Longbow DH trash-tier?

So the meta builds for anything PVE all seem to point towards melee DH. For PVP, it seems the go-to build is Radiant Hammer.

Why exactly is Longbow considered so weak in pretty much every area of play compared to the alternatives? It is the reason why I chose Dragon Hunter in the first place...

The only thing that I don't get is why DH has no 25% movement speed increase trait or something. That would be great! DHs could equip something other runes than trapper or lynx just to be almost AS mobile as other MELEE professions. Sure, guard "must feel heavy" as I heard some devs say. But that was before DH and it just does not feel right. MS increase would help with kiting a lot.

It's utter trash in PvE and below average in PvP. Some DHs can make it work in PvP if they know how to use deflecting shot but it's still pretty weak. Hopefully they'll buff it but DH seems to be forgotten. And if they do buff it I really hope they don't overdo it in PvP. The first thing they need to address is the projectile velocity. It's really stupid how you can avoid LB auto attacks at max range just by spamming left/right strafe. Then they need to undo the 20% True Shot nerf. And then maybe decrease the auto attack cast time by a minor amount. That's probably all it takes to make DH a bit more viable in PvP.

You pretty much HAVE to land the Test of Faith combo for DH to be viable in pvp and heavy light is the only reason why people recommend taking longbow since it gives you another option with which to land that combo.

It's very hard to make Test of Faith combo because all new elite specs have plenty of stability.

Yeah the entire dogma between every other class having a 25% passive and or easy access perma swift is just bullshit.

spec shouldn't rely on one trap to do everything...that is just lazy balancing. Guess I will just keep playing my weaver until they rework the LB capabilities. :'(

In PVE the longbow is built to be a long distance AoE weapon. Which basically means it is built for a niche that you'll rarely ever need to fulfill. It's fun in dragon stand, though.

Before PoF I remember occasionally getting locked down by a longbow in WvW. If things ever go back to sane levels, that would still be a good trick.

Longbow is pretty boring to play. nice to have if you can not go melee and dont want zu spam szepter 1. And it is much more fun to go melee with 11.6k life ;-)

Longbow got nerfed into the ground because of PVP whining, same as basically everything else the DH can do.

Has there still been no way found to salvage Longbow use for DH? Is it good for literally anything at all at this point?

@Sevetar.6035 said:Has there still been no way found to salvage Longbow use for DH? Is it good for literally anything at all at this point?

No, never was.

@"FyzE.3472" said:The only thing that I don't get is why DH has no 25% movement speed increase trait or something. That would be great! DHs could equip something other runes than trapper or lynx just to be almost AS mobile as other MELEE professions. Sure, guard "must feel heavy" as I heard some devs say. But that was before DH and it just does not feel right. MS increase would help with kiting a lot.

I think the bigger problem here is how much mobility has been introduced with PoF.Mobility creep has been crazy. Originally the only class with permanent 25%+ was supposed to be thief via SoS, which is otherwise generally considered a totally garbage-tier utility. And that's after it got buffed massively.

I mean within the HoT era DH had decent in-combat mobility with Wings and JI. It's just when everything has free mobility and stability/immunity uptime it's hard to make longbow DH balanced when it's based on forcing enemies through traps and with effects like SoJ, Hunter's Ward, Maw, and synergy with Heavy Light with only a few select major sources of damage. Doesn't matter much when you pull them while invuln, either.

Because as soon as you buff things like True Shot (literally a ranged backstab on the same cooldown but with even more damage), you end up with Deadeye but instead of stealth uses blocks and CC.

@Sevetar.6035 said:Has there still been no way found to salvage Longbow use for DH? Is it good for literally anything at all at this point?

Before all the projectile hate people used DH longbow 5 (Hunter's ward) in WvW as well as True Shot.

Due to how strong Firebrand is there is little reason too run DH just for that.

@Sevetar.6035 said:Has there still been no way found to salvage Longbow use for DH? Is it good for literally anything at all at this point?

Not really. I find it’s lack of mobility, not damage, to be the primary problem in PvP. In PvE, it lacks damage.

@Sevetar.6035 said:Has there still been no way found to salvage Longbow use for DH? Is it good for literally anything at all at this point?LB is decent in WvW roaming, does good dmg and there are plenty of people who still use it, you just have to get used to it :) play the game how you want that's what its a game for right! besides yes playing meta in this game is a leg up but doesn't mean its the only thing you can do :) I use LB too :)

Is it really so horribly bad? I often wield longbow when doing living story for example and to me longbow is often better ranged weapon than scepter because it can kill most enemies faster, even though it has lower sustained DPS. Longbow allows pretty easy and clean kills and shines in HoT maps where most enemies are glass cannon and die to Spear of Justice -> True Shot "combo".

