13 replies to this topic

[Mekkakat]

So I've been playing my Warrior more, and lately I've just been obsessed in making new builds and finding uses for some of the less loved weapons/skills.

In comes the Longbow..

Now - I know it's bad. It's really bad (in sPvP/tPvP)... but I'm trying to find a use for it lol.

http://gw2skills.net...JbTumkNtEYsw8DA

This is a condition build I've been playing around with, and so far its actually pretty fun. The idea is to grant you and your team a huge amount of condition damage and lots of fields to trigger off of, while laying stacks of bleed and keeping people from escaping. It's best use is to approach a node with your team, lay your burst skill (if you have it), then head in and start swinging. You'll build a good bit of adrenaline, so it's nice to almost always have on of your bursts up to layer the conditions.

The counters for this build are obvious, and while the survivability is there, it's still not a viable build in any tPvP format imo lol. It's just something I was playing with and figured I'd bounce the idea off of you guys. I've been kind of debating what's best to do with my trait points.

[Mekkakat]

almost 100 views and no comments? C'mon folks! Let's talk Longbow!

[GSSB Lunaspike]

Mekkakat, on 20 November 2012 - 03:00 AM, said:

almost 100 views and no comments? C'mon folks! Let's talk Longbow!

LB is great in WvW, and I guess PvE. Outside of that though it's just too easy to negate.

[beadnbutter32]

My problem with the long bow is the very short range it has.  You practically have to be in melee range to use Arching Arrow and Combustive Shot.  Yes each individual attack looks like it does less damage than rifle shots, but since we have no in game tools to log damage, it is hard to tell the benefits of using longbow combos based on Combustive Shot over time.

The only thing the longbow has going for it in my opinion is the AOE attack which the rifle totally lacks.  Getting zerged by a swarm of baby Karka, you have a chance with the longbow, but with the rifle, it is time to switch to your best melee AOE attacks.

[Veganno]

I mostly play this kind of warrior, and I love it.

Your build is the cookiecutter one, It's great. For sPvP I use Signet of Rage, Signet of Fury instead of Frenzy (which is great, but it's better with the GS build... and we need that adrenaline so bad), and stronger bowstrings instead of the banner talent.

Also Shaman's Amulet is a good choice, but I prefer Rabid's... since our healing stat pretty much does nothing for us

Longbow does need a buff tho...

[Mekkakat]

GSSB Lunaspike, on 21 November 2012 - 01:01 AM, said:

LB is great in WvW, and I guess PvE. Outside of that though it's just too easy to negate.

I know, I know - I just really like trying to make less viable weapons fun in s/tPvP

beadnbutter32, on 21 November 2012 - 01:08 AM, said:

My problem with the long bow is the very short range it has.  You practically have to be in melee range to use Arching Arrow and Combustive Shot.  Yes each individual attack looks like it does less damage than rifle shots, but since we have no in game tools to log damage, it is hard to tell the benefits of using longbow combos based on Combustive Shot over time.

The only thing the longbow has going for it in my opinion is the AOE attack which the rifle totally lacks.  Getting zerged by a swarm of baby Karka, you have a chance with the longbow, but with the rifle, it is time to switch to your best melee AOE attacks.

You can swap the Inspiring Banners trait for Stronger Bowstrings. I've never personally had issue with the range of the Longbow on Warriors.

Veganno, on 21 November 2012 - 03:53 AM, said:

I mostly play this kind of warrior, and I love it.

Your build is the cookiecutter one, It's great. For sPvP I use Signet of Rage, Signet of Fury instead of Frenzy (which is great, but it's better with the GS build... and we need that adrenaline so bad), and stronger bowstrings instead of the banner talent.

Also Shaman's Amulet is a good choice, but I prefer Rabid's... since our healing stat pretty much does nothing for us

Longbow does need a buff tho...

Wow, I had no idea other Warriors were playing a spec like this

I love the super high toughness, thus the Shaman. Makes me feel tanky, but deadly. I also used Stronger Bowstrings for a while, but eventually wanted to be a bit more supportive from the mid-line. Suits my playstyle a little better. Plus, it's right in line for the max draw distance of my fav combo - Combustive Shot > Pin Down > Savage Leap > Hamstring > (Riposte) > Chain > and Imaple/Bola any runners. Then I leap to the next target and Flurry.

I've taken 3 guys on at once with this build and totally destroyed them too! Now... they weren't very good.. and they did kinda stand in my field for a really long time.. but I was proud XD

[Shinimas]

It's a condition weapon.

But it doesn't really do much condition damage and it's attacks are slow and awkward...

Oh, it's a DD weapon!

