Guild Wars 2

Love the shortbow, do not understand why so many rangers knock or complain about it.

But there is a problem with its auto-attack, crossfire. The mechanic of ‘bleeding on indirect fire’ is sound and I do not want to see it removed, but the weapon does need a change because of how it works with the pet mechanic.

Your pet is almost always going to be at your heel before you issue the attack command, well at least ideally, when it isn’t have a staring contest with that rock you passed a half hour ago.

And then when you do issue an attack, it invariably beelines to the mob causing it to directly face you, negating all condition damage from crossfire unless you circle around, often giving a wide berth so as to not pull aggro. The only way to negate this is to use the ‘Guard’ shout before every single mob, which is a ridiculous amount of setup just to get your autoattack working, doesn’t always work thanks to its cast range and terrain hiccups, and in my opinion is not even an intended feature of the shout’s mechanic.

Here is my suggestion to fix this.

• Quick Shot>Tandem Shot
  Tandem Shot: Fire a shot while evading backwards which signals your pet to shadowstep behind your current target and immediately attack.

This would give you some positioning power over your pet that would allow proper use of crossfire without wandering around the bloody map or using guard and praying your lovable numbskull of a pet doesn’t screw it up. I suppose the functionality could be added to crippling shot or even concussive shot, but I think thematically it fits better on quick shot.

Please see the shortbow thread and the picture provided on how far to the “side” you need to be to qualify as “flanking” for the purposes of the Crossfire bleed application. It is less than 45 degrees. You shouldn’t have to “rotate around” that much.

Sebrent.3625:

Please see the shortbow thread and the picture provided on how far to the “side” you need to be to qualify as “flanking” for the purposes of the Crossfire bleed application. It is less than 45 degrees. You shouldn’t have to “rotate around” that much.

Seen and read already, after the fact though, it wasn’t the top of the forum when I made this thread but someone bumped shortly after, and we get so few posts here even some of the front page stuff is old news.

And I am (and was before posting) well aware of how large the arc is. The weapon still needs some help (though as that thread shows, not nearly as much help as some condition builds), and in my opinion giving it some kind of repositioning mechanic for either your or your pet would go a long way, hence the suggestion.

Yes, pets need FAR more access to shadow steps and teleports. If it can’t hit at least make it unpredictable. The old Jaguar used to be perfect for this (the catsassin)…but then anet you know, did anet stuff.