Shortbow love?

Can we has some? please?

Its already of insanely high utility as is.... what more could it need?

@starlinvf.1358 said:Its already of insanely high utility as is.... what more could it need?

A better evade. I think it still rubberbands a little.

I get that SB will always be useful as a one-button travel tool and all, but why can't it also be a worthwhile combat weapon? Maybe up the damage on the first hit of the auto, boost the damage of the explosion on Cluster? Maybe just give its original range back? I love SB in theory, but it's just not a great weapon.

^ short bow is already an above awesome weapon, they gave us an extra bounce on aa and 20% dmg vs poison foes (can hit for 2.5k vs enemy glassy people like my self). We got 4 bombs instead of 3 now on cluster bomb (can range from 4-6k crits) #3 is ok, wouldn't argue a slightly longer traval evade though ^^ choking has is the most annoying thing vs downed clustered people. Leave short bow alone please

Please don't touch SB! This weapon has utility, awesome downstate control and pretty good cleave/kiting potential. I know it might look a little bit lackluster in PvE (damage wise), but in every other mode it is hands down the best wellrounded weapon in the whole game. You now a weapon is just too good to be true when almost every single build out there uses it.

buff shortbow damage and reduce shortbow mobility sound reasonably nice, is that what you ask for, OP?

Cluster Bomb speed is way too slow, trick arrow is too dependant on choking field to be useful and even then it's not strong enough and takes way too long to do any real damage in any mode. Disabling shot is slow and rubberbands. Only reliable and effective skill is the Infiltrator's Arrow. Other than that I have found the Thief's shortbow to be a terrible weapon. However there may be someone out there that has mastered it and I'd like to see how well they fair in various tough situations.

Shortbow doesn't need any changes, although some improvement to #3 wouldn't hurt. SB is the only weapon where I regularly make use of every skill on the bar. It's by far the most useful weapon option we have (if not the most damaging in all circumstances).

@Ohoni.6057 said:I get that SB will always be useful as a one-button travel tool and all, but why can't it also be a worthwhile combat weapon? Maybe up the damage on the first hit of the auto, boost the damage of the explosion on Cluster? Maybe just give its original range back? I love SB in theory, but it's just not a great weapon.

Have you really tried to use it in a fight ? Close range cluster bomb has insane damage ( btw they added a 4h cluster not that long ago ), #3 is a really good kiting skill. AOE poison is really strong coupled with DA minors.

SB is the most balanced set we have with D/P....

@illenos.5134 said:Please don't touch SB! This weapon has utility, awesome downstate control and pretty good cleave/kiting potential. I know it might look a little bit lackluster in PvE (damage wise), but in every other mode it is hands down the best wellrounded weapon in the whole game. You now a weapon is just too good to be true when almost every single build out there uses it.

they use it to travel lol

I think SB fine as is. That AA is very very good as that extra bounce is very effective.

It excellent in Combat. I once thought the slow time for Cluster bomb was too great a detriment but given the ranged AOE damage it can do I think in this respect it well balanced.

@Wargameur.6950 said:

@Ohoni.6057 said:I get that SB will always be useful as a one-button travel tool and all, but why can't it also be a worthwhile combat weapon? Maybe up the damage on the first hit of the auto, boost the damage of the explosion on Cluster? Maybe just give its original range back? I love SB in theory, but it's just not a great weapon.

Close range Cluster Bomb is decent (I should point out that I was practically maining SB until HoT and for large chunks after, so I'm well familiar with the weapon), but if I'm going to be doing close range AoE, I have Vault for that. I want a ranged weapon that is a deadly threat at long ranges, and the current implementation of Cluster Bomb does not satisfy on that count. It isn't necessarily even Cluster Bomb that would need to be changed, there just need to be some changes made somewhere that make the weapon more reliable at a distance.

Last time they buffed sb every non-thief threw tantrum on forums. Not happening.

@Cynz.9437 said:Last time they buffed sb every non-thief threw tantrum on forums. Not happening.

