Guild Wars 2

When choosing traits from the Firearms line, I’m wondering if I’d get more mileage out of Knee Shot and Sitting Duck or any combination of Rifled Barrel, Hair Trigger, and Rifle Mod. If the former is the case, would you recommend throwing Precise Sights into the mix? Or is Vulnerability stacking not very cost-effective?

In case it helps, I’m looking at PvE (Dungeons optional), mostly of the solo variety. I haven’t decided what stats I’m going to focus on, but it’s probably going to be P/P/T or P/P/Crit%. I’ll be running Incendiary Powder, so CDam is also an option. Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

I like Sitting Duck. Applies 8 seconds of 5x Vuln on a 10 second CD (Net Shot).

Knee Shot looks good, but I haven’t tried it much. As far as I can tell, most bosses are susceptible to cripple, so this may be a good idea if you’re in a group that is kiting a lot.

Right now, I’m using Sitting Duck, Rifle Mod and Hair Trigger. I like Hair Trigger because that brings my Net Shot down to 8 seconds and works with the 20% increased Condition Duration from my Explosives trait line to provide constant 5x Vuln, with a second or so of 10x Vuln if I’m using Net Shot on CD.

Is vulnerability that important? I mean, it makes someone take %1 more damage. I would think that unless you can stack fifteen in a few attacks (like with grenades) your time would be better spent with something else.

darkace.8925:

When choosing traits from the Firearms line, I’m wondering if I’d get more mileage out of Knee Shot and Sitting Duck or any combination of Rifled Barrel, Hair Trigger, and Rifle Mod. If the former is the case, would you recommend throwing Precise Sights into the mix? Or is Vulnerability stacking not very cost-effective?

I always saw Precise Sights as more a Flamethrower-type trait. The problem is that Vulnerability only lasts 2-3 seconds unless a new stack is reapplied. The rate in which the Rifle shoots makes it difficult to really get much out of it. The Flamethrower on the other hand … Love it!

Go with Rifled Barrels or Hair Trigger for your first slot.

JohnDied.3476:

Is vulnerability that important? I mean, it makes someone take %1 more damage. I would think that unless you can stack fifteen in a few attacks (like with grenades) your time would be better spent with something else.

Remember, there will be times that you’re not the only one attacking your target so 5% vulnerability is effective. And oh yes, I can stack 20 Vulnerability with a rifle and net turret alone, 30 with Utility Goggles.

@Topic
In PvE I go for Sitting Duck, Hair Trigger, and Rifle mod especially in dungeons. In PvP/WvW when I trait 30 into Firearms I go for (Sitting Duck/Knee Shot), Hair Trigger, and Rifle Mod. I don’t use Rifled Barrels because I’ve come to accept that our weapon is a shotgun which works better when in short range. I’m careful enough to get close to the enemy, deal massive damage with Blunderbuss and Jump Shot, then escape if needed. I’d rather do that than stay out of enemy’s range and spam auto attack.

JohnDied.3476:

Is vulnerability that important? I mean, it makes someone take %1 more damage. I would think that unless you can stack fifteen in a few attacks (like with grenades) your time would be better spent with something else.

For dungeons, I prefer to think of it as 1% damage x 5 stacks = 5% damage for the entire group. I don’t know, seems pretty nice to me. What better trait would you pick – and what better attack? An additional autoattack?