Guild Wars 2

• First of all I’d like to say I am the minority when it comes to the general dislike of the flanking mechanic, I think it’s one of the main reasons why shortbow is so good and I do not want it to become like the other braindead condition spamming Weapons “cough” necro scepter “cough” engie pistol.

Crossfire

> Retain the bleed on flanking, but raise base damage of the attack.

New Deal Double damage when flanking.

• My reasoning as I’ve said above is if you guys want to put bleeding without effort, it will be such a braindead mechanic, pair it up with Krait Runes and Expertise, Bleeds Galore. Not to mention the New Bleeding Barbs. The double damage will help boost shortbow damage by a lot too on top of increasing base damage.

Poison Volley

>Retain the same effect but increase the radius of it (not the range), raise the base dmg by a bit.

Evasive Shot

>Fire an evasive shot, if it hits Gain Super Speed (2 seconds), If you hit the enemy while flanking, enemy is slowed for 2 seconds. Raise base dmg by a bit.

Crippling Shot

> Cripple foe for 3 seconds, Pet’s next attack deals bleeding. Gain quickness (2 seconds) If you hit the target while flanking.

Concussion Shot

> Daze the target, apply 3 stacks of confusion (3 seconds) on a successful daze, apply 5 stacks of confusion when you hit the target when flanking.

Light on Your Feet

>Make it work with evading, the effect cannot proc more than once. Lasts 5-6 seconds. 4 seconds is very short.

Predator’s Instinct

> Cripple and Slow (2 seconds) opponents when you hit them below threshold. 50% health threshold (15 second icd)

• My reasoning for this is 30 seconds is a very long cd only to be cleansed. I believe that the trait should prevent an opponent from running away from you when he is close to dying.

Final thoughts:

Again I am at in a minority here, but SB is the strongest dueling/skirmishing weapon in game IMO. (talking from experience here). I have defeated countless very good mesmers (OMFG people), very good rangers (a lot from WIND guild) skilled duelers, etc. At the same time I think it requires a bit of work (esp on the damage side) to be competitive in PvP in the current meta.

Two changes:

Crossfire – increase rate of fire by x% (25%?)
Concussion Shot – increase range to 1200 (double velocity)

So many topics with sugestions and requests to improve the shortbow, and it keeps being ignored by Anet.

HeadCrowned.6834:

So many topics with sugestions and requests to improve the shortbow, and it keeps being ignored by Anet.

Actually, the next patch will be in ~3 months more or less.
And they did a great job on reworking the shouts. In reality, most of what they implemented… no, I believe all of them were the changes proposed here on forums.

They did a sloppy job but you can’t deny that they are listening.
They can’t re-create a whole class in 9 aspects with 1 balance update. 1 step at a time is what I feel like being best myself.
We don’t want them to start listening to childish Ele and Warrior “buff us, Anet servants!” cryout that will never stop, right? Because if they recreate rangers WHOLE and address EVERY QoL or balance pickle with all weapons and utilities – that basically means they have to do the same for other classes, too. People do not see equality in terms of “who needs stuff”. They see it in “who wants stuff”. And they want a whole heck more and those are nothing but buffs.

So let’s give ANet credit and appreciation for they heard us out once. It might make them actually motivated to keep it going if they hear a positive feedback, shall we?

Frankly, Anet did no more or less than exactly what they promised. They promised to look into changing shouts during the druid release and they did exactly just that. And only that.

The last official word we had from them regarding changes were “In the future, we’ll continue to explore ways to improve on the ranger’s ties to both their pets and nature. We’re still looking at the druid’s viability in group scenarios and will continue to monitor its overall effectiveness, making changes where necessary.”

I’m guessing they might look into tweaking something with pets and spirits then…probably no weapon rework for a while.

Overall, suggestions are going in the right direction adding more flanking bonuses. Strip it down a bit, though. Multiple flanking bonuses are unnecessary and slow doesn’t fit the core Ranger, or shortbow.

• Crossfire – Remains the same.
• Poison Volley – Apply 1s of Weakness per arrow when flanking.
• Quick Shot – Gain swiftness if the arrow misses. Gain super speed if the arrow hits.
• Crippling Shot – Immobilize for 2s when flanking.
• Concussion Shot – 3 stacks of Confusion for 5s if foe is interrupted.

