Pistoleer Archive
Thread: Are we really that bad?
As correspondent for the profession RadonB is trying to gauge the consensus of all pistoleers. It’s not easy but in the main I think he has it right. They are not necessarily reflective of his own opinions though.
To answer though I can only give you my personal thoughts on the subject and these are as follows.
The obvious one is your appraisal of Body Shot 3. Whilst you might be happy that it only works at Master Pistoleer I am slightly less then happy with this. I want it to work properly at Pistol Grips 3 where we get it, and this in turn will make it yet stronger at Master Pistoleer. Some people get BS3 as their 4th box in the tree ( not everyone goes up techniques ) and at that point it is woefully underpowered since they have very low pistol speed. It is wrong that they will then have to go through the majority of the profession with a skill that is no use to them. Finally on this matter it is arguable that if BS3 is only supposed to work properly at Master Pistoleer it should in fact be moved to the Master Pistoleer box.
With regard to Stopping Shot. Technically the shot isn’t broken but it certainly bears some scrutiny. The description says that stopping shot will stop a target in its tracks and before the game went live this was the case. Now it merely does random damage that cannot be counted on. Also stopping shot does not follow the natural curve of games in that you are supposed to get better shots the more you advance. The DPS on this is lower then on other skills gained earlier, some even from the Marksman tree until once again people hit master and reduce the delay on the move. Since most people do go up Techniques first this once again leaves them a skill that does not become beneficial sometimes for several months after they received it.
Healthshot 2 is a debatable subject. Personally I’m happy it doesn’t do too much damage because it sucks away my experience but I may not feel that way when I finish my template. The fact is that as Health Shot once was the initial damage was never applied one the first hit. It was simply used to determine the amount of damage per bleed. As such Carbineer’s and Riflemen got more damage out of the bleeds. This is once again a subject for argument since whilst it’s certain that a more powerful gun will do more damage, do you think you’d bleed more or less if I shot you in the arm with a pistol or a rifle. I suspect that it really wouldn’t be that different.
But after the change it now does damage on the initial strike also, with less bleeding thereafter.
If you look at the situation where pistol definitely stood at a disadvantage due to their size we now effectively get double nerfed in that we do less damage on the initial strike, and we do less damage per bleed. This has a compound effect which means that since the patch our bleeds do much less in comparison to rifle now, then they did in comparison to a rifle bleed pre-patch.
I had this impression of Pistoleer when doing the holo grind. When I saw everyone saying Pistoleer sucks, I felt itwasn't that bad after hitting Master (before Master it was almost like playing a Novice profession). However, after being Commando (before nerf), Carbineer, Rifleman, Teras Kasi, Smuggler, ect.....because of the holo grind, I can say this is the worse Ranged Profession in the game at the moment.
Pistoleer is the equilvalent of Pikeman in mele. Sure, I can take on Rancors, fully buffed w/ comp armor but Rifleman can take Rancors down before even getting hit while I'm having to tank the sucker for 15-20 seconds. Rifleman are the best Ranged and possible the best PvE and PvP (besides CM) class in the game. Then there's Bounty Hunter and Carbineers. Carbineers used to be horrible, I know I was Master at one point. Now they have some kick ass specials. AoE Ranged k/d and dizzy with bleeds, need I say more. They have a reason to be in the game, crowd control. Bounty Hunter's, well their defense really sucks and they get waisted if the player is not smart in tatics (this was evident in the genosian cave merc room, as teras I tore up 20 at once while a Bounty Hunter got ganked by 3). However their specials are pretty good, meaning they actually have options on the toolbar unlike Master Pistoleers.
You mentioned stoppingshot, sorry that is a weak special if I've ever seen one. First off even when Carbineers were broken they still had Crippleshot, I would average 3-4k per shot with a non-krayted laser carbine (this is against mobs that have 40% energy resists). Now lets look at stoppingshot, a long delay and I only get 1-2k at MAX damage if the target has weak resists against my gun (I've not used it since Mastering the Smugglerprofession). Then you mentioned Fan Shot, possible the only special I use in Pistoleer besides Healthshot2. Fan Shot is nice for kiting things. However, I suggest you go into a dungeon....lets say the new genosian dungeon. Please try to use this special and tell me how fast you die. You will agro everything in the cone area, hence the special is not used 90% of the time if I have my pistol out. Great special but you can only use it if there is nothing around your target(s).
You mentioned that you think Healthshot2 and Bodyshot3 should also be moved to working? Seeing how Bodyshot3 does the same damage as Bodyshot2, tell me again why you think thats working. Carbineers had the same problem with Legshot if I remember correctly, it was fixed with most of their other specials (I think). We on the other hand have been left out of any fixes (oh ya forgot Republic Blaster cert got moved....how cool). Rifleman can Mindshot you for 400 damage with his jawain PvP while my Bodyshot3 is doing 25-50 unless I happen to be one of the luckiest people on the server and loot a pistol schematic (then my damage might be 50-100 lol).......tell me again who has the advantage specially since both professions fire at the speed cap. Healthshot2, well I dont know exactly whats wrong besides it not doing more damage like its supposed to do now that the bleed was nerfed.
