Guild Wars 2

Hello.

Today I think I’m going to do my first GW2 forum topic if I remember correctly or at least for a very long time.

I played in beta, I always mained ranger. Ranger was my first 80 and a very fun class to begin with. Back 2 years ago, rangers were crazy and there were a lot of them in PvP. Everybody basically ran the same build. And everybody agreed that the Longbow was more PvE oriented than the Shortbow.

Shortbow-Axe/Warhorn build is very fun to play, very team oriented. But I have some problems though. Ranger got a well deserved nerf 2 years ago, (Back when you could spec at the first trait in beastmaster that you get quickness when you change pets) I was fine with the nerfs and all, I thought “This will separate the good rangers from the bad” Nowadays after countless nerfs against the ranger class many of which were undeserving, I have decided to make a thread here so you can discuss and say your opinions.

Now the shortbow is completly useless in 1v1’s in PvP unless you’re running a bleed build, you’re forced to play bleed build with shortbow if you want to be even the slightest viable, and even then 1 cleanse removes your bleeds wether it be 5 stacks or 20 stacks, making you start all over again. This is one problem, make cleanse clean out like max 5 bleeds not the whole stack because getting 20 bleeds applied takes time, coordination and timings, an opponent removing my applied damage in 1 click that took me over 10 clicks to achieve is kind of unbalanced.

Now the Longbow has also replaced the shortbow in PvP, back when I started playing Longbow was strictly PvE and it wasn’t even viable in PvP, why this sudden change of heart Anet, since the ranger class is so attractive for nerfs, how about we talk about the one class that does deserve a nerf for once? The Engineer? If ranger deserved all these nerfs then I have no idea how much you should nerf the Engineer, if you want an OP class that’s it.

I refuse to run Longbow, just because it’s FoTM or because it’s viable, because in my eyes it’s still a PvE weapon no matter how much you buff it.

Now us rangers we have to decide between high sustain and no damage, or high damage and no sustain, we’re being funneled. I like to play with Shortbow and Axe/Warhorn must I be weaker than all other rangers because of that choice? Since you made the Longbow PvP oriented, why not make the shortbow PvE oriented if that’s the take you’re going for. I love you Anet but this time you really messed up, nerfing a class that already is subpar. Heck I have even been thinking about speccing pet builds just because we’re so nerfed, imagine that, me relying on an AI just because the ranger is sub-par. I will equip shortbow Axe/Warhorn and I will never stop, and it’s your responsibility Anet as a smart developer to balance things out, because despite all the talk GW2 is a very balanced game, the most balanced amongst the MMORPG’s I should say, but you really made a blunder when you nerfed ranger to the ground and not only that, made the shortbow non viable in PvP, seriously why’s that.

Can we get a medium damage medium sustain build with shortbow or high damage medium sustain build with shortbow or must I do like all other rangers who let their weapons play for them (Equip the longbow) I’m getting very frustrated as I’m a loyal customer.

Regards
Aliya Arrowsong.

i love using shortbow because of how versatile it is. I sure would love to get its requirement to bleed target by flanking deleted. This change would definitely help rangers a lot. The weapon set that you prefer is the exact same weapon set i use when i command in wvw on my ranger. It has almost been a year now that we have taken a hiatus on pvp after the spirit ranger so i think we really deserve a good comeback and not just a mediocre comeback but something that would put us to the top. This rapid fire buff didnt even make rangers viable in high tier matches it’s a joke. We deserve so much better.

I like it when people cleanse my bleeds from my shortbow, because I will just keep reapplying it and when they cleanse, they give me a chance to go in with my 12 seconds immobilise and they are just standing in it getting shot by me.

Instead of thinking that your “only damage option” is cleansed, think about how it can benefit you. Starting with sharpening stone, you can start the fight with a bleed spike which will obviously get cleansed right away, but then you can continue CCing your opponent with cripple, poison, immobilise and perhaps even use entangle.

How viable shortbow is can vary for different people. Some think that one must spec for as much bleed as possible, while on the other hand I think that too much bleed is bad because I can’t do anything else then. What do I do instead? Invest in pet condition duration or someone else that benefits me more.