Every time thief gets a buff, non-thief players foam at the mouth.

Short bow is a weapon better suited for group fights, although its range does require you to be up closeAuto 1- into groups will bounce 3 times, i build crit chance pretty high so i continuously see 2-6k ticks in totalCluster Bomb- you have to anticipate where groups are moving, if its a single person however, i tend to use it only when right on top of them (i punish d/p thieves quite a lot with it) 8k bursts are no jokeDisabling Shot- it's half a second evadeChoking Gas- drop on downs, when the target has 5 stacks of poison it begins to daze (if running Pulmonary impact it could create more downs)Infiltrators Arrow- it's a 900 teleport

The utility short bow offers is amazing. I understand in 1v1 situation it can be lack luster considering most people will move side to side to negate auto 1, it doesn't need buffs though.

Only problem that Shortbow has, is that it's very underutilized.It's already received huge buffs not too long ago (in fact, they already had to tone it down for good reason). So no, SB's fine outside of Disabling Shot still rubberbanding every now and again and some weird general 'Invalid Path to Target' stuff on Infiltrator's Arrow and just Shadowsteps in general.

I've always found that it's easy to tell a good thief from a bad thief by how (and largely when) they use their Shortbow.

It's fine as it is, leave it alone now to avoid futile future nerfs.

Shortbow can be buffed and should be buffed to become more viable in combat, because against Pistols, Daggers, and Sword this weapon just sucks hard in regard of DPS.It has the weakest AA damage, unless used against bad positioning players, to make usage of its bounces between themClusterbomb is way too slow and should have more range than 900 and it should deal burning and vulnerability instead of Bleedings to give it more of DpS through the condition damage ramping up faster into a dangerous area, if ignored for too long, because the bleedings from this skill simply are too weak.skill 4 takes way too long, before it dazes foes and it dazes not long enough to be of any danger to a player to force them to change their positionthe mobility factor if this weapon rebalances it self due to the mobility havign the highest initiative costs, so that you can't spam it for too long too oftenly, without quickly running out of initiative and bringing yourself into a situation of having to wait for initiative to regenerate first, if you use it too carelessly, so that you have to play defensively for a while, if you get surprise attacked after using skill 5 spammy a few times after another directly..

Therefore that SB should be better suited for group fights, you barely even realyl notice that this weapon really outshines the others in such situations.. the other build options with D/D, S/P, P/P or D/P al are better in group fights, because especialyl in group fights you get quickly forced into melee combat, where the melee orientated weapons are much better choices for self defense, than the SB... SB is by its currenty skil ldesign nothign but an underwhelming utility weapon that is in regard of the dps only most useful in PvE, due to the lackluster A.I being too dumb to avoid bad positioning so that the bounces can do there their best work, whereas in pvp and wvw you dont get oftenly intpo the situation, where its AA can work very efficiently, unless in WvW you get ignored in a zerg clash and can used while beign unattacked the SB aa agaisnt all the people around you not carign about their positioning so that you can make best useag of your bouncing shots to hit as many enemies as possible always.. but the moment you get the main aggro of your enemies onto yourself as they realize, what you are doing actualy, to try to quickly gank you dont, Sb helps you nothing and you are better of to immediately change to either D/P, S/P or D/D as you will be able to defend yourself better with these weapons, than you will ever be able to defend yourself with SB with its very bad and predictable backwards evade mechanic on skil l3, which makes your inevitable death if you stay for too long in this weapon when being outnumbed just a tiny delay, while not dealing out enough damage to foes with it, that you could defeat with this weapon anyone, before you get already defeated first from all the powercreep that is in this game by the latest set of e-specs again, whid added even far more ridiculous powercreep to the game, than the first set did with HoT, which makes it far more obvious how direly the game needs now a balance patch to tone done the powercreep that came withb PoF, especially with specs like Mirage, Scourge and Spellbreaker which are the 3 biggest ridiculous offenders of powercreep atm imo.

