Pistoleer Archive

Okay, one final key question:

Let's assume I've got all the experience I can get as a pistoleer (Master Pistoleer - I'm not there yet, but someday I will be),what should I belooking for inthe following:

A good slicedblaster - what sort of numbers should I be seeking (is 100 to170 damage too low?)and what sort ofspeed?

A good powerup - 32% is the best I've seen so far for any one stat - is that the maximum possible?

Armour - what's the best to use against creatures in general(I'm not much into PvP yet)?

Is there anything else I should be aware of that can increase my effectiveness?

Thanks.

Right now I'm just getting into the first level of Pistoleer (0, 1, 1, 0). I have a full set of Ubese armour, with 25% kinetic protection. I use a DX2 blaster mostly with 90, 160, 2.9 stats, sometimes a SR Combat Pistol with around 80, 160, 3.1 stats. I've started using speed powerups thanks to the advice in this thread, and I routinely use Body shot 2 for my attacks, with point blank area 1 for whenmultiple targets getup close, and I usesuppression fire when I'm faced by big red or yellow animals, followed by health shot 2, then multiplebody shot 2s again.

Any advice on things I should change, or what I should be looking to improve?

Nope, max damage is better than min damage because it's a straight ratio. Consider a theoretical pistol shooting 10-200 and a 20 percent powerup.

10 * 1.2 = 12 or a 2 increase

200*1.2 = 240 or a 40 increase

Not sure why they did this, but it's how it works. Stick with Hot-wired couplers for maximum return on powerup investment.

Oirff

Okay, so I'm now confused about the effectiveness equation. If it's:

(WeaponSpeed * SpecialDelayMod) - ((WeaponSpeed * SpecialDelayMod) * (ProfessionSpeed / 100))

- then if I have 30 professionspeed points, and Ihave a weapon that's 1.5 speed, and a 32% speed powerup, then I must be putting the numbers in wrong because I'm not getting anywhere close to 1 as a result:

Weaponspeed = 1.5

Profession speed = 30 (Novice pistoleer with no stances training)

Special delay mod either equals 32 (32% powerup), .68 (100 - 32 expressed as a fraction), or .32 (32% expressed as a fraction)- I'm not sure which, but anyway, none of these figures make the equation come even close to 1 since:

(1.5 x 32)- [(1.5 x 32) x (30/100)] = 33.6 (12.48 with Master Pistoleer)

(1.5 x .68)- [(1.5 x .68) x (30/100)] = 0.714 (0.2652 with Master Pistoleer, and 1.02with no skill at all - even with 5 speed points you get under 1)

(1.5 x .32)- [(1.5 x .32) x (30/100)] = 0.336 (0.1248 with Master Pistoleer)

Obviously I'm plugging in a false number somewhere. I suspect it must be the special delay mod (which I'm assuming relates to the powerup in some way). Please help.

Perhaps SpecialDelayMod is (1 + the speed powerup) which would be 1.32 for a 32% powerup?

Then for me:

(1.5 x 1.32) - [(1.5 x 1.32) x (30/100)] = 1.386

and for a master pistoleer:

(1.5 x 1.32) - [(1.5 x 1.32) x (74/100)] = 0.5148

That sounds right. So if that's the case, then the time to stop using 32%speed powerups is at Pistol Stanceslevel 4, which gives an effectiveness of 0.9108. Level 3 is still over 1, at 1.0296.

That sounds more like it.

Of course that only relates to that specific 1.5 speedweapon with that specific 32% powerup.

Beery,

Best bet is to use an excel spreadsheet or something so you only have to write it out once, and plug in combinations as your template changes. I use one that I can change speed, delay, powerup, slice, special attack, etc. on, it saves me time. Why we have to go calculate things just to see if BS3 is better than BS2 boggles the mind, but oh well.

then if I have 30 profession speed points, and I have a weapon that's 1.5 speed, and a 32% speed powerup, then I must be putting the numbers in wrong because I'm not getting anywhere close to 1 as a result:

Weaponspeed = 1.5

Profession speed = 30 (Novice pistoleer with no stances training)

Don't plug in a power up, just use your powered up speed as the weapon speed.
32% speed boost on a 1.5 pistol leaves the pistol at 1.02 speed. 1.02s is your pistols new delay.

