Guild Wars 2

Been toying around w/ what’s best for my Ranger and axe/torch & short bow combo is what I came up with.

Here’s what I do in most fights:
I start w/ the short bow, fire the poison shot, the cripple and stun. Then I switch to the axe and torch, fire the multishot, and light the mob on fire. The order changes depending on the number of mobs… but generally, it pays to use BOTH weapons.

The only reason I post this is because it dawned on me, there is a reason why they give us 2 weapon slots that we can switch on the fly. I played all the way up to level 55 before I took advantage of this.

Ive actually been running something similar, except I do Axe/warhorn. I will usually start with activating Call of the WIld to get that fury/might/swiftness, then hit then with a quick ricochet and splitblade. The, to finish off, I switch over to the the shortbow, then immediately change out pets to grant swiftness and might. The rapid fire of the SB does some massive damage!
It actually took me until Level 80 to star using the axe/warhorn. I was rocking the SB/LB combination prior. Silly me :p

Close, but here’s what you do: rock the Axe/Horn & Shortbow.

Start w/ a poison spread, birds, horn call – then swap to shortbow + quickening zephyr and let ‘er rip. When you lose your buffs, F2 your jungle stalker’s extreme might, pet swap for 2s of quickness and keep rocking that shortbow. Mad damage, mad stacks of bleed, mad fast.

Ugh. I struggled w/ the long bow for many many levels before I realized that it’s almost always trash. It does have SOME use, but man, that weapon needs some love.

My SB has 45% to cause bleeding on crit, so I pretty much am in love w/ it.

I really only use the LB during Dynamic events when you are dealing with Hordes of enemies. Hitting them with barrage first can deal a massive damage spread, plus the knock-back is beneficial for any straggling enemies approaching your from range. Barrage is the only real advantage LB has over the axe, unfortunately.

Horn Call is awesome when you’ve got other players around, too. Plus the Axe automatically hits multiple enemies, which helps for tagging during chaotic mass enemy/player fights.

i tried the axe/torch combo and it wasnt as efefctive as it sounds, the bonfire was nice in some situations, i also tried sword /dagger and actualyy engaging in melee, was kinda a fun change, but i went back to shortbow and longbow combo and found that it really is unmatched, you have abilities for every situation, standoff and skirmish. switching between the 2 during fights is very effective. you also get teh weapon swap buffs if your traited.

in most skirmishes i weild longbow incase i need to open with knockback, if not i start the fight with vulnerability shot then switch to shortbow. in standoffs longbow is death from a distance

Personally I find axe/torch to be a great combination. Bonfire sets up a nice firefield for combos and both torch skills do a good job. Shortbow is great but I find in large events that bleeding is so commonly stacked to the max that having the ability to move to stacking burning has its benefits.

seras.5702:

Close, but here’s what you do: rock the Axe/Horn & Shortbow.

Start w/ a poison spread, birds, horn call – then swap to shortbow + quickening zephyr and let ‘er rip. When you lose your buffs, F2 your jungle stalker’s extreme might, pet swap for 2s of quickness and keep rocking that shortbow. Mad damage, mad stacks of bleed, mad fast.

One correction: You indicate you are starting with the Axe/Warhorn set and that you “Start w/ a poison spread, birds, and horn call.” The problem is that the Axe does not have an ability that poisons (unless you are using one of its Projectile Finishers in conjunction with a poison combo field). The skill that has a “spread” effect is Splitblade, which applies a bleed, not a poison. The Shortbow skill that fires out multiple projectiles in a similar effect is called Poison Volley. Naturally, that is the one that applies a poison. Therefore, if you start with Splitblade, you are applying a bleed, not a poison.

Also, there can be a reason not to use Ricochet on the opening sequence if you are trying to hit only one target and concerned about aggroing nearby mobs that might get hit by its multi-target property, but there really is no reason not to add Winter’s Bite. It is a single target attack that does damage and slows (Chills) the target. A Chill effect does not only slow the target’s movment speed but also increases skill cooldowns. Longer cooldowns means less attacks can be used against you. There is really no reason not to use it.

I agree with the OP. I use a shortbow / axe+torch combo and love it. The Shortbow I use for single-target situations and axe+torch is godly when you have 2 or more targets. The Fire field from the #5 ability on torch combos beautifully with the axe multi-target autoattack. Everyone loves the shortbow nowadays, and it is awesome at DPS-ing a single target, but nobody mentions how it sucks in multi-target situations. Instead of going with the GS for melee and splitting my weapons between melee/ranged, I split my weapon swaps for single/multi targets. The axe+torch isn’t shabby for single target either (using autoattack+single-target burn+point blank bleed spread to apply multiple stacks) but the shortbow really excels at single-target skirmishing. Also of note on the axe, the chill rocks too and the bleed spread has an absurdly low CD.

While I do like Axe/Torch – Shortbow, with my playstyle I play more skirmisher, so I prefer Sword/Torch – Short Bow. Sword does not perma CC you if you turn auto attack off and learn not to button mash there’s enough delay between combos to dodge, and the animations on the attacks are very very fast. Personally I like the evasions in Sword plus if used correctly it’s nearly imposible for someone to get away from you when using it once you get in range, which is where Shortbow and weapon swapping come into play.

Though Axe is very solid too, don’t get me wrong I keep on in my bag at all times.

I am also a fan of the torch but had to replace it, due to the fact that I enjoy the sword for its mobility and evasion options. What I eventually found is with the torch it felt like my survivability suffered. I tried out the dagger and that seemed to be quite an amazing way to increase my survivability while keeping my target perma-poisoned even when they dodge, with perma cripple, and sooo many bleeds. This setup pretty much has been what I have toyed with because it has abilities 2-4 having evasion (and two has of course two evasions). I just feel like the torch should be paired with a ranged weapon (if you are condition) or it suffers greatly. However in all cases if you are just pure physical dmg the horn is better since the bird call scales with power.

vidiotking.1928:

Been toying around w/ what’s best for my Ranger and axe/torch & short bow combo is what I came up with.

Here’s what I do in most fights:
I start w/ the short bow, fire the poison shot, the cripple and stun. Then I switch to the axe and torch, fire the multishot, and light the mob on fire. The order changes depending on the number of mobs… but generally, it pays to use BOTH weapons.

The only reason I post this is because it dawned on me, there is a reason why they give us 2 weapon slots that we can switch on the fly. I played all the way up to level 55 before I took advantage of this.

>.<

This is PvE I assume????

Axe/warhorn?
Shortbow?

Try this instead….you might notice a dps burst increase.

Start off in axe/warhorn.

Use call of the wild (5 skill)
HUnter’s Call (4 skill)
(by now, your pet should be at the target)
use chilling bite (axe 3)
use sharpening stone (utility)
use richochet (axe 2* skill)

Swap

Use poison shot(sb 2* skill)
use crossfire(sb1* skill)

If you make it this full rotation, you are facing a veteran. If facing a veteran continue as below.

Move toward the mob and trigger the sb 3* skill
(this will place you behind the mob, even if it was in front of you)
use the sb 5* skill to stun it before it turns on you
use the sb4* skill

SWAP

Warhorn 4* skill
Axe 3* skill
use Axe 1* skill until weapon swap is back up.

SWAP

pop QZ

use crossfire until dead.