Longbow in PvE

[Shiyo.3578]

This weapon is outclassed in nearly every situation by other weapons for Dragon Hunter in PvE. Could we get a rework on skills 3, 4 and 5? They seem very ineffective and outdated compared to other skills - especially the symbol, it's so pitiful compared to other weapons symbols.

Skill 2 is fantastic, but I think the auto should come out much quicker or the projectile should be much quicker, feels kind of slow. However, skills 3-5 are the biggest offenders on why this weapon is so underwhelming.

Anyone else feel this weapon needs some buffs? If so, how?

[Aeolus.3615]

Has DH traps are your "REAL weapons".

Anet always wanted traps to be main gameplay of DH's hence was super broken instant damge when got released(i got carried most of the combat situations just because everything just died).It was always a bad design, reason bow isnt that strong.

[Mysticjedi.6053]

What suggestions do you have?The most obvious is knockback standard on skill 3.I don't see a problem with skill 4Skill 5 could be faster with either more damage or keep the chance to trap with either standard or traited boon strip (anti-stability)

[alain.1659]

Slight attack speed increase in auto, either dmg increase or removal of rooting in trueshot and knockback being baseline in deflecting shot. Those would really be cool.

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

I wanted to start a new thread for this, but title suits quite well and it is sort of on topic.

Guardian is not my mainclass, I am an engineer main. Thing is, I love to theory craft builds and whenever someone claims something to be impossible, I gladly try. So the Longbow is said to be one of the worst weapons of the Guardian and almost no Dragonhunter uses it. So I took a look on the weapon itself and noticed something very familiar, too low standard attack-speed. We had/have the same issue with the Scrapper hammer. The standard attackspeed is way too slow to consider this weapon useful at all. So we need quickness, lots of it, perma-quickness if possible. Thanks to ANets lovely design of the Firebrand, the Dragonhunter has 0 Quickness sources. The Guardian has, with Feel My Wrath, but that thing has a long cooldown (even traited).

In addition I gave myself the task to give one of the bow skills a secondary, useful purpose. For a horrible weapon like this, it is a bold task. But I found a synergy that actually works. Heavy Light. That is probably the most stupid idea, because DH is all about DAMAGE and using Heavy Light cuts Big Game Hunter aka your +20% Damage Booster. Heavy Light turns your Deflecting Shot into a Knockback. And this will trigger the Superior Sigil of Celerity. Celerity gives Quickness if you disable a foe. In combination with the Superior Sigil of Rage and a correct mix of boon-duration, you can almost maintain permanent quickness.

Here is a cheap-to-create version: >DH Longbow Test<

In addition you can maintain ~ 20 stacks of Might and Retaliation permanently. You also get a good uptime of stability.

It does not matter what stats you use for the Armor, but trinkets, backpiece and weapon should be Diviners. The buff-food is optional, but shrinks the quickness-less-time drastically (3-6 seconds in the worst case).

Rotation is mostly up to your mind, just make sure to cast Feel My Wrath and Deflecting Shot whenever they are up. DS has a cooldown of 10 seconds. Superior Sigil of Celerity has a cooldown of 20 seconds. So you trigger it every 2nd launch. If you are good enough with counting, you can time it yourselves. I have chosen the hammer, because of Banish which also launches foes and has a 15 second cooldown. I know the hammer suffers almost the same fate = too slow attack speed. So you can also camp hammer and wait 5 seconds whenever Banish is ready.

It is sort of a Trickster Build. It works with a couple of things that people normally never use, like the Superior Rune of Radiance or the two Sigils. It is not a meta-build and it can not compete with a meta-build.

Cheap to create: Trinkets & Backpiece can be obtained from LS3 vendors. Except for the weapon, there is no need to craft Diviner's Gear. The Diviner's Weapons (exotic) are even on TP. The sigils are extremely cheap. The Runes are account-bound on acquire, but the ingredients are cheap.

I have put in a lot of work, time and actually gold to test it. This is the closest I can get towards a "useful" bow adaptation for PvE. The weapon needs an overhaul. But yeah, it was fun. I learned a lot about the guardian and a few new tricks for build optimization.