Guild Wars 2

I mostly main reaper, but have been spending some time on my base ranger and druid. I was determined to get base ranger to work against the elite specs, and I really wanted to use shortbow—its a fun weapon, but going up against tempests and scrappers (and all the elite specs) was a lesson in getting stompered. I’m not the most experienced ranger (~400 ranked games only out of 3k games total), and fewer of those games were using shortbow (to the appreciation of my solo que team), but I did have some impressions that I wanted to share, and I can only hope this topic finds its way into a dev’s lap in the same way that the necro forums helped along scepter and axe buffs, and the guardian forums helped along shield buffs.

Shortbow needs some love. Right? I’m going to drop a few ideas down and would love to hear everyone’s ideas on how to (if necessary) bring the shortbow into the realm of viability. My ideas might be poopy so go easy on me.

(1): The autoattack feels fine, but it is dependent upon positioning to do any damage. It has a damage coefficient of 0.4 (0.74/s) compared with the ranger longbow’s 0.7-0.9/s and the guardian longbow’s 0.9/s. I’m just listing the facts, as I’m not sure this needs to be changed.

(2) This is trying to be a burst skill, but it does way less damage than longbow 2 and requires you to be melee range for all 5 arrows to hit. A little underwhelming; it could be more impactful, as there isn’t much positive feedback when you manage to land it (e.g., the satisfaction you get from watching all longbow 2 arrows connect isn’t there). I would increase (double?) the damage coefficient, and maybe add some other effect like a boon or another condition perhaps?

(3) This skill seems OK, but it fills a similar role to longbow 3, but with a 1/2 s evade rather than a 3s stealth. The swiftness isn’t really that impactful. I think the skill would feel better if you replace the 3 s of swiftness with 3 s of superspeed.

(4) This is a meh skill with zero tactile feedback. It doesn’t feel good to use, and is a subpar soft-cc ability. Not sure how to change, but a complete redesign shouldn’t be out of the question.

(5) This skill is good, but what the heck is with the 25 s CD, when pointblank shot is on a 15 s CD, and the guardian knockback trait is on a 10 s CD?

After playing around with it some more, I have a better grasp on what should be changed.

(1) At first I wasn’t certain this should be changed, but after playing around with it, even traited for bleeds with a viper amulet the DPS was terrible while hitting from the side. The positioning constraint on applying bleeds should be removed—this skill should always apply bleeds.

(2) What I said above still holds—this skill has no oomf. Just throwing out idea’s here; you can probably think of something better:
Option 1: Make this 1 projectile (instead of a cone of 3) that applies 3 stacks of poison, and can bounce up to 2 times to foes or yourself (depending on distance, like guardian’s focus 4), and remove piercing. If the projectile bounces back to you, gain a boon of some sort for a few seconds (resistance, vigor, or light aura, something like that).

Option 2: Make each arrow in the cone of 3 arrows apply 2 stacks of poison (rather than 1) and give them each 1 bounce rather than piercing. If all 3 arrows hit, your pet’s next attack applies a condition (a few stacks of torment or burning, something along those lines). There should be a reward for correct positioning with this skill; I’m thinking along the lines of how necro’s scepter 3 was recently buffed.

(3) Yeah, 3 seconds of swiftness needs to be changed to 3 seconds of superspeed.

(4) Change the cripple on this skill to an immobilize and bam it’s fixed.

(5) Either reduce the CD from 25 to 20 seconds, or give this thing 1 bounce.

Moderator, please link this thread to a dev. Shortbow desperately needs your help. No one uses it. No one.

Well, apparently some underused weapons are getting a buff.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/profession-balance-goals-for-the-winter-2016-update/

Any money on shortbow? Here’s to hoping…