Guild Wars 2

“Too many Rangers using longbow…”

Well, that’s true. I suggest we tone it down a little bit in the PvP arena before it gets nerfed back to the point of not being able to out-damage healing signet. Notice ANet did not say it was overpowered (sigh of relief), just that too many people are using it.

I would also recommend staying away from SB for a little while, as I still get hate messages when stomping people with it (omg Arie, stupid LB zerker, L2P noob)… Um, that was SB by the way..

We really should all switch to condi specs and give the community something else to worry about for a while. I still think condition specs are stronger, anyhow. I think most skilled Rangers would agree. Let’s just avoid LB and SB for a while. There are so many new unskilled Rangers running bows now that it is getting silly. We can balance it out by using non-bow condi exclusively for a while.

Still, “we” are not as many as the zerkbows. I see about 1 of 5 rangers that don’t use zerkbow.

Shortbow should get a little buff, not in terms of damage but improvements of what it is now. Like the ones in “Shortbow Rework Suggestion” thread.

The problem right now is that if I want to play a power build then I would have to use GS with Sword or LB to have range. Most of our weapons are condition oriented and sword does poor damage in pvp because it’s used to evades. Sure, shortbow is hybrid but it can’t do without conditions.

Add mace or dagger main-hand. Or btter that that, swod off-hand and dagger main-hand.

solrik.6028:

The problem right now is that if I want to play a power build then I would have to use GS with Sword or LB to have range. Most of our weapons are condition oriented and sword does poor damage in pvp because it’s used to evades. Sure, shortbow is hybrid but it can’t do without conditions.

Add mace or dagger main-hand. Or btter that that, swod off-hand and dagger main-hand.

Yeah, completely agreed. I ended up with the same dilemma when designing GS build post patch. There was no non-LB alternative for 2nd weapon set that made sense. A hard hitting offhand sword or mainhand dagger (hello LOTR) would be fantastic. I’ll check out the SB rework thread. I would personally like more interrupts or cc skills on this weapon.

Something to make it stand out. It’s sad that it’s use is so generic most can’t tell the difference when getting hit with it.

The biggest thing holding back shortbow on ranger is the conditional bleed application. If it didn’t have the stupid flanking requirement, you’d see more people using shortbow with condition builds.

The thing holding axe main hand back is the fact its auto attack does pathetic damage. The auto attack needs to be buffed. Its also a weapon that doesn’t know what it wants to be. Is it a condition weapon? Is it a power weapon? It sure as heck isn’t a utility weapon. Both stats scale horribly with this weapon. The number two skill is horribly designed. In order to effectively use Splitblade, you have to be standing at point blank range for all the projectiles to hit. So its a ranged weapon that… requires melee range to use properly? Right… Winter’s Bite. Eh, I don’t know what to think about this skill. Its pretty underwhelming. First, the projectile is so slow, good luck ever landing the skill on anything other than at point blank range. Second, the attached pet component is incredibly badly designed (all attached pet components on ranger weapons are bad design, IMO). Good luck having your pet actually land an attack since they are completely incapable of attacking while moving at the same time. Personally, I think 3 seconds of chill isn’t enough. Should be 4 seconds baseline. The projectile speed of Winter’s Bite needs to be improved as well.

Sword main hand, this is an obvious fix. Remove the stupid leap component on auto attack and more people will start using it. The fact the auto attack locks you out of being able to dodge is a no brainer. It is the main reason I refuse to use the weapon on my ranger. I have no problems with how the other two abilities on sword main hand work. They’re great and I love them. The auto attack leap is the only reason I refuse to use this weapon. NO ONE should need to turn off their auto attack to effectively use a weapon. Spamming one button over and over again to circumvent a poorly designed game mechanic is not an excuse for having a poorly designed game mechanic.

Greatsword. The auto attack needs to do more damage. Its just bad. Rangers have no good melee weapons. Sword auto gets you killed, greatsword auto does pathetic damage. The other abilities are fine on this weapon set, I think.

Also, since we’re on the subject of rangers, devourer pets as a whole are useless. Do less damage than spiders, and their F2 skills offer nothing to compensate for the lack of damage. This is a real shame, because I love the concept of devourer pets.

