Question regarding Rifle from a leveling Mesmer

[Yaki.9563]

The 240 radius on the abilities seems very low. Especially Rifle 3, which fires on a delay (for the buffs). I am practically in melee range yet I still constantly have to run in to get within that radius. I can't see them being particularly useful at lvl 80. Is there something I'm missing?

[Gesbo.6420]

Rifle is a supportive weapon. You have a choice yo either buf yourself after a few seconds or do damage/heal by reactivating it. You might be better off using a greatsword 

[ShadowKatt.6740]

43 minutes ago, Yaki.9563 said:

The 240 radius on the abilities seems very low. Especially Rifle 3, which fires on a delay (for the buffs). I am practically in melee range yet I still constantly have to run in to get within that radius. I can't see them being particularly useful at lvl 80. Is there something I'm missing?

Rifle 3....Rifle 3....OH! That one. Well, as it was stated above, it is a support weapon. The Rifle is basically useless if you are solo, and Anet has done absolutely everything possible short of barring it from being equipped unless you're in a party to make that clear, and I hesitate to say that lest I give them ideas. That being said though, lemme tell you what I do.

Because I do play solo, when using the rifle I have a Quick Chrono build. Then I drop Rifle 3 right at my own feet. The Might and Fury combined with Quickness primarily from my Rifle 4 ALMOST makes it a servicable weapon. Almost.

[Yaki.9563]

I wasn't very clear in my original post. I'm not concerned about its solo performance, but rather its usefulness in a group. 240 radius is tiny and I can't think of any group content where the group is reliably in that radius, especially when the effect happens on a delay like on #3. One dodge and you're literally out of the radius.

[ZephidelGRS.9520]

In group content squads will stack tightly within an inch of each other at the boss' feet unless forced to move by mechanics, and even then people will try to get back to the stack as soon as the mechanics are done. So you don't have to worry about that part where people will be outside your effect radius. And 240 is actually pretty forgiving, it's not the best but it's not so small that it's a problem. Small would be something more like 180 radius.

[Ravenwulfe.5360]

To put it bluntly, the rifle has made the chronomancer a higher tier support character now. And with this latest update, Chronomancer pretty much also supplies near permanent stability too. The one thing they are lacking is protection using rifle and a steady rescue ability, but with the ability to keep aegis up for long periods that becomes moot as well.

Don't think of GW2 healers in terms of Warcraft or Final Fantasy. Healers in GW2 are actually more of the tanks. Of course the major complaints about the rifle come from the people who wanted some uber DPS weapon, despite having greatsword for that area.

Edited March 22 by Ravenwulfe.5360

[ShadowKatt.6740]

6 hours ago, Ravenwulfe.5360 said:

despite having greatsword for that area.

Ah yes, the Greatsword.

*in heavy russian accent* I am Heavy Weapons Guy, and this is my greatsword. It weighs 3991 grams and can cleave an entire herd of centaurs in a single swing. It takes 5 years of training to weild this weapon for 12 seconds.

Mesmers: I'mma shoot lasers with it!

[Gesbo.6420]

12 hours ago, Ravenwulfe.5360 said:

Of course the major complaints about the rifle come from the people who wanted some uber DPS weapon, despite having greatsword for that area.

I don't necessarily agree with that. Even as a support weapon all the individual pieces are disjointed and soulless- you can shoot allies with friendly fire but your clones require an enemy target, you can create clones by hitting an ally with journey but the clone will target the closest random enemy, the weapon is 1200 range but the ambush is a cone 300 range, you have a portal but it takes only an ally and you have no personal use for it. The weapon is so tightly forced to be a supportive weapon it has no room to be anything else. Even as a support weapon you just have to spam all skills of cooldown and nothing has a particular synergy with another. 

Don't get me wrong I like playing with it because it is effective. But it's notnparticularly fun imo

Edited March 22 by Gesbo.6420

[Ravenwulfe.5360]

1 hour ago, Gesbo.6420 said:

I don't necessarily agree with that. Even as a support weapon all the individual pieces are disjointed and soulless- you can shoot allies with friendly fire but your clones require an enemy target, you can create clones by hitting an ally with journey but the clone will target the closest random enemy, the weapon is 1200 range but the ambush is a cone 300 range, you have a portal but it takes only an ally and you have no personal use for it. The weapon is so tightly forced to be a supportive weapon it has no room to be anything else. Even as a support weapon you just have to spam all skills of cooldown and nothing has a particular synergy with another. 

Don't get me wrong I like playing with it because it is effective. But it's notnparticularly fun imo

To each their own but your analysis seems to be weirdly off base. 1200 range means you can supply ranged heals to allies who are doing mechanics that aren't in the cuddle puddle, as a for instance. The ambush is meant for group stuff. The only analysis you are giving there that I actually agree with is the portal which I think should be for downed allies to give us a rescue ability. I don't agree with it not being fun it seems you are trying to invent a square peg to fit in that round hole you are aiming at.

[Mell.4873]

48 minutes ago, Ravenwulfe.5360 said:

To each their own but your analysis seems to be weirdly off base. 1200 range means you can supply ranged heals to allies who are doing mechanics that aren't in the cuddle puddle, as a for instance. The ambush is meant for group stuff. The only analysis you are giving there that I actually agree with is the portal which I think should be for downed allies to give us a rescue ability. I don't agree with it not being fun it seems you are trying to invent a square peg to fit in that round hole you are aiming at.

The base HPS is really high and if they make the Rifle 5 more usable I could see it as a good swap in for some content on power builds. 

People under estimated how good passive healing weapons or traits can be for group content. Good example is full DPS Virtuoso using the Inspiration traitline.