Guild Wars 2

I think most people here will agree with me that sword pistol has not been getting a lot of love lately.

The semi-stunlock burst from pistol whip used to be the highlight for this weaponset, but now that it hits practically the same as an auto attack chain in terms of damage, its usefulness outside of quickness bursts has become quite limited.

Right now there is very little synergy between the mainhand and offhand weapons in this set. Personally I love mainhand sword for its hard hitting cleaving autoattack and the always ready stunbreak from Infiltrator strike. I also love the offhand pistol for its on demand interrupt and the smoke field from blinding powder. But when you put the two together, not much happens besides a haste dependent rooting multi-hit attack that deals less damage than backstab + c&d in a longer timeframe.

Unlike our other mainhand sword melee set and our other offhand pistol melee set, s/p lacks synergy in that there is no way to use the offhand skill to gain stealth and lead into the mainhand’s stealth skill. Sword dagger has the obvious c&d, while dagger pistol has the leap combo from blinding powder and heartseeker.

In my opinion the most logical way to remedy this and give this set some much needed love is to grant infiltrator’s strike a leap finisher, much like heartseeker and many other gap closers available to other professions.

This will make the set a lot more dynamic to play, giving it some much needed tactical depth, much like the dagger pistol set, which is quickly becoming a favorite in higher level play. Adding a leap won’t horribly imbalance our other sword set, s/d, either since it doesn’t have access to a weapon based combo field.

Any thoughts?

What game mode do you play?

ensoriki.5789:

What game mode do you play?

A bit of everything. Why do you ask?

Remove the stun component, allow the attack to be used while moving, slight damage increase (10%.).

Just make it two hits. Like every other mixed weapon dual, and let the player move.

1 hit stuns (1/2 second) if you hit them from behind, the other hit deals a hit slightly more powerful than sword1’s 3rd attack.

the problem with s/p is that pistol off hand sucks. pistol needs a buff to actually make s/p on par.

Derk.3189:

Just make it two hits. Like every other mixed weapon dual, and let the player move.

1 hit stuns (1/2 second) if you hit them from behind, the other hit deals a hit slightly more powerful than sword1’s 3rd attack.

The hit ratio is why its good, it allows signet of malice to be good healing in pve.

Kaon.7192:

ensoriki.5789:

What game mode do you play?

A bit of everything. Why do you ask?

because the modes offer different (though similar) experiences.

Last time I used S/P in pve was before the nerf, I was in the map after queensdale with the krait swamp event grouping things in BP and slicing them. PW wasn’t used not because of damage (again pre-nerf) but because you were perfectly fine tanking in BP.
If it’s a PvE experience, I can’t say much since I prefer to play dat dere S/D.

In PvP I love to run it, if the team asks for something else I groan and switch off, it’s so much nicer as long as you don’t run into protection,retaliation or stability…too bad they aren’t that uncommon. It feels like adding stealth just for the sake of it, you’ll get more off getting boon removal so stability doesn’t lol in the face of 3/6 weapon abilities, 2 of which aren’t heavy on the damage and so you can get rid of defiance faster to do your own thing since BP isn’t as savvy on bosses.

bladie.5084:

the problem with s/p is that pistol off hand sucks. pistol needs a buff to actually make s/p on par.

the pistol is a great off hand. it has an on demand ranged daze and blind. the smoke field from black powder helping you stomp people is also a major bonus.

Daecollo.9578:

Derk.3189:

Just make it two hits. Like every other mixed weapon dual, and let the player move.

1 hit stuns (1/2 second) if you hit them from behind, the other hit deals a hit slightly more powerful than sword1’s 3rd attack.

The hit ratio is why its good, it allows signet of malice to be good healing in pve.

No, the hit ratio is why signet of malice is good, IMO its different to what you said. The multi hits and placement lock makes pistol whip really dangerous to use outside of 1v1 enemies in PvE. Signet of Malice’s passive is decent but it becomes better with multi hit, which offsets why Pistol Whip is bad.

Derk.3189:

Daecollo.9578:

Derk.3189:

Just make it two hits. Like every other mixed weapon dual, and let the player move.

1 hit stuns (1/2 second) if you hit them from behind, the other hit deals a hit slightly more powerful than sword1’s 3rd attack.

The hit ratio is why its good, it allows signet of malice to be good healing in pve.

No, the hit ratio is why signet of malice is good, IMO its different to what you said. The multi hits and placement lock makes pistol whip really dangerous to use outside of 1v1 enemies in PvE. Signet of Malice’s passive is decent but it becomes better with multi hit, which offsets why Pistol Whip is bad.

You would have to greatly buff signet of malice if you nerf Pistol Whips damage ratio, it would probably have to have its healing increased by 300%.

^ Did Caltrops, Unload, LDB and sneak attack stop existing :o?
PW isn’t the only reason to run it :o

SoM is still pretty gimmicky though. Every other heal can be used with basically any setup, SoM is the only one that requires the use of certain abilities to be useful. With that said, PW more-or-less has the same issue; it’s really only good in conjunction with SoM and/or Haste. It’s just as gimmicky. And yes, I understand that it provides an interrupt and an evasion, but those are just there to offset the frailty of the Thief.

Deathblossom, Flanking Strike, CnD + BS/TS….these all provide a defensive mechanic without a loss in damage….so why doesn’t PW?

EDIT: I just really don’t understand why they haven’t re-buffed PW in PVE. I guess I can understand the nerf in PVP, but in PVE…really? It was only doing like 8% more damage than auto-attack to start with, that isn’t ‘making or breaking’ anything.

I’ve run S/P for a long time I think its good for taking camps and fun otherwise. However tried S/D and used cloak and dagger last night for seriously the first time and that’s plain easy mode in comparison. So I’d agree S/P is fun but may need some love. Pistol whip has an evade, stun and interrupt but that root is hella annoying and very unthief like.

Change dual skill to work in “reverse” – hits the target with sword that does a small knockback, then fires the pistol 5 times. Remove the evasion part and reduce the damage since it’s range.

What will this do to the S/P set? Adds synergy: a projectile finisher to Black powder shot combo field, and because the second part is range, a thief can infil strike into a target, hits the target in melee, then use shadow return to move back while firing the pistol.

Being able to deal a mixture of range and melee damage also means the S/P set isn’t completely useless against anyone who knows how to kite; S/P biggest drawback right now is that both pistol whip and the auto attack can be juked by anyone moving fast enough.