Guild Wars 2

Autos – Power Scaling – Range
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hip_Shot 0.65 / 1200

DH
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Puncture_Shot 0.85 / 1200

Warr
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fierce_Shot 0.60 / 1200
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dual_Shot 0.87 / 1200
Ranger
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Long_Range_Shot 0.70- 0.90 / 1500+

Ele
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fireball 1.0 / 1200

Mesmer
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spatial_Surge 0.5-0.95 / 1200

Necro
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Necrotic_Grasp 0.67 / 1200

Revenant
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hammer_Bolt 0.95 / 1200

now lets look at everyone’s damage skills
Range – Scaling – CD
Engi
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blunderbuss 700-0 / 1.0- 1.6 /10-8s
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Jump_Shot 240+(800Leap+240) / 0.9+ 1.8 / 20s

DH
True Shot 1200 / 2.5 / 4s

Warr
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Volley 1200 / 3.45 / 10-8s
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kill_Shot 1500 / 2.25-3.25 / 8s
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gun_Flame 1500 / 2.20 / 5s
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Arcing_Arrow 1200 / 2.0 / 10s
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Scorched_Earth 1200×120 / 1.5 / 5s

Ranger
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rapid_Fire 1500+ / 3.75 / 10-8s

Ele
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lava_Font 1200 / 3.20 / 6-4s
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Meteor_Shower 1200 / 1.3×24 / 30-20s

Mesmer
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mirror_Blade 1200/ 0.70 / 8-5s
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mind_Stab 1200 / 1.0 / 12-10s
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Phantasmal_Berserker 1200 / 0.5×4 / 20-16s

Necro
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Putrid_Mark 1200 / 1.2 / 20s

Rev
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Coalescence_of_Ruin 1200 / 1.25-2.25/ 4s
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Phase_Smash 900 / 1.75 / 8s
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Drop_the_Hammer 1200 / 1.5 / 15s

so as anyone should be able to see engineer rifle makes no kitten sense
it asks for High Risk no reward gameplay by having blunder buss’s highest damage scale at 250 or less range as well as landing the jump shot straight ontop of your enemy

and even then all other’s professions double and even triple our burst skill damage from over 1200 range without manually aimed slow arcing projectiles like our mortar and grenades

Rifle is pretty good. It’s just everyone has projectile hate.

ellesee.8297:

Rifle is pretty good. It’s just everyone has projectile hate.

its damage is sub par and makes no sense for it to require melee range as a Medium armor profession and even less sense when even then our burst skills still manage to do less than half of some professions do from over 1000 range away what exactly justifies Blunderbuss for example when theres stuff like Warrior Volley or DH True Shot ?

You’re comparing just the weapons when you should be looking at the class as a whole. It’s like when people compared Incendiary Powder and Dhuumfire and cried for nerfs. Sure they do the same thing, but burning from a Necro is much more potent than burning from an Engi.

The Engineer has plenty of ranged options and can swap to different kits with different powerful attacks on the fly whereas a Warrior after using Volley is stuck with auto attacks and a single Kill Shot after enough adrenaline. The Dragonhunter doesn’t even have that. The rifle has a job and does it well. The auto attack is reliable damage and a good way to proc sigils. It has multiple forms of CC for setting up burst damage. Again the only problem with it now is that everyone has projectile hate which makes all of that useless, even detrimental. Blunderbuss, the skill that you dislike is actually the saving grace of the weapon and gives you an option against all the reflects.

Overcharged shot is pretty much why rifle damage is low. I don’t know of any other weapon which has a (almost) insta-cast CC for as long as it and to immediately burst as hard as rifle does or other engi equipment on it’s low cooldown (except maybe hammer warrior who swaps to GS after stun?).
The real issue is what ellesee was saying and that everyone and their mum have reflection 20-50% of the time negating the wombo combo to completely murder yourself instead.
Also, rifle auto attacking has tracking which a lot of other ranged weapons don’t and can be jittered (like warrior rifle auto and volley, ranger rapid fire if at long ranges, even unload on thief).
Rifle also has straight up the biggest decap potential in the game because if it knocks the bad guy off the point you’ll be able to decap it before he can run back on, and eventually cap it if he stays.
In the games current state as well, we don’t need more buffs to anything xD We need more nerf hammers across the board in my opinion. (Plus, rifle is good compared to shield and main hand pistol, I’d say better than p/p too)

Psssht, range is overrated. Let’s port the Scrap Rifle auto-attack over to the Engi rifle, then maybe swap blunderbuss for one of the other Scrap Rifle skills.

