Guild Wars 2

nagymbear.5280:

Durzlla.6295:

Gorwald.6170:

Durzlla.6295:

@Gorwald, you do realize trapper builds are one of our best builds atm right? It’s an insanely strong home point defender, and can bring quite a bit to a team fight in terms of AoE pressure and area denial as well.

As someone else said all you need to make ranger strong in wading through zergs is to pair them with a guardian and/or warrior who can give them some stability or be a signet ranger and also use enlargement.

My Necro Wells build > largely any traper build of rangers.

Did traps give protection to people inside? Wells do
Did traps heal the ranger on each tick? Wells do
Did traps can crit? Wells do
Did traps can remove conditions of friends teammates? Wells do
Did traps can remove buffs of ennemies? Wells do
Did traps can blind? Wells do
Did traps can be effective while spreading points in trees? No traps need 30 points in preci/%crit damage to be effective (lol), wells are effective and you can spread points in differents lines to have passive bonus to them

Sorry to dissapoint you…but wells > traps

And saying that to be effective you have to pair with a warrior or a guardian…lol

Warrior btw give stability with elite banner, i really doubt any warrior whould break an instant rez just to give stability to a ranger….or it’s a really dumb warrior

And to have stability as a ranger you choice Rampage as one or a signet who need 30 point in a trait line to affect you…lol

So what you’re saying, is because you can provide better support with wells and they have better effects (they kittening better when they’ve got double the CD) that well necro is better at home point defense than a trap ranger? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

You know how you counter a well necro? You get out of their wells, wait 12s then you go back and kick their teeth in because they can’t do jack kittening kitten now because all their kitten is on CD, for a trap ranger if you try that he’s gonna just throw his traps back onto you and knock you down in them so you get nice and dotted up.

PS: incase you didn’t realize trap builds are hybrid damage, that’s why they’re so effective at killing people.

Trap builds are hybrid damage? You mean you are running traps with Carrion gear? When I used to run around in Carrion (mind you I didn’t play ranger as good as I do now) it felt rather squishy. Even if you have 23k hp, low toughness is just meh… Can you link a build of hybrid damage trapper? I reeeeeaaaaally hope it has pvt/rabid/zerker/knight gear… cause that is what I have.

Try Carrion again and maybe add toughness in your accessories or something. You might feel a bit squishy at first but as you get more experience you get used to it and the traps hit HARD.

My only suggestion would be to not use the bear if you want a tank use a drake or something. TBH your play style seems perfectly viable as LB+SB works very well because one excels at long range and other excels at closer ranges. Most rangers don’t switch up their pets according to situations especially the different F2s. Try to get your jungle stalker/red moa to help give might/fury to your teammates as well and your chipping in perfectly fine. Maybe bring a couple spirits out for some bosses?? You sound like you have a decent grasp of the class and especially after the LB update it is WAYYY more viable to use now so you should be fine unless some elitists still feel ranger is totally underpowered.

1. Fernhound isn’t a bad pet and a heal is always welcome but you do have to remember that switching pets often depending on your situation is the best way to play. Don’t be stubborn and ONLY use your fernhound. It can be a primary pet but make sure to switch when necessary.

2. General meta for rangers is berserkers if your doing PvE maybe rampagers. Basically power, precision, condition damage, critical damage are all what your aiming for especially if your using a bow. If you decide to go GS or S/x maybe try some vitality in there but remember in PvE DPS and support are key so gear yourself for that.

3. RARELY do I ever send in my pet for a suicide because they are 1) part of our DPS 2) Good rangers utilize pet F2 VERY OFTEN. I rarely ever want my pet dying unless I am trying to run past some enemies so I have him occupy them while I run past and then switch pets as soon as I am clear. Many bash the constant presence of the pet but remember their F2 is meant to be used often as is micro management of them you can’t just attack and let them auto attack also.

