Guild Wars 2

Hi I was trying to use a build with pistol/shield plus flamethrower in WvW.

My build is this:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUl0pyanvSyF1LJyoHd2EuZgUoX3loCV2nCsFA-jkzAYLEMGAVAIBWEN2aaR0YVLYqSYlLg2NqqXEDOiNXQ1bg5OgBA-w

I like a lot the effect of the flamethrower but I dislike the utility of the shield abilities in wvw. They don’t guarantee a block from melee weapons and neither form arrow carts and similar. In a fight the ability 5 disappear immediately and seems useless.

Do you think I should go back to the rifle usage? It makes much more damage with longer range and the rocket jump is great. The only problem is that I don’t have any more the “rifle mod” trait because I the juggernaut.

Arrow carts are AoE not missiles.
Based on your gear I’d stick with the rifle as p/s won’t be more then just utility. The poison shot does some good damage but that’s about it on a power build.
You could also drop 20 points in tools to get perma vigor and if you really need rifle mod you can get it that way too. Perma vigor is REALLY useful imho.
Maybe like this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUl0pyanvSyF1LJxoCdG0D9eX/KSRlz/nCsF-jkzAYLEMGAVAIBWEN2aaR0YVLYqSYlLg2NqqXEDOiNXQ1bg5OgBA-w but using knight’s gear you could also swap that at 25%health elixir S for protection injector as any time you’re stunned= 33% less damage. Toughness helps with reducing damage taken and protection would help you even more.

For me, shields offer little value in zerg fights since most people are going to have stability and negate any use out of the shield. I still keep my SAB shield around for style points though

Anyway, switching to riffle or dual pistol is fine. The bonuses you get from either weapon set help to augment your damage with the FT, so you’re not losing out. When I run kits, I rarely go back to my primary weapons. There’s just not enough time to cycle through everything and I’d rather get the more damaging and useful skills out first.

I would get rid of the 10 pnts in power. Your build does not put out a lot of condition damage, so wasting a trait on applying 4 seconds of meager burning damage every 10 seconds is not as important. I would put it into alchemy so you can get 15% extra FT and EG dmg. That will get you more DPS. I would also swap range increase to weapon CD trait for the firearms line. Being able to shoot out more net shots or jump shots is better than having a small range boost. Most of the time you’re going to be up close and personal with your fights. If not, net shot, jump shot, or pull them with your toolkit.

Good suggestions but I can’t give up on the elixir S at 25% because it saved my life hundreds of time in WvW. The FT bonus of 15% would be good but if I remove points from power I loose 5.5% of damage on both rifle/pistol and flamethrower and moreover the flame skill is very important because keeps my enemies always burning and that way the FT deals 10% more damage with the first skill.

Anyway you confirmed my sensation about the shield being useless in WvW. I’ll go back to rifle that I used so far with good feedback.
The range increased of rifle is important when you attack fleeing players. I only cry for the loss of “rifle mod” that I used with my old bomb kit build.

why dont anybody consider taking ‘sitting duck’? I like it very much!!! You get a nice criple (with your setup you havnt got that much cripple-skills exept ‘Box of nails’) and 5 stacks of vuln. That makes 5% more dmg for Pry bar for example

Shield is an acquired taste. It took me many months before I had the nerve to seriously give it a try in WvW. Now I use it all the time.

It’s extremely situational. You might only really use it 15-20 times over the course of an hour, while the 4 & 5 Pistol skills will be used much more.

For me, it fits my play style (tank, Condi Damage, Condi Duration). When I’m running a Shield build, I tend to think through things more carefully – it slows my mind down, and forces me to think. I don’t just fall back on the 4 & 5 Pistol skills. I monitor my play more, and focus on using the right kit at the right time (I run with EG, Bomb, Took Kit) and I focus heavily in the Inventions/Alchemy Trait line.

I use them both and swap between them depending on what I’m doing. I find shield to be better for group play and PP better for 1vX. The utility from shield makes it amazing when in a party, but for solo work the pressure from blowtorch and the Immobile/cripple field I find to be superior. Glue shot has saved my life and stopped runners from getting away more times than I can count.

Pistols are condition weapons though. If you’re going to focus on direct damage I would always go with a rifle.

Some things come to mind.
1. Second sigil (if compared to rifle)
2. Very nice to blast thieves out of their refuge and watch them stand around dumbfounded with the revealed debuff
3. Another blast source for healing and buffing
4. Nice stun of ability 5 while not thrown
5. Denial of enemy staking friends with ability 4
6. Blasting people off of cliffs
7. Watching ranged classes nuke themselves when you time ability 4 right

Not saying it is ‘better’ than two pistols.
Just some food for thought. There is much thief annoyance in there!
Whatever floats your boat!

Shield is ur favorite thief crusher weapon
it offers everything to kill a thief- a good daze, knock back, blocks, projectile reflect
SHADOW REFUGE – everytime u see one of this rocket boots into it and use the 4#
skill and make the thief pay for hes lame attempt of escaping

WvW – meaning as running with 50-100 peeps fighting another zerg?

That’s same as DE zergs. You can be naked, sit in the back and use a ranged cleave weapon to tag stuff, or you can deck out in purples and be frontliner IT WON’T MAKE any difference to the outcome (both for DE and WvW zerg fights).

Now go solo a champion event, or 5 man it, same for WvW (roaming / harassing / capping / decapping etc). Now it really matters what you run and how you mix with your team and support eachother.

Pannonica.5378:

Some things come to mind.
1. Second sigil (if compared to rifle)
2. Very nice to blast thieves out of their refuge and watch them stand around dumbfounded with the revealed debuff
3. Another blast source for healing and buffing
4. Nice stun of ability 5 while not thrown
5. Denial of enemy staking friends with ability 4
6. Blasting people off of cliffs
7. Watching ranged classes nuke themselves when you time ability 4 right

Not saying it is ‘better’ than two pistols.
Just some food for thought. There is much thief annoyance in there!
Whatever floats your boat!

What I’ve found, and this may be grossly overgeneralizing is this:
Static Discharge = Rifle
Heavy Conditions = Pistol/Pistol
Everything Else = Pistol/Shield