I say we go balls deep all day, everyday.

Yeah, it feels completely unnecessary to buff rifle. Rifle is working great and has been for quite some time now. No need to mess with something if it ain’t broke.

Engi do not need a rifle with a long range. We have Nades and Mortar to pew pew at distance.

Do you want to buff rifle?
Make it a shotgun (as it should be)

1 – Hip shot: is no longer a projectile, but a close range shock wave like Guardian Staff AA
2 – Net Shot: It’ ok
3 – Blunderbuss: it’s ok. I would add cripple too, but it’s not necessary
4 – Overcharged Shot: it remains a projectile, but it pierces
5 – Jump shot: Reduce CD or add evade frame

Tristan.5280:

Engi do not need a rifle with a long range. We have Nades and Mortar to pew pew at distance.

Do you want to buff rifle?
Make it a shotgun (as it should be)

1 – Hip shot: is no longer a projectile, but a close range shock wave like Guardian Staff AA
2 – Net Shot: It’ ok
3 – Blunderbuss: it’s ok. I would add cripple too, but it’s not necessary
4 – Overcharged Shot: it remains a projectile, but it pierces
5 – Jump shot: Reduce CD or add evade frame

I don’t agree with your design.

In PvE there are already much better options. In WvW/PvP Hip Shot is probably the only Engineer skill that has chasing power. Rifle gets carried by Hip Shot and Overcharged Shot. Blunderbus and Jump Shot are somewhat irrelevant damage sources, and Net Shot is too buggy/unreliable like Glob Shot.

Doing damage at range with Nades and Mortar is a crap shoot against people moving evasively.

I think Rifle needs to be more lethal at medium range when combined with kits.

My design for Rifle:

Hip Shot – Fine.

Net Shot – Projectile tracking added, similar to Hip Shot

Blunderbus – Reduced damage penalty for being farther than 200 units away

Overcharged Shot – Fine.

Jump Shot – Reduced cast time from 1 second to 3/4 second.

Help Rifle Traits to not be awful – Allow Juggernaut to affect Rifle as well as Flamethrower.

op: dont forget to include total cast times with your numbers. listing out the scaling coefficients (and cds) is misleading.

insanemaniac.2456:

op: dont forget to include total cast times with your numbers. listing out the scaling coefficients (and cds) is misleading.

honestly the only attacks wich could be justified by cast times are Eles
there rest mayb have channeled atacks but those do not take more than 2 seconds

Chaith.8256:

Tristan.5280:

Engi do not need a rifle with a long range. We have Nades and Mortar to pew pew at distance.

Do you want to buff rifle?
Make it a shotgun (as it should be)

1 – Hip shot: is no longer a projectile, but a close range shock wave like Guardian Staff AA
2 – Net Shot: It’ ok
3 – Blunderbuss: it’s ok. I would add cripple too, but it’s not necessary
4 – Overcharged Shot: it remains a projectile, but it pierces
5 – Jump shot: Reduce CD or add evade frame

I don’t agree with your design.

In PvE there are already much better options. In WvW/PvP Hip Shot is probably the only Engineer skill that has chasing power. Rifle gets carried by Hip Shot and Overcharged Shot. Blunderbus and Jump Shot are somewhat irrelevant damage sources, and Net Shot is too buggy/unreliable like Glob Shot.

Doing damage at range with Nades and Mortar is a crap shoot against people moving evasively.

I think Rifle needs to be more lethal at medium range when combined with kits.

My design for Rifle:

Hip Shot – Fine.

Net Shot – Projectile tracking added, similar to Hip Shot

Blunderbus – Reduced damage penalty for being farther than 200 units away

Overcharged Shot – Fine.

Jump Shot – Reduced cast time from 1 second to 3/4 second.

Help Rifle Traits to not be awful – Allow Juggernaut to affect Rifle as well as Flamethrower.

I’d say those are good ideas and probably make overcharged shot be a cone non projectile or unblockable, dunno about juggernaut , perma stability would be crazy

Rezzet.3614:

I’d say those are good ideas and probably make overcharged shot be a cone non projectile or unblockable, dunno about juggernaut , perma stability would be crazy

Kinda like the rolling stability Warriors have when they’re berserking from their GM.

That would be a cool idea. Would add the ability for us to not get knocked down when using over-charged shot by using up a stack of stability.

