Guild Wars 2

nerva.7940:

Bambula.3649:

its no burst..cause you cant nuke an enemy down with one combo like other class and you still can doge them, same for sb but the firerate on sb is higher

u can burst most profs/specs down from 100 to 0 with LB #2, Sic Em, QZ, pet, and 10-20 vuln stacks.

In short, everything you’ll have available in about the first 10 seconds of any fight.

DancinPuppeh.8421:

Also which is better for PvP, I hear a lot of people say Shortbow is best at PvP but most Rangers I see are using Longbow in PvP

longbow is bad. Those pvp people with lb are bad.

nerva.7940:

Bambula.3649:

its no burst..cause you cant nuke an enemy down with one combo like other class and you still can doge them, same for sb but the firerate on sb is higher

u can burst most profs/specs down from 100 to 0 with LB #2, Sic Em, QZ, pet, and 10-20 vuln stacks.

anybody with a brain dodges and you are dead.

Wow, a lot of people here started hating on Lily pretty quickly, but what (s)he said is correct. Whether you run a direct damage or condition build, the shortbow will do more damage. The short bow will also do better with certain sigils, such as those that produce an effect on crit since it has a faster attack speed (i.e. Sigil of Strength).

Source: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/57386-longbow-vs-shortbow-dps-speed-etc/#entry2094997

Now, the Longbow is pretty competitive damage at max range, but the dps ramps down quickly as you get closer and maintaining the max range is a lot trickier than flanking an enemy, especially considering that most high damage bow builds will have 25 in Skirmishing for the 10% additional damage when flanking. This means that if you really want to get max damage on a long bow, you need to be at max range AND flanking.

So, let’s move the conversation away from dps. Lily’s comments on this were spot on and that’s not really what the OP is asking about anyways.

As for utility, I’ve found that outside of zerg fights in WvW, the short bow tends to be the most advantageous. The longbow does have some very good abilities that fit well in some situations (which is why I run sb/lb in PvE dungeons), but if you’re really making the choice between one or the other, the sb will give you the upper hand in most situations.

Here’s my comparison of sb to lb utility:
Longbow
Rapid Fire – Contrary to popular opinion, this doesn’t really do much burst. The dps of this ability is on par with your auto attack at long range, so this ability is only really useful if you’re not at max range and have your lb out. If you’re at max range, don’t bother using this in your rotation.
Hunter’s Shot – Helps to stack vuln, but other classes can do this better than us anyway. Using this is a personal dps loss, but may increase group dps if your group doesn’t have enough vuln stacked.
Point Blank Shot – Great ability and gamebreaking in some situations. Pairs very well with Piercing Arrows and is very good for helping out group mates, but doesn’t do much if your target isn’t snared.
Barrage – Great ability that brings a much needed snare and does good dps since it continues after the channel effect, but since this roots you while you cast, the situations where you can effectively use this can be limited, particularly in high movement fights.

Short Bow
Poison Volley – Pretty weak ability unless you get in melee range to get the maximum stacking duration. Shines mostly in PvP, but is great for mob tagging since it pierces in a cone with a short cooldown.
Quick Shot – Doesn’t give the group utility that Point Blank Shot does, but is much, much better for personal survival. This is even more true when facing mobs that can’t be moved or opponents with stability in PvP.
Crippling Shot – On demand snare can often be weakin PvE, but is clutch when it comes to kiting.
Concussion Shot – It’s a small CC, but can be great for helping out group mates, especially when used with Piercing Arrows.

Tl;dr – Even though longbows look much, much cooler, the short bow is the winner in dps for almost all practical situations and the utility is arguably better for most situations as well. WvW and simple PvE boss fights are the only places where the longbow is the clear winner.

Well a lot of people making blanket statements about how easy it is to dodge certain LB attacks and how LB #1 doesn’t hit hard.
In mixed gear WvW, my #1 is critting for 2.5k. Against glass cannons I’m getting 3.5k. At max range, thats a ton of damage. Your also looking at 6k damage from rapid fire.

Any player with a brain can dodge? How about when they get wolf feared? Or dog knocked down? Or after you use #4? Hound root? Then use one of your 3 quicknesses and rapid fire. 3/4ths of the rapid fire will hit in any of the situations above.
If YOU have a brain, you can time your quickness rapid fires until after they have used their dodges trying to avoid the #1 shots.

