What happened to the rifle?

[pablauto.4210]

I'm coming back to play after a long period without logging in.
I put the rifle and try to make a new build trying to have fun.

And I see my damage too low and I get confused!
When I see my Rifle skill 1 doing 1/4 of the hammer damage my low damage starts to make sense.

With the marauder amulet the rifle is dealing 147 and 195.
As for the hammer 456, 566 and 793 with a 4 Might bonus!

I won't even go into details of the other skills that in my opinion the sledgehammer are much better. Shield, AoE CC.

There are so many shields and blocks that I find it difficult to use the rifle, but when doing some pvp I just don't deal damage compared to the hammer.

Am I doing something wrong? What happened?😬

[cyberzombie.7348]

Not sure how long you've been out specifically but the February 2020 patch put a global nerf on all weapon skills, regardless of their prowess. Then Anet pulled another big brain, and nerfed rifle's auto attack dps even further to "balance" the ranged synergy with mechanists.

[pablauto.4210]

I figured it could be a nerf due to the mechanist.
But weakening the weapon this much prevents any build from working.

Surprisingly, the pistol with a direct damage build does the same damage!
I can't believe they tested this nerf on the rifle.

That's why I don't see rifle eng anymore.

[Bomboed.5697]

Rifle was fun to play at some point and this is unacceptable by Anet standards for Engineer. No fun allowed.
So the fun was nerfed into oblivion.

[Alcatraznc.3869]

Long story short, Anet reworked the rifle and it went from :

-super strong-->strong-->original state in PVE

-good-->ok-->worse than its pre rework state for PvP and WvW

 

In PvE, the rifle now isnt much better nor worse than its pre rework state. It used to be strong enough to actually be used as a weapon but now you're back to just running kit or elite spec weapon. Rifle is just a stat stick that you sometime use in between 2 skill.

In PvP/WvW the rifle is dead. The damage of the auto attack is even worse than its pre reworked version and the rest of the kit didnt changed. Do not expect Anet to change the rifle they're not going to do it because the community wasnt able to say anything other than "Nerf rifle and mechanist" for several months.

[Dawdler.8521]

Basicly it got the typical Anet engineer patch:

It started out crap. 
Anet made it a god tier AA through a "rework" that no one really wanted because everyone has always seen it as supposed to be a "high damage shotgun" with a different style to the other rifles, not a god kitten machinegun. 
Then they "balanced" it to be crap again.
And they still dont want to fix the pistol AA, so now they're giving us a shortbow which is 99% likely to have the correct RoF that the pistol should have.

Edited July 4, 2023 by Dawdler.8521

[pablauto.4210]

Let's wait for the next expansion now.
Probably the shortbow will serve the same function.
Since it's something new, it shouldn't be worse than the rifle.

Thanks for the reply!
I'm going to play pistol and condition now.

[jaif.3518]

If you use rifle as a kit ... swapping to it for choice skills then switching again ... it's passable if it otherwise fits your build.

But otherwise  ... yeah, it aint setting dps records.

[Noxin.9276]

On 7/3/2023 at 5:25 PM, cyberzombie.7348 said:

Not sure how long you've been out specifically but the February 2020 patch put a global nerf on all weapon skills, regardless of their prowess. Then Anet pulled another big brain, and nerfed rifle's auto attack dps even further to "balance" the ranged synergy with mechanists.

Yea, the first attempt to smite the plague of ranged mechanists was to nerf the rifle - Which ended up hurting all the legitimate builds who were intended to use rifle. Now the jade bot afkers are complaining about cooldown nerfs hitting them specifically - one day in the far future, we may see rifle readjusted - i'd expect after the 1-spammers have left engineer to try the other easy and overpowered class that comes next (never thought I would miss swarms of firebrands/scourges).

[SolarDragon.7063]

Rifle is indeed terrible now. And is still clunky due to having half its damage on an effectively melee skill.

[Jaruselka.5943]

On 7/4/2023 at 5:16 AM, Dawdler.8521 said:

And they still dont want to fix the pistol AA, so now they're giving us a shortbow which is 99% likely to have the correct RoF that the pistol should have.

Pistols will be forever relegated to being cardboard props.

[Zzik.5873]

On 7/12/2023 at 11:54 AM, Jaruselka.5943 said:

Pistols will be forever relegated to being cardboard props.

Now we can finaly put the rifle right beside them. Engi rifle is provably one of the less fun/good weapon. Anet at least bring back the cool 3x burst animation...

[Tiviana.2650]

On 7/4/2023 at 10:00 PM, pablauto.4210 said:

Let's wait for the next expansion now.
Probably the shortbow will serve the same function.
Since it's something new, it shouldn't be worse than the rifle.

Thanks for the reply!
I'm going to play pistol and condition now.

Im tired of waiting for expansions for them to fix things that need to be fixed. Thats a copout, and a guarantee they will nerf the dogpoo out of shortbow too

Edited July 20, 2023 by Tiviana.2650

[Gendalfs.7521]

Shortbow will be condi weapon. Rifle is not bad, but not enjoyable lets say so.

