Elthari.3968

Can I haz a horse pet then please?

Yeah, and that's the problem - lead the Wind conflicts with Predator's Onslaught and the latter boosts your Axe5, trap and F3.I am not sure that even if you can hit two targets consistently Lead the Wind won't be a DPS loss, especially since your LB5 is an AoE without Lead the Wind.

LB + Sword/Axe is a meta build in fractals and works great for properly timed burst phases in raids/strike missions. https://discretize.eu/builds/ranger/power-soulbeast - fractal build for organized groups. That's T4+Challenge mode fractals level.https://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/ranger/soulbeast/power/ - raid/strike mission build.So, expanding on @Teratus.2859 answer. Yes, LB has bad sustained DPS, but your main DPS window falls in the duration of Sic'Em anyway. Basically at some point of your rotation you switch to LB and time Sic'Em so you can basically apply it's bonus to your LB5 + F3 + Axe5 (+Frost Trap if you take it) as those are your most damaging skills. Everything else is an optimized filler for the gaps between two consecutive Sic'Em. By no means LB isn't a meta weapon at the moment. Unfortunately, at the same time game mechanics prevents you from contributing good DPS from range. You see, to get nice numbers you have to get nice buffs. And you can't get nice buffs if you're out of range of said buffs, ergo no good numbers for you. And a frustrated healer (if you have any) because party isn't properly stacked. So even with ranged weapons that work well (guardian scepter, mesmer greatsword, ranger short bow & long bow, etc) you'll have to be in melee range of the boss, unless your whole group goes for a range strat (won't happen in fractals/strikes, sometimes happens in raids).There are certain mechanics happening at the location of random players in the group. Sometimes other members of your group have to get close to you to neutralize such mechanics. That becomes really difficult when you stand at 1200 range plinking at the boss and may lead to problems and/or group wipe.If you take two identical weapon sets (say you want to play LB+LB) your weapon cooldowns are shared. You can't LB2+LB5+switch+LB2+LB5, sorry (that'd be hilarious but I dread PvP burst from some classes). Basically this means you have 2x less weapon skills compared to someone who takes two different weapon sets. Identical sets somewhat work for cSLB meme SB+SB build, but it's still less effective than proper cSLB build.So. Can you use LB in your build for high-end PvE content? Absolutely yes. Can you make the build using just LB? Probably yes.Can you take such a build into high-end PvE content? Please no.Can you play at range in high-end PvE content? 95% of the time no.Can you play at range in open world/easier strikes? Yes.