Guild Wars 2

Hello.
I tested around a little bit and noticed that the 2nd longbow skill ‘Rapid Fire’ actually does less dmg than normal long range shots do.
An example: In LA on the training dummys I do 1200 damage with normal attacks at range 1000+. Since I shoot every 0.75sec, I do 6.66 attacks in 5sec, means about 8000 damage in 5sec. The rapid fire skill however is channeled 5sec and only does about 5500 damage. Even in Range 500-1000 I would slightly be better off auto attacking (900*6.66?6000dmg). This means I actually would be better off just auto attacking, would I?
My conclusion would be that rapid fire just has a use if I am in range 0-500, but that doesn’t make much sense, because if I’m in range 0-500, I use ‘Point Blank Shot’ to get my range back to 500-1000.
Outgoing from this data I would say that ‘Rapid Fire’ is useless. If I have overlooked something, please let me know.

I can’t say I’m surprised, and I find this easy to believe.

Not to be negative but I wonder how much thought was given to each individual skill in relation to one another, in this instance at least it doesn’t seem much consideration was taken..

My use of it is to get the most out of my fire trap. But yes, I’ve noticed that the DPS on it is…… questionable. I’m going to die of feigning shock.

I doubt the tooltip is correct with its 0.75 attack speed.
According to some tests the attack speed of the Longbow is actually 1.25 seconds.
http://mmo-mechanics.com/forums/topic/1002-shortbow-vs-longbow/

In your case that would mean you do ~4800 damage with your auto attacks during 5 seconds.

I use it as a bleed dispenser: Sharpening Stone —> Rapid Fire. A buddy uses firewall alot specifically as a means of granting Burning to projectile fire. Rapid Fire is an ok tool for taking advantage of that.

Longbow has some other problems, but I like Rapid Fire. Less for the damage it does directly, but more because it helps to quickly put conditions on opponents at max range (which is not uncommon in wvw keep defenses).

Auto attack fires every 3/4 of a second or .75 seconds. Rapid fire channels for 5 seconds. In a 5 second span of time Auto attack will fire off 6 1/2 times. In a 5 second span of time Rapid fire hits 10 times. With that information mind:

Rapid Fire dmg @ lvl 80 base stats: 1,320 or 132/hit
Auto Attack dmg @ lvl 80 base stats 0-500 range: 176
Auto Attack dmg @ lvl 80 base stats 500-1000 range: 229
Auto Attack dmg @ lvl 80 base stats 100+ range: 317

Auto Attack DPS @ max range for 5s: 317* 6.5 = 2,060
Auto Attack DPS @ mid range for 5s: 229*6.5 = 1,488
Auto Attack DPS @ close range for 5s: 176*6.5 = 1,144

These numbers are going off of base stats @ level 80 (completely naked) using a PvP Longbow.

Let’s add in a 50% crit rate (and base crit dmg) Rapid Fire will eek in 1,650 DPS while Auto Attack will bring in 1,430, 1,860, 2,575 from mid to long range respectively. It’s fair to note that Rapid fire will have a greater chance to proc though given nearly 2x the number of attacks.

Long story short:

Use Rapid Fire when close range only or if you’re trying for a clutch proc.

After reading DesertRose’s post I decided to record a quick video.

The attack speed of the LB is indeed way the **** off. I posted about it in this thread:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Longbow-Auto-Attack-speed-is-WAAAY-off

@rickshaw

i think you should look at your math again
16attacks/20seconds = .8 attacks per second
17attacks/20seconds = .85 attacks per second

by your video the skill is actually stronger than it is on the tooltip

His video showed that the #1 skill’s cast time was wrong. The #1 skill is WORSE than the tooltip, not better. The tooltip says .75 and shows the clock which means cast time. This means that each attack should take less than one second, which is clearly not true.

You have .8 attacks/1 second, these units are different than the units a cast time has. It should be in the units of seconds/attack. (You do 1 attack after the cast time for the skill)

20 seconds/16 attacks = 1.25 seconds per attack, not the .75 seconds per attack that the cast time shows. Clearly each attack taking longer than the listed cast time is worse, not better.

With normal attacks taking 1.25 seconds/attack, you would do 4 attacks in 5 seconds. At 1200 dmg per attack at 1000+ range you would do 4800 damage in 5 seconds. The OP said that Rapid fire does 5500. Rapid fire wins.

Hasn’t the activation time always been 1.25 seconds on longbow? I think maybe the cast time on the tooltip is wrong.

nldixon.8514:

Hasn’t the activation time always been 1.25 seconds on longbow? I think maybe the cast time on the tooltip is wrong.

That’s what I’m thinking too. Bad tooltip.

Thighum.7295:

nldixon.8514:

Hasn’t the activation time always been 1.25 seconds on longbow? I think maybe the cast time on the tooltip is wrong.

That’s what I’m thinking too. Bad tooltip.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s always been 1.25 seconds. Which means that you’d do around 4800 damage over five seconds (four attacks in five seconds) versus the 5500 damage of Rapid Fire.