Dont get me wrong, I think there is potential for Pistoleer to be a good profession. We have great defense mods butthat isALL we have at the moment. Seeing the only Pistol specials I use come from the Rouge line in Smuggler, I question why we even need the Pistoleer profession in this game. I know you think Pistoleer rocks (and yes I did have fun with it for at least a couple weeks) but try playing a profession that is not broken and I bet you will come back to this forum saying I can't believe Pistoleer is so broken. May I suggest Rifleman or Teras Kasi....you can then explore dungeons that were impossible before. Amazing what you can do with a working profession.
RylanStorm wrote:
I give up...it's not worth thinking about.
I pity the Squad Leaders if they just change the description to what their specials do.
I remember when I fist PVP'ed, Me and a group of imperials went up to the hill in bestine to go overt and kill some rebels that were in town. Next thing I knew I was knocked down and dead in a matter of seconds. What was the cause of this might you ask? It was disarming shot and 1 stopping shot. And this was about a month after release so the weapons were weak and I know the pistoleer who killed me was not a master and he had a scout blaster. I know this is old pvp I am talking about but it seems as if the pistoleer profession was nerfed and has not been revamped for the new pvp we all play now.
We are very broken I dont care who you are or what your argument is we are way unbalanced and way behind the other classes in pvp. I only hope the developers can see this and fit us in with their schedule. Maybe after they make stopping shot do some damage and fix broken moves like disarming shot 1 and 2, pistol melee 2, body shot 3, and the pointblank moves we may be ok in pvp with our defenses we just arnt a profession that kills in one shot or does massive damage. I suggest since we do not have massive damage and we target random pools or the health pool which is either buffed or easily healed we deserve somehting that can do some damage in pvp like maybe a taunt which makes your target intimidated and stunned.
But pistoleer being soo broken is what caused a good friend of mine to quit the game because he was tired of getting pwned by novice bounty hunters spamming eyeshot. He told me "expert bounty hunter equals master pistoleer mod's times 2" we deserve some attention SOE I want to be like han solo but imperial 
and kick some friggin A$$!
RAWK_STAR wrote:
I remember when I fist PVP'ed, Me and a group of imperials went up to the hill in bestine to go overt and kill some rebels that were in town. Next thing I knew I was knocked down and dead in a matter of seconds. What was the cause of this might you ask? It was disarming shot and 1 stopping shot. And this was about a month after release so the weapons were weak and I know the pistoleer who killed me was not a master and he had a scout blaster. I know this is old pvp I am talking about but it seems as if the pistoleer profession was nerfed and has not been revamped for the new pvp we all play now.
We are very broken I dont care who you are or what your argument is we are way unbalanced and way behind the other classes in pvp. I only hope the developers can see this and fit us in with their schedule. Maybe after they make stopping shot do some damage and fix broken moves like disarming shot 1 and 2, pistol melee 2, body shot 3, and the pointblank moves we may be ok in pvp with our defenses we just arnt a profession that kills in one shot or does massive damage. I suggest since we do not have massive damage and we target random pools or the health pool which is either buffed or easily healed we deserve somehting that can do some damage in pvp like maybe a taunt which makes your target intimidated and stunned.
But pistoleer being soo broken is what caused a good friend of mine to quit the game because he was tired of getting pwned by novice bounty hunters spamming eyeshot. He told me "expert bounty hunter equals master pistoleer mod's times 2" we deserve some attention SOE I want to be like han solo but imperial
This was oh so long ago. This was an outright nerf to our profession. This was way back when Pistoleer and Creature Handler was the most popular combo profession. Now, both have been scaled back so much that hardly any people are left with these.
RylanStorm wrote:
Ok, I assume you're joking now right?
Let me save the developers some work then and I'll rewrite all the descriptions so they can copy and paste it.
Body Shot 2 - Medium damage to a targets health pool.
Health Shot 2 -
Disarm Shot 1 - Low damage shot which takes more HAM then the normal attack.
Double Tap - A low strength attack which hit's random pools and use more HAM then body shot.
Stopping Shot - A medium strength random pool attack with a long delay and over average HAM drainage.
Pistol Melee Defence 2 - Alow strength attack which does not knock your target down.
PointBlankSingle 2 - A medium damage
I give up...it's not worth thinking about.
I pity the Squad Leaders if they just change the description to what their specials do.
It is my belief that the description is originally what the special did and what the devs intended it to do. Then for whatever reason, coding problem, to much damage...whatever else reason they could think of, they changed what it did. SOE seems to be OK with changing things and not changing its description or not telling you why they changed it or why it is not like its description.