Guild Wars 2

Hi guys! I am back with engi weapon ideas to help them compete with the greatness that is hammer(or just be more viable than they are now.)

This time I will be tackling rifle, which I will be the first to admit, requires very little to be decent in itself. The issue with rifle stems from CC and lack of traits that make it worthwhile rather than being a weak option as PP and PS is in PvP.

RIGHT! Goals of these changes, establish rifle as a short range power burst (compared to hammer sustained damage), utility weapon that is capable of dealing a bit of condition pressure in the right conditions(excuse the pun).
Why? Because that is its current identity, 2/3 of which are undefined however.
I will not be attempting to give this weapon any sustain as I have done with PP in my previous thread as that would mean quite a bit more overlap(CC + utility is already a big theme for all engi weapons, dont want that sustain too).
Previous thread discussing Pistols and shield found here : https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Suggestion-Improving-Pistols-and-Shield

Rifle 1 – Hip Shot
Decrease cast time to 1/2(down from 3/4).
Remove slight aftercast allowing more responsive skill activation after an auto.

Damage remains low but feels better to use. A major issue for rifle in my opinion is that its burst is VERY easily blinded, especially in the current state of the game where a lot of blinds are spammed.
If you can use an auto to cleanse that blind and still have half a second to pop the next skill you can still get damage out before the field or whatever applies another blind.

Rifle 2 – Net Shot
Increase projectile speed by 50%.
Net is LARGE and is no longer a projectile. Can not be reflected.

Small buff to increase chance to hit. The 10 second cooldown is more than enough to keep this in line without needed it to be reflected as well, which 4/5 rifle skills already suffers from.

Rifle 3 – Blunderbuss
Double the bleeding per range increment 2/4/6/8 (instead of 1/2/3/4).
Additionally strips 1 boons over 500 range and 2 boons below.
Increased cooldown to 12seconds(up from 10).

This gives it a bit more hybridization, doubt this will be too strong since have Power, precision, ferocity makes the skill hit like a truck while the bleeding remains negligible.
If you choose to go hybrid you lose the massive scaling on it and precision/ferocity.

Rifle 4 – Overcharged shot
Self knockback reduced to 250(from 300).
Foe knockback increased to 500(from 450).

In the current state of the game this skill is extremely hard to land effectively thanks to pulsing and random stability/blocks/blinds. But landing it now will pay off even more.
Additionally using skill 3 first will could potentially strip stability allowing this huge CC to land but takes away the possible big hit blunderbuss could have given you ahd you CCd first.

Rifle 5 – Jump Shot
Increased cast time BEFORE jumping and given a more obvious animation.
Decreased travel time slightly and evade added while in the air.
Increased range to 1000(up from 800) to compensate for longer precast.
Now applies 3 stacks of burning(6 seconds) on the initial jump as well as the damage so that it can still function as a gap close.
Additional the cast cures blindness.
Increased cooldown to 25seconds(up from 20) to preserve balance and the focus on BURSTING.

Again this skill is already quite strong when it does land, I would like to allow MORE counterplay before the actual jump starts by making it more obvious when to dodge or interrupt.
The burning once again adds a bit of hybridization to the weapon.

Alreighty then, those are my ideas for rifle.

What do you think?

I have already stated my proposal for rifle changes here. The idea was to change the style of the weapon to a shot-gun style weapon, increase the base auto-attack’s performance, and allow the Engineer to more effectively modify it’s distance between the target (add short range Mobility).

In retrospect the Evade on Rifle #5 should not be applied as this skill works fine in it’s current configuration.

Another variation for my Blunderbuss changes are to simply allow reuse for 2 seconds if it hits a target.

Heya!

Rifle should honestly be a pure power damage burst weapon. Therefore I don’t like you suggestion of adding burning. I’dd rather see a mechanic on jump shot like:
" 2nd strike has 50% increased critical damage if the first attack hit
This is the kind of play where I would love to see rifle go -> High reward if played well.

I prefer weapons to not be trapped with only specific stat combinations. Therefore a more hybrid rifle sounds good to me.

LilBiM.3581:

I have already stated my proposal for rifle changes here. The idea was to change the style of the weapon to a shot-gun style weapon, increase the base auto-attack’s performance, and allow the Engineer to more effectively modify it’s distance between the target (add short range Mobility).

In retrospect the Evade on Rifle #5 should not be applied as this skill works fine in it’s current configuration.

Another variation for my Blunderbuss changes are to simply allow reuse for 2 seconds if it hits a target.

woah there, might need to slow down since that one’s bloody overpowered, plus i’d rather not have evades on any of the skills.

Rising Blade.9206:

LilBiM.3581:

I have already stated my proposal for rifle changes here. The idea was to change the style of the weapon to a shot-gun style weapon, increase the base auto-attack’s performance, and allow the Engineer to more effectively modify it’s distance between the target (add short range Mobility).

In retrospect the Evade on Rifle #5 should not be applied as this skill works fine in it’s current configuration.

Another variation for my Blunderbuss changes are to simply allow reuse for 2 seconds if it hits a target.

woah there, might need to slow down since that one’s bloody overpowered, plus i’d rather not have evades on any of the skills.

Yeah i dont think evade is the bestd option. I wanted to make it so you get stability and immunity to blind during the leap,but that seemed convoluted.

I can’t remember the name of the trait (and I’m to lazy to look it up) but with the change in traits (last summer?) one thing that was removed from the Firearms line was the trait that allowed stacking lots of aoe cripple. This synchronized very well with the Rifle. If I recall, with my Zerker Rifle build, I could stack 12s of Cripple with ease on multiple enemy. This help off-set the low mobility/cast time of the Rifle. I suspect that this was removed due to the highly mobile nature of much of the HoT NPC.

Rifle doesn’t need to be buffed, hammer needs to be nerfed.

Hammer needs to be nerfed and Rifle needs to be buffed.

Projectiles, and therefore Rifle are just not good against the HoT power creep. There’s too much stability, and reflect and projectile nullification out there to even think about playing it.
For example: I would love to see a video of a rifle engi taking down a good tempest. I don’t think it can be done.

I should probably mention the usual complaints: Damage is too low for the risk required.. no defense on any of the skills.. overcharged shot actually hurts you more often than not if the projectile is blocked or reflected.

I’d really like to play rifle engi in pvp again, but just can’t. It’s bad. HoT power creep has ruined old builds.