Guild Wars 2

Which trait gives more dps to a longbow if you are solo?
I know spotter is more dps if you at all swap weapons or have another players with you But for solo roaming in wvw and if you camp longbow which trait amounts to more damage overall?

Spotter is often quoted as being a 7% damage increase. I have never run the numbers to verify this, but if true 7% > 5%. The range on EE I’ve never cared about.

For shiggles I took a stab at the math real quick while bored at work. With just 200% crit damage you’ll have a 1% damage increase for 1% crit chance.

In the end, eagle eye helps with burst and spotter helps with sustained, but either are about even overall.

Depends on your build/situation.
If you can get over ~85% crit chance without spotter then eagle eye would be a better choice, otherwise go for spotter for the extra 7% crit chance.
Also the range from EE is nice for some defending moments in WvW, like stay in the top of a hill while a zerg fight is happening in the bottom, occasional snipe in an enemy siege.

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but afaik the 5% increase in damage from Eagle Eye is a flat damage increase, increasing both normal hits and critical hits. If this is how it works, I’d say EE beats Spotter with a nice margin when using the longbow.

For group play, or when using any other weapon than longbow, Spotter is the way to go of course.

Yes, Eagle Eye add flat 5% damage, but if you get better crit chance your overall damage also rise because of the crit damage multiplier, lets say you have 220% crit damage, if you have low crit change that crit damage you have will be wasted, so the spotter would be better than a flat 5% damage boost in that scenario.

Spotter also affects your melee swap, pet, and any randoms that you run in to, presuming this is for WvW. It wins hands down IMO.

There are too many other valuable traits in that line other than Spotter. EE + Piercing Arrows or EE + Read the Wind are both better combo’s than anything which included Spotter. Even Piercing Arrows + Read the Wind is better. Not to mention if you’re using Survival of the Fittest, you should have a lot of Fury uptime. Don’t get me wrong, I’d really like to use it, but I just don’t see how I could give up anything else for it.

You can always take the ugly Red Moa with you. :P

Obsidian.1328:

There are too many other valuable traits in that line other than Spotter. EE + Piercing Arrows or EE + Read the Wind are both better combo’s than anything which included Spotter. Even Piercing Arrows + Read the Wind is better. Not to mention if you’re using Survival of the Fittest, you should have a lot of Fury uptime. Don’t get me wrong, I’d really like to use it, but I just don’t see how I could give up anything else for it.

You can always take the ugly Red Moa with you. :P

You never need PA and RtW at the same time. Also the OP said when you’re on your own, so EE + PA is pretty much the worst possible trait setup. RtW and spotter or RtW and EE if you want the range. Maybe PA for camps, but I melee those, so still spotter.

The best thing I can tell you is to look at the table on this page: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Critical

So, spotter is a 7% critical chance increase. Based on the increases on the chart, Spotter is equal to the damage increase of Eagle Eye starting at somewhere between 45 and 50% critical damage (between 195% and 200%). For sure at 50% critical damage is when Spotter starts being a better DPS boost than Eagle Eye.Otherwise, run Eagle Eye.

The stipulation to this is that it is primarily focused on the longbow though, meaning that Spotter, because it affects your other weapon sets, would end up being the better damage trait simply because of it’s universal nature. So it depends on how primary you make your longbow use, versus your weapon swap.

And spotter will give your pet more crit chance as well, where Eagle Eye will not.

I know most people hate pets but they are our damage too!

In wvw range can be everything. Solo roaming wvw I’d probably agree with you since trying to hit at long range in small encounters where someone is actively evading is pretty futile, but since I generally havoc group or zerg the range really pays off.

Fluffball.8307:

Obsidian.1328:

There are too many other valuable traits in that line other than Spotter. EE + Piercing Arrows or EE + Read the Wind are both better combo’s than anything which included Spotter. Even Piercing Arrows + Read the Wind is better. Not to mention if you’re using Survival of the Fittest, you should have a lot of Fury uptime. Don’t get me wrong, I’d really like to use it, but I just don’t see how I could give up anything else for it.

