Anyone else hates the rifle thematically

[Dawdler.8521]

4 hours ago, Joxer.6024 said:

YES!!! Who shoot s net out of their gun??? Lame in so many ways...rifle is soo sucky.

Batman?

[Adrianna.3092]

27 minutes ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

Batman?

but batman's job is to capture criminals alive... not fight dangerous evil beings threatening the very existence of the world itself.... its just kinda weird to be firing a net from a gun when your objective is to kill not capture...

[draxynnic.3719]

While there might not be many shotgun-themed "rifle" skins per se, there are plenty of skins with flared blunderbuss-style muzzles, which are essentially the ancestors of shotguns.

 

That said, though, I'm somewhat inclined to agree. Mechanically speaking, rifle is the most versatile of engineer weapons: you can shoot 1200 range, you have close-range options worth including in a melee rotation, CC, and mobility. It also helps that it's power - scrapper and holosmith are both "sure, you can make condition builds work, but they're really intended for power builds", and with their elite specialisation weapons being melee, if you want a ranged weapon underneath the kits and holoforge, you're pretty much looking at rifle.

 

However, from a theme perspective... this is naturally subjective, but I think it's also the most boring of the engineer weapons. Pistol/pistol has all sorts of crazy trick bullets. Hammer has electromagnetic fields, a multi-hit rocket charge, and a mini lightning storm. Sword/shield gives you a burst of energy blades, a repulsive magnetic shield, and the ability to throw a shield like Captain America except that it's also charged with electricity.

 

Rifle, though? You fire a regular bullet, then a net, then a blast of shrapnel, and a regular bullet with extra powder behind it. And then there's packing even MORE extra powder into it and firing it at the ground to get somewhere quickly. That's kinda cool, I guess, but it's on about the level that thief can pull off (modifying a pistol to fire a bola or to generate a big cloud of smoke) or that an enterprising warrior might come up with for a close-range assault firearm - it just doesn't have the crazy tech of the other engineer weapons (ignoring mechanist mace here more because I haven't played it enough to comment than anything).

 

I end up using it a lot anyway because it's undoubtedly the pragmatic option - it works with most currently viable engineer builds, the numbers are good, and if you want a ranged weapon, it's that or the condi-oriented (and probably still somewhat undertuned, albeit possibly not as much as the reputation says) pistol. But while it's mechanically effective, it just feels like it lacks a certain something compared to other engineer weapons - other engineer weapons just feel more fun as long as it doesn't reach a point where I feel like I'm handicapping myself by using them, while rifle is more of a case of "yeah, this is dishing out the damage, but it's boring."

 

Like any such discussion, of course, YMMV. I know there are people who do enjoy engineer rifle as it is, and I'd be more inclined to ask for a viable alternative than asking for the current rifle to be changed. Problem is that ArenaNet seems to be actively against releasing more weapons for core professions apart from fixing the glaring inconsistency of revenant being a weaponswapping profession with only one underwater weapon.

 

7 hours ago, Adrianna.3092 said:

but batman's job is to capture criminals alive... not fight dangerous evil beings threatening the very existence of the world itself.... its just kinda weird to be firing a net from a gun when your objective is to kill not capture...

Unless the purpose of the net is to entangle the target so you have more time to kill them.

[Adrianna.3092]

8 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Unless the purpose of the net is to entangle the target so you have more time to kill them.

I still think the net is kinda silly and ridiculous... a non-lethal beanbag(i think thats what you call it) shotgun blast as a stun would be FAR more realistic than firing a net out of a shotgun and not look quite as silly..

[Stx.4857]

It would be cool it the rifle had some more engineer like special shots on it..   special ammunition, exploding shots..  something.  It does feel really boring to me.  

 

I actually want to use Rifle on my holosmith for open world but I just can't because the sword has a huge amount of Quickness on it.  The rifle has a fun jump ability and a nice burst attack but the Quickness is just better

[Sindust.7059]

I would love to have any viable ranged build on an engineer at all (at least 900 range). As it stands, Holo cannot ever do more than tickle at range, because outside of holo mode his damage is a joke. And scrapper barely works as a DPS with a hammer, without being handicapped by rifle or pistol.

 

I don't know yet how mechanist will do in that department since the spec mechanic actually would work at range, but the fact that the weapon being added is a mace and both pistol and rifle most damaging attacks have range 600 or less (rifle 5 is the worst offender here), I don't expect it to work well at all.

 

And before you mention grenade and mortar kits... Mortar does about the same damage as the already useless rifle auto attack, it's a pure utility kit, and the only justification for the grenade kit is stacking up Explosive Temper and then switching to a (melee) weapon that actually does damage.

 

Basically a profession that you'd expect to be the best at making the tech do the fighting for them while they themselves are watching from a safe distance is forced to smack their enemies with a hammer/sword/mace in melee. That's totally how I imagined playing an engineer when I picked it at character selection...

[The Boz.2038]

"This character's only weapon options are pistols and rifles! Nice! That means it must be real good at range!"

[LilBiM.3581]

NGL AA feels like it heals my opponents. Feels like I joined the enemy party whenever I press the AA key.

[Scavarius.6059]

On 1/17/2022 at 2:41 PM, Delorean.6174 said:

 It's not even really a rifle since most skills are shotgun-styled and autoattack is hip-firing

they dont wanna tell you this, but engis mechanize themselfs to be on paar with all those spellslingers and bodybuilders :V

also, there is something funny about a maniac mashinegunning while hipshooting(quickness goes brrr

[BenaSPACE.6028]

Throwing my two cents on this, but I like how Engi rifle works; The idea isn't that you're using a rifle in specific style or tactic, but modifying it to be a multitool to respond to many scenarios. I do miss the kickback on 4, though, strangely enough. Was really flavorful.

 

Actually, might be a fun mechanic to get to choose how your rifle skills work in each slot from a few options.

[cyberzombie.7348]

On 2/6/2022 at 1:57 PM, BenaSPACE.6028 said:

I do miss the kickback on 4, though, strangely enough.

That mechanic also had synergy with cc-activated traits like synapse overload and reactive lenses.

Edited February 8, 2022 by cyberzombie.7348

[Valisha.8650]

Yes, would love a rework

[Stx.4857]

I think its odd that warrior rifle got ammunition skills while engineer didn't.