Play with the whole class guys.

Also, @ Dakheus, hunters shot is great in WvWvW.

Disclaimer: I play WvWvW. Thats all I do, so this is based on that.

racta.4250:

Well a lot of people making blanket statements about how easy it is to dodge certain LB attacks and how LB #1 doesn’t hit hard.
In mixed gear WvW, my #1 is critting for 2.5k. Against glass cannons I’m getting 3.5k. At max range, thats a ton of damage. Your also looking at 6k damage from rapid fire.

Any player with a brain can dodge? How about when they get wolf feared? Or dog knocked down? Or after you use #4? Hound root? Then use one of your 3 quicknesses and rapid fire. 3/4ths of the rapid fire will hit in any of the situations above.
If YOU have a brain, you can time your quickness rapid fires until after they have used their dodges trying to avoid the #1 shots.

Play with the whole class guys.

Also, @ Dakheus, hunters shot is great in WvWvW.

Disclaimer: I play WvWvW. Thats all I do, so this is based on that.

Whoa you hit glass cannons for 3.5k at max range? Well kitten no class can do that, you are right, longbow is op. Kid I hit people with my rifle on warrior for 15k at any range, and 2k auto attacks at near twice the speed, adds bleeds, oh and lets throw in a 10-11k volley, I get a snare and a vulnerability condition, and a point blank aoe knockback. Also, what you are saying is for us to hit with our attacks we gotta use a specific pet, and a utility slot just to land rapid fire? Sorry to tell ya this but most people in pvp bring stun breakers, wolf fear is nice but sorry to tell ya this, even if you land all your attacks, ranger is still weak compared to other classes simply because the way pet integrates with our damage. Im betting I play ranger far better than you, and I run as a full glass cannon with a raven and jag, the only time I do amazing damage is when I build 25 stacks of might for my pet and let him do it all, glass cannon longbow build and my pet does more damage than I do, and with rampage as one up, he completely engulfs my damage.

Maybe the people I fight in paids and frees and every aspect of this game are bad but I rarely eat a longbow rangers full damage, in fact its so easy to dodge that I am able to save all my defensive cds with my rifle warrior for when ranger tries to burst me down. The only class Im not nervous about poppting frenzy against. Should I point out the fact that rangers pet doesnt teleport like a mesmers clones, and cant path at all, of the fact that we get one while necros get like 10, and dies faster than their minions. I doubt any1 here has problems timing quickness burst because its so easy to do. Its the fact that if our pet is dead, our quickness burst is garbage, thats about the equivilent of my rifle warriors rifle breaking in half and doing half its damage. So no, this isnt a l2p issue these people are discussing but a issue with the design of longbow itself, especially when shortbow does more, and shouldnt.

racta.4250:

Well a lot of people making blanket statements about how easy it is to dodge certain LB attacks and how LB #1 doesn’t hit hard.
In mixed gear WvW, my #1 is critting for 2.5k. Against glass cannons I’m getting 3.5k. At max range, thats a ton of damage. Your also looking at 6k damage from rapid fire.

Any player with a brain can dodge? How about when they get wolf feared? Or dog knocked down? Or after you use #4? Hound root? Then use one of your 3 quicknesses and rapid fire. 3/4ths of the rapid fire will hit in any of the situations above.
If YOU have a brain, you can time your quickness rapid fires until after they have used their dodges trying to avoid the #1 shots.

Play with the whole class guys.

Also, @ Dakheus, hunters shot is great in WvWvW.

Disclaimer: I play WvWvW. Thats all I do, so this is based on that.

even with this combo you wont get me
sorry guy, i get to much lb-hunters in spvp, tpvp and wvw..

Bambula.3649:

racta.4250:

Well a lot of people making blanket statements about how easy it is to dodge certain LB attacks and how LB #1 doesn’t hit hard.
In mixed gear WvW, my #1 is critting for 2.5k. Against glass cannons I’m getting 3.5k. At max range, thats a ton of damage. Your also looking at 6k damage from rapid fire.

