Guild Wars 2

Mainhand Pistol for Mesmer!

I’ve been playing a Mesmer for quite some time now (and still love it, despite certain changes in the past), but it still feels as if the Mesmer is still severely lacking in the choice for mainhand department, as if it simply wasn’t a fully finished class at launch in terms of weapon choices.

Only a Sword or Scepter remain as options for mainhand, which feels rather minimal; especially considering all the other classes and the sheer number of offhand choices the Mesmer has. Only the Engineer seems to have even less choices, but can make up for it with all their kits. Yet the only weapon that seems to be on the horizon for the Mesmer is yet another offhand.

Also, there are 2 individual illusionary pistols in the game; Lyss and Ilya. To this day this still leads me to believe that it may have been the original intention to include a pistol as an option for a mainhand as we already have it as an offhand option and a Master trait (Duelist’s Discipline) that affects pistols (plural).

Lastly, there is the pretty odd positioning of the Offhand Pistol skills when viewed from the weapon selection screen in our Hero panel and it all feels like theres a piece missing; as if it was originally intended for Mesmers to have pistol as a Mainhand option but not implemented at launch.

As such, I sincerely hope that ArenaNet would want to consider adding the pistol as a mainhand weapon for the Mesmer. Personally I would love to have more options available to me as the current choices simply do not seem to mesh well with one another.

So I would really love the choice of one more mainhand weapon that focuses on being a true Power based weapon. And to me the pistol could be that choice as a 900 range (1200 when traited with Duelist’s Discipline or equivalent with the upcoming new trait setup) weapon. This would allow ArenaNet to modify our scepter to take up to its own true calling; an actual condition based weapon.

For over than a year now the balance team are apparently still trying to figure out what to do with the Scepter’s identity crisis and its very awkward auto-chain. Having a Mainhand Pistol would allow them to turn the Scepter into a true condition weapon while allowing the Pistol to become a viable choice for power based attacks.

For me having the mainhand choices of Sword, Scepter and Pistol would complete our puzzle and give us a full set of weapons where each has its own identity and function.

—-

1. Double Shot: Fires two quick shots at the target.
   followed by
   Aimed Shot: Fire a powerful aimed shot at the target.
2. Illusive Separation: Roll to the left or right and summons a clone that rolls in the opposite direction (Evade 1s). Clone then uses ‘Double Shot’.
3. Chaos Barrage: Fire several shots with your pistol. Uses both pistols if one is equipped in the offhand (like the iDuelist animation, but damage remains the same).

Heh. You’re roughly 5 months too late for this one. That ship has sailed.

Fay.2357:

Heh. You’re roughly 5 months too late for this one. That ship has sailed.

Yeah, I fear no amount of timewarp will get me to fire my gun from my main hand.

Looking back through my posts, my last attempt to get the devs to consider adding the pistol as a mainhand option was over a year ago… Guess I was on the wrong boat. :P

Pyro is a party pooper, we’re all well aware of this. If you get the signs I’ll picket with you outside of Anet’s offices!

I would support this, only for the possibility of having a Mesmer (or any class for that matter) wield the Quip and the Minstrel at the same time.

seconding this so hard.

ar the moment, to play as direct damage build, the only way to be ready for both melee and ranged fights is to equip sword / x and greatsword.

greatsword has its uses, I’m sure. But with all the offhand options available to us, the lack of a ranged direct damage mainhand weapon feels very limiting.

The choices available to us are: take two cool offhands and prepare to only melee, or pick one offhand and a greatsword for ranged.

Now, MH Pistol isn’t that important. More importantly is what Mesmer’s next Elite Spec will be, and will a pistol fit in there. Work on ideas, people, for the specialization with a pistol instead of just a pistol.

Dondagora.9645:

Now, MH Pistol isn’t that important. More importantly is what Mesmer’s next Elite Spec will be, and will a pistol fit in there. Work on ideas, people, for the specialization with a pistol instead of just a pistol.

I like your style.

Maybe let’s sit the Mesmer dev in front of a bunch of John Woo movies until he finally gets inspired to make Tequila the next Mesmer elite specialisation.

Dondagora.9645:

Now, MH Pistol isn’t that important. More importantly is what Mesmer’s next Elite Spec will be, and will a pistol fit in there. Work on ideas, people, for the specialization with a pistol instead of just a pistol.

