Guild Wars 2

Last patch added two changes to the Longbow on warriors. Fan of Fire now activates almost instantly and Arching Arrow had it’s radius increased. Longbow has always been a decent choice for WvW, but now it could also be a strong choice in most areas of the game.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBjYDbkzp1t3RGiJSAYKU0lRSTpPYXSxZmB-TsAg0CnI4RxjjHDPSes8MsYFwuCA

I decided that the Flame Legion runes synergies well with the bow. Your burns last longer and you’ll be dealing 15% more damage to your burning foe and another 10% from the bleeds.

As far as usage goes, it’s a bit more complex than most warrior combos. Start with Signet of Fury followed by Pin Down. Fire your Combustive Shot then use your Bolas to insure they stay in the flames. Switch to sword/warhorn and Savage Leap to your target, which gives you a fire shield. You can also use Call to Arms to stack more might. I can’t claim that this is the most viable build in every area of the game but for me it was much more enjoyable than just using greatsword all day. It also give you good team support with might stacking.

If you start the fight with full adrenaline, after leaping into the combustion shot you can use the Signet and use Flurry to apply more bleeds.

EDIT: I’ve decided Flame Legion runes weren’t the best choice. Since them I’ve changed a few things in the build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAT8ejcOxuFPyQMxBizjkMFyrUYn7kUcGzA-TsAg0CnIKSVkrITRyisFNsYFwuCA

Lyssa runes offer a bit more utility although if you wish you could try scholar’s to maximize damage output. I also tried stacking all +pow and burn duration runes but some classes have such good condition removal it seems like it is more effective to focus on raw damage with bleeds and burn being bonus damage. I would really like to make a condition based build but without cover conditions all the damaging stacks are easily removed.

If any of you more math inclined people would like o find out it burning arrows is worth taking over 10 points in Strength I would appreciate it.

I would recommend two different sources of CC for a longbow build. By using two immobilizes, a simple cleanse and they’re on the move again. Bull’s Rush works great here, big incentive for them to pop their stun breaker. Also I wouldn’t put so much faith in bleeds because of the cleanse issue, while potentially amazing, pretty much going to be removed easily unless you’re fighting another warrior.

Flame Legion runes are meh. What is a burning stack’s duration? 2 seconds from most sources I think, so now it’ll last 2.3 seconds? Then you get a tiny bit of power and the 5% to burning foes which will make Arcing Arrow slightly stronger. Instead, I’d recommend runes of the Forge for the protection at 50%, or runes of Hoelbrak/Melandru if you are using Dogged March trait. Or a straight up offensive rune like Rage, Eagle, or Thief – remember a huge chunk of your F1 damage is not burning damage, there are ticks of physical damage that can crit upwards of 1000 if you want it to.

vorpal.1497:

I would recommend two different sources of CC for a longbow build. By using two immobilizes, a simple cleanse and they’re on the move again. Bull’s Rush works great here, big incentive for them to pop their stun breaker. Also I wouldn’t put so much faith in bleeds because of the cleanse issue, while potentially amazing, pretty much going to be removed easily unless you’re fighting another warrior.

Flame Legion runes are meh. What is a burning stack’s duration? 2 seconds from most sources I think, so now it’ll last 2.3 seconds? Then you get a tiny bit of power and the 5% to burning foes which will make Arcing Arrow slightly stronger. Instead, I’d recommend runes of the Forge for the protection at 50%, or runes of Hoelbrak/Melandru if you are using Dogged March trait. Or a straight up offensive rune like Rage, Eagle, or Thief – remember a huge chunk of your F1 damage is not burning damage, there are ticks of physical damage that can crit upwards of 1000 if you want it to.

Thank you for the feedback. Bulls could also easily be subbed in for SPvP, but for WvW bolas I find are better when chained with Pin down so when your team pulls people off the wall you can repeatedly lock them down while they desperately try to make it to the portal. Your point about burn duration is a solid one, You could also swap out the sigil of fire for smouldering which has the duration lasting longer and with both trait and runes Arching arrow can be very devastating. This build is basically warrior pretending to be a ranger. We don’t have a pet or as good of range but deal a lot more damage in addition to having access to a combo field that forces the enemy to stand in fire in order to attack gates or stand on points.

I still prefer zerker gear as the bleeds are more of a side bonus rather than something to spec in because we can’t stack nearly as fast as a shortbow can.

From playing around with longbow on my warrior, you really want to have at least one trait to increase adrenaline generation. I find Burst Mastery in Discipline is the best at that. Berserker’s Might in Strength is too hard to manage. Furious in Arms is extremely good against multiple targets (it can fill adrenaline in 3-4 seconds), but against single targets doesn’t seem that great.

For runes, Scholar is pretty popular (+10% damage while health is over 90%) and fits with a build like this designed to put out high damage quickly because it will fall over if targeted. You could play around with Pack to get the swiftness duration increase. Staying mobile is extremely important.

I used sword for a while and didn’t like it. Leap is great for mobility, but the sword offers little else. You want to use longbow as much as possible in this build and your swap should be either very defensive or have the power to finish someone off.

