Guild Wars 2

Is there any way that OH Sword is better than Pistol?

More frequent daze for interrupt? Phantasm hits faster?

Sword has theoretically higher damage because the phantasm hits more often. But the duelist is more survivable thanks to the range and if they are shattered fast anyway, the damage is about the same.

The interrupt from pistol is more reliable and can proc on 2 enemies. But the sword has a block. Traited pistol is great for interrupt build.

So I think pistol is overall quite better for PvP. Sword is still best PvE offhand.

iSwordsman has higher single-target dps than iDuelist.
Traited iSwordsman has a shorter summon cooldown than iDuelist.
Magic Bullet is useless against bosses, while the block on OH sword can still be useful.

The new minion protection rules will give iSwordsman a survivability boost that it was losing before.

iSwordsman stacks Fencer’s Finesse.

iSwordsman is naturally closer to the target when you want to shatter.

There are many reasons you might want iSwordsman over iDuelist. Most of those reasons depend on what you’re running, and how you like to play. Which is as it should be.

OH-sword has the niche of “interrupting all of the rezzers”, not only 2. (And if you’re running CI, it’ll immob all of them for ~2 second, easy to down all of them then ^^ )
And the block can crit for 4-5k, which is really nice.. Too bad it’s easy to dodge

iSwordsman deals 60% more dps than iDuellist, aslong as it survives ofc. On the other hand this is no longer an argument … tomorrow!

The block can be cast to unleash a dazing piercing bolt that stacks tons’ of vuln and maybe even powerblock for nice damage. This is mainly viable in pve, rather than pvp. For pvp the pistol just has more survivability and a fast interrupt / stun.

+ stuff others already said.

In the end yes – there are situations where S and P are superior to each other.

Really? YAY! Pistol just looked so much better, but I’m glad to hear it’s useful in PvE. I find Mesmer OH Sword to be the best OH Sword in the game (plus if you use it with MH Sword and the Chain Whip Sword skin and use Blurred Frenzy, it looks like your attacking with both swords on an Asura)