Guild Wars 2

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Adian.8756:

That we are. Agreeing with the change apparently makes me the worst person on earth. It’s funny how defensive people can get about something this minor.

Now, now, don’t be silly. Unless you also commit genocide, or are a serial killer in your spare time, I don’t think you really come close to worst person on earth.

It just means you’re a really bad ranger and don’t understand the class. Hardly something you should be executed or even thrown in jail for. If you keep trying hard enough you’ll learn, eventually.

Facetiousness aside, the shortbow nerf was devastating and yes, if you can’t see why you are a bad ranger. It was our premier ranged weapon for a reason. It was a 1200 ranged weapon that didn’t hit like wet noodles and had half-decent defense. Yes, everyone and their mother used it, but the problem was never that shortbow was “broken op!”, but instead it was our only ranged weapon without serious issues.

The current options are all varying degrees of bad. Axes are absolute junk as power weapons and lack defensive options even as condition weapons, and are just 900 range as well. Longbow is a power weapon that has horrid defense and only hits for anything noticeable at near max range (with no real tools to keep you there), and is trashtastic as a condition weapon. And… Nothing. That’s it. That’s all we have.

So basically our only “good” option got nerfed without any reason or compensation. Especially in WvW that 1200 range is so very important.

If Shortbow is to remain 900 range, which I can see as an option, then it needs its damage buffed up. Significantly. Not 14% on 3 utility skills that do no kittening damage anyways. And Longbow needs to be buffed to be a decent 1200 (or get baseline 1500) range weapon, so we actually have decent long range options.

If you honestly think that the Shortbow was the only decent weaponset of the Ranger, I’m definitely not the one who’s bad. Having thrown about 1000 hours into PvP alone, I should have a decent idea about all the professions, as well as the strength and weaknesses of them.
And I know you don’t care, but I thought I’d mention the following anyways; I’m currently rank ~600 on the leaderboards, with a 62% winrate. Soloqueuing. If that’s bad, then teach me oh great one.

I just wanted to relay my experience in WvW from last night.

I quickly discarded the SB in favor of the axe. At the range, I just feel it is an outright superior option with better traits to back it up.

However, after using the slightly improved LB, and an axe/axe build, I found myself really enjoying it.

I loved the “feel” of the SB, so its disappointing that they did not include a range trait to compensate for the loss.

However, with the improvements on LB and axe/axe, I actually feel like it is a stronger build overall. And heck, with offhand training, you can throw an axe further than you can shoot an arrow! The new pull on path of scars is absolutely fantastic and I found myself enjoying the fight more than I had for quite a while. I also used “support” pets so that the nerf to their damage wasnt even relevant.

So, for my fellow rangers, I can only suggest trying out some new builds. The SB just isnt what it was, and it feels outclassed by the axe, but when I just accepted it and adapted, I found a playstyle that might fit me even better than with the SB.

YMMV

As a condition/bunker build I was using axe/torch and shortbow. It was a nice combo and probably not as powerful as axe/dagger and sword/torch. It still worked pretty well, and let me hold a bow for fluff reasons. The range nerf will probably make me end up getting a sword and dagger to replace the shortbow since its now just a subpar condition weapon, rather than a trade off.

While not a huge deal, it still stinks for people who like using a bow for image reasons. Or I’ll just suck it up and keep using the short bow.