Commando Archive

Judging by the Damage per Second calculations I made on the Spreadsheet, an unsliced Rocket Launcher should outdamage a Master Rifleman with an unsliced T21 on all targets where Blast resist is about equal to Energy resist. The problem is that a single T21 can be used to take out hundreds of Nightsister Elders and Krayt Dragons (trust me, I've done it), while an Elder would take roughly 500 Rockets to kill. Considering she's Armour 3 and 100% to everything but Blast and Energy, there's little alternative for the Commando in terms of weapon choice. Also note that with minimal expenditure, I can cap out my Rifle speed and use a damage sliced and powered up T21, and completely eclipse the Commando in terms of DPS.

Let's say I buy 4 T21s at 50k each, get a good damage slice on one of them. I also buy three crates of powerups at 4k each. Total expenditure of 212k (though I get a 700+ max T21 out of it). It takes about 3 powerups per Elder. I now easily have enough tools there to kill 30 NS Elders. For the Commando, however, you need 500 RL or HPBC shots to kill just one! Call it 15 HPBCs, I'm being optimistic here. 20k credits each. That's 300,000 credits just to kill a single Elder, when a Rifleman spends less and -outdamages- the Commando on 30.

To the other point, an unsliced RL (1190-3900 6.5) will outdamage an unsliced FT (440-840 4.8) at Master, since the RL speed modifier at Master is +60, and the RL has AP.

I think the Consumable expense problem simply stems down to the fact that almost every other profession can get the same volume of damage out of a similarly priced weapon to the consumables, and in some cases, in the same time frame too. In the most optimistic case, a Commando spends 20,000 credits to get a weapon which will average 60,000 damage in 30 shots. Now this might be justifiable if it meant that the Commando eclipsed all other classes in damage using this weapon, but they don't.

The whole lack of tactical use comes down to "Is it worth spending 700cr per shot to hit 2000 damage per second." Where a Rifleman, a BH w/ LLC, a Capped or BH Dabbling Pistoleer or a Capped or BH Dabbling Carbineer can get that damage rating without that cost. After all, even spamming specials with powerups, you lost one condition point every 4 shots? So you get 2000 shots per weapon before you have to repair it? The only weapons I've ever seen costing 1.4 million credits are Krayted and/or with high damage slices.

Not wanting to look totally negative, how about a solution? Well, we already have one. Reloadable launchers. Create a one-off launcher that you only have to carry one or two around, and WS made Ammo Packs. I could live with a drop in DPS if it meant a sizable drop in credits per damage point dealt. If Rockets cost roughly as much as grenades, it'd be a far better option, though hopefully the value of both can be changed.

I agree to every word you have said Garvin.

Onc again, the problem here comes when you compare commando to other professions. If you're going to raise the FT price for that reason, then you'll need to raise the price of all the other weapons as well. I'm not kidding when I say that I easily out-damage my FT with a decent DX2 and fanshot. These things cost me 15k and I have yet to actually loose one to decay - wheras I can blow through a 20-50k HPBC in 30 seconds easily.

That is the fundamental problem with heavy support weapons.

Message Edited by dpuWookiee on 08-25-2004 02:47 PM

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jRaylianholy wrote:

skill tapes please even though making things bigger dont help i like to keep dreaming.

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Can't say any specifics, but remember TH's post awhile back regarding taking our Heavy Weap mods back to a more generic form like in beta...I'm happy I hung onto a few of my beauties...all in good time....

The issues you're addressing, the things that have so desperately needed to be fixed for so long, are the very things that drove me to drop master and retain only the shock trooper title. Why have the developers taken so long, dragged their feet, to fix very basic problems that make Commando so much of a joke in combat? (One useful weapon, several nearly useless weapons that are so frustrating no one wants to bother with them, no melee defense, grenades that blow us up and not our opponents.)

Some of these issues should have and could have been dealt with in so many mini-publishes and it would have placated the general community for some time and would have encouraged a number of masters to stay with the profession. Instead, commandos come and go as quickly as the shuttle. I stuck with it for months-from the beginning I was set on Master Commando, and once I made it there it was great but not as good as I felt it should be. I stuck with it, watched the posts, hoped, hoped...hoped...but eventually I had to drop MC, and take up a melee profession where I actually get defense and don't have to wait forever between specials.

Garvin, you do a great job and I'm impressed with your efforts. Keep up the great work and maybe I'll be enticed to try out the 'new commando' when you finally get through to the developers.

Message Edited by kenrw24 on 08-29-2004 08:50 PM