Guild Wars 2

Hello,
I’m sure we all can agree that the rifle is a dying breed, right? Here are some ideas that I think would make it a more viable tool.
1. Increase Bleeding Shot’s attack speed by 30-50% (Replace bleeds with vuln)
2. Aimed Shot immobilizes enemies for 1 second and applies 5 seconds of 50% movement impairment.
3. Volley always penetrates through enemies with or without the trait.
4. Brutal Shot no longer has a cast time (instant) and removes 1 boon from your enemy target and inflicts 4 vuln.
5. Rifle Butt will have you lunge (increasing the rang to 350) towards (or jump away from) the enemy and then butt them for a 1 second knock back.
6. Cast time of Kill Shot reduced to 1 second instead of 1 3/4 time.

Please let me know what you think of my ideas and feel free to pitch your own ideas here. Let’s get the devs attention, thanks!

I made a post with suggested rifle changes a while back so I’ll restate some of my ideas.

Bleeding Shot should be redesigned/renamed to apply vulnerability instead of bleed. One of the major problems with rifle in my eyes is that it appears to be a power weapon with skills like Volley and Kill Shot and yet its main attack deals bleeding? I assume it was intended to be paired with the 25 arms trait to get 10% more damage but why would I really want to invest so heavily into a condition damage tree when only ONE skill applies a condition that benefits from in and not to mention that doing so means you miss out on crit damage which means Kill Shot and Volley become weaker.

Aimed Shot, while boring, is actually not bad as when you trait into rifle is only has a 8 second cooldown and the cripple lasts for 5. That’s a really nice cover condition all things considered.

Volley would be fine as is because with traits and runes you would be applying a lot of vulnerability.

Brutal Shot would also be fine as far as stacking vulnerability goes but it needs a 1/2 – 3/4 second cast time instead of a full second.

Rifle Butt is one of the few exceptions where I just want to outright steal another classes skill. I want this skill to be like Guardian’s Banish on hammer. Cooldown would obviously need to be increased and the knockback should be less. It should last juuuuuust long enough that if the target doesn’t pop a stunbreaker you can get off a Kill Shot.

Now for the big one, Kill Shot. Basically all of my suggested changes revolve around this skill. I agree with a shorter cast time but it will have to receive a damage nerf as a result. However, with these changes it would still be possible to deal big damage by stacking up tons of Vulnerability then setting the target up. Without doing this and traiting correctly the damage would be lackluster.

Rifle currently has some of the same problems hammer used to have in terms of how unwieldy and obviously telegraphed it is. I would love to be able to run a build like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAU8cncOEkittenEGPwEZABpQDrijCqIAVPsjNMOA-TkAg0CnIMSZkzIjRSjsGN0A

The dual swords are nice because you can use Impale to apply Torment as a cover condition, switch to your rifle and stack your might then smack them and go for the killshot. After that you may also have time to switch back to swords, use Rip and finish them with Final Thrust. It be a pretty awesome fighting style while still being counterable by having a lot of condition removal or simply predicting the Kill Shot which will be really obvious depending on how much vulnerability you have. It also wouldn’t be that spammable because Rifle Butt would have a longer CD and On My Mark is on a 30 sec CD as well.

I actually really want to be able to use the rifle in PvP, using it in WvW is more of a fun way to kill lowbies with blue gear and against anyone in a small fight it’s all but worthless.

EDIT: WOW that’s a wall of text I did not plan on writing.

^ Rifle has great synergy with bleeding on 1+minor 25 trait. Also as someone that trying to make gs+rifle viable in current state i completely disagree making it a vul stacking bot.

Vul stacking should be a mace job

Scoobaniec.9561:

^ Rifle has great synergy with bleeding on 1+minor 25 trait. Also as someone that trying to make gs+rifle viable in current state i completely disagree making it a vul stacking bot.

Vul stacking should be a mace job

That doesn’t really make sense though because Mace is a more reactionary weapon set for interrupting heals and stunlocking. The only condition it has is weakness and its trait (that no1 really uses) deals with weakness as well. Also like I said about it’s “synergy” with the 25 in arms trait still stands, why would you want to invest so much into a tree with condition damage when you only have 1 condi that actually benefits from it. At least with dual swords you get a little something out of the investment.

Guess you could run this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAU8cjgOtupQGPMxBETBj48gKCQyT9wO2w2A-TsAg0CnIMSZkzIjRSjsGN0YRw+DA

Of course with rifle in its current form landing it will be just as clunky and you are using an equally clunky utility, bolas, in order to even have a prayer of landing it and at the cost of 10 stacks of Vuln.

Also, you should be pro-vuln if you want to run it with a GS because Vuln is whakittens auto attack applies. Thing is, you’ll still lack a reliable cover condition.

