Guild Wars 2

It might make the rifle a bit more desirable for some mid-range harassment in PvP and WvW to give it back its old condition damage on the auto-attack. This might give it some small appeal over longbow…

I thought about that aswell. I’m a casual and do sPvP. I’m not that deep into the meta, but here are my thoughts as far as i can see:

In terms of damage and role rifle can’t keep up with longbow or any of the dedicated dps melee weapons. For quite some time rifle tried to fill the ranged power role, and for as long as that longbow is the preferable choice.

Warriors are really tough, do great damage in melee, I understand that warriors shouldn’t be able to do great damage at range aswell. It doesn’t matter how you look at it, the rifle in its current form and the strengths of a warrior together won’t work.

If rifle either did bleed damage and or alternatively had an additional knockback/knockdown/daze skill (… or both :P), that can be used effectively at close-range, rifle either could be a condi-finisher type of a weapon as opposed to the “brawling” longbow that or it could be a “ranged-version” of the hammer. Unlike the hammer, rifle could keep its finisher-role

With the later option I see synergy with Peak-Performance + Bodyblow + Perplexity-builds. A rifle that does hybrid damage and can be used for brawling, but feels more kinetic than longbow. To me, that sounds like fun. Ofc its F1 still would be terrible compared to the guaranteed condi cleanse… anyway, I hope the rifle gets a change. It’s a cool weapon.

Ideas that could replace one of the ranged abilities:
- “Gunstinger” – Charge forward and tackle. If it hits, shoot at their chest and knockdown.(shotgun skill of dante from the devil may cry-series),
- “Body Shot”/“Aim at the Chest”/“Heavy Bullet”/“Iron Load” – Knockback at 300 range if the target is facing you, knockdown otherwise.
- “Bayonet” – Swing in a cone, hits up to 5 people, apply cripple and bleeding.
- “Run, Gun and Uppercut” – Do a few steps backwards and execute a close proximity shot upwards. If it hits, daze/launch the enemy. Melee range.

Good ideas, I like your suggestion of putting some hard CC on the ranged skills… something to compete with ranger longbow’s Point Blank Shot. This might make rifle actually usable. Right now longbow is superior on the CC front because it has a blind AND immobilize (Pin Down). Both are soft CC… but rifle could compete if it had hard CC beyond Rifle Butt. Hell, even thief has a ranged hard CC (Headshot)… rifle just needs something to make it worth a second look.

I also have a few ideas to make the ridiculous Kill Shot burst worth the risk:

(a) Make it an executioner move like Final Thrust or Arcing Slice (do extra damage to foes under 50% health); or,

(b) Give it hard CC, a 2 second daze or stun at max adrenaline; or,

© Make it unblockable.

how about make it apply vulnerability on auto hit ?

I rather think that it would be better if anet buff its bullet’a velocity, and give more damage on volley since every1 dodge it out, and lastly some work on killshot making it like final thrust.

Also, while all other weapons… except warhorn(..?) are worth taking without its trait, rifle is pretty much unusable without piercing.

From a sPvP standpoint as a warrior you can’t – and as far as i can see, shouldn’t – stand at range. Its unavoidable, that you have to shoot at close range. Bow has its 2, its 3, its 4, all very useful in a clumped up situation. Now if you don’t have piercing on the rifle you are left with a 5 that is at a 15 sec cd. Any other attack gets consumed by the first body that is hit, the target, the target’s ally, the pet of the target’s ally.

Rifle is a niche weapon, and its only worth using when it is traited, in very rare situations. So rifle warriors always have to invest into discipline. Whatever uses the rifle might or could have is being restricted on top of that by its mandatory trait.

Edit: Didn’t ArenaNet say that they want to adress balance more regularly? They could add the piercing effect on rifle, baseline. As a first step, and then look, what still needs to be done. A step after another.

But then again how is bleed beneficial on a rifle build when you wanna go for max damage ? What about a short tick of cripple on third autohit like we have on sword.Something like that would be way more beneficial i reckon since you wanna keep ppl away from u.