There’s a reason they call it “bullet time”. We’re talking about a class that can use spatial distortion, teleportation and portals, temporal shifting, and the direct manipulation of reality. That means that a mesmer could easily, easily find some thematic skills. Say…

1a) The Nick of Time: fire a bullet into the air, which immediately vanishes. A split second later, it emerges from a tiny hole near the opponent, piercing them from an oblique angle and vanishes out the other side. Sequences into…
1b) Deja Vu: the same bullet emerges from yet another portal to pierce them again.
1c) Deja Vu: the same bullet hits them a third time.

2) Split Second: phase backwards and create a clone at your new location, directly next to you. Both of you immediately fire at your target.

3) Eleventh Hour: Channeled showdown attack. Twirl the pistol in a dextrous display, firing wildly into the air. Bullets hang suspended in time as you fire, building up the longer you channel. Whenever you release the channeled attack, all the bullets immediately hurl towards the target. Thus, the longer you wait, the more damage you deal, but the more obvious your final burst.

Taken together, that’s a simple array of solid ranged skills (base attack, evade, damage spike) with room for a condition or two to spice things up. But it can easily come across as a highly thematic skillset with a little animation and flavor, turning the Mesmer into a master of mystical gunplay performing absolutely impossible shots. Similarly, it carries the theme of moment-to-moment gameplay and the idea of precise timing intrinsic to the specialization.

I mean, seriously. It’s a class that can manipulate space and time. It’s not that hard to make thematic weapon skills, and Anet could easily do so if they tried.

Fay.2357:

Heh. You’re roughly 5 months too late for this one. That ship has sailed.

Is it though? I’m not saying anyone should get their hopes up, but I don’t think you should ever give up the fight. Especially since, it seems to me that a lot of things the forums have thought Arena.net have ignored over the years were just things they were waiting to put altogether for this expansion.

Finally, it’s good that Chronomancers didn’t get Main Hand Pistol. Remember, Specialization weapons are only for those Specializations. I firmly believe that Main Hand Pistols belong baseline for Mesmers. They didn’t seem like they wanted to add to the base professions this time around, but there’s definitely room for it for several of them, so it can definitely still happen.

I imagined Main Hand Pistol Mesmer as a sort of foppish duelist before, but the bullet time thing is a good point as well.

I support the request, once again.

What annoys me most is the silence we meet. I’ve played other MMOs where suggestions with enough support usually got some kind of answer.

No statement about future features, but a note like “noticed & passed on” or “might look into this around expansion X or patch Y” or “unlikely bc in conflict with design decision X”.

ANet however rarely responds. They let us repeat us over and over, desperate for a reaction. Never met a company before which chose passive-aggressive behaviour as official communication paradigm. -.-

Bump! Almost 3 years and I still can’t put my pistol into my main hand. :’(

always upvote mainhand pistol for mesmer

You should just give it a rest. It isn’t going to happen, no matter what you think. Maybe in another 3 years with the next DLC, but for the foreseeable future, it ain’t going to happen.

redcomyn.4651:

You should just give it a rest. It isn’t going to happen, no matter what you think. Maybe in another 3 years with the next DLC, but for the foreseeable future, it ain’t going to happen.

But if I were to give it a rest, I am certain that it will never happen.

So I’ll just keep reminding ANet that I’d like to get a third mainhand option for my Mesmer (preferably pistol) instead of getting even more offhand weapons.

Aveneo.2068:

redcomyn.4651:

You should just give it a rest. It isn’t going to happen, no matter what you think. Maybe in another 3 years with the next DLC, but for the foreseeable future, it ain’t going to happen.

But if I were to give it a rest, I am certain that it will never happen.

So I’ll just keep reminding ANet that I’d like to get a third mainhand option for my Mesmer (preferably pistol) instead of getting even more offhand weapons.

I’m all on board for this type of logic.
Definitely need mainhand pistol, definitely need to not let Anet forget about it.

Would have taken mainhand pistol over shield for HoT any day.

A design team that decides a shield, of all things, is more appropriate than a MH dueling pistol for a class with a trait line called ‘Dueling’ is beyond rational suggestions.

I’m still hoping that we’ll get MH pistol baseline instead of as part of an elite spec.

Incidentally, the men in white coats should be coming for me any day now.

I hope too that one day we got our pistol !

You have all my support for it , the new traits for pistol could be really great with a main hand weapon.

Hand over my MH Pistol, folks. (Seriously … all these offhands, and still no new mainhand, after 3 years? That’s all sorts of kittened up, man.)

I’d love a competitive MH pistol.