Rate the SHORTBOW on a scale of 10

What's your opinion of the Shortbow on a scale of 10.For pvp ?/10For pve ?/10

PVP: 4/10? Being generous?

It's got a daze/stun, snare/root, and stackable swiftness with an evade frame. But.... It does very, very poor damage.It's positional requirement might seem like "fun" in PVE, but in PVP it means the only time you are going to get good damage is on retreating enemies, or briefly when you are opening on them (which you cant take any real advantage of with no burst abilities).Plus, as a condi spec in a condi meta where everyone has one or two condi clears to be able to survive Scourge/Mirage, you dont put out enough junk condis to cover your bleeds, meaning they are constantly cleansed. And god forbid an enemy has resistance which you have 0 way of stripping.

Consequently, even if you spec towards full damage, you end up with a build that cant rely on the weapon for doing damage alone, but has to be supplemented by sacrificing utility skills for damage skills. Your choices then consist of traps that do subpar damage, drop at your feet, and are inevitably cleansed in the next global by any good player; or skills that add a condi on hit like Sun Spirit that dies to aoe and is stationary with a low range, or Sharpening Blades which is another bleed skill, meaning not only is it poor damage over time but it'll just end up getting cleansed along with your poor Shortbow bleeds.

And then what are your choices for Offset mainhands?Axe/x for a chill condi and more bleeds on mid CDs that'll get cleansed anyway, and 0 utility?Dagger/x, which you have to go Soulbeast for, and which offers better damage, at the cost of having to stay in melee range of classes that have better healing, defensives, cc, damage and mobility than you?Greatsword is still probably better for its block, daze, and mobility skills.

Perhaps if they buffed either the base, nonpositional bleed of Crossfire, or buffed Light on Your Feet to remove the positional requirement of the longer bleed, Short bow might have some decent sustain to bring to the table. I'd prefer if they tied any damage buff to Light on Your Feet as there would be less chance of Druid Bunker Condi becoming a thing as they'd have to take the Skirmishing trait line.

When your main damage is spamming auto attacks that apply 1sec of bleeding, you know the weapon is serious business.

Call me triggered, I hate the weapon.I can't say anything good about it and I have plenty to say bad about it.

Short range =badunreliable cc= baddmg=spammy? bleh bad.Short range= needs to be mentioned twicethe evade= ugh bad.

You know why people use longbow, that shit works!And a sbow? Everytime I see one of you condi rangers come into spvp, ew.You are trying to make something work that does, not, work.You get pinned down, you are done.Damage is pathetic with no survivability.

I don't care which one of you idiot savants managed to play sbow into plat--I know there is at least one, the weapon is horrible.

I actually quite like the shortbow for PvE, especially after the buffs, so 7,5/10. Works wel with a Soulbeast condi build.For PvP it isn't as good as flanking is pretty hard.

@"Barry Moonfang.6897" said:I actually quite like the shortbow for PvE, especially after the buffs, so 7,5/10. Works wel with a Soulbeast condi build.For PvP it isn't as good as flanking is pretty hard.

What buffs are we talking about? The small % of power increase in a wannabe condi weapon?

Personally, i can't believe why aren't they properly buffing or reworking the weapon. they did that to LB, a weapon everyone laughed at, and now everyone uses. I don't know what is anet doing, they feel completely out of it. Or maybe they aren't buffing it before its "meta" in pve lol thing is, its certainly not SB that is dealing any damage worth while in the meta build. SB is just an auto attack spam until axe/torch is off of CD.

If there was a definition of mediocrity, SB would be it. 4/10 for pvp. 5.5/10 pve. Garbage since 2012 when they nerfed its range (but its not like its old range would've been any good in the current pvp meta. It'd be as shitty as its currently is).

This weapon needs a complete rework. Not a 11% power increase on an auto attack that deals 7 damage to begin with, Anet......................

I get annoyed at the dumb "needs a complete rework" rehashes, what exactly do you want a complete rework of? Should we replace the daze with a stun?

The skills on the weapon are excellent. It needs more damage.

Three and only a three post nerf for rangers.

@"Fluffball.8307" said:I get annoyed at the dumb "needs a complete rework" rehashes, what exactly do you want a complete rework of? Should we replace the daze with a stun?

The skills on the weapon are excellent. It needs more damage.

make the autos pierce by default and give it 3sec of bleeding by default. norrow poison volley to a much norrower cone so it could be used at 600+ ranges and have more than 1 dart hitting the target. Give Quick Shot a 600 leap instead of the pathetic 130 or whatever it has, and give it a damaging condition that is not bleeding or poison. Crippling Shot needs a complete rework. Concussion Shot should stun for 2 sec from any angle. If a skill is interrupted, you apply 5-6 stacks of confusion for 5sec. That would be the minimal buff, but since everything is single target, i don't see it being viable for anything but 1v1's.

For PvP: 3/10 or 4/10. The flanking requirement looks fun but it isnt all, this needs to be removed. They also have to alter #2.

@HeadCrowned.6834 said:For PvP: 3/10 or 4/10. The flanking requirement looks fun but it isnt all, this needs to be removed. They also have to alter #2.

Or change the #2 with Gw1's Burning Arrow, that, say, applies 3 stacks of burning for 1sec. Its way too easy to remove bleeding when its mostly the only condition the weapon has. Back when conditions weren't as op as they are now (before nec was originally buffed, introduction of torment etc), SB bleed spam was alright. Now that a necro can apply every condition in the game from a single skill, what are you supposed to do with 1sec of bleeding that isn't even aoe? Its a joke of a weapon and not enough people care for some reason.

The flanking on auto should have been removed long ago and made the bleed baseline instead of updating it to have a lesser amount on frontal hit.

