Commando Archive

I want tomakea quick commentconcerningPistoleers. I dont think the "Launcher Pistol" will be the "best pistol." I think the best master pistoleer weapon will outshine the LP. The LP is a "quick fix" to combat the following problem:

Our prereqs, Marksman and Brawler have no "Heavy Weapons" Accuracy. Accuracy is determined by skills and not by the weapon. So, while Pistoleers start their elite profession with +70 to Pistol Accuracy, and then climb slowly to +105 (excluding BH), Commandos start using their Heavy Weapons with +0 Accuracy.

It climbs quickly however, with +20 and +15 boosts (relative to the +5 and +10 in elite Pistoleers). Naturally, a problem occurs. We cant hit jack with our heavy weapons at first. Compound that with the problem that each weapon has its own Accuracy (Heavy Acid, Flamethrower, ect), and you can see where Commandos have a problem hitting stuff at first (until the +15s catch up with the +5s).

To fix the problem, they added in the "Launcher Pistol." It takes advantage of our previous prereqs (namely novice pistol branch), so we can still kill stuff. It gives us HW exp though, so that we can get our launcher up to the proper accuracy (and speed, ect..using accuracy for an example because its the most obvious).

What I suspect is that every commando will use the Launcher Pistol to get up Flamethrower, and then switch exclusively to Flamethrowers (the max accuracy of FT caps at 80 to 105 of the max accuracy of a pistoleer).

I believe the design goal is to have Launcher Pistols operate at a lower percentage of dps, say 80% of our Heavy Weapons. The trade off for the increased damage of the HW specials is in the inability to hit while moving (no + bonus while moving on any HW).

Commando weapons are situational, and the Launcher Pistol is the "go to weapon," but only for a while.

When you dont have the HW maxxed, it probably operates at 50% or less of your Laucher Pistol, when you have HW maxxed, in the right situation, it probably does much more than 120%. The weapons are designed around various situations, but once all HW are maxxed, there will only rarely be a situation where Laucher Pistol is better than ALL HWs. Understand?

Example:

There are three situations, A, B, and C. There is no situation D. Every combat situation fits within A, B or C.

In situation A, Flamethrowers are the best...we will call this damage 100%. Launcher Pistols are worse than FTs, but better than any other HW.

In situation B, Acid Rifles are the best. Launcher pistols are worse than Acid Rifles but better than all other HW.

In situaion C, the Rocket Launher is best. Launcher pistols are worse than RL, but better than any HW.

Once Maxxed, a Commando will not use the Launcher Pistol any more, because there will be a HW for almost all situations. The problem is "jumpstarting" the weapon, since a flamethrower may suck in other situations.

The launcher pistol is a fix to a problematic aspect of the class. We will never be pistoleers, the launcher pistol will eventually not be our "goto" weapon. We will be using HW exclusively once maxxed. Mark my word.

Thepath to being a commando will be: Do prereqs. Use pistols to get Commando 1. GainElite Pistoleer, use Launcher Pistol to get Flamethrower. Use Flamethrower situational, use LP the rest. Gain Acid, Use Flamethrower and Acid situational, use Launcherpistol the rest. Gain all Commando skills, decertify in Elite Pistoleer.

If you go Master Pistoleer, it will NOT be to use the Launcher Pistol. There are better pistols in the Pistoleer profession, and there SHOULD be.

No one should worry that we are going to be "pistoleers." Its actually a pretty ingenious design to a tough problem. After all, our "big guns" are what makes us special. The other way to fix it would be to have all HW use the same exp, and devout one line in the marksman tree to Heavy Weapon, and just become a specialist. They didnt do that, probably because our weapons will be too tough to use so few skill points (kinda like the BH line).

thoughts?

Interesting perspctive....Meditate on this, i will.

It seems very logical that this would be the case, and I actually planned on doing that. Being able to use pistol special moves is actually a great way to solo when they make the launcher pistol give HW experience. The melee defense knocks down the target, and anyone who's been on the recieving end of a knockdown knows how effective it is.

I don't know about this. Does anybody have the high level heavy weapon skills? I have flame thrower to Flame Single I. When I can actually hit with it, which is very rarely, it doesn't seem to do anything special other than look neat.

I guarantee you the damage from a standard attack is much better than it is from flame single I. I have play tested it extensively. Do the skills really get good enough that they are worth having? Right now, the launcher pistol with overshot II is so going to own my Flamethrower that it's sad.

I really want Commando to work. But with the massive delay, these specials are nearly useless. Do you know what a pistoleer can do to you in the ten or twelve seconds it takes to reset from a flamethrower special move? PvP seems like it is out of the question.

Honestly, I don't think that Commandos were ever designed to dominate solo in PvP. So if you want to just go out there by yourself and own everyone you meet in PvP then you need to specialize in another profession. Commando's, as far as I can see when they're fixed, are designed for group combat in PvP much like Squad Leaders. This will become more apparant when SOE starts implementing vehicles and buildings in PvP. When that happens we will find our nitch. At the moment our profession is way broken and hopefully will be fixed soon, but do not expect we will destroy Pistoleers and Bounty Hunters who seem designed to 1 on 1 PvP on a solo basis.

I have Heavy Weapon Support 4, I have ~90% accuracy, and about 2-4 second delay depending on the cannon