Guild Wars 2

Hello! Sorry for the doom-calleresque title! I’m doing some quick damage trials based on a claim that Sword Auto-Attack now does more DPS than Pistol Whip in an unhasted circumstance. The results of those trials? IT’S TRUE! This begs a question which often applies in philosophy, politics, ethics, and other fields: Were the intentions consistent with the results?

Q:What was the intention of the 15% damage reduction applied to Pistol Whip?
A:Ostensibly, the developers felt that Pistol Whip was resulting in “one-button” play (or two-three button play) which consisted mainly of spamming pistol whip to do massive DPS to kill while being put into an evade state that makes it hard for people to kill us (thus creating an imbalance in the risk of using pistol whip (being stationary) against the reward (good damage, evade state, stun). It’s worth noting here that the drawback of using pistol whip is that you can’t move without interrupting it.

Q:Did this change prevent this behavior?
A:Not really. Even after the change I’ve still killed lots of people in WvW using this strategy. It MIGHT convince me to try Sword/Dagger, since I really like Dancing Dagger and Cloak and Dagger as skills. However, when combined with Haste, the damage has been reduced by a negligible amount, but the continuous stunning while remaining nearly invincible has remained.

In my mind, the problem with Pistol Whip was never the damage. While I’ve certainly chained to nearly 10k before (not total glass), the fact that I can’t move and my opponents can means that under normal circumstances half of my hits will miss against people who are willing to move around (not skilled players, just players willing to move). The main issue is that when combined with haste, you have a near permanent stun, combined with near invincibility. These two things together make it very difficult for players of even moderate skill to actually do anything.

The fix? I think everyone in every forum ever has already suggested a complete rework or outright removal of the Quickness boon. For warriors, it makes semi-sturdy glass-cannon greatswords that one-shot players who don’t use stunbreaks to get away from Bull’s Charge. Thieves have the obvious Pistol Whip, Unload, Heartseeker, Death Blossom, and Daggerstorm (for wiping zergs when combined with guardians and terrible opponents who shoot you instead of switching to melee and killing you). Mesmers have the obvious make everyone else do everything twice as quickly. Conclusion? Change quickness (the broken mechanic) first, then tweak damage numbers.

One last thought: This change is probably going to make me try some new things (specifically sword/dagger). However, if I don’t find it to my liking, I’m probably just gonna become another generic D/D backstab thief. If the intent is to create greater build diversity in thieves, I suspect that current/former S/P thieves, myself included, will be more inclined to use the dagger shenanigans that everyone’s whining about right now, since it requires minimal finesse to make work. And who knows? Maybe I’ll end up using pistol whip again anyways, because I’ll find the evade state while doing good AoE damage to good to pass up. I’ll just have to remember to use my auto-attack when they aren’t fighting back. :)

Video Link to Quick Analysis – http://youtu.be/1lcLX0GO4SA
Link to Spreadsheet with Data –
http://pastebin.com/um0ktfG8
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Edit – No more rapidshare nonsense, I used pastebin.

I used the .ods data format. I know it’s compatible with OpenOffice. Hopefully MSOffice and other programs can handle it.

DON’T FORGET TO SCAN EVERYTHING YOU DOWNLOAD FOR VIRUSES. THIS IS THE INTERNET. DON’T TRUST ME OR ANYONE ELSE WITH ANYTHING YOU DOWNLOAD.

As a longtime S/D user, autoattack has always been pretty amazing, but make sure you discipline yourself to get off the third strike whenever possible. More autoattack = less initiative burnt on regular engagement damage = more for dancing dagger spam when the time is right.

lmao @ calling backstabs “minimal finese”, coming from a pistol whip thief.

Wilhelmryan.9203:

lmao @ calling backstabs “minimal finese”, coming from a pistol whip thief.

And he is correct, considering PW is bugged and has a self root on a MOBILITY based class

I tested myself this information is about corrent but 1 thing, PW gives you evade+ stun on target, if you got +15% stun duration, sigil, and cast haste, you can next to perma root your target too, and thx to few ways to teleport to your target during the casting(steal, and 1 of signets, can make your PW unavoidable, even if your oponent packs 1 stunbreaker.

well I’m sure they will not buff PW so a nerf to S/P auto attack is expectable…

Pistol Whip is still good, don’t understand why people complain.

Knyx.5926:

Wilhelmryan.9203:

lmao @ calling backstabs “minimal finese”, coming from a pistol whip thief.

And he is correct, considering PW is bugged and has a self root on a MOBILITY based class

Thief has the highest mobility in the game of all classes. Yet this guy finds a way to complain he doesn’t have enough.

Sheesh…

Did anyone actually watch my video? I said quite clearly that pistol whip still had advantages, and that it was a pretty minimal improvement. Sheesh. The evade effect alone makes it desirable people; I was just curious if the rumors on the forums were true, and posted a video demonstrating that they are.

Edit – To be fair, I did say that D/D is minimal finesse, but that’s because of a topic I’ve never covered. I honestly believe that the “back” that counts for backstab hits on about 200/360 degrees on a player model. That, combined with the weird kitten rendering/culling stuff that happens makes it not as fun for me. Just sayin’.