4. LB is a power weapon vs SB is a condition/control weapon. I use LB+SB and I start of attacks with LB hit them with raw power and when they start closing in range I switch to SB. To be a good ranger you need to consistently be weapon swapping to fit the necessary scenario and switch pets depending on what is needed. That is why there are few good rangers out there simply because the class needs more micro managing than other classes.

5. Rangers really shine in PvE roaming. You can also be pretty handy in dungeons if you know what you are doing and SPvP rangers are pretty darn good. Especially with the LB update you can be very effective in dungeons now if you keep your pet alive/use group friendly utilities and pets. Just because you have 1200 range doesn’t mean stand back there and fire away. Engage the enemy from 1200 but remember as soon as they start closing in you should be changing your own method of attack to counter them. In PvP the pet especially felines and birds prove to be really good burst attacks along with yourself allowing you to be a pretty strong SPvP player. Spirits used to be dominant but got nerfed a bit. They are still viable just not even close to how much they used to be. WvW we are pretty decent in small groups with a LB + GS. Overall ranger playstyle is very different when compared to other classes and does need more micro management especially after the recent updates making the ranger more on par with other classes now.

Depends on what your looking for. Dungeons/fractals/PvE your going to want to play berserker and not use the bear. Trait something like 30/30/10/x/x especially if your using LB + SB. Use red moa/jungle stalker/spider/wolf or something that gives your party benefits like fury,might,immob,fear. Bear also puts out too little damage and its f2 really isn’t worth it. As a ranger you can actually do some damage with might and your LB now as they increased the damage and take full advantage of that. You should be able to easily hit 1.5k+ per shot at some range and switch to SB when they close in. If your going to use axe/warhorn you might want to trait a little differently so that call of the wild can be up a lot. This is all for PvE as a crit/power ranger who constantly gives might/fury is a pretty decent addition to any dungeon/PvE party.

If you want to play PvP theres a wide range of builds you can play that are very effective like LB + GS, SB+ S/W, etc. Try what you like the most and trait accordingly.

Kjeldoran.3849:

@OP
why to go full zerker and get stucked at “2362” power when with my power build guide you get 2365 power, 50% crit chance, 72% crit damage, 1600 toughness and 18k hp?
my build isn’t “full zerker” had ton of survivability and only a food counted for those stats (there is a free food slot; i put in only "master maintenance oil to get 50% crit chance) and i actually get higher damage… that should make you think on “is a berserker ranger what i need?”

see you.

Yea your build is meant for wvw I don’t do wvw. I’m a PvE and PvP type guy.

I am a berserker ranger playing 30/30/10 and with full exotic berserker gear and an ascended amulet my attack still is only 3262. I have rune of the ranger instead of rune of the scholar. But still isnt 3262 attack still low? This is without nourishments/food can any other berserker rangers help me out?

Linguistically Inept.6583:

restoration.2806:

Why use it on a LB? LB is ideal only when your not in the fray. If your in the middle of the fight use SB/Sword/GS/Axe. Standing far away and having flame blasts AoE around you isn’t productive.

the flame blast is around the target that it procced on…

- also flame blast for 1.8k

oh didn’t know that.

Why use it on a LB? LB is ideal only when your not in the fray. If your in the middle of the fight use SB/Sword/GS/Axe. Standing far away and having flame blasts AoE around you isn’t productive.

JMadFour.9730:

so…suppose I want to be a more “Critty” type ranger. I guess I would focus on Power and Crit? Does that necessarily take Shortbow out of the equation for me? If I use a SB on a Power/Crit build, would I be missing out on anything?

I’m not sure exactly the basics of how Ranger Builds work, especially weapon-wise. But I figure going for Power and Crit with the Greatsword is a viable option?

