Poison Volley

Fire a spread of five poison arrows. Poison lasts longer if you are flanking or behind the target or if you strike a defiant foe. — In-game description

Animation

Poison Volley

Profession

Ranger (skill list)

Weapon

Short bow

Damage type

Choking

Game link

API

12468

“

0.25¼  

8

6

 

Poison Volley

Fire a spread of five poison arrows. Poison lasts longer if you are flanking or behind the target or if you strike a defiant foe.

 Damage (5x): 550 (1.5)^?

 Damage (5x): 460 (1.25)^?

₅ Poison (5s): 838 Damage, -33% Heal Effectiveness

₅ Attack from Behind (7s): 1,173 Damage, -33% Heal Effectiveness

 Targets per Arrow: 5

 Pierces

 Range: 900

— In-game description

Related traits

Marksmanship

• Farsighted — Ranger weapon skills deal increased strike damage. Damage is further increased for foes above the range threshold.

Skirmishing

• Quick Draw — When swapping weapons, gain quickness. The next ranger weapon skill you use will recharge faster.
• Light on your Feet — Damage and condition duration are increased after dodging or using a ranger skill that evades. Short bow skills pierce and gain recharge reduction, and their attacks from behind or while flanking or against defiant foes are improved.

Wilderness Survival

• Poison Master — Upon using a Beast ability, your pet's next attack will inflict poison; your poison damage is increased.

Soulbeast

• Predator's Cunning — When you apply poison to a foe, steal some health from them.
• Oppressive Superiority — Deal increased damage to foes at a lower health percentage than you. Conditions you apply to foes at a lower health percentage than you last longer.

Notes

• Multiple arrows can hit the same target.

Anomaly:

The skill fact states this skill deals 5 stacks of poison, but it does one stack per arrow.

Version history

For a detailed skill history, see here.

Patch	Changes
June 25, 2024	Reduced the cooldown from 8 seconds to 6 seconds in WvW and PvP.
June 27, 2023	All effects that benefit when the player strikes from the flank or from behind now always apply their benefits when striking defiant foes.
June 30, 2022	Damage multiplier per hit increased from 0.25 to 0.3 in PvE only.
June 08, 2021	Poison duration has been increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds when striking from in front of the target, and from 6 seconds to 7 seconds when striking from behind the target. This change applies in all game modes.
July 10, 2018	Reduced the baseline duration of the poison inflicted by this skill from 5 seconds to 4 seconds and from 7 seconds to 6 seconds when behind or flanking the enemy.
September 23, 2017	Fixed a bug in which this skill occasionally hit twice as often than intended.
May 16, 2017	This trait now has increased effect if you are beside your target, in addition to when you are behind your target.
October 18, 2016	This skill's cooldown has been reduced to 8 seconds. Its poison effect will last 2 seconds longer when this skill is applied from behind your target.
April 19, 2016	Increased the poison damage duration applied by this skill from 4 seconds to 5 seconds. The physical damage per strike has been increased by 150%.
June 23, 2015	Specialization update: Increased the poison duration from 2 seconds to 4 seconds.
June 25, 2013	Decreased the range to 900.
December 14, 2012	Increased the velocity of arrows fired from Short Bow and Longbow skills by 30%.
August 28, 2012	Game release: Poison Volley has been added to the game.

Trivia

• Poison Volley used this icon prior to release.
• This skill has had multiple names prior to release. Among them were the following.
  • Poison Spray - September 2011-14 May 2012
  • Spread Shot - Unknown-September 2011