Guild Wars 2

I’ve proposed this change and seen a few other people mentioned it too in other topics.

Swaping P#3 – Static Shot with P#4 – Blowtorch would be a first step to improve the viability of shield as an off-hand weapon.

This way Pistol Main hand becomes a condi dmg weapon and pistol off-hand a soft CC weapon.

Then to make shield viable reduce the CD to 20 and 30 secs baseline with the trait further reducing it by 20% (16 and 26 secs).

Seems like a decent idea.

Results with:
Main-hand Pistol gives all the big damage.
Off-hand Pistol gives AoE blind/confusion and immobilize/cripple and additional condition damage.
Shield gives personal defense.

Three defined roles for each one. P/P doesn’t really get a significant buff, and P/S does.

I mentioned the change before but it was not my idea. Honestly someone else mentioned it but I don’t remember who.

From my point of view it’s a very nice change. There is close to no risk to cause some imbalance since the p/p setup does not change. Means the already stronger setup will not improve.
I am little afraid that p/s gets too strong in pvp since you anyway run the inventions trait line in most builds. P/s will be superior compared to p/p. Still, I think it would be a fair alternative to hammer. Not stronger then hammer but on pair or close to it.

I like the idea of swapping the skills. The main-hand Pistol would be “damage”, while the off-hand pistol would be CC (Static Shot/Glue) — as the Shield is supposed to be.

Edit: Confusion had it’s day, when it used to do substantial damage. But that is no longer (for Engi at least).

+1 to these changes.

Greetings,

I am definetly in favor for this change. However I am always very realistic and would like to point out the other sides of the story:

Some mentioned that it would not change the P/P setup but make shield more viable
There is one thing in this arguement missing in my opinion. As it currently is right now, the distinction between pistol-OH and shield is that Pistol is damage oriented with a slight touch of CC, while shield is piurely defensive (partly trough CC) with slightly utility. If we swap these skills, wouldn’t pistol off hand become far less superiour than shield? I mean, we got all the damage we need then on pistol main hand, why bother with off hand while we can get more defense?

As I’ve said, I am in favour of this change, but I would liek to think about this, since this seems to be a downside.

Greetings, Fvux.

The V.8759:

Greetings,

I am definetly in favor for this change. However I am always very realistic and would like to point out the other sides of the story:

Some mentioned that it would not change the P/P setup but make shield more viable
There is one thing in this arguement missing in my opinion. As it currently is right now, the distinction between pistol-OH and shield is that Pistol is damage oriented with a slight touch of CC, while shield is piurely defensive (partly trough CC) with slightly utility. If we swap these skills, wouldn’t pistol off hand become far less superiour than shield? I mean, we got all the damage we need then on pistol main hand, why bother with off hand while we can get more defense?

As I’ve said, I am in favour of this change, but I would liek to think about this, since this seems to be a downside.

Greetings, Fvux.

You bring up a good point. The Off Hand Pistol (per the change) would need to be a little more attractive or no one would use it.

Edit: However, with the current Shield CD’s, it has very limited use. This would still be true if the swap in skills were made. The Shield has always been a “last resort” weapon (I even have trouble calling it a weapon with a straight face). I often don’t even like to use Shield 4 because it can push enemy off of Fields laid down by others.

If this happened we’d still be left with 1 useless offhand in PvP. No one’s going to take OH pistol if it doesn’t provide significant damage pressure. The immob is decent for landing skills and the cover condi are alright, but shield’s defenses are infinitely more useful as they mean you’re not deadweight as soon as you get focused.

Sins.4782:

If this happened we’d still be left with 1 useless offhand in PvP. No one’s going to take OH pistol if it doesn’t provide significant damage pressure. The immob is decent for landing skills and the cover condi are alright, but shield’s defenses are infinitely more useful as they mean you’re not deadweight as soon as you get focused.

Are a lot of people using Shield?

No. No one. I would gladly use it if Blowtorch were not mandatory as it is now for Condi Builds.

Yes please!

/15 char

I sense we’ll see the shield get more play when we get our next weapon (ideally the axe, mace, or sword) and specialization, but this is a good idea. It doesn’t affect P/P as the max condi build for PvE, but it makes P/S more attractive in PvP/WvW. This in turn would help balance out the disparity baseline engi and scrapper, and make every weapon used somewhere in the game.

