Guild Wars 2

So, to try and lighten it up around here and have a fun post- which combo do you guys like more and why?

I feel like rifle offers more “aggressive” type control while pistol/shield seems to be a more passive control if that makes sense.

I still can’t decide which one I like more in pvp.

As far as wvw goes, I usually enjoy pistol more just because confusion damage is pretty haxasaurus rex.

Pistols are for conditions, rifle for more CC. Not much more too it haha

Haha aw wheres the fun in that.

I hear ya on it, but I’ve actually used pistol/shield in power/hybrid builds and get decent numbers (4k dart volley etc).

And shield can bring some decent cc to the table. some what more suitable for group cc than say rifle but not as spammable.

I usually bring along a shield in tpvp with my bunker build just because of the #4 ability. It reflect 100% of the damage on projectiles, so imagine a rifle warrior using killshot or a ranger with a longboard+quickness. Right now I’m still debating between every weapon for tpvp node holder just because they all have such viable things to bring to a fight. P/p are good for more than a 1vs1 because of aoe conditions and immobilize, while p/s has a daze for big attacks (HB for example) and an aoe knockback. Also the rifle brings incredible 1vs1 cc, but not much else for a 2/3vs1. Also you can only put 1 sigil on a rifle. It all comes down to circumstances and playstyle tbh

In about 90% of situations, rifle will be better than pistol/shield or pistol/pistol with regards to sPvP.

The two times I want a shield are when fighting a ranger (and you’d still be standing still getting hit by their pet for those 3 seconds of reflection), and this one time when I was fighting a pistol/shield engy and he just got extremely lucky with his timing on everything (he reflected overcharged shot, gg).

Rifle is better if you use a kit as your primary damage source, the multiple CCs and good auto attack as a filler complement kits better. If you rely on your actual weapon for damage pistols pull ahead though, especially against more than one opponent.

Rifle 3 and 5 are not very reliable and overcomplicated to use outside of perfect and completely lagfree conditions ( i.e. pretty much never in WvW ), so in a non-kit build you’d be stuck with 1 for damage and that’s just not going to cut it. Pistol damage is pretty poor as well but sucks a little less with some mild speccing and equipping for it.

Ha that’s totally spot on about rng kamahl- never thought about the pet aspect.

I guess the one good thing about shield#4 push back is it doesn’t bug out like rifle#4. I actually counted the other day in pvp overcharged shot not firing and going on that ~3sec cd three times in a row before finally working.

And I agree with rifle#3 & 5- more so 5 just because how clunky it is.

I’m almost always using the tool kit in wvw. There’s just something about that 1200 range pull and beating people with crowbars that I can never get enough of. Not to mention that 3second block is always useful, coupled with switching back to pistol/shield if you still require more blocking/confusion.

If you want more fun with pistol and toolkit, pop Elixir B, pistol shot them, then crow bar them (both attacks are quick), then block with the gear shield. You take no damage, they take 5 stacks of confusion damage per attack as well as Retaliation damage.