In raids the longbow sustained DPS makes it a clearly weaker than alternatives and in fractals the benefit of being ranged is usually worthless so I never use it in either of those game modes, but when playing solo on open world content id say that the longbow is pretty nice.

I recorded 2+min of gameplay killing normal enemies in open world with a longbow:

Does the weapon really feel like unusable trash tier to you guys?

The bow is dh theme, spear of Justice active should include 15%damage increase to bow skill when performed on tethered opponents. Knockback grandmaster tho usefull at times is a silly grandmaster and should include another boon of some sort to make it befitting a grandmaster trait. Just my opinion, that way the bow is a good utility weapon but with set up can do decent dps

@"Coinhead.7591" said:Is it really so horribly bad? I often wield longbow when doing living story for example and to me longbow is often better ranged weapon than scepter because it can kill most enemies faster, even though it has lower sustained DPS. Longbow allows pretty easy and clean kills and shines in HoT maps where most enemies are glass cannon and die to Spear of Justice -> True Shot "combo".

In raids the longbow sustained DPS makes it a clearly weaker than alternatives and in fractals the benefit of being ranged is usually worthless so I never use it in either of those game modes, but when playing solo on open world content id say that the longbow is pretty nice.

I recorded 2+min of gameplay killing normal enemies in open world with a longbow:

Does the weapon really feel like unusable trash tier to you guys?

I'll get kicked and flamed from endgame fractals and raids for using DH LB due to it being weak, but I guess it's okay because I can kill some random mobs in open world?

I guess it's more like "I won't use this in fractals or raids, but OW requires different build and weapon set anyway"

@Derm.4932 said:

@"Coinhead.7591" said:Is it really so horribly bad? I often wield longbow when doing living story for example and to me longbow is often better ranged weapon than scepter because it can kill most enemies faster, even though it has lower sustained DPS. Longbow allows pretty easy and clean kills and shines in HoT maps where most enemies are glass cannon and die to Spear of Justice -> True Shot "combo".

In raids the longbow sustained DPS makes it a clearly weaker than alternatives and in fractals the benefit of being ranged is usually worthless so I never use it in either of those game modes, but when playing solo on open world content id say that the longbow is pretty nice.

I recorded 2+min of gameplay killing normal enemies in open world with a longbow:

Does the weapon really feel like unusable trash tier to you guys?

Well, most classes do not use most weapons in fractals and raids. I do not think this is the objective. But LB is also a bad weapon in open world PvE and in all forms of PvP. It is bad across the board and in every situation. This is a problem.

@otto.5684 said:

@Derm.4932 said:

@"Coinhead.7591" said:Is it really so horribly bad? I often wield longbow when doing living story for example and to me longbow is often better ranged weapon than scepter because it can kill most enemies faster, even though it has lower sustained DPS. Longbow allows pretty easy and clean kills and shines in HoT maps where most enemies are glass cannon and die to Spear of Justice -> True Shot "combo".

In raids the longbow sustained DPS makes it a clearly weaker than alternatives and in fractals the benefit of being ranged is usually worthless so I never use it in either of those game modes, but when playing solo on open world content id say that the longbow is pretty nice.

I recorded 2+min of gameplay killing normal enemies in open world with a longbow:

Does the weapon really feel like unusable trash tier to you guys?

How is exactly is longbow bad in open world? Like check out the video in the post you quoted and tell me what makes longbow bad in those fights?

Edit: Also its good in wvw roaming.

Lb is just ok in pve but that means nothing because it’s pve,everything works there to a degree,any late game pve or pvp it’s Garbage. It’s dh themed weapon yet ur better off tagging with staff lol

With that said other specs themed weapons share same issue it’s not just dh

@Coinhead.7591 said:

@otto.5684 said:

@Derm.4932 said:

@Coinhead.7591 said:Is it really so horribly bad? I often wield longbow when doing living story for example and to me longbow is often better ranged weapon than scepter because it can kill most enemies faster, even though it has lower sustained DPS. Longbow allows pretty easy and clean kills and shines in HoT maps where most enemies are glass cannon and die to Spear of Justice -> True Shot "combo".

In raids the longbow sustained DPS makes it a clearly weaker than alternatives and in fractals the benefit of being ranged is usually worthless so I never use it in either of those game modes, but when playing solo on open world content id say that the longbow is pretty nice.

I recorded 2+min of gameplay killing normal enemies in open world with a longbow:

Does the weapon really feel like unusable trash tier to you guys?

How is LB good in open world? Yes, it is good for tagging targets in large events, but on a single target every other weapon (except mace and staff) is significantly better, especially if you are fighting veterans and above. If you are playing DH, stick to GS & sword or scepter.

Media trapper is still best guardian WvW roamer build, but guardian in roaming is mediocre.