Don’t get me wrong though, you can still use it in pve, but it’s just not optimal. The main two downsides would be fractals and any heavy mob swarms on farming type events. Condi is simply a slower weapon, while direct damage you can get enough hard hits into your tags that it’ll actually count for you before they die almost instantly, getting you the huge flow of loot drops (usually from SB trick shot + choking gas).
When I used to run some condi, I just brought a couple different sets of equipment. And now we can even respec easily, so it’s just a matter of taking a moment to set up for what you are hunting at any given moment. I think wvw and spvp you would do fine, but going to openworld or dungeons you may just want to regear and adjust your build, at least for anything where you have a lot of other players around shooting at the same targets that you are. Bosses are less of an issue, but many of the loot drops come from all those little swarming minions. In those circumstances, inflicting heavy direct damage makes a very huge difference.
As far as it does though, I’ll say that in comparison to other pve class builds, it does just as well as say a guard staff farmer which is pretty crazy aoe slaughtering and looting. But, using the SB is not as easy as just standing there and tapping 1. You’ll surpass him on weapon swap though when taking down the vet and champ spawns, something that you can compete with the warrior for. Such good shinies!
