Guild Wars 2

My Ranger is your typical glass cannon build. All zerker gear, Runes of the Ranger, Long Bow/Great Sword etc… My build is mainly for Long Bow with the increased range but instead of Read the Wind I have been using Armor Piercing.

What I like about this is that during WvW I can deal a boat load of damage to multiple targets (granted it would be nice if they all lined up in a row for me). I did try Read the Wind but I wasn’t impressed by it. Am I missing something? Can someone tell me if I should revisit my thinking on this.

Read the Wind makes your arrow faster, it makes you miss less, so overall a DPS increase.
In WvW the problem with piercing arrow is the retaliation, you may get yourself killed because of it.

In WvW I prefer RtW, I let the AoE do its work with barrage and sigil of fire.

omg. I never thought about the retaliation aspect. I’ll have to factor that in. You are right and I think I probably have killed myself on occasion without realizing it. Thanks!

Small scale, you want your arrows to hit, thus read the wind.

Large scale, your arrows are gonna hit someone anyways, thus piercing arrows tends to be better. Unless you’re one of those pin sniper teams, then I guess RTW is possible.

My personal choice is spotter to increase party wide damage, which will probably impact more targets overall though while not killing myself with retaliation. Many people can proc survival abilities with crits, so it also helps them indirectly with survival too. Fire sigil for the aoe. If fighting a garbage train like in eotm piercing arrows is better, but that’s more pve than anything else. =p

Hmm…not to hijack but I actually learned something by reading this, thanks

I don’t think I’ve ever used Piercing Arrows but could see how it would act in WvW. I don’t worry too much about retaliation but I can see how one could nuke themselves to oblivion using it if they are not good at situational awareness.

Throw Eagle Eye in the mix too.
It has its place. And, Darn It, we can’t have Spotter, Read the Wind, Piercing Arrows and Eagle Eye all loaded.

This might be bias of me, but it kind of feels like projectiles should not proc retaliation with the existence of reflection.

I wouldn’t get rid of read the wind for piercing arrows per say but I have dropped spotter for piercing arrows when I’m running pick squad and commander sniping in wvw. I find that it helps keep constant pressure dps on my target by going through any body blockers allowing me to setup and execute bursts and negate heals by interrupts more effectively.

I like having both ;-)

Piercing > RtW.

If you got high enough crit rate, run Omnomberry pie. That pretty much will let you ignore retal.

I vastly prefer Read the Wind. If I am running in a zerg or targeting zerg commanders I might switch to Piercing but thats still a maybe. Most of my fights are in small skirmish and roaming groups so theres no need for piercing, plus sigil of fire takes care of any aoe I need. I’d rather have my arrows hit every time then have people literally side step out of the way because you can walk faster than the arrows.

Oofta.8036:

My Ranger is your typical glass cannon build. All zerker gear, Runes of the Ranger, Long Bow/Great Sword etc… My build is mainly for Long Bow with the increased range but instead of Read the Wind I have been using Armor Piercing.

What I like about this is that during WvW I can deal a boat load of damage to multiple targets (granted it would be nice if they all lined up in a row for me). I did try Read the Wind but I wasn’t impressed by it. Am I missing something? Can someone tell me if I should revisit my thinking on this.

I agree with most it is said here.
My mix is Eagle Eye + Piercing. With LB#2 and air/fire sigil you can have som fun againts Zergs.
Because you are far from the battle itself you wont be noticied until you download your Lb#2 most of the times. If you shoot it at a zerg is glorius to see so many numbers.

High cricts is mandatory over 70%.

To avoid being killed by retaliation Troll unguent + omnoberry pie should sufice. Also try to have at least 17K life to avoid being too glassy. We don’t have many heals and clearing conditions.

Bran.7425:

This might be bias of me, but it kind of feels like projectiles should not proc retaliation with the existence of reflection.

Hahah- Wait… That…

That actually makes sense…

For Melee there is Retaliation
For Ranged there is Reflection and Retaliation

Reflection fully protects against projectiles and reflects them with full effect, which means that any projectile that would CC or deal damage is turned against the source….. Whieeeech also means that anyone can potentially screw up their own zerg by using projectiles that CC.

I really like Piercing arrows in wvw. The multiple tagging is nifty, but the big feature as far as i’m concerned is that you will hit your target, even if random dudes run in front of you. Ideally, for Commander sniping, you want both piercing and read the wind, to make the most of each arrow.

I use Read the Wind and Piercing Arrows, and pass on Eagle Eye in both WvW and sPvP. Too much value, not only hitting multiple targets, but also not getting blocked by pets, clones, minions, turrets, etc.

I swapped back to Armor Piercing this weekend. While I loved taking down people in a 1v1 fight, I found that I am mostly going up against larger groups (not quite zerg size). While my team is going toe to toe, my arrows are ripping through the crowd damaging multiple targets.

What I hadn’t considered is using both, Armor Piercing and Read the Wind, dropping Eagle Eye. I may have to give that a go tonight.

I also changed my build a touch. I took 6 points in survival for the Bark Skin. That has made a world of difference. You can’t dps if you’re dead.

I still prefer RtW, but I normally focus their periph or backline depending which causes my angles to get all weird and not very effective against the front-liners. That consistency is key and while I’ve tried dropping Eagle Eye before, I simply found myself getting awkwardly close too often. Being able to not get side-stepped is huge, and barrage itself is often enough to deal substantial damage to the front-line (I’ve been referred to as the walking AC :P), as my ticks are usually in the 2-3k range with that as well.

It’s probably very dependent on the groups you run with, though, and what exactly your role is to do. I imagine that those who do in fact use Piercing get a lot more bags from all of the tagging, though :P