Any player with a brain can dodge? How about when they get wolf feared? Or dog knocked down? Or after you use #4? Hound root? Then use one of your 3 quicknesses and rapid fire. 3/4ths of the rapid fire will hit in any of the situations above.
If YOU have a brain, you can time your quickness rapid fires until after they have used their dodges trying to avoid the #1 shots.

Play with the whole class guys.

Also, @ Dakheus, hunters shot is great in WvWvW.

Disclaimer: I play WvWvW. Thats all I do, so this is based on that.

even with this combo you wont get me
sorry guy, i get to much lb-hunters in spvp, tpvp and wvw..

Rangers…but still. Maybe if rangers didnt need to hit you 10 times to do such mediocre damage, maybe if rapid fire was compressed into 3-5 shots like volley with a 2.5 sec cast time, maybe if long ranged shot didnt have the kitten range requirement on its damage, maybe if barrage wasnt so easily avoided. But atm, it just is, and just isnt worth playing.

Its so easy to dodge LB, the animations are very straight forward. I have never died to a lb ranger and probably never will. If they build glass, hit 2.5k on me? well whoopdeedoo. My pets hitting 5k on them, I can dodge like 80% on the heavy hitting damage and still burst them down afterward with my own quickness.

Esrever.8613:

Its so easy to dodge LB, the animations are very straight forward. I have never died to a lb ranger and probably never will. If they build glass, hit 2.5k on me? well whoopdeedoo. My pets hitting 5k on them, I can dodge like 80% on the heavy hitting damage and still burst them down afterward with my own quickness.

I could live with all that if we were actually a threat with the weapon.

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Esrever.8613:

Its so easy to dodge LB, the animations are very straight forward. I have never died to a lb ranger and probably never will. If they build glass, hit 2.5k on me? well whoopdeedoo. My pets hitting 5k on them, I can dodge like 80% on the heavy hitting damage and still burst them down afterward with my own quickness.

I could live with all that if we were actually a threat with the weapon.

If you’re a BM build getting trapped in a QZ barrage while muddy terrain is holding you in place to ensure you wont escape, it is a big deal, and you’re not going to be surviving that encounter.

PS: Muddy Terrain is coming from Soften the Fall, i like to pounce on my prey xD with longbow.

Durzlla.6295:

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Esrever.8613:

Its so easy to dodge LB, the animations are very straight forward. I have never died to a lb ranger and probably never will. If they build glass, hit 2.5k on me? well whoopdeedoo. My pets hitting 5k on them, I can dodge like 80% on the heavy hitting damage and still burst them down afterward with my own quickness.

I could live with all that if we were actually a threat with the weapon.

If you’re a BM build getting trapped in a QZ barrage while muddy terrain is holding you in place to ensure you wont escape, it is a big deal, and you’re not going to be surviving that encounter.

PS: Muddy Terrain is coming from Soften the Fall, i like to pounce on my prey xD with longbow.

Like a neenja? PS: IS that trait worth it? Been thinking about trying it but jsut doesnt seem worth it to me. Also, atleast on my warrior and guardian I rarely find rapid fire + pet a threat, most of the time I just out dps them. I really hope they make longbow more enjoyable. Alot of problems could be fixed with a little reworking.

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Durzlla.6295:

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Esrever.8613:

Its so easy to dodge LB, the animations are very straight forward. I have never died to a lb ranger and probably never will. If they build glass, hit 2.5k on me? well whoopdeedoo. My pets hitting 5k on them, I can dodge like 80% on the heavy hitting damage and still burst them down afterward with my own quickness.

I could live with all that if we were actually a threat with the weapon.

If you’re a BM build getting trapped in a QZ barrage while muddy terrain is holding you in place to ensure you wont escape, it is a big deal, and you’re not going to be surviving that encounter.

PS: Muddy Terrain is coming from Soften the Fall, i like to pounce on my prey xD with longbow.

Like a neenja? PS: IS that trait worth it? Been thinking about trying it but jsut doesnt seem worth it to me. Also, atleast on my warrior and guardian I rarely find rapid fire + pet a threat, most of the time I just out dps them. I really hope they make longbow more enjoyable. Alot of problems could be fixed with a little reworking.

It’s incredibly useful in WvW, since there’s a ton more oppurtunities to use it.