Kravick.4906:

The biggest thing holding back shortbow on ranger is the conditional bleed application. If it didn’t have the stupid flanking requirement, you’d see more people using shortbow with condition builds.

And then it would get nerfed because 15-20 constant bleed stacks from an auto-attack is too OP, not counting pet or other factors…

The thing holding axe main hand back is the fact its auto attack does pathetic damage. The auto attack needs to be buffed. Its also a weapon that doesn’t know what it wants to be. Is it a condition weapon? Is it a power weapon? It sure as heck isn’t a utility weapon. Both stats scale horribly with this weapon. The number two skill is horribly designed. In order to effectively use Splitblade, you have to be standing at point blank range for all the projectiles to hit. So its a ranged weapon that… requires melee range to use properly?
It is a conditions weapon. The auto-attack is not meant to damage your opponent, it can be used to generate might stacks in order to make your splitblade hard-hitting. And yeah, splitblade is a melee range skill but no one forces you to ONLY use axe

Right… Winter’s Bite. Eh, I don’t know what to think about this skill. Its pretty underwhelming. First, the projectile is so slow, good luck ever landing the skill on anything other than at point blank range. Second, the attached pet component is incredibly badly designed (all attached pet components on ranger weapons are bad design, IMO). Good luck having your pet actually land an attack since they are completely incapable of attacking while moving at the same time. Personally, I think 3 seconds of chill isn’t enough. Should be 4 seconds baseline. The projectile speed of Winter’s Bite needs to be improved as well.
There is nothing wrong with the speed. Throw it, and it tracks your opponent. The only way to miss it is if your enemy evades, blocks or the like, granted you’re in range when using the skill. The 3 second chill makes your enemy very slow, which allows the pet to attack him and inflict 10 seconds of weakness. Oh and by the way, weakness totally gimps any power build and it’s a 100% up-time.

Sword main hand, this is an obvious fix. Remove the stupid leap component on auto attack and more people will start using it. The fact the auto attack locks you out of being able to dodge is a no brainer. It is the main reason I refuse to use the weapon on my ranger. I have no problems with how the other two abilities on sword main hand work. They’re great and I love them. The auto attack leap is the only reason I refuse to use this weapon. NO ONE should need to turn off their auto attack to effectively use a weapon. Spamming one button over and over again to circumvent a poorly designed game mechanic is not an excuse for having a poorly designed game mechanic.
It’s possible to turn of the automatic attacking which can take you to new heights. Sword has a very high skill step which is hard to overcome. The basic attack can be used to escape pretty kitten far (faster than thieves can) or let’s you stick on your opponent when they are fleeing. It is still possible to effectively use the weapon even with auto-attack on if one learns when it is possible to dodge.

Greatsword. The auto attack needs to do more damage. Its just bad. Rangers have no good melee weapons. Sword auto gets you killed, greatsword auto does pathetic damage. The other abilities are fine on this weapon set, I think.
You get 2 seconds of evade on GS and you want it to deal more damage… Would it deal more damage, anet would have to nerf other parts of it.

Also, since we’re on the subject of rangers, devourer pets as a whole are useless. Do less damage than spiders, and their F2 skills offer nothing to compensate for the lack of damage. This is a real shame, because I love the concept of devourer pets.
I agree with this. Rending Barbs should be faster and have a cooldown of 20 seconds. The other two are just bad. Every pet skill that makes an AoE circle is bad because it’s not immediate (but they do work when holding a point in pvp, though).

Replied in bold

We should all go make p/p zerker venom share thieves after update hehehe ;-)

interesting! i had a post with exactly same title at balance sections..
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/too-many-rangers-are-using-longbows/first#post4494957

Game has been out for 2 years.

In that time, this is the first time a bow has been useful for the class since Shortbow was nerfed 1.5 years ago. It’s also the first time they’ve given a ranged build enough burst to be relevant. It’s really the first time they’ve allowed a power build at all to be relevant.

It honestly should come as no surprise that people who made Rangers likely wanted to play with bows and when you finally make one viable after nearly 2 years, people may want to play it.

