Ranged classes using bow/rifle?

[IOI.1843]

Hello. i mainly main mesmer/mirage and currently playing guardian/dgh and both of these profession im using is melee. and i have other classes such as thief and ele but i didnt unlock any elite spec or try to play them yet. i have 1 more char slot and thinking to play classes that using rifle/bow. I always play melee since i start play and before i used to play staff mesmer but i literally dont know anything and just using what they give me. What classes is currently good to play (PVE) using bow/long bow/rifle? also sorry my english really2 bad xd .

[Buran.3796]

Ranger for longbow (you can also use its shortbow for condition builds). For rifle you can either run a Engineer or the Deadeye spec of Thief (used to like the old Warrior rifle skills, but hate it since the revamp of the weapon).

[Kodama.6453]

For engineer, it depends.

Do you want to be effective at range or do you just want to use the weapon for thematical reasons?Engineer's rifle is not fitting as a ranged damage weapon, since it's burst skills (Blunderbuss (3) and Jump Shot (5)) deal the majority of their damage at melee range.

If you just want to have the thematic of a rifle user, then it depends which flavour you prefer.Engineer plays like a shotgun, deadeye (thief elite spec) fills the sniper niche, warrior is a storm rifle I guess.

[Taril.8619]

Ranger for Longbow and Thief for Rifle. Warrior Rifle is also possible, but not amazing.

Revenant can use Shortbow somewhat effectively in PvE, though it will want to fight in melee often due to being Condition based and thus wanting to use Mallyx Elite skill which applies Torment in an area around you...

Warrior's Longbow wants you to be in melee to use it (To land Fan of Fire), Engineer's Rifle wants you to be in melee to use it (Blunderbuss and Jump Shot), Guardian Longbow just sucks, Thief Shortbow sucks for actual damage (It's more about utility, especially in PvP, via teleports from Infiltrator's Arrow and Poison from Choking Gas)

That is the extent of Bow/Rifle users in the game... There is ironically, more ranged builds that DON'T use bows/rifles than there are ranged builds that use them...

So if you're wanting actual ranged builds, I'd recommend;

Scepter Elementalist (Can use Staff in WvW)Scepter NecromancerPistol/Pistol ThiefGreatsword MesmerScepter Guardian (Though, your second weapon set will likely be melee based)Scepter Mesmer (I.e. Condition Core or Chronomancer)

[Scout Sn.2976]

I've been maining a full ranged Core Warrior (Rifle/Lb) ever since LWS1. It's pretty much a useless build outside of PVE, but it's certainly really fun dishing out lots of ranged damage against bosses.

It's generally speced for full Power/Precision/Ferocity, might stacking sigils and traits and vulnerability stacking against mobs. I rotate around the killshot(Rifle)/Combustive Shot(LB) bursts to spike and AOE quickly.

Killshots/Volleys are easily 15-20k per hit/cast if you've got fury and 100% crit chance for burst traits on.

Like any other glass cannon build out there, it's very squishy. However, with the warrior's heavy armor and high health pool you'll be able to survive much longer and dish out more damage than the average deadeye before going down.