Guild Wars 2

with the Scrapper elite build and after seen what it does, it looks like rifle will become obsolete why pick a rifle over hammer? discuss…

No way ! Rifle will still be way better …..

Waaaaay to early to decide anything.
We have no idea how the hammer will even scale with power. And from what skills it offers, rifle has two high damaging skills of jump shot + blunderbuss, with an amazing knock back from overcharged shot whilst pinning people down with net shot. Hammer has some big boots to fill if it hopes to replace rifle… (Rifle has far better single target CC just from overcharged shot, whilst the AoE stun on hammer will be better for multiple targets)
Overall, hammer is probably going to be more appealing to bunker-focused specs because it does have a block, reflect, and AoE stun, where as rifle will be for the glassier damage-focused builds… but anything could happen, we haven’t even had our first beta test yet and have not really ‘seen’ much at all.

I’m also a little worried about the might + vulnerability on auto attack will result in a pitiful amount of base damage it deals to compensate..

Rifle don’t force you into a whole traitline, so it will still see play, especially in SD builds since the scrapper gives nothing to them.

rifle is really great because engi can kite so well. hammer has limitations.

Are.1326:

Rifle don’t force you into a whole traitline, so it will still see play, especially in SD builds since the scrapper gives nothing to them.

500 toughness is not bad… or protection on HT

I don’t see why we can’t have both… Rifle has great damage from any range plus solid CC, making it a good tool for burst while hammer has a lot of utilities that lend themselves to bunker builds.

I guess that rifle will still be the weapon to go for damages. Hammer, while really appealing (that’s the weapon I wanted since the release after all), will be more defensive.

Basically, we have:

Rifle: Direct Damage
Double Pistol: Conditions
Pistol / Shield: Defensive condition set
Hammer: Defensive direct damage

Doesn’t mean that the rifle doesn’t have defensive skills, mainly netshot and overcharged shot.

In PvE meta builds? Probably, but that’s pretty much because of the stiff nature of PvE meta builds. However, with raid fights being longer, maybe condi will end up being a much better choice and zerk will fall off the meta completely, in which case everyone goes P/P.

For PvP? I could honestly see both hammer and rifle being almost equally viable for power builds. If a bunker build comes out for engi, then hammer will probably be ahead, but the rifle is too good to just become obsolete.

So what Scrapper traits synergize well with a power rifle build and the scrapper trait line?

shion.2084:

So what Scrapper traits synergize well with a power rifle build and the scrapper trait line?

Adaptive Armor. /endthread

Edit: And I mean stabilization core could give you more wiggle room for stability Overcharged Shots in vicious downed/rez conumdrums.

Rifle let’s you kite. It can also be used in any build, while hammer requires you to take the scrapper line which might not benefit you.

i think rifle has still really useful and well balanced skills
pistol on the other hand…not a big fan