To mace or not to mace?

[LucianDK.8615]

While Ive been playing a condi mechanist with 2x pistols, Ive been glancing at the mace.  Is it truly so much worser for condi than the mh pistol that the rocket punch trait cannot save it? Especially since it never activates without a mace.

[Duglaive.5236]

In my experience (PvE, sPvP), the mace really pales in comparison to pistols. Now, I didn't try using Perplexity runes in PvE, but I doubt they'd have helped much. And no, even with Rocket Punch you'll soon be missing your trusty sidearms.

 

The only time I'm using Mace (+shield) is when I run support playing with my wife on her psycho-glassy harbinger. And I found power Mechanist less than stellar.

[aspirine.6852]

It is nice. And I dont mind not using the pistol on engi for a while. 

 

[Curennos.9307]

PvE: Damage is okay but significantly worse than pistol. Only worthwhile if you need the barrier/boons/CC and have the alac-on-barrier trait. I do run a more support-y setup in pve so I prefer mace, and I can get decent damage with flamethrower/offhand pistol anyway. Do note that the final hit of the mace AA chain counts as an explosion, so it can be buffed by the explosives traitline. It's not...amazing, but you can make it also apply bleeds.

 

sPvP: Pistols better damage and range, mace slightly better mobility and a staggered stun + vigor/regen. Pistol I think is superior here but mace has a decent, if small, niche. Pistols may not be as necessary or overwhelmingly better if you're taking a ranged kit, which you should. I've run with both pistol and mace w/flamethrower and the difference is noticeable but relatively small. Just good in different areas - vigor/regen is nothing to sneeze at, the stun does burning damage for condi setups and can be useful to lock people down into other burst.

Edited March 23, 2022 by Curennos.9307

[Malus.2184]

Simple, pistol/pistol only have minor CC of which to do Break bars with. This limits your already limited Utility Skill options since Shift Signet is so good that it's cirtually mandatory.

Mace/pistol has good CC ability.

[Pokedranzer.4856]

Mace was recently buffed. So it is currently very competitive with pistol right now. 

Here's the mace bench. It does less overall golem damage but significantly more confusion which is extremely relevant on most fights

 

23 hours ago, Curennos.9307 said:

PvE: Damage is okay but significantly worse than pistol. Only worthwhile if you need the barrier/boons/CC and have the alac-on-barrier trait. I do run a more support-y setup in pve so I prefer mace, and I can get decent damage with flamethrower/offhand pistol anyway. Do note that the final hit of the mace AA chain counts as an explosion, so it can be buffed by the explosives traitline. It's not...amazing, but you can make it also apply bleeds.

 

It's no longer the case.

[Curennos.9307]

28 minutes ago, Pokedranzer.4856 said:

Mace was recently buffed. So it is currently very competitive with pistol right now. 

Here's the mace bench. It does less overall golem damage but significantly more confusion which is extremely relevant on most fights

 

It's no longer the case.

Oh sweet, I missed this. Thanks \o/ 

[LucianDK.8615]

When was this buff to mace? Definitely looks promising.  Pistol is ok, but does not feel impactful to use unlike the harbinger pistol.

[Pokedranzer.4856]

4 minutes ago, LucianDK.8615 said:

When was this buff to mace? Definitely looks promising.  Pistol is ok, but does not feel impactful to use unlike the harbinger pistol.

When Anet decided that Ele mains don't get to have fun with their new toy.