Dirk Hardpeck

Brand, on 20 November 2012 - 03:20 AM, said:

Well, for what it's worth, my heals are at exactly 1400 right now...

with Water runes and 2 sets of +Might runes, alas

I have to do a couple of AC runs here soon lol...will throw the nice healing number right out the window

lmaonade, on 22 November 2012 - 10:42 AM, said:

^ This.

Not sure what you have for "semi" in your semi-glass cannon build, but swapping in some Knight's equipment can work wonders. Toughness <3

I also have to agree with Sithicus, being downed a few times in a dungeon is certainly not extreme. I should be so lucky >.>

luckysho7, on 22 November 2012 - 02:26 PM, said:

I used full Berserker's jewlery to try the spec out (I was a little low on funds, so in order to craft the new jewlery and put zerkers jewels in, I would have to salvage my full Berserker set). Like Sithicus said, it will work fine, but in the long run you do want to augment Toughness/Healing power in return for the fairly small crit dmg bumps.

Those runes were nerfed in PvP, they still appear to be 15% in PvE.

EDIT: messed up on calling Boon Duration 25%

Brand, on 22 November 2012 - 01:17 AM, said:

Heh, just playing Devil's advocate Raw dps numbers won't change everyone's opinion, especially in a game like this where there is a little more freedom of choice. I just wanted to point out that, yes, you can swing a greatsword around then swap, drop a 25 Might stack burning AoE and toss another AoE bomb that even gives group Might, sounds great...and if you are hung up on Longbow, that sounds good enough to make some sacrifices to play the way you want.

Sure. I just want to point out that if you tunnel vision on that ~6 seconds of gameplay, it sounds "pretty cool", even putting aside the loss of Empowered, 12% damage, etc. But, the rest of your combat time is alot less glamorous as you wait on swap cooldowns that you get absolutely nothing in return for.

In short: Longbow does less damage, and it isn't a fun way to play with this build. I know, I tried. Should pretty much be the nail in the coffin for those trying to squeeze the longbow into this build.

I have noted that the newer version of the build, moving points into the final tier of Arms, does make a Longbow variant quite viable....and I am seeing that issue resurface now because of that...but it would also depend on playstyle. In a dungeon where you bounce in and out between melee/ranged, you can get those might stacks and drop the burning field, and that's pretty cool. But, this type of constant weapon switching playstyle greatly benefits from points in the Disc tree, certain sigils, and certain Traits, of which we are taking zero. The cooldown for 100b is reduced via Traits, and spamming it is probably more efficient than waiting on full weapon swap cooldown.

So then there is WvW, where this build isn't even completely optimal, but lets say we just want to tweak some things around and throw Longbow on. Our condition damage while on a keep wall is still garbage...you just aren't going to have those Might stacks. You are having to blow your burst skill all the time, although at least there is now only 1 Trait that depends on it being full for maximum dps (as oppose to 2 with prior build version). Also, sometimes it's not even the damage that I find useful, it's dropping AoE's to manipulate groups. They don't tend to stand around and wait to see just how much damage that red circle is going to tick for. Of course, you'll be giving up Empowered or Empower Allies for Stronger Bowstrings. And if you are going to be blowing your burst with a ranged weapon, consider that Rifle actually has a skill to quickly build Adrenaline (Volley), and umm...how about those Kill Shot crits up/off a wall?

All in all, Longbow is still a pretty strong option but I just don't see it being optimal...if I were to go back to using it as my normal secondary weapon, I would not be running this build. It would be one of the "something similar"s that you see here, but it would not waste points on trying to capitalize on Forceful Greatsword when I am clearly so hard for Longbow. Rifle just doesn't need any "wasted" points to make it work....that's why it wins.

ohs, on 20 November 2012 - 07:14 AM, said:

BY OGDENS HAMMER WHAT SAVINGS!

Thanks for this tip, flew under my radar somehow lol....