You can always take the ugly Red Moa with you. :P

You never need PA and RtW at the same time. Also the OP said when you’re on your own, so EE + PA is pretty much the worst possible trait setup. RtW and spotter or RtW and EE if you want the range. Maybe PA for camps, but I melee those, so still spotter.

PA + RtW is still good for small-man group-play. Solo roaming I’d use RtW and EE if only to catch them when they run…you’d be using your melee weapon more for 1v1 encounters anyways. And if you’re a power ranger that means either GS or S/WH. WH will give you a lot of fury uptime, and so will GS if you trait 2-Handed Training…which is a good choice considering SotF is arguable the best trait to use for solo and you’ll have 6 in that traitline anyway. It’s true Spotter gives you better overall crit chance, but you either lose out on range or arrow speed or pierce. Besides, you shouldn’t expect to be critting most of the time to be successful; a 50% crit rate is optimal unless you are uber at evading/dodging and don’t need a lot of toughness/vit.

doesnt spotter give damage increase to the party too?
so its hands down the best trait

geogyf.5087:

doesnt spotter give damage increase to the party too?
so its hands down the best trait

Did you even read the opening post or just the thread title?

jcbroe.4329:

The best thing I can tell you is to look at the table on this page: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Critical

So, spotter is a 7% critical chance increase. Based on the increases on the chart, Spotter is equal to the damage increase of Eagle Eye starting at somewhere between 45 and 50% critical damage (between 195% and 200%). For sure at 50% critical damage is when Spotter starts being a better DPS boost than Eagle Eye.Otherwise, run Eagle Eye.

It’s not that simple. Eagle Eye’s damage increase is a flat 5%.

Spotter’s damage increase depends on both your crit dam % and your current crit chance. e.g. Let’s take 50% crit damage as in your example.

If you have 10% crit chance, spotter’s extra 7% raises it to 17%. That means your damage goes from:

1 + .1*(.5+.5)
to
1 + .17*(.5+.5)

Dividing these two gives

(1 + .17*(.5+.5)) / (1 + .1*(.5+.5)) = 1.063 or a 6.3% damage increase

But what if your crit chance is 70%, and spotter raises it to 77%?

(1 + .77*(.5+.5)) / (1 + .7*(.5+.5)) = 1.041 or a 4.1% damage increase, and EE is better.

The tradeoff point happens at (after a lot of algebra):

cc = (1.4*cd – .3) / (.5+cd)

So for 50% crit damage (cd = 0.5), cc = (1.4*.5 – .3) / (.5+.5) = 0.4. So @ 50% crit damage,

• if you have more than 40% crit chance, Eagle Eye yields more damage
• if you have less than 40% crit chance, Spotter yields more damage.

The other situational factors still apply though. EE gives you greater range, Spotter benefits your pet and people nearby you, as well all direct damage weapons not just longbow. Spotter is useless against environmental targets and static world bosses (whose names show up as yellow).

Edit: That crit damage chart you linked would also be much better off as a graphic. The tradeoff between equivalent armor types (e.g. knights vs cavalier’s) then turns into sloped parallel lines on the graphic, and it’d be obvious to see which ratio of crit damage to crit chance (i.e. which mix of the two armor types) yields the maximum damage.

it depends how close to 65% cap you are… if you have 58% crit chance or lower, then spotter will earn you the full 7%… if you’re at 62%… you’ll only gain 3%, and then eagle eye would be better. i typically run with eagle eye + piercing arrows for the range + AoE. i also have 62% crit chance unbuffed. also, running solo, you can use a sigil of accuracy for that 7% if you’re so inclined, and still have room for force or bloodlust or strength sigil. or air or torment or fire… whatever you prefer.

and yes, i know a lot of people want you to build to buff the zerg, but in my experience, there’s always someone in the zerg with spotter. and if every ranger runs spotter, it ends up being a waste unless they coordinate with each other exactly where to stand spread out… which would still be a waste considering how everybody uses the melee stack tactic everywhere.