Guild Wars 2

just starting out with a Rifle Warrior, Currently using Rifle/Hammer.

wondering if I might be better served, dropping Hammer and using Axe/Axe or Sword/Sword as my 2nd weapon set.

my idea basically is that my second weapon set is pretty much only to compensate for the lack of AOE on the Rifle. so being able to deal with multiple enemies is first priority in picking my 2nd weapon(which is why i initially went with Hammer).

that said, I love the Rifle on the Warrior so far(really liking the “Soldier”-esque vibe of the heavily armored Warrior with a Big Kitten Gun), and the Rifle Skills are pretty much the only reason I am playing a Warrior instead of an Engineer(oddly, the Warrior’s Rifle Skills seem, to me, to be much better, much more fun to use). so it’ll always be Rifle/X, No matter what(so no point in trying to talk me out of Rifle). I’m just trying to determine what that Secondary weapon is going to be.

suggestions on which way I should go in this regard?

What area of the game do you play?

Cygnus.6903:

What area of the game do you play?

well, i’m still pretty low level, so pve for now. eventually once i am leveled up i’d split my time between pve and WvW. not terribly interest in the esports pvp though( i could probaby be bribed into it, maybe).

In that case, Greatsword. For both PvE and WvW. It gives you great mobility, thus you can travel faster.

Also, don’t be surprised if you use GS more then Rifle, because Hundred Blades and Whirlwind are amazing in PvE.

Free tip; try to level up in EotM. Can get ~3 levels per hour with a decent commander.

Cygnus.6903:

In that case, Greatsword. For both PvE and WvW. It gives you great mobility, thus you can travel faster.

Also, don’t be surprised if you use GS more then Rifle, because Hundred Blades and Whirlwind are amazing in PvE.

Free tip; try to level up in EotM. Can get ~3 levels per hour with a decent commander.

wasn’t gonna even think about WvW until I can equip an Elite skill.

Greatsword huh. for some reason I was actively avoiding that particular weapon . maybe a perception thing. I’ll check it out though.

In solo PvE content, there is not better weapon then Greatsword for warrior. Axe comes close in damage to GS (being only slightly less), but offers you nothing in terms of mobility. Travelling time is just way shorter with GS 3 and 5.

I understand your bias towards GS, just a personal preference thing I guess. I loved the rifle when I started my warrior, it actually motivated me to main warrior. Now I use GS hammer in WvW, GS/longbow in PvE. Try it, and maybe you will love the GS as well.

Trying out Rifle/GS.

GS seems to handle my Aoe needs decently.

when i first played guild wars 2 during beta weekends, i tried out the rifle with my warrior, and enjoyed it much too.

even after launch, i was using the rifle in PvE.

nowadays i no longer use the rifle in PvE or WvW anymore though.
sometimes i use the rifle in sPvP hotjoin if i want to mess around with different non meta builds.

+1 for GS, great mobility, additional evade..

I fought a warrior in a duel the other day. He used mace/shield + rifle. Man that seemed like a lot of fun. He was intentionally letting people think he was just a full glass idiot, using a lil cc and such, until he shield bashed into mace burt, Signet of Fury or Healing Surge back to full adrenaline and then a 14k killshot.

This is completely unviable, but he had enough skill to always pull it off the first, and often the second time as well.

To me, this is what rifle is about. Funny killshots and lolz if you actually beat somebody with it. Kind of like p/p on thief. You really want the set to work, which it does not, but the fun part keeps drawing you back to it.

so now I am level 35, and about to put together a half-decent set of armor for dabbling in WvW.

my question is this, as a Rifle/GS Warrior, what is my stat priority? Power, and then what?

Power/Precision/Toughness? Do I want condition damage at all, for the Bleeds? Do I want Ferocity?

I’m not asking for someone to give me a build to copy, I’m just asking for some philosophy here.

also, I’m looking at the Wiki, and there seems to be no Power/Toughness prefix. wonder why that is.

Trust me, no set of armor will protect you in WvW on level 35. You will die when targetted by any 80.

Rifle is best with zerk.

Knight’s or Cavalier both have power and toughness on them. But again, rifle is best with zerk. Don’t even think about condition damage, rifle 1 is a skill you should not even be using really. And if you do, it is just for a little extra pressure while you wait for rifle/secondary weapon cooldowns to come back up. It is way to slow to stack a serious amount of bleeds. Rifle 1 does help with getting the Arms 5 point minor Grandmaster trait that increases damage by 10% on bleeding targets.

There was a guy who posted a decent rifle gs build on here a while ago, and he had some entertaining vids too.

