Guild Wars 2

All you need to do is buff Vital Shot and rework Unload into a multi-target through Ricochet or a cone AoE to a.) give P/P the ability to hit multiple targets, which is critical for PvE, and b.) remove the over-reliance on Unload for basic DPS, which is the main thing that cripples the set’s general usability in any situation.

Balancing P/P is not rocket science, yet somehow we’ve gone 3 years with no appreciable adjustments that make any sense.

also, inb4 “buffing vital shot would make P/D overpowered”. No, it wouldn’t. P/D sucks too, just not as much as P/P, and a Vital Shot buff would not have as noticeable an impact on P/D as it would on P/P, because P/D is more condi-focused with better access to Stealth and relies on other skills to maintain damage pressure.

I guess people who enjoyed the p/p in the past or still apreciate it now would desagree about “unload”.

This allow a different gameplay which has never been consider as very strong even with ricochet and a 1050 distance. But in spite of that, some people like the marksman style.

If you have a cone…well it would be like a engineer flame thrower or its “blunderbuss” Attack with a rifle (3rd one)…too close and not a marksman.

Also think that it’s possible to build a double pistol thief that does not use “unload” as his main attack if you don’t like that.

You can build a double pistol thief using a combo between the Attack number 5 (smoke area) and “bounding dodger” from dardevil. the Attack number 1 under invisibility “sneak Attack” should become your main one.
Unload is not often use with this build (initiative points are needed to be invisible).

Here is a video to illustrate this idea:

According to me, considering the relative power of the p/p, and to please people who apreciate it in pve (and why not in wvw or pvp), the best thing to do is here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Why-we-STILL-miss-Ricochet/first#post5975480

As has been said MANY times before… we want our Ricochet back. Anet destroyed one of the funnest thief builds when they removed this skill. What makes it particularly sad is that the build wasn’t particularly powerful just fun.

Just give Unload Ricochet so Headshot will not have access to it. Pistol AA also need its pre-cast/after cast delay reduced or removed.

Actually have decided to try out the bound with P/P combo. Still access to on demand stealth and with the ranged weapon being part of it makes stepping away from a bad engagement less brutal.

i’ve incorporated Bound into my P/P pvp marauder build too, the 10% bonus damage and steath on demand is AWESOME
(especially when you’re specced for all out damage with very little utility)

P/p damage is only half the problem. The lack of built in defenses like stealth or mobility is a pretty big thing too, and bps in no way makes up for this loss. Body shot needs a rework and honestly BPS needs a serious make over so that it can be used with projectiles a little better and not be the go-to for stealth access (via bound or heartseeker).

Body Shot is definitely garbage, something should at least be done to that.

Do not forget that the attacks number 1, 2 ,4, and 5 are part of others build like P/D, D/P, S/P…Only the 3rd one “Unload” is specific to P/P.

According to me it’s a reason of the difficulty to modify too deeply the P/P style.

So the simple things that can be modify without taking a risk to unbalance the other sets are:
- The Attack number 3 “unload”
- The simple fact to equip two pistols.

To understand I have tried the set using 3 ways to fight (videos are not mine, only things quite closed to what i’ve tried):
A classic vintage thief: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwo4QhWBqyg
A build based on invisibility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51l_gXEO-PQ
A build based on dodge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0_u96cKnCY

Well…I have to admit it’s fun, specially the 2nd and the 3rd one.

The 3rd Attack, “Unload” is very specific to the marksman style. I wouldn’t modify its mechanism. it’s clearly a big part of the fun to play a marksman.

But in pve and in a certain amount of situation, it could be more interesting.
Actually you can’t touch more than one target at a time and you have to aim it.
It’s impossible to touch an invisible thief or mesmer like you can with a dagger or a sword and it’s difficult to manage lots of target even in pve (fight is long in pve with a lot of mobs). In a big fight (pve or WvW) you have less experience or loot than with a classical build because you touch only a target at a time.

If we remember that the old ricochet thief has never been considered as too strongh even firing at 1050 and with a best initaitive recovery speed as it was a long time ago, we can think that its return shouldn’t unbalance the game. Also remember that ricochet in the past could touch an invisible taget.

That’s why I think that an easy solution could simply be to automatically associate “ricochet” with the use of two pistols. it should simply bring us to the previuos situation, just with a distance reduce from 1050 to 900.

The thing that should be used by game designers to balance this automatic association of “ricochet” with the use of two pistols could be the power of the bullets when they touch an additional target with rebound (50% of the power as before?…more?…less?….)

If people enjoy the marksman style…well let’s please them…it’s a game^^

I’ve been an advocate from the very beginning of GW2 that in order to fix both D/D and P/P is to expand the dual-wield mechanics to all 5 skills instead of just skill #3. This will solve a lot of lingering problems without affecting other sets — until then, it’s a standoff.