Guild Wars 2

As the title say, the rifle is currently a lot weaker than the long bow from what I’ve seen. It’s pure single target yet the long bow somehow has better single target DPS while having great AoE at the same time.

Even the condition damage from the rifle does not really stand out considering longbow has AoE burning from F1 and 2 + bleeding from 5 + a fairly short cool down blind + shooting double around means if u go for the precision tree you have very high the chance to cause bleed on auto attack.

In conclusion, I see very little reason to use the rifle over the long bow. The only situation in which it could be more useful is 1v1 with condition build

Bleeding Shot seems a little misplaced on Rifle; it’s very clear that Rifle is all about burst damage, both with the actual Burst skill and Volley, and everything else except Bleeding Shot supports that concept.

It also means that, when playing as a rifleman, you gear for Precision and Prowess, not Malice or Expertise, so Bleeding Shot’s Bleed, let alone the free Bleed you’d get from Precise Strikes don’t really get much attention or love.

Rifle has always been underpowered, but it was hit especially hard by the patch that moved damage talents to the top tiers.

I wouldn’t say Rifle is underpowered at all. For being a ranged weapon on a mostly melee class it’s actually really good.

Sure I wouldn’t mind a change to the auto-attack, but the rest are somewhat decent. You can also trait Rifle to pierce.

There was a video on here not long ago of a guy critting 20k+ with burst.

Zach.3264:

I wouldn’t say Rifle is underpowered at all. For being a ranged weapon on a mostly melee class it’s actually really good.

The problem is that there’s pretty much no reason to use Rifle – Longbow is pretty much strictly better.

PizzaSHARK.2741:

Zach.3264:

I wouldn’t say Rifle is underpowered at all. For being a ranged weapon on a mostly melee class it’s actually really good.

The problem is that there’s pretty much no reason to use Rifle – Longbow is pretty much strictly better.

Well, I actually much prefer Rifle over Longbow. Longbow feels too clunky and the projectiles are too slow for my liking. Sure I do miss the blast and fire field, but Rifle 3 is great in my opinion.

Well you can always use Rifle to snipe these level 20 people in WvW(upscaled) and make a video about it and then show it to people in forums which goes like Zach went…

The F1 skill takes quite long time to actually shoot, clear animation so you know when warrior shoots and ofc u can REFLECT it back to the source.

Auto attack is bad, and it should feel bad.

criple shot is not bad at all, 3rd skill also is pretty good, 4th skill… could be something better and 5th skill is pretty nice.

Longbow 1 and rifle 1 should probably be switched, making longbow a more condition based weapon and making rifle the POWA weapon.

Make kill shot cast a lot faster, but reduce the damage some. Cast at 1s and do 30% less damage maybe?

Zach.3264:

PizzaSHARK.2741:

Zach.3264:

I wouldn’t say Rifle is underpowered at all. For being a ranged weapon on a mostly melee class it’s actually really good.

The problem is that there’s pretty much no reason to use Rifle – Longbow is pretty much strictly better.

Well, I actually much prefer Rifle over Longbow. Longbow feels too clunky and the projectiles are too slow for my liking. Sure I do miss the blast and fire field, but Rifle 3 is great in my opinion.

I’m using a Rifle build in PvE and WvW simply because… well, no Iron Legion Charr would ever dare sully his hands using some silly twig!

Though I use a longbow in my sPvP build, since it’s just simply better in all the ways that really matter.

I’m not sure why people are bashing Brutal Shot, though; it has more than 100% uptime, and it’s still a damage steroid that everyone on your team benefits from, not just you.

I did like the idea of turning Bleeding Shot into a clone of the harpoon gun’s 1 skill.

Ahlen.7591:

Longbow 1 and rifle 1 should probably be switched, making longbow a more condition based weapon and making rifle the POWA weapon.

Make kill shot cast a lot faster, but reduce the damage some. Cast at 1s and do 30% less damage maybe?

