Pistoleer Archive

I for one have had enough with the devs "wait for CB" answers and I think we've all had enough of the pistoleers innability to contribute in high end PvE. My personal playing style was mostly PvE with the occasional PvP session but I recently gave up in wait for this patch that promises to make my professions viable.

My first profession: Bounty Hunter is not only borked for both PvE and PvP when compared to any other combat profession, but has recently been told that his role within the game is no longer his to fulfil but he choses to have a go, he can expect the princely sum 15k for killing that Jedi Knight. I'm still waiting on the punchline for that one.

Second profession: Pistoleer. Well, since the devs have told us that no profession should expect to solo high end PvE with buffs and armour being adjusted after the combat revamp, I can't help but fear that pistoleer will be no better off. We will still have to master scout to gain the skill mods to be effective in combat and no ammount of new is going to help us. Since I've given up on BH here's a full breakdown of why I feel that pistoleer can expect no love from the revamp.

First up. Mods

The major problem that has faced most pistoleer from the start is our lack of mods for speed and accuracy when compared with our needs. This has been remedied in game by mastering the marksman and scout professions and taking the BH pistols line costing an additional 135 skill points. Since the combat revamp has been outlined as changes in gear and enhancements, this suggests that our skill mods will be left the same as current. Let's suppose that they are changed during the balance and the mods for all ranged combat professions are comparable. This allows for both pistoleer and carbineer to do what they did many months ago and take BH to tip that balance, it therefore stands to reason that the devs are going to incorporate some system to prevent us from mastering scout and ruling the galaxy. More than likely by nerfing us and/or BH to compensate for the overpowerment of the hybrid class.

Second, damage types

It was originally intended that pistoleer would be the man of many weapons. We have a pistol for almost every damage type, for energy we have speed pistols and power pistols. Our lack of AP>1 keeps us in check and prevents us from gunning down every mob in the game, much as a riflemans low speed used to back in the day. Our lack of a high armour piercing weapon was possibly intended to make the pistoleer a tactical class who assesses his opponents defences and selects his weapon appropriately, for example Mob X has light armour and a high resist to both acid and energy but is vulnerable to kinetic and stun. With standard issue gear, ie no krayt it is often likely that our AP weapons outdamage the vulnerable damage types because of the mobs AR. I have tested this thoroughly on many mobs only to find that mob vulnerabilities don't work at all. The devs claimed that "a mob with light armour but a vulnerability to a certain damage type will get no bonus damage reduction for that armour" (not a direct quote) yes my pre-nerf 260 max damage FWG hits a heat vuln piket (can't remember what type) for less damage than my 205 max damage DX2 despite a resist to acid. In short, unless the combat revamp fixes the vulnerability issues, pistoleer is again staying at home.

Thirdly, gear

Ok, let's look at the new gear objectively. The Geonosian Tangle Blaster and the Republic-10 Blaster are both "post cb weapons" according to the devs. I can't speak for the DE-10 as I didn't have the 5mil to pay for one, the geonosian however I have owned a few of and here's what I noticed first (after the resemblance to a pre-nerf tangle) I can't fire beyond 40m except for the occasional bugged shot. As a pistoleer, my first instinct PvP or high end PvE without a tank, is to kite like a mofo at a range of 50-60m, the geonosian is inarguably our best weapon PvP right now, but the same bug that allows for me to shoot for any distance great than 40m, so far my record distance is 49m has also allowed my to fall victim to unarmed lunge2 from 34m. Needless to say the TK hit me with unarmed dizzy and pummelled my helpless body into the ground, on this day however luck was with me and got out alive. If our post balance weapons are range limitted in this way while other ranged weapons remain 64m pistoleers will simply become jokes to melee professions, we have been given mods and such for kiting for a reason, much like BH was given his investigation skills for a reason. Seems class distinctions are no longer the concerns of the devs...

Finally, what are we meant to do?

It was said at release that all combat professions had a role, it's being said that we will once again have a role after combat balance, carbineer will be given a role to perform, as will swordsman and pikeman. From what we've seen in the past, the devs can barely be trusted to revamp ONE profession properly while concentrating on them singularly, what the hell do they expect us to think when they attempt to revamp 11 (four brawlers, three marksmen, commando, BH, CMand SL) Currently, more than half of these professions haveno role in combat and the rest a horribly misguided one.

