Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow warriors,

I recently started levelling a warrior twink and I wondered how well a warrior focused on ranged combat could do, especially the combination rifle/longbow. Basically I’m trying to find out how well a warrior can do as a ranger-without-a-pet roaming in wuvwuv.

Seeing as both weapons have sort of a focus on condition damage (rifle: bleeding, longbow: burning) my idea was to go pretty much full condition damage since both weapons would equally benefit from it. The longbow would be used for AoE damage and hard CC (blind, immobilize) while the rifle would be used for single target damage/support (vulnerability) and soft CC (cripple/immobilize with trait).

I’ve been playing around with the skills/runes and so far I’m aiming for this build:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fIIQJATUjgOxwtQGPMRCEThe4oIJCQVB7I9QMOjyA;ToAAzCpo6y4lwL7XuukftCYIA

Now my question is, how viable is this build? I know that I’m missing out some nice traits/bonuses for going tactics/30 and breaking up the runes like this, but I think having 100% uptime on Signet of Rage is worth it (especially the added critical hit chance, which alone is equivalent of over 400 points precision). I also chose the utilities with lots of defense in mind, since I’m planning on running this build in wuvwuv and my ranger always had the problem that he was pretty screwed once someone started throwing CC or burst damage his way.

So… any suggestions on how to make the build more effective? Are there already any threads/builds for ranged warriors using rifle/longbow (been using the search function but haven’t quite found what I was looking for)?

I sometimes like to go LB+Rifle on my Warrior, for me though I prefer to focus more on power than condition damage as there are so many condition removing skills in pvp.
Give this build a try, it might be something you’re interested in:

http://www.gw2db.com/skill-builds/1826-rifle-longbow-warrior

:)

Both are viable and it is best to stay in groups. 1 vs 1 fight yeah you can take on a lot of classes depending how skillful you are, but if its going to be a 1 vs zerg fight………….you’re going to lose unless warriors can go stealth or leave traps while escaping danger which they can’t.

Hi Baelnorn. Condition damage for the rifle – hmm! it shoots very slowly, so stacking up takes forever. on the other hand it does a lot of damage when stacking power and crit – im not sure its a good idea to go condition-rilfe. condition-longbow, hell yes! but i think rifle is not made for condition damage, on the contrary.

also: the weapons are for different situations: the longbow is great for defending / attacking keeps or throw some aoe in a huge zerg, the rifle is a 1v1 weapon and more or less useless in the situations where longbow makes sense. you can see this as positive since you cover all situation with both weapons, but on the other hand defending/attacking a keep can take a long time and switching weapons does not!

Honestly I think a ranger is better equipped to a condition damage build with long range weapons then a warrior. Combining longbow/rifle will screw you against heavy melee characters that know what they’re doing. Also, any character with decent condition removal capability will outright own you laughing. And most people make sure to at least have 2 skills to remove conditions.

I really only see the combination being effective in keep defense or assault. If that’s your thing, go for it. Otherwise accept that your build will probably be inferior to a lot of other warrior builds, or rangers for that matter.

I also disagree that you will be able to take on a lot of classes 1v1 like this, you should expect to lose most 1v1’s against equally skilled players. The biggest damage dealers you have (which won’t deal heavy damage anyway if you stack condition) are slow attacks of which most, if not all damage can be avoided simply by dodging.

One more thing, the 1 sec immobilize trait is best utilised on a build with two weapon sets that can inflict cripple. With rifle/longbow, you will only profit from it with the rifle 2 ability, which is a waste. Empower will be more useful.

The Rifle is primarily a single target weapon (or AoE in a straight line if traited), where the longbow is mostly targeted AoE or AoE on target (4 out of 6 longbow skills deal AoE damage: 2+3+4 and adrenaline).

The Rifle shoots very slowly and thus stacking condition damage can be hard. But if you have the trait with +33% chance to bleed on crit + sigil of earth (60% chance on crit to bleed), you get a total of about 70% chance to bleed on crit.
So combined with a crit heavy armor set, it would be decent. However, critical hits affect your flat damage output more then condition damage. With 2 major burst skills, it is thus more effective to focus on power + crit.

For longbow, it is somewhat similar, but longbow has longer cooldown on their abilities in general. 3 out of 6 skills scale with condition damage (2, 3 and burst), making condition damage pretty good. Personally, im using longbow + 2 swords in WvW fully specced into condition damage and support and i run around with my longbow about 90% of the time. The targeted AoE allows you to shoot through walls and such, making 3 and burst very potent.

In a nutshell, if you go for Rifle: max power, max crit, full burst skills
Longbow: max condition damage, full support skills

Both in one build is possible, but then you’re unable to properly defend or escape.

Leveling you will noticed kill speed is slow as ranged when compared to melee and even more noticeable if you have another class, say Necro condition based. I think the reason is the high HP+durability of the class is a tax on our ranged damage.

Cempa.3645:

Leveling you will noticed kill speed is slow as ranged when compared to melee and even more noticeable if you have another class, say Necro condition based. I think the reason is the high HP+durability of the class is a tax on our ranged damage.

Kill speed with the longbow versus 1 mob is slower, yes. But with Longbow you got a) a combo starter and b) lots of AOE.
That’s why I love Longbow: you will kill 2-3-4 mobs much faster.

Thanks for the input folks, quite some food for thought. I’m currently still levelling the warrior (although my first forays into wuvwuv went much better than expected ^^) so I guess I will get the opportunity to try a Power/Precision/Crit/CritDamage build to compare.

Any other advice regarding utilities and elite skill? Going for 100% uptime of SoR still a good idea or rather a waste of points compared to something else?

I don’t see the point while leveling. Just use x/Warhorn in rotation with SoR. That alone’s not 100% uptime, but it’s close enough.

Full Arms (Vulnerability & Bleeding & Adrenaline on Crit Traits), Full Discipline (Inspiring Shouts, Improved Signets, Adrenal Resevers). and Stronger Bowstrings in Tactics. Gear for Precision & Condition Damage. Signet of Earth on your Longbow and Signet of Blood on your Rifle.

Swap weapons and use both bursts on cooldown.