Everyone experience fights differently; for some, it all seems to happen very quick but they win because they got good reflexes or lose because they don’t have time to react. For me, a fight feels like slow motion in comparison to how it feels when I play at night. Early in the day, I use everything in time and wonder why people are such noobs today but at a late night I tend to use my healing skill too late or use a stun breaker the moment stun expires.

Longbow got into PvP because for one, barrage casting time was reduced and second, rapid fire has a faster casting time now. These changes allow players to utilise 2 skills much better. For example, you can stealth and then use Barrage on yourself. People will think twice before walking into a barrage that deals 1k per second and cripples. Rapid Fire itself has a higher DPS while channeling, but still deals the same total damage. It deals more damage than LRS now because of it’s higher rate of fire.
Longbow is part of PvP now because ALL skills can be used for a reason. Pre-patch the only useful skills for it were LRS, Stealth and PBS.
Longbow have also been buffed in PvE too.

Play whatever you like because there is no one here that will or can force you to do the opposite.

A “though”:
I’m unsure of why you had to write “I’m getting very frustrated as I’m a loyal customer.”, because it is totally unnecessary.

Thing is Valentin, you can’t hear nowhere in our whole community now the words “Ranger is OP” and the one who would utter those words would surely be ridiculed by the PvP’ers.

Basically Ranger’s are a one way street now with all the latest updates, either we get with the system with the new FoTM specs or we continue to be subpar. I’d rather be sub-par than play a build that firstly every ranger plays, secondly isn’t even a fun playstyle.

Shortbow is the very defining weapon of PvP for rangers, since GW2 came out, don’t understand why Anet made such a 180 degree turn.

Rangers are funneled as of now, we only have what, 2 or at tops 3 viable builds for PvP that we can go, and it’s not even builds I’m comfortable with, why should I play the way I don’t want to play in order to be successful, doesn’t that go against what GW2 says? Just because Ranger players are mostly mature people who don’t complain 24/7 doesn’t mean we are viable or OP, it just means we have a lot of patience. And seriously, if a sub-par class gets nerfed then I don’t know what you should do to the OP builds of Engineer, Elementalist and Guardian, those classes have many OP builds, but yet attention is focused on us, I would have no problems getting a nerf that is called for, but right now we are such kitteneless class that we either play the funneled builds or we try our own builds and we get shot down so easily thanks to other builds. So how’s it going to be Anet, is the shortbow completly dead for PvP or will you let 1 build remain for the shortbow that is a little viable (Bleed) but in comparison to other PvP builds it’s completly useless.

Who are we? Rangers, what do we want? the PvP shortbow back, when do we want it? Now, before I delete my ranger (JK, but I’m seriously that frustrated because I can outskill players, yet their build owns me for them)

I don’t want to have to switch to the longbow because it’s considered viable, I can make the shortbow work but it takes a major effort on my part and I have to outskill my opponents.

@Solrik

If you are comfortable with being forced to play Longbow to be viable that’s okay with me, I can immobalize too, but it’s obvious you haven’t faced opponents who use stun breakers, because even though you stack 20 bleed stacks, your damage is indirect, and your arrows hurt nothing but the bleed they apply hurts, so let’s say somebody cleanses your bleeds and is a good enough player to evade and stunbreak your immob’s and he actually has damage on the contrary to you who only does indirect damage and is trying to stack up a bleed like you’re facing a raid boss, if you have played enough PvP, 1v1’s and 2v2’s and 3v3’s you would realize that the funnel the shortbow is going through only bottlenecks our skill, I want a little versatility with the shortbow. Now don’t get me wrong Solrik I am a good PvP player and I have no problems with PvP, I have played PvP with many different chars, and in comparison in my experience killing players with all other classes goes much faster than ranger. I’m not the type of player who wants to rely on bleeds or immob’s to be able to play. I can hold my own, but I’m tired of holding my own when I have to outskill my opponent x10 so Solrik, excuse me but it seems like you didn’t play 2 years ago.