Ive actually had some success baiting out dodges with brutal shot or faked killshot, thing is even with melandru condi builds still eats me alive. As for volley i don’t have much issues landing it as i trained for both gs and rifle (yep i went 30arms) its pretty spamable howered behind vul stacking that weps dont go well together.. My motivation is to make them as good as spear+harpoon gun, but in current state of both rifle and gs its just a dreaming

As for what i would see on rifle:

1. Make it a lil better scaling with power
2. Should apply chill
3. 1sec poison per shot
4. 1sec stun, reduced casttime to 3/4, keep vul
5. A launch (450) with appyling 4 sec cripple
F1 – reduced casttime to 3/4, reduced power scaling to volley level (how that thing is called anyway, coeffectiness?), apply 5sec weakness

Pierces by default.

Why i suggesting conditions? From wiki:
Rifle — Inflict various conditions and unleash powerful attacks against a single target.

In current state all its does is bleeds, cripple, vul

Scoobaniec.9561:

In current state all its does is bleeds, cripple, vul

That sounds like ‘various’ conditions to me.

I’m more or less of the same school of thought as Burr.

I feel like Crack Shot should be moved to the Strength tree. It makes more sense there anyway, +Power and Condi duration.

1. Bleeding Shot has its bleed removed, and replaced with Vul, or something else that makes more sense.
2. Aimed Shot is fine. People call it boring but I think its great.
3. Volley is fine.
4. Brutal Shot is mostly fine. It could stand for a slight CT reduction but it’s hardly bad.
5. Rifle Butt is more or less okay

NEW F1: Power Shot: Inflicts damage based on how long the shot is charged up, by holding down F1. Power shot can cause knockback, knockdown, or launch.

For example:
Charge Time: 0s to 1s, Damage equal to 1 Adren Bar Killshot, Knockback 240
Charge Time: 1s -1 3/4s, Damage equal to 2 Adren Bar Killshot, Knockdown 1/4s
Charge Time: 1 3/4s and up, Damage equal to 3 Adren Bar Killshot, Launch 240

The only problem I see with a “charge up” is that I’m not sure anything like that currently exists in the game. If it doesn’t then that would require programming an entirely new system for it, which I doubt they would do.

Dand.8231:

I’m more or less of the same school of thought as Burr.

3. Volley is fine.

I think it’s fine on single target, but I still think it would work a lot better for tourneys and spvp if it always penetrated targets.

BurrTheKing.8571:

The only problem I see with a “charge up” is that I’m not sure anything like that currently exists in the game. If it doesn’t then that would require programming an entirely new system for it, which I doubt they would do.

Already exists. Look at trebs and catas. If you don’t wanna look at trebs and catas, look at the many environmental weapons in open world quests.

I have been roughly 400 hours as sword/sword + rifle warrior, so here are my thoughts:

1. Rifle #1 is fine. It should bleed, not do vulnerability like someone suggested. With a bleed build (+100% bleed duration + condi damage) it actually does nice damage
2. Rifle #2 is fine as well. It fast activating 1200 range cripple. With crack shot you can easily maintain 100% uptime of cripple.
3. Rifle #3 is also fine. Comparing the firing rate + damage multiplier it is equal with thief’s pistol skill unload
4. Rifle #4, brutal shot, does low damage considering it has 15 second cooldown. E.g. compare with ranger long bow #2, rapid fire, which has mere 10 s cooldown and 1500 range (it fires further than the tooltip says, see http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rapid_Fire ). Rapid fire does 10 stacks of vulnerability vs 8 and almost 7 times more damage.
5. Rifle #5 is also fine. Same damage multiplier as engineer #4. Push back is weaker than engi rifle #4 launch effect, but rifle #5 is cleaving and does no self-knockdown.

Kill shot has the highest damage multiplier of any attack skill in the game. It should be easily telegraphed and slow as it is 1500 range (and pierces with crack shot trait). If its activation time is reduced to 1 second, its damage should be adjusted accordingly.

Summary: Warrior’s rifle is fine and in line with the ranged options of other professions, EXCEPT brutal shot (warrior rifle #4) should do more damage or have it’s cooldown reduced.

The problem more is that warrior’s longbow at the moment is a bit too good. Longbow offers more conditions (syncing well with warrior condi builds), fire field + finishers and potentially 100% uptime of burning (massive damage condition).

Deniara Devious.3948:

I have been roughly 400 hours as sword/sword + rifle warrior, so here are my thoughts:

1. Rifle #1 is fine. It should bleed, not do vulnerability like someone suggested. With a bleed build (+100% bleed duration + condi damage) it actually does nice damage

It’s not a condition weapon, and everyone doesn’t want to make a condition build out of a burst weapon.

Mindroach.6149:

Hello,
I’m sure we all can agree that the rifle is a dying breed, right? Here are some ideas that I think would make it a more viable tool.
1. Increase Bleeding Shot’s attack speed by 30-50% (Replace bleeds with vuln)
2. Aimed Shot immobilizes enemies for 1 second and applies 5 seconds of 50% movement impairment.
3. Volley always penetrates through enemies with or without the trait.
4. Brutal Shot no longer has a cast time (instant) and removes 1 boon from your enemy target and inflicts 4 vuln.
5. Rifle Butt will have you lunge (increasing the rang to 350) towards (or jump away from) the enemy and then butt them for a 1 second knock back.
6. Cast time of Kill Shot reduced to 1 second instead of 1 3/4 time.

