Carbineer Archive

I am currently a master doctor with 3/1/3/3 in rifleman. Although I realize I'm not a master rifleman, I think I have some descent skills and I've been trying some PvP. I do have a few problems that maybe some of you can help me find a solution to. Also, my stats are 750H, 750A, 1100M, with substats 400 for Str, Con, Quick, Stam, and 600 Focus and Willpower.

1)I obviously often get stuck fighting people who have creatures tailing them around. I can get the good bleeds in, and start kiting, but it doesn't take long before I have a creature on me hitting me for massive damage. Even with a fast rifle and warning shot I can't seem to continue to damage my primary target and keep the pets off me. Eventually I get overwhelmed and get beat down. Sometimes they go down first, but I still can't get back up to DB my enemy before his pets have taken me down I get DBed by the player, or sometimes his pets. I just get hit for so much damage from those melee pets.

2)My AoE attacks don't seem to kill in PvP. Let's face it... most PvPers are commandos or BHs so I have to take them down pretty quickly or I'm gone. They seem to easily be able to outdamage me, especially the BH with that eyeshot. Anyone have any good counters for flame cone 2 and eyeshot? I realize the answer may just be to avoid fighting those two, but that doesn't leave many people that are willing to engage in PvP.

I've seen people post that they rarely lose at PvP or that they can take down 2 to 3 enemies, but I've never been able to so anything close to that. Any ideas for the above two scenarios? If they aren't a CH/BH/Commando then I stand a good chance, but I think that narrows it down to about 3 people on my server.

Until you make Master Rifleman, the only way to beat a 0040 BH is to bleed them with a T21 and then run. If you try to outdamage them or if they chase you and you can't get out of range, you will die.

Even as a Master Rifleman it's a close call. A good scatterpistol + eyeshot will still beat a Master Rifleman with a T21 and HS3. (If the BH is buffed, and most are, then using StrafeShot2 can get you killed.)

I have a high kill ratio and always have, even as a novice, but this is because I stay overt and attack people who aren't ready. Anyone who claims to have an awesome ratio versus BH's who saw them coming is full of it. A BH who is ready for me stands a good chance of winning. There's very little personal skill involved, it's just the simple fact that they can drain my mind pool at the expense of their action pool while I drain their mind pool at the expense of my own mind pool. Do the math.

As for pets... get one. Everyone can have a CL15 pet.
After that I'd suggest picking up some pistol skill, and switch to the pistol when a pet is on you. Warning shot it with the pistol and you won't take nearly as much damage.

This is a risky move at low levels, but I use it a lot at Master: I have a hotkey that does prone, dizzy and suppression fire, and I use that to open a lot of fights. At Master it takes 2 seconds to execute and if both shots land the person will usually stand up and be on their back for the next few seconds. This is great for commandos and bounty hunters.

I say it's risky at lower levels because even a 4444 Rifleman will take like 6 seconds to do these two moves with a T21, and that's too long if they aren't surprised or if they don't try to stand up. A BH can kill you in 4-5 seconds.

As a melee chr (and rifleman on alt) i was rather ineffective in PvP until i got faction pets... attack first and sic your pet (only 1 at a time in case there is backup, i have a row of macros just for this) and they will more than likely fight the pet rather than you... with 3 stormtrooper commandos i was able to take out (in a confined space) 5 different BH/commandos in a short period of time (pre-revenge TEF nerf) without getting my butt kicked... eventually though they finally were able to wear me down (add kill my pets)...

as a rifleman i need the open field (and pets) to survive in PvP... TEF sniping (as cowardly as it is) isvery possible as all the coverts run back to town and can't do a thing until you've already popped the bleeds on em... if they fix the bleeding spraystick pvp will be MUCH easier... the damage on it is no whereeven nearunsliced non-krayt FWG5 due to bugged component parts... unless not being able to experiment on them isn't being bugged...

I wouldn't personally advocate using faction perks to fight with. A TKA or Commando can kill your Storm Commando in literally 4 seconds. If they're smart they'll ignore you and kill your pets. They die and lose 20 faction but they killed your pet so you lost 400+ faction. I'd call that a win for them.

