It's been nearly a decade since Longbow was given to a class. What's up with bow gameplay in GW2?

[Frozey.8513]

Last and only time Longbow as a weapon has been given to any of classes in GW2 was for Dragonhunter with Heart of Thorns release in 2015. Only three classes since then have had the pleasure of being able to use Longbow, namely Warrior, Ranger and Guardian. Why has it been so long since Longbow was last introduced to a class?

Overall this brings a much larger issue with GW2, which is bows in general being pushed as backup weapons, rather than something that would reward you for staying at range. Latest addition for Engineer getting Shortbow is the only exception to this rule, but it does point out the issue of weapon swap being partially responsible for this. Due to bows often not having a meaningful ranged counterpart that would align with power/condi focus of the said bow, it drives the builds pair bows with melee weapons instead that do share their stats alignment. And in order to being able to use both of your weapons, you will be forced to stay on melee range due to your other weapon not having any range.

On top of that none of the light armoured professions up to date have received any kind of bow in their weapon arsenal, yet all of them have now access to firearms. You would imagine that Elementalist with a bow could make all kinds of builds centered around either of the bows, or even Necromancer with ability to swap between Longbow and Staff or Shortbow and Axe would make fresh and fun builds to play with.

Lastly coming from the original Guild Wars you would have imagined Ranger to be clear option for people who want ranged game play, but over the years it seems the class has been turned into a type of nature magician with focus on melee while having some ranged backup alternatives. Only meaningful ranged build on Ranger as of now is Shortbow with Axe which is really fun to play, but it leaves a lot to be desired for Ranger's Longbow. Instead of Ranger, the class with most ranged option these days instead seems to be Mesmer, with 5 ranged MH/2h options, and lot more ranged OH options.

Thus I would very much hope that in the next expansion we will get some much needed love for the pew pew style game play in GW2.

[bq pd.2148]

indeed mesmer could use another melee weapon. in the form of a longbow would it fit right into how they use their weapons.

[Jedrik.3109]

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Edited April 27 by Jedrik.3109
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[Fueki.4753]

12 hours ago, Frozey.8513 said:

Lastly coming from the original Guild Wars you would have imagined Ranger to be clear option for people who want ranged game play,

In GW1, I've seen more melee players using bows to simply pull enemies, than I've seen Rangers indulging in ranged gameplay.

It wasn't rare for Rangers to use Warrior, Assassin or Dervish as their secondary profession and play melee builds. Toucher also was a fairly popular melee Ranger build.

Don't forget, the range in Ranger means something different than the range in ranged combat.

[Dadnir.5038]

I do agree on the fact that (long)bows have been left out of the weapon lottery for far too long despite them having a lot of potential.

But I also agree with Fueki when they say that bows in GW1 wasn't a ranger's defining weapon (and that's especially true in PvP where foes are less predictible than in PvE).

Don't get me wrong, bow in GW1 had a lot of potential for damage and could be used for that with the right team and a steady strategy in some niche content (Urgoz maze). However, beyond such niche content, a bow was best used for interupting and pulling foes as going further than that would usually backfire on your team.

In GW1 ranger is not a "tank" (even if he can avoid a lot of things through stances) while the aggro system often glue mobs to the first character that hit them or catch their interest. A balanced party in GW1 is often wiped because their ranged party members are a bit "hasty".

Now, GW1 is GW1 and GW2 is GW2. Weapon skills in GW2 are a way to express the tools and thematic of the profession and bows can certainly contribute a lot in doing such a thing. My fantasy is tickled by the possibility of an arcane archer (Elementalist's thematic with some inspirations from the dungeon and dragon universe) or a bone archer (Necromancer's thematic with some inspiration from the bone specialization of diablo 2's necromancer).

[eXistence.3876]

I've been dreaming of more longbow access to other professions for so long... always though virtuoso would have been perfect for it but I guess not...