My first character once the game released was a Ranger; I picked it because I wanted to play a ranged class and liked the thought of the pet dynamic. I pretty much leveled exclusively with the Longbow. I still absolutely love the Longbow, am discouraged by the amount of hate/dislike of the Longbow, but can understand the arguments against it. For me, I am one of those apparently crazy Rangers that runs Longbow and Shortbow. Also, I absolutely love running WvW with my Longbow.

My build is basically glass cannon; 30/30/10/0/0 with full Berserker’s gear, trinkets, and jewels, with Ruby Orbs on the Armor (will eventually move to Ranger runes I think), Sigil of Perception on the Shortbow and Sigil of Force on one Longbow and Sigil of the Night on another Longbow. I have a Critical Damage rating of 103% and critical chance of a 75% (with consumables, stacked SoP). No surprise I take the range extending and cooldown traits.

Long story short, I primarily stay at the back of the pack, dealing heavy hard hitting hits from 1500 range in the middle of the zerg fight. Mid-to-upper 3k criticals is common for me on the auto-attack, with occassional 4k+ hits as well. Rapid Fire normally unloads for 10-13k damage (really just depends on how many are criticals); with QZ it’s not uncommon to bring down some of the other low health/armor glass cannon builds before they know what hit them. I find in these zerg situations, most people aren’t paying enough attention to the enemies at the back of the zerg to have enough situational awareness of me unloading a Rapid Fire and thus avoid it. When assaulting a point the long range is useful to pick off targets on the walls, or at least force them back away from the edge.

My best day in WvW was it was near the reset time, so I was just goofing off. I was in Eternal Battlegrounds and figured I would try to capture a supply camp (Speldan Clearcut) by myself (with my trusted pet, of course). Surprising even myself, I did successfully capture the camp on my own, and just as I finished the capture count, had two enemies roll up. Long story short… I walked away from both the capture and the 1v2 alive and kicking. Maybe they were new/low level who knows… I was still happy with the result.

So, for my playstyle, Longbow is superior, but I still have no problems switching to Shortbow when the fight gets too close.

Ursan.7846:

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Durzlla.6295:

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Esrever.8613:

Its so easy to dodge LB, the animations are very straight forward. I have never died to a lb ranger and probably never will. If they build glass, hit 2.5k on me? well whoopdeedoo. My pets hitting 5k on them, I can dodge like 80% on the heavy hitting damage and still burst them down afterward with my own quickness.

I could live with all that if we were actually a threat with the weapon.

If you’re a BM build getting trapped in a QZ barrage while muddy terrain is holding you in place to ensure you wont escape, it is a big deal, and you’re not going to be surviving that encounter.

PS: Muddy Terrain is coming from Soften the Fall, i like to pounce on my prey xD with longbow.

Like a neenja? PS: IS that trait worth it? Been thinking about trying it but jsut doesnt seem worth it to me. Also, atleast on my warrior and guardian I rarely find rapid fire + pet a threat, most of the time I just out dps them. I really hope they make longbow more enjoyable. Alot of problems could be fixed with a little reworking.

It’s incredibly useful in WvW, since there’s a ton more oppurtunities to use it.

I don’t see how its useful, people are going to kill you even if you root them since you are going to be low health from the fall.

Its so easy to see up cliffs I don’t know how people won’t see you.

Esrever.8613:

Ursan.7846:

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Durzlla.6295:

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Esrever.8613:

Its so easy to dodge LB, the animations are very straight forward. I have never died to a lb ranger and probably never will. If they build glass, hit 2.5k on me? well whoopdeedoo. My pets hitting 5k on them, I can dodge like 80% on the heavy hitting damage and still burst them down afterward with my own quickness.

I could live with all that if we were actually a threat with the weapon.

If you’re a BM build getting trapped in a QZ barrage while muddy terrain is holding you in place to ensure you wont escape, it is a big deal, and you’re not going to be surviving that encounter.

PS: Muddy Terrain is coming from Soften the Fall, i like to pounce on my prey xD with longbow.