Make it full auto, all the time.

Removing the bleed was stupid. Rifle is unquestionably weaker as a weapon now than it was before that change.

It’s things like this that make me question the competence of their balance team.

Einlanzer.1627:

Removing the bleed was stupid. Rifle is unquestionably weaker as a weapon now than it was before that change.

in fact, rifle skills are all affected by only direct dmg but no condition dmg , which means we have to go power+prec set when using rifle. so removing bleed actually doesnt much make rifle really different. Rather i think they need to buff riflevs damage like greatsword. Volley is too easy to dodge and too long cast time and bullet velocity is sko as well, killlshot as well. i think this is what anet need to fix : More power, faster cast time and etc.

Best regards,
The Korean Gamer

well, i think thats the first thing anyone would come up with. But there has to be a reason, why ArenaNet didn’t just straight up buff its damage and cast time.

They reduced the cast time of its f1. So they spend some time on the rifle and decided not to.

What’s all this talk of buffing rifle? Rifle/GS got a huge buff with the trait revamp. It’s glorious for duelling with. That said it’s definitely a one-trick pony. I wouldn’t ever use it in group fights, but I have no problem with that. If anything the rifle as a weaponchoice could be re-made entirely. Buffing it si not the answer, it will only make it stronger in the fields it is allready strong.

Gamgee.8612:

What’s all this talk of buffing rifle? Rifle/GS got a huge buff with the trait revamp. It’s glorious for duelling with. That said it’s definitely a one-trick pony. I wouldn’t ever use it in group fights, but I have no problem with that. If anything the rifle as a weaponchoice could be re-made entirely. Buffing it si not the answer, it will only make it stronger in the fields it is allready strong.

I noticed a nerf to overall damage and now have to put air/fire sigils for bursty damage.

I used to roam with 62006 or 64004 builds, doing easy 15k killshots. The changes to berserker power, now i have to wombo combo my ks to get good numbers.

I use strength arms and discipline now. The signet mastery is improvement. The one and only thing they need to change is to move the rifle mastery to some other trait, maybe into 2nd tier of arms so it can fit in or into 1st tier of strength.

Because of where rifle mastery is, we lose lots of mobility. I have hard time catching up with a traited gs(gs 3 and gs 5) with someone just walking with traveler runes.

And rifle is great for group fights, you can pick off necros and ele in the backline because ele’s are usually sustain for a enemy group and necros are their main power at most times.

KhainPride.3987:

Gamgee.8612:

What’s all this talk of buffing rifle? Rifle/GS got a huge buff with the trait revamp. It’s glorious for duelling with. That said it’s definitely a one-trick pony. I wouldn’t ever use it in group fights, but I have no problem with that. If anything the rifle as a weaponchoice could be re-made entirely. Buffing it si not the answer, it will only make it stronger in the fields it is allready strong.

And rifle is great for group fights, you can pick off necros and ele in the backline because ele’s are usually sustain for a enemy group and necros are their main power at most times.

In group fights I mean <5 man. A warrior is going to do so much more by taking rampage and damage and push the frontline than picking off stuff at the back with a rifle. We tend to fight outnumbered alot and having a rifle warrior is a complete waste of group space compared to a melee warr.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

how about make it apply vulnerability on auto hit ?

Necro axe has that…there will be a steps backwards.

Definitely some good ideas in here… vulnerability might work, because rifle seems to work for power builds only anyway. I just thought the old bleeding feature was nice because it added some additional pressure to the auto-attack and helped to whittle down enemies in PvP/WvW that were wounded or trying to flee.

Even though they slightly reduced the cast on Kill Shot, I still think Kill Shot needs serious help, because:

(1) It roots you in place to shoot (at least you can move around with most other bursts);

(2) It delivers all the damage in one projectile, so one block/dodge ruins the whole burst (same as Eviscerate, Arcing Slice, Earthshaker, Skull Crack);

(3) The animation is so obvious and telegraphed that anyone paying attention can do something to stop it (like most bursts); and,

(4) Smart Mesmers/Guardians/Engineers can reflect a Kill Shot pretty easily, leading to nasty consequences for the shooter, especially if you have the piercing trait.