By using Rifle over Hammer we give up a lot of defensive abilities, so getting one 3-sec duration stability stack every 3 seconds in exchange for that would not be bad. I would like a +10% damage increase trait for rifle though :<.

Eastcorn.5901:

That would be a cool idea. Would add the ability for us to not get knocked down when using over-charged shot by using up a stack of stability.

By using Rifle over Hammer we give up a lot of defensive abilities, so getting one 3-sec duration stability stack every 3 seconds in exchange for that would not be bad. I would like a +10% damage increase trait for rifle though :<.

Yes we used to have a 10% Rifle Damage trait, that disappeared once Core Specs came out.

Rezzet.3614:

insanemaniac.2456:

op: dont forget to include total cast times with your numbers. listing out the scaling coefficients (and cds) is misleading.

honestly the only attacks wich could be justified by cast times are Eles
there rest mayb have channeled atacks but those do not take more than 2 seconds

for the autos, eles and revs are justified by long cast times. ranger and mes are conditional. warrior lb has slow projectile speed and doesnt home.

the real takeaway is that the necro auto is severely underpowered with its long cast time and low coefficient, and dh lb is power creeped. not that engi rifle needs a buff.

hence, excluding cast times is misleading.

insanemaniac.2456:

Rezzet.3614:

insanemaniac.2456:

op: dont forget to include total cast times with your numbers. listing out the scaling coefficients (and cds) is misleading.

honestly the only attacks wich could be justified by cast times are Eles
there rest mayb have channeled atacks but those do not take more than 2 seconds

for the autos, eles and revs are justified by long cast times. ranger and mes are conditional. warrior lb has slow projectile speed and doesnt home.

the real takeaway is that the necro auto is severely underpowered with its long cast time and low coefficient, and dh lb is power creeped. not that engi rifle needs a buff.

hence, excluding cast times is misleading.

Agree with all this except necro staff being UP. I’d say this is balanced by the fact that the remaining skills on Necro staff are spammable 1200 range aoe like nothing available to any other profession in the game, and (probably an even better argument) the fact that in addition to damage this skill grants life force.

Goosekilla.2796:

insanemaniac.2456:

Rezzet.3614:

insanemaniac.2456:

op: dont forget to include total cast times with your numbers. listing out the scaling coefficients (and cds) is misleading.

honestly the only attacks wich could be justified by cast times are Eles
there rest mayb have channeled atacks but those do not take more than 2 seconds

for the autos, eles and revs are justified by long cast times. ranger and mes are conditional. warrior lb has slow projectile speed and doesnt home.

the real takeaway is that the necro auto is severely underpowered with its long cast time and low coefficient, and dh lb is power creeped. not that engi rifle needs a buff.

hence, excluding cast times is misleading.

Agree with all this except necro staff being UP. I’d say this is balanced by the fact that the remaining skills on Necro staff are spammable 1200 range aoe like nothing available to any other profession in the game, and (probably an even better argument) the fact that in addition to damage this skill grants life force.

Lol, Necro staff damage. That thing is for utility and generating life force. That’s it.

Shaogin.2679:

Goosekilla.2796:

insanemaniac.2456:

Rezzet.3614:

insanemaniac.2456:

op: dont forget to include total cast times with your numbers. listing out the scaling coefficients (and cds) is misleading.

honestly the only attacks wich could be justified by cast times are Eles
there rest mayb have channeled atacks but those do not take more than 2 seconds

for the autos, eles and revs are justified by long cast times. ranger and mes are conditional. warrior lb has slow projectile speed and doesnt home.

the real takeaway is that the necro auto is severely underpowered with its long cast time and low coefficient, and dh lb is power creeped. not that engi rifle needs a buff.

hence, excluding cast times is misleading.

Agree with all this except necro staff being UP. I’d say this is balanced by the fact that the remaining skills on Necro staff are spammable 1200 range aoe like nothing available to any other profession in the game, and (probably an even better argument) the fact that in addition to damage this skill grants life force.

Lol, Necro staff damage. That thing is for utility and generating life force. That’s it.

Feels off topic man, unfortunate the OP used the worst comparisons to highlight why Rifle needs buff’, cross profession comparisons…

Re: rifle, played it today. Seems extremely difficult to get anything done on Rifle with all the projectile hate, stability, and protection flying around. Its pressure is wimpy and no answer to being trained by enemies with stability when the hammer can counter pressure at least.

