@ANet; Show longbow some love
I would love to see a trait that reduces the cooldown on our longbow abilities by 20% or so.
Do you think that the balanced the Longbow’s cooldowns around the fact that it doesn’t have a -20% trait like other weapons? Instead of nerfing the cooldowns, they nerfed the range instead (which can be traited out to 1200). The only thing that could really do with a cooldown reduction is Pin Down, but I’m not sure if other classes’ ranged immobilizes have a similar cooldown or not.
The longbow has many issues, but a cooldown trait won’t solve them.
I think the long C/D for immobilising at range is probably because warrior also has stuff like bolas, thrown axe cripple, etc. They probably wanted to give you the chance to slow people down to catch them or kite without outright stopping them forever.
Also: doesn’t GS only have two traits specific to it, like the bow?
If there’s any longbow that needs to be buffed, its the ranger’s.
If there’s any longbow that needs to be buffed, its the ranger’s.
Please dont come here to troll.
Back on subject.
The cooldown isnt necessarily what I am asking for, although it would be nice.
Longbows cooldowns are very, very close to all other weapon combinations. And every other weapon receives cool down reduction AND damage bonus in the same trait. As well as other traits that boost their effects.
Swords receive damage increase, cool down reduction, increased crit chance and the other damage increases that affect all one handed/off hand weapons. Axes (dear god, why do they INSIST I use axes?!) receive damage bonus, cooldown reduction, crit bonus, bonus adrenaline, the mainhand/off hand bonuses and more.
Longbows receive increased range and +10% damage to burning foes.
Not to mention, to get the most dps out of your bow you need to be point blank to hit your target with all 3 arrows from Fan of Fire. The AoE nuke is great. The AoE blind is good. The skills over all, I am happy with.
My whole point is the lack of traits that support using the bow. Most of the 5/15/25 traits (that are native and cannot be changed) either counter bow use or do not support it.
I really want this weapon to be viable, too.
How is longbow damage currently? I’m quite willing to trait all the way into it but I’d like to know it’s worthwhile. I see a lot of rifle use, but anyone running longbow primarily?
I’d just mash the two longbow traits into one and bam, balanced!
The problem with the Longbow seems to be more that you need to trait into it before it begins to get on par with the untraited Rifle to begin with. The extra 300 range is immense and the rifle’s relative lack of travel time between shot and impact makes it much easier to control.
When the Longbow gets traited (Both traits, mind you) it gets to equal the rifle in range and has a conditional damage buff (requires burning). Compare to the traited Rifle (only one trait) which gets reduced cooldowns (allows the 4 → 3 combo seemlessly) AND all of the attacks become piercing shots, overcoming the rifle’s weakness of single-target damage by providing it aoe.
Overall, it just seems easier and more rewarding to choose the rifle. It seems like the only reason to use longbow at all lies in access to the burning condition and the warrior’s one combo field.
Yeah it does seem like you’re being politely asked to play a dual axe/rifle warrior.
Don’t get me wrong, Longbow could have its place. It is just that it seems more restricted by being in the Tactics line. If you’re going for a support/control-oriented warrior to begin with it isn’t a bad choice. But for the “mad deeps” it doesn’t quite have the ability to compare, especially with bleeds stacking in intensity.
Kinda agree. I started a warrior the other day because of the longbow skills (seriously, I love longbow’s but the ranger’s one sucks). Warriors ones are actually pretty awesome. However I didn’t realise how, relative to other weapons, poorly traited it is as a weapon.
Shame as it seems a perfect siege weapon for WvW which i really enjoy.
There is one place where the longbow shines over the rifle and that is a siege, especially if you’re attacking.
Longbow is nice in dungeons, nice in siege but has no place anywhere else.
Longbow 1 damage is so bad, it’s so so bad. I had a longbow warrior shooting me in an spvp match with one. I had my adrenal health regen going and my healing signet, and honestly my health didn’t even go down. The best thing about longbow is 3 and the adrenal. But so very avoidable sadly, unless you longbow 5 then throw them out.
Equip a Superior Sigil of Earth on the Longbow. Stack Crit and Condition Damage. Make sure you also have the trait that causes bleeding on crit and increases the duration of your bleeds by 50%. I go full arms and full discipline. My auto-attack crits for around 600 × 2 (1200) with ~5 bleeds up ticking for ~100 each. Burning ticks for around 6-700. Arcing Arrow crits for around 4k as an aoe and your burst combo field also pulses direct damage. You never see huge numbers but when layered out it all adds up to respectable damage
If you weapon swap with a Hammer (recommend Sigil of Fire because of the CD) you’ll put out a lot of steady AoE DPS. This is my build (Copy and Paste Link): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJATSngOk8YUQ6OwEZg48gKJh8qHwxOyJVoMA;TkAg1U3YuRcj9G3NybWWMqA
In dungeons I’ll usually switch out the Signet of Might to the Banner of Discipline to be less selfish (and switch to the Banner Trait as well).
