Pistoleer Archive
Thread: Strategy question, submit your own
Hello all , I want to start saying I'am a casual player , so I dont have the time to figure out all the exact numbers about damage and broke,bugs etc on our profession. Im at 0 1 4 1 on pistol tree ,so far the startegy that has work for me when soloing with my probot and non CH pet has been :
Pull mob either by walking close to camp/nest ..or using health shoot 1 and 2 if I know there will be no adds,send pet ,use the fanshot .. rinse repeat .
I wonder about the other abilities like disarm shot (that has never worked for me ) , so to make it short ,is there a better strategy out there for us? can I do something else to get the better experience /time per kill since I don't have the luxury of playing 8 hours a day ., threten shot or warning shot (when to use and why?)
Thank you for your time/help by posting your own strategies
I use warning shot a lot.
Usually when I aggro a few, I will let the pet take one, drop bleeds on all i can, warning shot the others keeping them busy while trying to add damage to the one the pet has. Warning shot is one of the more useful talents a Ranged Weapon person might have, I think.
Sometimes I dont bother pulling one animal/bad guy and just start bleeding the lot of them and keeping them busy... Stim B's keep me alive and I use pet stims from time to time. I suppose often I prefer to take damage then wait and do things slowly and methodically. hehe wakes you up too ) Working up Ranger so camping and playing some music doesnt bother me. Rotate a fresh pet (after feeding the battle worn one) and in a few minutes, Bedlam again )
Yes, Warning Shot is certainly the most useful skill to keep hotkeyed. Use it as any creature approaches you, then pause for a second and open fire again. If you're talented at queueing up the skills, you can really kill most anything one on one in this way.
Opening with the dual bleeds is the right way to go, but I would seriously suggest trying the /bodyshot2 route for killing. Far more effective for me, especially against creatures. Also, I would recommend an occasional use of Pistol Melee Defense to knock them down. If you're lucky, I believe you can obtain the +50% knockdown bonus to shots you use afterward. If timed right, you can use this to get a much higher bleed than normal (approaching Carbineer bleed sizes).
Well the original poster already has stumbled upon the easiest way to level up -- use a pet as a tank. The second easiest way is to use WarningShot, as other posters have mentioned. Here are excerpts from a guide on "Levelling Up" that I wrote to help members of my PA:
8) WARNING SHOT IS AWESOME: Once you get warning shot, you can use it to solo difficult mobs. Just mix /warningshot in your queue along with your regular special attacks. It takes a while to pick up the timing, but once you get it down you'll be able to keep the mob 20-30m away, so you can attack it but it can't attack you.
9) USE PETS: Pets are extremely powerful in this game. If you're a Creature Handler, you can use your pets as a tank and easily solo tough mobs. Even non-CHs can get a cowardly gurrek that is a pretty decent tank. Pets are always a good way to attack mobs that you couldn't beat otherwise.
Another variation on the /warningshot tactic is to use your bleeds and focus entirely on keeping it at bay with the /warningshot;/peace combo.
In my opinion the keys to levelling upare to #1) pick the right mob, #2) learn how to isolate mobs so you only have to take on one at a time, and #3) learn how to maximize your XP per minute. #1 and #3 are interrelated, and there are lots of tricks to use to maximize XP gain.
I think it is a bug so I didn't mentionned it but this works : be in attack mode with no chance to really harm you target and all his friends will jump you, not him. So if only 1 other is in range, he will come alone.
I personnaly don't use it with 70m range but unarmed, so I have to be further than 7m (which is often the case actually
)Like you said, Warning shot is a prime value skill, like suppression used to be (still nice btw) but ONLY when emergency situations. I prefer allow pets to sick on mobs than seeing the mob running like 200m further and coming back with the whole pack.
Still a nice shot, for sure.
It is not because I don't think the game can be perfect, not because I hate kids or because I don't like some children being able to kill so easily someone that takes plenty of time to build a character.
No, this is because I can't trust SOE any longer. I played EQ since beta as a Necromancer and my character is still active (Coercitas Temet'Nosce, Karana Server, Arch Lich with all his spells (VERY rare))...for those of you who still don't know what EQ is and what Necromancers bore, you should easily find answers on the net. Trust me, I know what the "NERF" word means.
Necromancers were once what BH are today, very powerful and could kill VERY easily anyone. We all known we were too powerfull BUT something predictible happened : someone whined.
SOE answer is : NERF THEM !
This is why I never call for BH to be nerfed but others to be tuned up.
So my SWG Character was meant to be able to use a pistol very quickly and very accurately (my aim was to be master pistoleer since day 1) and to be able to control most powerfull beings to help me in some cases.
I do agree that balancing CH is very hard but since Warning Shot may protect you from pets quite efficiently, CH isn't the best at all, just a talent that grants me some time to retaliate.
now, I do understand ppl that don't want to use pets. As it is now, you can call it a pet. I prefer use the "partner" term (only point of view involved). My Pistols and my Partners are my only true friends.