This build is still probably strongest in WvW. In PvP you’re still better off with GS/Axe+shield just to kill the target before it kills you. What makes it good in WvW is just tagging tons of enemies in the zerg for maximum loot bag payoff and team support.

I fell in love with longbow for spvp. Burns hit like a freight train and most people are really not expecting it. Killed countless gs warriors and mesmers are my playthings. I’m not completely happy with s/s for my wpn swap, but I do love the mobility of it and the bleeds hit pretty kitten hard till they get cleansed. If anyone hadn’t played around with longbow, I greatly encourage it. Plus the fire field does wonders for the team

sword/shield + longbow + undead runes is kinda awesome

What kind of gear do you wear on this, I assume PVT isn’t helpful… do you go condition (carrion) or just knights/etc?

kokiman.2364:

sword/shield + longbow + undead runes is kinda awesome

I use melandru on my zerg breaking gear and Lyssa on my roaming set.

I have a third testing set with undead on it and I’m not a huge fan so far.

Bump, what gears are you using? Do you go full zerker?

fost.9167:

Bump, what gears are you using? Do you go full zerker?

I would say zerkers is superior to say Rampager’s because while the extra damage on the bleeds and fire may be nice your damage will probably suffer in the long run. I would use a rune set that deals with conditions but still be focused on damage.

BurrTheKing.8571:

fost.9167:

Bump, what gears are you using? Do you go full zerker?

I would say zerkers is superior to say Rampager’s because while the extra damage on the bleeds and fire may be nice your damage will probably suffer in the long run. I would use a rune set that deals with conditions but still be focused on damage.

Or you could go full condition damage and have your Longbow 5 do 16k damage in bleed damage over 20 seconds. I have bleed many a noob in WvW to death just but hitting them with Longbow 5 and 3. Pretty funny.

Is it great? Absolutely not. It is funny to hit someone with one skill and watch them auto down because they carry no condition removal? Yes….

The bleed from 5 is pretty violent probably the best bleed source. I really like doing the burst in the middle of the zerg, then blast finisher on myself (4-6k kitteno 5 targets + burn + self might)

I surprise myself quite often how many player get downed to that.

Then I switch to melee.

Vanthian.9267:

BurrTheKing.8571:

fost.9167:

Bump, what gears are you using? Do you go full zerker?

I would say zerkers is superior to say Rampager’s because while the extra damage on the bleeds and fire may be nice your damage will probably suffer in the long run. I would use a rune set that deals with conditions but still be focused on damage.

Or you could go full condition damage and have your Longbow 5 do 16k damage in bleed damage over 20 seconds. I have bleed many a noob in WvW to death just but hitting them with Longbow 5 and 3. Pretty funny.

Is it great? Absolutely not. It is funny to hit someone with one skill and watch them auto down because they carry no condition removal? Yes….

That seems to be the problem with warrior in general atm. We have many builds that are close to being good but always fall short to something another class has. After I changed back to greatsword I was top scorer almost every match again, most of them from kills.

Everytime there’s a guy on this forum that " discovers" the longbow again, they often make the same classic mistake : Not bringing swd/axe for the secondary set.

Because the warrior selfcombo ( using combushot as starter) is only half of what it could be without your axe. How does it go ?

- combushot
- ( as combushot lands) pindown on the target.
- flip to swd/axe, savage leap (granting fireshield)
- (optinal : cripple or doubleaxe move for more fury)
- axe whirl in the firefield (skill5) to start the truly damaging part of the warrior selfcombo, the fire whirl…. where all 15 whirls of your axe shoot pewpews of fire.
- Finally, flurry with the builtup adrenaline, turn around and savage leap away in the other direction.

You want a good video showing this move? Check out dontain’s guide. While some of his runes and builds are a little wonky, the video describing the gist of the move is money.

Whiling axe has sub par DPS even with with combo field. Dual strike is also pretty mediocre. Shield provides a stun to keep the foe in the field, and is perfect for interrupting heals. Shield stance also gives you some much needed survivability. In PvP anyone with a brain will simply back off when you start spinning.

You can move the spin around with the pewpews of fire. Way back in the days i used swd/shield, so i do know how great it can be, but i found that it’s just a little too targetted for me, and the movable aoe firespin was just too good a move to miss.

But whatever. Do what you must.

Everytime there’s a guy on this forum that " discovers" the longbow again, they often make the same classic mistake : Not bringing swd/axe for the secondary set.

Because the warrior selfcombo ( using combushot as starter) is only half of what it could be without your axe. How does it go ?

- combushot
- ( as combushot lands) pindown on the target.
- flip to swd/axe, savage leap (granting fireshield)
- (optinal : cripple or doubleaxe move for more fury)
- axe whirl in the firefield (skill5) to start the truly damaging part of the warrior selfcombo, the fire whirl…. where all 15 whirls of your axe shoot pewpews of fire.
- Finally, flurry with the builtup adrenaline, turn around and savage leap away in the other direction.

Wow, that is precisely what I use and how I use it. It may not be a max/min combo but I find it incredibly useful in a variety of situations, especially carrying a pair of stunbreak utilities. I’ve tried almost all other combinations of warrior weapons (including GS), and none of them were nearly as much fun for me as the LB —> S/A —> LB synergy.