Guild Wars 2

I have two sets of gears: berserker and carrion. And I have fallen in love with using shortbow. I have tested the killing speed against a Heavy Golem in the mist wearing either full berserker or carrion whilst carrying a level 0 shortbow with only +vitality stat. The killing speeds of either sets of gears are more of less the same. So is shortbow a power, a condition or a hybrid weapon?

What second set of weapon I should carry?

pve everything is power → zerk, yet shortbow sux in like 99% of the pve content :x just sayin

Shortbow is a hybrid weapon and so works well with many weapon set ups. Try:

Sword Torch – Hybrid
Sword Dagger – hybrid (mostly power)
Axe Torch or dagger – hybrid (mostly condi)
use carrion for these setups

Weapons I would avoid with shortbow
Longbow – don’t bring condi
Greatsword – don’t bring condi
use zerker for these set ups

Warhorn – avoid this weapon unless your running in zergs. I would classify it as a power weapon though

Hope this helped

Xyonon.3987:

pve everything is power -> zerk, yet shortbow sux in like 99% of the pve content :x just sayin

How bad is it then?

I have tested shortbow a few times against sword, which supposed to be the best power weapon rangers can have. Shortbow only very lightly lesser dps than a sword…

The gap between sword and shortbow is much higher than you claim. 30% or so. That said, I used to run Shortbow and Greatsword as a power build and it worked great. Sword and Dagger would also be fine as a power set for your off weapon.

“The gap between sword and shortbow is much higher than you claim. 30% or so”
You forget the part where you have to be near your target to actually hit it with the sword.
Target moves away, no dmg. Simple.

I have a fondness for SB (mostly because I love the silly PonyBow legendary) and I usually run it with a sword/dagger or sword/torch. Off hand axe would work too, I just favor dagger because it lets me have extra evades/methods of pulling out of the AA to avoid being killed and torch gives a fire field. I wouldn’t use SB as a main weapon, more of a backup and if you require a ranged option that doesn’t have the knockback that everyone will complain about you using.

Deepcuts.9740:

“The gap between sword and shortbow is much higher than you claim. 30% or so”
You forget the part where you have to be near your target to actually hit it with the sword.
Target moves away, no dmg. Simple.

By that logic all ranged weapons are always superior to Close combat weapons. Ranger sword is actually the king of staying on moving targets, just spaming auto attack should keep you on top of most targets.

sendaf.8375:

Deepcuts.9740:

“The gap between sword and shortbow is much higher than you claim. 30% or so”
You forget the part where you have to be near your target to actually hit it with the sword.
Target moves away, no dmg. Simple.

By that logic all ranged weapons are always superior to Close combat weapons. Ranger sword is actually the king of staying on moving targets, just spaming auto attack should keep you on top of most targets.

And that’s why most people despise the weapon. There’s a lot involved in playing a melee class. Part of their strength is not needing to waste an evade or dodge when they can simply side step to attack the side of the opponent. The sword removes this playstyle from the Ranger. It’s almost like ANet thought Rangers would attract noobs so they designed the weapon to be very noob friendly and in doing so removed any/all strategic play from the thing and also made it very unappealing.

Atherakhia.4086:

And that’s why most people despise the weapon. There’s a lot involved in playing a melee class. Part of their strength is not needing to waste an evade or dodge when they can simply side step to attack the side of the opponent. The sword removes this playstyle from the Ranger. It’s almost like ANet thought Rangers would attract noobs so they designed the weapon to be very noob friendly and in doing so removed any/all strategic play from the thing and also made it very unappealing.

Fallacy. You may or may not despise the weapon, but you are presenting an opinion without data to support it.
In fact there have been many threads about the sword and many different view from the ‘nerf it so bow(s) and/or greatsword can be better’ to the ‘it seperates noobs from skilled players’ just to name a few.

Where sword is concerned there is still the problem of the sequence chain still not interacting with the game properly which is a problem that if ever fixed will have just as many arguments as any other change.

Bran.7425:

Atherakhia.4086:

And that’s why most people despise the weapon. There’s a lot involved in playing a melee class. Part of their strength is not needing to waste an evade or dodge when they can simply side step to attack the side of the opponent. The sword removes this playstyle from the Ranger. It’s almost like ANet thought Rangers would attract noobs so they designed the weapon to be very noob friendly and in doing so removed any/all strategic play from the thing and also made it very unappealing.

Fallacy. You may or may not despise the weapon, but you are presenting an opinion without data to support it.
In fact there have been many threads about the sword and many different view from the ‘nerf it so bow(s) and/or greatsword can be better’ to the ‘it seperates noobs from skilled players’ just to name a few.

Where sword is concerned there is still the problem of the sequence chain still not interacting with the game properly which is a problem that if ever fixed will have just as many arguments as any other change.

Of course I was presenting my opinion…

While claiming the a majority, “most”, share that opinion. Presentation and perception are very important as we have seen with the whack-a-mole treatment of ranger since beta, but that is neither here nor there and we are both kind of derailing this thread.

I do present a question for the original poster, Which mode of play are you really focused on? That will help some. There is also the option of trying the weapons out and see if any of the other you find to be fun for you and effective for you play-style/temperament.

Oh My God.8423:

Xyonon.3987:

pve everything is power -> zerk, yet shortbow sux in like 99% of the pve content :x just sayin

How bad is it then?