Like a neenja? PS: IS that trait worth it? Been thinking about trying it but jsut doesnt seem worth it to me. Also, atleast on my warrior and guardian I rarely find rapid fire + pet a threat, most of the time I just out dps them. I really hope they make longbow more enjoyable. Alot of problems could be fixed with a little reworking.

It’s incredibly useful in WvW, since there’s a ton more oppurtunities to use it.

I don’t see how its useful, people are going to kill you even if you root them since you are going to be low health from the fall.

Its so easy to see up cliffs I don’t know how people won’t see you.

Usually this situations pops up when you’re chasing/being chased by people, and you jump off a short cliff to chase/escape.

With the trait, you’re essentially taking half as much damage, giving you a pretty huge advantage over the person who was chasing/you were chasing simply due to hp.

If you were chasing him, the muddy terrain immobilizes him, giving you more time to do damage.

If you were being chased, the cripple allows you to 1. better escape or 2. kite better to kill him, now that your hps may have evened out due to fall damage.

Ursan.7846:

Esrever.8613:

Ursan.7846:

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Durzlla.6295:

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Esrever.8613:

Its so easy to dodge LB, the animations are very straight forward. I have never died to a lb ranger and probably never will. If they build glass, hit 2.5k on me? well whoopdeedoo. My pets hitting 5k on them, I can dodge like 80% on the heavy hitting damage and still burst them down afterward with my own quickness.

I could live with all that if we were actually a threat with the weapon.

If you’re a BM build getting trapped in a QZ barrage while muddy terrain is holding you in place to ensure you wont escape, it is a big deal, and you’re not going to be surviving that encounter.

PS: Muddy Terrain is coming from Soften the Fall, i like to pounce on my prey xD with longbow.

Like a neenja? PS: IS that trait worth it? Been thinking about trying it but jsut doesnt seem worth it to me. Also, atleast on my warrior and guardian I rarely find rapid fire + pet a threat, most of the time I just out dps them. I really hope they make longbow more enjoyable. Alot of problems could be fixed with a little reworking.

It’s incredibly useful in WvW, since there’s a ton more oppurtunities to use it.

I don’t see how its useful, people are going to kill you even if you root them since you are going to be low health from the fall.

Its so easy to see up cliffs I don’t know how people won’t see you.

Usually this situations pops up when you’re chasing/being chased by people, and you jump off a short cliff to chase/escape.

With the trait, you’re essentially taking half as much damage, giving you a pretty huge advantage over the person who was chasing/you were chasing simply due to hp.

If you were chasing him, the muddy terrain immobilizes him, giving you more time to do damage.

If you were being chased, the cripple allows you to 1. better escape or 2. kite better to kill him, now that your hps may have evened out due to fall damage.

I was under the assumption you just wait on a cliff and jumped on people >.>

Durzlla.6295:

So, i just tested both auto attacks, longbow while flanking (since the build i’m testing with is 30/30/10 with berserkers, gotta make sure i get teh 25pt on both): is 12s
Longbow non flanking: 14.9s

Shortbow flanking: 11.2s
Shortbow non flanking: 15.7s

Longbow flank + 5 and 3: 8.5s
Shorbow flank + 2 (all others seem to be a dps decrease when pet is not used): 10.6s

Longbow +5 and 3 front: 10s
Shortbow Front +2: 15.4s

LB ~750yds: 15.7s
LB point blank: 24.8s

LB ~750 + 3, 2, 5: 9.7s (died mid rapid fire)
LB point blank + 3, 2, 5: 8.7s (died mid rapid fire)

LB~750 flank: 20.1s
LB point blank flank: 23.3s

LB ~750 flank + 3, 2, 5: 7.9s
LB point blank flanking + 3, 2, 5: 7.9s

As you can see, the longbow isn’t all that pre skills, but the second you start using its abilities it completely DESTROYS the SB in terms of damage,

All your figures showing longbow to be better rely on Barrage. So the conditions of your findings are (1) the target does not try to close range, and (2) the target stays within the barrage for the full duration. Violate those conditions and your figures are no longer accurate. (1) is frequently violated, and (2) is almost always violated.

From the testing I’ve done, Barrage is the only worthwhile longbow skill. Rapid shot actually doesn’t do much more damage than autoattack. The vulnerability from Hunter’s helps a little (more useful in a group setting). And Point blank only pushes the target to medium range – basically if you’re in a situation where you have to use point blank shot, you’re better off switching to a different weapon. (Exception might be if you can knock another player off a cliff.)

