Which Burning Arrow Build do You Prefer?

Can that assasin sustain that damage output? Bursting out 480 HP of damage in 4 seconds is less usefull as it sounds if he's out of energy or recharging skills for the next 10 seconds. Not when a target's dead. (PvP~wise)

Not when a target's dead. Thought so, and not on the next target either.

Thought so, and not on the next target either. In PvP, a target dead gives you a numerical advantage over an opponent, as they have 1) less people and 2) they need time to resurrect. It's also not very nice if you force a base resurrect (GvG here), or if a melee or a monk dies.

Assassins are good for off-spikes.

Assassins are good for off-spikes. I thought there was a reason why they are called Assassins

Distracting is better, but arguably not as important, because the recharge is too dangerous. Most importantly though, you have BOTH, so that's not an issue, is it?

<refering to Xeones's comments about Savage Shot> Xeones, you should quit considering Savage only as an interrupt. Indeed if you compare the interrupt part of both skills and nothing else, Distracting would probably be better in PvE, because of the extra 20 secs recharge for the skills distracted, and despite the longer recharge which doesn't matter much in PvE since most of the time there are not that many skills needing to be interrupted: generally there is one really annoying skill to interrupt, and other skills that are not dangerous enough to have to be interrupted absolutely (I mean... it's always good when you interrupt something but most of the time, it won't be that bad if you don't).

Now the thing is, Distracting Shot deals almost no damage. Savage Shot deals full damage, and eventually an extra +21 if you catch a spell. Both are interrupts, which means they have a pseudo instant cast, making you able to have a "mini spike" when you use them. Yet with the very low damage from Distracting Shot, it doesn't change anything. It does with Savage Shot. Even if you don't interrupt a spell and don't have the extra damage, the skill still increases your DPS, and you can eventually spam it as soon as it's recharged even if you dunno if you're going to interrupt a skill to increase your damage. Savage Shot is also a nice skill to finish off a foe. I generally use this skill when I see my target is likely to die within 2 or 3 secs. I use a normal attack then (or a bow attack) and savage right after to strike it twice at the same time, and to eventually shut it down in the case of foes with some kind of self healing (warriors with heal sigs, monks, etc), not because I know they're going to use a healing skill, but because I know if they do they're going to be interrupted, and if they dont they won't have time for that later for they will be dead. Of course you can also do that with Distracting, but since Distracting deals little damage, it won't count as an extra attack and the foe won't be dead. With Savage, he will, or will be really low in health, and killed by another member of the team in less than 1 sec.

Or to make it simpler: Savage Shot is a pure interrupt and from this point of view is generally better than Savage. Savage is both an interrupt and an attack skill, and from this point of view is better than Distracting in damage dealing builds (unless you're planing to fight a foe with a very annoying spamable skill - in this case you may have to do a compromise).