Bow position

Now we all know that female rangers fire their bows horizontally while males fire vertically. Also,Sins(and I'm not sure which other classes) also fire horizontally while warriors fire vertically.

What I'm wondering is what kind of style everyone likes. As in if you could choose how you hold your bow would you want to fire vertically, or horizontally?

That would be quite nice actually. In addition choosing which is you "Main" hand would be cool. So if your left handed, you can wield your weapon on your left.

I mean its something I notice and would like to change, but it doesn't keep me up at night hehe.

I have to say I'm a fan of the style the female ritualist uses to fire a bow. There's a real flourish to the style and I have to really resist turning mine into a splinter barrager a lot of the time.

I've done a touch of archery in my time but have only ever fired vertically so I'd have to say that. As for Tasha... well I doubt she'd be able to hold Drago's Flatbow at shoulder height without it digging into the ground, so I think I have to say horizontally

Male Rangers can fire a bow horizontally with some attack skills.

edit:
[skill]Crippling Shot[/skill]
[skill]Pin Down[/skill]

I prefer the vertical firing.

I'm a traditionalist so it has to be vertically, there isn't any other way of drawing a bow sufficiently.
It just wouldn't have any worthwhile range or power, bring in magic and of course it might work, after all we do have an endless arrow supply.

Would like to see crossbows turning up, maybe the asura will design a few.

Repeating crossbow "Chu-ko-nu" for the asura,Low damage and range high fire rate.

Heavy crossbows and stonebows for the Dwarves and Charr Medium damage fire rate as for slowest of the standard game bows.

Huge siege arbelast for the Norn, slow fire rate but greater damage and knockdown.

Anyone else like to see crossbows ?

I suppose this isnt exactly related but I allways piss myself when i see a male rit use a scythe

After casting any spell notice they seem to fall asleep on the spot - Wobbling at a bit

Im starting to think that scythe might be a bit heavy.....

While it doesn't keep me awake at night, I'd prefer it if my female ranger fired vertically. Horizontal just looks odd to me.

Horizonally ofc. But i dont like rangers -.-

my female ele shoots vertically when pulling with the flatbow

Horizontally is better for close range and vertical aiming.
Vertical is better for long range and horizontal aiming.

The position should be horizontal with the Short bow and short range/low aiming skills and vertical with the long bow and long range and arrow speed up skills (like under the effects of favorable winds)

i never even cared enough to notice my rangers bow positioning. i think behind the back would be cool maybe

Prefer vertically, but I find horizontal firing rather amusing x].

Thinking about it, I imagine all the bows I've ever fired would be pretty useless horizontally, there'd be no way to draw the bow enough to produce any kind of reasonable shot, arrows would just bump into targets instead of causing any damage.
I guess horizontally would work with smaller tighter bows.

Yes. She kind of squats when she shoots. If there is not a Ranger in the group my Rit usually does the pulling. I keep a long bow on hand just in case.

I love the way female eles fire the FIRST shot they do, after wards the do a stander female ranger style one but the firs shot looks well good =D.

Try it with a female paragon then

male paragons with a bow ftw!

Horizontal. To me it has more of an "in battle" feeling. Vertical makes me think I'm laying siege on a castle or something.

How weird... my female ranger holds her bow vertically (perpendicular to the ground), not horizontally to the ground. And I went googling to find out what else firing a bow horizontally or vertically might mean. I couldn't find anything.

Help! I'm confused.

Really now... I've never seen that before, every female ranger (including my own) that i've seen has held their bow horizontally.

In terms of what the style means, in GW its just a matter of looks... now in real life I'm sure most ppl will say that firing a bow horizontally won't generate the same amount of power as vertically.

Exactly...

12chars

personaly i LOVE how my female ranger uses her bow and especialy when i use Cripshot, i use that skill so much just cause i love the animation.

Hi... I'd love if you'd show me a screenshot of what you mean by horizontal. And when I get home, I'll take a screenshot of my ranger firing bows. I'm going to look at longbow, flatbow, recurve and shortbow. I'm very curious now.

Thanks!

Maybe this is something that should be implemented in GW2? I'm sure lefties would appreciate wielding a sword in their left hand and shield in right. Swappable weapon positions? SOunds like a good idea eh Anet?

Heres my female ranger:





Heres my male ranger:





Notice how my female ranger's bow is horizontal(parrallel to the ground) Now its not 100% perfectly parallel but it is generally horizontal. The bow sort of makes her into a "t" if that makes it easier to visualize. My male ranger's bow is vertical or perpendicular to the ground.

These shots were fired just from normal attacks, no skills were used.

If i could choose i would pull on of those sick ancient moves where you get those giant bows, lie down and shoot with your feet. They fire like half a mile or something.