Would probably bump the scaling for all skills from 0.4 (0.5 on Poison Volley) to 0.6 and reduce Concussion Shot’s cooldown to 20s so it can be accessed a bit more frequently.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Overall, suggestions are going in the right direction adding more flanking bonuses. Strip it down a bit, though. Multiple flanking bonuses are unnecessary and slow doesn’t fit the core Ranger, or shortbow.

• Crossfire – Remains the same.
• Poison Volley – Apply 1s of Weakness per arrow when flanking.
• Quick Shot – Gain swiftness if the arrow misses. Gain super speed if the arrow hits.
• Crippling Shot – Immobilize for 2s when flanking.
• Concussion Shot – 3 stacks of Confusion for 5s if foe is interrupted.

Would probably bump the scaling for all skills from 0.4 (0.5 on Poison Volley) to 0.6 and reduce Concussion Shot’s cooldown to 20s so it can be accessed a bit more frequently.

Yea I think i went overboard with the flanking bonuses.

Don’t you think Crossfire needs a but more than 0.6 coefficient?

Also, one thing that I would LOVE for shortbow is make Poison Volley a poison field.

StickerHappy.8052:

Wondrouswall.7169:

Overall, suggestions are going in the right direction adding more flanking bonuses. Strip it down a bit, though. Multiple flanking bonuses are unnecessary and slow doesn’t fit the core Ranger, or shortbow.

• Crossfire – Remains the same.
• Poison Volley – Apply 1s of Weakness per arrow when flanking.
• Quick Shot – Gain swiftness if the arrow misses. Gain super speed if the arrow hits.
• Crippling Shot – Immobilize for 2s when flanking.
• Concussion Shot – 3 stacks of Confusion for 5s if foe is interrupted.

Would probably bump the scaling for all skills from 0.4 (0.5 on Poison Volley) to 0.6 and reduce Concussion Shot’s cooldown to 20s so it can be accessed a bit more frequently.

Yea I think i went overboard with the flanking bonuses.

Don’t you think Crossfire needs a but more than 0.6 coefficient?

Also, one thing that I would LOVE for shortbow is make Poison Volley a poison field.

All most certainly not LRS has a DPS mod .798 (with weapon strength) a .5 Short bow (lol it turned to kitten) would be .92~ (15% + ) on .6 it’s 1.11(40% + ). Sword is 1.22.

Varezenem.2813:

StickerHappy.8052:

Wondrouswall.7169:

Overall, suggestions are going in the right direction adding more flanking bonuses. Strip it down a bit, though. Multiple flanking bonuses are unnecessary and slow doesn’t fit the core Ranger, or shortbow.

• Crossfire – Remains the same.
• Poison Volley – Apply 1s of Weakness per arrow when flanking.
• Quick Shot – Gain swiftness if the arrow misses. Gain super speed if the arrow hits.
• Crippling Shot – Immobilize for 2s when flanking.
• Concussion Shot – 3 stacks of Confusion for 5s if foe is interrupted.

Would probably bump the scaling for all skills from 0.4 (0.5 on Poison Volley) to 0.6 and reduce Concussion Shot’s cooldown to 20s so it can be accessed a bit more frequently.

Yea I think i went overboard with the flanking bonuses.

Don’t you think Crossfire needs a but more than 0.6 coefficient?

Also, one thing that I would LOVE for shortbow is make Poison Volley a poison field.

All most certainly not LRS has a DPS mod .798 (with weapon strength) a .5 Short bow (lol it turned to kitten) would be .92~ (15% + ) on .6 it’s 1.11(40% + ). Sword is 1.22.

What is LRS?

Anymore opinions guys?

StickerHappy.8052:

Varezenem.2813:

StickerHappy.8052:

Wondrouswall.7169:

Overall, suggestions are going in the right direction adding more flanking bonuses. Strip it down a bit, though. Multiple flanking bonuses are unnecessary and slow doesn’t fit the core Ranger, or shortbow.