It all depends on where your playing. I’m a power/crit ranger (30/30/10/0/0) and I use LB and SB and carry a GS with me at all times. The LB works great with power/crit especially rapid fire. I have 60% crit chance and 95% crit damage and LB would be my choice if GS is your other weapon solely so that you can deal a few hard hitting crits before you close in with GS. Barrage and PBS are underrated in the sense that the knockback is extremely useful and the CC AoE is something almost no other class has. Although I would recommend a different setup of armor or traits if your going WvWvW. I use LB/SB for PvE and LB/GS for WvWvW. For PvP i play a completely different build.

Send me an invite I’d literally only play my ranger and sometimes my necro. I’d like to run some 5 ranger dungeon groups.

You’ll be fine in pve and pvp as a ranger. A lot of people whine at rangers because there are a lot of rangers who SUCK. Compared to other classes we have to swap out skills during dungeons more often along with pets to be truly effective. Rangers are king of open roaming in PvE and actually a group of 5 rangers actually can do dungeons faster than 5 warriors. It is just a harder class to play with a lot less competent player group. Although there are issues i still have with the class like the longbow speed, pet f2, pet responsiveness, aoe on pets, large amount of useless utilities, and some traits need to be reshuffled/reworked.

Don’t listen to those guys but if your looking to play 10/0/30/0/30 go sword + torch & shortbow. Maybe a greatsword instead of sword + torch. Use birds, canines, felines, drakes as your pets. Your gonna be running a power/condition damage build. Look at the CoF or SE dungeon armor with Power, Vita, Condition damage. Same with your accessories. Make sure power and condition damage are boosted. They way your specced prec doesn’t seem like a good fit. And conditions work in wvwvw as your torch + any traps you run hit hard. Your runes depend on if your doing dungeons or wvwvw/pvp. In dungeons focus on power/condition damage in pvp toughness serves better.

Well I meant the damage boost from eagle eye. anyone know how much that is?

Is this trait worth it? I’m currently traited at 20-30-10-0-10 but thinking of retraiting to 20-30-20. I have full knights and full berserkers I’m just wondering if piercing arrows would benefit. I’m a LB/SB ranger. Currently have eagle eye and was wondering how much damage that actually boosts?

i think tpvp is where rangers actually shine. I use QZ and protect me and SoH as my utilities but I’ve seen many builds use other signets to much success. In tPvP rangers with GS/sword/SB are great and the pet really makes a difference. Spirits are trash and shouldnt be used in PvE or PvP. You can use that SoS also in conjunction with protect me and your invincible for 6 seconds. Muddy terrain also is great makes your target immobile as hell. There are many builds out there with traps that are great with S/T or S/D even GS or SB.

Obviously there is a problem with Ranger DPS while some over exaggerate and others down play the problem the reality lies somewhere in between where Ranger damage isn’t TERRIBLE but needs to be addressed. I think the problem lies in that the pet is not constantly dealing damage as there are some issues with pathing and the the pet in general. A possible solution to address DPS to have a somewhat more constant stream would be no CD for pet swap. While effects for pet swap should still have an internal CD the actual F4 swapping of pets should not have any CD or a relatively low CD likes (3-5 seconds). I feel this would still require management of pets as Anet has envisioned to be an effective ranger while allowing a more constant output of damage rather than the huge drop when your pets are downed. There are so many one hit k.o.‘s on our pets that we should be able to constantly swap them so that we can avoid boss AoE’s and provide a more stable stream of damage. I think this is a decent solution to an already some-what handicapped class in the sense of damage. Our pet is supposed to be an extension of us but they don’t possess the same survivability or dodging abilities/mental prowess the player does so allowing more pet swapping to counter the one hit kills should be viable.

There seems to be a great deal of stereotyping that indicates I can’t dodge or I stand at 1200-1500 range only using my longbow and don’t move a muscle. That was not part of the question at all solely my gear. Doing the math switching to zerkers gear I’m gaining only just about 190 power. The only benefit is that my crit damage rises from 35% to around ~60%-65%. Is that worth it? Or should I switch my accessories to zerker and keep knights on? Does 190 power really make that much of a difference?

x per fection x.2096:

restoration.2806:

I play longbow ranger and I kill PvE. Full knight’s helps alot. But I do agree that melee seems to be favored.