But barrage is highly situational. The situations when you can reliably count on the target remaining inside for the full duration (5 sec) are exceedingly rare. That’s why I didn’t include it in my tests. If I run across a Barrage situation, then I’ll whip out the longbow and use it (I always carry one in my pack). But for most fights Barrage only contributes small or negative DPS (I lose time I could’ve been autoattacking to fire Barrage, and the target avoids all or most of the barrage damage).

A guildmate and I were discussing this as well, and I realized another difference is in the bleed effect. Condition damage ignores armor. So the tests on the heavy golem are close to a best-case for the shortbow Against medium and especially light armor targets, the physical DPS will be greater relative to the condition (bleed) DPS, taking shortbow down a notch relative to longbow. (Still need to test to see which is better.)

Esrever.8613:

Ursan.7846:

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Durzlla.6295:

Dante Dragonhand.2538:

Esrever.8613:

Its so easy to dodge LB, the animations are very straight forward. I have never died to a lb ranger and probably never will. If they build glass, hit 2.5k on me? well whoopdeedoo. My pets hitting 5k on them, I can dodge like 80% on the heavy hitting damage and still burst them down afterward with my own quickness.

I could live with all that if we were actually a threat with the weapon.

If you’re a BM build getting trapped in a QZ barrage while muddy terrain is holding you in place to ensure you wont escape, it is a big deal, and you’re not going to be surviving that encounter.

PS: Muddy Terrain is coming from Soften the Fall, i like to pounce on my prey xD with longbow.

Like a neenja? PS: IS that trait worth it? Been thinking about trying it but jsut doesnt seem worth it to me. Also, atleast on my warrior and guardian I rarely find rapid fire + pet a threat, most of the time I just out dps them. I really hope they make longbow more enjoyable. Alot of problems could be fixed with a little reworking.

It’s incredibly useful in WvW, since there’s a ton more oppurtunities to use it.

I don’t see how its useful, people are going to kill you even if you root them since you are going to be low health from the fall.

Its so easy to see up cliffs I don’t know how people won’t see you.

50% fall damage from taking the trait, and i’ve yet to die from doing it… so yeah…

Solandri.9640:

A guildmate and I were discussing this as well, and I realized another difference is in the bleed effect. Condition damage ignores armor. So the tests on the heavy golem are close to a best-case for the shortbow Against medium and especially light armor targets, the physical DPS will be greater relative to the condition (bleed) DPS, taking shortbow down a notch relative to longbow. (Still need to test to see which is better.)

That’s actually a great point, and you are completely right. I should test the differences in DPS of shortbow/longbow relative to heavy armor/light armor targets.

I did some testing of my own and as far as I see Shortbow does do more damage, but even so I’m going to go with Longbow, mostly for the appearance and animation being a lot better. Also Shortbow is focused on being close to your target in order to do damage, which to me defeats the whole point of being a Ranged weapon. Thanks for all the great advice from everyone

ok let me give you guys a tip for gettign a really big shortbow.

the Ebon Vanguard shortbow(which can be purchased with karma and transmuted) is the same size as a longbow.
the Ebon Vanguard longbow is also as big as the ebon vanguard shortbow. so both skins are longbow. praying Anet doesnt change this.

so yeah. you want shortbow skills and dmg with longbow appearence go for Ebon Vanguard shortbow.

phantomFury.9168:

My first character once the game released was a Ranger; I picked it because I wanted to play a ranged class and liked the thought of the pet dynamic. I pretty much leveled exclusively with the Longbow. I still absolutely love the Longbow, am discouraged by the amount of hate/dislike of the Longbow, but can understand the arguments against it. For me, I am one of those apparently crazy Rangers that runs Longbow and Shortbow. Also, I absolutely love running WvW with my Longbow.

My build is basically glass cannon; 30/30/10/0/0 with full Berserker’s gear, trinkets, and jewels, with Ruby Orbs on the Armor (will eventually move to Ranger runes I think), Sigil of Perception on the Shortbow and Sigil of Force on one Longbow and Sigil of the Night on another Longbow. I have a Critical Damage rating of 103% and critical chance of a 75% (with consumables, stacked SoP). No surprise I take the range extending and cooldown traits.

