Hello, been playing ranger in WvW some time now and wondering does shortbow best consider condition or power builds? Does a good roaming build around any of those exist with shortbow?
Also, if you want to put out as much bleed as possible from the shortbow with autoattack, wouldn’t it suit ranger to have a trait that removes the slow “penalty” while straifing?
Also, if you want to put out as much bleed as possible from the shortbow with autoattack, wouldn’t it suit ranger to have a trait that removes the slow “penalty” while straifing?
This needs to be seriously considered. In a 1v1 situation you need to invest SO heavily in traits/skills/pets to keep your enemy in position in order for this basic skill to provide any use.
As for your question, there are both condi/bunker builds and also crit builds available in WvW at least.
IMHO (speaking of WvW-roaming) shortbow is not the best weapon for a condition build. I actually use axe/dagger and sword/torch.
If you stand close to your opponent (in order to make sure that axe-2 hits with all projectiles), you set up such a high condition pressure with bleeds (it’s no problem to get >15 stacks immediately), burning and poison that you opponent needs to cleanse fast or he’ll be dead in seconds. It’s re-applied quite fast.
With shortbow, you’ll have to have a lot of crit-chance to trigger additional bleeds via traits/sigills to get some decent pressure on your opponent. With axe/dagger you can take vitality instead of precision (dire-gear IIRC).
IMHO (speaking of WvW-roaming) shortbow is not the best weapon for a condition build. I actually use axe/dagger and sword/torch.
If you stand close to your opponent (in order to make sure that axe-2 hits with all projectiles), you set up such a high condition pressure with bleeds (it’s no problem to get >15 stacks immediately), burning and poison that you opponent needs to cleanse fast or he’ll be dead in seconds. It’s re-applied quite fast.
With shortbow, you’ll have to have a lot of crit-chance to trigger additional bleeds via traits/sigills to get some decent pressure on your opponent. With axe/dagger you can take vitality instead of precision (dire-gear IIRC).
I have actually tried axe/dagger & sword/torch with Faux’s RRR Build. It was a alot of fun to play that build, because I love the 1k healing/s from Troll Unguent but in the end I die because I panic way too much for some reason.
But let’s say I am going for axe/dagger & sword/torch, what build would be a better choice, Faux’s RRR Build or dire-gear IIRC, and how effective are they in ZvZ, I understand it’s effective in roaming.
IMHO (speaking of WvW-roaming) shortbow is not the best weapon for a condition build.
It’s not the best weapon for a condition build, because you will need to flank to put out your condition on foe, if you didn’t have that on the shortbow, it would probably be one of our best condition weapon.
I use a celest bleed build designed around sb and it works quite well. A high fire matched with earth/ agony sigils, krait runes, sharpening stone you can amass bleeds very quickly. I also run s/d with spider/ wolf. I have great poison uptime and nice cc with pets and wep cripples.
Get even more cc/ condi removal in wvw because you can drop soth for muddy terrain with moa feathers.
Enemies with high condi-removal fall short as stacking bleeds (flanking is fairly easy as you can daze, cripple, immob) is what the build does naturally and reapplying poison isn’t to difficult to keep them from recovering.
to me short bow is a hybrid utility weapon, that matches whit celestial perfectly. Like alot of our weapons it not just a power weapon or a condi weapon.
One thing to note about the short bow is the high rate of attacks, leading to lots of chances to proc stuff. here is an example of abusing that fact
the thing about a build like this is the it doesn’t not matter how many condi cleanses they have you can still maintain a high bleed stack, and there short bow Auto-Attack (power side of it) does a bit more then tickel
I use a celest bleed build designed around sb and it works quite well. A high fire matched with earth/ agony sigils, krait runes, sharpening stone you can amass bleeds very quickly. I also run s/d with spider/ wolf. I have great poison uptime and nice cc with pets and wep cripples.
Get even more cc/ condi removal in wvw because you can drop soth for muddy terrain with moa feathers.
Enemies with high condi-removal fall short as stacking bleeds (flanking is fairly easy as you can daze, cripple, immob) is what the build does naturally and reapplying poison isn’t to difficult to keep them from recovering.
to me short bow is a hybrid utility weapon, that matches whit celestial perfectly. Like alot of our weapons it not just a power weapon or a condi weapon.
One thing to note about the short bow is the high rate of attacks, leading to lots of chances to proc stuff. here is an example of abusing that fact
the thing about a build like this is the it doesn’t not matter how many condi cleanses they have you can still maintain a high bleed stack, and there short bow Auto-Attack (power side of it) does a bit more then tickel
Both these builds seems interesting, but I think I will go with the Rabid one, already have full set of it in the bank.
I had almost the same build, it was 4/4/6/0/0, I wanted piercing arrows, and cooldown reduction on bows, then last points on more condition.