Chaith.8256:

Re: rifle, played it today. Seems extremely difficult to get anything done on Rifle with all the projectile hate, stability, and protection flying around.

Funny enough, most of that comes from the Engineer.

Chaith.8256:

I think Rifle needs to be more lethal at medium range when combined with kits.

My design for Rifle:

Hip Shot – Fine.

Net Shot – Projectile tracking added, similar to Hip Shot

Blunderbus – Reduced damage penalty for being farther than 200 units away

Overcharged Shot – Fine.

Jump Shot – Reduced cast time from 1 second to 3/4 second.

Help Rifle Traits to not be awful – Allow Juggernaut to affect Rifle as well as Flamethrower.

I like that ! Maybe a bit too strong when coupled with applied force but not even sure.

ellesee.8297:

The Engineer has plenty of ranged options…

Not really, most of its ranged options are pretty crappy at actual range, throw a grenade at a player right in front of you, all three will probably hit, throw it at someone 900 range, at least one will normally miss, mortar kit has 1500 range, you can also literally walk to avoid it at that range, maybe you should consider that the game consists of things other than conquest where people are conveniently forced to fight on/around a capture point, engies ranged options are garbage in things like WvW for example.

Goosekilla.2796:

insanemaniac.2456:

Rezzet.3614:

insanemaniac.2456:

op: dont forget to include total cast times with your numbers. listing out the scaling coefficients (and cds) is misleading.

honestly the only attacks wich could be justified by cast times are Eles
there rest mayb have channeled atacks but those do not take more than 2 seconds

for the autos, eles and revs are justified by long cast times. ranger and mes are conditional. warrior lb has slow projectile speed and doesnt home.

the real takeaway is that the necro auto is severely underpowered with its long cast time and low coefficient, and dh lb is power creeped. not that engi rifle needs a buff.

hence, excluding cast times is misleading.

Agree with all this except necro staff being UP. I’d say this is balanced by the fact that the remaining skills on Necro staff are spammable 1200 range aoe like nothing available to any other profession in the game, and (probably an even better argument) the fact that in addition to damage this skill grants life force.

that and the fact necro can then spam Shroud form auto wich has 1.0 scaling and 1.4 on enemies 600 or less range distance

Rezzet.3614:

Goosekilla.2796:

insanemaniac.2456:

Rezzet.3614:

insanemaniac.2456:

op: dont forget to include total cast times with your numbers. listing out the scaling coefficients (and cds) is misleading.

honestly the only attacks wich could be justified by cast times are Eles
there rest mayb have channeled atacks but those do not take more than 2 seconds

for the autos, eles and revs are justified by long cast times. ranger and mes are conditional. warrior lb has slow projectile speed and doesnt home.

the real takeaway is that the necro auto is severely underpowered with its long cast time and low coefficient, and dh lb is power creeped. not that engi rifle needs a buff.

hence, excluding cast times is misleading.

Agree with all this except necro staff being UP. I’d say this is balanced by the fact that the remaining skills on Necro staff are spammable 1200 range aoe like nothing available to any other profession in the game, and (probably an even better argument) the fact that in addition to damage this skill grants life force.

that and the fact necro can then spam Shroud form auto wich has 1.0 scaling and 1.4 on enemies 600 or less range distance

We ignoring the cast time time on that? Cause it is incredibly easy to avoid. Lol.

zinkz.7045:

ellesee.8297:

The Engineer has plenty of ranged options…

Not really, most of its ranged options are pretty crappy at actual range, throw a grenade at a player right in front of you, all three will probably hit, throw it at someone 900 range, at least one will normally miss, mortar kit has 1500 range, you can also literally walk to avoid it at that range, maybe you should consider that the game consists of things other than conquest where people are conveniently forced to fight on/around a capture point, engies ranged options are garbage in things like WvW for example.

this person gets it

also 15% bleed chance on explosives as a Grandmaster is a joke even with grenades i can never get more than 4-6 bleeds

Just chiming in to echo what everyone else has said.

Rifle sucks now because there’s too much projectile hate in the game. Hammer is better in every way: Higher damage, shorter cooldowns, skills that attack while defending, better combos.

Buff rifle.

coro.3176:

Just chiming in to echo what everyone else has said.

Rifle sucks now because there’s too much projectile hate in the game. Hammer is better in every way: Higher damage, shorter cooldowns, skills that attack while defending, better combos.

Buff rifle.

Or just nerf hammer. Not sure I want all core specs and weapons brought up to HoT level. Would rather HoT be toned down to core level.

