Pistoleer Archive

Okay, I went ahead and sent these on to TH.

A nice list, but did you have to put twirly moves first? We did that once before remember? It was the only "substatial" answer we got from that list. " We like this idea. We will look into it", considering the other feedback we've recieved that's substantial.


Only thing I would change is I would sub in the words "nothing at all" where you have "in terms of months" on the last point. But I'm bitter and cynical, heck, I'm a pistoleer.

I thought about that after posting it, but like I said, they are in noparticular order. They are posted in the order that I wrote them, with the exception of a question that was replaced. I don't really think it's something we need to be up tight about. I'm willing to give TH the benefit of the doubt that the content of the first question won't turn him off to the remaining 9. He knows cosmetics come after combat ability on our priorities, anyway. That has been made abundantly clear.

And to be fair, dual weild was probably the most frequently mentioned question. I threw in holsters/twirly moves because holsters were mentioned once, and the 3sort of go hand in hand in hand ona "style" level. I know that it stings to hear that stuff posted when such glaring problems are present, but I see no harm to it being included in this instance.

As for the "used to hearing nothing at all," while I more than sympathize with the position, I just didn't feel right applying cynicism here. I really think the devs are continuing to try to turn things around, as evidenced by this opportunity.

Great job, thanks.

Thanks much.

Those pretty much sum up all my questions regarding the pistoleer profession.

Now- when can we expect an answer?

---

3) Speed is another big concern. Why is it that comparable professions fire equally quickly as pistoleers? Can we expect this to change? If so, when? Furthermore,we are genuinelycurious how the speed equation chiefly responsible for the disparity "slipped under the radar" for so long.

9) The community is frustrated with being a "sideshow" in groups (low DPS, very limited tanking ability) and having sub-par performance in solo play. They would like some insight into what their role is expected to be in the coming days when they will be considered a contender.

---

I completely agree with you on these issues, and their importance cannot be over emphasized.

As things stand today, unless you are a BH or Smuggler, there is no purpose for being a Pistoleer.

I would optimistically estimate an answer in the next couple of weeks, but don't quote me on that. It could very well be longer. Thunderheart has wisely chosen not to give much of an ETA to anybody. He was, however, quoted to say this:

"With 38 professions, thats 380 questions - - Im doing them in order and Ill get to them as soon as I can. I have promises made to the Entertainers, Dancers, Pikeman and ID's for the first four. Those have to be done today..." 1-30-04, most of the answers went up 2 days later. Not too shabby. I'd rather have quality answers a little later than lousy ones quickly.

I'm not sure exactly what order he's talking about. Probably the order that they are submitted. If that's the case, we have a some professions ahead of us. We are fairly early on the curve, though.

Double pistols is up on my list. It would help my damage, and look cool at the same time.

---

Randonb wrote:

In absence of Philosopher1976, I have compiled the list of Pistoleer questions. As a master pistoleer who has been around since the beginning, I decided I should step up to the plate. Here they are, in no particular order:

1) There have been numerous requests and rumors regarding Pistoleer Dual-Wield (a lesser, but still prevalent request, is holsters and twirly moves). When can we expect to see this, if at all? A rough overestimate is fine.

2) Many pistoleers feel that their attacks are generic. Vanilla random HAM is a big issue. Do the devs intend to "spice up" the profession?

3) Speed is another big concern. Why is it that comparable professions fire equally quickly as pistoleers? Can we expect this to change? If so, when? Furthermore,we are genuinelycurious how the speed equation chiefly responsible for the disparity "slipped under the radar" for so long.

4) What is the devs' stance on players seeking worthwhile pistol specials in the Bounty Hunter or Smuggler tree? Should it be accepted as standard practice for Pistoleers?

5) Another top question is the status of new pistols. We know the are on the way, but can we have any additional details? Roughly estimated release dates, how many are on the way, will they come all in one patch, etc.

6) Many pistoleers feel that accuracy is a problem, particularly concerning the accuracy of the DX2 Pistol. Are the devs opposed to increasing our accuracy, or are other things planned to make up for it?

7) As you may have noticed, our current (02-01-04) correspondent, Philosopher1976, has not posted here since 01-07-04. This is highly uncharacteristic of him, and we fear for his health. Regardless, we need a correspondent. What is the plan for dealing with situations like this?

8) HAM costs are a concern. Hard to believe when you look at our weapons and compare them to others, but you have to consider the HAM cost : Damage ratio. Is there a possibility for improving this ratio for pistoleers?

9) The community is frustrated with being a "sideshow" in groups (low DPS, very limited tanking ability) and having sub-par performance in solo play. They would like some insight into what their role is expected to be in the coming days when they will be considered a contender.

