Guild Wars 2

Longbow is quickly becoming one of my favorite warrior weapons. I typically use it with GS but recently I’ve been tying to use it more with Sword because as we all know it synergies very well. However, every build I’ve made thus far I haven’t felt that it was the most optimal one possible.

I do think that you need at least 25 in Arms for Attack of Opportunity because that is a significant damage boost. It seems that is is better to use the weapons in power based builds because they scale better with power than condition damage. Other good perks to have would also be Fast Hands (15 Disc) and Building Momentum (15 Str).

What offhand you want with sword seems like it could be up to personal preference. A sword would hive you Impale and Rip, the latter of which can crit for a large amount of damage. A warhorn can help to stack more might when standing in Combustive Shot and with a 20 point investment in Tactics the ability to convert a condition to a boon. It would be nice if they fixed the bugged trait Stronger Bowstrings so it would be worth taking as well. I’m sure some people will say to take Axe as an offhand but to that I simply say no. Whirling axe has less DPS than normal Axe auto attacks and while it does gain adrenaline faster and is a whirl finisher it’s more useful in PvE for dealing a lot of AoE damage but in PvP most players with a brain will just dodge out of the way and chances are you won’t catch them even if you dodge towards them. Shield is another strong contender with a stun to keep targets in the fire and a block what is always useful.

As for runes this is where I get stumped the most. Because chances are you’ll be stacking strength you could just go with 5 runes of the scholar and 1 of Divinity like most glassy builds, but I could see Runes of the Adventurer being a good fit because it gives both strength and condition damage and gaining 50% endurance on using a heal means even more dodging if used with Building Momentum and a Energy sigil.

Rather than posting what I’ve been using as of now I would like to see what you guys come up with because I do think this spec can be viable because longbow is just such a strong weapon. Because of the bows strong synergy with sword I think there’s a good reason to use it over a GS.

Hmm, I haven’t played much of LB/Sword – X, as I usually run LB/Mace-Sheild, but ill throw in a couple cents here and there.

LB works well both condi and power wise, so I think for runes either-or is fine. But strictly speaking, I think LB/Sword should run condi over power. Depending on how you are built, there are a lot of different options in condi runes. And of course, if you want to focus on bleeding, you can stack different bleed runes in order to get high bleed durations. But its probably just preference. I haven’t tried much of power LB/Sword-X.

As for traits, at least 25 is essential in Arms. I don’t need to explain why. From there I would most likely put some into Strength and Discipline, depending again, on how you play.

The way I play, I can’t run without Shield. I’ve honestly fallen in love with it.

Fire deals good dot, i play LB with power and crit for more raw dmg.

I never sPvP because of the handicap Warriors have in Conquest gamemodes, but I have about 300 hours of WvW on my Warrior, and Longbow/Sword/Sword is my favorite set in general. However, do NOT focus on conditions. Precision is the stat you want the most of. I use Knight’s armor, Rampager’s Swords/Longbow, Soldier’s backpiece/amulet, and Rampager’s accessories/rings. The best way to build a condition Warrior is to go hybrid. Warriors can only apply Bleeding and Burning, which can easily be cleansed. For runes I use full Soldier’s for the condition removal, and I keep “Fear Me!” so I have some form of interrupt on my skillbar. Permafury from “For Great Justice!” and Signet of Rage is a must. Like I said, you need lots of critical hits to keep bleed pressure on and get that extra damage in.

i just made a soldier, carrion(hybrid) dual sword lb hybrid build and played like 6 tpvp matches after reading the leaked patch note. i must say that it’s good, it does nice damage, but i felt limited.
and i couldn’t decide between fear me or berserker stance because both have their pros.

then again, zerker gs+lb or gs+axe shield is still better imo. because it’s less limited in situations and direct burst damage are just nice.

and personally, i wouldn’t go all in in precision, too much crit chance won’t help you that much. traits ofc will focus on crit damage and precision because these give the best traits for this build, but trinket i would say go for carrion, power, vital, condition (and im talking about pvp here, not to mention in wvw you can have food)

So first off, I do prefer GS with LB. The pairing grants a lot of aoe damage, and LB#5 enables 100b.

That said, I think the best angle for a sword/LB build is condi/support based. I’d suggest warhorn with condi removal because you’re going to need decent condi removal to hang in fights as a non-burst dps. Also consider using HGH style runes/sigils + fast hands; the might will stack well considering you have decent condi and direct damage with those weapons.

Of course, the problem with warrior condi is the bleed stacks are easily cured. It’s decent aside from that.

I go longbow + swd/axe . With my current runes and setup it sets up the warrior as good mid-liner(mid offense mid defense) but allows you to engage any profession ( some better thru range, other thru closeup work/selfcombos).

And yes, I do find it hilarious that you dismissed it out of hand. The finesse of axe5 is in the whirl.

An advantage of the condition warrior playstyle is that people can’t read a condition warrior as easely as the much more common zerker style, and that’s a huge bonus. People that don’t know what to expect make mistakes, and those are what a true warrior can work with to get that victory.

Kaga.7629:

I go longbow + swd/axe . With my current runes and setup it sets up the warrior as good mid-liner(mid offense mid defense) but allows you to engage any profession ( some better thru range, other thru closeup work/selfcombos).

And yes, I do find it hilarious that you dismissed it out of hand. The finesse of axe5 is in the whirl.

An advantage of the condition warrior playstyle is that people can’t read a condition warrior as easely as the much more common zerker style, and that’s a huge bonus. People that don’t know what to expect make mistakes, and those are what a true warrior can work with to get that victory.

If you can seriously say that any decent player is going to allow themselves to be hit by the majority of the Whirling Axe I can’t say I’d believe you. Not to mention dual axe is pretty much worthless when compared to a shield or another sword because you have enough Fury. A Impale/Rip does more damage than all of Whirling axe. Even with the whirl combo the DPS isn’t that great. Maybe if the rumored buff or an extra 50% damage is true I could see trying it out but currently I’ve always found the alternative to be superior.

I tried quite a few variations of Longbow + Sword/Warhorn and I couldn’t make it work. I found that I was working quite hard to keep up in combat for very little reward. Maybe it’s just me, but the game feels too clunky while using this setup. I’m having tons of success with Longbow/GS. Sadly GS is just too good to not use.

i just changed my runes to fighter and got bullrush frenzy zerker stance, i guess warriors just can’t go wrong with dem frenzies

Lighter.5631:

i just changed my runes to fighter and got bullrush frenzy zerker stance, i guess warriors just can’t go wrong with dem frenzies

I agree that Frenzy is an amazing ability. If you use Longbow, you can do without Bulls Charge, it’s so predictable, and Pin Down is just as effective for landing burst.