Guild Wars 2

Ok, enjoying power engi and all that (just nice change NOT being condi,but somehow I think engi shines as such) but why is it that the rifle seems so lacklustre? Or is it just me?
Rifle #2 seems a complete waste (this is all PVE based) and #1 doesn’t hit very hard. 5 is ok but gets a tad annoying always jumping around.
Am I doing something wrong in expecting this weapon to be a strong one in my weapons set? I have seen mentioned many times about using AA with your bombs? Seems a tad slow for open world and such. Even on a boss fight like VG only good at non moving phases and in a raid don’t you want to be using your heavy hitters as much as you can?
I really think its just rifle 2 that’s is lost on me, complete waste of a slot really. But then again now that I think about most classes do have a “dead” slot, don’t they?
Ok, I shall persevere!

I personally hold the opinion that engi weapons are (were) designed for utility, and that the we were meant to utilise kits to do damage. The arrival of the xpac and subsequent buffs to off-pistol threw that ideology out the window though.

On topic; engi rifle was one of the best weapons pre-hot in pvp. It had relatively great burst and sustain dmg + a fkton of utility. It seems lackluster now because power creep set in and every new/updated skill just does 9 different things while rifle’s simple skills were never touched.

Base engi was designed to use the kits autoattacks mostly.
Riffle and Pistol are for burst and sustain with their #2-#5 skills. Their Auto-attacks are not terrible, but not great. If you want good AA on base engi, you pick a kit for the ocasion:
Melee (in case projectile reflection):
– Bombs for power slower big hits PBAoE;
– Flame-Thrower for fast hitting mid-range ArcAoE melee; (great for triggering “on hit/crit” traits and sigils)

Ranged (in case projectile reflection is not a thing):
– Nades for mid-range AoE;
– Mortar for Long Range AoE;
– Elixir Gun for mid range debuff and condi;

I’m bais towards power engi and using rifles. I’ve been using power engi for the longest time in T4 fractals ( even when " I wasn’t meant too due to the toughness " ).

I agree netshot doesn’t see much play and jumpshot does get you killed sometimes if you cast it carelessly. Otherwises it’s a pritty great weapon. Blunblast er.. Skill #3 is strong up close and overcharget shot does respectful breakbar damage. Basicly yea, it’s not the strongest although it’s super helpfull and that’s why I like
It.

It was a great weapon, but its now outdated, it havent got any significant changes since HoT release, the simple idea it was just use the burst skills that rifle offered, and just move around your kits for dps and aa, 2 and 1 would rarely (never!) see play, but that was ok back then, rifle didnt had problems with projectile hate like it has now, their cc is great, but again, projectile hate! :/

Ivantreil.3092:

It was a great weapon, but its now outdated, it havent got any significant changes since HoT release, the simple idea it was just use the burst skills that rifle offered, and just move around your kits for dps and aa, 2 and 1 would rarely (never!) see play, but that was ok back then, rifle didnt had problems with projectile hate like it has now, their cc is great, but again, projectile hate! :/

Net shot projectile speed has been increased significantly since HoT. It used to miss almost all the time at anything about ~400 range, now you can actually land it on moving targets.

Engineer’s Rifle needs more than a buff to net shot speed to bring it back into play. Traits need to change and skills need to be improved to bring it up to speed. Yes you can kill people with it in a group of players (you are probably being ignored for the most part). Irregardless of all the CC builds that you will see popping up here in the forums the weapon+build is sub-par, easy to understand, some classes profit from your CC attempts more than this weapon harms them (and associated CC skills that make up those Engineer CC builds) and this weapon provides no mobility or defensive advantages. CC builds may work the first time on an unprepared or inexperienced player however does not perform against moderately competent players unless in a group setting where they may lose track in the visual fx spam (because these builds lack a similar or comparable burst capability as the Berserker). The Firearms Traits does not add meaningful value to Engineer’s Rifle for PvP/WvW.

In PvE these issues are less of a problem than every-where else, since nothing intelligent is trying to kill you.

LilBiM.3581:

Engineer’s Rifle needs more than a buff to net shot speed to bring it back into play. Traits need to change and skills need to be improved to bring it up to speed. Yes you can kill people with it in a group of players (you are probably being ignored for the most part). Irregardless of all the CC builds that you will see popping up here in the forums the weapon+build is sub-par, easy to understand, some classes profit from your CC attempts more than this weapon harms them (and associated CC skills that make up those Engineer CC builds) and this weapon provides no mobility or defensive advantages. CC builds may work the first time on an unprepared or inexperienced player however does not perform against moderately competent players unless in a group setting where they may lose track in the visual fx spam (because these builds lack a similar or comparable burst capability as the Berserker). The Firearms Traits does not add meaningful value to Engineer’s Rifle for PvP/WvW.

