Bow or Crossbow build?

[(Farkon) 2m_anylootboxes]

What's better as a main weapon in your opinion? I want to snipe at long range, yet still have some survivability and life leech.

[opihi]

Before reading this, know that I totally stink at PvP, so take my advice with lots of salt if that’s your favorite activity.

For a while I was leveling up longbow. I do mostly PvE & gathering; when I was at low spec (and low skill) it seemed much more effective than a crossbow. I’m playing a bit with whispering bow lately, mostly because I’ve been melding lots of runes and came up with the right artifact for it a few times. I keep reading about the bow of badon, mostly for being a rat in the mists, but haven’t tried one yet.

As I’ve slowly improved at the game I’ve become a bigger fan of crossbows. The basic crossbow’s “snipe” attack is devastating against mobs, though seems a bit too slow to be useful in PvP. In several PvP situations, mostly competing for open-world chests, I’ve been massacred by boltcasters, so recently started leveling up with those. And I’m working on a crowd-control-heavy build involving light crossbow too: it doesn’t have the long-distance sniping range of the others, but it is a one-handed weapon, so allows use of an offhand (leering cane in my max-cc case).

For sniping, you probably want cloth armor, for the extra damage and speed. Cleric robe is popular; or assassin jacket for ambush. Shoes, something that can sprint, maybe refreshing sprint for the healing, or focused run for shorter cooldown. Feyscale hat has the ability to make your channeling uninterruptible, seems handy in combination with certain other ranged attacks. Several capes are potentially useful; the one that boosts your energy (Thetford?) for example.