@Lahmia.2193 said:The flanking on auto should have been removed long ago and made the bleed baseline instead of updating it to have a lesser amount on frontal hit.

Absolutely, but it wouldn't be enough to make SB a good pvp weapon.

Not usable in PvP 0/10 . I still use it in PvE on my core A/T - SB condi trapper 8/10

Pike me on a pole and burn but I love it.With healer druid you don't do damage with any weapon (or just damage) with this:-#5 CC on demand combined with gazelle pet-#4 cripple gives root if traited-#3 for mobility and evade chain with survival evade and dodges-poison to reduce healing

Compared to LB, IDK it needs less precision, SB always hits, so I can focus on other things. You don't pick SB for damage you have to know that, send the pet or outlast the enemy, that is the way to go.

Menders LB can actually be a serious threat. Mender SB isn't going to do anything to anyone. Even if you're going full on tank, you might as well take a weapon that matches your damage spec. s/a+d + staff will at least be power based.

@"Fluffball.8307" said:I get annoyed at the dumb "needs a complete rework" rehashes, what exactly do you want a complete rework of? Should we replace the daze with a stun?

The skills on the weapon are excellent. It needs more damage.

the skills?

That shit sucks. The weapon sucks.

yes rework all that shit. It's all bad.

@EdgasXE.2049 said:Pike me on a pole and burn but I love it.With healer druid you don't do damage with any weapon (or just damage) with this:-#5 CC on demand combined with gazelle pet-#4 cripple gives root if traited-#3 for mobility and evade chain with survival evade and dodges-poison to reduce healing

Compared to LB, IDK it needs less precision, SB always hits, so I can focus on other things. You don't pick SB for damage you have to know that, send the pet or outlast the enemy, that is the way to go.

Be ready, Im cutting the woodand I am gathering kindling :P

@EnderzShadow.2506 said:

@"Fluffball.8307" said:I get annoyed at the dumb "needs a complete rework" rehashes, what exactly do you want a complete rework of? Should we replace the daze with a stun?

The skills on the weapon are excellent. It needs more damage.

The skills are pretty comparable to LB, only LB has damage. Give SB enough damage to kill someone and people will start using it.

@EnderzShadow.2506 said:

@"Fluffball.8307" said:I get annoyed at the dumb "needs a complete rework" rehashes, what exactly do you want a complete rework of? Should we replace the daze with a stun?

The skills on the weapon are excellent. It needs more damage.

and its not like it wasn't done before, just look at Longbow.

@Fluffball.8307 said:

@EnderzShadow.2506 said:

@Fluffball.8307 said:I get annoyed at the dumb "needs a complete rework" rehashes, what exactly do you want a complete rework of? Should we replace the daze with a stun?

The skills on the weapon are excellent. It needs more damage.

It is not comparable at all. The stealth on LB is better than anything on SB (for pvp). Point Blank Shot is much better than concussion shot and more spammable. Two of the five skills are significantly more powerful than what's present on a SB and they aren't even DPS skills.

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:

@Fluffball.8307 said:

@EnderzShadow.2506 said:

@Fluffball.8307 said:I get annoyed at the dumb "needs a complete rework" rehashes, what exactly do you want a complete rework of? Should we replace the daze with a stun?

The skills on the weapon are excellent. It needs more damage.

I am and always have been LBs biggest fan. SB has some decent skills. Give it some damage and it will see use because it's condi. I mean if the autoattack did 4000 bleed damage per hit you'd be a fool not to use it. That's ridiculous, but the other skills are good enough that it wouldn't take more than damage. The weapon untraited gives you perma swiftness with that nice evade and move to boot, I'm not sure any other weapon does that.

As someone (you?) already said, the only way it has enough damage right now is to give up utilities, which is not usable for PvP.

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:

@EnderzShadow.2506 said:

@"Fluffball.8307" said:I get annoyed at the dumb "needs a complete rework" rehashes, what exactly do you want a complete rework of? Should we replace the daze with a stun?

The skills on the weapon are excellent. It needs more damage.

maybe I am going overboard with the 'whole weapon' thing.

But a lot of it just doesn't work. Changing the dmg is in no way, a fix for sbow.

The evade is bad. Not particularly fond of any backward evades. In pvp it doesn't keep one in the fight very well...it's just a bad retreat that will only buy you seconds.Compare it to a staff 3----- Imagine that, if sbow had a staff 3 HA!

The bleeds? Eh maybe if it was a true hybrid weapon?

No situational flanking or being behind a target--that is just bad.No one is going to run from a shortbow ranger and there is no shortbow way to get behind a target.What if there was a 'staff 3 like ability' that put a sbow ranger behind their target--wow.

Lastly, the range, the range, the range, the range. Can't say it enough. It;s too short. Unless they want to give some amazing movement abilities to the ranger like the obnoxious ones I mentioned above. Then the range wouldn't be so bad.

@EnderzShadow.2506 said:

@Nuka Cola.8520 said:

@EnderzShadow.2506 said:

@"Fluffball.8307" said:I get annoyed at the dumb "needs a complete rework" rehashes, what exactly do you want a complete rework of? Should we replace the daze with a stun?

The skills on the weapon are excellent. It needs more damage.

I don't think you can directly compare SB3 with staff 3. Staff 3 is a movement skill, SB3 is an evade and swiftness. The hop backwards just lets you be more elusive. The zero direction requirement is underrated as well. Out of all the skills on SB, I think this one is the best. 5 is of course amazing but the CD is a bit long.

Another thought: The LB "rework" was nothing but a DPS increase. It went from one of the worst weapons in the entire game to very good.

DPS has always been the ranger weapons' downfall.