Pistoleer Archive
Thread: Fan shot VS Stopping shot...
dont know if this has been passed around on this forum, i am really close to getting fan shot but my question is...is it worth the 450000xp? is it that much better? any opinion would help a great deal, im thinking about further pursuit of the smuggler tree and 450k of pistol xp will go a long way there if fan shot is a bust
Fan shot is better than stopping shot until you get to Master Pistoleer because the speed modifier on stopping shot makes each shot so much slower. Yes, stopping shot is higher damage, but damage over time is what counts. If you have both shots, test killing the same high HAM beast 5 times with each kind of shot and you'll find that you get more xp with fan shot until you cap out on your pistol speed using fan shot (I've tested on Baz Nitches numerous times).
See pistoleer Faq Sheet above for speed modifiers...
Fanshot bites a 500+ chunk outof all three bars. You'll notice in intense PvP that the action bar will tank out. Often one or two fan shots on someone will wipe out their action bar and they go flip-flop.
-- YP
Without any other classes to back it up. Fan shot is by far the best.
Now is any of our other specials actually worked that'd be great. 
- Risse Em'D
No, it does not take all three bars equally, that's a carbine special attack, and the carbine one is more like 1-3 bars at a time, it's not always all three (not sure how that special works).
Anyway, Fan Shot is "random HAM", which we think is 1/2 of the time hitting health, 1/3 of the time hitting action, and 1/6 of the time hitting mind. Those exact numbers might be incorrect, but it's close to it.
Stopping shots damage modifier should also be 5.0, not the 4.7 in the FAQ. It's true, in general, use fan shot over stopping shot unless you're high speed and/or very high weapon speed, do the calculation to see where you are in terms of speed if you think you might be close.
You need a 1.4 speed gun to hit stopping shot at cap (with master speed alone) At least thats what ive been led to belive..
It has been a while since I have read anything on pistol special modifiers. When I was current on it, a 1.0 second pistol would shoot stopping shot every 1.04 seconds.
(100 - speed mods) Xweapon speed X special delay
0.26 X 1.0 X 4
Rhys is right. You can't cap SS with Pistoleer alone, you need Master Marksman or BH. However, for very fast weapons (1.0 or 1.1, I don't think 1.2 will do it), your FanShot will have been capped long enough that SS is finally better than it is.
Moral of the story: SS is fine and good for one shotting low HAM creatures, but you need to be more than a Pistoleer to take down larger HAM creatures using Stopping Shot (and PvP players are essentially 4000 HAM anyway). Far too often, people get blinded by the damage and not taking the longview. Which is the same reason they think the FWG is the best gun in the game.