In PvE these issues are less of a problem than every-where else, since nothing intelligent is trying to kill you.

Yep, totally true, ive been trying to do a powr rifle build in unranked, and from my expereince, using the explosives trait for grenades its way more useful than traiting rifle :/

As others have said, Rifle was great before HoT power creep.

If Rifle had been designed for HoT:

• Hip Shot: Higher damage, grants might every third shot.
• Net Shot: Unblockable, reflects projectiles
• Blunderbuss: Higher damage
• Overcharged Shot: No self-cc, or trait that grants stability on use
• Jump Shot: Higher damage, lower cooldown, evades during travel

coro.3176:

As others have said, Rifle was great before HoT power creep.

If Rifle had been designed for HoT:

• Hip Shot: Higher damage, grants might every third shot.
• Net Shot: Unblockable, reflects projectiles
• Blunderbuss: Higher damage
• Overcharged Shot: No self-cc, or trait that grants stability on use
• Jump Shot: Higher damage, lower cooldown, evades during travel

These changes would bring Rifle back in line with Hammer as a power weapon opening up a lot of new builds in the process.

Having a unblockable/reflectable Netshot or every First or 3rd Hipshot being unblockable would also solve some of the problems the Rifle faces with the amount of projectile hate in the game post HoT.

Jumpshot with Evade frames would be a dream come true.

Engi weapons are not meant to do damage like other other classes weapons, engi’s are meant to use their kits as well, which leads to different skills that boost your dps.

Kits aren’t reliable damage. Grenades take too much damage from retaliation and are reflected by everything in the current meta. Bomb kit is awkward to use and easy to evade. Elixir Gun and Toolkit are utility kits.

On top of this, Hammer does deal good damage while also being defensive, which is why 95% of all engineers in pvp run it. Rifle (and others) need to be brought up to the same level, or the HoT power creep needs to be nerfed across the board.

Eragon.8234:

Engi weapons are not meant to do damage like other other classes weapons, engi’s are meant to use their kits as well, which leads to different skills that boost your dps.

As someone said before, pistol buffs throw that idea out of the window becoming essential of the condi engi dps, its clear that we need damage to be relevant at least (because our utilities are a joke, slick shoes nerf was the nail in the coffin)

I don’t mind engi’s situation in spvp because i know condi engi will have our back if scrapper gets heavily nerfed, but yes, im concerned how we are going in pve and wvw (and i don’t even play wvw)

coro.3176:

As others have said, Rifle was great before HoT power creep.

If Rifle had been designed for HoT:

• Hip Shot: Higher damage, grants might every third shot.
• Net Shot: Unblockable, reflects projectiles
• Blunderbuss: Higher damage
• Overcharged Shot: No self-cc, or trait that grants stability on use
• Jump Shot: Higher damage, lower cooldown, evades during travel

I personally would rather hip shot apply vulnerability instead of might.

I like your idea of net shot, I would also add like 5 vulnerability aswell

Um that would be the dream having iFrames on jump shot. If we can’t have that, 1sec of stability would be ok I think.

Overcharged shot is my favourite skill in gw. I wouldn’t want to change anything on it, especially the self cc. If it really needs some kind of bluff I would either lower it’s cd or increase the cc on the enemy. ( counterplay would still be stunbreaks and reflects would hurt more)

Sarah

I like the self-knockback on Overcharged Shot too, but I have to admit it’s a liability. The reward is no longer enough to make up for the risk.

Maybe if OC shot was unblockable? The problem is, there’s so much block and reflect in the game that if you don’t land OC shot (and there’s a solid chance you won’t), you’ve hurt yourself more than your enemy.

Edit: Alternatively, if the self-knockback was faster – like if it granted quickness or something, that’d be acceptable. As it is now, I am hesitant to use it sometimes if I’m not sure if an enemy I just quickly targeted (like a War or Mes or Guard) will be reflecting or blocking.

Edit: And stability! So many classes can get tons of stability for a long time now. Warrior, Guard, Ranger, Rev, etc. Trading a kinda long self-cc to remove 1 stack of stab feels bad.

Sarahfull.4930:

Overcharged shot is my favourite skill in gw. I wouldn’t want to change anything on it, especially the self cc. If it really needs some kind of bluff I would either lower it’s cd or increase the cc on the enemy. ( counterplay would still be stunbreaks and reflects would hurt more)

Sarah

I like using overcharged shot to get out of entangle (ranger elite) or hunters ward (Dh bow #5) and stuff. If they ever gonna change this skill i hope they’ll let it keeps these functionalities. An acceptable change to me for overcharged shot would be adding an evade frame to the knockback (do a backwards roll or something) Its important to keep the knockback cuz if that got removed you wouldn’t be able to get out of hunters ward (or other skills you can’t dodge through) i think.

