Thief Weapon Series: Shortbow

I'm actually rather excited to go over the shortbow skill set. As mentioned in my previous post, while watching early Guild Wars 2 alpha videos, it was the shortbow skill "Infiltrator's Arrow" that really made me do a double take on the thief profession. You mean to tell me that I can point to any spot within my standard firing range and shadow step there? And I can do this whenever I feel like it assuming I have the initiative?!? PvP utility aside, can you imagine how useful this will be for those random jumping puzzle skill challenges? I can, and it'll feel like cheating. Anyway, let's break it down a skill at a time...

Shortbow

1) Trick Shot (0i)
    A very nice 1-slot spammable skill for large scale PvP like WvW zergs. On the other hand, it is rather weak in a 1v1 situation as it would require three bunched targets (maybe only two) to get the full damage out of this ability.

2) Cluster Bomb (3i)
    A rather cheap AOE that be double tapped for even greater damage versus very large groups. Ground targetable skills can be a little more difficult to use effectively in small scale PvP though, unless you know how to take advantage of "smart casting" which will remove the step of clicking a spot on the ground after activating the ability. Instead, the moment you activate the ability, it will fire off wherever your mouse cursor is already pointing. Also, if I recall correctly there should be a way to instantly fire it off centered around the thief, maybe while holding down shift?

3) Disabling Shot (4i)
    This is a great kiting tool for those who'd like to play a primarily ranged thief. The cost is fairly balanced for what it does. Unfortunately, it will not function well as an anti-kiting tool unless you can manage to turn your back on your target and thus leap backwards and toward them.

4) Choking Gas (4i)
    Another phenomenal AOE ability at a very decent initiative cost. If you can't tell already, the shortbow is shaping up to be an amazing WvW weapon.

5) Infiltrator's Arrow (6i)
    I already talked about this one in the opening paragraph. I obviously love this skill. The cost is really high at six initiative, but I'm holding out hope they'll drop it down to five. The possibilities with this skill are endless. The only downside is that it is not unique to the thief. Those silly elementalists get this skill in the form of "Ride the Lightning" with a fifteen second cooldown. The blind component to this is sometimes easy to overlook as the skill is already amazing without it. But it is worth mentioning in case you ever need to use this defensively to escape an uncomfortable situation.

s) Surprise Shot (0i)
    It would be really hard to complain about a free immobilize. The damage is a little on the low side though when compared with the other stealth skills.

In summary: This set of weapon skills is hands down the best WvW set for the thief, and perhaps even when compared to the other professions. But as I'm less familiar with the others, I won't go quite that far. Of course in almost every situation where a set is good for large scale PvP, it usually means that it fails pretty hard in small scale stuff. While there are certainly useful utilities, the damage is much too low for 1v1 situations.

Ranking: These scores should be obvious if you've read the rest of the post.

Structured PvP (5v5)

WvW


In my next post I'll consider what the sword adds to the thief's arsenal.