So you stand at 1200-1500 and auto attack while your team does all the work plus use a useless stat like toughness over crit damage because your unable to dodge the 1/2 attacks that might come your way per dungeon at that range and say you agree? Come on now.

Don’t forget to spam that point blank shot every time a guard uses binding blades for maximum dps!

Thats quite a stereotype. Maybe playing something besides CoF P1 and a class besides warrior might open up your mind.

Btw my current gear is knights. Power Precision and Toughness.

Well I do use longbow but I am definitely in the thick of the fight with my shortbow many times. But it sounds to me like it doesn’t really matter I should just go for DPS and glass cannon.

I’m a big dungeon player and ever since launch I’ve always been of the belief that survivability is key in dungeons so I have always tried to increase my toughness/armor. Currently I lay just below 2800 armor. I’m a longbow/shortbow ranger and was told that armor doesn’t really matter in dungeons. I’m wondering am I being inefficient in thinking that I should have some armor and survivability and should I switch to zerker gear. I’m traited 20/30/10/0/10. Or is it that armor is actually a benefit to have and those telling me to switch to zerkers have no basis?

Galtrix.7369:

Ethics.4519:

You’re…. you…. what? Huh?

This game FAVORS melee. D/D ele destorys most content. People prefer GS warrior over longgow/rifle. People prefer D/D ele over staff ele, people prefer D/D thief over sbow thief, people prefer sword/anything mesmer over GS mesmer.

You play one class and one weapon set and that’s how you determine this game doesn’t favor melee? Here’s a hint, if you want to go melee, don’t pick a ‘magical’ based class.

+1. I play staff Elementalist, longbow Ranger, and greatsword Mesmer and I get destroyed in PvE a lot. I’m forced to build Berserker gear, and I can do nothing but slow the enemy down until they get to me and 2 hit me. This game favors Melee characters, not ranged.

I play longbow ranger and I kill PvE. Full knight’s helps alot. But I do agree that melee seems to be favored.

Yaki.9563:

restoration.2806:

Broadicea.8294:

You can do the story dungeons as you’re levelling up, but honestly I’d just wait until you’re 80 to do the explorable modes. Hitting 80 is really easy, so you wouldn’t be waiting long.

Other than that, I’d suggest finding a good core group of friends/guildies who you can reliably group up with for dungeons.

I disagree this is the reason so much trash is doing AC now. Start at 35 and contribute immediately to each dungeon as soon as you hit the recommended level. That way when you are 80 you know what your doing. I have 80s but I also have lower level chars who I play dungeons with. The idea is to know how to play rather than be solely level 80 but still be terrible at the game. Find a helpful guild and keep leveling. Don’t skip dungeons just cause your not level 80.

Hmm, have a lvl 35 clueless noob or a lvl 80 clueless noob…I’ll take the lvl 80 thanks. Your post implies that somehow beyond all reason the lvl 35 is going to magically learn faster or something than the lvl 80.

A level 80 clueless noob doesn’t know hes clueless while a level 35 clueless noob does. Its mentalities like yours that create this endless population of level 80 garbage that is flooding dungeons nowadays.

This is an MMORPG emphasis on the MMO part. If you want to play by yourself in an MMO open world it. The dungeons are meant for team play. But again this is an MMO.

Broadicea.8294:

You can do the story dungeons as you’re levelling up, but honestly I’d just wait until you’re 80 to do the explorable modes. Hitting 80 is really easy, so you wouldn’t be waiting long.

Other than that, I’d suggest finding a good core group of friends/guildies who you can reliably group up with for dungeons.

