Guild Wars 2

No for reals, I use two bows on my ranger haha. My thinking for when I was making random build was because I had to rush to a fight with my guildies and I only had a LB and SB in my inventory, so I ran with it, and voila! It was a magical time! BTw this is WVW.

This build is essentially a Hybrid Condition/Power build. In its purest essence, it’s just a trap ranger, which I’m sure many can come up with more, but I wanted to share my version.

Now why is Longbow great for this you say? Well because of Sharpened Edges of course! With a 66% to put 1 stack of bleed on an opponent, I definitely wanted to hit my opponent with crits as often as possible. And we all know LB 2 does 10 hits, that’s 10 chances of putting on a stack of bleed!

Now why do I have a shortbow too? Well that’s because of the bleed from Auto attacks! Not to mention the rest of its skills are just too good to pass up on a Condi build!

Anyway, I really don’t have a theory or anything behind this thing. It was just a wonderful accident. Have a gander at the link to see if you like it or not, test it out, and let me know what you think!

I have a ton of fun with this build because of the decent burst from Longbow, and the decent amount of condi stacks with SB and traps. Feel free to criticize, ridicule, and observe!

I will say though, that with this build I do often have trouble battling it out with things like Condi Thieves (it becomes a battle of stealth haha). And this build is pretty awful at escaping (I mean c’mon Anet? You give us runes that let us stealth, but my pet isn’t stealthed? Any smart person would just aoe where my pet is lol).

Anyways, without further ado, here it is!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATVjUq0ua3KmrQ1aADhqdHkBlA7AICmAXxbBrSA-T1SEABPcIA2e/hU0EAwDAMBtkygCuAANcEAOQJIOq/whOgpU6BA-w

Let me know what you think! I often swap my Raven for Polar Bear because I like having Chill, or Spiders for more poison and immobile.

This build makes me feel like a ninja with my ninja dog and what not.

I’m not entirely sure what makes this a hybrid build. Your power is way too low to deal effective damage. Though I could see this build working with a different gear setup and some food buffs. Maybe something like this?

Build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNUQJAVTjEqUua7KerQ1aABhaVA0+FihWgd9mBbAA-TlCFABIq+zd6Awe/B/UCCwhAQgjAgVK/STTQCPAAlvAABAQAm5Mzm3MwQH6QH6QHa3co3co3colCAsxAA-w

Not as tanky but probably pretty effective in terms of dealing out both types of damage. Pets, elites, and heals are up to the user. let me know what ya think.

Idk, even with 1200 power. My crit on LB 2 hits usually around 6-9k (6 usually if at least 5 of them land), and then coupled with the conditions and Poison, it packs quite the punch! People with higher toughness, will usually take me a few extra rotations, but generally, in 1v1 situations, unless there’s a ton of CC, I come out alive lol.

I used to run it with Keen Edge, but found that the extra 5 stacks of bleeds and 5 stack of Vuln weren’t as beneficial as some more survivability. I did try the build with Ramapager gear once, but again it left me super squishy and with no survival skills to help me in case I screwed myself, and I rely very heavily upon the Condition as opposed to the power damage.

As for the Shared Anguish and Vigorous Renewal, I might run Vigorous Renewal, and get rid of Expertise Training simply because only my spider benefits from it, but I like having the Stealth from Hide in Plain Sight to help me keep my opponent guessing. It helps me get some distance.

My main approach to roaming fights begins with dropping Flame Trap-Stealth-Entangle-Rapid Fire-Hunter’s Shot-Stealth-Spike Trap-Stealth-Point Blank Shot-Viper’s Nest-Rapid Fire. This rotation if done without a hitch usually downs anyone with less than 16k HP. And if anyone manages to get close to me I swap to SB that will chill and inflict bleed, Quick Shot to get some distance, Crippling Shot for another bleed, and then Poison Volley. Then I kite til LB is off CD, and swap back and repeat!

My biggest problem with running what you suggested is that I’m just not good enough at roaming to warrant not having the extra survival lol.