To be honest, I think I'd prefer the horizontal style of my lady Ranger.

What I would really like though would be three or four different style animations that randomly get chosen when you shoot your bow. It would be more realistic if they did that.

If I had a choice I'd choose a point in between vertical and horizontal. I'd call it a lazy horizontal shot! Really doesn't matter to me, I rarely look at my attack animations.

I prefer Verticlal, it has a more "in battle" feel.
Vertical for in-agro bubble and Horizontal for out-agro bubble please!
My male ranger needs a style change.

By the way anyone noticed when using a preperation or something on a male ranger, unlike the female ranger his weapon disappears when he crouches?

I want moar style!

Grrr....I get confused with Horizontal and Vertical...
Might be a little hard to know what I mean exact 'cause I fail at definitions!

Could it depend on bow type? I've been using the Ironwing Flatbow from Factions ever since beating that campaign on my female ranger, and I swear I've only seen her fire it vertically.

I just don't understand why the bows have no bowstrings, why they were never made, and why they never have been added in....

I've wondered the same thing too - and Rangers seem to shoot their spine on the bow.

Need moar style.

some people asked for moar style...
THIS
is the first thing that came to my mind

Agree. That is actually the reason why I don´t have a ranger. Instead I use a female Paragon, because somehow she uses the bow vertically always. I can´t stand the horizontal firing.

Female elementalists seem to shot horizontally when not using an attack skill and vertically when they do and the first shot after a spell.

Choosing this would be a good idea, but if you do this, than there will be even more call for right/left handed orientation. Such things just don't need time use prioty over GW2/actual bug fixes.

Arenanet hardly works on them at all. Imagine giving them another excuse not to.

Using a bow horizontal to the ground is inefficient because you get less bower that way, and the only reason someone would do so in actual combat is because they have hunting-style broadhead arrows and are targeting a human.
Hunting broadheads have a head that is vertical (perpendicular to the ground) so that it can easily pass between the ribs of a game animal.
War broadheads have a head that is horizontal (parrallel to the ground) to easily pass between the ribs of a man.
When fighting a man with hunting broadheads, the archer turns his bow so that the arrow can pass between the ribs.

So GW is sexist, and refuses to give the female ranger the proper ammunition, I guess

Well my male ranger is always vertical, but horizontal would be a nice change.

Thanks Inger for the screenshots. Now I get what you mean.

Thank you for this. I was totally confused and just went into GW as soon as I got home from work. I went on the attack with Jin using my Drago's flatbow and I using one of my longbows. We carried them vertically when standing and running (which makes sense to me) but when we attacked we did indeed roll them over horizontally. When I studied archery in high school (many years ago), we always fired vertically, and that was the only way I could imagine firing until I saw it for myself in GW. I guess it was important for the male devs that the females at least look inefficient. j/k

Umm, in real life the fletchings spin the arrow so that is irrelevant - they have spun the arrow for as long as they have been on arrows. For reasons unknown to me many believe that you somehow align the broad head to go between ribs. You will even see some modern day hunters with heavy helical (spin) on their fletchings believe so. Not only is that silly but even if true you would simply align the broad head on the arrow to allow you to fire the bow vertically. Watch the end of this video and you can clearly see the arrow spinning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48R2a...eature=related And, lastly, no matter the orientation of the broad head were you to hit bone it either sticks in it or breaks through it - they don't somehow slide around them.

Generally speaking repeatability is what you are seeking when shooting a bow. Where you place your string hand is called an "anchor" and MUST be consistent. This is the equivalent of a rear site on a rifle. Further it is easier to aim with the bow verticle and the arrow up close to your eye (regardless of you are shooting "instinctive" or using some point of aim method using the tip of the arrow).

Different areas of the world use different grips and anchors, most western countries grip the bow with their index, middle, and ring finger and either anchor with a finger in the corner of their mouth or under their chin. Asian and middle eastern countries tend towards using the thumb to hold the string and pulling to a point on the ears. Some Native Americans anchored at their chest, however they (at best) canted the bow no more than 30 or so degrees.

In any case no one outside of movies and video games holds a bow horizontally - or at least anyone that actually want to hit what they are shooting at (even in my junior program I will have a kid want to do it from time to time to emulate something on TV - they quickly find out why it doesn't work with a real bow). Even in situations where clearance was a problem (say, while riding a horse) did they do so. They either shot a fairly short bow or had the bottom limb shorter (the traditional Japanese longbows are made this way - really strange looking to most everyone else).

As for my preference - I prefer them to look more real and therefore vertical or a slight amount of cant (many shoot primitive that way because the arrow rests against your hand better). I would also like to see a proper follow through after the shot. There have been a few games that do it fairly well, at least as well as you are going to get with a game.

I'd hold it diagonally, and gangsta style when I feel like it.