Now rant: REMOVE the fcking MG!!

peace, out

[munz.6513]

Rifle engineer is now fxxx up now, almost 50% dmg gone compare before patch, they nerf so hard even on auto atk, hopefully next update can gain back the ori atk skils at least, It suppose to be my main, and now change it to bladesworn.  

[Kal Durak.2830]

On 7/4/2023 at 8:10 AM, pablauto.4210 said:

I'm coming back to play after a long period without logging in.
I put the rifle and try to make a new build trying to have fun.

And I see my damage too low and I get confused!
When I see my Rifle skill 1 doing 1/4 of the hammer damage my low damage starts to make sense.

With the marauder amulet the rifle is dealing 147 and 195.
As for the hammer 456, 566 and 793 with a 4 Might bonus!

I won't even go into details of the other skills that in my opinion the sledgehammer are much better. Shield, AoE CC.

There are so many shields and blocks that I find it difficult to use the rifle, but when doing some pvp I just don't deal damage compared to the hammer.

Am I doing something wrong? What happened?😬

Sorry, they are working on Relics for the new expansion... Your Eng/Mech/Scrapper is 999 on the list. 

[Bankrotas.8215]

On 7/5/2023 at 4:24 PM, jaif.3518 said:

rifle as a kit

But kits suck and I'd rather use pistols as strike damage than use kits.

[Alcatraznc.3869]

I dont know if shortbow is going to be condi but at this point, I think it's hard for Anet to mess up shortbow so hard it is put at the same level as rifle or pistol. Shortbow has the benefit of being a weapon expansion, kinda, so they will make it better than rifle and pistol. But if shortbow ends up being in a good state on release, I am more concerned about the state of the 2 only decent-good performing weapon Engineer can use outside their spec which is mace for support and hammer for power DPS. 

 

 

[Noxin.9276]

On 7/20/2023 at 1:46 PM, Gendalfs.7521 said:

Shortbow will be condi weapon. Rifle is not bad, but not enjoyable lets say so.

Now rant: REMOVE the fcking MG!!

peace, out

We already have pistol to fill that role, I'd prefer ideally a support weapon, hopefully at medium range or it will be rifle mechanist 2: idiot bugaboo. The population is still complaining about a feature specifically made to change player behavior.

I'm predicting all the brand new weapons will be support related - allowing them to move quick/alac off elite specs and into weapon choices instead (akin to spirits/banners granting buffs). If we get another condi style, I would far prefer a elixir gun kit rework than a electric version of ranger shortbow.

 

Rant: Amplify Mechanical Genius until mechanist is back to sane proportion the population, triple the cooldown penalty for maxrange and spell it out for these thickheaded engineers.

[Noxin.9276]

This engineer forum is currently filled with tri-signet jokes who *just* started engineer on easy mode and still can't handle it - Why the surprise that many people can't stand them still crying.

Stay close to part of your build putting in the effort (the bot) and deal with the mechanic your chosen build has - MG isn't some sort of accident.

This is like a holo complaining that they can overheat or a daredevil that it has to dodge - its ridiculous to those of us who have been on engineer for the better part of the decade dealing with "piano condi" and the real issues over that time.

Rifle got redesigned and subsequently nerfed due to mechanist overuse, I have no idea why they are so "confused" still - once a targeted fix is successful it will be tweaked back up for the rest of us.

[Zzik.5873]

44 minutes ago, Noxin.9276 said:

This engineer forum is currently filled with tri-signet jokes who *just* started engineer on easy mode and still can't handle it - Why the surprise that many people can't stand them still crying.

Stay close to part of your build putting in the effort (the bot) and deal with the mechanic your chosen build has - MG isn't some sort of accident.

This is like a holo complaining that they can overheat or a daredevil that it has to dodge - its ridiculous to those of us who have been on engineer for the better part of the decade dealing with "piano condi" and the real issues over that time.

Rifle got redesigned and subsequently nerfed due to mechanist overuse, I have no idea why they are so "confused" still - once a targeted fix is successful it will be tweaked back up for the rest of us.

I just want the 3x burst animation, the 2x one suck hard.

[Tere.4759]

Engineer used to be my least favorite class and now it's my favorite and my main.  I love scrapper, holosmith and mechanist.  I'm tanky, fast, and finished all of HOT and POF hero points solo, well I'm on the last one in Vabbi but alas I have to earn a living.  I have skill left to collect for mechanist and I love rifle on my little one (she's a cute little Asura).  Seems mechanist just fits for an Asura.  BTW, she's in all Berserker gear and weapons.

Now don't talk to me about elementalist elites or thief elites or revenant (she just turned 80 anyway), meh.

 

[Sobx.1758]

17 hours ago, Makuragee.3058 said:

I just want the 3x burst animation, the 2x one suck hard.

3x burst autoattack was ridiculous and should have never been in the game, so please don't.