roots the ranger briefly to pull off, and because it does waves of damage it often gets the ranger killed due to things like retaliation. The only reason barrage is considered good at all is because of how pitiful the AE options for this class are to begin with.

I would prefer “piercing arrow’s” be armor piercing so therefore I hit you as if u had no armor on at all not just pass through shots. I would also love to see a better 5 skill Barrage should be a utility not a ability. Where as Quick Draw should effect Weapon Swap as well, but they may be a lil’ OP but we need all the help we can get.

One of the biggest issues is the lack of a slow outside of barrage on the longbow. If the longbow had a decent slow (maybe on 3?) the bow would be great.

That being said, the current system of tiered damage is pretty silly, but eh. Its getting buffed

Einlanzer.1627:

Longbow is mostly fine, and will be even more fine after the Dec 10 patch. 3, 4, and 5 are utility-oriented (not every skill can be for DPS, lol) and can be very useful (especially 5, though it could use modest buff).

Warriors’ Longbow can be very good but is highly specialized and therefore quite ineffective as a primary weapon.

Well, it’s mostly fine in your odd opinion. Longbow requires you to face your target to cast 4/5 skills & the one skill that doesn’t, roots you. Yes i realize not all skills should be “Moar deeps” but look at warrior’s greatsword. It has cc, alot of mobility and insane damage all in one weapon. We have 1 knockback and a slow so it lacks even in the utility department. If you have a warrior coming at you with stability what is a ranger going to do? try to stealth and hope to god he doesn’t block the attack or it reflects which actually stealths the kitten warrior!?! No you’re going to type /sleep, put away your pet and hope to god he thinks you’re already dead.

Inverted.7439:

Longbow requires you to face your target to cast 4/5 skills & the one skill that doesn’t, roots you.

This more than anything is what is wrong with the longbow. No matter how ‘low’ the longbow damage or how ‘broken’ the skills, not doing any damage and going on (reduced some say) cooldown is the most broken and low of all. Instead of wasting the skill when facing away, the skill should be prevented from firing at all.