Guild Wars 2

3rd time trying to get this to post

Ok, it is way too late for me to do math, but after comparing the numbers, can I get a confirmation of this?

Per initiative spent, Shadow Shot outperforms a Black Powder/Heartseeker/Backstab combination even if all three skills hit, correct?

Above that, a Flanking Strike/Larcenous Strike combination outdoes Shadow Shot by a large margin at higher powers?

And further still, Pistol Whip causes significantly more damage than Flanking Strike/Larcenous Strike?

I was wondering why things died faster when I switch to Sword/Dagger over Dagger/Pistol. I guess I now know why! Maybe I’ll have to try Sword/Pistol soon! :-P

pistol whip roots you in place, it’s good in pve but not easy against other ppl.

Hmm, I just looked at the numbers for Heartseeker. If I got the numbers right, it seems to barely outperform Shadow Shot even on targets above 50% health. Below 50%, only Pistol Whip beats it, and below 25%, it’s far better than Pistol Whip.

I understand that spamming Heartseeker is considered “noobish,” but it looks like the most bang for your buck. Is there a reason to not just hit “2” other than it’s predictable?

Black Power + HS + Backstab = 9 initiative. Against a 100%hp target this is 3.4 dmg coefficient, against a 25% hp target it’s 4.4 dmg coefficient. This mean between 0.48 and 0.37 dmg coefficient per initiative. If you count that Black powder hit it’s between 0.4 and 0.51 dmg coefficient per initiative.

Shadow shot is 4 initiative for a dmg coefficient of 1.31 for 0.32 dmg coefficient per initiative. So no if your HS and Backstab hit, shadow shot will never be more efficient even if the target is at 100% hp.

Flanking strike/Larcenous Strike = 2.25 dmg coefficient for 5 initiative for 0.45 dmg coefficient per initiative. It’s equal to a BP+HS+Backstab against a target at 50% hp.

Pistol Whip is equal to 0.66 dmg coefficient.

Your result were a bit flawed, but you get the general idea. But D/D have a 0.61 dmg coefficient per initiative. But that number don’t really help you much. It only tell you which have the most dmg per initiative.

Pistole Whip does that dmg over a 2.2 second period, way longer than HS+Backstab, it root you in place, you won’t be able to Pistol Whip non-stop and the Dagger auto-attack is stronger and D/P give you a lot more utilities than S/P. That’s why S/P is view as a noobish build. It have a high damage with constant stun that work wonder on a inexperienced player or someone cut off-guard. But against more experienced players you are a one trick pony.

For the HS spamming. It’s easy to waste all your initiative by doing that. If the guy can just block or dodge 2 of those, you will end up close to him with no initiative. That would basically put you in a corner where you probably not gonna be able to finish the guy, may gonna die or need to use a long cooldown utility to get out off a situation you didn’t need to put yourself into.

That makes more sense, thank you!
I think I was applying the formula for heals instead of the one for damage.

Do you know if there’s any documentation of DPS for each skill somewhere? That seems like it would be quite interesting.

Kageseigi.2150:

That makes more sense, thank you!
I think I was applying the formula for heals instead of the one for damage.

Do you know if there’s any documentation of DPS for each skill somewhere? That seems like it would be quite interesting.

On the wiki, most skill have their Coefficient in parenthesis. For the actual attack speed, one a small portion of them have something on the wiki. You can’t really count on the cast time because this doesn’t include the aftercast. But if you try to calculate dps that way, it’s the best way to get weird numbers. It’s hard to time perfectly 1 skill and a small error of 0.25 second when they add up over a period of 30sec.

People usually time a rotation to include swapping and cooldown and limit the errors. You just fight a mob or a golem in spvp and time your complete rotation with a video capture. That way you know all the skill you use during your rotation and you have a very good estimate of the time needed to complete that rotation.

So… what’s best for wvw? S/p seems like the most damage if you can get the pistol whips off.

xXBurningEmberXx.6085:

So… what’s best for wvw? S/p seems like the most damage if you can get the pistol whips off.

D/P and SB, 10101
good damage, good sustain, healing, gap closers, mobility, stealth, condi removal…