Guild Wars 2

When I play PvP and get tired of running Shoutbow (or we already have one), my build of choice is going to be Greatbow. It’s fast and has good AoE and is also a decent challenge to play as well. That being said, there are a ton of ways to run this build. I still haven’t found the version I deem to be the best version.

Here are some of the most effective versions I have found:

Version 1

This is the standard version. One of my issues with it is that if I play smart, I may not need the Defy Pain trait and when it triggers it only ends up delaying the inevitable. I’m starting to favor Spiked Armor because it’s a good way to deal consistent damage vs foes that try to kite you. If you don’t end up needing Defy Pain, it’s useless, but Spiked Pain is almost always worthwhile.

Version 2

The 2 points in Tactics can go in Strength but I find myself liking Leg Specialist because it is very useful for setting up skills like Bull’s Charge and Rush. It also means that both the initial hit and the return hit of Bladetrail lands as well. If you use BT at point blank you can also use it to get a few hits of 100b in as well. The question is, do these benefits offset the 10% extra damage from Slashing Power and the damage on roll?

Version 3

Focused around might stacking. I used to think this was one of the better versions but I’m starting to think Ver. 1-2 are better from the start since this build takes some time to get the damage going.

Version 4

This one is kinda interesting. If you go Pin Down + 100b you’ll make up for not having Slashing Power and so long as you keep at least 1 bleed on that damage boost applies to your LB as well.

There’s a few other’s but they’re most variants of one of the 4 above. I wanted to know what other Greatbow users thought was the most powerful version. This build isn’t really “meta” per-say but I think it can fill a similar role of a teef if played well (my group of friends has hardly any teef players).

P.S ANet, please revert the Building Momentum “fix” please, thank you.

EDIT: The general consensus is that Version 1 is the superior version and I tend to agree. While they all have their strengths relying on traits that have a random chance to proc to potentially deal more damage isn’t worth the guaranteed dmg of the points in strength. The damage of dodge skill is also very good for blind removal.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Warrior_-_GS/Longbow

Hoaxintelligence.4628:

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Warrior_-_GS/Longbow

Just because it’s on metabattle does not instantly make it the best version of a build. I’m looking for the rational behind your choice.

lol yes I know that.
I just like this version and version 3, cause of burstmastery and forcefull greatsword wich is a very good combi.
immo over bullscharge cause of the short cd + pindown = allot of immo wich is like.

But in general I have more succes with hambow.

After some testing, I’d have to say that the first build seems to be the most effective in general. While you’re correct in that Defy Pain isn’t particularly useful in 1v1 fights (unless it’s a very close duel anyways), I find that it’s rather good in team fights and for securing stomps. Since Healing Signet gives constant health regeneration, the bit of extra durability that Defy Pain adds is an excellent opportunity to get out of the fight with greatsword skills and kite around while healing up. By contrast, Spiked Armor won’t help as much if the other team decides to focus you, as the retaliation damage will be spread out among all their members.

As for the second build, although Leg Specialist is nice for landing bursts, losing 200 power, 20% condition duration, Slashing Power, and Great Fortitude (which is more valuable if you’re planning to take Defy Pain, as it reduces the chance of being one-shot) doesn’t seem worth it, especially when your only access to cripple is Bladetrail. Personally, I’d prefer to slot Throw Bolas over Bull’s Charge – they’re both rather buggy skills, but I’ve been able to land the bolas pretty consistently by only using it in melee range, which is fairly easy to maintain with this build’s mobility. Its cooldown is significantly shorter, the immobilize has a longer duration, it persists through stunbreaks, and your ability to apply trash conditions with the greatsword and longbow should be able to hinder peoples’ attempts to cleanse it off themselves. Even if someone does manage to remove it, the brief cooldown means you can just re-apply it 20 seconds later.