Actually if you’re after straight up damage output with a rifle it’s best to autoattack and do volley off cooldown, completely ignoring the other skills. #4 would only be relevant if it didn’t have such a long cast time.

Purple Miku.7032:

Actually if you’re after straight up damage output with a rifle it’s best to autoattack and do volley off cooldown, completely ignoring the other skills. #4 would only be relevant if it didn’t have such a long cast time.

does Rifle 4 stack with “On My Mark” and Rending Strikes?

as of now, at level 37, my main skills are Rifle/Greatsword, Mending, “On My Mark”, “For Great Justice”, Banner of Discipline, Battle Standard. naturally, I swap things out as needed, but that’s my base skillset.

wish we had an elite shout.

Wvw: hammer+sword/warhorn
Pve: gs+axe/mace
End of story. This is the optimal setup. If you use anything else you loose something what you need

McWolfy.5924:

Wvw: hammer+sword/warhorn
Pve: gs+axe/mace
End of story. This is the optimal setup. If you use anything else you loose something what you need

But you may gain something else. Entertainment.

JMadFour.9730:

Purple Miku.7032:

Actually if you’re after straight up damage output with a rifle it’s best to autoattack and do volley off cooldown, completely ignoring the other skills. #4 would only be relevant if it didn’t have such a long cast time.

does Rifle 4 stack with “On My Mark” and Rending Strikes?

as of now, at level 37, my main skills are Rifle/Greatsword, Mending, “On My Mark”, “For Great Justice”, Banner of Discipline, Battle Standard. naturally, I swap things out as needed, but that’s my base skillset.

wish we had an elite shout.

just wanted to come back here and say that yes, Rifle 4 does indeed Stack with “On My Mark”. 18stacks of Vulnerability near instantly.

Like I said, it is superior DPS over time to do nothing but autoattack and volley off cooldown.

Also I already read your first post but I thought you should be aware that the two least useful weapons that a warrior has in PvE are both rifle and hammer. In WvW and PvP hammer becomes useful but rifle is more of a troll weapon than anything.

Longbow deals superior damage to that of a rifle and has really useful utilities such as a blind/fire field/immobilise/blast finisher.

Just thought I’d let ya know.

Seems to be an epidemic with GW2 professions that the only interesting weapons end up being the “non-viable” “troll” weaponsets.

What makes rifle more interesting than any other weapon? The animations for it are almost completely identical on skills 1 through 4. Shooting flaming arrows all with unique animations seems a lot more interesting to me.

Purple Miku.7032:

What makes rifle more interesting than any other weapon? The animations for it are almost completely identical on skills 1 through 4. Shooting flaming arrows all with unique animations seems a lot more interesting to me.

for me it is the Soldier-esque feel of being Heavy Armored with a Rifle. and the way the Rifle skills operate (especially while moving). also the sound and graphics (like the muzzle-flash, for instance) of firing a rifle are really nice as well. I don’t get the same feel with a Bow. Using a Rifle as a Warrior I feel like a Soldier-type. Using a Bow, I feel like I should have rolled a Ranger and got a Bear Pet. Then again, I am not an extreme min/maxer so I’m not going to bend out of shape or play something I don’t enjoy for 5% more damage numbers. If that means I get kicked out of every group I join because I’m not using a Bow or whatever the only “Viable” melee weapon is, then I guess that’s what it has to be.

I will say that I wish the Rifle had some sort of AOE damage. I’ve been using Fire Sigils for that, but lack of AoE is very much a shortcoming of the weaponset. I’ve been using a GS as my 2nd weapon for that very reason. May try a Bow again as a secondary weapon, just for that.

JMadFour.9730:

Purple Miku.7032:

What makes rifle more interesting than any other weapon? The animations for it are almost completely identical on skills 1 through 4. Shooting flaming arrows all with unique animations seems a lot more interesting to me.

for me it is the Soldier-esque feel of being Heavy Armored with a Rifle. and the way the Rifle skills operate (especially while moving). also the sound and graphics (like the muzzle-flash, for instance) of firing a rifle are really nice as well. I don’t get the same feel with a Bow. Using a Rifle as a Warrior I feel like a Soldier-type. Using a Bow, I feel like I should have rolled a Ranger and got a Bear Pet. Then again, I am not an extreme min/maxer so I’m not going to bend out of shape or play something I don’t enjoy for 5% more damage numbers. If that means I get kicked out of every group I join because I’m not using a Bow or whatever the only “Viable” melee weapon is, then I guess that’s what it has to be.