Long story short, I primarily stay at the back of the pack, dealing heavy hard hitting hits from 1500 range in the middle of the zerg fight. Mid-to-upper 3k criticals is common for me on the auto-attack, with occassional 4k+ hits as well. Rapid Fire normally unloads for 10-13k damage (really just depends on how many are criticals); with QZ it’s not uncommon to bring down some of the other low health/armor glass cannon builds before they know what hit them. I find in these zerg situations, most people aren’t paying enough attention to the enemies at the back of the zerg to have enough situational awareness of me unloading a Rapid Fire and thus avoid it. When assaulting a point the long range is useful to pick off targets on the walls, or at least force them back away from the edge.

My best day in WvW was it was near the reset time, so I was just goofing off. I was in Eternal Battlegrounds and figured I would try to capture a supply camp (Speldan Clearcut) by myself (with my trusted pet, of course). Surprising even myself, I did successfully capture the camp on my own, and just as I finished the capture count, had two enemies roll up. Long story short… I walked away from both the capture and the 1v2 alive and kicking. Maybe they were new/low level who knows… I was still happy with the result.

So, for my playstyle, Longbow is superior, but I still have no problems switching to Shortbow when the fight gets too close.

Thing is, at max range, with pet on a target, ranger with a longbow can hurt. But it needs too many variables. Why do that when you can go rifle warrior, get 11-15k volleys and 20-30k kill shots without needing a pet and having 1200-1500 range.

could we maybe stop talk about the dmg question and look for other points?

wvw:
-range rly need on lb?
-better kite options with lb/sb?

pve:
-whats better for dungeons/frac?
-bm with lb/sb?

pvp:
-same point as pve bm better with lb/sb?

what you guys think?

arenta.2953:

ok let me give you guys a tip for gettign a really big shortbow.

the Ebon Vanguard shortbow(which can be purchased with karma and transmuted) is the same size as a longbow.
the Ebon Vanguard longbow is also as big as the ebon vanguard shortbow. so both skins are longbow. praying Anet doesnt change this.

so yeah. you want shortbow skills and dmg with longbow appearence go for Ebon Vanguard shortbow.

Or you can use the pirate sb skin from the LA jumping puzzle!

Message Body length must at least be 15.

Bambula.3649:

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could we maybe stop talk about the dmg question and look for other points?

wvw:
-range rly need on lb?
-better kite options with lb/sb?

pve:
-whats better for dungeons/frac?
-bm with lb/sb?

pvp:
-same point as pve bm better with lb/sb?

what you guys think?

Shortbow is better in all of those except the range factor. LB has more range, thats the only time its better, but shortbow is better than longbow atm in every important aspect of this game, such as damage and control, aside from aoe.

Rocklin.4106:

Message Body length must at least be 15.

everyone agrees on the other topics.

Bambula.3649:

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could we maybe stop talk about the dmg question and look for other points?

wvw:
-range rly need on lb?
-better kite options with lb/sb?

pve:
-whats better for dungeons/frac?
-bm with lb/sb?

pvp:
-same point as pve bm better with lb/sb?

what you guys think?

Yea, sb really is superior on almost every account aside from range as Dante said.

The shortbow is much better for kiting since it has an on demand cripple that doesn’t require you to stand in place and channel an AoE. The knockback is nice, but doesn’t do much without a snare in place and really the jump back evade from the sb does almost the same thing while protecting you from attacks and isn’t countered by stability.

In PvE, the SB is much better suited to the positioning and movement required for fights. Anyone running with at least 25 in Skirmishing (very popular for glass cannon builds) will need to be flanking enemies anyway for the 10% damage increase, so in reality the longbow requires you to be flanking AND at max distance, whereas the sb only needs you to be flanking.

So what is the longbow good for? In short, it’s more of a group support weapon. Because of this, it really shines as a weapon that you swap to in certain circumstances, such as when you want to push an enemy off an ally with Point Blank Shot or when you need a big AoE for a large pack of enemies. However, once these abilities are on cooldown, the short bow is superior in just about every other way.