I disagree this is the reason so much trash is doing AC now. Start at 35 and contribute immediately to each dungeon as soon as you hit the recommended level. That way when you are 80 you know what your doing. I have 80s but I also have lower level chars who I play dungeons with. The idea is to know how to play rather than be solely level 80 but still be terrible at the game. Find a helpful guild and keep leveling. Don’t skip dungeons just cause your not level 80.

Your build hurts my soul

They don’t stack?

Yea I do lol does that make a difference?

Does anyone else feel that when you have the trait that gives you swiftness on weapon switch in combat your not actually going faster? I see that I get the boon for the proper duration and I can see the animation on my feet except I’m not actually going faster. This is purely for the swiftness on weapon switch not for any other sources of swiftness.

To counter what everyone says about the LB it is NOT a bad weapon. I use LB/SB and it works fine in dungeons just gotta know when to use it. LB works ideally when specced for precision as my crit rate is 60% and between 900-1500 range LB hits HARD. Obviously you can’t always sit back and fight hence in SB is my secondary. Weapon swapping is key to using the LB it hits hard at far range and if you have a couple guardians/warrs holding aggro LB works great in compliment. As far as pets I try to use pigs as their drops are great for dungeons, drakes because they can tank and hit hard, moas for their buffs, spider/dog for immob. Bears are not really good in dungeon because of low damage and even though they have the highest vitality it doesn’t prevent them from getting one-shotted so really kinda useless in dungeons. Open world is a different story though.

Hey guys i havent played in 6 months and recently started up again. I heard some talk about how pets scale up with your stats now? Can some one explain? Is it your overall stats or just your traits? Any other news about pets would be appreciated also lol.

I haven’t played in a good 6 months and was wondering how the game’s population is. I play on sorrows furnace and am PST I was wondering what the most populated servers are. BTW I am from the U.S. and was wondering which server has the most people.

I know this topic is about pets but I was wondering if the Longbow has ever been discussed. I am a LB user because I like the playstyle of a standard ranger from the backlines and my swap is an SB. I feel that the LB needs somewhat of a damage/speed increase maybe? I play a power/crit build and think maybe an increase in damage might make the LB more comparable to the SB in terms of damage. Any thoughts?

Hellrazor.3804:

Jay.3284:

20/25/10/0/15

Brown Bear/Red Moa

-Zerker Gear w/ a mix of Knights
-Long or Short, your preference
-Healing Spring/QZ/LR/Muddy Terrain (or whatever)/Entangle

Or… Make a warrior/guardian

What do you mean by mix or zerker and knights? whats the balance? some people say that we should be sitting at around 50% crit and that everything else above is a waste. So should I aim for some crit cap with zerker and then go knights or? How much toughnes do you usually have for dungeons in order to survive more than 2 shots?

He means a mix of berserkers and knights gear so you get some toughness but I don’t think that really helps. Basically if your trying to run a crit build go for power/prec/toughness which is knights gear. I run 20/30/10/0/10 and currently sit at 2600 armor. Crit chance is 54% with LB and 57% with SB. Go for a mix of berserkers/rampagers/knights accessories. Basically have armor sit between 2500-2800. Rangers have moderate HP so no need to really pump vita gear unless you really want to. This also only works if your a ranged ranger. If you use sword/GS or anything like that you can spec the same but have to gear differently. In dungeons you want to have good survivability and decent DPS. At 2600 armor I can take a few hits and I crit for ~1200 with LB.

My one question that I have is that when you enter DS just to proc the fury does the fury proc immediately or start when you exit DS?

Esrever.8613:

well 20/0/30/20/10 is decent from what I can tell. Which is what I run and I use sb and gs ( mainly sb ). I use healing/toughness/power accessories and conditional/power/vitality armor and conditional runes.

I do good conditional damage and am very survivable.

Ummmm 20/0/30/20/10 is impossible but I use 20/30/10/0/10 and im a power/prec/crit ranger using Knights armor and accessories. Knights works perfectly giving me toughness prec and power. Obviously berserkers would be better but I would be full glass cannon then making me no help in dungeons. Try getting exotics asap. You can buy cheap masterwork 80 armor while you work on exotics. I think the dungeon armor is probably the easiest to get.

