Guild Wars 2

Simple balance adjustment. Make all p/p projectiles trigger off a combo field 100% that way VS has potential to be more powerful than just a damage buff and keeps the ArenaNet concern over spike DMG low, promotes teamwork for big numbers, and makes unload worth it in a hybrid sense over just pure white DMG. Condition thieves could rn p/p with the right combo fields go work off. Same goes for power builds with p/p.

Pistols are clearly intended to be primarily a damage weapon and not a support/utility weapon, which is why the bigger problem with them is their low damage numbers and not their situational utilities. The designers have even stated that at this point.

It’s very easy to diagnose why their damage is low as well, and it’s a very simple reason. A reason I’ll go ahead and choose not to repeat here.

Prahl.1057:

There has been an absurd amount of time devoted to trying to prove the statement that unload does less DPS than sword chain. The point that pistols are ranged and sword is melee is valid, but most (some have mentioned it) people posting here have ignored shortbows, which do far more damage than pistols ever could.
The only thing pistols really have going for them are their non-unload skills, which have great utility without any damage, leaving you with #1 shots for damage, which are condition damage based and fairly mediocre.

Whew.

So, assuming that shortbow has an intentionally higher DPS than pistol/pistol, a more constructive comparison to make would be pistol/pistol’s damage respective to other ranged utility builds (which seem not to really exist at the level pistol/pistol delivers).

So this all comes down to one point: if pistol/pistol is useful for its bad-to-mediocre damage at range while providing useful utility: a role with little to no competition from other classes – why does unload even exist? Should unload even be paid attention to or is it a useless ability? I would argue that it is, in fact, useless.

“…shortbows, which do far more damage than pistols ever could”

are you serious?

as my post mentioned before.. .when i switch from melee to p/p i hit a sneak attack for 3.5k then a 6k unload (give or take depending on toughness of enemy) … how on earth does shortbow come even close to that?

damage outputs for SB are cluster bomb and trick shot.

cluster bomb .. if a target is moving away from you cos they have low health, how exactly do you cluster bomb spam? you cant.. if a taget player is moving in any direction, cb misses as its ground target and have a long travel time.

trick shot is just weak and is about par with pistol 1 when vs 1 player.. alot better when going for aoe..

SB is better AOE damage and PP is better single target dmg.. FACT check the stats mate

bomber.1540:

Prahl.1057:

There has been an absurd amount of time devoted to trying to prove the statement that unload does less DPS than sword chain. The point that pistols are ranged and sword is melee is valid, but most (some have mentioned it) people posting here have ignored shortbows, which do far more damage than pistols ever could.
The only thing pistols really have going for them are their non-unload skills, which have great utility without any damage, leaving you with #1 shots for damage, which are condition damage based and fairly mediocre.

Whew.

So, assuming that shortbow has an intentionally higher DPS than pistol/pistol, a more constructive comparison to make would be pistol/pistol’s damage respective to other ranged utility builds (which seem not to really exist at the level pistol/pistol delivers).

So this all comes down to one point: if pistol/pistol is useful for its bad-to-mediocre damage at range while providing useful utility: a role with little to no competition from other classes – why does unload even exist? Should unload even be paid attention to or is it a useless ability? I would argue that it is, in fact, useless.

“…shortbows, which do far more damage than pistols ever could”

are you serious?

as my post mentioned before.. .when i switch from melee to p/p i hit a sneak attack for 3.5k then a 6k unload (give or take depending on toughness of enemy) … how on earth does shortbow come even close to that?

damage outputs for SB are cluster bomb and trick shot.

cluster bomb .. if a target is moving away from you cos they have low health, how exactly do you cluster bomb spam? you cant.. if a taget player is moving in any direction, cb misses as its ground target and have a long travel time.

trick shot is just weak and is about par with pistol 1 when vs 1 player.. alot better when going for aoe..

SB is better AOE damage and PP is better single target dmg.. FACT check the stats mate

P/P is superior under the condition that you can’t catch them for melee-range damage (be it sword, dagger, or shortbow) and they can’t get away from you to completely negate pistol’s damage, which is not a very common situation. Either you’re dictating range and you can dictate a high-damage range (close enough to use good damage abilities) or they’re dictating range and you don’t get to do any damage because you can’t dictate range.