The V.8759:

Greetings,

I am definetly in favor for this change. However I am always very realistic and would like to point out the other sides of the story:

Some mentioned that it would not change the P/P setup but make shield more viable
There is one thing in this arguement missing in my opinion. As it currently is right now, the distinction between pistol-OH and shield is that Pistol is damage oriented with a slight touch of CC, while shield is piurely defensive (partly trough CC) with slightly utility. If we swap these skills, wouldn’t pistol off hand become far less superiour than shield? I mean, we got all the damage we need then on pistol main hand, why bother with off hand while we can get more defense?

As I’ve said, I am in favour of this change, but I would liek to think about this, since this seems to be a downside.

Greetings, Fvux.

On a max (condi) dps you would still use dual pistols, as the extra dmg from confusion is nice, even more if you have 2+ targets.
On a PvP/WvW scenario, where you might want more defense, shield might take precedence. Even more if the CD gets reduced as the suggestion. It would make it a great defense weapon with the trait.

I don’t think it would make it better than hammer (still a lot of projectile hate out there) for PvP/WvW, but definitely more viable.

Other change that could make OH pistol more viable is to make glue shot proc immob on each pulse, not just the first one.

Why would anyone use offhand pistol then?

ellesee.8297:

Why would anyone use offhand pistol then?

The same is asked, “Why would anyone use the Shield as it’s currently traited?” And the answer is that no one does use the Shield currently.

The post is to hopefully communicate to Anet that the Engi community would like to see some changes to make the Shield more viable. Currently, it plays little to no role in the game.

ellesee.8297:

Why would anyone use offhand pistol then?

For PvE max condi damage at least.

Soon.5240:

ellesee.8297:

Why would anyone use offhand pistol then?

The same is asked, “Why would anyone use the Shield as it’s currently traited?” And the answer is that no one does use the Shield currently.

The post is to hopefully communicate to Anet that the Engi community would like to see some changes to make the Shield more viable. Currently, it plays little to no role in the game.

Making one weapon useless is not an answer for trying to get people to use another weapon. That’s Anet logic. Don’t be like Anet.

ellesee.8297:

Soon.5240:

ellesee.8297:

Why would anyone use offhand pistol then?

The same is asked, “Why would anyone use the Shield as it’s currently traited?” And the answer is that no one does use the Shield currently.

The post is to hopefully communicate to Anet that the Engi community would like to see some changes to make the Shield more viable. Currently, it plays little to no role in the game.

Making one weapon useless is not an answer for trying to get people to use another weapon. That’s Anet logic. Don’t be like Anet.

It wouldn’t be useless.
You would still use pistol OH for max (condi) dps or for kiting / multiple mobs scenario (glue shot + granades), while shield would provide a better defense/breakbar removal.

Static Shot + Glue Shot on a weapon would probably take home the trophy for worst weapon in the game. Trying to think of something that’s worse. Maybe Necro focus but at least that removes boons and stacks a lot of vuln.

Soon.5240:

Sins.4782:

If this happened we’d still be left with 1 useless offhand in PvP. No one’s going to take OH pistol if it doesn’t provide significant damage pressure. The immob is decent for landing skills and the cover condi are alright, but shield’s defenses are infinitely more useful as they mean you’re not deadweight as soon as you get focused.

Are a lot of people using Shield?

im using shield in an hybrid celestial (firearms-scrapper – tools or alchemy or inventions depends on situations)

because i love the blast – the reflect while getting close to a ranger lb or a warrior rifle or dh longbow – and the block of 5.

5th skill is still a 100% projectile finisher and still stuns-daze when someone wants to melee

indeed i said in another post that 30s and 40s are a high cd – compared to the 6s and 20s reflect-block of hammer and compared to cooldowns of shield of other classes.

suggestion: 20-30s base traitline. if using inventions, give protection and resistance 1s aoe to 5 targets. its a defensive weapon and would be perfect and another option in some builds.

for pistol 3: the buff of 1 stack more confusion is very nice. bounces to 4 targets.

have a rabbit close to one player in wvw? – 6 stacks of confusion (that ok – dont deal 1000 and 2000 like bombs in a condi build but still is 6 stacks to remove mixed with poison-burning-bleeding etcetcetc)

