Pistoleer Archive

There are always posts coming up on the Pistoleer forums, asking which weapons are the best for PvP or PvE. Contrary to popular belief, there is no one best weapon. SOE has done a fairly good job in this game of giving each weapon its strengths and weaknesses. Where this balancing act seems to have fallen to the side is in the realm of Player versus Player combat, where Stun, speed-capping, and Personal Shield Generators are the be-all-end-all of survival and victory. This thread is an expansion (a version 1.1, if you will) of a previous post I made to answer just such a question for a new Pistoleer curious about our equipment. If you read that earlier post, most of this will be old news to you, but there are some revisions (typos, grammatical reworkings, etc.), some expansions on notes only briefly discussed in the first post, and a new section (The Basics).

My goal in this thread is to overview the arsenal at the Master Pistoleer’s disposal. It should be seen as complimentary to Rookery’s Guide to Pistoleer Weaponry as a detailed overview of each weapon’s in-game statistics, pros and cons. Where Rookery did an exceptional job of presenting excellent background info for use by us Pistoleer/roleplayers, this guide reflects my impressions on the in-game viability of each weapon. Please keep in consideration that I use some pistols because of their look, not because I think they’re the best weapons for PvE or PvP. I will do my best to outline the strengths of the less-appreciated pistols (such as the D18 and the SR Combat Pistol), but in the end it comes down to each player’s preference as to which he or she will equip on a day-to-day basis.

My advice is always to get the best out of every damage type you can get. Pistoleers have the largest range of damage types of all professions, and they include: Energy, Kinetic, Acid, Heat, Stun, and Blast if you're a Novice Commando. I always recommend to have at least one pistol of every type available on your person, and I also keep a "grind" pistol and a "good" pistol for the most common damage types (Energy, Stun, Acid).

Following is my breakdown of pistols by damage type for your perusal and consideration. The basic outline will cover the three “Novice’s Pistols”: the CDEF, DH17, and D18. Following that I will cover the Pistoleer’s remaining assets by damage type. I will include a comparative discussion of the DX2 and Scatter pistols – since most Pistoleers take BH Pistols to speed cap – so that the Pistoleer may make an educated decision on which to use. I will not, however, discuss the Launcher pistol, since it is not truly a Pistoleer weapon.

The Basics --

In one fell swoop I will cover the basic pistols that I don’t use, and explain why I don’t use them. These three pistols are the CDEF, D18, DH17. These weapons are meant to be the Novice Marksman’s staple. Every new player in the game gets a CDEF Pistol. This pistol is weakness incarnate. It’s damage output (20-60ish) is best compared to the maroj melons you also start with (okay, lame joke there :/). Personally, I don’t even recommend this pistol for the Novice Marksman, as 500 creds and access to a bazaar terminal can get you a much nicer D18 pistol (damage range: 60-140 on a good one, and speed < 2.0). The D18 is Energy damage, and no armor piercing, predictably. This pistol is useful to get you through your first couple of boxes of Marksman Pistols. My impressions of the DH17 “pistol” are the same as the D18’s. Low damage, decent speed, low HAM costs. Both the D18 and the DH17 make equal weapons for the starting Pistoleer, but they won’t last long, most likely.

Two roleplayer’s notes about these pistols. 1) The D18 is the same pistol that Lando’s Cloud City troopers used. Stick a Type 2 scope (ask your weaponsmith) on one, and you’ve got a pretty sweet-looking, albeit pathetically weak, pistol. I really love walking around with these things. This pistol just looks Star Warsy!. 2) I quoted the “pistol” in “DH17 pistol” earlier. That was not a typo, it was intentional. The reason for this is that the DH17 “pistol” look identical to the DH17 carbine. If you examine each, you will see that they are the same artwork. The similarity even extends to its implementation. Anyone who has ever equipped a DH17 (I know, I know, who would ever want to? Well, I know I have…) will know that the DH17 holds like a carbine! That’s right, you don’t hold it with one hand, but with two! Don’t ask the Devs’ reasoning for this, but it’s the case. Check it out next time you’re in game.

Energy --

Energy is the most common damage type found in Pistols, so you have a wide range of options available, depending on your roleplaying style (what kind of look you're going for in a gun), and what kind of damage output you want. Read carefully, as some info here might surprise you.

The DL44 is a weapon that has average speed, and since high quality resources for this weapon are easy to find, it's fairly easy to get a good (non-Krayted!) DL44 for a max damage around 220-250. Mins are around 70-90, which makes it a weaker choice for PvP, since Ranged Mitigation will hurt you there. Low HAM costs are a plus on this gun. Once you’ve outgrown your D18 or DH17, this is the best pistol for the rest of your pre-Novice Pistoleer grind, in my opinion.

The Scout Blaster has generally a faster speed, but lower damage (w/o Krayt tissues, maxes around 160-180). Great accuracy, low HAM costs, and good speed make this an ideal grinding gun early on.