Shaogin.2679:

Or just nerf hammer. Not sure I want all core specs and weapons brought up to HoT level. Would rather HoT be toned down to core level.

This; in conjunction with the points made by ellesee and chaith regarding the fact that for the most part it is other scrapper skills (both enemy scrappers with projectile hate, stab, and protection, and yourself by the fact that hammer is an option) that are making rifle not cut it now. Also kind of the same story told by OP (even if not intended) that all the ranged autos are pretty balanced except for DH longbow, which is decidedly powercreeped. Anet just really overdid elite specs. I could be wrong here, but I’m pretty sure that aside from scrapper, tempest also turns out a rediculous level of projectile hate, and berserker has stability that was unheard of pre-HoT (except juggernaut trait on paper, which is balanced by the fact that paper is not reality). And revenant… well let’s not start on that.

An Engi/Scrapper building for even a balanced damage build, the results are always crap. Need better results when building for something other than full tank utilities and traitlines. Rifle, Pistols, Kits, Explosives, Firearms, Tools, these are the things that need to be improved in ways other than raw (PvE affecting) damage.

Defensive utility, offensive utility, increased speed, accuracy/precision.

Just one of many (all?) professions that have really bad build diversity. Pretty much all the professions need to be polished a bit so there’s meaningful build choices instead of just 9 standard heroes.

Edit: I agree that the general power level of each profession should be brought down to core level. There’s just one problem with that:

Unless you nerf all 9 professions at the exact same time, (too big a patch) you are having huge balance issues. That’s why I think ArenaNet’s hand is forced into laying in the bed they’ve made when it comes to the general power level of the game.

If the game is going to be polished further so it has a functional trait/utility system, I’m almost sure it’ll involve re-working obsolete core game traits/mechanics.

coro.3176:

Just chiming in to echo what everyone else has said.

Rifle sucks now because there’s too much projectile hate in the game. Hammer is better in every way: Higher damage, shorter cooldowns, skills that attack while defending, better combos.

Buff rifle.

its not so much the projectile hate as an old time player i have no problem timing enemy blocks and shooting them the problem lies in the fact that when i do shoot at my enemies i end up Critting for 1300 damage and up to 1800 with some might and up to 3k with 250 range blunderbuss while my enemies can dump 8-9k damage bursts on me from 900-1500 range

and then the stupid net shot missing targets right in front

jump shot has great damage so all that skill needs is a half a second evade when jumping

look at scrapper for example the scrapper hammer has pretty low damage compared to other professions’s melee weapons as a matter of fact the scrapper’s hammer damage comes mainly from the auto attack but the reason it is successful is because you can keep pressure on your enemies , i mean the hammer has nice damage all 0.5 0.80 to 1.1-1.2 scaling so yeah scrapper’s damage doesnt come in form of one skill nuking players but rather staying on targets

the engi rifle having such low auto as its only ranged attack and blunderbus having such low damage scaling even at 250 range takes all pressure from it and odds are at that range you’re gonna get CCed or blinded to hell so you wont be able to use or land jump shot or you will be the one pressured to use it as an escape tool

as far as projectile hate though i tihnk blunderbuss and overcharged shot shouldnt count as Projectiles

Rezzet.3614:

as far as projectile hate though i tihnk blunderbuss and overcharged shot shouldnt count as Projectiles

Blunderbuss can’t be reflected. (im pretty sure about this) or do you mean it gets destroyed by dh bow #3/druids staff #5 or something? (i dont know if it does, never thought about it)

“Blunderbuss is not affected by anti-projectile skills and traits.”

- GW2 Wiki

Rezzet.3614:

its not so much the projectile hate as an old time player i have no problem timing enemy blocks and shooting them

I do.
Every time I’m sitting there waiting 10-20 seconds for my opponent’s reflects/stab/nullification chain to finish, I just think: "I could be doing damage with hammer right now rather than nothing with rifle.
Yes, there are breaks where you can hit them, but as you said, you can’t do enough damage when you finally do get the opening.

If they did nerf hammer to pre-HoT balance levels, I think engi would immediately drop out of the meta. It’s that good, and our other weapons are that bad.

I bet 95% or more of engineers in ranked are using hammer. If that’s not a sign the weapons are unbalanced, I don’t know what is..