It’s only fair if the LB build is strong that the shortbow can compare or even compete. But as of now, 1-2 builds the ranger has renders all other builds useless, and that’s not the way GW2 is supposed to be. Solrik even if you’re happy with the LB buff, the Shortbow orientation must be buffed in order to be able to compete, correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t one of the ground principles of GW2 is that you tailor your own character? A class can’t have only 1 viable build and the rest bad, in that case the bad build should be buffed to be able to compete to the viable build so players have a choice, if shortbow gets buffed Solrik you can still play LB if you like, but don’t try to affect the other players trying alternative builds

Longbow is a one trick pony weapon. I havent been beaten by a zerkbow ranger on my condi build. People who complain about it are just bad. There are so many ways to get up close on a zerkbow ranger and destroy him. Before the september patch, i used longbow as a utility weapon and not as dps. My burst came from my shortbow through quickening zephyr. I was even able to kill a warrio and a thief at the same time using both bows. I got 3 rangers right now, 1 lvl 80 full glass cannon ranger, 1 lvl 80 spirit condi bunker that i use when i command, and 1 lo lvl ranger that i use purely for pvp. I am so dedicated on playing this class that my server have trusted me to lead them using it.

I am not frustrated about our status on pvp because i know i can make the class work but it wouldnt hurt for anet to bring our morale back.

Valentin.2073:

Longbow is a one trick pony weapon. I havent been beaten by a zerkbow ranger on my condi build. People who complain about it are just bad. There are so many ways to get up close on a zerkbow ranger and destroy him. Before the september patch, i used longbow as a utility weapon and not as dps. My burst came from my shortbow through quickening zephyr. I was even able to kill a warrio and a thief at the same time using both bows. I got 3 rangers right now, 1 lvl 80 full glass cannon ranger, 1 lvl 80 spirit condi bunker that i use when i command, and 1 lo lvl ranger that i use purely for pvp. I am so dedicated on playing this class that my server have trusted me to lead them using it.

I am not frustrated about our status on pvp because i know i can make the class work but it wouldnt hurt for anet to bring our morale back.

Don’t missunderstand my thread, Longbow rangers are nothing special, neither are they OP, this was not said even once in this thread. 99% of all Rangers I meet nowadays in PvP have a Longbow on, pointing to a FoTM spec. I’m not a noob ranger either, I have played Ranger for more than 600 days, most of those days the Shortbow was like it’s supposed to be, so why should I switch now. If there’s only 2 builds to a class, and one is great, but one is bad, shouldn’t the bad build be buffed in comparison so it can also be viable and an alternative.

Variety is what Ranger’s middle name should be, but seeing the past nerfs and the mindset ATM on some rangers, some rangers like that the ranger is basically a one trick pony ATM, either spirit ranger, LB ranger or condi ranger, and condi ranger is very weak in comparison, not bad but weak in COMPARISON.

Just because some rangers like the LB build or just because some rangers don’t play shortbow there’s no reason to keep it this weak in comparison, even though you don’t play it we need some variety to our class and ranger’s who don’t like to play mainstream should have their build also viable, all ranger’s should not be forced to go one build because it’s the most viable.

OrangeMarmalade.6147:

Valentin.2073:

Longbow is a one trick pony weapon. I havent been beaten by a zerkbow ranger on my condi build. People who complain about it are just bad. There are so many ways to get up close on a zerkbow ranger and destroy him. Before the september patch, i used longbow as a utility weapon and not as dps. My burst came from my shortbow through quickening zephyr. I was even able to kill a warrio and a thief at the same time using both bows. I got 3 rangers right now, 1 lvl 80 full glass cannon ranger, 1 lvl 80 spirit condi bunker that i use when i command, and 1 lo lvl ranger that i use purely for pvp. I am so dedicated on playing this class that my server have trusted me to lead them using it.

I am not frustrated about our status on pvp because i know i can make the class work but it wouldnt hurt for anet to bring our morale back.

Don’t missunderstand my thread, Longbow rangers are nothing special, neither are they OP, this was not said even once in this thread. 99% of all Rangers I meet nowadays in PvP have a Longbow on, pointing to a FoTM spec. I’m not a noob ranger either, I have played Ranger for more than 600 days, most of those days the Shortbow was like it’s supposed to be, so why should I switch now. If there’s only 2 builds to a class, and one is great, but one is bad, shouldn’t the bad build be buffed in comparison so it can also be viable and an alternative.

Variety is what Ranger’s middle name should be, but seeing the past nerfs and the mindset ATM on some rangers, some rangers like that the ranger is basically a one trick pony ATM, either spirit ranger, LB ranger or condi ranger, and condi ranger is very weak in comparison, not bad but weak in COMPARISON.