I will say that I wish the Rifle had some sort of AOE damage. I’ve been using Fire Sigils for that, but lack of AoE is very much a shortcoming of the weaponset. I’ve been using a GS as my 2nd weapon for that very reason. May try a Bow again as a secondary weapon, just for that.

at level 40 you get the second tier of traits, one in arms is “Crackshot” it makes rifle rounds peirce and skills have a lowercd. if enemies are lined up, you will hit them all. its the best “AoE” you gonna get.

Yeah no offense but if there’s one thing that drives me nuts the most when in pug groups it’s seeing + hearing a rifle warrior. That and seeing either banner of tactics or banner of defense.

It’s a good thing you’re prepared for the kicking because it’s probably going to happen a lot if you use ranged weapons often

The only ranged weapon that deals insanely high damage is staff on an elementalist. In just about any circumstance, melee weapons will always be ideal.

Purple Miku.7032:

Yeah no offense but if there’s one thing that drives me nuts the most when in pug groups it’s seeing + hearing a rifle warrior. That and seeing either banner of tactics or banner of defense.

It’s a good thing you’re prepared for the kicking because it’s probably going to happen a lot if you use ranged weapons often

The only ranged weapon that deals insanely high damage is staff on an elementalist. In just about any circumstance, melee weapons will always be ideal.

Never kick/kicked/being raged on upon using rifle as backup, must be one of those elitist “hardcore” then.

I use a GS main weapon, and rifle as a backup for quite a bit now, i don’t see a combination of melee+melee as a good thing in every case i ever faced. And for people like me, many recommend long bow instead, they have better dps (is what most said), it’s just i don’t like bow, they sound less powerful, not to mention i play the game for the fun, not for the uber number of dps.

Important note here, i don’t trait my warrior for rifle at all, all trait is for the benefit of GS since i only use them when dungeon boss moving a lot, or chasing down running player.

Frostroses.4196:

Purple Miku.7032:

Yeah no offense but if there’s one thing that drives me nuts the most when in pug groups it’s seeing + hearing a rifle warrior. That and seeing either banner of tactics or banner of defense.

It’s a good thing you’re prepared for the kicking because it’s probably going to happen a lot if you use ranged weapons often

The only ranged weapon that deals insanely high damage is staff on an elementalist. In just about any circumstance, melee weapons will always be ideal.

Never kick/kicked/being raged on upon using rifle as backup, must be one of those elitist “hardcore” then.

I use a GS main weapon, and rifle as a backup for quite a bit now, i don’t see a combination of melee+melee as a good thing in every case i ever faced. And for people like me, many recommend long bow instead, they have better dps (is what most said), it’s just i don’t like bow, they sound less powerful, not to mention i play the game for the fun, not for the uber number of dps.

Important note here, i don’t trait my warrior for rifle at all, all trait is for the benefit of GS since i only use them when dungeon boss moving a lot, or chasing down running player.

well to be fair, I am using Rifle as my primary weapon.

this thread was for considering a secondary weapon to complement the Rifle.

at this point, I’ve got an Engy up to right about where my Warrior is level-wise, and I’m trying to decide between the two which one I will main. Rifle Warrior, or Dual Pistol Engy. both are fun, in different ways, but if i don’t focus on one, i’ll never get to 80 lol. my guild is awesome and not full of kitteny folks, and they say play what I want, so that makes the decision a little tougher heh.

Purple Miku.7032:

Yeah no offense but if there’s one thing that drives me nuts the most when in pug groups it’s seeing + hearing a rifle warrior. That and seeing either banner of tactics or banner of defense.

It’s a good thing you’re prepared for the kicking because it’s probably going to happen a lot if you use ranged weapons often

it’s a good thing I’ll likely never PUG if I can help it.

and also, there is no rule that says I have to stand at 1200 and never move just because I am using a Rifle.

If u wanna use a rifle in dungeons, do so, i wont kick anyone for just enjoying the game. I plan on using rifle on my Charr Iron Legion Warrior woth axe/warhorn on backup for escapes and some AoE

Melanu.7425:

If u wanna use a rifle in dungeons, do so, i wont kick anyone for just enjoying the game. I plan on using rifle on my Charr Iron Legion Warrior woth axe/warhorn on backup for escapes and some AoE

how very kind of you. pity you’re two years too late.

My word, one of the most powerful necromancers I’ve ever seen!

Shen Gia.1650:

My word, one of the most powerful necromancers I’ve ever seen!

indeed, and this one was 3 years old

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Sylvari-or-Human-Necromancer/first

Meh, time stamps. Seriously tho i stumbled on these threads on google, not the forums