Pistoleer Archive
Thread: Pistoleer FAQ v1.0 (8/20/03)
Pistoleer FAQ v1.0
8/20/03
How to use the FAQ:
If you have a specific question, and you are reading this on the forum, depending on your browser, you should be able to “search or find on this page”. For IE, it’s CTRL+F key. Type in a key word you are looking for and it will scroll through the FAQ for you (And any other posts in this thread). Otherwise, enjoy the read and please, please submit any new info/corrections so we can keep this accurate, and whoever inherits it, will have something good to start from 
Thanks!
Sections:
1. FAQ Question and Answers
- If you don’t find what you’re looking for, please ask to have it added to this FAQ!
2. Pistoleer Skill Advancement and Specials Acquired at Each Box
- I suggest using a character builder, but if you really want to see it, here it is.
3. Ability Name Table
- Confused about a pistol special name? Check here.
4. Pistol Ability Test Data
- What’s the best special? How much damage do they do? How slow are they? What is point blank range? Check here.
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Q. What is health shot 1, health shot 2, sap shot, sap blast?
Q. What are “bleeds” and how do they work?
A. Health Shot 1 is the first pistol bleed a pistoleer gets. It’s obtained in the marksman pistol line at Pistol Specialist rank. When fired, you will see that in the combat window, it’s referred to as “sap shot”. The damage number you see on the combat window is NOT damage you just did. This the VALUE of the bleed. After 20 seconds, your opponent (if not cured), will take the VALUE in HEALTH damage. This will occur every 20 seconds until the bleed expires or is cured. You can use multiple applications of the “/firstaid” skill if you have it, to stop a bleed such as this. Health Shot 2 has a higher damage range, and is called “Sap Blast” in the combat window.
Q. Do Health Shot 1 and Health Shot 2 stack?
A. Yes, you can stack both of these bleed shots, they work independently.
Q. Does Stopping Shot really do what it says, does it stop or incapacitate in one hit?
A. No, descriptions are for flavor. Actually, it IS the highest damage “per shot” pistol special, but it has a slow delay. Once the PvP 75% damage reduction was put in, it could no longer can incapacitate in one hit (in most cases). See the Pistol Ability Table for damage/delay/action cost modifiers.
Q. Is the DX2 any good? Why can’t I find any DX2s with better stats than a scout blaster or FWG5?
A. The DX2 looks to be the best overall pistol in the pistoleer certifications. It does Acid damage, which is uncommon for armor resists, it goes straight through deflector shields, and it has, according to the specs, the highest base stats in terms of damage. The primary issue with getting a GOOD DX2 is that some of the required resources for making them are rare. Because of that, the good DX2 will be a fairly rare find. There is also a question about it’s AR1 rating working properly.
Q. Which pistol tree should I go up first?
A. Stances and Grips:
Why? With dodge broken, BS3 broken, I’d say NOT tactics. Once fixed, I’d probably change first to raise as tactics. Targeted health shots generally kill a mob faster. Accuracy was never an issue before, but might be now, however, using stances in PvE can often overcome accuracy issues, so marksman on the back burner as well. That leaves stances/grips. This line gives good (but as of yet not functioning) defense modifiers, and your bread and butter random HAM damage specials attacks. The pistol special abilities line can be raised independent since it’s combat XP, and is probably overall, one of the best pistol lines to raise.
Q. What does disarming shot 1 do?
A. It’s actually a random HAM damage special that does double damage to lairs. In most cases, this will do the most damage over time of any pistoleer special to lairs. Otherwise, it’s not advisable to use this on opponents/mobs since it does less damage then the default attack mode.
Q. What does disarming shot 2 do?
A. Area of Effect Cone (forward arc), random HAM damage + knockdown. See table for more details.
Q. What does multi-target pistol shot do?
A. See table. Currently bugged we think. Area of Effect Cone random HAM damage somewhere between fan shot and stopping shot in terms of damage, when it works (still being fixed).
Q. Do pistoleers get to wield two weapons (Dual wield)?
A. Not currently. Developer response is:
Quote “This is a great idea. We might be able to do something down the road.”
Q. Why don’t we have holsters? We look silly running around with our pistol drawn.
A. Developer response:
Quote: “This is an extremely difficult change. We’ll look into adding it down the road.”
Q. Why are there so few “pistoleer” pistols (Same for all combat professions)? Don’t we need more than one?
A.Developer response:
Quote: “We’re planning to add more weapons, and that should fix this problem.”
Q. What does dodge do? Why doesn’t dodge work?
A. It “seems” to work vs very low accuracy opponents. We included this in the first pistoleer issues report and the response was “This should be fixed.” So we assume at some point, dodge will allow you to dodge both ranged and melee attacks, we hope.
