Guild Wars 2

Hi,

(Too long didn’t read summary at the bottom)

First of all I’ve been trying to figure out whether I want to play a ranger or a warrior. I seem to like ranger utility skills more than warrior since I love trapping etc and the combo fields that come with them and the warrior utility skills seem a bit “boring” to me. Then again I tremendously hate having to control a pet, and since they seem to be a big part of the ranger class in GW2 I really don’t know where to go with this. I mainly just want to play with a class that can use bows effectively, which leads into my question about warriors since they can use a longbow as well.

I’ve found very little information about viable longbow builds as the longbow in general seems to be a somewhat underrepresented weapon. So I tried coming up with my own build that would use a longbow and now my question to you guys is if something like this could/would be viable in dungeons etc (I know it probably wont be in WvW or sPvP but I don’t mind that, I’ll run other builds there)

Link to the build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAT8cjcOZvtPyQMxBEjChYIOPSipoJSKCjBE;TkAKYMBJCy6jDGpPrFGesFB

The basic idea for me was to be a hybrid between dps’ing and providing party support through banners buffs. I’d drop the longbow fire field to use blast finishers on the banners and arcing arrow and provide area might stacks. For my own dps I’d switch to dual wield swords as with the longbow comes fire condition dmg and the swords provide a lot of bleeds, which again counts as condition dmg. This syncs well with the might buffs too as they provide bonus condition dmg next to power.

Due to my little knowledge of warriors however I have no clue where to go from there. Signet of Rage seems like a good elite choice for me again due to might stacks and due to being able to get more adrenaline to get the LB finisher off asap. As for a third utility skill, I have no clue if balanced stance is a good choice or if there’s a better choice (like “For Great Justice” for example), so I’m very much open to suggestions here. Same goes for the runes as I have very little knowledge of these.

So in short: is the build, with longbow, in the link viable to play in dungeons as it is, or perhaps with minor adjustments?

Thanks for reading

Hi

Swap Strength VI for V.
I’d use Arms XI instead of XII because the Quickness won’t be very useful in long boss fights, whereas more adrenalin is useful to your build.

Your utilities lack Condition Removal. You could run with Shouts (FGJ + SIO) and as runes use Soldier Runes (6/6) to remove conditions for your party. Then you could have any Banner and for Elite also use Warbanner.

Or you can drop the banners, use Tactics IV instead of V for increased LB Range. Then run with FGJ+SIO+Balanced Stance (+SoR).

Are you sure Strength VI will end up being a bigger dmg increase than V?
I have no clue how much damage V does, but I’m not going to be spending much time with 3 adrenaline bars as I’ll be spending my adrenaline asap all the time.

I agree with Arms XI probably being better, you’re right about the boss fights.
As for Condition Removal I was hoping the trait in Shrug it off would be enough, but I’m guessing not then, too bad :/

Thanks for the input!

Aside from the fact that the damage increase from Strength VI will count towards your burst, you’re also getting more damage on 1 or 2 bars, so while doing normal attacks/combos. Damage on Powerful Banners is ridiculously low either way.

SIO isn’t alot of condition removal. There’s Signet of Stamina which cures all conditions (but doesn’t get you out of Knockdown which is a killer). Balanced Stance gets you out of the KD/stun but you can’t get rid of bleeds/poison/burning with that.

Give it a try with just SIO, if you need more than consider switching to Soldier Runes to provide your whole party with CD removal