I have tested shortbow a few times against sword, which supposed to be the best power weapon rangers can have. Shortbow only very lightly lesser dps than a sword…

Did Shortbow similar damage with or without Bleed? A pure Power weapon gains more from buffs like Fury, Banner of Discipline, Spotter, etc.
Did you hit just one target? In dungeons you usually stack mobs, so if you can just hit one target your damage will be much lower than Sword.

In open PvE bows are perfectly viable, in group play not so much.

Sorry to say, your logic fails me.
I did not say ranged are superior to melee.
What I said was:
You hit harder with melee but not constant if your target moves away from you.
You hit less harder with ranged but more constant.
Thus, ranged and melee are close together damage wise.

Fix your reading.

sendaf.8375:

Deepcuts.9740:

“The gap between sword and shortbow is much higher than you claim. 30% or so”
You forget the part where you have to be near your target to actually hit it with the sword.
Target moves away, no dmg. Simple.

By that logic all ranged weapons are always superior to Close combat weapons. Ranger sword is actually the king of staying on moving targets, just spaming auto attack should keep you on top of most targets.

Funny I saw this now. I was just about to get on a build editor and set up my new Bo Bo Bear.

Lol, you’ve heard of a Bear Bow Ranger. I’m making a Bow Bow Bear Ranger. Long Bow and Short Bow together.

I know they are non-complimentary but dang it I’m a Ranger and I want to use bows. The new future patch notes made me think of trying it.

Shortbow is fairly terrible. Which makes me sad as I used my only fused ticket on one.

Too heavily weighted to the auto-attack, and the rest of the attacks are rather pointless (as mentioned). Axe/Dagger is such an upgrade it isn’t even funny. Dagger alone takes care of the bleed and cripple, and gives a much better evade.

Really though, SB needs some kind of AOE to make it even close to MH axe. With the might buff coming for axe, SB is just going to rot. Which again, really makes me sad, as my most lucrative skin is sitting there wasting away. To make it even worse, SB was my first ascended weapon as well =(.

This whole SB is terrible thing makes me feel better about deciding to get my PonyBow on the thief. Yes I know they are account bound now but I’d hate to go through all this effort on the ranger for it. Poor ranger SB…the ugly mutt of the group of hounds.

Uhhh, wait.

You know that only your Amulet, not your actual gear, gives you stats in the Mists, right?

Atherakhia.4086:

The gap between sword and shortbow is much higher than you claim. 30% or so.

I think 30% is a bit much. When I tested/calculated some weapons lbow(furthest) and sbow was pretty close, and not very far behind gs. GS is something like 15% behind sword, so 15-20% for bows I’d say.

IMO SB is easily the ranger’s weakest weapon as it doesn’t do anything well, has no AOE, low defense/low mobility, just enable auto-attack and go to sleep. But hey, if you like it…

sword/?, axe/? are probably your best pairings.

The new axe buffs=RIP short bow in my opinion.

Zorby.8236:

Atherakhia.4086:

The gap between sword and shortbow is much higher than you claim. 30% or so.

I think 30% is a bit much. When I tested/calculated some weapons lbow(furthest) and sbow was pretty close, and not very far behind gs. GS is something like 15% behind sword, so 15-20% for bows I’d say.

Sword DPS: 354.2
Short Bow DPS: 248.6

So it’s actually 42.5% worse :/

So much bullshirt in this thread….

The shortbow does not suck…

It has a nice auto that has a good RoF and let’s you get in quite a few hits between other skills and evades. The second skill, poison volley, is a quick skill that is very rewarding when you learn to use it when the enemy heals. The evade is a tricky skill because it can be used in different ways. Either by evading a leap/bash or stunning skill or by evading through the enemy and follow up with the fifth skill.
The fourth cripple skill is a very good follow up for the third skill because you got swiftness and the enemy got crippled, plus that your pet is attacking and doing 3 stacks of bleeding.
The fifth skill is very good for quick interrupts because of it’s speed.

I mean, you can do some really nice combos with it. Stun → Evade → Cripple, Cripple → Stun → Evade, Poison → Cripple → Stun / Evade → Evade / Stun
and that is not even with weapon switch…

Atherakhia.4086:

Zorby.8236:

Atherakhia.4086:

The gap between sword and shortbow is much higher than you claim. 30% or so.

I think 30% is a bit much. When I tested/calculated some weapons lbow(furthest) and sbow was pretty close, and not very far behind gs. GS is something like 15% behind sword, so 15-20% for bows I’d say.

Sword DPS: 354.2
Short Bow DPS: 248.6

So it’s actually 42.5% worse :/

Hi, please clarify how often you use the other skills on the sword that barely inflict any damage while the shortbow has each of it’s skills inflict damage a little more or less the same amount as the basic attack while keeping almost the same rate of fire as the basic attack.

solrik.6028:

Atherakhia.4086:

Zorby.8236:

Atherakhia.4086:

The gap between sword and shortbow is much higher than you claim. 30% or so.

I think 30% is a bit much. When I tested/calculated some weapons lbow(furthest) and sbow was pretty close, and not very far behind gs. GS is something like 15% behind sword, so 15-20% for bows I’d say.

Sword DPS: 354.2
Short Bow DPS: 248.6

So it’s actually 42.5% worse :/

Hi, please clarify how often you use the other skills on the sword that barely inflict any damage while the shortbow has each of it’s skills inflict damage a little more or less the same amount as the basic attack while keeping almost the same rate of fire as the basic attack.

Uh.. what?

Are you trying to imply you using SBow attacks will somehow compensate for the enormous gap in damage? Cause they’re all a DPS loss but the poison volley. I didn’t include the flanking bleed bonus or poison into the dps above. Nor did I include the horn off hand values for sword.