So, if things aren't fixed real soon (3 months of paid beta phase is enought), I will resign and use my already paid time to be BH and kill everyone is the game (bah, nothing changed, it must be the goal of the game after all ?). With my already earned experience points I can get BH pistol 3 at will, only a few fights to be Master Pistoleer / Expert BH (pistol 4) and being able to call a GSP, no medic.
I think this is what kids are all trying to be, because it is what will grant you perfect moves to kill fast and avoid hits. Why healing if no one can even touch me ?
To tie it with the initial thread, warning shot is very usefull but only in PVE, it only works in PvP vs a CH, don't even care about this Cowardly Gurreck, he is not the menace. What I was saying before wasn't "Warning Shot is crap", it was only "nice but use with many cares, it can also kill you".
You can use Warning Shot if you are ALONE and you know what you are doing. Warning a mob and keeping firing at him will only create new adds...I guess if you're warning him, it is not exactly to pull his fellows.
The most irritating thing I can see with ppl using Warning Shot is this strange feeling they have it is THE only way to fight a mob. As a Master CH, I can't numb the times someone thought usefull to fear the mob my pet(s) was(were) tanking. Very funny to throw a pet in a pack of 10 mobs (it was before the /tellpet thing).
Warning Shot is only a "last resort action", not a "way to kill". There are MANY drawbacks to Warning Shot I can't even tell them, the add is something annoying enought but just consider the fact it ONLY work on Creatures (not "civilized" NPC) and this shouldn't be an habit to have.
The hardest part of any soloing is the pull. Even in group, if you pull too many mobs, wipe will occur, clearly. Even with 20 ppl, try to fight 10 mantigrues at the same time, just for the fun.
If mob is agro, it is very easy : just /peace (to avoid you to retaliate if things go wrong) and come closer and closer to them. When one agro, step back, don't come closer to them. 99% of the time there will be only one, maybe 2. If you have a pet, sick it on it BEFORE you even start to think about foting him. Keep in mind your pet is not the dmg dealer, it is the TANK...you are the dmg dealer (yes I know, it would be much better if we would be able to do some dmg). Once the pet is agro, start doting, calmly and fire at him. Of course, since you have a pet, you have explo 4 from scout (no kidding, get this line up, much more usefull that any of ours) so you know what are the weaknesses of your target.
If no pet, it is even more important to not agro more than you can handle. If the pet can tank many mobs for a much longer time than us, so a mistake is not THAT bad, without a pet, you can say your prayers if you pull for example 2 Pubams Battlelords instead of 1. Atm, dying isn't a real problem if you were cloned. Losing a pet is much more annoying. But when dying will mean something annoying, you'll see how ppl will react, they will take care not to pull like fools.
I still didn't find how to single pull non agro / assisting mobs but will try many things soon.
An overall strategy is to sick dotS (HS1 & 2 DO stack) asap (don't hasitate to refire it if result is low) with higher dmg gun (resists aren't checked for dots, maybe a next coming nerf
), stay away enought to avoid hits (at 32 and more, a moving pistoleer is quite hard to hit), Burst Run and Suppression Fire rdy to be used so does melee defense 1 (do NOT use the 2, doesn't work at all) and most of the time focus shots on Health Bar (I often use BS2/3 to make a fight last less time. BS3 should make much more dmg, really). It is rare this fails or the creature was a fast runner (all in game predators are fast runners, even at burst run, they outrun you with ease - Grauls / Rancors or so aren't running that fast, they will reach you at normal speed but not if you burst run).That's how I killed my first Rancor alone (without any pet or so - used 2 traps btw). This still works, this is not exploiting and this is more fun than killing 2 rebels with 30 AT ST and 15 BH / Commandos.
As a CH, I think I can understand your reasoning for not using Warning Shot. However, for all of the non-CHs, it is an invaluable tool.
As to how to pull a social mob, there is an easy trick to use. Right now, social mobs automatically know when their friend is under attack. This is totally independent of any mask scent or camoflage, so you could stealthily be picking away at someone and their friend will make a beeline right for you. The curious thing is that this happens even if you can't hit the target. Get in a postion where there are two visible creatures, with one at 70m and one beyond that. Shoot at the 70m creature. You won't hit him at all, and he'll never have a reason to think you are, so he won't become aggressive. However, his friend can tell you'd like to hit him if you had the ability, so he'll charge at you immediately. Back up a few paces and you can deal with the psychic friend on your own terms. You can pull just about anything social in the game like this, including meatlumps.
As a Doctor, Warning Shot is also my best tool to keep my compadres alive. If they're getting attacked on all sides, one warning shot to all of them will send them to the hills. My friends are going to be attacking some of them, but those that they aren't are going over 100m away before thinking about returning, immediately keeping us from being swarmed. This same trick works for pets. However, the important thing is to not hit the creature the pet is attacking or it will follow. Best way is to choose one creature, tell the pet to attack, and then TAB and /warningshot all of the other creatures. Best to use this only when your pet is in trouble, because they will more than likely be attacking you. If you're handy with the toolbar, you can get your pet to pick them up on the way back as well.
The most irritating thing I can see with ppl using Warning Shot is this strange feeling they have it is THE only way to fight a mob.
As a non-CH, it pretty much is the only way we can fight some mobs.