Tulisin.6945:

bomber.1540:

Prahl.1057:

There has been an absurd amount of time devoted to trying to prove the statement that unload does less DPS than sword chain. The point that pistols are ranged and sword is melee is valid, but most (some have mentioned it) people posting here have ignored shortbows, which do far more damage than pistols ever could.
The only thing pistols really have going for them are their non-unload skills, which have great utility without any damage, leaving you with #1 shots for damage, which are condition damage based and fairly mediocre.

Whew.

So, assuming that shortbow has an intentionally higher DPS than pistol/pistol, a more constructive comparison to make would be pistol/pistol’s damage respective to other ranged utility builds (which seem not to really exist at the level pistol/pistol delivers).

So this all comes down to one point: if pistol/pistol is useful for its bad-to-mediocre damage at range while providing useful utility: a role with little to no competition from other classes – why does unload even exist? Should unload even be paid attention to or is it a useless ability? I would argue that it is, in fact, useless.

“…shortbows, which do far more damage than pistols ever could”

are you serious?

as my post mentioned before.. .when i switch from melee to p/p i hit a sneak attack for 3.5k then a 6k unload (give or take depending on toughness of enemy) … how on earth does shortbow come even close to that?

damage outputs for SB are cluster bomb and trick shot.

cluster bomb .. if a target is moving away from you cos they have low health, how exactly do you cluster bomb spam? you cant.. if a taget player is moving in any direction, cb misses as its ground target and have a long travel time.

trick shot is just weak and is about par with pistol 1 when vs 1 player.. alot better when going for aoe..

SB is better AOE damage and PP is better single target dmg.. FACT check the stats mate

P/P is superior under the condition that you can’t catch them for melee-range damage (be it sword, dagger, or shortbow) and they can’t get away from you to completely negate pistol’s damage, which is not a very common situation. Either you’re dictating range and you can dictate a high-damage range (close enough to use good damage abilities) or they’re dictating range and you don’t get to do any damage because you can’t dictate range.

i see where your coming from but i still think your undermining how effective pp can be

say your fighting someone in melee with daggers or sword, you can hit c+d, swap to pp and move out of the danger melee range and open up with a sneak attack then unload at a relatively safe distance. . it works surprisingly well.

bomber.1540:

say your fighting someone in melee with daggers or sword, you can hit c+d, swap to pp and move out of the danger melee range and open up with a sneak attack then unload at a relatively safe distance. . it works surprisingly well.

You could also just backstab and autoattack them for 2 seconds for significantly more damage, with less initiative spent, and you won’t have to close the gap again if you wanted to keep doing damage.

If the number 1 skill does more damage then just build your build around it….

Papaganoosh (SPvP Officer, The Unnamed EU)

http://www.the-unnamed.com/spvpapp – recruiting skilled players for TPvP

Ensign.2189:

bomber.1540:

say your fighting someone in melee with daggers or sword, you can hit c+d, swap to pp and move out of the danger melee range and open up with a sneak attack then unload at a relatively safe distance. . it works surprisingly well.

You could also just backstab and autoattack them for 2 seconds for significantly more damage, with less initiative spent, and you won’t have to close the gap again if you wanted to keep doing damage.

Your missing the point entirely.. I’m talking about when u need to get out of melee range so u don’t die.. Backstab is also harder to hit then sneak attack… And u clearly have no idea of the damage potential of pp.. As I’ve mentioned a number of times a sneak attack followed by unload can hit for 9k at a safer range.. Arguing this point is pointless to ppl who haven’t used pp extensively.

bomber.1540:

Ensign.2189:

bomber.1540:

say your fighting someone in melee with daggers or sword, you can hit c+d, swap to pp and move out of the danger melee range and open up with a sneak attack then unload at a relatively safe distance. . it works surprisingly well.

You could also just backstab and autoattack them for 2 seconds for significantly more damage, with less initiative spent, and you won’t have to close the gap again if you wanted to keep doing damage.

Your missing the point entirely.. I’m talking about when u need to get out of melee range so u don’t die.. Backstab is also harder to hit then sneak attack… And u clearly have no idea of the damage potential of pp.. As I’ve mentioned a number of times a sneak attack followed by unload can hit for 9k at a safer range.. Arguing this point is pointless to ppl who haven’t used pp extensively.

It works out to be more than 9k as they get 6 stacks of bleed from sneak attack. Even in full berserker the bleed ticks for 50 damage over 6 seconds (is it 6?) That 6 stacks equates to 300dps for however long the bleed lasts for.

If you use Roll for Initiative in that combo you get back the initiative from C&D, gain ground and open up 9k Sneak&Unload and should have enough initiative for a second unload. RFI is a great skill for p/p that many people ignore.