Perhaps this is the best time to buff bows/bow skills?

WTH is up with Rangers using Hammers and staffs? And worst of all i saw a R/E ranger using shield and a sword..... >< Rangers uses bows to kill motherEekers. I understand Touch rangers (Becuz they Pwnz) but an R/E using swords???? WTH???? Anet could just another bow.. called Crossbow? IDK, i dont understand. Rangers do a lot of dmg with bows at 16 markmanship. Esp with Burning arrow average dmg on monks and eles/casters are 150-75 dmg. Is 15-28 Not good enough? Lol.

Just not enough people out there who know how to use them..i dont think they need a buff tbh.

Thumper is often more effective, not only based on damage, but also the knockdowns. Nerf hammers!

Ok, a a build makes use of expertise to bring down the energy costs of skills....and that somehow means bows are underpowered? Name me a bow knockdown skill. Thar we go! There's a reason why Thumpers exist.

Well bows are a bit annoying to play with sometimes... The opponent can dodge arrows quite easy, the target can be obstructed, and the bow doesn't do alot of damage...

Hammers do more damage, staves give an energy bonus...

Bows are just like axes, but then much weaker, cause you miss more often, the further you are away from your opponent, the longer it takes for an arrow to hit, and most bow skills aren't great either ^^

I use my ranger for trapping, and I'm happy with a staff

You use staves when trapping, nothing is wrong with that. Bunny Thumpers are great at pressuring casters as well as anyone on the team. I've seen R/W use swords, axes, hammers, and recently I've been using a R/P Spear Throwing/Pet Build for fun. And surprisingly, the build works really well. Rangers are the most diverse profession, imo.

Because idiots make R/E's with swords obviously means bows and their skills need buffing. The only thing that needs buffing is the user's intelligence in that regard.

Where did you get the idea that rangers are a primarily damage-dealing profession in the first place? (Barrage is an exception, not a rule)

Leave the raw power to warriors. Rangers excel at disruption, survival, condition pressure and some other utility.

rangers are very good at alot of different things, expertise is used for touch rangers and stuff like that.

Expertise.

- - - - - - - - - - - -End-of-Thread-Cut-Here- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

OMFG, Practiced Stance + Choking Gas.

uh this is guildwars.... your supposed to use your 2ndary to your advantage??

i dont wanna be pissy about it, but its just whats popular now i guess?? wherever you are anyway. real rangers are not in need of a buff, people like change, you know how some builds can get old?

I feel bows do need some slight buff, in the range department. It just makes little sense for a short bow to have same range as a throwing spear. I would like to see some significant range increase for all bows, while stats can stay the same.

variety is the spice of life :P

and bows don't need a buff, they do more then enough damage.

Touch rangers aren't as great as you say they are. So let's get this straight.

You don't want a thumper build because you can't understand it.
You don't want a trapper to use a staff, for yet again, you can't understand why.
But it's ok for you NOT to use a bow if you're a touch ranger, yet everything else must use a bow?

Bows don't need powered up. You need to understand what's going on.

You see ranger's using skills from other professions because Expertise is one of the hottest primary attributes, and sometimes is worth losing runes and such for.

Ranger's use bows most of the time when they are using real ranger stuff (except Trapping of course).

Burning Arrow rangers are in gvg alot now, CripShots were standard a few seasons ago, etc. Ranger's aren't near as excluded as some classes >_>

...if anything, Expertise needs to be nerfed to ranger only skills.. sorry, but that's just the way I see it..

I agree, something needs to be done to make rangers want to carry bows again. I'd like to see some skills buffed, but I really think having accuracy increased a tad on all bows and getting the damn skill fizzles and bogus obstruction problems fixed would be the best update.

Giving focused shot a 1 second recharge would be nice too.

You're dead wrong. And bows dont need buffing.

Bows are good. Bows are versatile. We can condition like noone else (except for DW...), while dealing nice damage, AND we can interrupt.
problems are with the noobs that only damage abour sheer brute damage.