Piercing arrows mainly because I wanted to tag more enemies in ZvZ fights, but I love both ZvZ & Roaming.
I will look into that build, thanks.
Update Quick question, Superior sigil of earth & Superior sigil of torment, do they stack? Aren’t those in the same sigil tier?
Piercing arrows mainly because I wanted to tag more enemies in ZvZ fights, but I love both ZvZ & Roaming.
Update Quick question, Superior sigil of earth & Superior sigil of torment, do they stack? Aren’t those in the same sigil tier?
you should not be using the same build for roaming and zvz they are very different beasts.
sigil’s of the same tier are fine it sigil’s the same ‘function’ that don’t work together. Superior sigil of earth will share a cool down with a major sigil of earth but not with a superior(or Major/minor) of torment.
But let’s say I am going for axe/dagger & sword/torch, what build would be a better choice, Faux’s RRR Build or dire-gear IIRC, and how effective are they in ZvZ, I understand it’s effective in roaming.
When I use that setup (I’m multiclass, most of them I run either power or condi. It just depends on my mood) I run full dire and 2/0/6/6/0. It works good when roaming solo or small groups. This “panic” thing is something that can happen with every class and setup. If you enter the “smashing buttons not on CD”-mode, you can be sure it’s over. I guess we all observed this phenomena on ourselves.
As you need to enter the face-to-face area of your opponents to be more effective, it’s good to have evades (lighting reflexes and the sword). I also use rampage-as-one to get stability when needed.
There are some counter-builds that you’ll get trouble with. E.g. Eles with diamond-skin (I don’t remember the exact English naming), certain Mesmer-builds and Engis (here it’s better to keep some distance. E.g. a shortbow would fit better).
If you’re interested in gameplay and you’re on Twitch: Take a look at Gladomer. He’s often roaming as a ranger with that build.
To came back to the topic: I use shortbow in my power-builds. It’s a really good way to kite opponents.
you should not be using the same build for roaming and zvz they are very different beasts.
sigil’s of the same tier are fine it sigil’s the same ‘function’ that don’t work together. Superior sigil of earth will share a cool down with a major sigil of earth but not with a superior(or Major/minor) of torment.
Then I need to keep that in mind before I ZvZ or roaming around.
Oh alright, I thought when there were talking about “sigil of the same tier” it was those sigil with the same function, in this case “X% on critical hit”.
Anyway I tried your build yesterday for an hour, I like it, I could actually kill somebody and stay alive for once, even survived a typical “focus-ranger” attack, so I will keep playing with rabid shortbow & sword/dagger, thanks.
When I use that setup (I’m multiclass, most of them I run either power or condi. It just depends on my mood) I run full dire and 2/0/6/6/0. It works good when roaming solo or small groups. This “panic” thing is something that can happen with every class and setup. If you enter the “smashing buttons not on CD”-mode, you can be sure it’s over. I guess we all observed this phenomena on ourselves.
As you need to enter the face-to-face area of your opponents to be more effective, it’s good to have evades (lighting reflexes and the sword). I also use rampage-as-one to get stability when needed.
There are some counter-builds that you’ll get trouble with. E.g. Eles with diamond-skin (I don’t remember the exact English naming), certain Mesmer-builds and Engis (here it’s better to keep some distance. E.g. a shortbow would fit better).
If you’re interested in gameplay and you’re on Twitch: Take a look at Gladomer. He’s often roaming as a ranger with that build.
To came back to the topic: I use shortbow in my power-builds. It’s a really good way to kite opponents.
Thanks for the information, I will check Gladomer out, but at the moment I will stick with what Eggyokeo suggested.
While sotf is nice, in the current meta you will be dropped by condi necros/ engi’s/ pu mesmers/ condi thieves/ condi rangers w/o empathetic bond. I don’t know many great pvp specs w/o it
I use shortbow in my condi-bunker build. Shortbow and Sword/Dagger. In a sticky situation? Sword-2 swap Shortbow 3-4 (or 5 if they rush towards you). Then 2 when they’re close and swap back to Sw/D for more evades, poison and AAing.
That’s what I currently do but I’m still a ranger-noobie so any suggestions would be much appreciated.
It depends on the build tbh. Always use SB and S/D when I run a trap build (Love me some traps). Always use Axe/Dagger and sword/torch for more bunker. Yeah, I don’t do Axe/Torch. I like to spread my evades out a bit. Worth more to me then getting a few projectile burning combos.
Personal pref, all work. I feel rabid is a must with SB (Sigil of earth + bleed on crit trait = lolwat with 40%+ crit).
I actually enjoy playing what Eggyokeo suggested. For once, people are running away from me or die, quite irritating that warrior seems to be the one that put his legs behinds his back and run away, also that people focus ranger way too much.
