Renegade Shortbow in PvP: When devs will get to it?

[Iann.3491]

Hi, i'm a Renegade Main, Bow and Kalla user, and i've been wondering... Will Shortbow ever be good in PvP?

Although i love the Shortbow, it's obvious lackluster in PvP (and somewaht in PvE also). The problem isnt the numbers, but the SB2 and SB3. When someone though it was a good idea to create a targeted skill that can be dogded by walking? (even in pve, when monsters are running towards you they end up evading it). And SB3 is only worth the energy if it hits at least 5 arrows, to do that the enemy must be still, and even when you get to land SB5, you'll need to be in the exact range to hit the 7 arrows.

To compare with other Rev weapons: double shortsword has incredible burst damage, along with CC__ and a shadowstep (you can argue that melee weapons are supposed to be stronger, but really the only melee attack are the autoattack, all other skills have decent range). The hammer has huge range, good base damage and has defensive options (evade and shield), while having a huge AoE Stun. The staff has low damage output, but it compensates with a lot of defensive options: cleanse, evade, blocking and weakness. Mace/axe are great for condition damage, on top of aoe might generation on low CD. Each of those weapons are great, and i want the bow to be as usefull!

I use bow in PvP to some success (got to low plat with the build i made), but for that i had to develop a very specific gameplay. I only use SB2 when i land SB5 (which isnt always possible 'cause of the evades and stability). And SB3... if i use 3 times in a entire match is already a lot, it's almost never worth the energy cost. So most of the fight i'm only spamming autoattacks and legends skills.

While other classes can be successfull only by spamming skills without thinking (which i find boring as hell), the Shortbow requires a lot of strategy to use; on top of energy management and limitations, and it should be rewarding for being hard to use. So I thought: when the devs will give it some love?

I had some ideas for SB3, like being able to choose where the arrows would converge or greatly reducing the width of the skill so it would be easier to hit multiple arrows. For SB2, just fix the skill so the arrows would hit the freaking target while they're walking. OOOOORRRRR, maybe remake those skills for defensive or mobility options.

What are your thoughts? (I also think that Kalla needs some tweaks, but i'll save that for another discussion). That's my first post, btw :)

[Arkantos.7460]

had some thread about it when renegade was into the game but normally maybe after 2 years

[Lonewolf Kai.3682]

Sb2 needs an overhaul. Takes almost no effort to walk from it.

Sb3 is functionally fine as is. It needs to remain a skill shot. That is part of the fun of it. It just needs a numbers buff to make it worth it.

As for Kalla legend skills. Bleh! I don’t even use it, which is really sad. Really wish they would have made it minion based!

[yusayu.3629]

There's a lot of stuff and whole elite specs that aren't remotely viable in PvP.

[Iann.3491]

@yusayu.3629 said:There's a lot of stuff and whole elite specs that aren't remotely viable in PvP.

While i disagree with you; isnt a viability issue. It's just that SB2 is broken and SB3 isnt worth.

[Buran.3796]

@Iann.3491 said:Hi, i'm a Renegade Main, Bow and Kalla user, and i've been wondering... Will Shortbow ever be good in PvP?

Although i love the Shortbow, it's obvious lackluster in PvP (and somewaht in PvE also). The problem isnt the numbers, but the SB2 and SB3. When someone though it was a good idea to create a targeted skill that can be dogded by walking? (even in pve, when monsters are running towards you they end up evading it). And SB3 is only worth the energy if it hits at least 5 arrows, to do that the enemy must be still, and even when you get to land SB5, you'll need to be in the exact range to hit the 7 arrows.

No. Never.

You spent a lot of words talking about the offensive aspects of the weapon, while the lacking aspects which made the short bow a failure fighting against humans is A) the lack of defense and B ) the lack of mobility. Both short bows from Thief and Ranger work well at PvP/roaming due they integrate evades and mobility tools, so they can provide pressure but also save your life. Renegade's short bow doesn't give any of that, is just a dps rotation which works well against large standing piñatas, not so well vs smaller walking piñatas and just poorly against experimented players. And since when the Renegade is pressured the lack of defenses or disengaging tools in the short bow put its life at risk, is forced to swap to the staff, and at that point the dps and capability to put pressure in your enemy drops near to 0 for 10 seconds. The hammer is garbage compared to s+s/staff, but at least when you change your amulet to a tanky one and equip Glint + Jalis you can endure a bit, because the hammer has one attack which evades, better cc, and Glint is leagues above Kalla.

If there was a chance for the short bow to be part as a viable PvP build, entirely died the day they butchered Mallyx for competitive gameplay.

[Knighthonor.4061]

I believe SB2 skilled is bugged and most hits won't hit the target and instead go into the ground....

I would like a shorter activation for SB5 because WvW lag kills this.

Like better reward for landing SB3. I like it but an additional here and there wouldn't be too much.

SB4 like SB5 would like better activation to counter WvW skill lag.

[DonArkanio.6419]

I’d like to not have Renegade in GW2. SB fixes won’t bring anything good if the legend still feels awful.

[Shao.7236]

So I have been playing Celestial Traveler Shortbow/Staff lately and I can assure you that if you play the way the legend (Kalla) as intended with Jalis (Not Shiro because it sucks at dealing with Conditions.) there's crazy amount of sustain to be worked with.

As long as you have some for of healing power and power, renegade shortbow is actually quite good (For autoattacking people at range safely in your aoes.), but I would agree both 2 and 3 needs to be reworked as more relevant skills since I am getting away here without even having to use them, which says much about the playstyle of shortbow.

Being that you can out sustain all forms of damaging condition bursts overtime while healing is something worth mentioning, but Kalla skills are definitely node oriented and not using those in a such way is a waste of potential.