Like Chrispy said in the other thread, I’m terrified that ANet will use the same logic on longbow that they used on shortbow 1.5 years ago. But I’m also more terrified that they’ll consider the class ‘case closed’ and ignore the numerous other faults the class has simply because people are suddenly using Rangers again. Despite the fact that the changes the class received doesn’t appear to be shifting Rangers into the meta anytime soon.

Kravick.4906:

The thing holding axe main hand back is the fact its auto attack does pathetic damage. The auto attack needs to be buffed.

I’ve written this suggestion several times for mainhand axe #1:

Instead of dividing the damage to 33.33% for each bounce, the first hit should hit harder, and the (possible) following two for lower damage. For example 50%→25%→25%, 60%→20%→20% or maybe even 70%→20%→10%.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Kravick.4906:

The thing holding axe main hand back is the fact its auto attack does pathetic damage. The auto attack needs to be buffed.

I’ve written this suggestion several times for mainhand axe #1:

Instead of dividing the damage to 33.33% for each bounce, the first hit should hit harder, and the (possible) following two for lower damage. For example 50%->25%->25%, 60%->20%->20% or maybe even 70%->20%->10%.

Something like this would be huge for Axe. I would also suggest putting a different non-damaging condition on Axe #2. Since the only trait that buffs Axe adds ferocity it should not be applying any damaging conditions.

I’m actually okay with whirling defense being a stationary ability.

Too many eles are using d\d,
Too many engis are using p\d,
Too many warriors are using LB,
Too many thieves are using SB,
Too many necros are using Staff,
Too many mesmers are using Staff,
Too many guardians are using Staff,
Too many….

I can go all day long. This argument is invalid. They should word their intentions better.

The comment makes no sence a ranged class should be using a ranged weapon and i dont like playing condition in general so i use lb and sword/ dagger for evade, its not fair if i am forced to change.

Yeh it was a stupid thing say.

But since they brought it up what other power option are the going to buff to make it viable?

I would argue that GS is now our weakest weapon.

Too many rangers using longbow? Huh. I wonder what kind of far-fetched solution is needed to resolve this seeming lack of choice…

Since I know they can’t take a hint:
Give another medium/light DPS build longbow/archery. Now the ~20-30% or so of the fantasy MMO demographic desiring a ranged archer combat class is appeased. Now there are less longbow rangers since another class can assume the role.

Mind-blowing, really. Not like a lot of these other classes are down on weapon combinations, either.

I dont use long bow, do I get a cookie?

I’d rather see them go the route of buffing other weapon choices rather than nerf.

Before this update they nerfed shortbow to make the longbow look better (literally) who knows if something similar might happen again.

But, in general I don’t use LB anyway, and this balance on the PBS sounds fair, I can’t complain.

Whatabout every single warrior using HAM/BOW in PvP??? I see far more variety in rangers in PvP than i do in Warriors atm.
The statement itself is just stupid.

The LB is an iconic weapon for a ranger… many play it just because they Think ranger should have it – regardless if it have been the best working weapon or not (including myself since launch). Now it have become the only weapon that has a good Power burst. And of couse ppl start to whine…. Why?
Be happy instead. Now we can actually contribute in YOUR PvP team. We can help in YOUR dungeon/fractal team. We can actually do some dmg in WvW for OUR side….

This argument is only valid when there is a serious debate on the forum if MH Axe has higher DPS than LB.

I suspect most people whom play rangers.. in fact play them to use the Longbow.

The Ranger description:

Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows. With traps, nature spirits, and a stable of loyal pets at their command, rangers can adapt to any situation."

IMO, I don’t think an unparalleled archer class will be running around with a GS bashing things at close range; flinging torches; tossing axes, or stabbing things..

Anet should just expect most rangers to run around with the Longbow, it is what it is. We can still run around with traps while using a longbow, and we don’t have any choice on whether we can have a pet or not. Sounds to me that when most rangers are using Longbows, it’s working as intended.

Now if they want them to use the shortbow, well maybe un-nerf it then. Give it more damage and return it’s range.