Rezzet.3614:

its not so much the projectile hate as an old time player i have no problem timing enemy blocks and shooting them the problem lies in the fact that when i do shoot at my enemies i end up Critting for 1300 damage and up to 1800 with some might and up to 3k with 250 range blunderbuss while my enemies can dump 8-9k damage bursts on me from 900-1500 range

and then the stupid net shot missing targets right in front

jump shot has great damage so all that skill needs is a half a second evade when jumping

Yep, my thoughts exactly. Blunderbus & Jump Shot are not at all bursty, which just feels wrong. I remember pre-core specs, doing devastating damage to piles of enemies by getting in 250 Range to do max damage with Blunderbus and Jump Shot. I still maintain there were unintended nerfs to Rifle builds with the introduction of core specs, removing Rifle Mod & shifting other modifiers, cause that bursty feeling disappeared before HoT, even.

Chaith.8256:

An Engi/Scrapper building for even a balanced damage build, the results are always crap. Need better results when building for something other than full tank utilities and traitlines. Rifle, Pistols, Kits, Explosives, Firearms, Tools, these are the things that need to be improved in ways other than raw (PvE affecting) damage.

Defensive utility, offensive utility, increased speed, accuracy/precision.

Just one of many (all?) professions that have really bad build diversity. Pretty much all the professions need to be polished a bit so there’s meaningful build choices instead of just 9 standard heroes.

Edit: I agree that the general power level of each profession should be brought down to core level. There’s just one problem with that:

Unless you nerf all 9 professions at the exact same time, (too big a patch) you are having huge balance issues. That’s why I think ArenaNet’s hand is forced into laying in the bed they’ve made when it comes to the general power level of the game.

If the game is going to be polished further so it has a functional trait/utility system, I’m almost sure it’ll involve re-working obsolete core game traits/mechanics.

This is just an idea, but one easy way to nerf all the huge dps would be to just increase all class’s baseline vitality and toughness. That wouldn’t take a huge patch, and would give room to buff and polish all the existing unused traits/mechanics. I definitely agree that fixing up the things are what I’d really like to see Anet work on over adding more new, still unbalanced (or at least unpolished) game elements.
Probably my favorite thing to do in this game (my personal meta-game) is making new builds, so it’s really sad to almost always find that even the best alternatives I come up with are somewhat sub-par.

Goosekilla.2796:

This is just an idea, but one easy way to nerf all the huge dps would be to just increase all class’s baseline vitality and toughness. That wouldn’t take a huge patch, and would give room to buff and polish all the existing unused traits/mechanics.

Thinking outside the box is good – increasing everyone’s base vitality and toughness however, will definitely throw many things out of whack for the cause of nerfing all the huge DPS.

Pacing of PvP in this game: On the slow side already, but manageable.

How will core-power level abilities and traitlines feel when used where everyone you’re trying to kill has higher base vitality and toughness? Let’s just say, from a wet noodle fight to a staring contest. Except your HoT equipped enemies get a machine gun and baseball bat, respectively.

Chaith.8256:

…Let’s just say, from a wet noodle fight to a staring contest. Except your HoT equipped enemies get a machine gun and baseball bat, respectively.

True, especially the second sentence. I guess my thinking was that it would just raise the ceiling so that if core specs were then brought up to par it would be a sword fight (from staring contest with optional baseball bats), whereas right now if that were done it would be a nuclear missile standoff (from wet noodle fight with optional machine guns) – put up your, admittedly potent, defenses, but when they’re down all kitten breaks loose. But then we’re back to asking for something way too large for one patch (i.e. buff all core specs to post-HoT levels)… in fact that’s a bigger request than nerfing all elite specs, so I guess we end up backwards there.
So final takeaway here is that yeah, I probably agree most with your original point that really if the core specs were just polished up into some real options the game would be in an achievable, good place. There is strong offense, but also strong defense. It’s very active, and that’s a good thing.

Goosekilla.2796:

But then we’re back to asking for something way too large for one patch (i.e. buff all core specs to post-HoT levels)… in fact that’s a bigger request than nerfing all elite specs, so I guess we end up backwards there.

That’s the kicker, because if a few professions saw build diversity polish before the others, while it’d be unfair, it wouldn’t pose balance problems because there’d still be the meta builds all at the same power.

Goosekilla.2796:

Chaith.8256:

An Engi/Scrapper building for even a balanced damage build, the results are always crap. Need better results when building for something other than full tank utilities and traitlines. Rifle, Pistols, Kits, Explosives, Firearms, Tools, these are the things that need to be improved in ways other than raw (PvE affecting) damage.