The SR Combat Pistol is my personal favorite (looks amazingly cool with a Type 2 scope!), but resources for this weapon are generally pretty crappy. You need Krayt tissues to make this thing a viable weapon. Below average accuracy, generally lower speed (mine is Krayted, and had a speed of 2.9 before it was sliced!) With 3 base Krayt tissues (+30 max dmg, -0.3 spd) mine was 80-180 dmg, 2.9 speed, so you can see it's a fairly low-quality gun, stats-wise. HAM costs fall in the middle with this one (20-40-20). It's only two redeeming qualities (in my opinion) are: 1. Great look -- I carry mine around and use it for most PvE stuff because it's just sweet looking. 2. This gun has Light Armor Piercing, which means, that while its damage is generally lower than other Energy weapons, it won't suffer the –50% dmg penalty others will when hitting an armored player, and against an unarmored player it will do +25% damage, bumping mine from 80-180 to 100-225 against unarmored players. But I mostly use it for RP purposes.

The Modified Republic Pistol is the average Pistoleer's best Energy weapon. Light armor piercing (AP1), a generally low-to-average minimum damage (60-80) and high max damage (200 isn't uncommon) make this a valuable asset to a novice Pistoleer. Its downers are lower speed (2.6 unsliced is usually what I've seen), lower accuracy at Point Blank Range, and high HAM costs (30-60-30). But if you're buffed and Speed-capped, it's a great weapon. Add the 105 dmg Health Bleed to that mix and you've got yourself probably the most well-rounded (non-DE-10) Energy pistol in the game. Just watch out for players with Ranged Mitigation, as its low minumum damage will make for a pretty serious damage cut in PvP.

It should be noted here that the Republic Pistol (yes, there is one that is not “Modified”) has very similar stats to the “Mod Rep” pistol, but doesn’t include the Health Bleed DOT, making it also very useful if you can’t get your hands on the “Mod Rep” pistol.

The DE-10 is considered the be-all-end-all of Energy pistols. Its high damage (170-500 is not uncommon to see, after a dmg slice), and Light Armor Piercing (AP1) make it comparable in damage output to a Carbineer's Laser Carbine (without the AP2). This pistol blows through Comp armor like nobody's business but it also has its drawbacks. This pistol is generally slower firing, if you're not speed-capped. It's not uncommon to see these things with speeds of up to 3.7 or even over 4.0. High damage comes at a high price, unless you're speed-capped. Also, the HAM costs are high enough that spamming specials with this thing unless you're buffed is going to kill you outright. I've seen 60-80-60 HAM costs on these puppies. Hard to find, difficult to build, but all in all, this weapon is worth having in your arsenal, in my opinion.

Heat (FWG5) --

The FWG5 is the only Heat-damage pistol in the game. This weapon used to be the PvPer's best friend because it could take a slurry of powerhandlers, but it was nerfed long ago. It is now an average pistol with average pistol damage. A good (non-Krayted) FWG5 with a damage slice can get up to 90-240. Average speed, and average HAM costs make this pistol, well, average. It generally has high Ideal accuracy mods, though, which is nice. Against a Heat-vulnerable target, this is a handy pistol to have in your inventory.

Kinetic (Striker) --

The Striker Pistol stands alone as the only Kinetic-based ranged weapon in the game. However, its stats don't even qualify as average unless it's enhanced with Gorax bone shards (rarer than Krayt tissues!), making it a difficult weapon to get into a respectable damage range. Mine is enhanced with (I believe) base Gorax shards, and has a damage of 70-170, speed-sliced. Speed is generally average or slightly above average on these guns (mine was 1.9 before sliced). Also, lower HAM costs are an asset. Accuracy is average, neither great nor poor. I've seen Strikers with really good Gorax shards get up 250 max damage, but these are very rare. This pistol is a weak one, but the Kinetic damage can come in handy against certain mobs.

Acid --

There are two Acid damage pistols in the game. The DX2 (requires Novice Pistoleer), and the Scatter Pistol (requires Novice Bounty Hunter). Acid damage has the benefit of not being affected by PSG protection, so if someone's wearing a Stun-resistant PSG, whip out the Acid Pistol of your choice and go to town.

The DX2 is less often seen than a Scatter pistol because it requires 5 powerhandlers, whereas the Scatter only requires 2. More powerhandlers means that if you want to enhance the DX2 with Krayt tissues, you need more identical Krayt tissues (you need a better loot drop, in other words). DX2s generally don't get much love, but the potential is there to be the best Acid pistol in the game (if you can find 5 identical exceptional Krayt tissues). Without Krayt tissues, however, the DX2 is almost identical to the Scatter in terms of average damage output, speed, and HAM costs.

Both Acid pistols have higher minimums (100-120) than other pistols, making them less susceptible to Ranged Damage Mitigation. Admittedly, most Scatters I’ve seen boast a slightly higher minimum damage than most DX2s I’ve seen, but I think that the DX2’s superior accuracy makes up for that. Maximum damages can be in the 140-180 range, however, making them average in terms of max damage. Speed is average (2.0-2.6), and HAM costs are reasonable (20-40-20-ish). Both have AP1, which makes them very useful in PvP. I already mentioned their immunity to PSGs earlier, so I won't go into that.