• Crossfire – Remains the same.
• Poison Volley – Apply 1s of Weakness per arrow when flanking.
• Quick Shot – Gain swiftness if the arrow misses. Gain super speed if the arrow hits.
• Crippling Shot – Immobilize for 2s when flanking.
• Concussion Shot – 3 stacks of Confusion for 5s if foe is interrupted.

Would probably bump the scaling for all skills from 0.4 (0.5 on Poison Volley) to 0.6 and reduce Concussion Shot’s cooldown to 20s so it can be accessed a bit more frequently.

Yea I think i went overboard with the flanking bonuses.

Don’t you think Crossfire needs a but more than 0.6 coefficient?

Also, one thing that I would LOVE for shortbow is make Poison Volley a poison field.

All most certainly not LRS has a DPS mod .798 (with weapon strength) a .5 Short bow (lol it turned to kitten) would be .92~ (15% + ) on .6 it’s 1.11(40% + ). Sword is 1.22.

What is LRS?

Anymore opinions guys?

LB AA

StickerHappy.8052:

Don’t you think Crossfire needs a but more than 0.6 coefficient?

Nah. The coefficient increase is, more-or-less, compensation for the firing-speed “fix” from long ago. Crossfire, on a whole, is all right in terms of SB and its unique flanking criteria.

Wondrouswall.7169:

StickerHappy.8052:

Don’t you think Crossfire needs a but more than 0.6 coefficient?

Nah. The coefficient increase is, more-or-less, compensation for the firing-speed “fix” from long ago. Crossfire, on a whole, is all right in terms of SB and its unique flanking criteria.

What about the range? haha. It will be soo good if it was 1200 again.

It would, but I don’t know anymore with what Anet for the past 2 years or so. I’m on the side that wants SB to have 1200 range by default to match their profession description about being proficient with bows (all of them) and have its projectile speed match LB.

I’d be fine though if they did the above changes + projectile speed instead of the above changes + longer range.

Tragic Positive.9356:

HeadCrowned.6834:

So many topics with sugestions and requests to improve the shortbow, and it keeps being ignored by Anet.

Actually, the next patch will be in ~3 months more or less.
And they did a great job on reworking the shouts. In reality, most of what they implemented… no, I believe all of them were the changes proposed here on forums.

They did a sloppy job but you can’t deny that they are listening.
They can’t re-create a whole class in 9 aspects with 1 balance update. 1 step at a time is what I feel like being best myself.
We don’t want them to start listening to childish Ele and Warrior “buff us, Anet servants!” cryout that will never stop, right? Because if they recreate rangers WHOLE and address EVERY QoL or balance pickle with all weapons and utilities – that basically means they have to do the same for other classes, too. People do not see equality in terms of “who needs stuff”. They see it in “who wants stuff”. And they want a whole heck more and those are nothing but buffs.

So let’s give ANet credit and appreciation for they heard us out once. It might make them actually motivated to keep it going if they hear a positive feedback, shall we?

All you’re saying is true. I am happy with for example the introduction of the druid with HoT and stuff. But Shortbow is something that has been asked for a really long time, this weapon has been unchanged for so long. Shouts in general had a buff with Resounding timbre and making WHaO a shout. Apart from WHaO and SotP the shouts are still not very useful because of how they mechanically work in my opinion.
The shortbow is a completely different story.
I am a big supporter of creating as much freedom as possible for players to create their own effective build. In my opinion this starts with making all the weapons equally worth using. The weapon you use should be the foundation of your build, and the utilities like shouts an improvement on top of this foundation. Improving build diversity can boost this game to higher levels, a small buff to some shouts is not the right start. Start at the bottom, with ranger shortbow, ranger offhand axe, necro axe, guardian staff, and so on. It is a bad thing that you see a lot of specific weapons not being used at all in PvP, and often for a very long period of time.

@HeadCrowned
Why yes, of course.
I believe Shortbow and Sword belong to the high-priority category. All I was saying is that ANet do not really deserved that sentence. They might slack at bug fixes, they might mot care about ranger as much as the class needs… But they are listening and they proved that to me.

I think that threads like these should be held to make them aware. But if people go around with “Shortbow sucks, company doesn’t care, they are ignorant blah blah” it … really leaves a bad impression. Especially if this is the time when they didn’t deserve it.

