Guild Wars 2

Tomkatt.1684:

BigCisHere.4076:

Personally, I have both a Longbow and a Shortbow equipped on my Ranger as I level.

Curious, how does this work out for you? I find for ranged play I’ll alternate between bow and axe+torch depending on if I need damage on multiple mobs or just single target, but I never really considered two single target weapons. For me it’s Longbow OR Shortbow, generally, and usually shortbow due to my playstyle (I prefer to be closer and use dodging and circle kiting, faster play on shortbow works for this for me).

I enjoy it. As I said in the post above, it’s personal preference, and whatever suits your playstyle, that’s what makes a game like this so good, there is no set way you have to play. I find that I can take down the single targets very quickly, as I very rarely find that I’m in a position where I need to fight large groups, usually it will only be 1-2, and I have the arrow pierce trait, so I usually try to line up the enemies so that I am shooting both at the same time anyway.

I’ve considered trying other weapons, especially the melee side of the Ranger. I haven’t even equipped a Greatsword yet since I made the character. I’ve considered trying out 1H Sword + Warhorn/Torch, but I find little reason to so far.

Personal preference. You have pets for melee and keeping some distance between you and the mobs, and for me, the whole Bow thing is kinda what Rangers are about, and that is what I want to feel when I play them.

Also, I’m fairly sure switching to Longbow, using the 3+2 skill will do more damage in the same period of time than you can do with a Shortbow :p Once that skill is over, you’re already most of the way to being able to switch back to Shortbow, I’ll probably throw down the 5 too, and then I’m good to switch back.

Here’s my Thief. As you can see I decided to get the Krytan armor skins. I kinda like it.

Level: 80
Server: Aurora Glade

I had this same problem with my Thief when I was full-on Power/Precision/Crit. I was just far too squishy. The way I found to solve it was to reset my traits into Vitality and Toughness. While it has affected my damage fairly significantly, I found I could take a couple more hits in dungeons. Overall, I’d say that is far more important. All my gear is still built around Power/Precision/Crit, so I still maintain good stat levels though.

The other change I found was that I seemed to aggro mobs less. There seems to be no definite reason why or how you aggro, but I seemed to get aggro all the time before, where after I switched, I could happily pound away without worrying.

I’d suggest it is completely situationally dependent. You cannot say that one is ALWAYS better than the other. Personally, I have both a Longbow and a Shortbow equipped on my Ranger as I level. I find that I am using the Shortbow a lot more though. I find that its sustained dps “feels” as though it is slightly superior to the Longbow.

However, for maximum effect, you should switch between them. In boss fights, I often switch between them as soon as it is off cooldown.

In PvE I generally find it is far too difficult to sustain the use of a Longbow, as maintaining enough distance becomes too much of a hassle for me, and to get the most out of it, you need to remain as far away as possible. So if you can do that, Longbow might be the better option, but if you find yourself regularly getting close, Shortbow is definitely worth a go.