P/P & Rifle Thief/Deadeye?

[Lynx.9058]

I'm wanting to do a full on gunslinger type character for my human playthrough. Since my Charr engineer gets far less use out of his pistols and rifle than I'd hoped and will be giving them up entirely soon to go scrapper.

 

I've heard people say P/P thief is bad, and others say it's good... just trying to get some opinions on it and any example builds out there. I'll probably go deadeye and have a rifle on the second weapon slot eventually, but be running dual pistols for the most part and aiming for that highwayman/scoundrel vibe. Can it work?

[Kstyle.5829]

What type of content? For sPvP P/P is pretty garbage. Rifle is not bad. Of course if you mean using both pistols AND rifle as your second weapon set, then that will be pretty horrible for everything lol.

[Lynx.9058]

> @"Kstyle.5829" said:

> What type of content? For sPvP P/P is pretty garbage. Rifle is not bad. Of course if you mean using both pistols AND rifle as your second weapon set, then that will be pretty horrible for everything lol.

 

Mostly do pve typically, I havent even tried pvp content in GW2 yet (still fairly new here, though not to MMO's).

 

Why would P/P & Rifle be horrible for everything?

[ASP.8093]

You'll do just fine in _most_ PvE contexts.

 

For general PvE, I tend to look at:

1. Can your build kill stuff quickly? Yeah. Both Rifle and Pistol/Pistol have respectable DPS for ranged weapons, and Deadeye offers excellent initiative management so you can get the most out of Pistols. Rifle's easy Might stacking helps you ramp up your damage pretty well. You'll be able to do open world, story mode, hero points, &c. just fine.

2. Can your build handle breakbars? Yes. Off-hand Pistol has a highly spammable Daze. Rifle's a bit weaker in this department but just using Spotter's Shot a bunch (apply Immobilize) will also help with breakbars. (Tbh, I just use consumable Termite Shovels for extra CC on my Rifle Deadeye.)

3. Can your build do AOE damage? Sorta. Both Rifle and Pistol/Pistol (with the Deadly Aim trait) have piercing attacks you can use to hit multiple enemies in a line. This isn't quite as good as circle AOE (you have to do more work to make sure you're getting value out of it), but in most cases it should serve you just fine.

4. Is your build reasonably capable of surviving on its own? Yes. Going heavy ranged means you can avoid a lot of damage by just kiting a bit. Rifle also lets you block projectiles or juke backwards, while Pistol's Black Powder attack allows you to facetank enemies that are affected by blind (most trash and veterans but not champions). If you take Invigorating Precision, you will reasonable self-sustain while gearing for pure offense.

 

So, I think you've got your bases covered. It's a bit one-note as a build, in the sense that you're all-ranged with limited AOE capability, and thieves tend to spam the same 1-2 weapon skills over and over again. But there are actually some interesting differences in how Rifle and Pistol/Pistol play, and by taking both you'd actually be playing a slightly more interesting build than the Quick Pockets "oops, all pistols!" version you might see on Metabattle or Youtube.

 

I would like to add this, though: consider adding Shortbow to your repertoire as well. Thief Shortbow is a really versatile weapon that adds AOE and movement abilities to your loadout. I think it can also fit reasonably thematically since a lot of what you do is actually *launch bombs* (especially for Deadeye, who can get massive initiative refresh to really take Clusterbomb to the next level). I don't think you *need* it but there'll probably be certain areas where having the true AOE of shortbow feels better than just piercing line attacks. IMO it's always good to have 3-4 favorite weapons and be able to swap them around out-of-combat, if your overall build allows it.

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

Rifle is a bit more energy consuming than pew/pew; plus you need to kneel for damage; but you have range and a good kite skill.

Pew/pew is more lazy and consistent, you just spam 3 indefinitely while with rifle you'll be short with adrenalin. Builds like [THIS](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PawAoqRDTyugll15rF-zVIYRYlgtDA-w)

Both are really good for OW, near same damage/burst; it's a matter of playstyle. Me I prefer the sound of Rifle, and it looks cooler too. I use d/p too for melee, really strong with deadeye in pve.

For group content; with the appropriate build to refill adrenalin, rifle deals more DPS, but Deadeye is a bit a niche spot in raids and close to non-viable in fractals.

 

[Aracz.4702]

About rifle - you don't kneel for damage.

Imo, you should take m7 trait (which restores initiative if you hit malice cap) and spam skirmisher shot (rifle 2), and when malice is full, you use f2, dodge roll (can take signretet of agility if you miss one stealth attack) or elite skill to go stealth and use death judgement

This way, you should always keep enough ini for defence, stay mobile in case of obstruction (yup, don't kneel at all) or enemy aoe, and in this way you can do good damage (for fractals/raids is meh, like 20k with buffs on golem +/- few k if you do it bad or well, but you self boon so in ow you do better than some of dedicated dpses without support)

It's easy, but not as boring as spamming pistols 3, and has much better potential dps

[babazhook.6805]

As a theme I went that route in WvW. You can make it work but it redundant. You are really not gaining enough to make it worthwhile. The thing if you in p/p you pretty well rely on unload for anything and when you use unload , you are just not going to have INI for the rifle part. You will find you stick to one weapon 90 percent of the time.

 

Where I found p/p working best in something like WvW is in hybrid builds where you can use venoms and conditions apps on the steal (along with deadly ambition) and then build might with the unload for harder ticks even as your unload hits hard. You do not stick in P/P as long switching over after INI built and using another weapon set and or getting off some stealth attacks in #1. (bleeds and it hits hard). Trying to integrate this approach with rifle as the other weapon is not optimal as too many traits you take for the one set, are not used in the second (ie Silent scope and deadly ambition). In a build where I want to use both weapons more or less equally I am always loathe to take traits that turn off when in one of the sets.

[kash.9213]

I like ASPs breakdown and Shortbow might be a good idea until you learn to land Death's Retreat accurately. Unless you're super into range play I think you'll get bored and end up throwing in a dagger main hand or something. I keep trying to go back to dagger/pistol with rifle because it's a good combo for a broad range of stuff but I can't seem to put away dagger/dagger right now. I think in general pve you'll be mostly fine but you might end up in spots here and there where you'll makes choices about things like closing distance vs evade in a skill or utility slot and if you want use slots to feed your main sequence vs clutch answers to immediate problems if you get too lazy like me to switch stuff around all the time. Build templates are nice though.

[Parasite.5389]

A couple of builds i use with my deadeye, you might find them fun

[P/P build](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PagAoqlZw0YYsI2IO6L6PVA-zRIYR0wPGNTgIFgpB-e)

[Rifle](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PaQAQlZw0YYMRmJO6L6PLA-zRIYRUwHGRFQVCYOA-e)