Bow

General

A Two-Handed projectile weapon that causes piercing damage, there are a variety of bows in Guild Wars. The Ranger's Marksmanship attribute improves the damage of and is generally a requirement for this weapon type. Skills from this attribute can only be performed when equipping a bow.

Bow Classes

In general, there are five different classes of bows, which have different ranges, attack speeds, arc sizes and projectile speeds. Flight time and arc size directly affects the accuracy of the bow, whereas refire rate directly affects the DPS of the bow. Additionally, arc size also affects the pathing of the arrow -- some obstacles might obstruct a bow with small arc size, but a bow with large arc size may be able to get through.

Weapon	Refire Rate	Range1	Flight Time2	Arc Size	Special Feature
Longbow	2.4 seconds	1.6	0.59 seconds	Normal	None
Flatbow	2.0 seconds	1.6	0.88 seconds	Large	None
Hornbow	2.7 seconds	1.4	0.59 seconds	Normal	10% Armor penetration
Recurve Bow	2.4 seconds	1.4	0.40 seconds	Small	None
Shortbow	2.0 seconds	1.05	0.59 seconds	Normal	None

¹ Range is approximated in the radius of the aggro circle measured on approximately flat ground.

• Being at a higher elevation than your target increases the range your arrows can go, and at a lower elevation your range is shortened.

²Flight Time is for a target at Shortbow range distance.

Max damage range of a bow is always 15~28, regardless of bow class.

Bow Types

Core

Standard	Flatbow	Hornbow	Longbow	Recurve Bow	Shortbow
PvP Bows	PvP Flatbow	PvP Hornbow	PvP Longbow	PvP Recurve Bow	PvP Shortbow
Starter Weapons				Starter Bow
Realms of the Gods		Shadow Bow	Storm Bow	Eternal Bow

Tyrian

Bow Class	Flatbow	Hornbow	Longbow	Recurve Bow	Shortbow
Collector / Crafter	Ascalon Flatbow	Ascalon Hornbow	Ascalon Longbow	Ascalon Recurve Bow	Ascalon Shortbow
Other Bows		Ivory Bow		Composite Bow Dead Bow	Half Moon
Unique Bows	Drago's Flatbow Drago's Vampiric Flatbow Stoneherder's Flatbow (unconfirmed)	Stinger Thornbeard's Horned Bow	Elswyth's Long Bow Forgerunner Tarnok's Longbow	Elswyth's Recurve Bow Gargash's Recurve Bow Rotwing Recurve Bow Tarnok's Recurve Bow	Boulderbeard's Shortbow Graygore's Shortbow Graygore's Zealous Shortbow

Canthan

Bow Class	Flatbow	Hornbow	Longbow	Recurve Bow	Shortbow
Bramble Bows	Bramble Flatbow	Bramble Hornbow	Bramble Longbow	Bramble Recurve Bow	Bramble Shortbow
Naga Bows			Naga Longbow		Naga Shortbow
Plagueborn Bows		Plagueborn Hornbow		Plagueborn Recurve Bow
Other Bows			Amber Longbow Celestial Longbow Jade Longbow Platinum Longbow
Elite Mission bows	Ironwing Flatbow		Ironwing Longbow (unconfirmed) Zodiac Longbow
Unique Bows (Shing Jea Island)		Jin's Hornbow	Ahvha's Longbow
Unique Bows (Canthan Mainland)	Chkkr's Flatbow Ironwing Flatbow (unique)	Inallay's Hornbow Razorjaw's Hornbow Royen's Hornbow	Chehbaba's Longbow Ironwing Longbow (unique) Lorelle's Longbow Meynsang's Longbow	Brrne's Recurve Bow Nandet's Recurve Bow Nundak's Recurve Bow Razortongue's Recurve Bow	Ryver's Shortbow Swiftscale's Shortbow
Unique Bows (Urgoz's Warren)	Urgoz's Flatbow		Urgoz's Longbow		Urgoz's Shortbow

Upgrades and Modifiers

The weapon upgrades for the bow are Bow String (prefix) and Bow Grip (suffix).