Guild Wars 2

So if been experimenting with builds lately, and realised something then: Shortbow has always been kind of a nobrainer for thiefs. All Meta builds basically consist of Weapon X /Shortbow. But lets just have a look at its utility benefits: Its an evade, a blast finisher and the all mighty Infiltrators Arrow. But actually Heartseeker is almost on par with Infiltrators arrow in terms of speed(in some occasions even better) so the only real benefit is the teleport aspect. Due to the design of the maps it makes sence to choose Shortbow in sPvP. But in WvW Roaming escaping through a blink is much more rare. So lately i have been using the standard http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Thief_-_D/P_roamer build but with sword/dagger instead. So moving around with HS and dodge for swiftness. The benefits are: Better Condicleanse, better ways to chase down opponents, possibility of boon stripping, a setupless stealth through CnD. While the only drawbacks are the lack of blast finishers and multiple blinks.(You will rarely find places where you need 2 ledge blinks to get away so saving shadowstep for that purpose is sufficient). You can also do some really funny combos like starting with sword infi strike using CnD->switch backstab d/p stealth backstab ->switch and use infis return. Aside of confusing the heck out of people because they dont know what they are facing or even think you are 2 guys(funnniest thing that happened so far).

So using this as an example i want to start a little discussion:
What do you think about the nobrain decision of using Shortbow as a secondary? Is it really THAT good? Also think about the possibilitys with rifle on our elite(not a big fan but it’s the obvious). Personally i dont think full range is the way for a thief, so using something like HS for movement might get more common.

I’m interested to see some opinions and sorry for the long post.

I wasn’t aware that Shortbow was a no brainer. I ditched it for being able to run d/d and d/p at the same time because I thought it gave more utility.

It used to be a lot more useful before the invalid path changes,

which in my opinion was a ninja nerf to vertical teleports.

Archon.6481:

I wasn’t aware that Shortbow was a no brainer. I ditched it for being able to run d/d and d/p at the same time because I thought it gave more utility.

Well I meant it more like “the obvious” as my post is about it beeing overrated. Popular builds without it are extremely rare to see and the fact alone that the naming of thief builds dont even bother to write it down shortbow in the description are a pretty clear sign. And Yep thats what i thought as well. Although you might try sword instead of a second main hand dagger. Even more utility and it seems a bit like a waste to have the same weapon twice. But gonna try that aswell

I’ve been slowly going off and on with and without it but on my server at least, where my side aren’t bad but at times of the day I’m on can be a pretty slim team, being able to hit a lot of enemies at once with a decently powerful hit and having a blast finisher ends up ruling out having my S/D w/ anything other than shortbow. I tend to “roam”, or at least harvest on my own and hover around or hook up with a zerg or group if their interest converge with mine and often one of our people has to be effectively three or more.

Roaming/1vSmall? Take S/X alternate.

Blob Periphery? Take shortbow.

Shortbow was always the go-to due to the mobility/terrain hopping, evades, in-combat teleport, the most spammable blast finisher in the game, AOE Poison/Weaknes, and stomp security through the blind on IA. With more condi prevalence in the small-scale PvP formats now, the thief’s weakness to conditions is being emphasized and S/X is proving more worthwhile.

I personally always use sb for WvW roaming. Since most of my fights are either solo fights or small group I think that sb just gives better utility. The ability to drop the poison field and then cluster bomb a down in small scale gives it an edge over other sets. Add in the ability to outposition with #5, I do hold the belief that sb is highly recommended for thieves, at least if you’re running a glass set. You can put up good pressure simply through the bounces from the AA and then swap to your main set for the burst opportunities.

I still think it is more valuable than a second melee set. I mostly roam with friends in a small (2-4) group. Playing zerker 66200 I often need to get out of the fight to recover some health or cooldowns. While doing this I can bounce SB autos for 2000-2400 damage each, which is nothing to scoff at, all the while laying aoe weakness and bleeds on the enemy party.

Heck, I’ve even kited a lot of (bad) warriors and guardians from full health to death using only SB and Shadowstep utility.