Guild Wars 2

Does anyone know if there are thief builds that focus strongly on the short bow? I use it a lot when I’m in group fights but wanted to know if I could use it with 1v1s.

Technically there could be but it’s a lot weaker than the other sets you have at your disposal. If you speced for conditions and venoms maybe. I’d actually love to see something like this happen if effective. Try going for conditions with caltrops on dodge and make people run after you bleeding and choking Could be fun. But still, unless you’re running a Sb/Sb with a Sigil of Energy on both + 30 into acro, you’d probably find yourself switching to your alt weapon and staying there.

I’ve only seen but one who main SB as a Thief and he was really really good at it. A lot of juking power, very slippery.

Other than that, I don’t think anyone is actually building around that weapon.

Have tried to create some builds for shortbow, but haven’t made it yet… It’s damage output just isn’t the same as constant backstabs or pistol whips. It would be really fun to do one though! Lots of crowd control and AoE damage.

Would be really awesome if someone had one though. Really want to try it!

Yeah, I’ve been thinking about this last night on what would the build about. Power? Condition? Crit Dmg? Evasion? — then I gave up. It seems like all of the above. >.<’

I was thinking maybe a hybrid condition/power build. The short bow offers both, power through #s 1 & 2, and condition through #2-5 The short bow also offers evasive skills with # 2 and 5.

I’d love to see it, but it feels like it was designed around being a universal secondary toolkit for multiple thief builds.

I play a shortbow-pistol/pistol build, with mostly rampager gear, and it is very possible to use 1v1. All you really need to do, is use the shortbow in melee range. You start by firing Choking Gas, use steal to get close, and then use Cluster Bomb (detonate) while running circles around your opponent, to avoid getting hit. Then you gain distance again, and use pistol auto-attack to stack more bleeds, while using the occasional Unload, Head Shot, or Black Powder, depending on the situation. So basically, using shortbow is all about quickly stacking bleed and poison, and then keep pressure on your opponent with direct damage.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAV6alYmKOHfS6E9JFy2jeqC5JuCOl/Byq/QUB-jkyAYMBZiCAhBiIAn/KiGblsIasaGMtpgs6Mp+jioVLDg5GA-w

The only real problem with the build, is that it lacks health, so you are a bit forced to use Mango Pie nourishment all the time.

Shortbow feels like the weapon that was handed to us so that we wouldn’t be left out of the ranged AoE club. Kinda like longbow for warriors.

While you could theoretically build around it, it’s sole selling point is that it’s a ranged AoE weapon, and other than that one thing it isn’t particularly better than other options you already have. Warrior longbow has a similar design. It’s ranged AoE for a class that otherwise doesn’t have any, and it makes a nice combo field you can exploit with your swap for cool effects. This doesn’t make it broken or useless, but it does make it a much better swap than a main weapon, and for thieves weapon swapping is more of an occasional thing than a regular part of a rotation due to our initiative mechanics, which is why there’s less direct action and more “stuff that works well with another weapon” than what you see in the warrior longbow design.