Can shortbow thief be viable in Openworld ?

[maxfeelswell.8370]

Title.

 

I love the class but Im rather bad at it both in pve and pvp. I would still call it my main though.

I love shortbow daredevil and managed to solo the mushroom HP in AB yesterday which made me proud lol. However the damage is really low compared to meta builds or spamming 3 on P/P for example.

 

Is there something I can do other than running full zerk shortbow maybe buildwise ? The damage lacks especially in story mode vs bosses or single targets as the arrows dont bounce back to the original target for more damage.

[BobbyT.7192]

Shortbow is arguably the best weapon on thief. Range aoe strike or condition damage, aoe CC, very mobile and a good evade. On demand blast finisher. Good weapon for tagging mobs in a zerg. Its just a shame is got nerf pretty bad in pvp.

Its also too low dps to be used in end game pve content (range aoe weapon so its understandable), but I like to take in certain factals, and strikes where there's going to be a lot of little mobs, like Cold War.

[kash.9213]

I don't think it's going to go beyond being a utility set mostly but the Trick Shot bounce is really good for an auto attack. You might make things just a little easier with Sigil of Draining for Choking Gas Daze. You could also find some build source that will consistently top off a stack of Might.

[ASP.8093]

You might try Deadeye. With Deadeye, you will be constantly getting your Initiative reset as long as you are able to go into stealth from time to time (your stolen skills and utilities naturally help you with this; tho it's also basically free with a trait on Rifle). This means you'll be casting a *lot* more Cluster Bombs than a comparable Daredevil build. The Deadeye Shortbow sneak attack ability is also pretty decent against groups of enemies.

It's a bit less mobile than Daredevil (2 normal-range dodges instead of 3 long-reach dodges), but you can compensate by using the Shortbow 3 more (which you can afford to thanks to the extra Initiative).

[Blacksarevok.8104]

i found rifle/sb deadeye to be good for open world, i used it a lot in drizzlewood

 

i use sbow as my secondary for specter as well but the ramp up on Sbow condi takes too long for it to be particularly useful most of the time

[nopoet.2960]

@maxfeelswell.8370 Shortbow is better as condition damage and most effective at dealing with groups.  I usually start a fight against a group with shortbow then switch to my other set as they start to drop.  Warning though, shortbow is fun but it's a lot more work than other weapon sets.