Guild Wars 2

I have level’d 4 toons to 80. I am about to use my lvl 80 boost on my 5th toon.

I have started and deleted so many toons. I do enjoy the Thief as Pistol/Pistol. Once lvl 80 and start running in tangled depths etc… will I be frustrated and disappointed with difficulty? Or can I be viable to run that way?

side note, I rarely do pvp so not a factor.

Thanks

The addition of might stacks makes having p/p as one of your weaponsets more viable than before. All weaponsets are viable for PVE content, though, tbh. I tend to use p/p as a set in fractals as well, but for raids you’re not going to want to go p/p.

So, it’s viable – but it wouldn’t be the first ascended weapon I crafted, if you catch me

Fennecus.7605:

will I be frustrated and disappointed with difficulty? Or can I be viable to run that way?

Frustrating, sure, but it’s not boring. P/P is a single target weapon set and the mobs in HoT comes in horde which is the main source of frustration. Thief simply doesn’t have enough Initiatives to constantly switch targets and the loss of Ricochet makes it even more frustrating. It’s the best ranged weapon set we have only because there’s really no other choice. When it comes to AoE damage, you’re better of using a Shortbow or go into melee with the Staff.

In terms of viability, it really depends on your play style and skill level. P/P can ranged from trash to highly viable depending on what kind of player is using the weapon set. It’s really easy to be trash as Thief if you mismanage your Initiatives and cooldowns or have no situational awareness.

Bound as your dodge should stretch out pistol/pistol enough, maybe have staff as secondary since it can use Black Powder for Hook Strike and you can corral everything with a full might stack for staff/bound. I’m not sure what’s optimal for non open world pve but maybe a build with Critical Strikes could make short work of most mobs whatever the size.

I use p/p as my secondary mostly in WvW but I’m lazy so I use it whenever I’m cheesing in on pve events as well. If you get frustrated it will likely be due to being mostly a single target set while everyone else are cleaving and splashing everything else around your group. When I know I’m going to be on p/p for more than a few minutes like the choke point pushes in Stone Mist against a lot of targets at once I’ll switch to action camera mode and pan unload a bit but it doesn’t solve that issue.

The way I stretch out INI for P/P build is by extending Boon duration as long as is practical. As an add to that I ensure more sources of might to take advantage of that duration.

So as example fried Golden Dumplings offers might on crit with no ICD this lasting 5 seconds. The Sigil of strength will get you 1 stack every second for 10 seconds.

If you get boon durations high you can easily get to 25 stacks prior to burning off all your INI. You can then switch to your alternate weapon while those stacks remain and use their AA (Generally superior to the P/x AA) and or use bounding Dodge for supplemental damage as that INI recovers even as you have some in “reserve”. While it tempting just burn off the INI and cycle through unload after unload, I do not think that effective long run. Get your damage and might stacks up, switch off your weapon and go to your AA until that might gone, then get back into P/P.

I got base durations of boons to just over 70 percent and use one Concentration sigil on pistols. This means when I switch back to pistols boons applied will last 100 percent for the first 7 seconds they applied.

Initially I was using strength runes for that duration but found it much more useful to go for Generic boon duration so as to ensure high uptime on fury/swiftness/ and quickness. I use staff off hand so when I switch , I trigger haste (Both versions) so that the AA comes in even quicker and I get theat cleave as the might stacked. (the quickness lasts the full 10 seconds I am locked into staff andhas two sources of that 10)

I run staff with pistols.

Staff produces stronger sustained damage against 3-5 targets, while pistols produce burst damage against a single target. This makes staff the obvious choice, except when range is desirable. Pistols see the most use against strong single targets (champions), enemies with powerful CC and enemies that stand in area effects.

Pistols allow you to deal damage on the move from range, which combined with the dodginess of daredevil makes the thief very hard to hit. It can be very effective for staying alive.

I would advise against using pistols exclusively. The auto attack isn’t strong enough to carry the set. Once initiative runs low, damage drop off significantly. Using skills other than pistol 3 comes at a cost in damage. You will become overwhelmed against multiple enemies as the low sustained damage results in enemies that live longer.

If you like p/p, as i do, then try p/p Engineer: you will get much better results in pve, wvw and PvP.

Thanks to all who reponded and for the advice. I just did it.

Saved up a full set of exotics for him just to find out your given a full set. Feel like I cheated on 5th toon.

Thanks again everyone.

Fennecus.7605:

Thanks to all who reponded and for the advice. I just did it.

Saved up a full set of exotics for him just to find out your given a full set. Feel like I cheated on 5th toon.

Thanks again everyone.

The fullset is valk though, which is super lame (for non-staff DrD rune builds).

You shouldn’t have too much trouble with it in open world for HoT. When I made one of my thieves Daredevil for the first time, it was a berserker crit P/P unload build, and that was even before the buffs to unload; I didn’t have too much trouble soloing the champs in VB and AB. Use the range, evades, and teleports like Shadowstep on the thief to your advantage, and you should be totally fine. I’m not really sure what kind of content you enjoy doing, though, so be wary MH pistol in general is not a very good weapon for raids and might get you kicked, but P/P works everywhere else in PvE quite well. It’s not the fastest for clearing groups of mobs since it lacks AoE, but it isn’t particularly difficult in PvE and mobs can always be kited pretty easily.

I use p/p for enemies that are too dangerous for Melee, like many hero points in Maguuma. I basically just spam #3 XD

Excelsior!

Do not forget about the fact that if you enjoy something you can still boost the actual weapon set a lot.

Many people were telling me when maining Engineer I really should go with the Stilson wrench..uh…“hammer”. Pardon. But I hate the hammer and scrapper in general. I really sucked big times with it! That is what happens when you do something you do not like.

Now reverse that in a certain matter when you play something you like and you are used to. I also enjoy Pistol/Pistol as ranged solution and I really do like it and thus play it a lot. And that means more experience. Going trough certain situations with the pistols makes you more experienced and you get to know what you can do and how you can do it – and what not.

So be a little bit more “true to your heart” and do not look on plain numbers and theorycrafters only.

In regular PvE, anything is viable, really.

Seriously though, I love pistols. I run a DnD zerker P/P – Staff build, NOT using bounding dodger (sue me), and zoom around the battlefield pewpewing anything that moves… Unless it becomes too crowded, if that happens you go toe-to-toe.

It may not be optimal, but it’s super fun. Generally in big zergs I don’t really rush with the lot, but circle outside of it, and single out annoying targets, maguuma tormentors, snipers, and veterans, and dispose of them before someone falls prey to their shenanigans (someone always does).

It’s also super-satisfying to combine that with physical skills and using the Havoc Mastery trait, just to kitten with expectations you run into melee-range with pistols and unload + whatever physical skills you have equipped.

As the above poster said, you can make up a lot of the shortcomings of P/P by being a decent player, and as with every class, if you know what you can do with your current kit, you should have no problems at all.

P/P is so much fun though, definitely my favorite kit in the game for both Engineer and Thief.

Dunno, never used p/p but staff worked well for me.