At least make a maxed out adrenaline Kill Shot unblockable…

Use SigoMight. That’s what it’s there for

I use the rifle in WvW and find it okay/good. The bleeding was garbage and useless, the extra-adrenaline is way more useful as rifle is a pretty slow weapon.

Also, “Kill Shot is easy to dodge/block/reflect” is easier said than done. Do you always have your cooldown or endurence ready ?
As warriors, we have some tools to land big hits more reliably.

Croustibat.7035:

I use the rifle in WvW and find it okay/good. The bleeding was garbage and useless, the extra-adrenaline is way more useful as rifle is a pretty slow weapon.

Also, “Kill Shot is easy to dodge/block/reflect” is easier said than done. Do you always have your cooldown or endurence ready ?
As warriors, we have some tools to land big hits more reliably.

The bleeding was not useless. What a troll comment.

Rifle is/was obviously a power weapon, so a ~50 damage bleed is in my opinion useless.
Please, explain why you think it was useful instead of just denying. I’m trying to understand this thread point of view.

Croustibat.7035:

Rifle is/was obviously a power weapon, so a ~50 damage bleed is in my opinion useless.
Please, explain why you think it was useful instead of just denying. I’m trying to understand this thread point of view.

agreed. rifle is ful power weapon now. I rather want it have faster velocity and killshot speed as well. and last volley this need to have more damage or faster bullet speed as well.

Einlanzer.1627:

Croustibat.7035:

I use the rifle in WvW and find it okay/good. The bleeding was garbage and useless, the extra-adrenaline is way more useful as rifle is a pretty slow weapon.

Also, “Kill Shot is easy to dodge/block/reflect” is easier said than done. Do you always have your cooldown or endurence ready ?
As warriors, we have some tools to land big hits more reliably.

The bleeding was not useless. What a troll comment.

I totally agree with you… Players can be so crude when trying to nerf their opponents, especially on the warrior forum. I gave the majority of my damage with rifle bleed outside of killshot.

Rifle bleed gave me the chance to pay in kind to all the kiters/ range/ condi casters some of their own medicine. It’s like I always say there’s allot of players that are just looking for an easy kill or gankfest and will use the forums as their vehicle to obtain it.

Croustibat.7035:

Rifle is/was obviously a power weapon, so a ~50 damage bleed is in my opinion useless.
Please, explain why you think it was useful instead of just denying. I’m trying to understand this thread point of view.

The bleed on rifle auto-attack was good because it stacked up pretty quickly, almost as good as sword auto-attack. Each stack was weak, but with enough stacks, it gave good condi damage. It definitely stacked a lot more than 50 damage per tick. Combine that with the old Arms traitline which proc’d extra bleed stacks, and the rifle worked as a decent pressure/damage over time weapon, especially at 1200 range.

This probably wouldn’t work as well after the 6/23 patch because:

(1) Trait lines don’t give stats anymore (no more +300 from Arms), so you would have to spec your gear into condi damage; and,

(2) They changed the formulas for condi damage, so that no +condi damage gear now is even worse than no +condi damage gear from before. The scaling on condi damage now requires a heavy condi spec.

I’m experimenting with a power-based rifle build for WvW/PvE, but I will definitely not bother with rifle in PvP, because rifle utility just sucks.

So maybe rifle bleeds would not work well anymore after the recent patch, but rifle still needs some kind of utility to compete with longbow. Hard CC, soft CC, anything.

Engineer rifle plain blows Warrior rifle out of the water (even after the patch nerfed Engi rifle range), because it has so much more utility: immobilize, launch, and a movement skill all on reasonable cooldowns, not to mention a nasty burst with bleeding. Warrior rifle has a cripple and a MELEE knockback… and of course the Kill Shot gimmick.

Not even speaking of the longbow, which is so far superior to rifle or Engi rifle that it’s insane. Every skill on longbow is packed with utility: a blast finisher, a blind, immobilize, burning, and a fire field.