The issue seems more like about some skills being terrible and others being too good, in the same set of weapons. And they would be terrible (or too good) wherever they would end up, be it in the main or off-hand pistol.
Pistol/pistol is supposed to be our condition damage dealing set of weapons, but in practice a very large percentage of the damage is centered into a single skill – blowtorch. Switching it between main or off-hand doesn’t solve anything. Whatever gets it is the useful weapon, while the other ends up being the useless one.

ellesee.8297:

Static Shot + Glue Shot on a weapon would probably take home the trophy for worst weapon in the game. Trying to think of something that’s worse. Maybe Necro focus but at least that removes boons and stacks a lot of vuln.

p/p condi would still be the best damage for raids, but would at least make p/s viable in case break bars aren’t broken quickly enough.

Phineas Poe.3018:

ellesee.8297:

Static Shot + Glue Shot on a weapon would probably take home the trophy for worst weapon in the game. Trying to think of something that’s worse. Maybe Necro focus but at least that removes boons and stacks a lot of vuln.

p/p condi would still be the best damage for raids, but would at least make p/s viable in case break bars aren’t broken quickly enough.

I do use Glue in WvW to slow down someone entering a Keep, or I lob it over my shoulder when I’m running away from a zerg. Much like the Tool Kit Nails.

The point of the proposed change is that — in WvW — it’s would make the P/P and P/S more situationally versatile without requiring a drastic change on Anet’s part. Nor would it make the Engi “OP”. In the course of an evening of WvW, I may only use the Shield a dozen times. I much prefer the Gear Shield with Took Kits. Not only is it better than Shield 5, I can use it twice as much. When I need to run into a heavily contested Tower, I use Gear Shield.

Versatility lies at the heart of the Engi profession. Currently, we lack that. Whether that is by design on the part of Anet to promote PvP or not, it’s getting boring.

I would also like to point out that raids introduced a new mob (Gorseval spirit) that is immune to hard CC, and susceptible to soft CC. Off-hand pistol with static shot and glue shot would be ideal here, over shield.

Would love to see this as well. The whole look of pistol shield has been a favorite of mine for a long time but its sadly fallen far.

I don’t like the idea of making off-hand pistol terrible to make shield look appealing in comparison, and I’m talking as someone who’s been dying to use the p/s combo since the first time I rolled an engi.

Shield needs improvements by itself. The cooldown timers are way too long for both skills. Mesmer shield has the same cooldowns and both skills have in-built ways to greatly reduce them.

They should be 25s/30s respectively, 20s/24s with the trait. Then, make the trait work properly and apply protection with a delay so that we don’t lose uptime while blocking. Then, remove the channel time from Magnetic Shield. Seriously, Eles have a dozen ways to get Magnetic Aura which lasts longer and allows you to act freely. The skills is too outdated, even with the sequence.

As for main-hand pistol, I could support swapping skills, but off-hand pistol would need some improvements. A soft-CC weapon with minimal damage is pretty niche, when shield has 2 hard-CC skills. At the very least, it should do damage with both skills, so it’s solidified as the offensive off-hand option.

I agree that I dont want to see the off hand become terrible but I would rather have 1 hand feel like its complete and 1 broken then having pistols be meh unless DWing them.

I’ve been using shield a lot, and dunno if anything should be changed. The CDs might seem too long, but if you look what the skills give to your group when traited, they seem quite balanced.

I don’t really see the need to add damage either while using p+s, especially changing dmg mitigation skill with dps+dot.
Like, if you want to deal damage, why are you even equipping a SHIELD?

Wish they would add 3 mainhand skills for a shield instead, I wanna dualshield for ultimate group support and crazy survivability

People are pointing out offhand pistol will become terrible due to this change. Don’t you see that’s because main hand pistol at the current state sacks as hell? Blowtorch is the only reason why people even use p/p. That’s a kinda sad thing!

Forestnator.6298:

People are pointing out offhand pistol will become terrible due to this change. Don’t you see that’s because main hand pistol at the current state sacks as hell? Blowtorch is the only reason why people even use p/p. That’s a kinda sad thing!

It’s the only 1-handed weapon we have, so there’s nothing to compare to to say it sucks.