Guild Wars 2

We used LB not shortbow and to answer your question it is not viable, tho I use rifle for some fractal bosses.

Since the definition of the word viable is “capable of working,” then yes it along with everything in this game is viable.

If you ask the question instead “Is rifle good?” then you’d probably get a different answer.

Damage is trash in pve havent tried pvp doubt it will be better. WvW better off playing a different long range dps class.

It’s a bit situational, and certainly does not offer the same utility as the Longbow, chiefly:

Blastable AoE finisher
Untraited root
Blind

The finisher can be blasted by other Longbow skills as well.

The rifle offers:

Vulnerability
Crippling
Single target (piercing if traited) burst finisher

I’m personally using the rifle with a sword/axe combo and switch to it when I have to roll out of melee range or have a full adrenaline bar to blast something in the face with. I throw vulnerability on the target, then use skill three and the finisher then leap back in with my sword to continue hitting.

Rifle isn’t viable since anet made crack shot compete warrior’s sprint. Most of war will select warrior’s sprint instead of crack shot so rifle use will mostly be ignored, otherwise they lose all mobility since people ignore battle rage signet becuz it got nerfed hardly before. I think rifle trait need to be buffed and moved to master level though, just like greatsword or longbow trait.

I believe the rifle doesn’t even have its trifling range advantage over the longbow anymore either. It’s a good ranged weapon in theory, but if you are going for a ranged option there are really few reasons to take the Rifle compared to the LB.

For lols i would sometimes join a pug zerg in WvW and use rifle with crack shot and would get lots of loot bags with it while comfortably staying away from the front lines. I tried it last night and yes having to sacrifice warrior sprint for it is annoying since you will have to completely rely on zerg swiftness but i still got tons of kills/bags with it. Firing a rifle with piercing shots is pretty good for looting baggies.

Having high crit chance + sigil of strength + berserkers power = lots of pretty decent damage.

Sux for roaming now though.

Well… you CAN take crack shot and use Traveler Runes. This helps GS + Rifle but for Axe + Rifle you need pack runes so you’re kinda screwed if you take pack runes on Axe + Rifle.

What Rifle does for Warrior is that it baits dodges (Killshot, fire/air proc) and makes targets vulnerable to Rampage and frenzy cleave.

In PvE, the rifle has a bad reputation, because its DPS is supposedly lacking (experts argue that all fights can be done at melee, making GS paramount in terms of efficiency). In player vs. player modes:

• It’s an excellent weapon for duels, not only because its burst, utility and range of tactics, but also because it’s a natural counter to kiting classes (kiting a warrior is one of the most basic strategy to beat it),
• It’s a fun weapon in WvW, firing piercing shots through blobs yield lots of red numbers, but not very supportive of a group setup (other ranging classes do more damage),
• It’s not a good weapon to fight 1v2+, you’d rather have the bow AoE, or more cleaving.

The point raised by others of Crack Shot competing with Warrior’s Sprint is indeed a pain

BlackTruth.6813:

Well… you CAN take crack shot and use Traveler Runes. This helps GS + Rifle but for Axe + Rifle you need pack runes so you’re kinda screwed if you take pack runes on Axe + Rifle.

What Rifle does for Warrior is that it baits dodges (Killshot, fire/air proc) and makes targets vulnerable to Rampage and frenzy cleave.

The reason why use warrior’s sprint is actually becuz of its break immob. This is actually better trait thaj just to have only pierece

Rifle can be a fun choice in PVE & WvW if you take Crack Shot due to piercing when fighting mobs. However, with the recent changes to traits and Crack Shot moving from the Arms line to Discipline just about everyone will take Warriors Sprint. I’ve been experimenting with using Runes of Speed to maintain the 25% increase in movement but thus far it’s not been very satisfying. Perhaps ANET will do something to make rifle more viable in the future or Crack Shot easier to obtain.

Chaoslord.5439:

Rifle can be a fun choice in PVE & WvW if you take Crack Shot due to piercing when fighting mobs. However, with the recent changes to traits and Crack Shot moving from the Arms line to Discipline just about everyone will take Warriors Sprint. I’ve been experimenting with using Runes of Speed to maintain the 25% increase in movement but thus far it’s not been very satisfying. Perhaps ANET will do something to make rifle more viable in the future or Crack Shot easier to obtain.

I do think switching “Crack shot” with “Inspiring Battle Standard” would be best idea because most of banner users can obtain swiftness and cast leap mobility skill when using banner. In that case they really not that much in need of “Warrior’s Sprint” because they can obtain mobility from banners. Thus “Inspiring Battle Standard” can compete with “Warrior’s Sprint”. In the master level of discipline, I think most people would choose “Brawler’s recovery”. For Rifle User, they will more likely choose “Crack Shot” than “Brawler’s recovery” though since “Brawler’s recovery” can only cover 1 condi remove so it is not really that much regarded as a must-have trait like “Berserker’s Power” or “Cleansing Ire”. So I think it is good to switch “Crack shot” with “Inspiring Battle Standard”

My opinion of Rifle in PvE:
Good Direct Dmg weapon, especially full Berserker crit builds as a ranged choice when full melee is not always viable, skill 1 offers “double” adrenaline gain when hitting vulnerable foes (good change, to compete Longbow skill 1, which shoots 2 arrows), good to inflict 8+ vuln stacks (depends on your traits and if you have Frailty sigil on the rifle to ensure you have atleast 1 vuln to trigger skill 1 adrenaline gain)

Anywhere else than Silverwastes, Crack Shot is not necessary trait.

And well, problems what people have pointed out:
Crack Shot trait is in tricky position, with Vengeful Return and Warrior’s Sprint…
Single target DPS weapon, tho can hit foes in line with Crack Shot

And problematic to use against Mordrem, if there’s a Charge Teragriff in there, the trail effect will destroy any projectile, unless you use Crack Shot, which allows you to shoot through the trail effect (same for other professions with piercing trait or skill internal piercing property).