I actually like Kill Shot having the long cast time; it makes Quickness a valuable commodity, and it makes sense – you’re lining up a killing shot (head shot.)

If Rifle has any major problems, I’d think it’s due to Longbow performing too well as a damage weapon (rather than a support weapon), and Bleeding Shot not really matching up to what Rifle is all about (flat damage instead of condition damage.)

Rifle has more damage than LB at range, but LB has a fireblast combo that makes it generally preferable for dungeon runs. The biggest problem is that both weapons are objectively crap at range so you really shouldn’t be using either, and at least LB has that fireblast which makes it slightly less crap.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Rifle has more damage than LB at range, but LB has a fireblast combo that makes it generally preferable for dungeon runs. The biggest problem is that both weapons are objectively crap at range so you really shouldn’t be using either, and at least LB has that fireblast which makes it slightly less crap.

Rifle has better burst damage, but not sustained one. Its actually weak at range and even weaker at close fight, lb on the other hand getting stronger in close range.

In sustained dps bow wins
In gtfo me bow wins (f1+2+3)
In support bow wins again (aoe blind, combo field)

The olny thing rifle has is slow killshot and slow volley (burst damage, slow but always), other than that its useless weapon, with rest 1,2,4 being a complete crap

Actualy rifle can be a good sustained weapon in a Rampager hybrid build, but doing so completly negates the potential of your Burst skill. I find it usualy a good kiting weapon sinds it has a good cripple on a low cooldown and if the ennemies are comming to close you can always push them away with a Rifle Butt.

But yeah overall the weapon does a pale comparaison to the Longbow (mostly sinds the change on Pin Down), and the fact it offers no real support beside of a small DpS increase with vulnerability and a knock back on relatively short cooldown makes it bad for teamplay.

I find the rifle mostly shines in large enemy groups when traited. Being able to line up and hit multiple enemies can do quite a bit of damage with Killshot and Volley.
(And makes #4 SOMEWHAT more useful, being able to apply Vulnerability to all it hits.)

It’s speed is mostly my issue, with its cast and projectile speed. They are quite slow, especially for its untraited version which really suffers from it against more than one foe.

Overall, I think it could use more love, but that doesn’t stop me from still using it despite the drawbacks.

Zach.3264:

There was a video on here not long ago of a guy critting 20k+ with burst.

Ya but that’s full zerk hitting somebody else glassy who didn’t dodge/block/reflect the shot. In the same 1v1 you could also down that guy doing something like longbow 5, 3 while running towards your target followed by longbow 2 at point blank. 7k+ rifle butts are also a lot more warm and fuzzy than the killshots.

Talonblaze.3175:

I find the rifle mostly shines in large enemy groups when traited. Being able to line up and hit multiple enemies can do quite a bit of damage with Killshot and Volley.
(And makes #4 SOMEWHAT more useful, being able to apply Vulnerability to all it hits.)

It’s speed is mostly my issue, with its cast and projectile speed. They are quite slow, especially for its untraited version which really suffers from it against more than one foe.

Overall, I think it could use more love, but that doesn’t stop me from still using it despite the drawbacks.

The problem is that Longbow is also considerably better against groups due to its Burst skill, especially when you consider you can activate the fire field yourself with the 3 skill.

On top of that, you don’t need good positioning and timing to maximize Longbow’s AOE, while you do need good positioning (and 20 points in Arms) in order to make decent use of Rifle’s “AOE.”

Honestly, Longbow probably needs to be nerfed a bit, in addition to Rifle being boosted a bit. I feel like Longbow is entirely too effective even without the Tactics traits associated with it.

I do love my LB in WvW but no the rifle is not under powered especially when you trait for it. It is a nice single party dps weapon that packs a punch from range.

Generally LB outshines it in WvW and PvE but there are a few instances where it is nice to have. In PvE its nice against single targets and you simply need the range. In Fractals you can stay out of the Fire shaman and Ascalon dudes Agony attacks and still hit pretty hard.

