What are some ways Pistol/Pistol can be made favorable?

[shawn]

Topic shamelessly stolen from official forums.


So, obviously, pistol/pistol is lacking in the damage department. Vital Shot has a slow firing rate with weak damage and short bleeding duration, while the other abilities just don't have a lot of synergy. Body Shot is hardly used, and any buff to the direct damage of the pistol will make it used even less, as that init could be going into Unload (with the trait that applies vulnerability on crit). Black Powder, while generally powerful with other mainhand weapons, isn't nearly as powerful for pistol mainhand - again, due to the weak Vital Shot, and that you'll typically be at ranged with dual pistols than in melee range where Black Powder is best.

I like the suggestion from one forum goer, which is to make the pistol mainhand a medium/short range weapon and add a new weapon (Rifle) to fill the long range slot. They suggest giving dual pistols the Engineer treatment, where attacks do more damage the closer you are to your enemy (or just put a 600 range on them) and up the damage.

And then we'd get rifles.

Which would be totally badass.

[Alaris]

If thieves get rifles, I want mesmers to get rifles too. And guardians get longbow.

Anyway, I think what makes skills interesting especially when energy is available is to make them do different things, or be good in different situations. Cripples, blinds, oh sh.., that sort of thing. Or a more powerful attack that works at a lower range so you have to pick the range correctly.

I don't play thief so perhaps I don't get to vote, but I would think thieves would be upset if they get their range decreased, and are forced to go with rifle for long-range.

[RD]

I actually like Pistol/Pistol... It's definitely my ranged choice for my Thief. I don't really like Shortbow because of the bouncing arrow on auto attack.

I use Body Shot once or twice before I pop off Unload to boost the damage. Sometimes I'll even throw down Black Powder before Unload for the Blind. When the mob gets too close or is charging a skill, I use Headshot for the Daze.

Frankly, I think the combo is worth bringing for the unlimited Daze alone.

[shawn]

But the Daze doesn't really have much of a purpose in that kit. At least with Sword/Pistol you get a cripple/weakness slash, a ranged immobilize with condition removal on return, a daze with a 3k aoe slash, and then you still get to keep Headshot and Black Powder, which is better in melee.

If thieves get rifles, I want mesmers to get rifles too. And guardians get longbow.

I don't play thief so perhaps I don't get to vote, but I would think thieves would be upset if they get their range decreased, and are forced to go with rifle for long-range.

Pssh, mesmers already have 1,200 range spells, they don't need a rifle for anything. Similarly, guardian lacks range by design.

But regardless. I don't think any thief would be upset with more choice.

[RD]

Daze still has a purpose, it's just used more defensively.

To me, P/P is single target, kind of like the difference between Rifle and Longbow for Warrior. Longbow isn't as strong as Rifle, but it nets you AOE. Similarly, P/P isn't as strong as Shortbow (I guess? I don't know), but it gets you some crowd control with Blindness and Daze.

[shawn]

Well yes it's single target.. but it should be more powerful than aoe options. That's typically the trade-off. If the trade off is the utilities, then they should be improved. See, Headshot and BP are okay on their own, but they just don't synergize with the mainhand skills, and the mainhand ones themselves are both weak on their own and in combination with the other weapons. Some short bleed and vulnerability versus a poison well and 6x bleed with blast finisher for poison-area-weakness combo.. there's no contest.

With the downside that the autoattack pulls everything in a mile radius. But I suppose there's always scorpion wire.

[Alaris]

Pssh, mesmers already have 1,200 range spells, they don't need a rifle for anything. Similarly, guardian lacks range by design.

Mesmer staff is better used at shorter range, scepter is defensive, and greatsword is bad. I want a rifle and dual pistol. Mesmers are supposed to have lots of skills to pick from, maybe they can have main pistol be more interrupt, and rifle be more ranged interrupt/degen.

Guardian has scepter for range, which works well enough. But hey, I would not complain if they had a non-girly-girly weapon for ranged, like the longbow.

The point I was making though with thief was that some people might get upset if you change what pistol/pistol does, because they know how to use the weapons or because they actually like the current implementation. More options is nice of course... though I think thief with its high mobility should not really get a long-ranged weapon.

[shawn]

The thing is the 'long range weapon' would still be 900 range, which is what the pistols and shortbow would be.

In theory.

Because this will never happen - they'll just buff the damage of Vital Shot and call it good, more than likely.

[Alaris]

Short-term, yes, I think we can expect at best some tweaking. Long-term though they will be adding weapons, and I certainly hope for guardian longbow.

Thief with rifle would be weird imo, but could work. Mesmer with rifle would also be weird. Mesmer with dual pistol would work though, there's already an illusion doing that.

[shawn]

I think the rifle reasoning from a quasi-lore perspective is thief ~ assassin => stealthy sniper rifle.

I don't get the longbow thing, but I guess that's a discussion for the guardian forum.