10) A big and very popular question is "when?" As a community we have waited for a long time, and grow weary. What can we expect for a timetable? We recognize how difficult such things are to predict, but nevertheless, ask for a rough estimate. Don't be afraid to tell the truth - we are accustomed to hearing things in terms of months.

Thank you for granting us this opportunity.

---

I like some of those questiosn and I'd loev to know the answers, but I really don't think we'll get anywhere asking for ETAs.

My number one question is always:

1) What is the Devs' vision for the Pistoleer profession?

Aside from that, I'd like to focus on broken specials and propose some fixes.

These are mostly cut and pasted from Philosopher's State of the Profession Report and tweaked by me:

2) DISARM SHOT 2 -- In the past we've made a number of suggestions, including making DisarmingShot a ranged Intimidate, adding a short delay, and/or making it "disarm" an opponent by preventing him from equipping any weapon for a certain number of seconds, with a timer. Even hitting the Action bar for a decent amount of damage (say, 2.0 and 3.5 modifiers), at this point, would be worthwhile given that all of our specials tend to hit the Health bar. From our perspective, ANYTHING that is actually useful, at this point, would be welcome. One idea we'd like to take off the table -- Pistoleers are uniformly against the idea of damaging the condition of an opponent's weapon, because we are not interested in griefing other players. Please give us something that helps us kill the enemy, not grief him by destroying his expensive gun.

3) MULTI TARGET PISTOL SHOT -- This, one of our Master Pistoleer specials, works only sporadically and even then is ineffective. I can't get the special to fire most of time when I've tried to test it, and even when it "works" it is worse than just firing by using the TAB key to move to the next target. As a Master Pistoleer special, it should provide a significant benefit -- right now it rarely works and isn't worth using when it does. Just make this into an AOE attack (since we know that the AOE code actually works) that targets the Health pool, and add a bleed/DoT or state effect. If that isn’t possible, make it a high damage AOE random HAM attack with a useful state effect (knockdown, blind, etc). Maybe even the “attack everyone within 32m” idea that the Combat Dev mentioned would suffice, as long as the code actually worked so we could hit everyone instantaneously. As a Master Pistoleer special, MTPS should be worth using and provide an incentive to climb up the tree instead of just dabbling at the bottom. Pistoleer specials are in general redundant, vanilla, and are seriously lacking without any ranged state effects, ranged knockdown, etc. One way to improve them is to have effective AOE attacks that work, such as MTPS.

4) PISTOL MELEE DEFENSE 2 -- This special currently does nothing -- it doesn't knock down the target, cause a state effect, or do anything else worthwhile ... yet it has a HIGHER HAM cost than Pistol Melee Defense 1, which is a melee knockdown. Right now it causes as much damage to the Pistoleer using the attack as it does to the enemy and is never worth using, as a MELEE range random HAM attack with high HAM cost. Please add the Dizzy state effect to this special, so it's worth using as a combo with Melee Defense 1, and lower the HAM cost to be in line with the other pistol specials. Right now this special is totally broken.

5) STOPPING SHOT -- Why not make it live up to its name? Add a high-efficiency Posture Down attack that forces people to their knees. THAT would be a Stopping Shot!

6) POINT BLANK AREA 2 -- It is only hitting one target and not multiple targets. Please fix the area of effect. Also, the damage should be increased to make up for this being a point blank attack. Right now it has a similar DPS to Marksman specials, even though it is not attained until Pistoleer Grips 4 and is limited to melee range. Point blank attacks are so limiting to fast moving ranged combat professions that they need to offer significant benefits in order to be worth the risk of using. Significantly increase the damage on this special, and consider making it an AOE Warning Shot, so it can be useful to a Pistoleer who is being aggroed by multiple creatures.

7) DOUBLE TAP -- This special, achieved at Pistoleer Techniques 2, is currently outperformed by the Marksman skills that any Pistoleer already has (Kip Up Shot, Roll Shot) in terms of pure DPS.There should bea drastic delay decrease so this can become the "quick attack" for low level Pistoleers.

I'd sacrifice all the other questions if the Devs would give clear responses to those suggestions and promise to implement the new working specials ASAP.

I thought of that as well electricnomad, which ispart ofwhat question 2 is about:

I hope for that question to be answered in question 9, as they are related. However, I think that the devs are trying to shift their vision to match the players' to some degree, as we can see from the In Concept threads. I don't know how far we'll get asking for ETA's either, but it's worth a shot. Some people are growing impatient, and it's good to know when things are expected to change. It is a very popularquestionon just about every profession's board.

Great job! Where is our correspondent anyways??