Guild Wars 2

Even with ultra spec to pistol it’s just not all that.

1. should be reworked to provide smth more than just offensive weak ability. Aswell as #2.
   I guess it should stacking vuln on #3 and something like chill or cripple on #2, then PP may be at least will be able kill someone.

They are bound to rework Pistol #2 one day or another, the skill is that awful. That day, it’s likely that PP would be considered as having received a buff, even if nothing else was changed.

I think the dev’s have realized that pistol/pistol doesn’t have mobility. Although P/P is meant to be a thief’s single target range dps weapon it often isn’t even used for that since the shortbow has essential mobility.

AikijinX.6258:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d6o9mRmvLc

This is not a P/P buff, it’s a runeset that is sooooo probable that will get nerfed with internal cooldowns or reductions to the stacks that the joyful days of the perplexity runeset will be soon a thing of the past, or at least will be just a “nice” adition if they ever properly buff P/P as a set.

We need P/P redesigned as a set instead of needing an exploitable runeset (that we can’t use in PvP) so the set is competitive with multiple setups, and not BECAUSE of the setup.

It’s generally known that P/P is under-performing, but it’s something of a delicate operation. P/D, S/P and D/P are all functional specs that they have to be careful not to upset. If they don’t want to tweak the other sets, it means fundamentally changing Unload to tie the set together. They did something similar with P/D by giving its dual-skill torment. The difference here was P/D was already a functional condition set and they were just playing to its strengths.

P/P has no coherent theme to speak of. #1 and sneak are damaging condition stackers, but there’s no stealth in the set and no other damaging conditions. #2 stacks a non-damage support condition. #3 is a raw damage crit-fisher attack, but thief has no good on-crit procs and what they do have has internal cooldowns. So what you end up with is very cool looking confusion/retaliation bait. #4 is purely for interrupts; cool but situational. #5 provides melee tanking support, but it’s a ranged set.

Both #2 and #4 could be modified without ruining their other sets. P/D doesn’t really need Body Shot and Headshot only recently saw popularity from Perplexity abuse. The hard part would be making these something that functions with every set while not breaking any individual set. I wish them the best of luck in that unenviable task.

Unload is a more isolated beast, and likely what will be looked at first. If Unload was made to do something like apply conditions (one random stack of 1s burn, 4s bleed or 3s vulnerability per 2 shots, as a crackpot example), you’d probably get something more functional. Mix in some kind of bleed-on-crit trait, like countless other professions get, to take advantage of your 8x crit-fisher. You’d essentially be making main-hand pistol the thief condition weapon in all instances while leaving the other weapons untouched. Since this would ultimately lead people into Trickery for the cdamage, improve the pistol options there and tweak Steal to be able to shadowstep away after use (F1 becomes Shadow Return, F2 uses the stolen item), making it more viable for a ranged set user.

I’m kind of sick of condition builds, so it’s not my first choice, but it seems like the path of least resistance right now.

I think most people would agree it needs some type of movement skill. Maybe give head shot a short evasive backward roll (Keep the range in line with Axe Leap)

Highlie.7641:

I think most people would agree it needs some type of movement skill. Maybe give head shot a short evasive backward roll (Keep the range in line with Axe Leap)

Hold-out Pistol
Fire a hidden pistol, catching your opponent by surprise, while you perform an evasive roll backwards.
Performs a withdraw-style backroll, but shorter, plus the daze shot.

For balance/interesting purposes, perhaps give it a temporary second attack, similar to how Flanking Strike/Larcenous Strike works, reflecting whatever contingency shot you loaded into the second barrel of your Tyrian Derringer.

Clockwork Bard.3105:

Highlie.7641:

I think most people would agree it needs some type of movement skill. Maybe give head shot a short evasive backward roll (Keep the range in line with Axe Leap)

Hold-out Pistol
Fire a hidden pistol, catching your opponent by surprise, while you perform an evasive roll backwards.
Performs a withdraw-style backroll, but shorter, plus the daze shot.

For balance/interesting purposes, perhaps give it a temporary second attack, similar to how Flanking Strike/Larcenous Strike works, reflecting whatever contingency shot you loaded into the second barrel of your Tyrian Derringer.

That would be great. and 2x easier to balance then my idea

P/P has no mobility which is odd for the mobility class. However that may be acceptable if it excelled at what it did enough to warrant the trade off for stealth and mobility.
S/P and SB make up for lack of stealth via mobility and evasion.

P/P could just excel at range murder to the point we can ignore it no longer.

As an idea making vital shot do extra damage to vulnerable foes. Synergizing with sundering strikes, body shot and CnD.
Drop body shot to 2 INI and the vulnerability increased to 3.5 seconds. Increase unload damage 20-30% but increase the initiative cost to 6.

With the purpose that unload is your finisher but you don’t rely on it due to high INI cost. General damage without unload goes up due to body shot and VS change. At 2 INI body shot is a lot more appealing and has synergy for BP and VS while the vuln sets up teammates your unload or a melee burst.
P/P would excel at scaring the kitten out of anybody it looks at but due to lack of defense be very easy to force out.
Might be to effective in PvE though.