I didn't realize there was such a speed difference between just being 4/4/4/4 and a master. I always hesitate to use anything other than mindshots and AoE attacks in PvP. It seems that if I'm using bleeds, then HS I just seem to make the BH's job easier. I've had mixed success using the dizzy tactic. I don't have a problem landing the dizzy, just the suppression shot. The battle is usually over before I can reuse the suppression shot and no one seems to change position, just run and blast with the scatter or the FT.

I'll have to try and use a creature pet more. I have a few, but they are so weak they get blasted right away. I guess if they are able to buy me a little time that's all I need. I haven't been so lucky using the faction pets. I tried using a stormtrooper in a few battles with a CH. The CH had two Grand Wrix, when I sent my faction pets in after the GWs they stood away, blasted, but nothing ever switched to my pets. I was incapped then my faction pets were picked apart while I was down. It was too demoralizing to lose 1k faction points in a single fight.

Overall I'll just have to keep grinding away until master. I just felt like I was ready for PvP since I do so well in PvE. Overall I don't think I should have an advantage against a BH or commando, just be able to put up a good fight and win one from time to time.

Guys the 75% pvp thing is gone so we can kill them in one shot, but then again so can almost any class in the game

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RebRifle wrote:
Guys the 75% pvp thing is gone so we can kill them in one shot, but then again so can almost any class in the game

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No, you misunderstand. The bug was that they were taking off 75% and then taking off [i]another[/i] 75%. The fix is that they removed the second instance, so PvP is back to a 75% reduction.

But yes, Master Rifleman is +20% rifle speed. Doesn't sound like much, but you have to figure it's the difference between 70% and 90%.

So a shot that has a base of 10 seconds takes 3 seconds as a 4444 rifleman and it takes 1 second as a Master Rifleman -- 3 times as fast! So while 20% doesn't sound like much it's actually a massive improvement. If you get Master Marksman you get another 5% and once again 90% to 95% is a huge improvement, a shot that takes 20 base seconds would take 1 actual second rather than 2 (and some attacks really do have a base of about 20 seconds because they multiply the rifle delay by like 2-3 times -- with 90% speed improvement I still can't fire StrafeShot2 once per second with a T21 sliced for speed.)

If I only had the points left to master marksman *sigh*. Unfortunately being a master doctor and a master rifleman doesn't leave me enough to get that extra 5% speed increase. Oh well, I'll have to live with a 90% speed reduction.

Personally I find the last skill box in BH carbineer useless. I have enough accuracy granted from the first 3 to hit defense stackers and enough speed to hit the 1 second cap using specials. I use my remaining sps in novice medic as a good 400 power stim B comes in handy at times, especially if HAM costs get you (cant always get a good quickness/strength buff). As far as PvP strategy I use 4 different carbines. 1 for speed, 1 for accuracy, 1 for damage, and 1 to use incase I find myself without substantial food buffs or doctor buffs and have to avoid outgrageous ham costs. To start off a battle or if I want to Kd/dizzy/stun someone I use my accuracy gun. This way I can almost always hit a person with the states until they stick. I use fireknockdown and wildshot for these states. Fireknock down does kd/dizzy and wildshot does stun. Again, no need for that confusion shot because it just gives the stun/dizzy states which can already be accomplished the combo of 2 different shots. Then I switch to my powerful carbine and start firing off burstshot and cripple shot. Now I dont know the exact penalties stun and intimidate do, but I have noticed from a lot of PvP experience that when I am either stunned, intimated, or both my attacks slow down quite a bit, but If I switch to a faster firing carbine then they go at normal speed. That what I use my speed carbine for. So yeah, as a BH/carbineer I would be using Fireknockdown and Wildshot to get those states on yoru enemy, then burshot and cripple shot to kill them. One good strategy is to try and save your knockdowns for when you have your target low on health or action. That way when they get ready to heal you can kd them and finish them off before they heal. Also a good thing to use if they get up from the kd faster than expected is to use supression shot 2. It can change their posture and can even dizzy knock them down again, which is good to use if you are still under the kd timer from your previous kd.

Message Edited by JangusFett on 03-13-2004 06:41 PM