11 replies to this topic

[Paranematon]

So I want to know the title question. And I would be rly grateful if you got any critical builds with what kind of stats to armor, accessories etc. for WvWvW, PvE and dungeons.

[Lurker14ownz]

Short Bow as criticals give you a chance to bleed with the trait. Without the trait as short bow attacks faster it will crit more but both need crit.

[shiko]

If you are confident with dodging, in PvE you could just go pure glass cannon with a longbow + berserker gear. A short bow only does more damage in PvE if you could flank your opponent, but a long bow is normally more reliable(granted that you can stay at least 1000range away).

http://gw2skills.net...KLVOqkUtIYQwmAA

The pet and 2nd major beastmaster trait could be changed up to your liking. But this build focuses on you and your pet putting out a bunch of damage, with a few bleeds on the side. If it is possible to keep the feline alive, it could provide vulnerability stacks on top of the longbow's huntershot. Also the piercing shot could be replaced with eagle eye, for ranges over 1200(1500 real). With this build you should be taking very little to no damage, with rolls, muddy terrain, and lightning reflexes. If you pop rampage as one and then cast quicken zypher after a few seconds, you and your pet's might stack would go very high, especially your pets, since everytime you crit, you give it might.

[Aetou]

The Shortbow is really a Condition weapon (i.e., you should be wearing Rabid/Rampager/Carrion gear with it.)  You'll still have quite a high Critical rating with that gear as Precision is a secondary stat, and you'll still have at least 25 points in Skirmishing, but it is still more a Condition than a Critical build as Critical builds are really direct damage builds where you build both precision and crit damage (i.e., Berserker gear, or a mix of those stats with some survivability stats.)

The Longbow, in contrast, is very much a pure Crit machine - you want to put in as much Precision and Crit Damage as possible with it and its really all about the direct damage.

[Wensbane]

Aetou, on 08 November 2012 - 09:18 PM, said:

The Shortbow is really a Condition weapon (i.e., you should be wearing Rabid/Rampager/Carrion gear with it.)...

The Longbow, in contrast, is very much a pure Crit machine - you want to put in as much Precision and Crit Damage as possible with it and its really all about the direct damage.

Completely agree.

If you're going for a pure Critical chance/damage build, with Berserker's gear, the Longbow is definitely your best choice.

I see the Shortbow as more of a high mobility, condition dispensing weapon.
You use it while "dancing" around your opponents or kiting them, as you keep stacking dots. Critical chance still has good synergy with it -- critical damage, not so much -- but it's not your main concern.

[Kovares]

For general pve though, bear in mind (no pun intended) that a condition based shortbow build will synergize somewhat better with your trap utilities then longbow alone. Since you will want to have aoe abilities, I decided to largely abandon the longbow. Personally, I like to open with a longbow equipped -> sharpening stone -> pet swap for quickness -> barrage -> lay down fire and bleed traps -> swap to shortbow and plink away... It does tend to work decently, not good by any means, if you compare it to well built thiefs' aoe bleeding capabilities, but decent nonetheless.

[spritepac]

Yea basically a longbow does better damage and currently I use a tankish pet to hold aggro and i stand far and my crit chance is 50% so it seems to work pretty well. Shortbow is more of a condition damage type where you are kiting your opponents. Both bows have their strengths and weaknesses hence why I have both equipped but if your going for ONLY critical LB is your choice as firepower is your only concern. I myselfplay a power/crit build and use LB and SB my traits currently only level 50 but want something like 20-30-10-0-10. +300 precision and +30% crit damage with +200 power makes pretty good damage over all and use penetrating bows it works decently well.

[Dahk]

Really, unless you're at max distance, the short bow is comparable if not better, even if you're not flanking.  Also, if you're playing a crit build, you're going to be putting a strong investment in the Marks skill tree which will give you extra condition duration.  Even if you're not stacking condition damage, there's no reason to ignore condition damage altogether.

There is also some good synergy between crit and bleed damage by taking up Sharpened Edges, so going with a crit build on a short bow using an "of agony" sigil is probably one of the best ways to go imo.

[mudhooks]

Shortbow is good as a non-condition weapon as well. Since it's so fast, you crit a lot more, so stacking crit damage is good for the flat damage% increase.You will be able to burst people down a lot faster, but might have some issues vs. toughness builds. The conditions are an added bonus for your damage but doesn't need to be a priorty. Here's the build I use http://gw2skills.net  Rangers have to consitantly attack to apply conditions, because of how short the duration is on the bleeds. If you need to run your stacks and efforts fall apart. Also, they get cleansed, which means you have to wait for them to re-apply and then wait for the conditions to do damage. I much prefer going raw damage for the constant crits (Just because it doesnt crit big, doesn't mean its weak raw dps) Here's a video of it in action.