And I really don’t like Vigor. Even though it raises the Endurance Regen by 100%, I like being able to just get Protection with my decent toughness to tank it out. And seeing as how max endurance rate regen is 10%, which would take 5s to have another dodge, and by then Vigor is already gone, so I get 3 dodges, but I don’t see it as beneficial as protection which reduces damage by 33% for 5s. Not to mention, I’m horrible at timing dodges anyway lol

As sigils go. I really don’t like Sigil of Doom on here simply because with SB’s Poison Volley, and Viper’s Nest, I think it would be overkill as opposed to adding more bleed Stacks since that has more damage. I also don’t use the torment sigil simply because of the way I play this build. I really only use the SB in emergencies, which is to escape and create distance, so 5 stacks of torment might be super nice, but i don’t like that it’s damage is so unstable as opposed to getting off multiple stacks of bleed for more reliable damage.

I will probably try out the Celestial Trinkets though. But more than likely only put 2 Celestial Rings and the Celestial Back to get at least 150 to all stats, and then run the rest as Dire+Rabid to keep my condi damage above 1200.

Thanks for the input though! I hope you try out what I already have though, it’s a lot of fun lol

Video? :P

Suggestions:
Troll Unguent – Might be more difficult to use, but I just use it when I lose a quarter of my health… You can try doing the same.

Healing Spring – No idea how it would work but the theory is that all but poison volley is a projectile finisher and comboing the water field can give you some regeneration… To be honest, quite a lot of arrows fly within 10 seconds which I’d guess is about 2-3k healing.

Pet control – Sure, raven deals a lot of damage and is good for stomping, but it’s mostly for PvP where you need to be quick with the stomp. I’d use two canines, which would allow me to do on demand knockdowns (badoom, a CC build) which can be very useful when they get close. To do this, you just put them on passive and press F1 when the enemy is close. The pet will automatically use (95% of the time) the knockdown skill. This way, you can even chain together something like 2s knockdown, 2s immobilise, swap, 2s knockdown and then 2s fear. I think this would work very well because let’s face it, you have Concussion Shot on SB, PBS on LB, Immob on Spike Trap & Entangle, Controllable knockdown on 2 pets, Fear on 1 pet, immob on 1 pet… Plus the cripple, chill and other condis you have in your build…

Edit: Forgot to say that having pet on passive won’t hurt you much, if at all, because you’re kiting and your enemy is probably also running around evry taim.

You don’t have to swap away from birds (your raven) for chill as owl has chill.

I’ve considered double bow as I run a lot of bleed on my zerker lb/gs but not having melee cleave will drive you insane against stealth spammers.

As for someone suggesting projectiles through water fields grant you regen, I think that’s only allies your projectiles go though, not including yourself.

I’m struggling to see how bringing longbow is better than any other weapon for this build. If the whole reason is to have a channeled skill to proc bleeds why don’t you bring war horn? S/x would increase your mobility and 1v1 potential, axe/x would give you a burst bleed, might, and the access to chill that you were looking for. The only thing longbow is really providing is another stealth and a knock back, but that’s not enough to make it compare to your other choices.

If you’re going for hybrid damage why not just go full celestial?

A video would be good.

My biggest problem is if someone closes on you, you have like one evade (shortbow #3).

I take that back, my biggest problem is you have no way to break stun, or immobilize. So let another Entangle using Ranger get within like 900 units of you (SB range) and you are going to be in a lot of trouble. Let any Warrior near you and prepare to eat hundred blades, etc. etc.

I just recorded some footage. Gonna cut out all the boring tidbits of me running around avoiding zergs. In it will be a few skirmishes of me joining a group fight. I also have footage of like 4 duels with a Thief, Ranger, Ele, and Mesmer. Will edit this post when it’s completed. It’s gonna take a long time though since it’s 1 hour of footage to cut down lol
When you watch, you’ll notice that I manage to barely escape all because of Protection upkeep lol.

I hope to see more people running unorthodox builds. This build also surprisingly does decently in a Zerg setting as well with the AOE burn, poison, bleed, and immobile. I don’t have the celestial trinkets yet since I don’t yet have enough laurels, but I’ll slowly work my way there to test it out again, but so far I’ve quite enjoyed playing this Double Bow Trap ranger build.