Link for the build says bad link repost?

Some one said that no trinity requires everyone to pull their own weight. That’s the problem there seem to be so many 80s that CANNOT pull their own weight. (I am a PvE and a SPvP player). In dungeons it is PAINFULLY obvious when some one is not pulling their own weight and it seems recently the number of them has increased exponentially. I am so tired of getting groups at times not able to run simple TA runs or even AC. Because you are in charge of your own healing and dps and at the same time trying to contribute to the group some players are overwhelmed. Either they are glass cannons that can’t stay alive or they have low DPS and can only seem to mash one and not use other skills. In GW1 a good player could mask the weaknesses of other players like when 8 man groups used to have 2 warriors a good tank could negate the terrible skill of the second warrior or a good healer could negate low dps. But now say you have a player that cannot pull their weight it KILLS the dungeon. The trinity helped teamplay as a whole making things easier now with that gone in GW2 bad players are much more obvious.

skittlebob.4850:

The pet’s problems begin to shine in 10+ fractals. No amount of healing, 30 BM, traits will save your pet from problems such as boss AOE, Jade Maw insta down, and random 1 hits from bosses where you can’t even anticipate when to F3 your pet back. Coupled with the ridiculously long swap cooldown if your pet has been downed, and you get a crippled ranger that can’t deal kitten. If anyone, lower the kitten cooldown to 10 seconds.

This really nails the problem. Basically you can’t anticipate the random 1 hits from bosses to F3 and the Boss AoE. Jade Maw insta down is pure garbage shouldnt target pets at all if they can’t use the dam crystals.

yea im a 80 ranger and my pets do fine in dungeons except bosses. Thats when I know they die. The management needed on regular/veteran mobs is fine as it is. But the problem is the massive AoE that one hits players, how are pets who have less hp than players supposed to withstand that? With no dodge ability either. Anet needs to address this. And I still see a problem with pets hitting moving targets much better than before but still noticeable esp in fractals.

Can some one explain gear progression to me? Does it make your stats better? Is ascended gear better stat wise? I thought it was only for the infusion slots for agony resist.

Yes but not in a scepter/focus kind of way. D/D with staff necro and high vitality is the kind of tank you want to run. Try bringing well of darkness to give all those blind every 1 sec around you and switch to DS when you actually start getting hit. A necro has high base HP and if you put 30 into blood magic your hp should be through the roof. Spec for vita/power/toughness and keep dropping wells/popping in and out of DS and your gonna be quite hard to kill. Plague signet is broken btw and doesn’t draw any conditions just copies them. This also only works if your running with a team because just like any profession in gw2 you cant tank forever.

Gaiyeerishima Cat.1082:

Hey. Just thought I’d put in my two cents, which is that these people are wrong and that glass cannon is fine on rangers for dungeons. The key is not to die, obviously. If you want to have an easier time, you can use knights or some other more tankish armor, but if you want to be the best damage ranger you can be, you just need to learn to survive without any defense. Pvp is a different story, but we are not talking about that. (If you want to talk to me about it in game, my username is Not David.)

See this is the problem people keep giving advice that glass cannons work fine in dungeons. It doesn’t because your made of glass! If you get downed in 3-4 hits your no good to your team no matter how high your DPS is. You need survivability because tanking is impossible in this game. You need to be able to take a few hits so that you can either knockback or get out of trouble and heal thats how you stay alive. It’s called survivability. Go run SE/CoF hell even CM. It is SO easy to tell when you have a glass cannon build on some one because they go down repeatedly. Doesn’t matter if you have dps you can dodge what max 3 attacks before you get hit? This kind of advice is why there are so many scrubs running dungeons now a days.

It only bleeds when you hit them from the side or behind. Although they are very generous when they say side and behind which is basically any direction rather than directly in front of them.

