Dual Pistols Underpowered?

As the topic says, the reason I feel this way is for Two very good reasons..

1> Long animation times.

2> Low Damage vs other sets


What do you think?

The animations seem long, or at least have a large build up, but then the projectile is near-instant.
Other powersets have a slower projectile, so you shoot earlier in the animation but it all arrives at the same time.
At least that's my view on it.

As far as damage, are you running in Fire Ammo? That's like +20% damage over any other ammo type from what I've seen post.

The reason Dual Pistols feels weaker than other sets is (according to the Devs) the inherent flexibility you have with Swap Ammo being able to switch the type of secondary damage/effect you are putting out.

That being said, I agree with you. First, yes the animation times seem a bit longer, but with the whole set based off of flashy moves, I really can't complain as I like most of the animations. As for the damage output... I disagree that Swap Ammo makes up for the lack of damage. When the power descriptions say "minor debuff" they mean it. It seems I would have to slot the power for, say for example, Slow if I wanted Cryo Ammunition to actually slow down my opponents long enough to take them out quickly. And that kind of takes away from the flexibility aspect.

Long story short: The "flexibility" does not put it on par with higher damaging sets. I don't want to have to use Incendiary Ammo just to kill the bad guys. I think the secondary effects should be buffed a bit. Until then, I find the KB and -DEF that comes with using the regular ammo to be far more useful than the Swap Ammo effects.

The feeling could come from the lack of Aim.

DP isn't underpowered. Fire Blast is overpowered

But yeah, I seem to remember someone doing the number crunching and finding them to be rather "mid table" when is comes to blasters (though you really have to use Fire rounds all the time), and I'd rate them a higher for defenders (maybe corrs too), due to the secondary effect of chem rounds. AoE -25% dam debuff? Yes please .

One of the main limiters to the set's performance is one of its main attractions - the animations. When you start getting into how much damage/time you can dole out with a mature build, damage per animation time becomes a key metric for determining your best attacks. Because of its long animations, DP has some unusually low values for its attacks in terms of this metric. As mentioned, this probably is most noticeable on a Blaster, where pumping out gobs of damage is how you stay alive, generally as opposed to things like secondary effects on your attacks.

For my 2 inf, I think AT and pairing can change the feeling. I have a DP corr at 50, and I thought it was a great ride there. I was paired with /traps, which went well with DP.

I did start a DP blaster (with /EM). Not high enough to get a feel for it overall, but it does feel clunky going from blaster to melee, whereas traps was fire and forget, letting me blast more.

dp/dev works pretty well -- if nothing else, it's a good theme, and it works well. I tend to do things like toss trops, then sit there shooting people while they run ineffectually towards and away from me.

I run a 50 DP/MM and it's a blast, no pun intended. The damage is not as great as on a fire blaster, but it's good enough that I'm still doing considerably more damage than any other non-blaster on the team. Paired with MM, I get an Aim and another decent PBAoE and Drain Psyche which is a big ball of goodness. And the whole set LOOKS great. Take that for what it's worth, but it's FUN, and isn't that really the ultimate goal? This game is so damn easy that doing those extra few bits of damage probably isn't going to make a lick of difference outside of PvP. Enjoy what the set offers. Then play a fire/fire and enjoy what that set offers; it's different, but still cool.

My DP/Dev, Gentlemanhunter, is the least fun of my Blasters in terms of bang for the buck, although the flexibility of Swap Ammo makes for an OK diversion in gameplay. I'm beginning to think that I should have got DP/Traps, so I just made a Praetorian Corruptor, Gentlemanslaughter.

Otherwise, I'd like to see Swap Ammo include something from the Malta Gunslingers' arsenal, either the AoE Explosive Tips or the Foe Sleep, -Regeneration Narcotic Darts. (Cue the complaints about over-powering.)

Hail of Bullets being on a 120 second timer is very satisfying to use on a fresh spawn. Other then that, it's all flash and little substance. Just a basic set. Not bad... but not great. I like it as a defender secondary. The set is not enough by itself to define you by itself, but it does serviceable damage to keep you busy between uses of your important powers.

Re: Dual Pistols Underpowered?

Yes.

Animation times are long on some powers, but the IMO set's overall performance is very difficult to measure. There is no way to directly compare it to other sets. It is the only set, for example, that has both a crashless nuke and substantial debuffs, making it very attractive for some Defenders. On Blasters, the main draw for me is the ability to toggle knockback on when its beneficial and off when it isn't. My main character, Oedipus Tex, is a Pistols/Dark Corruptor (rerolled from his original Earth/Therm and then Earth/Storm Controller versions), and the combo was very rewarding, especially on teams. I believe the knockback in Executioner's Shot becomes Knockdown against +4 enemies, which proved very beneficial when tagging un-taunted bosses on the fringes of team battles (surprising no one has ever written a guide about this kind of thing).

Long story short, if you're looking at it only by examining a spreadsheet its going to disappoint you, but in the actual context of the game it's a lot better. The only bullet type I rarely/never use is Cryo. I wouldn't mind a slight reduction in animation times and slight tweak to Cryo bullets but "underpowered" is, IMO, a stretch, unless half the power sets in the game are underpowered.

DP need a buff in damage.
Also a martial arts secondary with some kicks, build up, and caltrops