Guild Wars 2

I’m working on picking out my final set of lvl 80 Exotic weapons for my Engineer, and wanted to make sure I understood how weapon types and stats relate to kit damage, since I primarily use Grenades (with Grenadier) for damage, sometimes adding in Bombs. Armor is currently a mix of Knights and Valkyrie, play almost entirely PvE though I hope to add in some WvW.

My understanding is that equipping Berzerker Rifle vs. Berzerker Pistol will not have any effect based on Rifle vs. Pistol damage, but will increase kit damage slightly because the Exotic Rifle would have 179 Power, while the Exotic Pistol would have 90 Power. I’m not sure how to calculate what % increase in damage that leads to, though.

I am also curious about how adding the secondary Shield on to that would work, how would a Berzerker stat shield with 90 Power apply? A straight addition would give total Power of 180, slightly higher than the 179 of the Rifle.

And does changing from a Berzerker shield to a PVT one, for example, reduce Precision on grenades by 64 and thus crit chance by 64/21 = 3%?

If you are using p/p or p/s, the stats from both weapons are taken into account for your kit attacks. So yes, using a pistol/shield combination with zerker stats would give you 180 power compared to 179 from the rifle. They are essentially the same.

Also, yes, if you use PVT gear, your kit attacks will have reduced critical chance. You will keep the extra defense while using a kit, of course.

The real benefit of using two weapons as opposed to a rifle, if you are planning to use mainly kits, is that you will get two sigils to work with instead of one. Other than that, rifle vs. pistol does not significantly impact your kits’ effectiveness.

NevirSayDie.6235:

If you are using p/p or p/s, the stats from both weapons are taken into account for your kit attacks. So yes, using a pistol/shield combination with zerker stats would give you 180 power compared to 179 from the rifle. They are essentially the same.

Also, yes, if you use PVT gear, your kit attacks will have reduced critical chance. You will keep the extra defense while using a kit, of course.

The real benefit of using two weapons as opposed to a rifle, if you are planning to use mainly kits, is that you will get two sigils to work with instead of one. Other than that, rifle vs. pistol does not significantly impact your kits’ effectiveness.

This is correct.
To add concerning dual sigils: just check the wiki for sigil info:

if one has a cooldown, no matter what type (on crit, on swap…) it will override the other one with a proc on cooldown.
They don’t have to be the same, they just need to have both a cooldown.
if so, than the second one can’t proc untill the first one is of cooldown again. Making sure you never get both up at the same cooldown.

So if one sigil says anything at all about a cooldown, than couple it with one that has none (10% burn duration or whatever…)

Thanks; I have indeed been looking at Sigils as well, and trying to avoid ones with conflicting cooldowns. Thus I was considering a Sigil of Force on the Shield, so as to get some benefit without having to worry about cooldowns, then carry several pistols with “on swap” or “on crit” type Sigils to change between depending on whether I wanted more offensive or defensive setups. I’ve found the Superior Sigil of Hydromancy handy for kiting groups of mobs, for example, it slows them down enough for me to get a few more grenade shots on them without dying.

My guild isn’t big enough to do dungeons without PUGs, so I may be in a group of glass cannons and need more survivability or a group of support guardians and need more dps. I tend to use P/S in dungeons, as the two shield powers provide a lot of flexibility between the blast finisher, melee knockback, melee block and ranged stun in the shield, but I wanted to make sure I understood the stat tradeoff with the Rifle.