So I've been playing a Norn Ranger since release, and have absolutely loved playing it. The first 10 levels I messed around with all the weapons, and settled on using the longbow with an axe/warhorn combo, and using signets and lightning reflexes put together what I believed to be a solid, yet simple build that I enjoyed. However, as I approached lvl 40, I started to feel the the "umfh" of my attacks keep getting lesser and lesser. I had read that the shortbow dealt more damage, and swapping to it, I did feel like I was causing more damage. However, now I am at a predicament. I had planned a few thoughts as to what I would have liked the rest of my setup to be, but I cannot settle on them, or maybe I am doing something wrong, so I have turned to the GW2FANS community to give me so... inspiration for my builds.

I wanted to use traps, but they seem to not last long at all, and with a 20% chance to proc anyway, seemed like they had useless combo fields.

Spirits seem a bit of a joke, even with the buff to their chance to activate.

I thought maybe Beast Mastery as well, but dps pets seem very squishy compared to my bears, and even then their dps doesn't seem overly high.

I am well aware that I could be doing things wrong, since I have taken a very laid back approach to GW2, but I still like to feel useful. Hopefully someone out there can give me some advice, or hey, post your current build and maybe I"ll find something there!

Thanks for the help!