I guess everyone has different goals. My goals in PvE is to make money while keeping my K/D ratio as high as I can. I've tried using the gun for the last hour and the result is that either I die a lot or I use a ton of potions. I've been doing mostly Jarl runs. And here is my experience...
With my charward rod equipped, when I run into area before jarl, I hit the mob there with a charged fireball, and then charged freeze, and then I spam attack until fireball recharges, and then I do one more charged fireball, and then another charged freeze, and then a few more spam attacks and that usually finishes off the mobs before I take any damage nor have to use any potions. At that point I'm still usually at 100% health and 80% mana.
When I use the watch rifle, after hitting the mob with charged fireball and charged freeze, I then need to use lightning (not so useful on a mob), and then I try to spam attack, but only get off one hit usually with the slow riffle. At this point I usually start to take some damage, and end up using my heal skill or have to spam pots. Finishing off the mob takes a third round of skills spent instead of only two. And because I use lightning too, my mana is usually down to around 50% by that point, and I've usually had to use 5-10 health pots.
As for Jarl himself, It's hard to tell if I cause more or less damage. I seem to beat him in about the same time. Normally for Jarl I would use Lightning, then Frost (neither charged), then spam attack until Lightning cools down. But now I am forced to use fire as well because I can't really spam the riffle as it's too slow. So yes there is extra damage being inflicted, but about 2 less hits per round by me. Seem to end up with a similar result, but I run my mana down much faster and need to use a few mana pots.
In the end, I spend extra potions when using the riffle. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but if I spend 100 gold worth of potions on every Jarl run, that significantly cuts into making money. Maybe for PvP the riffle would be good. But for simple economic farming, for me I'd say no. Maybe others who play differently or have different goals or fighting styles would prefer it.
I only wish the matching armor and helms had decent stats too. I hate mismatching gear. I like to look good!
So for now I'll just stick with my demonologist set and matching wand.
Bookmarks