[Garimeth]

mudhooks, on 15 November 2012 - 01:53 AM, said:

Shortbow is good as a non-condition weapon as well. Since it's so fast, you crit a lot more, so stacking crit damage is good for the flat damage% increase.You will be able to burst people down a lot faster, but might have some issues vs. toughness builds. The conditions are an added bonus for your damage but doesn't need to be a priorty. Here's the build I use http://gw2skills.net  Rangers have to consitantly attack to apply conditions, because of how short the duration is on the bleeds. If you need to run your stacks and efforts fall apart. Also, they get cleansed, which means you have to wait for them to re-apply and then wait for the conditions to do damage. I much prefer going raw damage for the constant crits (Just because it doesnt crit big, doesn't mean its weak raw dps) Here's a video of it in action.

I agree.  I run a build very similar to the one i the video
20/25/10/0/15  Beserkers SB / Axe and horn(spvp) Sword and horn (tPvP)

I run spring, flame trap, spike trap, reflexes,  and entangle.  I am pretty successful, i used to run a tankier condition build but I find I have more success with this. I am throwing taps and conditions around and they add to my dps, but hardly my focus.  The burning from firetrap is good, but mostly I drop it on points and it has such short CD its hard to pass up.  Spike trap is good for cripple and bleeds.

I use axe in spvp since there are more opponents, but 1V1 I prefer sword.  For pets I like to use hyena and raven the most, but I am a fan of the jaguar and new drake as well.  15 points in BM is enough for a huge difference, I get 2 secs of quickness every 16 seconds and my pets hit pretty hard.  This build works ve well for me in PVE as well.

To the OP, personally I am not a fan of the longbow, but my play style is skirmishing right outside their melee range dropping traps and keeping them in a tight loop to help my pet hit them.  Longbow can be very good in WvW, but in s/tpvp I feel SB is stronger.

[Dahk]

Garimeth, on 18 November 2012 - 06:45 PM, said:

I agree.  I run a build very similar to the one i the video
20/25/10/0/15  Beserkers SB / Axe and horn(spvp) Sword and horn (tPvP)

I run spring, flame trap, spike trap, reflexes,  and entangle.  I am pretty successful, i used to run a tankier condition build but I find I have more success with this. I am throwing taps and conditions around and they add to my dps, but hardly my focus.  The burning from firetrap is good, but mostly I drop it on points and it has such short CD its hard to pass up.  Spike trap is good for cripple and bleeds.

I use axe in spvp since there are more opponents, but 1V1 I prefer sword.  For pets I like to use hyena and raven the most, but I am a fan of the jaguar and new drake as well.  15 points in BM is enough for a huge difference, I get 2 secs of quickness every 16 seconds and my pets hit pretty hard.  This build works ve well for me in PVE as well.

To the OP, personally I am not a fan of the longbow, but my play style is skirmishing right outside their melee range dropping traps and keeping them in a tight loop to help my pet hit them.  Longbow can be very good in WvW, but in s/tpvp I feel SB is stronger.

Why only 25 in skirmishing if you're running traps?  The faster pet swap from 15 in BM is nice, sure, but you're missing out in Trap Potency, which is pretty huge for a trap build.

[Garimeth]

Dahk, on 19 November 2012 - 05:36 AM, said:

Why only 25 in skirmishing if you're running traps?  The faster pet swap from 15 in BM is nice, sure, but you're missing out in Trap Potency, which is pretty huge for a trap build.

Well I did the full trap thing, and it was good, but the reduced cooldown is not as good as it seems imo.  3 seconds off of flame trap and 6 off of spike.  The six off of spike is good, but fire not so much.  Also I run beserkers, so I do kind of a hybrid of traps and raw damage.  I throw on the conditions because they still add up a significant amount of damage, but other than burning and bleeding - not too impressed.  For me also the increased duration is ot a big deal, as I expect them to be cleansing, and I want the battle to end quickly, the longer it lasts the better the chance I lose.  Faste rpet swap is way better imo as it also comes with my pet being stronger.  I used to not even run with piercing arrows and had 30 in skirmish 20 in WS and 10 in NM, lol Truthfully it was a stong build but this is more fun for me..  I don't regret my boosted regen from NM too much but having protectionfor me and my pet when i dodged, plus all our vigor stuff.   I do miss that.

So anyway in short, I run traps as an additive not as my main focus and sometimes i take off the trap tait for carni appetite, but the increasedsize of the traps is super useful for point control.. because they are useful (cripple and fire field) in addition to dealing damage. And imo our other utilities suck, lol. QZ?  Please why spend a utility on quickness when I can trait it?  I would run spirits if they weren't absolutely terrible.  I think the shouts are garbage - the CDs are all too long.  I like short CD abilities.  I have run around with frost trap instead of LR for the chill, and chill is very powerful, but just need that stun break for thieves.

I know that my build looks wierd, but hopefully that explains why I ended up choosing what I chose.

Also, unrelated, I think sharpened edges is a completely wasted trait even in condition builds, I see alot of people get it (and I used to use it), but it only adds a 1 sec bleed, if you use your pets well the 30% crit bonus is WAY more damage, imo.  Alot of people complain about pets being useless, but I don't have a whole lot of trouble with mine and if they do die i let them stay dead til i need quickness for a stomp or a raise.