Just because some rangers like the LB build or just because some rangers don’t play shortbow there’s no reason to keep it this weak in comparison, even though you don’t play it we need some variety to our class and ranger’s who don’t like to play mainstream should have their build also viable, all ranger’s should not be forced to go one build because it’s the most viable.

Let me spell it out for you, lb zerk ranger build is not viable. Pvp wise, we have 0 build viable build on high level plays. It’s the truth. We deserve more than this rapid fire buff. Our strongest build is still the condi bunker build but compared to other classes, that build falls short.

Valentin.2073:

OrangeMarmalade.6147:

Valentin.2073:

Longbow is a one trick pony weapon. I havent been beaten by a zerkbow ranger on my condi build. People who complain about it are just bad. There are so many ways to get up close on a zerkbow ranger and destroy him. Before the september patch, i used longbow as a utility weapon and not as dps. My burst came from my shortbow through quickening zephyr. I was even able to kill a warrio and a thief at the same time using both bows. I got 3 rangers right now, 1 lvl 80 full glass cannon ranger, 1 lvl 80 spirit condi bunker that i use when i command, and 1 lo lvl ranger that i use purely for pvp. I am so dedicated on playing this class that my server have trusted me to lead them using it.

I am not frustrated about our status on pvp because i know i can make the class work but it wouldnt hurt for anet to bring our morale back.

Don’t missunderstand my thread, Longbow rangers are nothing special, neither are they OP, this was not said even once in this thread. 99% of all Rangers I meet nowadays in PvP have a Longbow on, pointing to a FoTM spec. I’m not a noob ranger either, I have played Ranger for more than 600 days, most of those days the Shortbow was like it’s supposed to be, so why should I switch now. If there’s only 2 builds to a class, and one is great, but one is bad, shouldn’t the bad build be buffed in comparison so it can also be viable and an alternative.

Variety is what Ranger’s middle name should be, but seeing the past nerfs and the mindset ATM on some rangers, some rangers like that the ranger is basically a one trick pony ATM, either spirit ranger, LB ranger or condi ranger, and condi ranger is very weak in comparison, not bad but weak in COMPARISON.

Just because some rangers like the LB build or just because some rangers don’t play shortbow there’s no reason to keep it this weak in comparison, even though you don’t play it we need some variety to our class and ranger’s who don’t like to play mainstream should have their build also viable, all ranger’s should not be forced to go one build because it’s the most viable.

Let me spell it out for you, lb zerk ranger build is not viable. Pvp wise, we have 0 build viable build on high level plays. It’s the truth. We deserve more than this rapid fire buff. Our strongest build is still the condi bunker build but compared to other classes, that build falls short.

Actually I tested out the LB Zerk earlier today, it does crazy damage and it helps your team a lot, now I swiftly changed back because I didn’t like the playstyle of the Longbow, and I also don’t like playing FoTM specs and specs that everybody else plays. So you don’t need to spell out anything my friend, because you are wrong, LB zerk build is viable and is crazy if played correctly, but I’m not asking for a nerf to the LB build, but I’m asking for a build to the shortbow so it can be brought up to comparison. We don’t need anymore buffs on LB at all, we need buffs to shortbow and the toughness tree of Ranger’s. Some ranger’s are pathetic, just because they play LB build they want every other build of the ranger to be weak. Next stop – One trick ponies market! Variety variety variety

Do you know what happened to the latest TOG? Rangers who played on that tournament did not even use a glass cannon ranger but a condi survival build. Zerk longbow build is a troll build just like pu mesmers. You cant defend a node using it and any decent player that would get close to you could kill you in seconds. Lb attacks get highly punished on close range. I think i know more about rangers than you do. Trust me, no decent team would recruit a glass cannon longbow ranger.

Valentin.2073:

Do you know what happened to the latest TOG? Rangers who played on that tournament did not even use a glass cannon ranger but a condi survival build. Zerk longbow build is a troll build just like pu mesmers. You cant defend a node using it and any decent player that would get close to you could kill you in seconds. Lb attacks get highly punished on close range. I think i know more about rangers than you do. Trust me, no decent team would recruit a glass cannon longbow ranger.