And it’s instance cast!! It’s a great skill. If your worried about blocks and reflects then that makes it more a learn the matchup than the skill it self. I believe it’d fine how it is

Perhaps an instnat cast with rifle 3 is what it needs, and as some people siad, rifle 2 unblockable

I like what has been suggested here but what I would add is that instead of a straight DPS increase for blunderbuss that it should be changed to as follows:

3) Blunderbuss: if you hit a target within max damage range (0 – 250) this skill is repeatable every 1/2s for 2.5s before going on full CD)

As for the AA, I recommend:

1) Ranging Shot x2 (1 stack of vuln per shot), Semi-Auto Fire (3 shots in a 0.75s animation, 1 stack of bleeding for 3 seconds per shot)

As for traits. Skilled Marksman applying cripple for 2s on crit with a 7 second ICD. As well as Modified Ammunition applying unblockable for 3 seconds when your next skill is blocked on a 20s ICD would help Rifle + Firearms. Heavy Armor Exploit actually increasing damage (via tripling applied vulnerability from this trait) if the opponent has Protection would benefit Rifle as well.

The CD decrease on close hit would tremendously improve rifle, I like it. Its pretty much a chain skill the way you write it out though, just it chains to itself conditionally.

And overcharge shot needs to split into 4 hits, so it really mulches block and stability 3 or less, that would really feel like an overcharge shot these days.

You cannot strip more than one stack of Stability per .75 seconds, so such a change wouldn’t affect much. You’d have to open a whole new can of worms to get that effect.

Only thing I’ll add to Overcharged shot is a mini evade just after the shot, so the engie never get caught by his own reflected attack. People reflecting it would still be safe and sound, but the price to pay for using the skill against the reflect meta would not be so high.

Try going up against a DH or Guardian and finding a window to use OC shot where your opponent doesn’t have block, stability, or aegis. Meanwhile, try not to get Spear of Justice’d right through your gear shield block.

Ghotistyx.6942:

You cannot strip more than one stack of Stability per .75 seconds, so such a change wouldn’t affect much. You’d have to open a whole new can of worms to get that effect.

Forgot about that case, well IF they had aegis, 1x stability, and overcharge shot hit 3 times…. then it would eat the aegis, stability, and still launch them. I think, unless their is some other silly rule against it…

If i could rework/redesign the rifle this is what i would do :

1.Seeking shot :1200 range,pierce, damage targets ,apply one stack of vulnerability to impaired targets.

2.Powder blast:1200 range, aoe ,300 radius, damage and snare(5sec) targets .

3.Jump shot: same functionality ,less damage 15 sec cooldown,slightly fast animation.

4.Overcharged shot: same,change the self knock back for a dash back with no evade frame.

5.Barbed wire:pbaoe ,600 radius ,damge and roots targets ,if root is broken or removed target is snared.

tigrawahi.2694:

If i could rework/redesign the rifle this is what i would do :

1.Seeking shot :1200 range,pierce, damage targets ,apply one stack of vulnerability to impaired targets.

2.Powder blast:1200 range, aoe ,300 radius, damage and snare(5sec) targets .

3.Jump shot: same functionality ,less damage 15 sec cooldown,slightly fast animation.

4.Overcharged shot: same,change the self knock back for a dash back with no evade frame.

5.Barbed wire:pbaoe ,600 radius ,damge and roots targets ,if root is broken or removed target is snared.

It sounds good!, altought, i don’t see why move jump shot from 5 to 3 :P

I supose I’m the only one that would prefer rifle to be more hybrid focused: more condis applied would be a gift for me.

Eh, not really. It’s difficult to gear for hybrid builds, and they tend to not have a place in PvE, PvP, etc. Rifle has only ever had 1 damaging condition on it. If anything, I’d rather that be removed and replaced with more damage.

Regardless of the type of damage though, I think Rifle’s current flaws are that its skills are outdated. HoT skills just do more things at once and counter its strengths. It was a good weapon, though one that required risk. After HoT power creep, you just can’t afford that risk any more and it pays off much less than it used to. (see: Overcharged Shot, Jump Shot)

coro.3176:

Eh, not really. It’s difficult to gear for hybrid builds, and they tend to not have a place in PvE, PvP, etc. Rifle has only ever had 1 damaging condition on it. If anything, I’d rather that be removed and replaced with more damage.