@jim Hunter, I like the range on LB better than having a S/WH. I do see the benefit from the WH because of WH 5, but I think for my play style, it fits better with a LB because of stealth. I can stealth away like a thief to gather some distance, and attack said distance, as opposed to infighting with a sword. I think it primarily comes down to my playstyle. I’m more of an outfighter with my Ranger, so I like having the range advantage.

Balgus.3468:

@jim Hunter, I like the range on LB better than having a S/WH. I do see the benefit from the WH because of WH 5, but I think for my play style, it fits better with a LB because of stealth. I can stealth away like a thief to gather some distance, and attack said distance, as opposed to infighting with a sword. I think it primarily comes down to my playstyle. I’m more of an outfighter with my Ranger, so I like having the range advantage.

Might want to test it with main hand axe then. You’d still get the range, a nice bleed burst, chill, might stacking which would really benefit a hybrid build, and you can bring whatever offhand best suits you.

Heres the video:

Audio got muted though lol. probably should’ve just left out the music. Don’t mind the quality. OBS just records bad on my computer for some reason.

I use double bow double bear power condi hybrid ranger. I have ascended sinister jewlery, ascended rampager chest, pants, long bow and short bow. 4 carrion armor pieces. krait runes, +36% condi duration food, blood lust sigil and earth sigils in both weapons. Can’t really win any silly 1 vs 1 pillow fights, but works like charm against EotM upscaled blob.

How i got idea make this awesome build? Well i did look what useless kitten gear i did have in bank and put it on.

Looks like fun. All that target break must be obscenely annoying for enemies ;-)

I recently swapped from hydromancy/leeching on my gs swap to hydromancy/geomancy and its so pretty ;-)

It’s definitely a lot of fun! I urge people to try builds in WVW that are outside of the norm. I only ever see Power LB Rangers, so I just wanted to do an unorthodox build that wouldn’t seem optimal for roaming, but I just stumbled upon something magical that I really love. I haven’t had the chance to try it with Axe yet, but I don’t think I will simply because the 15s of Vulnerable from LB is just so nice to have.

used it too, and liked it too. A build pretty similar to yours, double bows. But never thought to use it with full skirmishing and traps, which seems nice and adds up nicely with longbow’s power oriented style. I used it with survival skills I believe, including elite. Also had dire armour, but different sigils and runes.

I’m pretty lost without stability though against those hammer smashing ones. That one trait we have at 25% isn’t enough and too “random” to my feels, so you’re bound to the elite or signet.. and that messes up my build often.

I also like to try out unorthodox builds and get them to work.
Nice topic, build and video, thanks.

It’s nothing but a duel build, fun while you stay in 1vs 1 (not even good for all situations). Definitly useless, and mostly bad, outside of that in WvW (in a solo roaming perspective). And that ‘s what you’re doing by the way in the vid, searching for 1 vs 1. Also, you’re very far away from the 6-9k damage with rapide fire as you said.

That said, it’s well play so far.

I’m soooooo relieved that there are other rangers running dual bow.. :-)

I run it in a full glass cannon build, so my LB is the actual dmg dealer, while I put (low damage) conditions with the SB (but that triggers lots of condi removal on your opponent – the more cooldowns on his/her skill bar, the better).
And in order to get your spike dmg very high, I use Moment of Clarity. Very handy for shutting down an opponent..

Rapid fire hits around 9k-12k here.. :-)

Tribio.8531:

I’m soooooo relieved that there are other rangers running dual bow.. :-)

I run it in a full glass cannon build, so my LB is the actual dmg dealer, while I put (low damage) conditions with the SB (but that triggers lots of condi removal on your opponent – the more cooldowns on his/her skill bar, the better).
And in order to get your spike dmg very high, I use Moment of Clarity. Very handy for shutting down an opponent..

