Guild Wars 2

With any questions like this one I strongly suggest that you look up Freakshow’s excellent videos on Engineers and their roles in WvW.

Looking at the different scales of content you can say that Rifle has always been around in the solo-small scales but has always had more fun potential builds than strong allround builds akin to that of Longbow Rangers (Druids) or Rifle Warriors (Berserkers). That is also a fairly good benchmark because, utilities aside, Rifle is, arguably, a stronger option on Warriors and even there it is mostly a gimmick with some fun potential. The base values of Rifle damage is simply too low and/or hard to balance. All in all, it exists but exists as something fun more so than competetive.

For medium- or guild sized play I’d say that most high-end GvG guilds have probably experimented with it by now. It has certainly not made it into the meta here either but there are some interesting implications for Rifles at this scale. In most GvG scenarios Scrappers tend to make choices between uptime of gyros and damage pressure on primaries. The Rifle is interesting because it lifts a good chunk of that burden, in theory. In practise, the guilds and players who experiment with this are so apt at positioning and making the aforementioned choices that Hammer firmly remains in meta. In any case, Rifle does have its strongest conceptual appeal here.

For larger scale gameplay I guess you can take what works in what has already been mentioned and apply it to havoc-scenarios, but as with any havoc-scenario it usually involves you taking the initiative to organize a havoc party to make it work. Commanders will usually not see that appeal and the stealth support that is so important at small-medium scale is usually not that situationally appealing once you scale up (as losing the odd player in downstate is not as impactful).

In the end, Rifle builds are marginal but can be fun as long as you make them work (and can build with friends around them).