Q. Why doesn’t pistol melee defense 2 have a knockdown?
A. We don’t know, some don’t think it needs one or should have one, some thing it’s a bug.
Q. Why does Body Shot 2 do more damage over time than Body Shot 3?
A. We don’t know, we’re asking for a fix on this special. At some point it should indeed be better than body shot 2.
Q. How does Pistol Speed work? Is there a cap to pistol speed?
A. (WeaponSpeed * SpecialDelayMod) - (WeaponSpeed * SpecialDelayMod) * (PistolSpeed/100)
And if result < 1.0s , result = 1.0s
So, any speed over +100 does nothing (is overkill) since the minimum attack speed is 1.0 seconds. Yes, that includes with specials.
Q. What’s the best pistoleer special for PvP?
A. Depends. Best random HAM damage = fan blast. Best targeted shot is currently body shot 2 (health). Healthshot1/2 are super as stacked bleeds. Disarming shot2 and pistol melee defense 1 are excellent for knockdown. Multi-target pistol shot..if it works, will be a great AOE random HAM attack. So, the answer is, depends ?
Q. What is pistol whip? When do I get it?
A. See the appendix for a list of all specials and their combat names. Pistol whip is pistol melee defense 1, the first tier special you get in the pistol specials abilities line. It does good melee damage (random HAM) at 7m range and knocks your opponent down.
Q. Why can we not use the launcher pistol and the scatter pistol?
A. You can. (they are commando and bounty hunter only weapons, respectively, you need to train those lines to access them.)
Q. What titles do we get for each line of pistol mastery?
A.
Pistol Tactics: Gunslinger
Pistol Marksmanship: Quick-draw Artist
Pistol Stances and Grips: Expert Gunfighter
Pistol Special Abilities: Elite Guardsman
Master Pistoleer: Master Gunfighter
Pistoleer skills overview:
Pre-requisite skills (5):
Novice Marksman, Intermediate Pistol Skill, Advanced Pistol Skill, Expert Pistol Skill, Pistol Specialist.
Skill Advancement and Specials Acquired:
----------------------------------------------------------
Novice Pistoleer –
Special: Health Shot 2
Skill Mod: Pistol Accuracy +5
Skill Mod: Pistol Speed +5
Certification: DX2 Pistol
Intermediate Pistol Tactics –
Special: Point Blank Single 2
Advanced Pistol Tactics –
Skill Mod: Dodge +10
Expert Pistol Tactics –
Special: Body Shot 3
Skill Mod: Dodge +5
Master Pistol Tactics –
Special: Point Blank Area 2
Skill Mod: Dodge +5
Intermediate Pistol Marksmanship –
Skill Mod: Pistol Accuracy + 10
Skill Mod: Pistol Accuracy While Moving +5
Skill Mod: Pistol Aiming +3
Advanced Pistol Marksmanship –
Skill Mod: Pistol Accuracy + 5
Skill Mod: Pistol Accuracy While Moving +5
Skill Mod: Pistol Aiming +3
Expert Pistol Marksmanship –
Skill Mod: Pistol Accuracy + 10
Skill Mod: Pistol Accuracy While Moving +5
Skill Mod: Pistol Aiming +3
Master Pistol Marksmanship –
Skill Mod: Pistol Accuracy + 5
Skill Mod: Pistol Accuracy While Moving +5
Skill Mod: Pistol Aiming +3
Intermediate Pistol Stances and Grips –
Special: Disarming Shot 1
Skill Mod: Defense vs Stun +20
Advanced Pistol Stances and Grips –
Special: Double Tap
Skill Mod: Defense vs Blind +20
Expert Pistol Stances and Grips –
Special: Stopping Shot
Skill Mod: Defense vs Dizzy +20
Master Pistol Stances and Grips –
Special: Fan Shot
Skill Mod: Defense vs Posture Change +20
Skill Mod: Defense vs Knockdown +30
Intermediate Pistol Special Abilities –
Special: Pistol Melee Defense 1
Skill Mod: Melee Defense +2
Skill Mod: Pistol Speed +6
Advanced Pistol Special Abilities –
Skill Mod: Melee Defense +2
Skill Mod: Pistol Speed +6
Expert Pistol Special Abilities –
Special: Pistol Melee Defense 2
Skill Mod: Melee Defense +2
Skill Mod: Pistol Speed +6
Skill Mod: Pistol Accuracy While Standing +15
Master Pistol Special Abilities –
Skill Mod: Melee Defense +2
Skill Mod: Pistol Speed +6
Master Pistoleer –
Special: Multi Target Pistol Shot
Special: Disarming Shot 2
Skill Mod: Pistol Accuracy +10
Skill Mod: Pistol Speed +20
Skill Mod: Dodge +10
Skill Mod: Ranged Defense +5
Skill Mod: Melee Defense +5
Skill Mod: Pistol Aiming +4
Skill Mod: Pistol Accuracy While Moving +10
------------------------------------------------------------------
Ability Name Table:
------------------------------
Special Name Combat Readout Name
================================================
Body Shot 3 Gut Shot
Disarming Shot 1 Disarming Shot
Double Tap Double Tap
Fan Shot Fan Shot
Pistol Melee Defense 1 Pistol Whip
Pistol Melee Defense 2 Pistol Smash
Point Blank Area 2 Hold Out Shot
Point Blank Single 2 Point Blank Shot
Stopping Shot Stopping Shot
Health Shot 2 Sap Blast
Disarming Shot 2 Disarming Blast
Multi Target Pistol Shot
Most recent damage data (pre-PVP Patch), note DPS, damage modifier, and delay modifier should still be fine to use to determine if a special is better than or worse than another.