In GvG the sniper warrior is something guilds have been messing around with, sort of hanging on the edge of the group picking off weakened foes who stray to far from the group.

In SPvP, ya its not all that great.

In WvW, have you seen this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5FiSGEhyxM He was criting against normal 80 for 12 and 20k. Ya it is gimicy and he drops quick but its fun as hell to play and funny to land those snipes or group volly hits.

Anyways not saying rifle is as good as LB in most situation but it has its uses.

Scoobaniec.9561:

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Rifle has more damage than LB at range, but LB has a fireblast combo that makes it generally preferable for dungeon runs. The biggest problem is that both weapons are objectively crap at range so you really shouldn’t be using either, and at least LB has that fireblast which makes it slightly less crap.

Rifle has better burst damage, but not sustained one. Its actually weak at range and even weaker at close fight, lb on the other hand getting stronger in close range.

In sustained dps bow wins
In gtfo me bow wins (f1+2+3)
In support bow wins again (aoe blind, combo field)

The olny thing rifle has is slow killshot and slow volley (burst damage, slow but always), other than that its useless weapon, with rest 1,2,4 being a complete crap

LB at a range where Fan of Fire won’t connect (i.e. not melee) is about the same as rifle’s overall damage in terms of just numerical DPS, not including Kill Shot. With Kill Shot rifle can be a good deal higher but it depends on your exact build.

Whether rifle or LB is better in a PvP situation is a totally different story, but I don’t play PvP so I dunno.

ranged weapon damage is underpowered in gw2. they want melee fights. rangers kitten this so much… ANet dont like pets and range ——> rangers bleh, warriors jeah!

You would be surprised at how effective a riffle can be against a zerg with piercing shot. Of course we all know about kill shot packing a punch as well.

But, like people have mentioned, LB just seems better overall.

McWolfy.5924:

ranged weapon damage is underpowered in gw2. they want melee fights. rangers kitten this so much… ANet dont like pets and range ——> rangers bleh, warriors jeah!

Well there’s your problem, rangers are rangers not range-ers.

Player Character.9467:

McWolfy.5924:

ranged weapon damage is underpowered in gw2. they want melee fights. rangers kitten this so much… ANet dont like pets and range ——> rangers bleh, warriors jeah!

Well there’s your problem, rangers are rangers not range-ers.

PoWeR rAnGeRs

YES, please switch between rifle’s and longbow’s auto attack! my cond warrior would appreciate it alot

My only real issue with rifle is bleeding shot, and the trait location.

F1 = power (strength tree)
2 = condi duration (strength tree)
3 = power (strength tree)
4 = power + condi dur (strength tree)
5 = power (strength tree)

and then….
#1, Bleeding shot – power +…. condi damage?? wut??
Trait = Arms tree, crit + condi damage…. wut??

Longbow isn’t much better…
F1 = power + condi, another bi-curious attack
1 = power
2 = power + condi
3 = power (and how!)
4 = condi dur
5 = condi damage

TWO traits.. both in… Tactics?! So…uh… Vitality/Boon duration?!?!

What does either stat have to do with Longbow? LB has exactly 0 boons, and no weapon out there is linked to vitality.

Scoobaniec.9561:

PoWeR rAnGeRs

Scoob, your attachment is OP. Nerf plz kthx

Dand.8231:

snip

Ty ; D

As for swapping traits.. I think crack shot should be moved to discipline, bow traits merged and placed in arms.

Sweet revenge (lets face it, devs wont change our downed state) moved to tactic.

Dand.8231:

Longbow isn’t much better…
F1 = power + condi, another bi-curious attack

I actually like that about the longbow because of the people out there that only associate the damage from a fire field to be the burn it applies, and with my condi dmg they see a tiny burn. What they don’t notice is sitting in the lvl 3 for the entire duration is going to eat their hp up from the power based half ticking. It’s no lava font, but it’s also much bigger.

LOL at rifle. Always dodging their big range shot ^^