Please let me know what you think of my ideas and feel free to pitch your own ideas here. Let’s get the devs attention, thanks!

answer for wvw: make projectile effects actually work by reducing the number of “blocks projectiles” and “reflects projectiles” fields…

problem with projectile effects is they do more damage on average to yourself and your team than the enemy thanks to all the reflect and block available (only takes going into 1 field and yer skrewed)

thankfully we warriors have other options (mele), its rangers that truely got the short end of the stick here…

all in all i dont see this changing much in the near future in wvw, would require an entire rework of multiple classes skills and abilities and then youd just wind up with the inevitable “omg kill shot so op now, what the hell i actually gotta dodge something now?, nerf nerf nerf!” posts for their trouble.

Mindroach.6149:

Deniara Devious.3948:

I have been roughly 400 hours as sword/sword + rifle warrior, so here are my thoughts:

1. Rifle #1 is fine. It should bleed, not do vulnerability like someone suggested. With a bleed build (+100% bleed duration + condi damage) it actually does nice damage

It’s not a condition weapon, and everyone doesn’t want to make a condition build out of a burst weapon.

Engineer rifle has bleed on attack #3, blunderbuss, which does its amazing 4 stacks of bleed at 100 range (yes, you need to be closer than melee range to do full damage). Engineer rifle is called a control weapon, despite it has only 2 control skills, which are both single target, and in fact any ranged physical weapon (ranger + warrior longbow, warrior rifle) have 2 control skills.

To get most out of your warrior’s rifle, you should select crack shot trait, which is 20 points in the arms tree. You should also get 25 attack of opportunity trait, which gives +10% damage against bleeding opponents and deep cuts, which increases bleeding duration by 50%. That trait combination synergizes well. I know the damage will be less than from longbow, but the trait makes all rifle attack pierce, so in a zerg situation e.g. you can hit multiple targets and cripple them for 10 seconds + do one bleed stack on top of it ( either from precise strikes or sigil of earth ) using single skill on a mere 8 s cooldown.

With additional condition duration + sigil of earth and the above mentioned trait selections you can easily achieve 20 stacks of bleed on a single target using rifle only (and easily full 25 stacks with dual swords). Even without any condition damage (arms tree gives you it), 20 stacks of bleed do 850 damage/second. With mere 750 in condition damage, 20 stacks of bleed would do 1600 dmg/s. You don’t need to go condition build to achieve that. Just select enough celestial trinkets + few pieces of celestial armor, rest can be any gear you desire and you can still retain ability to do strong crits (+50% or more crit dmg).

I am not claiming rifle is a perfect weapon, but warrior rifle feels less clunky than the engi rifle. Warrior has a stronger ranged option at the moment, especially for condition builds: long bow. But that is another story.

Seetoo.9316:

BurrTheKing.8571:

The only problem I see with a “charge up” is that I’m not sure anything like that currently exists in the game. If it doesn’t then that would require programming an entirely new system for it, which I doubt they would do.

Already exists. Look at trebs and catas. If you don’t wanna look at trebs and catas, look at the many environmental weapons in open world quests.

That’s charging for distance, not damage. I doubt that they would spend time writing new code to only be used on a single skill, they’ve said before that getting new mechanics into the game is a long process.

Dand.8231:

For example:
Charge Time: 0s to 1s, Damage equal to 1 Adren Bar Killshot, Knockback 240
Charge Time: 1s -1 3/4s, Damage equal to 2 Adren Bar Killshot, Knockdown 1/4s
Charge Time: 1 3/4s and up, Damage equal to 3 Adren Bar Killshot, Launch 240

Cool but..whats about adrenaline? Will it make no diff if we shoot from lv1 adrenaline or lv3? Also 0sec sounds like a insta cast.

In my experience the only real big solid benefit to longbow over rifle is the ability to set yourself up for combos, I mean drop your F1, then put 3 in there for a few stacks of might, the switch to melee for burning bolts or fire aura or both if your fast enough. A hoard of on level enemies are just mowed down like grass.

The rifle would gain incredible versitility if it had just one move to set up a combo field. I admit that I can’t think of a good “in character” idea off the top of my head, but that is what the rifle needs to get me to use it for anything other than PVP

BurrTheKing.8571:

Seetoo.9316:

BurrTheKing.8571:

The only problem I see with a “charge up” is that I’m not sure anything like that currently exists in the game. If it doesn’t then that would require programming an entirely new system for it, which I doubt they would do.

Already exists. Look at trebs and catas. If you don’t wanna look at trebs and catas, look at the many environmental weapons in open world quests.

That’s charging for distance, not damage. I doubt that they would spend time writing new code to only be used on a single skill, they’ve said before that getting new mechanics into the game is a long process.

They should have a charging code “lying around”, some skills were supposed to be charged for extra damage before they were changed. One of the mace skills comes to mind, but there were more.