Actually my friend, no offense, but I have played a longer time than you, and not only that, but I realize that based on your text that you are not very cunning about the ranger class, just because one watches tournaments doesn’t make one a skillful player. Lol somebody tries a build that is normally sub-par but it worked despite the odds(Even the lottery you can win it but low odds)

So I don’t agree with you, I don’t think you know what you are talking about and I really just got fed up with talking to you after you showed your real personality. So I decline your discussion, you can keep posting but don’t expect an answer. And I have some forum suggestions for people who think they are above everyone else.

Bye

P.S. I have played this game as double as long as you, just because you watch a few tournaments doesn’t make you a pro, in fact it makes you even worse because you have to watch and learn while other people create their own playstyles and teach themselves.

So I see the word “viable” being thrown around this thread a lot, and saying this I really hope it doesn’t come off as being a jerk. I think it’s safe to say no one in this thread (me included) plays at the highest levels of pvp? I’m talking like tog levels of pvp. Now with that being said there’s a multitude of “viable” specs that a ranger can run in average level pvp. Yes zerk lb deals crazy damage at ranged, just get close to it and bait out signet. Yes the condi bunker can hold a side node really well, 2v1 him with an ele or guardian. I have had a lot of success running Sb axe/dagger, so I don’t see why axe horn wouldn’t work as well? Axe stacks a ridiculous amount of might on our pets, which people neglect far to often. I’m not sure if you’ve seen the Na KotH ranger thread? But the person with the most title defenses is a Cele Lb- sword/axe ranger. At the average level of play.. There are plenty of specs to choose from.

OrangeMarmalade.6147:

Valentin.2073:

Do you know what happened to the latest TOG? Rangers who played on that tournament did not even use a glass cannon ranger but a condi survival build. Zerk longbow build is a troll build just like pu mesmers. You cant defend a node using it and any decent player that would get close to you could kill you in seconds. Lb attacks get highly punished on close range. I think i know more about rangers than you do. Trust me, no decent team would recruit a glass cannon longbow ranger.

Actually my friend, no offense, but I have played a longer time than you, and not only that, but I realize that based on your text that you are not very cunning about the ranger class, just because one watches tournaments doesn’t make one a skillful player. Lol somebody tries a build that is normally sub-par but it worked despite the odds(Even the lottery you can win it but low odds)

So I don’t agree with you, I don’t think you know what you are talking about and I really just got fed up with talking to you after you showed your real personality. So I decline your discussion, you can keep posting but don’t expect an answer. And I have some forum suggestions for people who think they are above everyone else.

Bye

P.S. I have played this game as double as long as you, just because you watch a few tournaments doesn’t make you a pro, in fact it makes you even worse because you have to watch and learn while other people create their own playstyles and teach themselves.

You’re right, smart guy. Lol.

Jhughes.8341:

So I see the word “viable” being thrown around this thread a lot, and saying this I really hope it doesn’t come off as being a jerk. I think it’s safe to say no one in this thread (me included) plays at the highest levels of pvp? I’m talking like tog levels of pvp. Now with that being said there’s a multitude of “viable” specs that a ranger can run in average level pvp. Yes zerk lb deals crazy damage at ranged, just get close to it and bait out signet. Yes the condi bunker can hold a side node really well, 2v1 him with an ele or guardian. I have had a lot of success running Sb axe/dagger, so I don’t see why axe horn wouldn’t work as well? Axe stacks a ridiculous amount of might on our pets, which people neglect far to often. I’m not sure if you’ve seen the Na KotH ranger thread? But the person with the most title defenses is a Cele Lb- sword/axe ranger. At the average level of play.. There are plenty of specs to choose from.

Viable is an important word when it comes to PvP, either a build is viable or it’s not, amongst good players that is, going against bad players you can make bad builds work. Viable against good players and good builds. Are you only entitled to speak about balance if you play at the highest level of PvP? How about over 600 days of experience of the game, but still that doesn’t mean anything since I haven’t played at the highest level of PvP? Nobody is talking about average level PvP we are talking about PvP in general, having a build work fine in average PvP but not in highest level PvP it’s not called a viable build, that’s just a result of circumstances. Lol you base your entire reply on average level PvP, but we never mentioned average level PvP, we are talking about a viable build that should work in average level PvP, highest level PvP and lowest level PvP, don’t make this discussion into a discussion of circumstances, the truth is as Shortbow is forced to go condition damage, and if you don’t you lose sustain, but if you do you will have a lot of indirect damage, where 1 cleanse can remove all your effort, do you understand what I’m saying now? Not to be a jerk but you got completly lost in this thread, because it looks like you didn’t read the OP or didn’t understand it anyways.