As for the last two builds, I’m not really a fan of relying on the on-crit traits for damage. The precision and condition damage boosts from the Arms line aren’t too optimal; you should already be able to maintain constant Fury uptime with Pack runes, Signet of Rage, and Arcing Slice, and your only damaging conditions are on your longbow, which attacks too slowly to reliably proc the bleed trait. By contrast, Strength offers additional power, which is always useful, and condition duration, which will lengthen your immobilize durations to 3.5 and 4.75 seconds respectively for more reliable bursts with Hundred Blades. As for the traits themselves, I believe you’d need to maintain around 8 stacks of might with Forceful Greatsword to match the 10% bonus from Slashing Power (and if you’re critting that often, the other person is probably already dead). The cooldown reduction on greatsword skills is largely redundant, since if you’re swapping weapons consistently they’ll almost always be off cooldown when you swap back anyways. Attack of Opportunity isn’t a bad trait, but you’re dropping Destruction of the Empowered to take it, which will weaken your damage against boon-heavy builds and/or anyone who’s being supported by a shoutbow warrior.

@Torqiseknite.1380 I basically agree with your assessment. It’s just too unreliable to depend of “on crit” traits that may or may not decide to proc when you can just have a flat increase.

The first version is my preference (though I personally take mobile strikes instead of DotE). Also I would find it hard to take bulls charge or bolas over endure pain, as I would probably end up using bulls charge primarily defensively anyway?

I wonder if you shouldn’t also put a cele greatbow build into consideration? No question it’s very strong, and well worth considering. Would never be my preference, but hey! Something like this: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQJARTjMdUFahHmhwJaAmgCZnPBHjgAQdV85LBA-TpBHwAAuAAGeAACOEABOCAl2fAZZAA

I think the problem with not having Bull’s Charge is that you then only have the combo of Pin Down +100b and other than that you’ll only maybe use 100b to cleave on downed enemies. At least with BC you got 2 ways of taking advantage of it.

As for Cele…I can see it being OK but I think what makes Cele good is when both of your sets take real advantage of power and condi (like sword). GS is pure power and any condis you get out of it are only gonna come from runes/sigils.

I Find frenzy+rampage very strong on GS specially with berserker amulet.

For the first build or standard version, I find your selection for discipline wasteful. Seeing as you’re using runes of the pack and you aren’t going to be camping greatsword all of the time, warrior’s sprint is useless. Signet mastery would be more useful than it for signet of rage or actually, vigorous focus maybe because you have two stances.

Other than that looks good.

Purple Miku.7032:

For the first build or standard version, I find your selection for discipline wasteful. Seeing as you’re using runes of the pack and you aren’t going to be camping greatsword all of the time, warrior’s sprint is useless. Signet mastery would be more useful than it for signet of rage or actually, vigorous focus maybe because you have two stances.

Other than that looks good.

I generally use Rampage or Banner as my elite. So, when I’m out of combat and in between points it’s useful to have the speed. Also, if the swiftness gets stripped you can still avoid getting kited.

Also to those above, I used to be anti DotE but I find that I actually like being immobed when I use Whirlwind attack as that can be a good 7k damage if they’re next to you. It’s also very useful for killing Eles I find and in team fights almost everyone has at least 3 boons.

If it’s a hotjoin I never take anything but signet of rage, but on unranked/ranked I would always take warbanner yeah.

In teamplay anything besides shoutbow just seems too inefficient/pointless to me though. It’s perfect for teamplay because you have such brokenly-overpowered sustain with shouts and in full celestial, and everyone focuses you because they know it’s pointless to focus someone else when you have warbanner equipped. So, yeah. Shoutbow or bust :/

However GS/Longbow is pretty powerful for 1v1ing, whereas shoutbow isn’t really and is only good for winning on point most of the time.

Either way good thread.

I agree that Shoutbow is just stupidly effective. That being said, I’m hoping that the teef gets enough tweaks that maybe a build like this becomes viable as a replacement as roamer. From a streaming PoV it’s a way more interesting build imo compared to d/p. The AoE on Greatbow is also way better.

I want to eventually get good enough at this build that I don’t need Defy Pain and can maybe run something like Spiked Armor which will increase my damage output.