The auto attack needs to be like 50% faster to be effective or more damage on it.
The auto attack needs to be like 50% faster to be effective or more damage on it.
The auto attack already hits twice. That’s two chances to crit and two chances at a projectile finisher. Rifle’s auto attack is 100% reliable at stacking bleeds, but a Longbow’s auto attack is twice as reliable at proccing other effects. Since Longbow has a dedicated combo field, the logic behind the damage starts to make more sense (you have the potential to apply two applications of burning with each auto attack).
You’ll get more regeneration from water fields and apply more poison through poison fields. You’ll be more consistent proccing Sigil of Earth or Fire and proccing Bleeds and Vulnerability from the Arms tree.
Granted, this is in evaluating the auto-attack only. Once you consider the combo chances from Volley, Aimed Shot, and Brutal Shot cooldowns versus the consistent AoE chances from the Longbow the math gets too complicated for me.
What I don’t understand is why they don’t add the damage together like all other abilities that hit multiple times.
Equip a Superior Sigil of Earth on the Longbow. Stack Crit and Condition Damage. Make sure you also have the trait that causes bleeding on crit and increases the duration of your bleeds by 50%. I go full arms and full discipline. My auto-attack crits for around 600 × 2 (1200) with ~5 bleeds up ticking for ~100 each. Burning ticks for around 6-700. Arcing Arrow crits for around 4k as an aoe and your burst combo field also pulses direct damage. You never see huge numbers but when layered out it all adds up to respectable damage
If you weapon swap with a Hammer (recommend Sigil of Fire because of the CD) you’ll put out a lot of steady AoE DPS. This is my build (Copy and Paste Link): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJATSngOk8YUQ6OwEZg48gKJh8qHwxOyJVoMA;TkAg1U3YuRcj9G3NybWWMqA
In dungeons I’ll usually switch out the Signet of Might to the Banner of Discipline to be less selfish (and switch to the Banner Trait as well).
Thank you for this!
I really like my longbow, but the above poster is quite correct in saying that you must spec into it very deliberately to be any good. I got the precision/toughness/condition damage gear from TA and have been quite happy in WvW. It does sort of stink in that the gear will be only good for the longbow or a sword build but that’s sort of how it had to go if I was going to use the longbow really effectively.
It really needs to have the same base range as the rifle. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t. For god’s sake, I can throw a rock farther than the rifle can shoot in this game, and the bow is even shorter than that.
I’d say #2 needs to be completely changed it’s garbage unless used point blank and #4 needs to either do more damage or cause a smoke field for like 3s or so.
Tarnished Coast
So, I use longbow/hammer for the most part, and while the stronger bowstrings trait has some strange inconsistencies everywhere(check how the skills change when you swap that trait), one thing that does happen to it is that all the attacks(arcing is a burst) become 100% projectile finishers.
Lately I have been combining berserker’s stance to charge the adrenal quickly while using arcing shot to begin the attack by obtaining might, followed by fan of fire, then quickly attacking with the other two attacks. (the blind has a slight AOE to it, and is a projectile finisher with the trait, so it will cause more burning). If I have time, i often slam a banner down for additional might. If i had charged a shot before battle, the second burst will come after i activate berserkers. After a second round of it, your berserker’s stance should be somewhat close to reactivating and the cycle can repeat.
The only issue is that the bind and blind attacks are on a longer recharge, so you cant rely on using them to continue the fire chain as much.
Im not traited into condition damage nor duration, currently being purely slated for defensive and team assistance, but I found that even with my poor traits the high damage of fire is very useful.
Combining this combo with condition damage and certainly the discipline traits, i could see this becoming very very damaging.
one thing that does happen to it is that all the attacks(arcing is a burst) become 100% projectile finishers.
That… is amazing. I never took the talent because I usually longbow in melee. I wonder if that is by design or if it is a bug?
If there’s any longbow that needs to be buffed, its the ranger’s.
This is very true.
Longbow on my Warrior is great as it is.
longbow is a beast in WvW, easily denies closed-range siege like rams and clears the walls in seconds thanks to the aoe burst and arching shot. the immobilize is also one of the most evil catching skills in the game. it might not work in spvp or pve.. (though when i get surrounded by 6-7 wolves – out with the bow and burn, dogs!), but in WvW there is no better siege weapon except maybe from engineers. tbh i find the longbow to be close to overpowered in defending / attacking keeps. the effect im having in sieges with my newb equipment is quite devastating, want to see a real longbow warrior with condition damage and critical.. should be really scary.
Until they increase the travel time on the aoe abilities, the longbow is a melee aoe/combo support weapon.
Hitting with the #3 at melee range only has the delay of the cast time, and the burst ability is instant cast. I have hit people for 10k with the #3 while they were on fire, but that was after using a bull’s rush to get into melee, then lighting them up.