Pistoleer Archive

I'm currently a buck private Novice Pistoleer - no additional boxes yet. But I've just gotten enough XP for my first box, and I'm trying to figure out what to do.

I'm not a huge combatant, but I'd like to make the most of what I do have. My possibly relevant other skills:

Scout: 4-3-0-0
Marksman: 0-4-0-3
Medic: 3-0-0-0

And I do virtually 100% PvE, mostly solo as well.

For my "budget," I was thinking I could afford 12 points in Pistoleer, or "3 boxes up" by dropping Ranged Weapon Support III. Though it just occurred to me that a fourth box is only 2 points, which I could obtain by freeing up points from Ranged Weapon Support 2.

My questions are basically:
1. Is trading off Ranged Weapon Support for Pistoleer worth it?
2. What Pistoleer line should I go up?

And while the 4th line looks attractive, the rate of advancement in Combat XP is too slow for me to seriously consider, even by my pokey standards.

if you are solo, and have no pet, i would highly recommend, i repeat highly recommend taking ranged support 4. warning shot works great on animals, and suppession fire helps to keep npc attackers at bay. i would honestly suggest completely dropping trapping and drop down to medic 2000. this would give you 19 points to invest into pistoleer. i would suggest goin up the tech line for defences, and the money shots (stopping and fan). then i would suggest taking the first line of stances for the extra melee defense, and even more importantly- pistolmelee1, not to mention a little extra speed. being a retired near master, i can honestly tell you that'll get you the most bang for your buck.

Hi Bindi!

imagine meeting you here

anyway.... i have to say that i concur with Travek for the most part. I think that without going up the marksman line in pistol, you'll be well served to keep ranged support. warning and suppresion are both extremely useful.

agree that dropping to 2000 medic would be a good move (keep first aid).

agree that you probably dont really need trapping either. those points would probably get you a lot more bang for your buck in the pistoleer tree. you might consider dropping some of the explore line too. its painful, i know, i went from explore 4 to none.... but with mounts available and vehicles soon to be... do you NEED it? if anything... maybe drop explore 4 and get hunt 1 and 2, as these will help you harvest more from creatures. i'm sure that, as a tailor, the more hides you can get per kill the better! something to think about anyway

as far as the pistoleer tree goes, its kind of a tough call. fanshot rules the day. if you can free up the points to get that line, and maybe pick up stances 1 for pistol whip (as Travek suggested), i think youd be in good shape. be advised that thelower 3 boxes of the tech line arent the fastest specials, and you'll still end up using bleeds and body shot 2 a lot.

send me a tell or an email anytime if you have any concerns, it's always good to talk to you

good point on the mask scent. if you rely on it a great deal, losing it would definitely have an impact on your tactics. its been a while since i had it now, but wasn't it changed so that entering combat automatically breaks the mask scent? personally, i dont really find that the lack of a 'concealed' opening shot makes a huge difference when i take on mob's.

as for the trapping question... i'm just not the best person to answer that one definitively. the only experience i have with it really is on an alt i rarely play (who has aspirations of being a bounty hunter, someday). in Bindi's case (my tailor ), i thought that the hunting skills might prove more valuable overall.

Hi Chachi!

I actually do have Hunting I currently, though I was thinking that might be the next thing to go to free up my first Pistoleer box. It's nice, but I get about 80% of my hides from other players anyhow....

I was also planning to eventually get rid of First Aid III, but holding on to it *while* progressing up Pistoleer struck me as a good idea. And now that I just picked it up, I really really like it.

I've found Trapping to be really nice, especially those "slow-down" darts, and Exploration IV is pretty vital for my current tactics, such as they are, against strong targets (especially NPCs) - "annoy one, run like hell, get him to follow without all his friends." With Exp IV, I can actually pull that off a fair amount of the time. Though one or the other might have to go, since Trapping and Exploration are serving more or less the same tactical purpose. One gets bad guys out of the fight by speeding me up, one by slowing the other guys down. (From experience and advice, btw, it seems like the Trapping I and II traps aren't especially useful, and the Trapping IV traps are underwhelming. But both of the Trapping III ones can really kick butt, particularly used together.)

I do have a pet, just not a terribly good one, being a non-CH (either a bearded jax or a kaadu), as well as an Advanced Probot. Offensively they ain't much, but they do draw some heat away from me.

Sounds like the consensus is that I should start out on the Stances and Grips path. I was thinking another argument in favor of that is that the new "Mitigation" abilities are slated to go there whenever they're introduced.

Oh, on Maskscent, in the last patch, they changed it back, so now it *doesn't* automatically break upon entering combat, which is cool. I've found it to be a very nice, reliable way of avoiding combat I really don't want to get into.

I was impressed when I went to Dantooine for the Act II endgame, and never got aggroed by a single nasty critter while gallivanting all over the planet, mostly it seems due to my Maskscent.

just to clarify.... i would say techniques over grips.... the specials in the grips line are not overly useful. the dodge is very nice, but not as useful as the specials in the tech line, imho. stances 1 rules though! nothing like pistol whipping a 50 foot turtle

aren't skill points fun?

I keep forgetting what the new names for all the skill trees are, and all the online resources seem to use the old names.

i know! i was just looking over the FAQ for some reference and i noticed the same thing.

the 4 trees are Grips / Marksmanship / Techniques / Stances...

after all this have you come up with a different # of skill points you will have to play with? just curious

Yeah, I haven't quite figured out exactly how many points I'll end up putting into Pistoleer, but I've definitely got enough to go up to Techniques IV and figure something out from there. At my rate of advancement, that'll probably be 3 months away and coincide with getting my first starship.

Just got Techniques I today, and experimented with some stuff I hadn't messed with much before:

- is Disarming Shot good for much? IIRC, it's actually good for destroying lairs, but little else, is that right?

- I'm not sure I get what Warning Shot is supposed to do. When I use it (followed by /peace), it seems to just make the target mad, in the usual fashion.

One of the things I'm just now starting to figure out is that knowing when and where to use /peace is very important....

If you solo PVE, and you don't have extra points to spare, then Warning Shot from Ranged Support 3 is THE shot to have. Anytime you're attacked by creatures, you can scare off your enemies. Sometimes avoiding fights altogether is the best way to go, especially if you don't have loads of combat skills.

Oh, and Ranged Support 4 is trash. Those 5 points are MUCH better spent in the box that offers PistolMeleeDefense1 (pistolwhip), which is a great, fast,up-close Knockdown. Suppression Fire is a dim shadow compared to pistolwhip, and works far less frequently.

In addition to getting pistolwhip, you'll also pick up some Melee Defense and Speed. That's a nice combo to have. It ansolutely decimates anything you can get in Ranged Support 4.

Be a smuggler or BH...better yet a Riflewoman...Pistoleer is a gimped profession! Our specials don't work (or just suck! random ham random ham random ham), Our pistol (DX2 is broken) they nerfed the only good pistol we could get (FWG5) nerfed our specials!...soooooo not really that much to look forward to!

Another issue with dropping your explorer line in scout that hasn't been mentioned here is that you loose you ability to effectivly /maskscent. I don't know about you all, but I never use a pet and mask scent allows me to get a few shots off before the critters even find out who's hitting them. As for dropping the trapping line... traps are very usefull. First off, the phenticine (sp) darts the effectively snare your foe are VERY usefull for getting out of stick situations or immobilizing unexpected adds. the glow juice traps will help you make up for your lack of pistol accuracy when facing larger prey (provided you get one to stick). Anyhow, there are alot of options out there, hope you find one that works for you.