TL;DR;
Rangers have only 2-3 viable specs.
Rangers always have to pick between damage and sustainability.
Rangers have gotten multiple undeserving nerfs.
If ANet wants to nerf somebody they should nerf the Engineer first.
Longbow was PvE oriented and turned PvP oriented within a patch.
Shortbow has always been PvP oriented but is starting to become unviable since it’s easy to counter it and also the damage is too dependant on bleed, without bleed no damage output at all.
I can hold my own as a ranger but I’m tired that my entire char is dependant on bleeds, and if you happen to have a cleanse as your utility then this spec that I am running is damageless, I can play it well and I kill people, but that’s just because I outskill them. I killed much more people with the LB build, but in my perspective the LB is a PvE weapon and I will not abandon my Shortbow.

Jhughes.8341:

So I see the word “viable” being thrown around this thread a lot, and saying this I really hope it doesn’t come off as being a jerk. I think it’s safe to say no one in this thread (me included) plays at the highest levels of pvp? I’m talking like tog levels of pvp. Now with that being said there’s a multitude of “viable” specs that a ranger can run in average level pvp. Yes zerk lb deals crazy damage at ranged, just get close to it and bait out signet. Yes the condi bunker can hold a side node really well, 2v1 him with an ele or guardian. I have had a lot of success running Sb axe/dagger, so I don’t see why axe horn wouldn’t work as well? Axe stacks a ridiculous amount of might on our pets, which people neglect far to often. I’m not sure if you’ve seen the Na KotH ranger thread? But the person with the most title defenses is a Cele Lb- sword/axe ranger. At the average level of play.. There are plenty of specs to choose from.

Bunkering a node has always been a ranger’s forte. Rangers can outlast any bunker guardian anytime. Anet, should revert the changes they made on our bunker builds to make us really viable and game breaking. Just what i have said, we deserve so much more than this rapid fire buff.

No more buffs to LB, only buff Shortbow to compete. Buffing LB will further increase the gap between the viable build and the non viable one. Don’t let the ranger’s damage scale so badly with their sustain, it’s either crazy damage no sustain or high sustain no damage. Can we have a middle ground?

I really dont care much about the longbow and i am more concerned on improving our condi bunker builds. I know a lot of the ranger community have always wanted to go frontline and up close. We need more options for us to support our allies. The best build we ever had that was more of team-based was the spirit ranger build. When anet nerfed it, i knew that we would be placed at the very bottom of the tier. They should have given us other options after. Buffing our shortbow weapon would definitely help us to be on par with other classes.

On-topic:
Most people’s builds are not oriented towards cleansing as many conditions as possible. Eg warriors tend to stand in the immobilise rather than cleansing it, while guardians are almost impossible to catch immobilised for more than 1 second and thieves are not even worth mentioning.

Also if you say that stunbreak breaks immobilise without saying “Stunbreaks that also cure immobilise” then how am I supposed to assume that you were referring to the latter?

To be honest you lost me at the LB part.

Saying you don’t want to use a weapon just because you think it should be PvE only is no basis to balance or build design on. It is simply not a valid reason.

Also on the subject of not being a valid arguement, saying you want to play a certain weapon set “just because” and therefore ANet should make it viable also isn’t how balance works. Each weapon is designed to bring something different which means there will always be combinations just don’t work together and some combinations that are a match made in heaven. It is the same for every class and it’s frankly how it should be.

SB might not be perfect but it does offer something unique being a good mid-range condition / hybrid weapon, something which no other ranger weapon does.

We’ve had 3 people trying to discuss but they all got “no” back.

You are welcome to only use LB for PvE (or any mode in fact), but there are skilled players who use it in both PvP and/or WvW and it works for them.

Shortbow is a very good hybrid weapon which works well even with a celestial build. It’s fast fire rate can trigger “chance” things like sigils and traits very reliably.

There is not much to say other than what I and others’ve already said

OrangeMarmalade.6147:

NVM I’m rolling Celestial Engineer until they fix the shortbow for ranger, I hate having to go bleed build just because I like the shortbow. Call me when Ranger’s are not worse at ranging than warriors with a bow equipped.