Where the two pistols differ significantly is in their accuracy. The DX2 has the benefit of having an above average Accuracy in both the Point Blank and Ideal ranges. The Scatter pistol is notoriously inaccurate in the Point Blank range (-40-ish sometimes!), and has average-to-below average Ideal accuracies. In my opinion, the DX2 makes the better grinding weapon because of its superior accuracy.

Stun --

There are two Stun pistols available to the Pistoleer: the Tangle pistol and the Geonosian sonic blaster. The Tangle is junk, in my opinion, and its horrid artwork doesn’t even warrant it a place in my inventory. Beauty, however, is in the eye of the beholder, so you may yet find an eye candy slot in your inventory for the Tangle. With damage ranges in the area of 60-140, low speed, low HAM costs, and low accuracies, I truly believe this pistol to be the least useful in the game, with the possible exception of the CDEF. :/

The Geonosian Sonic Blaster (often referred to as the Geo blaster, for reasons now known to me – thanks Uthyr!) is considered the best all-around PvP pistol in the game, next to the DE-10. Most Armor types are vulnerable to Stun damage, which makes the Geo blaster ideal for picking a target off where it's weakest. Good damage, and average speed make the DPS on this pistol pretty nice, even for someone who's not speed-capped. Accuracy in most cases is respectable, but not exceptional. The Geo's weaknesses lie in that it has no Armor Piercing (AP0), and its HAM costs can get fairly high.

Also, while this pistol can be looted, looted pistols are almost always of lower quality than what a Weaponsmith can make. One must loot a Geonosian Sonic Blaster Schematic and Geonosian Power Cubes for it to be crafted by a Weaponsmith. These components can be looted from the Geonosian Caves on Yavin IV.

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So that's my take on the Pistoleer’s tools. I hope you find it useful, and more than just a waste of forum space. Hopefully it may even be stickied and earn me a place at the top of the Pistoleer forum . Either way, this is how I see SW:G’s pistols. Resources, loot drops, and therefore stats will vary slightly or significantly between servers, so keep that in mind as you digest this thread.

For those who are interested, in my inventory I keep an SR Combat Pistol, a DL44 (both used mostly for the look/roleplaying and for low-end PvE), a DX2 (110-200) for most PvE, a Krayted Scatter Pistol (200-400 dmg), a Krayted Geno pistol (used predominantly for PvP only), a good FWG5 (max 244), my Gorax-enhanced Striker (max 170), and my Modified Republic Blaster pistol (these are usually easy to find in large numbers, and make nice PvE pistols).

Message Edited by RenKesson on 02-15-2005 11:37 AM

Message Edited by RenKesson on 02-16-2005 06:40 PM

Another 5 stars for your outstanding guide, Ren. Fantastic job. But you still misspelled Geonosian...

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RenKesson wrote:

There are two Stun pistols available to the Pistoleer: the Tangle pistol and the Genosian sonic blaster.

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Uthyr wrote:

Another 5 stars for your outstanding guide, Ren. Fantastic job. But you still misspelled Geonosian...

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RenKesson wrote:

There are two Stun pistols available to the Pistoleer: the Tangle pistol and the Genosian sonic blaster.

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Bah, Uthyr! Editting to fix it.

Seriously, I took like ten minutes going through it and trying to edit them all, lol.

Will also edit to a better colour, although I'm sure that it's not that hard to read. :/

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RenKesson wrote:
Will also edit to a better colour, although I'm sure that it's not that hard to read. :/

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Uthyr wrote:

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RenKesson wrote:
Will also edit to a better colour, although I'm sure that it's not that hard to read. :/

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I had no trouble at all reading it in your original color. Maybe Yohan's monitor contrast or window background color are set differently than ours. If the background was anything other than jet black, I can imagine that it might have been harder to read.

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PercyBlackdragon wrote:

5 starts for a fellow troll.

Of courseI already knew that stuff ... so there.

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Kevie wrote:

two corrections:

the fwg5 (like the scatter and the launcher) used to take both power handlers AND prljectile feed mechanisms

with gorax shards (which were very rare and never fully tested) and krayt tissues (which were fully tested, but alone) people were creating fwg5's with upwards of 700 damage (after slice, that's about the max i've seen) and speeds as low as 0.0s

the bowcaster is the only weapon left in the game that takes both a projectile feed mechanism and blaster power handler

also the striker isn't the only ranged kinetic weapon

the tusken king rifle is also kinetic, just that the stats are horrible and noone's certed for it.... also i seem to remember the lithitanium rifle being kinetic, will look it up

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RenKesson wrote:

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PercyBlackdragon wrote:

5 starts for a fellow troll.

Of courseI already knew that stuff ... so there.

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Of course you did... that's why you wrote "starts".

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Fine be that way. See if I ever give you any more starts on your posts.

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RenKesson wrote:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!11!!!!!!1!!1!!!!!!!eleventy-one!!!!!1

Start me, Percy! Start me long, and start me hard!

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