Guild Wars 2

I opened a Warrior because I wanted to play a purely rifle based class
I tried it few times in sPvP and felt pretty weak , I don’t know if it’s just me playing bad or is this build just doesn’t work
main problem I found is everybody dodging my Burst skill so easy because it takes time to cast and I can’t move during the time of cast.
another problem is there is so little utility spells and traits that I found that synergies well with Rifle.

should I just re-open an Engineer or is this build can be good?
and if it does work I would like to hear trait / sigil / rune / utility skill builds ideas from people who have experience in this build.
Thanks. :P

in my roughly 150 tournament games, I’ve come across 1 rifle warrior in a “serious” team. he was no slouch but still couldn’t hold his own against me as GS and others on my team in 1v1. the incredibly easy to dodge burst skill really hurts damage output but not as much as the weapon being single target. cleave damage from a GS > rifle pierce any time any day.

My suggestion is go play Engineer

I would go play Engineer but he’s not purely Rifle class
he has all his kits and grenades which I don’t like
same for Ranger , I don’t like having pet
any more suggestions?

btw rifle warrior is stronger then engineer in both power and condition damage setup. just compare the pistol 1 vs rifle 1. 6s bleed vs 2s bleed. higher base damage, higher range and warrior can also make it pierce + 20% cd reduction and it is not even grandmaster trait… warrior just needs nerfs everywhere.

Lol at engineer being bad at rifles post above me. Aside from my warrior I really enjoy playing my rifle engineer. I can bleed, burn, and blind a target with just the spam attack, and it pierces naturally to boot, no traits needed. Then you have an immobilize, a very hard hitting damage and bleed attack for melee range, a great knockback that sends your enemy flying and breaks roots and snares without traits, along with a aoe attack which can be used as an escape as well. This is before getting into the awesome elixers and gadgets which have double uses that go on your profession bar. It’s a kitten great class if you know what you’re doing.

With that out of the way, you can’t play as a “single weapon” warrior from what I’ve seen, you need a second weapon that you use often to either shore up your weaknesses or build on your strengths. On my great sword build I bring a rifle so I have utility and ranged attacks, whereas I bring a hammer on my sword and board warrior to bring cc for my teammates and push enemies out of control points. You have to utilize two weapons to be successful.

I might be wrong on this, but isn’t the best rifle builds focused on a condition setup? Therefore running with a sword is optimal and focus on bleeds?

TheMerc.4850:

Lol at engineer being bad at rifles post above me. Aside from my warrior I really enjoy playing my rifle engineer. I can bleed, burn, and blind a target with just the spam attack, and it pierces naturally to boot, no traits needed. Then you have an immobilize, a very hard hitting damage and bleed attack for melee range, a great knockback that sends your enemy flying and breaks roots and snares without traits, along with a aoe attack which can be used as an escape as well. This is before getting into the awesome elixers and gadgets which have double uses that go on your profession bar. It’s a kitten great class if you know what you’re doing.

With that out of the way, you can’t play as a “single weapon” warrior from what I’ve seen, you need a second weapon that you use often to either shore up your weaknesses or build on your strengths. On my great sword build I bring a rifle so I have utility and ranged attacks, whereas I bring a hammer on my sword and board warrior to bring cc for my teammates and push enemies out of control points. You have to utilize two weapons to be successful.

Yeah obviously I don’t go Rifle only I have a secondary weapon but I mean you always have your main weapon and your secondary weapon , so why can’t rifle be the main weapon
also Engineer just doesn’t appeal to me because of all the kits he has
I’m not fan of gadgets and elixirs
thats really disappointing , because for years they’ve been talking about how versatile this game will be that there will be no restrictions and any profession is free to play anything
and then Warrior is forced into melee weapons for PvP

I think if they fix crack shot to start affecting volley it’ll help if it’s truly bugged, though more traits that affected rifles are needed to put it in a good place because outside of volley and killshot the damage is pretty meh, I usually just open with aimed shot for the cripple and volley as I close in.

My recommendation is to have your second weapon set be a sword and shield set. As they both have bleeds you can look at increasing your bleed or condition damage as a whole. Secondly the shield adds a decent defensive utility with your block and the ability to daze an opponent for a few seconds. I have yet to get my friends interested in sPvP but I have begun doing my research and have done a fair bit of WvWvW using my build and can take most opponents 1v1 and when in larger fights I tend to be one of the few alive when the fireworks are done flying.

I’m playing rifle axe/warhorn warrior in sPvP (tournaments), and I can hold my own against 90-95% of the 1v1 encounters, as well as having several tools for snagging nodes from solo defenders. Also easily soloing svanir/chieftain on second map if needed (although the tactics we use rarely result in anyone soloing them).

It all really depends on your build, and your ability to dodge the important stuff.

PS: Most warriors underestimate how good the warhorn is as an offhand. #5 applies weakness around you when used, which drastically reduce your damage taken, and axe as main hand alone does very good melee damage.

Basically I use rifle most of the time unless I see that my opponent isn’t trying to run away from me or anything, for instance when I’m capping a node, where it does more damage, and use Kill Shot either directly after a CC (like rifle #5) or after I see them dodging twice. Also, sometimes you just gotta notice how your opponent plays. Many people, even in decent tournament teams, don’t dodge kill shots. At all. Once you figure that out you can adjust your playstyle.

I run with rifle axe/warhorn as well. Kill shot takes ages to cast and is very easy to dodge, so you have to set it up, unless your target is occupied with someone else, in which case fire away. Overall I like it. Also agreed with warhorn being awesome.

Wouldn’t really say the rifle is a condition based weapon, it only has a 1-stack bleed on the auto attack which I would consider only a nice bonus, every other rifle skill is pure power.

I dont do spvp but in wvw rifle has very high burst and the skills are a lot easier to get off

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/53522-point-defender-rifleman/

Rifle Warrior is very strong and our root is when we use our Burst or simply use your brain and wait until the target has just dodged twice, not hard.

Satying the rifle is weak is like saying Dwayne wade is just an ok player… he is sitting next to lebron james the most overpowered player in nba history so obviously he just looks “OK” but put wade on the GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS and he will look like a hall of famer.
I use rifle almost exclusively in spvp. i also thought it was weak at first, but then with a tweak or two here and there I noticed i droped more people with my warrior than I did with my burn guardian, condition necro or my crit+healing elementalist.
its not even close… when i want kills i play my warrior.
my best was 14 drops in a game i counted, and 18 total kill credits.
no i couldnt win a 1v1 if my life depended on it.

but think abou twhat you need to be a damage dealing ranged class.
single target skill … check
ability to debuff your own damage…. check
channeled skill………. check
snare.. check
and a melee range knockback

if you give me the above in ONE CLASS, in any other game with pvp in it in the entire 21 years I have been playing pvp rpgs that would be the class I am playing and that is the class I am excelling at.

I myself use a sigil build and frenzy because its overpowered when its up as a ranged class.
just DONT play your melee specs for a few days and only play the ranged with Hammer as backup for the knockdown and knockback. and on maps where its going to be close quaters dont try to range, switch to hammer with sword+shield