Guild Wars 2

Hi there,
I’ve recently started playing a thief and i’m lvl 66 now. I always bring a SB with me for the mobility with 5, but besides that the SB seems so useless to me. I don’t know how to get any dmg off with it. The autoattack deals no dmg in PvE compared to any other weapon, the clusterbomb deals avg dmg unexploded and is unreliable manually exploded, the 3 is more of an evade which deals no dmg, the 4 is just a poison field.

I just don’t understand why people always praise the SB on thief so much. Am I missing something here? How do I play with it?

Thanks in advance

The damage is actually not bad. The way to use cluster bomb is at close range targeted just behind your target as you circle strafe around them. Detonate just as it passes through them, which should be almost immediately since they’re moving toward you. Lay poison first if the monster heals or if you have lotus poison.

First off, press 1 for autoattack, 2 for cluster bomb, 3 for…

Just kidding :P

Well, shortbow is used because it really is awesome!
In public events it’s very nice, since it tags a lot of enemies with your Trick Shot (autoattack).

“Just a poison field”, heeyheyhey. Poison is a very powerful condition! It makes your enemies heal 33% less effective, and if you shoot your cluster bomb (number 2) in the choking gas field, you AOE blast for 3 seconds inflicting weakness to the enemies in the field (weakness makes 50% of your enemies attacks deal 50% less damage and he can’t critically hit you).
Cluster Bomb is the games most spammable blast finisher, so make sure you use it. See a big AOE field somewhere? Blast it! Get AOE retaliation, AOE heal, AOE might etc etc. It greatly helps your allies around you.

Yes, disabling shot is to stop people chasing you (inflict cripple). Funny thing is you can actually use this skill while facing the other way of your opponent.
And it’s a nice little evade frame (time it nicely and you got yourself a free dodge)

Infiltrators Arrow is mostly used for it’s shadowstepping, but you also blind 3 enemies if you shadowstep in their faces.

mompen described it pretty well.

In a WvW scenario other than blasting fields it is the weapon you swap to when you have alot of skills on cool down. Waiting for steal or your heal or shadow step? Switch to SB and kite with number 3. I like to kite then when someone is real close i swith direction running past them and dropping cluster bomb. It is a super useful weapon. I would watch some thief v thief dueling vids to see how other ppl use.

The Shortbow’s potency is mostly evident in PvP and WvW. the #2 to blast with can be useful in PvE for AoE might and AoE stealth to skip parts of dungeon runs.

As you’re still levelling and haven’t tried PvP/WvW yet, I can see why the SB still seems a bit useless compared to other weapons, but it’s amazing, really!

The SB is also really great for any scenario where you, being a squishy thief, don’t want to get close. Drop a poison field for the great 33% deduction to healing efficiency, clusterbomb it (without exploding) for AoE weakness, or do explode it for bleed stacks. Whenever you get targeted you can use #3 to get away in a pinch and all that.

But yeah. It’s mainly an utility weapon, rather than a damaging weapon though.
for some thieves making good use of the Shortbow, you could watch this 1v1 vid from Fave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeOrXTBX9j0
Or for another style of using it you could watch this vid from Sindrener who plays in a Focus Party in a guild in WvW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl3Fe_bPiFU

and there’s much more to be found.
Just be creative with it

First off: Recently started playing thief? Good choice. Master the shortbow and you master the thief.

For using the short bow to its fullest, it is important to know your ranges. There’s three ranges, let’s call them blast range, kite range and idle range.

Blast range is, when you stand right on top of the target. Generally, you fight at this range with a party. You will aim cluster bombs right at your feet to get a steady stream of blast finishers for whatever field your friends provided.

Kite range is, when you are the target of a champion or another hard hitting melee mob. You use dodge rolls and disabling shot to stay just outside his attack range, while dropping poison fields and cluster bombs at him. The optimal range is about maximal dagger range plus the distance of the disabling shot evade frame. Always stay at about this range and remember to split the cluster bombs just as they pass through the target.

Idle range is, when you fight a large world boss or champion with dangerous attacks from a safe distance, because getting closer might lead to an untimely death(or because you just took a big hit and are at perilously low health.) It generally only applies, when the target is stationary or held in place by other players. You stay just at maximum range and alternate between cluster bombs and trick shots. For every cluster bomb fired at this range, you can fire one trick shot. Depending on whether there are people right at the target area, you may choose not to split the cluster bomb to trigger a blast finisher for them. If there are no fields or players around at the target area, just split the bomb and immediately use another one. The genreal rhythm of key strokes is:
2(select)-2(fire)-1(fire)-2(split)-2(select)-2(fire)-1(fire)-2(split) etc.

That much should be enough for general PvE purposes. I won’t get into using the bow to bomb points in PvP here

Koelkastlamp.3960:

Hi there,
I’ve recently started playing a thief and i’m lvl 66 now. I always bring a SB with me for the mobility with 5, but besides that the SB seems so useless to me. I don’t know how to get any dmg off with it. The autoattack deals no dmg in PvE compared to any other weapon, the clusterbomb deals avg dmg unexploded and is unreliable manually exploded, the 3 is more of an evade which deals no dmg, the 4 is just a poison field.

I just don’t understand why people always praise the SB on thief so much. Am I missing something here? How do I play with it?

Thanks in advance

Here are the basics.

Compared to pistol, Shortbow offers more control and more mobility.

Evades on demand to put distance between mobs, ports on demand for the same. As a squishy class you should have escape options available at all times.

• 1 is automatically a multi target attack, superior to pistol which requires 4 in Trickery to be traited to do the same.

• 2 is blast finisher on demand. with an offhand pistol on your second weapon set, this becomes your initial stealth when swapping to shortbow in combat (After laying black powder). Also heavy multi target damage.

• 3 is extra dodges as long as you have initiative. landed hits also cripple the target, which make getaways to heal easy.

• 4 is Area Weakness on demand when coupled with cluster bomb, and long distance poison when using attack 1.

• 5 is both a port and a blind. use it to get away, or aim right into the mob you’re fighting to blind them as you swap to your second weapon set for unpunished dps.

Compared to the other ranged option, it’s almost a no brainer for many thieves.