Guild Wars 2

As a ranger im using shortbow, not only i feel playing with it more fun than longbow, but also its skills are better for my playing style. Im going for maximum dps.
So far i was using Rampagers gears, so Power/Prec/Condition dmg, with Sharpening stone, QZ for quick dps, and additional bleeding, along with muddy terrain for some cc action. But… bleeding doesnt seem to be so good. After some research im now interested in rolling onto critical dmg, berserker gear. Bleeding is limited by 25stack cap, and also im not always able to shoot from behind or side, so applying bleed is not always possbile. So critical seems to be better dps build. Also using Berserker build would buff up my Longbow a bit, as im using it for wvwvw and some situtations, as it doesnt have any condition dmg.

Any tips? Builds, calculations?
What to go for Shortbow maximum DPS?

I’d go for crit. You’re talking double damage on hits, and condition damage doesn’t really seem to do that much extra damage when you buff it.

I’ll second the “go for crit” suggestion. With a high enough crit on the shortbow, grab a sigil that procs on crit, and go to town on mobs.

Make sure you go for trinkets that balance out your stats a bit. I went for all Valkyrie trinkets (power, health, crit damage). I have no issues killing things.

crit for me by a country mile. (speaking spvp here)
depending on how squishy you feel comfortable going you can ride your crit % up to around 70%. (that could very well be overkill but I’m just sayin)

if you wanted to go condition, I think you have to look into a trap-style gameplay to get good enough widespread conditions. I have seen some pretty good trap rangers around, so it seems possible.

I was originally going condition damage because I love flanking around and getting those high bleeds. The more I’ve read and the more I have tried it out I will probably spec for crit.

Crit is the way to go. It does similar damage to condi builds without requiring position or being succeptible to condi removal.

Im a DPS Ranger with full Exotic Berserk gear.

For that decision, i tried every Rune/Sigil/Stat u could possibly imagine. It was a whole day testing builds on sPvP Golems and matches.

Weapon: Shortbow
Sigil: 5% Damage
Off-Hand: Axe/Horn or Axe/Torch
Why: AoE(Axe), Buff(Horn), PvE leveling (Torch)

Armor/Jewel Set: Berserker
Rune: Ranger/Scholar/Ogre/Thief (Order of power, Left to Right)

Race: Charr
Why: “Roar” affect pet and allies Critical and Damage. No cast time or animation.

Pets: Feline/Ursine (Lynx, Jungle Stalker, Brown, Arctodus)
Why: DPS, Tank, Condition Stack, Condition Removal

Traits lvl 80: 30 / 30 / 5 / 0 / 5

Same problem here: i play pve with the shortbow and i really do not know which bonuses i should choose for my gear to maximize my dps.
From what i can read here, Berserker bonuses (power, precision and %crit) seems to be a better choice than Rampager’s ones (power, precision and condition damage).
Are Berserker bonuses so much better than rampager’s ones? What do you think about it?
Thank you

I used to be a full condition build using shortbow. It was some-what ok. Then I went all out crit damage and rate.
Must say this is very bursty vs. mobs and in WvW. With 15k HP I manage more then fine in any situation.

http://i49.tinypic.com/333cuwj.png
(it didn’t want to post the image, so I just linked it)

What traits do you use, OctapusX?

I am a condition ranger using traps. My condition damage is at 1331 at lvl 80, but I the precision trait line has some great traits for traps, so I I actually have 10/30/30 (Marksmanship, Skirmishing, Wilderness).

I have NO problem doing damage. However, I have often wondered about doing a crit build. If you do, then be sure to take FULL advantage of any traits, skills, sigils, etc, that give specials on crit.

For me, crit is always “nice” to have, but I have always though along the lines of “I would rather do more damage ALL of the time than a lot more damage SOME of the time”…which is essentially what precision is all about…so I say it again, the best thing you can get from crit %, besides the obvious extra damage, are the things triggered by a crit…so make sure you capitalize on it.

BTW, for my condition build, my traps are Bleeding, Poison, and Fire, and weapons for usual play (when I am not being particularly defensive in, say, WvW, in which case I ise a LB) are sword/torch and axe/warhorn, but I do depend on my traps to do the majority of my damage, and most of the time, when players stumble into my traps they end of trying to scurry away.

Suffices to say I usually feel confident enough to at least face down a group 2-3 other players, at 4-5 I will usually try to lay some traps and get distance to see what they are made of (and often be ready to blast on warhorn and run haha), and more than that and I am looking for an escape route for SURE :P.

Crit all the way…condition is just boring IMO…