But it has only one attack that deals any sort of serious damage and it's difficult to land it...

Oh, so it must be a hybrid weapon. Yeah... except hybrid builds suck, because you need both high crit and crit damage to make any use of DD weapons and that leaves no room for anything else.

And Fan of Fire is bugged, so there goes your quick Burning application. Enjoy that 1 sec of Burning and 200 damage.

Double Shot actually hits pretty hard... on grass. It deals about 1.2k damage on crit (600 per arrow) with a DD build, but good luck hitting moving targets at 600+ range.

But it has a Blind! On a long cooldown. Even though other Blind attacks in the game are designed to be spammable, because that's the only useful form of Blind. But it's AoE... a very small AoE, might be good at Clocktower once in a blue moon. Maybe.

Pin Down is decent, actually.

And it also provides a Combo Field with very generic abilities that are of little use. More Burning and a bit more Might, not going to change much.

Longbow doesn't work in PvP. It works in PvE, though. Because everything works in PvE.

tl;dr: Longbow's place is in the garbage bin. Leave it alone, it likes it there.

P.S. I tried to make it work. Longbow + S/S, to maximize condition damage, utilizing Impale's Finisher for longer Burning and Savage Leap for a Fire Shield to counter all those dispels.

Longbow + S/A for Whirl finisher inside the combo field.

Longbow + Hammer + Stomp for a lot of Might.

Nope. It doesn't work. Not only the effects are mediocre at best, but all of that is far from reliable. Miss with Impale? Bye bye. OH Sword Riposte? Enter 30 Mesmer Clones, pets and random AoEs.

MH Sword Flurry is actually terrible. It's bleed deals around 3-4k damage tops with a full Condi build, it's only worth it for the root and Savage Leap map hopping.

There's just no syngergy. Nothing.

Edited by Shinimas, 21 November 2012 - 06:10 PM.

[GSSB Lunaspike]

Mekkakat, on 21 November 2012 - 01:47 PM, said:

I know, I know - I just really like trying to make less viable weapons fun in s/tPvP



You can swap the Inspiring Banners trait for Stronger Bowstrings. I've never personally had issue with the range of the Longbow on Warriors.


Wow, I had no idea other Warriors were playing a spec like this

I love the super high toughness, thus the Shaman. Makes me feel tanky, but deadly. I also used Stronger Bowstrings for a while, but eventually wanted to be a bit more supportive from the mid-line. Suits my playstyle a little better. Plus, it's right in line for the max draw distance of my fav combo - Combustive Shot > Pin Down > Savage Leap > Hamstring > (Riposte) > Chain > and Imaple/Bola any runners. Then I leap to the next target and Flurry.

I've taken 3 guys on at once with this build and totally destroyed them too! Now... they weren't very good.. and they did kinda stand in my field for a really long time.. but I was proud XD

Please don't take it the wrong way. I respect you trying to make use of it very much. That's how new builds are found. Please keep the thread going, I'm interested.

[Mekkakat]

GSSB Lunaspike, on 21 November 2012 - 07:12 PM, said:

Please don't take it the wrong way. I respect you trying to make use of it very much. That's how new builds are found. Please keep the thread going, I'm interested.

Oh I know - no hard feelings

I know it's beyond subpar (I play Ele anyhow lol) - but I figured I'd jump on a few of my unused classes and try some new, whacky stuff.

[beadnbutter32]

Mekkakat, on 21 November 2012 - 01:47 PM, said:

You can swap the Inspiring Banners trait for Stronger Bowstrings. I've never personally had issue with the range of the Longbow on Warriors.

I used the rifle for a long time and got used to the 1200 range, so that is where my comment about the longbow's short range (900) comes from.

Does anyone know what the longbow range is when the strong bowstrings trait is added?

[ben911993]

beadnbutter32, on 22 November 2012 - 03:31 PM, said:

I used the rifle for a long time and got used to the 1200 range, so that is where my comment about the longbow's short range (900) comes from.

Does anyone know what the longbow range is when the strong bowstrings trait is added?

1200, I believe.

[frettr00]

I use it for WvW/PVE with a tanky hammer/longbow spec.  It's useful for raining down fire while defending or just needing a ranged attack in those zerg vs zerg fights.  With all the ranged attacks that fly around in WvW you're going to die really fast having to play with melee weapons only.

[Zerikin Loukbel]

I like it for trash pulls in dungeons and tagging in DEs for the burst ability, but otherwise its pretty horrible.

[Greenfish]

I like the longbow but it is lacking in any real power and minimal control however i do like using the burst skill + #3 from far away to give my teammates AoE Might from the burst.