Guild Wars 2

Hey folks,

I’m just struggling with my choice of weapons atm, I’m running a bunker condi ranger 0/0/30/20/20 (PvP) and can’t decide which weapons to use. I’m gonna roll two of them ofc. Im running on low crit, that means I only get my bleeding stacks from spells, no % chance of adding bleeds when critting.

Which setup would you recommed? Since I only get bleeding stacks with the shortbow while flanking (just a 3 second bleed, only able to maintain about 5 or 6 stacks from autoattacks). Would you recommend me the shortbow like this? Or are there 3 options?

My thoughts so far:

-axe/dagger and sword/torch
-axe/dagger and axe/torch (I liked that, too, the bleeds from axe 2 had 100% uptime)
-axe/dagger and shortbow
-axe/torch and shortbow

What would you recommend?
I already tried them and I’m not sure which setup would be better. The most time I ran around with axe/dagger and shortbow, because I really like the chill + cripple combo, getting bleeds from axe 2 and dagger 5 on my target and then switching to shortbow. The problem with the shortbow is, I can’t maintain the bleeding stacks, and it seems like the torch has too much damage to just leave it in my inventory.

What are your thoughts about this?
Thankful about all (more or less) helping opinions.

Well, axe is a much stronger risk/reward type weapon. If you do well with it, you can smash opponents to the dirt with condition burst and cc, but if you don’t you will feel that shortbow is stronger. They also play very differently, if you are using axe, you want your enemy to stay close (so you constantly land the splitblade), while you typically want to stay away from your enemy when you use the shortbow.

I personally love Axe/Dagger because it gives you the 3 things I want most of a weapon set when using a condition build. 1. Crowd control 2. At least 2 different damaging conditions (one of which has to be poison) 3. An on demand evade. You will notice shortbow does all of these as well, making it a viable option. The only issue with shortbow is that is doesn’t really have any condition burst. With axe dagger, you can drop 8 stacks of bleeding, cripple, chill, weakness, and poison in quick succession. With shortbow you are more or less kiting until they drop.

What I’m getting at is, choose either axe/dagger or shortbow. Your next option could be another favorite of mine, sword/torch for the added burning and evades. But a build like this is meant to be played in a manner as follows:
cc → dive in → dump conditions → get out → change weapons → kite while applying pressure → change weapons → repeat

Your main damage weapon set is the axe/dagger while the sword/torch is your defensive set.

Okay, thanks. I guess ill stick to axe/dagger and shortbow. I choose the dagger over the torch because of the evade and the poision. Even that the dagger 5 has some less damage than torch 4, I have a nice cripple thereby. I always put dagger 5 on my foe, then axe 3, dagger 4 to get close and then axe 3, after that I swap and kite with the shortbow until weapon swapping is ready again, repeating the procedure. (I think I’m gonna keep that) The only problem I see with the shortbow is when your enemy tries to “hug” you and you don’t get the flanking effect.

Thanks for your answer, helped me a lot.