Guild Wars 2

A while back, devs admitted that P/P damage was a little on the weak side (it still is IMO), then in the next patch they buffed the Pistol Mastery Trait to increase damage by 10% instead of 5% (along with the initial Ricochet buff).

I think that was a terrible ‘fix’ for a couple of reasons. First, 5% is the standard for mastery traits, so that means it’s OP relative to equivalent traits, which has the side effect of making it too important for effectiveness with P/P. Second, the damage bonus only seems to affect direct damage and not condition damage, meaning that the buff benefited Unload more than it did Vital Shot, when if anything the opposite was needed

I say here’s what needs to happen- they need to revert Pistol Mastery to a 5% bonus so that it’s in-line with other Mastery traits and less mandatory, slightly buff the base damage on Unload, and reduce the aftercast on Vital Shot by no less than .1 seconds and no more than .2. I think this would go a very long way in making P/P feel more playable.

I would have to play it that way to see if it felt right to me. Hard to imagine it just going by the numbers. Would be cool if a dev tool/instance could allow you to test nerfs and buffs in a controlled environment on the fly.

Seems to me that with a change up to traits p/p could be either standard or condition damage. Say you increase the fire rate of p/p 1. Maybe even the animation so it doesn’t look too awkward and both pistols are used in the animation.

Perhaps a trait that had a chance to apply bleeds on every pistol shot. So unload could stack bleeds nicely and doesn’t ignore your condition stats entirely. This I feel would make p/p viable for both play types. Now this would still likely leave a lot to be desired in some aspects of PVE of course. But for what it is worth with ricochet you could spread bleeds across multiple enemies. Still out in the cold for world bosses though.

Just a thought.

I agree, Pistol #1 needs some buffs. I also wish there was some tie-in with Pistol #3 Unload to make it beneficial not to spam it all the time. Like having increased damage on bleeding targets.

Looking at the upcoming balance changes, it looks like the issues with P/P and ranged Thiefs in general is being overlooked again. We still have no 1200 range option, and now less evasion.

-Cowboy

Agreed. The main reason the set feels broken is because Vital Shot is weak and Unload takes its spot as primary damage. The only way to really fix the set is to buff Vital Shot so that it operates properly as main DPS, then slightly rework Unload so it fits in a more utilitarian role and doesn’t kill the other skills in the set in a perpetual resource competition it always wins.

I seriously find it mind boggling how this hasn’t already been identified and updated yet.