the short bows attack pattern is generaly Burst Bleeds+poision volly vs Grouped foes.
it works great when combined with Traps (even if not trated because of the rapid Projecile speeds the AA gives)
don’t use Bristleback with SB you may think its better because of the bleeds but again a person will be running 2x sources of bleeding and 2x range sources with 1 CC concussion shot and little escape kitten 3 isn’t a repostion but a evade skill as to that you’ll need a Sword+dagger as a second weapon set not S+T as that still offers little escape.
Use
this set up for pvp
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV8YnUqA1CitsAerActgBDhyb9XY25AYqL9uDC2quEhXE-TZRFABpfEAOvMA+7PkwFBAgHAAA
the idea of this set up is to Evade while applying HARD poison damage and bleeds are only the top up condition.
the tiger is to provide team fury and 100% fury uptime + a leap to apply the poison damage , ontop of that the Nature magic line will buff up the pet through Transfered boons from teammates while you provide it with plenty of Protection through heal as ones+protect me’s and counts as a vigour source 12seconds of vigour from LR +> heal as one before the duration ends tops up a extra 3seconds of vigour.
the sigil choices are for increased Bleed bursts with geomancy and flank bleeds using SB, the sword sigil of speed is to increase its application rather than mass stacks as Sword now hits much more than before it also applies the most direct poison damage as both are combined with evades (damage while surviving/evading then Sword 2 back f2 the pig pick up your item feathers ect use that to stealth and plant the vipers nest for a Large poison damage > into a consussion shot)
people won’t see the trap or you but if they react too quickly and leap you while you leap back on sword 2 they will fly into the trap taking 9+poison master stacks after all poison applications it can reach 14 poisons and a average of 12-14 bleeds after weapon swaps.
the main point of this build is to force weapon swaps and rotate between Volly shots and sword+dagger evades mixing in Poison fields while escaping rather than using Poison field + sword because using SB AA + poison field does the most damage application and protection through Applied weakness.
meaning you are always fighting at 900yards anyway .
Sotp is simply your Burst / Dive skill if you need to deal increased damage quick or escape / hold your ground while you perform the evade poison chains (not being forces away from a target greatly helps with application)
Striders defence the Reason for this is Pure Projecile survival 50% of projeciles are Destoryed and this skill alone saves you a lot of damage, it is easier to aim for Evade gaps with ranged weapons this prevents that and decreases Sword 2,3 cooldowns in addition to dagger dagger off hand + quick draw it allows consistant Evading .
you need to consistantly applying poison rather than bleeds focus the bleeds are a top up which happen through normal rotations , make sure to flank AA when kiting alone and Sword AA flanking on a escape followed by a foe leaping at you into the poison field i mentioned dagger 4 > Sword AA then evade as required .
the down side to this build is odd , it works better when the foe is highly Aggressive or needs to hit you constantly which only powers rune of thorns increasing your condi damage bursts of poison making the pet stronger plus poison master stronger.
its cons vs foes that " test the waters and wait for the largest portion of the poison application" it reduces the overall damage by a large chunk but i wouldn’t worry too much as you can keep evading and the longer the fight the more Thorn stacks you gain.
Rooting with entangle or using a druids ancient seeds is counter active to this build you want people to over stretch or over reach and immobolising them or slowing them down too much Hard CC lowers the flanking chances which lowers chances of doing the evade chain+ SB AA>volly damage(vollying from the sides deals significantly more damage after a petswap+weapon swap.
the poison volly chain follows this pattern.
start defensive with the saimoth drop the f2 as a bait item save for around 20seconds or untill you LR back to it as a safe zone , if plasma go hard pressure and damage hard use the over reaching foe and force yourself into the flank then do this
Volly 5 poisons 5-8bleeds)petswap(2-4 poisons leap f2 +7 bleeds from critspet skill 4)> AA twice > SB 3 or LR (if needed) > crippling shot > weapon swap +viper nest > evade chain sword 3> sword 2 leap back in> dagger 4>sword 2 or 3 (due to quickdraw recharge) > swap SB repeat.
this chain combo provides 12-14 poisons on average plus those 12 average but consistant bleeds though the bulk of the damage is comming from pet buffed+poisons , using Concussion shot vs Ranged foes only and AA prevents free casting while you send the pet in with F2 leap+poison, if you want to gap close do the saimoth combo and use feathers or plasma attack chain.
its all about skillfully kiting using both weapon sets , though SB alone as a main weapon isn’t worth the effort .
also if you do try this build and find Dagger not your style swap for Sword+axe and change off-hand training for Shared Anguish or refined toxins for a top up damage on Path of scars attack (first attack after swap provides great Line CC and applies poison 3 stacks after a pet swap too)
saimoth optional though i do say use it just because of the plasma item and Fortifying bond>heal as one is too strong to pass up.
as you can tell running a SB build is highly complex and not as simple as just using LB+staff or LB+gs it required much more skill to pull and land attacks which are not rapid or spammable (like Quickdraw mauls ect) the lb+ gs or staff builds are way more flexible in choices of Utility and enough for any pet choice too as they have enough inbuilt defences to repostion and stay at range , so using a bristleback is more viable as compaired to being in near melee range where a Feline / wolf/ pig /drake would be more beneficial to the SB build.