Does this skill work properly yet? I remember it used to be bugged and would just duplicate conditions on to you. And how often does it transfer conditions to yourself?

I run D/D with wells so it was probably me you were playing with. But there are plenty of builds that use D/D wells. I personally am a power and vita necro so basically I have high hp high power and with wells such as well of darkness and DS I tank a kittenload. I feel this power build is an alternative to what a lot of necros play with condition specced build.

Programming perfect AI for our pets is going to be near impossible. Making a bigger hit box and faster attack speed (They did the attack speed part) is what will allow fixes. Next thing is now the problem with pets getting 1 hit with Boss AoE. That needs to be changed as they cannot dodge and are completely useless within 1 hit from dungeon AoE. Maybe 50% damage reduction from AoE in PvE only or something to make them able to consistently stay alive on the boss.

swilkers.5938:

Asthenea.1546:

Well thanks for the posts guys, I’m still gonna try one! It seems like every thinks their class is broken so if they are all broken I’d say that means they’re balanced! Cheers.

Play to level 10, love it and then realize @ 80 that you have been mistaken. Roll another class until ANET decides to release that “significant changes” update that all Rangers have been waiting for. Believe me, if ANY class can claim the “broken” tag, it is the Ranger.

Yes the ranger has issues but don’t act like its the most broken class ever and is impossible to play. Dec. 14 patch helped A LOT and there is more to come. Yes the pet AI sucks yes the longbow needs a work over yes our arrows still get obstructed at kitten angles and our spirits suck. BUT they fixed pet AI to a certain extent. Arrows move 30% faster. Our signets got an improvement but need better actives and lower cd. Our utilities are pretty kitten good except the spirits. (Muddy terrain, QZ, Traps) I don’t know what other characters you play but Necro needs tweaks same as the ranger but its still viable. Only class that really isn’t in need of tweaks is the Guardian and Warrior. So instead of over generalizing the problems and making ranger out to be the worst piece of garbage ever actually open your eyes to what the ranger is.

Yea I use the longbow and shortbow as my primary weapons switch between the two. I run all dungeons and for me personally LB is viable but definitely needs some fixes. The shortbow is more of a close range kiting weapon and I use it specifically for that. LB I use when I have a team that can draw and contain aggro so I hit from long range and have like 1400 crits i’m nowhere near close with that on my shortbow. Barrage + Rapid Fire (QZ) really stacks on damage fast. Dungeons like SE require situations like that (SE path 1 and 2) where while the shortbow gives bleeds the LB just hits much harder especially at range. TA also comes to mind where I can sit back and hit targets while my team holds aggro. Again it all comes down to situational issues there is weapon switching for a reason and I get fury + swiftness + might on switch so no reason for me not to switch between both. LB though does need either a shorter cast time or some fix to make it more viable overall (I posted a suggestion). But to those who say LB isn’t viable at all in the game are wrong. Although in PvP i prefer shortbow and only use LB for the rapid fire + QZ.

bkpiazza.2018:

restoration.2806:

Your gonna need to raise your toughness. I suggest decreasing a bit of power for toughness. Knights gear is right in line with what your looking for has +power +precision +toughness. And contrary to ^above poster 30/30/5/0/5 is still glass cannon. Try something like 20/30/10/0/10 yes your sacrificing power but you still have high crit rate even your traits will work but then you need to gear properly for it.

thanks for the advice. what do you think a good number is to shoot for (toughness)?

Your current armor is 2283 and you are traited pretty well so no need to retrait yourself. I suggest trying to gear yourself to increase toughness so that your overall armor rating stands between 2500-2800. If you sacrifice a bit of power I think it is possible also keeping your current crit rate. If you have decent survivability in dungeons like SE/CoE you should be good. PvP is a different aspect though as glass cannon in WvWvW is way more viable. For sPvP though your current build should be pretty good.