PISTOL ABILITY TEST DATA:
pre-patch special ability test data (not 100% accurate, but should be close enough to draw comparisons/determine tactics)
Delay mod 1 2.4 4.0 2.1 2.4 1.8 1.8
Dmg mod 1 4.0 4.7 2.8 2.5 2.1 2.9
dmg/action 5.1 5.3 4.0 2.8 2.6 2.9
action cost 31 35 28 35 31 39
dmg/sec 37.3 62.3 44.5 50.5 39.0 43.8 60.6
sec/shot 1.0 2.5 4.2 2.2 2.5 1.8 1.9
dmg/shot 39.1 156.8 185.7 110.7 97.8 80.4 112.9
==================================================================
N FS SS DT BS3 BS2 PBS2
Delay mod 3.0 2.3 2.5 2.0 2.3 2.5 3.5
Dmg mod 4.3 2.9 4.1 2.0 2.0 2.7 4.2
dmg/action 5.5 4.0 6.6 2.5 2.8 3.5 5.2
action cost 31 28 24 31 28 31 32
dmg/sec 54.4 47.0 60.5 37.1 32.3 41.3 45.6
sec/shot 3.1 2.4 2.6 2.1 2.4 2.6 3.6
dmg/shot 170.1 112.8 158.5 77.5 78.4 107.3 165.7
==================================================================
PBA2 M1 M2 SB DS1 DS2 MTPS
Things break down at +100 speed, however, before then, it seems that:
Best Targeted Pool Shot: Body Shot 2 (eyeshot does 3.1 damage modifier, for reference..did not test delay however due to +100 speed issue)
Best Random HAM Shot: Fan Shot
Never use disarming shot 1 unless you’re attacking a lair.
Dmg mod = Damage modifier. This is using normal attacks as 1.0 reference (which is NOT based on weapon description for max/min damage. The weapon listed damage is actually multiplied by 1.5 to get the normal range of damage you do with that weapon)
Delay mod: Delay modifier
Damage/action = damage done per action point used
Action cost = action cost per shot using a scout blaster, only used to figure damage/action
dmg/sec based on +74 speed CDEF 4.0 speed pistol, 17-35 damage
sec/shot = based on same
dmg/shot = based on same
Key:
N = normal shot
FS = fan shot (random)
SS = stopping shot (random)
DT = double tap (random)
BS3 = body shot 3 (health)
BS2 = body shot 2 (not pistoleer, health)
PBS2 = point blank single 2 (12m range, random)
PBA2 = point blank area 2 (12m range, AOE random)
M1 = pistol melee defense 1 (7m range, random + knockdown effect)
M2 = pistol melee defense 2 (7m range, random)
HS2 = health shot 2 (health bleed, no initial damage, 20s ticks)
DS1 = disarming shot 1 (random, x2 damage vs lairs)
DS2 = disarming shot 2 (AOE +knockdown effect)
------------------
Thanks to the entire pistoleer community for providing many of the questions and answers contained within.
Pistoleer FAQ v1.0 : Jaegen88 and community
Awesome awesome info. I come here and I don't even need to ask anything, all the answers are right here .
Seriously, no other forum correspondent is putting in the effort like this, Jaegen. Thank you sooo much.
what in the heck is wonks?
btw Jaegen great post. Im a pistoleer/smugg/teras and your posts are great, not to slight the other correspondants. you have the most well thought out responces, and you maintain a even keel even when being accused of being a nazi. you must be a supreme court justice or something.
Using these stats, I am finding it hard to figure out what sort of pistols people are laying out 1000+ dmg with using stopping shot... everyone using dmg sliced FWG5's? If so, what are the stats? To get an average of around 1000, you would need an average damage of:
1000/(4.7*1.5) =~ 141
Thats' pretty high.
Cheese
I have a question that should be on the FAQ (I also don't know the answer). Is Fanshot an improved version of Double Tap? I'm assuming it is based one the two descriptions. Double Tap description- Shoots two shots and does more damage than the normal /attack. Fan Shot description- Shoots multiple shots. I hope this question gets on there because I'm sure some other pistoleers out there are wondering the same thing.
Master Gunfighter/Master Squad Leader