Current roles of combat professions in eclipse server

pistoleer - kill janta to afford high end weapons and skill attachments

carbineer - I'll ask next time I see him. I've only seen one carbineer since their patch 7 where they were alleged to be fixed but had their ham costs increased

rifleman - kill you, your guild and any mob that spawns

commando - hit flame single first, ask about resists later. often results in death with regards to high end PvE

BH - stacking profession. very few BH in eclipse, plenty of desperado's

TKA - tank

Fencer - kill you, your guild, your jedi and tank any mob that spawns

Swordsman - help pikemen kill NS using power hammer, much preferred to riflemen because they know the value of NS loots

Pikeman - hang around dathomir looking for swordsmen

Combat Medic - rule the server

Squad Leader - who?

Until the devs post not only their plans for pistoleer's role in combat, but also the role for everyone else, and in one post I might add. We're not going to know how exactly we fit into combat in SWG, bottom line.

That's the end of my rant, I made a few points better than others and some points were barely made at all, but I leave on these words to the devs. "Screw the combat balance and screw you too" My subs end shortly after combat balance and unless I see a point in picking up a bounty, a pistol or carbine I won't be coming back. Until then I'm off to play CoH a game where every profession has a role and balance is achieved without nerfing the **edit** out everyone.

Later

Yea.. I know exactly how you feel. After doing the role you described for pistoleers for a few months, investigating and implementing tactics, running with a superb combat team, and more to be effective at PvP and just getting wiped completely slick by combat medics (despite rigorous and thorough anti-cm tactics), I'm hanging up my PvP gloves for awhile. Considering how much I think that PvE is completely unchallenging that leaves little for me in this game.

I will continue to pay my monthly fee until the combat rebalance comes out, but how much i'll be playing or enjoying SWG remains to be seen. Combat medics have completely ruined PvP. Their triple incap bug, range bug, wall bug, 1000+ mind poisons 700+ tick diseases, not to mention that with the food havla they can chuck at near the speed cap until they fall in combat. No amount of doctors can properly or effectively counter muliple CM's in battle. It isn't possible. Well... maybe it is possible.. you could pick up a doctor PhD yourself! Combat medics are such a problem to this damn game that most serious PvP'ers either tightly cling to a doctor (me) or become a doctor themselves. It's not Star Wars, it's Medical Wars.

Combat medics don't get a nerf because it is very very hard to code medical nerfs without completely screwing up healing and buffing. Poisoning uses the same system as legit doctoring. They can't code a 75% reduction because that will nerf regular heals and buffs. PvP is stuck with PvE level damage.. where combat medics are designed to take down 100kHAM creatures... 100k mind in PvP is 30 people.... you do the math.

I know how hard it can be to change things so I hold faith in the devs and their word that the combat balance will actually balance. Until then I don't think i'll be PvP'ing.. unless I crack and drop all the professions I love just to actually "pwn" in PvP and pick up CM. It's absolutely ridiculous how many people combat medics can kill.. and that's even if the opposing team has doctors. If a CM uses all their "tricks" they can lay two areas with two different mind poisons and a disease before they get killed or incapped. Thousands in mind damage will occur with a force containing 25% doctors despite how fast they can heal. Once the CM stands back up or clone-zergs... add thousands more to the damage as well. I dunno.. if you do the math a medical class can severely outdamage any combat profession in the game... including rifleman.

It's f***ing rediculous and it's ruining my game! The devs outright refuse to correct the problem. All counters besides pickingup doctor yourself are very very very shaky. There was supposed to be a mind poison mitigation spice in publish 8... where the hell is it now? Poison resist foods are completely useless to 200 potency poisons, and unless you have 10 million or more to spend up to getting +25 or more poison resist skill tapes or attachments, you must either pickup doc yourself or have a very very intimate relationship to a doctor (i'm talking intimate here).

What's the point of PvP'ing if you just get mowed down to a havla-bomb combat medic???