Regardless of the type of damage though, I think Rifle’s current flaws are that its skills are outdated. HoT skills just do more things at once and counter its strengths. It was a good weapon, though one that required risk. After HoT power creep, you just can’t afford that risk any more and it pays off much less than it used to. (see: Overcharged Shot, Jump Shot)

Viper stats aren’t technically hybrid gear?, they offer power stats,Big ol bomb and nades (which makes them an hybrid kit imo), offer power damage wich are part of the dps rotation in our current condi build, so, i don’t see why rifle couldnt fit as hybrid too.

Exactly my point! I would really love to get a better condition availability while wielding rifle. AA giving more bleeds, Blunderbuss adding some burning, Net Shot could cripple, maybe even a few confusion stacks for Jump Shot…

Problem of core engi is the fact that they moved away Incendiary Powder from explosive. Now bombs and nades are not that great with explosive alone …

Conditions won’t fix rifle. They might help even up the damage, but IMO, the core issues with rifle are Overcharged Shot and Jump Shot being far too risky for their effects.

Jump shot needs evades or a LOT more damage. Overcharged shot needs to not completely wreck you if your opponent has stability, block, aegis, projectile nullification, or any defense at all.

What would you guys think about the auto attack being changed to a medium range attack, sorta like Blunderbuss, without the bleed but the same damage. However, the attack chain would consist of 3 similiar attacks, whereas the last one has a 8s cd. So you can’t use it as auto attack entierly. It would force us to use at least one kit, I know, but it would also change the Engis auto attacks being weak problem in the first place. It would also make room for a new skill on #3.

Same could be done to the pistol auto attack, buff it to be a strong condi attack with 6 rounds and then the 8s cd.

Ardid.7203:

Exactly my point! I would really love to get a better condition availability while wielding rifle. AA giving more bleeds, Blunderbuss adding some burning, Net Shot could cripple, maybe even a few confusion stacks for Jump Shot…

That sounds exactly to what we have with pistol aa, and it would get rid of p/p main purporse, i would suggest making rifle get weakening conditions instead of damaging conditions (inflict weakness, criple, chill, etc.) and make rifle aa get his damage buffed to a 15% if the enemy has vulnerability.

PierPiero.9142:

Problem of core engi is the fact that they moved away Incendiary Powder from explosive. Now bombs and nades are not that great with explosive alone …

Ehm, the discussion here is about our rifle specificly, thats off topic.

Ivantreil.3092:

Ardid.7203:

Exactly my point! I would really love to get a better condition availability while wielding rifle. AA giving more bleeds, Blunderbuss adding some burning, Net Shot could cripple, maybe even a few confusion stacks for Jump Shot…

That sounds exactly to what we have with pistol aa, and it would get rid of p/p main purporse, i would suggest making rifle get weakening conditions instead of damaging conditions (inflict weakness, criple, chill, etc.) and make rifle aa get his damage buffed to a 15% if the enemy has vulnerability.

I happily concede, your idea is way better than my rushed ramble.

Bump. On the off chance any devs read this forum, please read this thread.

Edit: before the balance patch please. I don’t want rifle to suck for another 3 months.

I don’t agree. Rifle is a great pve weapon and i think it is ok for that in pve . I used it quite often for pve roaming and for fractal.
For going power ( i prefer condi usually) i think that rifle with bombs and nades is really great. It has good burst and i have much more fun with it than with hammer. Power scrapper in pve probably is good too but i don’t love hammer and if i take explosive, firearms and scrapper i have no switness … with explosive ,firearms and tools it can be great. What for me is really kitten, really useless now is shield. It has no use in wvw, no use in spvp no use in pve. IF anet tomorrow delete it nobody realize it

Ivantreil.3092:

Ardid.7203:

Exactly my point! I would really love to get a better condition availability while wielding rifle. AA giving more bleeds, Blunderbuss adding some burning, Net Shot could cripple, maybe even a few confusion stacks for Jump Shot…

That sounds exactly to what we have with pistol aa, and it would get rid of p/p main purporse, i would suggest making rifle get weakening conditions instead of damaging conditions (inflict weakness, criple, chill, etc.) and make rifle aa get his damage buffed to a 15% if the enemy has vulnerability.

We don’t need another condition based weapon Pistols are great for that , eg, ft are great with condition setup . Rifle imho is ok as it is for pve. We have 1 power spvp/wvw weapon ( hammer) , 1 general pourpose condi weapon setup ( pistol/pistol), one good pve power weapon (rifle) and an unusefull kitten ( shield )

At least rifle is ‘meh’. Shield is simply terrible. I’d hope the next weapon we get is an mainhand because that might save shield a little.

Twigifire.8379:

At least rifle is ‘meh’. Shield is simply terrible. I’d hope the next weapon we get is an mainhand because that might save shield a little.

Thats why people are guessing maces/daggers/swords as our next specialization, staff is aonther nice option but definitely amother mainhand besides pistol is needed

and a mech suit to wield the sword/mace X3