Blunderbuss on Rifle - Why?

[lordhelmos.7623]

This is a power weapon, why is there a bleeding attack on it?

[Rezzet.3614]

so it benefits from the firearms traits that require bleeding i guess

[Aetatis.5418]

have you ever shot something living? i think in most cases it bleeds. especially with a shotgun (which a blunderbuss is - essentially).

besides that... what rezzet said

[MrForz.1953]

The gameplay reasons are currently unknown. Encourage hybrid? Give some (small) spice to the rifle when stacking might? More synergy with firearms? Very few weapons are all power or all condi anyways and thus can be seen with some mesure of consideration when creating builds.

[Anthony.3207]

Yea when ever I use blunder buss point blank in someone's face I really enjoy the power critical damage bonus not the bleed bonus.

Pretty sure rifle is supposed to be a controlling short ranged weapon. It deals massive burst damage in pvp if you know how to use it properly but it does make for a poor long range weapon.

To me, rifle is basically a pvp shot gun unlike dead eye or ranger long bow. Engie rifle works good when you can cast 3 and 5 in melee or land a mortal hit.

[coro.3176]

Rifle and Blunderbuss were designed in a different era of balance.

• most weapons tended to have a mix of condi and power (eg. warrior rifle was at least half a condi weapon)
• burst was much much much lower. High burst was considered something like landing a single Hundred Blades on warrior or Backstab / Heartseeker spam on thief.
• relative to the rest of the damage in the game, those bleeds actually did some damage. It wasn't much if you built power, but it was something.

Then power creep happened. Elite specs in the expansions HoT added previously unheard-of levels of defense + attack. Core specs and their weapons got left behind.

[Ardid.7203]

Instead of removing it I would make the bleed more threatening. I like hybrid builds and would like to get more from them.

[Ario.8964]

@Ardid.7203 said:Instead of removing it I would make the bleed more threatening. I like hybrid builds and would like to get more from them.

The problem is with the way the game is being balanced, going hybrid is bad. Specializing completely into one type of damage is so much more effective partly because of nerfs to cele ammy and other mechanics introduced that killed hybridized builds.

Originally it was to make rifle hybrid. I remember doing duels on both cele and condi rifle with heavy effectiveness because rifle was good with some condi setups.

[Ardid.7203]

Of course. I'm talking just about wishes, nothing current.

However, I'm also thinking that, since both Holo and Scrapper seems to benefit more from Power, making good improvements to Core Condi would be a good way to improve Core without making the Elites OP. To this, I would indeed make all the base weapons better for Condi setups, to add build diversity to Core Condi. It would be useless for Holo and Scrapper, that is true, but that is the point: to make use of it you should go Core and Condi.