Exactly what do you want shortbow to do?

Be a power based weapon?
Be a bleed weapon by default?
What is it?

There must be more people who want more Shortbow oriented viable builds, but mainly that the shortbow doesn’t have to go condi dmg or bleed build just to have it viable, there’s people who like the shortbow as a weapon but despise bleed and condi builds for ranger.

why not try a hybrid of quick draw , beastmaster with high crits sigil of strenght and Runes of strenght , go rampager/assasins mix +zerker/cavalier trinkets , i threw in one or two celestial pieces just to try balance things out though these can be Cavalier for more sustatain critical damage.

you’ll do power and stack damage for the pet, it will so give you that condi boost from might.

it’ll be power focused but will have supporting Pet damage and Supporting condis.
would allow you to use SB + Gs or S+A (so long your evades Add up for survival sustain)

lots of on demand control, shared boons , fury swiftness on swap , will have a great Moa Support from protection+Aoe cripple and a Extra heal on f2 + Mao harmonic cry could end up being a good 3k heal in addition to your normal troll ugent heal , though i’d use Healing spring for Regen+condi clear and f2 at the same time on pet for a huge spike heal.

Signet of the wild optional , then choose between Rampage as one or Entangle.

its got good crit / good damage, some nice condi support and lots of Pet damage.
the snow leapord chills and cripples + heals you all at the same time if you time the 20secs cooldowns and that should be useable every time you use f2.

could swap , pet cripple to pet crits cause bleeds , to support the Sb bleeds and confuse the target to who is doing Said bleeds, so they might try to hide but still get bleeds from the pet , that only gets them to waste time Line of sighting from you while the real damage is the pet.

using signet of the hunt well timed with max might stacks can do some massive Damage from the pet use this before Sic um and watch the pet go into Rampage Mode after the pets done swap to Moa and start stacking defences.

Weaknesses:
passive condi removal , so suggest healing spring (and keep kiting)
Lack of Defensive utility , could slot Protect me but both bird and cat can be Squishy but with shared boons from the Blue Moa and heals , regen ect protect can offer some good support to your hp management.
All the major damage is in the pet and needs to last long enough in battle to stack Might from autos.
mobility down time while Signet of the hunt is on cooldown

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJAVRnEqQrgWxCGsAXLGwQoYGANw7uYZzanx7LcxV3VB-T1SGABAcEAGUNHQ2fAtHAQeKBdU1gkU6lwhAIKlBFcBAITXQAAEADdoDdoDdotzduzduzdWKAmUGB-w

this is a throw together build , it could use some improvements , a snow wolf could be useful if you don’t mind loosing a bit of dps since Aoe howls can’t miss.

new rangers think outside of the box , we can do way more than just pick zerker and roll.

Axe/axe is just all-round better than shortbow. Cant see why anyone uses it. I keep considering it but then look at abilities, and arrive back at the same conclusion.

1. MH Axe has better dps, assuming 1+ targets which is where the problems are anyway. It now might stacks which can add 6 stacks easy. SB bleeds are the main feature here but really if they are not facing you then youve pretty much won anyway.
2. The #2 bleed is better than the bows #2 poison, poison is easy to apply from ranger and the axe #2 pierces by default handing out up to 25 stacks in one toss.
3. Chill can be very clinch and the weakness is cake in a 1-1 where the axe would otherwise be a bit shy (except vs mesmers and other rangers who provide pet bounces). The bow evasion is meh to me, if I need to evade I’ll switch weapons or dodge or lightning reflex out of there.
4. Path of scars vs some weak cripple. Need say more?
5. short bow concussion, scuse me but #4 axe still has you beat. And whirling defense is just great if you are drawing a lot of heat up close or afar. Not only is the damage very good, but retaliation adds up very fast and rangers you all know what reflect does.

Actually, there is a zerker build with fire/ air sigils on sb, turns it into a machine gun. Also, the moment of clarity sb/ gs build with kitten near perma cc chains can be quite effective as well.

With all that being said, sb dominates in a bleed build. In my build earth/ agony sigils with lot’s of cc to max flanking bleeds I can get 20 stacks on you in a hurry (with 1400 condi dmg/ 75% bleed duration) . A/a much slower at stacking and has no poison which can be a huge drawback against many specs. It has greater synergy with S/D as well which most bleed builds use.