Defensive utility, offensive utility, increased speed, accuracy/precision.

Just one of many (all?) professions that have really bad build diversity. Pretty much all the professions need to be polished a bit so there’s meaningful build choices instead of just 9 standard heroes.

Edit: I agree that the general power level of each profession should be brought down to core level. There’s just one problem with that:

Unless you nerf all 9 professions at the exact same time, (too big a patch) you are having huge balance issues. That’s why I think ArenaNet’s hand is forced into laying in the bed they’ve made when it comes to the general power level of the game.

If the game is going to be polished further so it has a functional trait/utility system, I’m almost sure it’ll involve re-working obsolete core game traits/mechanics.

This is just an idea, but one easy way to nerf all the huge dps would be to just increase all class’s baseline vitality and toughness. That wouldn’t take a huge patch, and would give room to buff and polish all the existing unused traits/mechanics. I definitely agree that fixing up the things are what I’d really like to see Anet work on over adding more new, still unbalanced (or at least unpolished) game elements.
Probably my favorite thing to do in this game (my personal meta-game) is making new builds, so it’s really sad to almost always find that even the best alternatives I come up with are somewhat sub-par.

raising everyone’s sustain against power is what lead to the condi bunkers meta

@rezzet
I kind of disagree. Buffing Condis for PvE is what started this mayhem.

Anet wanted to make condi viable in PvE but they should have known players don’t have boss-level HP and armor for that crap in PvP/WvW. Condis work great against glass and tanky players alike and their main stats were tanky as well. Anet slowly started buffing the powercreep to slow down this tanky condi meta but it totally destroyed non-tanky builds. Then came the celestial and might meta wherein everybody would deal decent power and condi damage while staying tanky at the same time. Slow and boring pace, they removed celestial and we’re back to squishy bugs against condi. Since most power builds were incompetent against condi, the celestial meta was changed to heavy bunker meta. Only specific counters can kill this bunker X, Anet probably decided to buff power again.

In the end, they buffed power which didn’t actually stop the condi meta, so now they have to raise everyone’s sustain.

TLDR – I see everything as a result of trying to counter condi builds damage and tankiness.

Condi builds too tanky -> buff power -> still dies to condi, buff self sustain -> everyone’s tanky now, buff power and condi more -> damagecreep

I’d totally vote for bringing down everybody to core level if it’s possible.

End Result: Builds that doesn’t dish out damage while staying tanky at the same time got destroyed. Rifle doesn’t have any defensive skills paired with the reflect meta and Scrapper doesn’t really synergize to anything outside of hammer.

What a useless topic.

Powerscaling alone doesnt say kitten.

If you check the real damage per second of hip shot you would know its one of the best ranged auto attack in the game.

nicknamenick.2437:

What a useless topic.

Powerscaling alone doesnt say kitten.

If you check the real damage per second of hip shot you would know its one of the best ranged auto attack in the game.

and then consider the fact that all of the rifle’s skills have to be used in close range
wich means auto attack and overcharged shot are the only actually effective options
and #5 is only good for speeding jump puzzles

so yes damage and power scaling are relevant

Rezzet.3614:

nicknamenick.2437:

What a useless topic.

Powerscaling alone doesnt say kitten.

If you check the real damage per second of hip shot you would know its one of the best ranged auto attack in the game.

and then consider the fact that all of the rifle’s skills have to be used in close range
wich means auto attack and overcharged shot are the only actually effective options
and #5 is only good for speeding jump puzzles

so yes damage and power scaling are relevant

@Rezzet:
-first of all, you compare (i didnt) auto attacks with other auto attacks (so i dont speak for the whole weapon at this moment)
And if you only compare those AutoAttacks you would see that “Hip shot” is one of the best dps skills among the Autoattacks (ranged)

-Second, Powerscaling is only relevant if you count in the casttime also.
So in the end its the DPS that matter (damage per second)

@topic, if you think this weapon need some QoL changes/buffs then dont start comparing skills to other classes. you have to talk about the weapon as a whole and talk about its weaknesses and strength.

Why would you use a Rifle. Hammer is so good.

XerMeLL.6042:

Why would you use a Rifle. Hammer is so good.

Rifle works better with Grenades and is very handy for squishy builds with the ranged poke. The real question is why run a squishy build over a tanky build when squishy builds lack the burst and utility compared to other professions’ squishy builds.

nicknamenick.2437:

Rezzet.3614:

nicknamenick.2437:

What a useless topic.