I love the shortbow’s positionning concept – I want retreating enemies to be punished more severely, but I also want the shortbow to pack some punch during normal combat. that said, here’s a copy-paste of past suggestions I made:

Crossfire

• Base 2s bleed per hit
• If hit from back/side, 4s bleed instead
• 10% more base damage
  Current bleed is 3s but only applied when hit from behind. 2s core and 4s back is a good compromise

Poison Volley

• 5% more base damage
• Apply Weakness if hit from back/side – not much for the outgoing target damage reduction, more about the slower endurance regen.
• 1s longer base poison duration
  Or perhaps, as others have suggested, make all 5 arrows 100% projectile finishers. I remember back in the day when they were publishing weapon skills on the blog (before release), the shortbow had a 7 arrow, 100% projectile finisher skill that devolved into Poison volley

Quick Shot

• 10% more base damage
• 6s swiftness base instead of 3s – 3s base is a joke
• 3s Superspeed if hit when retreating – would become a great escaping weapon skill

Crippling Shot

• 10% more base damage
• 4s base crippled duration (up from 3s)
• 2 stacks of Torment 5s if hit from the back/side – becomes more punishing towards escaping foes, as it first reduces their escaping distance, but it also punishes them for moving.

Concussion Shot

• 10% more base damage
• 2 Confusion 4s – a small damaging condition somewhat related to concussions.
• Up the stun and daze base duration to 1.5s as Moment of Clarity got nerfed

I really want the shortbow to be like a stalking weapon, and a better skirmishing weapon. I want it to punish escaping targets, and it needs a bit more punch.
EDIT: Meant ‘Superspeed’, not ‘Quickness!’ Thanks StickerHappy

ProtoMarcus.7649:

I love the shortbow’s positionning concept – I want retreating enemies to be punished more severely, but I also want the shortbow to pack some punch during normal combat. that said, here’s a copy-paste of past suggestions I made:

Crossfire

• Base 2s bleed per hit
• If hit from back/side, 4s bleed instead
• 10% more base damage
  Current bleed is 3s but only applied when hit from behind. 2s core and 4s back is a good compromise

Poison Volley

• 5% more base damage
• Apply Weakness if hit from back/side – not much for the outgoing target damage reduction, more about the slower endurance regen.
• 1s longer base poison duration
  Or perhaps, as others have suggested, make all 5 arrows 100% projectile finishers. I remember back in the day when they were publishing weapon skills on the blog (before release), the shortbow had a 7 arrow, 100% projectile finisher skill that devolved into Poison volley

Quick Shot

• 10% more base damage
• 6s swiftness base instead of 3s – 3s base is a joke
• 3s Quickness if hit when retreating – would become a great escaping weapon skill

Crippling Shot

• 10% more base damage
• 4s base crippled duration (up from 3s)
• 2 stacks of Torment 5s if hit from the back/side – becomes more punishing towards escaping foes, as it first reduces their escaping distance, but it also punishes them for moving.

Concussion Shot

• 10% more base damage
• 2 Confusion 4s – a small damaging condition somewhat related to concussions.
• Up the stun and daze base duration to 1.5s as Moment of Clarity got nerfed

I really want the shortbow to be like a stalking weapon, and a better skirmishing weapon. I want it to punish escaping targets, and it needs a bit more punch.

• Poison Volley

I think its better to be a poison field, 3/5 skills on shortbow are already 100% projectile finishers/ I think a field will be better for downed bodies AND you get to combo SB with it.

• Quick shot

You meant 3s of Superspeed when flanking? Because quickness won’t help you retreat

• Concussion Shot

2 stacks is super low, on a 25 second Cd, I suggested it 3 stacks base then make it 5 when you hit an enemy from behind.