[Buran.3796]

    Is not like they nailed the bow adaptations anyway since where longbows have been usually wielded with the mediterranean grip (index above the arrow, two or three fingers below the arrow), most of cultures using the compund/horsebow did employ the thumb grip (the string is pulled with the thumb, protected by a ring) and the arrow is placed in the opposite  side of the bow (compared to mediterranean). But...   main source of inspiration of archery for game developers have been mainstream Hollywood, which knowns almost nothing about bows, swords, spears or armors...

[Leo G.4501]

You know what terrestrial weapon that has NEVER been proliferated?

Focus.

Sincerely,

Someone who crafted focus as their 2nd legendary weapon and is actively working on Harpoon gun.

[RazielTheUnborn.2189]

On 4/27/2024 at 1:17 AM, Fueki.4753 said:

In GW1, I've seen more melee players using bows to simply pull enemies, than I've seen Rangers indulging in ranged gameplay.

It wasn't rare for Rangers to use Warrior, Assassin or Dervish as their secondary profession and play melee builds. Toucher also was a fairly popular melee Ranger build.

Don't forget, the range in Ranger means something different than the range in ranged combat.

Would like to chime in and remind that Ranger/Ritualist was quite popular for ranged AoE on Barrage + Splinter Weapon for a lot of content in PvE. PvP, yeah, Rangers were melee focused a lot of the time. 

[Shagie.7612]

rev shortbow is the coolest weapon kit in the entire game who needs any more

actually i really wish warrior's longbow wasn't heavily encouraged, arguably forced into melee because of fan of fire and poor tracking on pin down
also the ability to obstruct your own lobbed combustive shots and arcing arrows by running around LoS before they hit the ground. that's silly too.

[Gaiawolf.8261]

3 hours ago, Shagie.7612 said:

rev shortbow is the coolest weapon kit in the entire game who needs any more

actually i really wish warrior's longbow wasn't heavily encouraged, arguably forced into melee because of fan of fire and poor tracking on pin down
also the ability to obstruct your own lobbed combustive shots and arcing arrows by running around LoS before they hit the ground. that's silly too.

💯 This can apply rather liberally through the game. So many great ranged weapons, yet we are constantly forced "heavily encouraged" into melee range for one reason or another. They really need to let weapons shine on their own without almost requiring disparate synergies to achieve viable effectiveness.

[Mini Crinny.6190]

Give Longbows to Elementalists 🫠

[Shagie.7612]

14 hours ago, Gaiawolf.8261 said:

So many great ranged weapons, yet we are constantly forced "heavily encouraged" into melee range for one reason or another.

The nature of how boons work will almost always force that to happen in organized pve, but for other game modes it's quite frustrating.

Like, if that warrior wants to play a decent condi zerk that can melee as mace or sword and then has ranged pressure with the longbow swap, he's kind of out of luck? That's lame.

Admittedly warriors are largely forced into side noding no matter what so that's the only thing their weapons matter for, but the weapon's design doesn't help that much in giving them ranged pressure.

[Sigmoid.7082]

10 hours ago, Mini Crinny.6190 said:

Give Longbows to Elementalists 🫠

I see this all the time but there is absolutely nothing that suggests that longbow would be any better ,visually or mechanically, than the pistol that people are so upset about besides more skills. 

Edited May 1 by Sigmoid.7082

[Tobias.4975]

Melee-Longbow for Revenant and make all skills single-target. 🤣

[Axelteas.7192]

If you're familiar with Anet ideals you will understand that they dont like ranged casters and archers.

[draxynnic.3719]

On 5/1/2024 at 2:01 PM, Sigmoid.7082 said:

I see this all the time but there is absolutely nothing that suggests that longbow would be any better ,visually or mechanically, than the pistol that people are so upset about besides more skills. 

Mostly because they really dropped the ball with ele pistol. If we were to assume that ele pistol marked the best they can now do for an elementalist weapon, we might as well give up on elementalist altogether.

There's a lot of inspiration out there for coming up with cool stuff for an elemental archer.

But of course, ele pistol could have been far better than it was too.