Powerscaling alone doesnt say kitten.

If you check the real damage per second of hip shot you would know its one of the best ranged auto attack in the game.

and then consider the fact that all of the rifle’s skills have to be used in close range
wich means auto attack and overcharged shot are the only actually effective options
and #5 is only good for speeding jump puzzles

so yes damage and power scaling are relevant

@Rezzet:
-first of all, you compare (i didnt) auto attacks with other auto attacks (so i dont speak for the whole weapon at this moment)
And if you only compare those AutoAttacks you would see that “Hip shot” is one of the best dps skills among the Autoattacks (ranged)

-Second, Powerscaling is only relevant if you count in the casttime also.
So in the end its the DPS that matter (damage per second)

@topic, if you think this weapon need some QoL changes/buffs then dont start comparing skills to other classes. you have to talk about the weapon as a whole and talk about its weaknesses and strength.

first of all you proved your own statement wrong

i did Not Only compare auto attacks but the weapon as a whole because yes auto on its own is fine if the other skills werent trash

I did talk about the weapon and why it is mediocre mainly having its entire kit being close range attacks With mediocre damage its only combat utility being the self knockdown+ net shot wich kinda requires having stability before use and a leap

the auto itself would be fine if it wasnt for the fact our burst skills are 50%/+ weaker to other professions while requiring almost melee range

Rifle is a High Risk Low Reward playstyle weapon

translator activated ^^

The rifle has a good self basic attack, but a low level of power, so a hybrid build it working fine, but when you want to play power, it changes everything,

when compared to auto attacks several classes zerk with bloodlust stamp, be power in 2632, the auto attack ingé is not the best

rifle warrior, 3 / 4s of power in 2632, 683 dmg

engineer attack: 3 / 4s of power in 2632, 735 dmg

dh: 3 / 4s of power in 2632, 876 dmg

arc warrior , 3 / 4s of power in 2632, 908 dmg

mesmer / 4s power in 2632, 924 dmg

ranger: 3 / 4s, 2632 power, 928

And there just is compart the auto attack, comparing all the attacks, the rifle hardly enters a distance weapon and is far from the best weapon in the bedroom ^^
I like the rifle and acts since the early games, but I strongly feel the lack dmg distance, and risk-taking as soon as I go to the bedroom.
An overhaul of the power scale of all weapons of gw2 would welcome ^^

darknanor.6810:

translator activated ^^

The rifle has a good self basic attack, but a low level of power, so a hybrid build it working fine, but when you want to play power, it changes everything,

when compared to auto attacks several classes zerk with bloodlust stamp, be power in 2632, the auto attack ingé is not the best

rifle warrior, 3 / 4s of power in 2632, 683 dmg

engineer attack: 3 / 4s of power in 2632, 735 dmg

dh: 3 / 4s of power in 2632, 876 dmg

arc warrior , 3 / 4s of power in 2632, 908 dmg

mesmer / 4s power in 2632, 924 dmg

ranger: 3 / 4s, 2632 power, 928

And there just is compart the auto attack, comparing all the attacks, the rifle hardly enters a distance weapon and is far from the best weapon in the bedroom ^^
I like the rifle and acts since the early games, but I strongly feel the lack dmg distance, and risk-taking as soon as I go to the bedroom.
An overhaul of the power scale of all weapons of gw2 would welcome ^^

Nice try, but your very very wrong.

Tip, dont look at the tooltip casttime.. they are never right.
Try wiki

I confirm:

wikipedia:
engineer rifle, 274 scale 0.65, wear 1200, 3 / 4s
255 0.605 scale war rifle raised in 1200 3 / 4s
dh longbow, scale 266 0.85 1200 3 / 4s
war longbow 351 scale 0.871200 3 / 4s
store 211,263,317 0.70,0.80,090 scale, 3 / 4s
more power is added under the rifle of ingé is good in comparison to other available class

I have the same offensive stats on my war, engi, dh and ranger, and yes I finding the diference,

The issue with rifle is that it isn’t a ranged kit. It is a kit with ranged options, which forces an engineer who wants to play truly ranged to either be restricted to the (worse) parts of the kit that have range, or to sacrifice a utility slot for a true ranged option such as grenades. Mortar kit has its own problems, and even grenades require a trait slot to really be used at full range. So the issue isn’t so much parity, it’s the lack of a true ranged option without making trait and/or utility slot sacrifices.