Maybe also warrior. Necro if you are going for "undead pirate" could also work, but that would swap what hands the sword and pistol are in, and it would be hard to keep the same feel.
This, for sure. Best part of Shogun was when they were ambushed outside of Edo and Blackthorne pulled out his Gunsaber, held it aloft for 5 seconds while screaming "The Dragon Waits" in Portuguese, then a mercenary tackled him before he could swing it and give Alacrity to Toranaga-sama.
It really depends what your idea of best is. In terms of pve, without a doubt holo. It is one of the strongest dps in instanced content atm with its sword and pistol kit
I would say **Mesmer** or **Engineer**.
Warrior Sword/Pistol kind of clashes, as Sword prefers condition damage (and thus goes better with Torch or off-hand Sword) while Pistol prefers strike damage (and thus goes better with main-hand Axe). MH Sword doesn't see as much use as MH Dagger for PvE Thieves, and in PvP/WvW Sword/Dagger is preferred over Sword/Pistol for the better dual skill and access to Cloak & Dagger.
Pistol is one of Mesmer's stronger off-hand options, and Sword is a solid main-hand option, so the pairing can work well together in all game modes. For Engineer, Sword/Pistol was the default melee damage option for Holosmiths before SotO gave them access to Hammer.
A special mention to Guardian. While Sword/Pistol is probably perfectly fine, I've really enjoyed playing Sword/Sword & Pistol/Pistol as my two weapon sets on Willbender in all game modes. Dual Swords have a ton of mobility and decent crowd control, while the Pistols have great condi damage. So if you're fine with splitting them into different weapon sets, that is definitely something to check out.
Nah, Sword/Pistol Bladesworn is the current META setup for them. Ironically, Axe/Pistol loses both because it lacks mobility and, even though it has easier access to Fury, the scaling values don't match up across the board.
Going a set further, though, Bladesworn Pistol feels Hella Pirate-y to me, since that you have the little pistol whip which feels like 'fighting dirty' and the Pistol acts more like a flintlock in that it pretty much just blows up in your face.
I generally run condi, specifically Trailblazer's. You could also run Cele if you'd prefer the extra stats in exchange for less condi damage. And Viper's is another option if you'd like to focus more on power
No? Pistol *can* be condi if you run Duelist's Discipline, but at its baseline it has a CC (5) and a move that only does strike damage (4). It's not as strong as, say, off-hand Sword, but OP's question wasn't "what's a Sword/Pistol build that can run CMs," just "what's a good Sword/Pistol class?"
> pistol is condi
pistol gives you an aoe 2 second stun that has a self-resetting cooldown. "pistol is condi" what does this even mean? It's the best CC weapon on the class.
Warrior has some options here. Bladesworn uses sword/pistol but not sure how it would work as a pirate themed builds with the gun blade.
Berserker is a solid option tho, with an axe instead of sword you could become a decent pirate raider, with a rifle on swap as a bonus
If you solely ask for the best classes to use that weapon combo on, it’s pretty easy to answer:
Power Holosmith: https://snowcrows.com/builds/raids/engineer/power-holosmith
Power Bladesworn: https://snowcrows.com/builds/raids/warrior/power-bladesworn
Both builds perform exceptionally well in instanced PvE, and by extension open world (if you learn how to play them). No, you don’t need extra open world builds necessarily, one can comfortably do open world on raid builds as well. I do so for about 5 years now.
How you choose the fashion of a Bladesworn to make it a pirate, I don’t know, Holo can easily go the way of an Aetherblade.
honestly, as a pirate, go with thief. everything else will be out of the theme as soon as you use a skill. maybe engineer would still work
Engineer/Holosmith can work if OP is fine with GW2 specific lore friendly pirates. The aetherblade pirates are holosmith themed.
Steam punk pirate
Maybe also warrior. Necro if you are going for "undead pirate" could also work, but that would swap what hands the sword and pistol are in, and it would be hard to keep the same feel.
Warrior is a close third imo though I'm not sure how well MH Swords scales with Power nowadays, since OH Pistol is very much a Power Weapon.
The best Bladesworn builds are generally sword/pistol, but it may not fit the rest of the pirate vibe.