1.02 we can stop there, your default attack is basically 1.0 seconds.

However, fire stopping shot:
1.02 x 4.0 - 0.30(1.02 x 4.0)

~2.9 seconds per shot

1.02 = your powered up pistol speed
4.0 = special delay modifer for stopping shot(all specials have a damage and a delay modifer, see FAQ)
.30 is your +30 pistol speed expressed as a percentage ( that's why the calculation has speed/100 in it)

You use the speed calculation when you have all three of those varibles identified.

Hope that helps.

So then if you're firing mostly specials (which often seem to have large delay modifiers) it seemsyou'd still be best going with a speed powerup even at Master Pistoleer level because due to the special shot delaysit'd be hard to get under that speed 1 threshold. Is that right?

Assuming no information about the particular fight, max damage power-up is better. However, increasing the minimum damage can be more useful if you're 'expected' to win the fight. For a simple example, consider a 100 HAM mob, a 100-damage gun, and a 50-200 damage gun. You can also increase the mob HAM. Suppose the mob has 1000 HAM. You might always win a 10 shot fight (because of other factors, like your own health, how much damage the mobs does, etc) but you may sometimes lose a 20 shot fight. In this case the lower average but lower uncertainty is better.

You want to reduce the uncertainty if you have the overall advantage. If there is no uncertainty and you have the advantage, you will always win (by definition). But arguably, the fights that you have an advantage in are less important to prioritize than the ones where you have a disadvantage - which means that having a wide variance is usually better.

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Beery wrote:
So then if you're firing mostly specials (which often seem to have large delay modifiers) it seemsyou'd still be best going with a speed powerup even at Master Pistoleer level because due to the special shot delaysit'd be hard to get under that speed 1 threshold. Is that right?

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No. A Master Pistoleer can get to the speed cap with a 1.6 speed Pistol if he uses FanShot, for instance. Since many Scout Blasters are 1.1 to 1.3 speed, high level Pistoleers sometimes are at the cap or coming close to it, depending on the special they use.

in general, the best you're going to get with a powerup is 32% to one stat, and 16% to another. (Maybe a couple % to a third or fourth stat, but this is usually worthless). Personally, I like max 30% / min 15%. Because it makes me do more damage, with no increase in HAM cost. And I like doing more damage. But I'm a Master P, so speed's not an issue.

However, at lower speeds, and 30% speed / 15% max (I think that'ss possible) would give you more raw damage per second.

Powerups that reduce action cost are useful if you're spamming specials, and aren't hepped on food/drugs/doctor buffs.

Now in terms of which is 'better' min or max damage, many gamers don't like an 'unreliable' weapon with low min damage, and that's understandable. And if I had my choice of magical fairy dust that boosted min damage 30 points (not %) or max damage 30 points, I'd take the min damage one. But, as has been noted above, it's done by %, so i'll take whatever lets me do the most AVERAGE damage per second. And since pistols shoot quick, the penalty of being stuck with a low damage shot isn't so bad, since a followup shot usually comespretty quick. (feel sorry for novice riflemen).

So now I'm trying to find a good combination of shots. Right now I'm a novice Pistoleer 0-1-1-0. I've made up the following combination:

Warning Shot, Suppression Fire, Health Shot 1, Health Shot 2, Body Shot 2. Then multiple Body Shot 2s until the creature (or person) is dead (or non-specials if I'm running low on Action).

Is this an effective combo for the level I'm at, or should I removeone or two of these special shots?

I would say this is an effective combo for any Pistoleer at nealy all levels.

thats why your first shot is a bleeding shot (stacked of course) so even if you do get incapped the critter Dies. And you still get the EXP while incapped if critter isn't to far away.