Guild Wars 2

Skimming over the warrior weapon sets and their capabilities, I believe that one of the ones that seems to be the most…let’s say mechanically wonky would be the Rifle on Warrior.

Everytime you bring up Rifle on a warrior in a variety of environments from PvE, WvW, or SPvP, I would get some rather interesting feedback.

“The damage is alright on it, but I prefer Longbow in dungeons since LB does more damage overall.”

“Killshot is OP! You can’t see that one warrior on the side with his knee bent for 2 seconds!”

“Killshot is UP! Too easy to see, hardest skill in game to line up even with Frenzy popped!”

“Going Crack Shot and piercing with the Rifle would be great if targetting the furthest enemy were easier. Also I feel the Brutal Shot and Aimed Shot are still a bit lackluster…”

Overall, when you think of the Warrior Rifle mechanically, it seems like its design intent when you see all its damage types as the more Physical ranged weapon on the warrior without the burning or intense bleeding that the Longbow has. But if the weapon itself can’t even find its mark in its own prime state, as in being that raw damage weapon choice over Longbow, then it is a problem.

Going through some WvW I have noticed that Rifle has been picking up speed in having a few warriors dash out to the side to start laying down intense pressue with Crack Shot and Kill Shot. I think to myself ‘Finally there seems to be some active viable use for the Rifle somewhere in the world’ of which promptly gets attacked in a few threads calling out Killshot as being impossible to detect, akin to an Staff Elementalist’s Meteor Shower or something of that magnitude.

And I can’t entirely disagree with that notion.

There is certainly an argument for just being aware of every single opponent on the enemy zerg, but at the very least you see fire literally rain down upon you when someone pops Meteor Shower, if the Killshot fires you do not have any chance of dodging in time unless you saw it coming, and your attention really outta be on the 19-39 other enemies on the field. Perhaps we really do need something like a ‘target’ painted on the killshot intended victim so they can at least know when to dodge, which will effectively nerf Killshot’kitten rate everywhere else in this game save PvE…

Which brings me to my question Profession Balance. What do we do? Just some thoughts of mine so far that could help the Rifle in other fields if we actually made Killshot even more easy to tell:

- Crack shot’s pierce actually has the shot go through the target with an extra 100 range. The Rifle Projectile actually pierces through the intended target to other enemies on the other side, rather than pierce just the enemies in front.

- Brutal Shot CD reduced to 10s from 15s, Vulnerability Stacks reduced to 5 stacks lasting 12 seconds from 8 stacks lasting 12 seconds. This change will increase the effectiveness of vulnerability on a target that can’t dodge from every brutal shot off CD, but requires two shots to get the full effect. There is a possible window for a 15 stack popped with frenzy to killshot with, it is something to aim for and actually makes ‘On My Mark’ make it 25 stacks that the warrior can put HIMSELF.

- Aimed Shot is fine on its own, however a corresponding trait that works well with it, Leg Specialist, applies a 1 second immobilize on a single target with a 5 second ICD. Either make it immobilize multiple targets utilizing Crack Shot, or make the immobilize 2 seconds.

- Rifle Bunt and Bleeding Shot (AA) can stay as is for now, no ideas from me.

It definitely feels like the rifle is just shy of being Viable in many places, for now I suppose we could just keep seeing “OMG nerf killshot” threads on a weapon that really does not have a place anywhere else. Or we can make the rifle competitive but a bit more skillful to play with.

I think its lame that the war rifle competes with rang longbow for damage. I mean, the weapon defines the ranger. Power builds are still incredibly harder on rang, since oh how long.
The rifle doesnt need any changes. Its fine. There should be a point where warriors stop getting buffed. You want them to pretty much replace the dps ranger now? I disagree.

Killshots can hit for 15k upwards from a range of 1200 plus.

If you’re fighting a in a zerg are you telling me you are actively looking for the rifle warrior to get on his knee and fire whilst everything else is going on.

Don’t you think the rifle warrior may actually time his shot?

No ability should hit for that much damage from that far, especially on a high armour, high hp class.

i find killshot builds on PvP to be the most fun i’ve had with warrior. it’s definitely not a viable build, but it’s hilarious to play.

that’s all i have to say on the matter.

Have not played WvW yet, but in spvp it kinda sucks big time. You are praying to not be spotted in 2×2 fight, have to count enemy dodges to get blinded last second, or enemy leave line of sight. Or you finally hit it and surprise – no crit, enjoy attention of enemy mesmer now. Rifle 5 is so hard to land on moving targets.
Using it for fun sometimes, but its really crappy in small clashes and good luck killing anyone 1×1.

The only thing rifle needs is for brutal shot to have its cast time cut in half.

And as a side note, are you absolutely sure piercing shot works as you descibe? I’m fairly certain it works identical to a Ranger’s piercing shot and it pierces all targets ahead of and behind the target.

its a gimmick weapon for popping every cooldown you have and one shotting people in wvw.
outside of that very small niche, it is useless,
even for single target dps longbow is miles better.

i spent hours earlier this week trying to get a rifle Spvp build to work,
but the weapon is absolutely aweful in spvp.

they need to remove the bleeds and increase the damage.

phaeris.7604:

Killshots can hit for 15k upwards from a range of 1200 plus.

If you’re fighting a in a zerg are you telling me you are actively looking for the rifle warrior to get on his knee and fire whilst everything else is going on.

Don’t you think the rifle warrior may actually time his shot?

No ability should hit for that much damage from that far, especially on a high armour, high hp class.

Just because it CAN hit for that hard doesn’t mean it does so consistently. Not only does hitting that kind of damage requires a VERY glassy build with all zerker gear and something like 30/25/0/0/15 in stats. This makes the Warrior not much tougher than your average Thief only without the benefit of stealth and blind. If you elect to take “On My Mark” that also means you have one less skill to dedicate to sustain. Even with Lyssa runes and Berserker Stance conditions can easily overwhelm you, especially a Necro with a full DS.

Your words sound like someone who has never actually played the build in question but have simply been a victim of it. I have, and I can tell you while there’s a bit of fun to be had it’s very impractical and I find that there are much more dangerous builds a Warrior could run that offer much better sustain inside a zerg.

Also, Brutal Shot and Aimed Shot are really, really boring skills imo. Brutal has way to long of a charge time for what it does, and while Aimed has some synergy with Leg Specialist, I can’t see ever sacrificing the points to bring it. MAYBE I could see going Rifle with Sword/Warhorn with 0/30/0/20/20 which would offer more sustain but Killshot wouldn’t hit nearly as hard.

IMO Kill Shot itself is perfectly fine. The Rifle feels very much like a sniper weapon, and as such a shot which deals high damage at long range but is easy to dodge iff you see the Warrior is quite ok.