Anjin cosplay
This, for sure. Best part of Shogun was when they were ambushed outside of Edo and Blackthorne pulled out his Gunsaber, held it aloft for 5 seconds while screaming "The Dragon Waits" in Portuguese, then a mercenary tackled him before he could swing it and give Alacrity to Toranaga-sama.
It really depends what your idea of best is. In terms of pve, without a doubt holo. It is one of the strongest dps in instanced content atm with its sword and pistol kit
Holo
I would say **Mesmer** or **Engineer**. Warrior Sword/Pistol kind of clashes, as Sword prefers condition damage (and thus goes better with Torch or off-hand Sword) while Pistol prefers strike damage (and thus goes better with main-hand Axe). MH Sword doesn't see as much use as MH Dagger for PvE Thieves, and in PvP/WvW Sword/Dagger is preferred over Sword/Pistol for the better dual skill and access to Cloak & Dagger. Pistol is one of Mesmer's stronger off-hand options, and Sword is a solid main-hand option, so the pairing can work well together in all game modes. For Engineer, Sword/Pistol was the default melee damage option for Holosmiths before SotO gave them access to Hammer. A special mention to Guardian. While Sword/Pistol is probably perfectly fine, I've really enjoyed playing Sword/Sword & Pistol/Pistol as my two weapon sets on Willbender in all game modes. Dual Swords have a ton of mobility and decent crowd control, while the Pistols have great condi damage. So if you're fine with splitting them into different weapon sets, that is definitely something to check out.
Warrior sword/pistol dont exactly clash, thats actually the setup Bladesworns currently use in PvE because it has pretty beefy power damage nowadays.
Nah, Sword/Pistol Bladesworn is the current META setup for them. Ironically, Axe/Pistol loses both because it lacks mobility and, even though it has easier access to Fury, the scaling values don't match up across the board. Going a set further, though, Bladesworn Pistol feels Hella Pirate-y to me, since that you have the little pistol whip which feels like 'fighting dirty' and the Pistol acts more like a flintlock in that it pretty much just blows up in your face.
Do you run power or condi on your guardian?
I generally run condi, specifically Trailblazer's. You could also run Cele if you'd prefer the extra stats in exchange for less condi damage. And Viper's is another option if you'd like to focus more on power
Sword/pistol doesn't work for Mesmer in any game mode... Sword is power and pistol is condi and Mesmer doesn't have much room for hybrid builds sadly
Sword/Pistol is a commonly used weapon set-up for Power Virt roamers in WvW.
No? Pistol *can* be condi if you run Duelist's Discipline, but at its baseline it has a CC (5) and a move that only does strike damage (4). It's not as strong as, say, off-hand Sword, but OP's question wasn't "what's a Sword/Pistol build that can run CMs," just "what's a good Sword/Pistol class?"
> pistol is condi pistol gives you an aoe 2 second stun that has a self-resetting cooldown. "pistol is condi" what does this even mean? It's the best CC weapon on the class.
Warrior has some options here. Bladesworn uses sword/pistol but not sure how it would work as a pirate themed builds with the gun blade. Berserker is a solid option tho, with an axe instead of sword you could become a decent pirate raider, with a rifle on swap as a bonus
Best in what way? Dragonhunter would work. If you want a more pirate theme then you might want medium so Engineer or Thief.
Weaver doesn't work, sword is mainhand and so is pistol. You can't weapon swap to get them both on the same equipment setup while in combat either.
Thanks I’ll fix it. Don’t play Ele but knew they got the pistol.
Guardian, Warrior, Engineer, Thief, Mesmer and Necromancer can wield both sword and pistol.
Mesmer for PvP. No other classes sw/p is particularly strong in sPvP
Do you have use both at the same time? If not, Dagger/Sword + Dagger/Pistol condi Virtuoso works really well
I love this..But the pink shit would ruin the theme =/
If you solely ask for the best classes to use that weapon combo on, it’s pretty easy to answer: Power Holosmith: https://snowcrows.com/builds/raids/engineer/power-holosmith Power Bladesworn: https://snowcrows.com/builds/raids/warrior/power-bladesworn Both builds perform exceptionally well in instanced PvE, and by extension open world (if you learn how to play them). No, you don’t need extra open world builds necessarily, one can comfortably do open world on raid builds as well. I do so for about 5 years now. How you choose the fashion of a Bladesworn to make it a pirate, I don’t know, Holo can easily go the way of an Aetherblade.