Swtiching to Pistol/Shield looking for some advice.
I’ve gotta say when I started off-handing a shield I wondered how I ever got along without it. The knockback and stun abilities are incredibly useful against mobs and in PvP. I use the flamethrower as well, after shooting my poison dart and static shot, I switch and get my flame on!
I’m a big believer in the Healing Turret over the Medkit. It gives you a solid heal with a short 15 sec cooldown if you choose to pick it back up; if you choose to leave it down it gives you respectable regen and condition removal; or if you choose to detonate it, it’s a blast finisher that can be used in conjunction with the elixir gun or flame thrower.
The Medkit does give you a speed boost and a condition removal, but it doesn’t really benefit your group/team as much as the turret does.
To answer your other question, Kit Refinement is best used with the Elixir Gun, as swapping to it will give you a ground targeted super elixir on your location—very useful!
My favorite hing about the off hand shield is #4 magnetic shield when I am at battle with multiple ranged attackers. Nothing feels better then watching all the enemies take 2000 damage at the same time in groups of 4 because I have high crit chance/crit damage because all of their attacks were reflected back at them with a well times use of the magnetic shield.
As far as the kit refinement spells they are
Elixir Gun – Super Elixir (Recharge: 20s)
Flamethrower – Fire Blast (AoE) (Recharge: 10s)
Tool Kit – Box of Nails (Recharge: 0s)
Bomb Kit – Bomb (Recharge: 0s)
Grenade Kit – Grenade Barrage (Recharge: 10 or 20s)
Med Kit – Detonate (Recharge: 0s)
In wvw, learn to love your grenades. They can do some serious pressure damage and condition spreads onto the larger groups.
Also, flamethrowing through doors, enough said =p