But Core Classes and also the 1st set Specs need now adjustments.. its not done with it now, that only the newest expansion specs get looked at now.Everything needs to be brought back more in line with each others within the Core Classes and their Specs and especially the game needs to rebalanced and adjust finalyl all of its outdated combat system mechanics step by step - beginning especially with Boons and Conditions, followed by the Health System and Upgrades and finished with the biggest rework, that is the Attribute System.

However, making Shortbows for thieves better, would be also already a tiny milestone into the right direction for now. Doesnt need huge Dps buffs, cause thats not the role of this weapon, but it should at least give enough DPS, that its damage can#t be totally ignored by everyone and absolutely forces nobody to change their positions, because everybody can simply outlast for a half eternity the damage that you can do with SB, before fightign agaisnt somebody with a SB becomes even at all dangerous for anyone - this must change.To fight somebody using a SB, should make you as enemy same as cautious to play against, as like when you fight against somebody using P/P or D/D or S/P, which all have their skilsl and tactics for that you have to look out for, that you dont get hit by them too oftenly, like Unload for P/P, liek Pistol Whip for S/P and like Backstab from D/xSB is totally missing this kind of dangerous signal skill, players need to be cautious of...peopel easily outlast even clusterbomb spam I#ve seen already countless times happenign in WvW, where people eat my clusterbomb spam and still aren't dead if I run out already on initiative - maybe because i dotn play a glass cannon build ..but even without glass cannon build this skil lcan be spammed rapidly like felt 7 times or so before you run out of initiative, havign let that foe also like 12-14 stacks of bleedign meanwhile also too .. and whdn you see than that the base damage and the bleeds together are so low, while a DE compared to you needs to do just basicalyl only 1 single critical shot and you lie dead on the ground, then theres somethign massively wrogn in this game.... when a signle shot can deal in short tiem way mroe damage, than like a douzen of exploding bombs all around you beign spammed to you as fast as possible.

Not everything has to be about DPS.Buffing SB would just make everyone fall over themselves screaming again, inevitably resulting in nerfs like just a few months ago.It's a great utility weapon (arguably the best) that many classes/professions would love to have.Leave it be for our own sake, otherwise Death's Retreat will end up being our best mobility skill, for the sake of making SB DPS oriented, rather than utility.Staff perfectly fills the niche of AoE pressure. Maybe we'll get an AoE ranged Elite Specialization next, who knows... In the meantime, suck it up and have a moment of silence for our fallen "brother" Riccochet yet again.

Shortbow is a utility weapon, and shouldn't be balanced around numbers. It should be balanced around purpose, and I wish there were more high-utility weapons like (but different to) the thief short bow in the game instead of the arsenal of half-arsed dps weapons we presently have.

I mean, could you live with yourself if sometime in the future, Anet buffed shortbow dps to that of P/P... but then reduced the range of shortbow #5? Or removed the blast function of #2?

I don't think Shortbow needs a buff... everything else (on all classes) could use a nerf though. :bleep_bloop:

i should have been more clear sorry xDwas thinking of its range. i fell kinda silly stood on a wall with a bow and not able to do anything.

Sure. I have never liked or cared for the SB because all models for it are ugly as hell in my opinion, but I know there are those who like it. I say let it get buffed for those that want to use it.

@Kirin.7306 said:i should have been more clear sorry xDwas thinking of its range. i fell kinda silly stood on a wall with a bow and not able to do anything.

go ranger if you wanna do that. short bow is not desinged to pew pew from range, thief does not even need any more range with the amount of ports we have. we also have a rifle so use that if you must. thief short bow atm i think is the most balanced weapon, its probably over powered because of #5 but even with out that, its a superior utility weapon (i have even used #5 to port onto a downed guy to blind him to miss their downed #2 skill).

i see no need for buff's for it at all apart from the buggy #3

Beside the rubberbanding #3 the only thing i would change is the AA velocity, it happen way too often not to hit a moving target if not having that detestable "out of range" message firing at 450 units or the famous ' obstructed" while firing point blank....