Guild Wars 2

Two problems with Thief Pistol (#1 also arguably applies to Engineer Pistol, making it weaker than it should be).

1. Vital Shot’s aftercast is too long by about .06 – .1 seconds. This affects sustained DPS of both P/P and P/D, but the overall design of P/D helps offset and mask it while the design of P/P accentuates it.

2. Unload is poorly designed. The damage it does doesn’t quite match the Initiative cost, but more importantly, it’s a channel skill that has no utility. Regardless, because Vital Shot is weak, you end up feeling pressured to spam it as much as possible to get decent damage from the set. But because its damage isn’t all that great, and because it’s a channel skill and an Initiative hog, you effectively end up with a strategically poor set that gives you bad mobility and bad utility in exchange for mediocre DPS at 900 range. This is a trifecta of fail, especially for a class that relies on being slippery for survival.

Suggestions:

1. Reduce Vital Shot’s aftercast by about .06 seconds, which will increase both its physical and bleed damage by about 10%. This will be a moderate buff for both P/D and P/P. P/P badly needs it, but P/D doesn’t as much. If need be, offset the buff for P/D by transferring some of Sneak Attack’s bleed damage to physical damage, which will also allow P/P to benefit more from it.

2. Bring the Pistol Mastery trait back to 5%, since it breaks convention, then either buff Unload’s base damage by about 15% to make the channel worth it, OR give it some utility that makes it ‘stronger’ but less desirable to spam. Spamming it will be less necessary with Vital Shot’s buff, and will end up making the whole set more tactical and enjoyable to use.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/Thief-Vital-Shot/first

you already argued those points in this thread, and it was argued until nothing else was obtained. most people seemed to disagree with you, myself included.

what’s the point of restarting the discussion on another thread?

EDIT: wait what? now you’re proposing to do exactly what i said would happen if vital shot got buffed. you’ll screw up P/D for the sake of a raw damage buff for P/P that won’t save that set. it’s a crappy set and it’ll remain crappy, no matter what you do to vital shot, but most importantly, buffing vital shot means nerfing P/D in some other way. and we don’t need that.

BrunoBRS.5178:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/Thief-Vital-Shot/first

you already argued those points in this thread, and it was argued until nothing else was obtained. most people seemed to disagree with you, myself included.

what’s the point of restarting the discussion on another thread?

EDIT: wait what? now you’re proposing to do exactly what i said would happen if vital shot got buffed. you’ll screw up P/D for the sake of a raw damage buff for P/P that won’t save that set. it’s a crappy set and it’ll remain crappy, no matter what you do to vital shot, but most importantly, buffing vital shot means nerfing P/D in some other way. and we don’t need that.

Please don’t bring in baggage from another thread. You clearly didn’t read/absorb the post and have no clue what you’re talking about. Later.