• Quick Shot
  woops yeah I meant superspeed not quickness

• Poison Volley
  As the skill itself pierces, it already affects downed enemies, it acts a BIT as a AoE skill, only in a cone. A lingering poison field could be interesting though. But I DO MISS MY ‘SPREAD SHOT’ THAT WAS ANNOUNCED PRE-RELEASE
  Imagine 5 piercing, 100% projectile finisher shots… On downed enemies… Omnomnom

• Concussion Shot
  The 2 stacks is meant to be low – It adds some damage component over time, but I believe this skill is really focused on interrupting more than damaging

Would rather have Poison Volley be reworked like off-hand Warrior sword “Impale.” A single-target arrow that leaves a lingering effect on the enemy and pulses 4s of poison every second for 5s. It can additionally pulse 1s of weakness per second if the target is struck from the flank.

At least then, it would be much more effective at any distance instead of at point-blank, and the piercing feature on “Light on Your Feet” would make the pay-off of lining it up to inflict the effect on multiple targets significantly meaningful.

bloodpyrope.8630:

Frankly, Anet did no more or less than exactly what they promised. They promised to look into changing shouts during the druid release and they did exactly just that. And only that.

The last official word we had from them regarding changes were “In the future, we’ll continue to explore ways to improve on the ranger’s ties to both their pets and nature. We’re still looking at the druid’s viability in group scenarios and will continue to monitor its overall effectiveness, making changes where necessary.”

Anet is still dropping the ball when it comes to ranger with this glacial speed, we are still far away from being fixed and the prospect that “hey, we couldn’t fix it, maybe better luck in 3 months” is absolutely baffeling. That is a very far cry of what has been said (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=K2ZHhJQn0B8#t=2356) and basically it is not good enough.

ProtoMarcus.7649:

• Quick Shot
  woops yeah I meant superspeed not quickness

• Poison Volley
  As the skill itself pierces, it already affects downed enemies, it acts a BIT as a AoE skill, only in a cone. A lingering poison field could be interesting though. But I DO MISS MY ‘SPREAD SHOT’ THAT WAS ANNOUNCED PRE-RELEASE
  Imagine 5 piercing, 100% projectile finisher shots… On downed enemies… Omnomnom

• Concussion Shot
  The 2 stacks is meant to be low – It adds some damage component over time, but I believe this skill is really focused on interrupting more than damaging

Wow Spreadshot looked awesome, but hey Poison Volley is the same thing right? They even added poison.

Poison Volley is slightly different -
They entirely removed the projectile finisher aspect (not even 20% chance) and reduced the arrow count from 7 to 5

I agree the flanking mechanic is what makes the shortbow really cool. Here’s what I would do.

Crossfire
Hit target for x damage.
If flanking, damage and bleed target and nearby targets.

Poison Volley
Fire three arrows dealing 1 stack of poison each.
If flanking, arrows deal 2 stacks of poison each.

Evasive Shot Quickening Shot
Shoot a swift arrow that grants 3 seconds of swiftness and removes a movement-impairing condition.
If flanking, 3 seconds of quickness on hit and removes a movement-impairing condition.

Crippling ShotVolley
Fire three arrows dealing 3 seconds of cripple each.
If flanking, arrows deal 6 seconds of cripple each.
(Change functionality similar to poison volley’s spread shot)

Concussion Shot
Shoot an arrow that dazes an enemy for 2 seconds.
If flanking, Concussion Shot stuns an enemy for 2 seconds.

Shortbow’s been my primary range option since release usually with a greatsword at first but then later sword/dagger or sword/warhorn . Shortbow’s only real change since release was its range going from 1200 to 900 in an attempt to make the longbow a more appealing weapon. Multiple changes happened to the longbow via skills and traits and eventually it became the bow of choice, while Shortbow remained the same this entire time.
That being said Shortbow is still GREAT. There are only 2 skills I would even question and that’s Crippling Shot and Concussion Shot.

Crippling Shot really does need another 1 or 2 seconds of cripple, 3 just seems so miniscule.
Concussion Shot on the other hand would benefit from an effect on INTERRUPTING a skill. People here keep saying confusion although I feel like 3-4 seconds of Slow would fit it a little better, very much like the gw1 version of the skill. That or if you interrupt a skill the recharge is halved so that you might be able to interrupt more often.

Overall Concussion Shot is a skill designed to be used skillfully to interrupt important enemy skills, compared to its longbow equivalent Point Blank Shot which can do the same thing through a knockback Concussion Shot just seems weaker in comparison, dealing less damage and having a 10 second longer cooldown.