Rapid fire hits around 9k-12k here.. :-)

Just an advice, moment of clarity is pretty much wasted on a LB/SB build because none of them has a 1 hit high damage skill. The best use for MoC in a LB/SB build is on long range shot, if anything…

Any good player will kill you with dual bows…… /sigh

solrik.6028:

Just an advice, moment of clarity is pretty much wasted on a LB/SB build because none of them has a 1 hit high damage skill. The best use for MoC in a LB/SB build is on long range shot, if anything…

Agree, good point..
It was mainly for the increased daze/stun duration that I took it out.. Most of the time after a LB#4 will indeed follow a plain LB#1. And after SB#5 it is, most of the time, plain SB#1 to put some dmg and condi’s on the stunned/dazed target..

Tribio.8531:

solrik.6028:

Just an advice, moment of clarity is pretty much wasted on a LB/SB build because none of them has a 1 hit high damage skill. The best use for MoC in a LB/SB build is on long range shot, if anything…

Agree, good point..
It was mainly for the increased daze/stun duration that I took it out.. Most of the time after a LB#4 will indeed follow a plain LB#1. And after SB#5 it is, most of the time, plain SB#1 to put some dmg and condi’s on the stunned/dazed target..

It doesn’t apply to LB#4 either because it’s a knockdown knockback, not a stun.

Sorry for your loss

Tricare.2946:

Any good player will kill you with dual bows…… /sigh

I would’nt give you half a minute to be eaten buy this kind of build against you’re condi ranger :

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNQQJATVlEqofltsw0NUtMgegsMwh2/K2jZmSFspC-T1SEABqp0A7LBQSKDSTTAcPBAAMxQz+DcoDIUlg7oErF1fIFAbCtA-w

It’s not a matter of weapons really , neither to be such as good. His build will never be effective outside 1 vs 1 cuz he’s too slow, he have no break stun, no stability, to few cleans etc. It doesn’t mean he can’t kill good players.

No, just no.

solrik.6028:

Tribio.8531:

solrik.6028:

Just an advice, moment of clarity is pretty much wasted on a LB/SB build because none of them has a 1 hit high damage skill. The best use for MoC in a LB/SB build is on long range shot, if anything…

Agree, good point..
It was mainly for the increased daze/stun duration that I took it out.. Most of the time after a LB#4 will indeed follow a plain LB#1. And after SB#5 it is, most of the time, plain SB#1 to put some dmg and condi’s on the stunned/dazed target..

It doesn’t apply to LB#4 either because it’s a knockdown knockback, not a stun.

Sorry for your loss

yes but it can interrupt for a MoC proc.

Id wrather trap potency than MoC though and I run GS with maul.

Idk I’ve tried multiple setups with the goal of having my power and condi near or around the same amount so as to keep a good balance between power burst and condi burst. I’ve found this one my favorite, but I mean I totally want to see people’s views on it, and variations of it!

My intention of searching out 1v1’s in this video was just to showcase to people how strong it is 1v1, but I mean I’ve had fights where I do very well with zergs and group roaming. My role is like that of the ganker, where I throw down harassment with condi’s, while primarily picking off the squishies in a group. I will try to find some time to record some group roaming and zerg battles as well to help show more weaknesses and strengths of it.

If there’s a way to pump up my power above 1400, while still maintaining Condi dmg at at least 1300 then I’m all ears!

I don’t have any sinister equipment yet because I really only do WVW, but I imagine having Sinister’s would benefit it as well if anyone wants to test that out and put a video for us. I just want to see more than your average Power LB ranger running around is all.

I also ran this the other day with a Brown Bear to have extra cleanse it that was also pretty fun. Seeing as how Pet AI is pretty weak, I like having them as a 4th Utility skill more than anything. I’m thinking of testing out different pet setups like
1. Reef Drake for Confusion
2. Blue Moa for Protection
3. Jungle Stalker for Might

My stat fully buffed.

I’m sorry, this is just not good at all.

LegendaryBartonian.2597:

I’m sorry, this is just not good at all.

No need to be sorry. The truth hurts sometimes.

Yeah there certainly is something, or someone that’s sad here…

“omg it sucks, why no one care I say it sucks ;-( "

solrik.6028:

It doesn’t apply to LB#4 either because it’s a knockdown knockback, not a stun.

Sorry for your loss

I only knockback when it will interrupt..
So no loss here.. :p