Pistoleer Archive

With so much time on my hands lately, I've been thinking of potential fixes for some of the most broken pistoleer specials. See if ya'll would think if these specials would be useful in combat situations.

(Note: many of these are just rough draft ideas, and some of them are remnants of other ideas.)

Health Shot 2: I don't really see anything wrong with this one; it's a DOT, what else can be added?

Point Blank Single 2: Raise the damage output, and have HIGH accuracy modifiers for being in point blank range. Also, either raise the range that it can be used at to 15 meters, or make it worthwhile to be used in melee range (for example, with Pistol Melee Defense 1.) Perhaps give an intimidation effect at cloes range.

Body Shot 3: What should be the official Pistoleer spamshot. Raise the DPS, by raising the damage modifier and lowering the speed. Simple fix, really - should be a hotfix.

Point Blank Area 2: Same as Point Blank Single 2, but Area effect (360 arc for X meters)

Disarm Shot 1: A lot of good ideas have come up with this one. Personally, I'd like to see an attack delay of about 5 seconds for this one (like a mini-panic shot.) Others would like to see an intimidation effect added with the attack delay portion of it.

Double Tap: Currently considered "working," It's really just a medium damage, random HAM attack from what I see. A good use for this attack would be against lairs or other single-pool targets.

Stopping Shot: Borked beyond belief. Personally I'd like to see a 50% movement speed decrease with this, along with a large random HAM attack. This really shouldn't be a "spam" style shot, but really more of a debuff attack. Others would like to see a 33% chance of knockdown, or a 33% chance of dizzy/stun/blind.

Fan Shot: Currently great with its 45 degree cone effect. Leave it alone, Devs.

Pistol Melee Defense 1: Also appears to be fine. Note that, as the name says, this isn't anoffensive attack, but a DEFENSE against MELEE.

Pistol Melee Defense 2: Also borked beyond belief. Lower the HAM costs slightly, give it an AoE melee knockdown, and a 50% chance of stun.

Disarm Shot 2: 10 second 45 degree cone attack delay. Eat your heart out, smugglers.

Mutlitarget Pistol Shot: Attacks all opponents in a 32 meter radius for high random HAM damage. This needs to be a master gunfighter special for a reason.

-Other- additions:

Fix the dodge animation so that it won't activate if a player is moving. Thus, if you dodge an attack while in full blown run, only the +DODGE+ thing shows up above your head and you keep running.

Fix the DX2: Give it higher damage ranges, lower the speed, have the art team give us a better animation, and for the love of Chewy fix those horrible ranges! (example: +0 at 0 meters, +20 at 30 meters, -70 at 64 meters)

And, on the duel wielding pistols idea: This IS a viable reward for Master Pistoleer. Giving reduced damage for the offhand weapon with higher special HAM costs/reduced accuracy would definately work with the overall increased DPS. Our DPS has been proven to be lower than most other professions; this could easily fix that.

Well regarding Disarming shot....It shouldnt delay anything. Its not as if you are taking potshots to scare your opponent. You are shooting at his weapon so that person cannot SHOOT BACK AT YOU. I'm a smuggler/pistoleer. I would have to say that disarming shot should do a small amount of damage AND DISARM the opponents weapon and not allow them to re equip it. Maybe not re equip it right away...sorta a delay I suppose, but think about a hypothetical. A person is running at ya with a gun spraying and praying.... the deft pistoleer whips his gun out of his holster. One shot rings out from the pistoleer's gun...and the opponents weapon has been shot to the ground. The opponent scrambles to reach for it....but its too late. a well placed stopping shot or last ditch tears open their ribcage and they are dead. Maybe combine Disarming shot with the aim command for a higher chance at re equip time. Multiple aims= better disarming shot. It SOUNDS like an overpowered ability...but hey it should be in a sense. You get your gun shot out of your hands thats it your done....*shrug* Just opinion! * prepares for the flamethrowers*

Well, the problem with the unequip-reequip is the question that, if the player has a full inventory, what happens to the gun? That could be bad..

Also, most pistoleers don't want to be the "grief" proffession, the one that does damage to everyone's weaponry. The idea that disarming shot disarms you could be shown in a system message saying "You fumble around for your weapon." Now, if you're an unarmed without a vibro knuckler, you're safe from disarm shot .

Pistol Melee Defense:

I like this but think that the pistol melee defenses should have a chance of dizzy instead of or in addition to the stun. Also, a second attack with PMD shouldn't automatically bring your opponent back to their feet. (Which happens way too often with me.)

Health Shot 1/2:

There is a fix here. These should also do immediate damage. I mean, how do you bleed without actually taking a wound? We're using a special attack here without anything happening right away and yet we're still getting delay and HAM cost.

So basically your saying, screw you Smugglers?

Other ideas except for the delay shots are nice.

Update on my original post:

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Health Shot 2: Make it, along with ALL bleed-type attacks, do initial damage to the target along with its bleed effect; Health Shot is sort of a debuff attack in which in decreases the strength pool, causing attacks to do more damage.

Point Blank Single 2: Raise the damage output, and have HIGH accuracy modifiers for being in point blank range. Also, either raise the range that it can be used at to 15 meters, or make it worthwhile to be used in melee range (for example, with Pistol Melee Defense 1.) Perhaps give an intimidation effect at close range.

Body Shot 3: What should be the official Pistoleer spam-shot. Raise the DPS, by raising the damage modifier and lowering the speed. Simple fix, really - should be a hotfix.

Point Blank Area 2: Same as Point Blank Single 2, but Area effect (360 arc for X meters)

Disarm Shot 1: A lot of good ideas have come up with this one. Personally, I'd like to see an attack delay of about 5 seconds for this one (like a mini-panic shot.) Others would like to see an intimidation effect added with the attack delay portion of it. A more reliable idea would to give it a single combat round delay like stun (a pistol with a 1 second attack speed won't be really effected by this, since it'll only be one second before the person can attack again, but someone with a 7.5 speed T21 will effectively be disabled using this.)

Double Tap: Currently considered "working," It's really just a medium damage, random HAM attack from what I see. A good use for this attack would be against lairs or other single-pool targets.

Stopping Shot: Borked beyond belief. Personally I'd like to see a player 50%-85% movement speed decrease with this (Thus making it a :Stopping: shot, slowing down melee attackers for potential kiting or rogue riflemen for close-range pursuit), along with a large random HAM attack. This really shouldn't be a "spam" style shot, but really more of a debuff attack. Others would like to see a 33% chance of knockdown, or a 33% chance of dizzy/stun/blind.

Fan Shot: Currently great with its 45 degree cone effect. Leave it alone, this is currently our saving grace.

Pistol Melee Defense 1: Also appears to be fine. Note that, as the name says, this isn't an offensive attack, but a DEFENSE against MELEE, so the knockdown shouldn't be a main offensive tactic in PvP.

Pistol Melee Defense 2: Also borked beyond belief. Lower the HAM costs slightly, give it a single target melee knockdown, and a 50% chance of stun.

Disarm Shot 2: 10 second 45 degree cone attack delay, OR delay next two combat rounds with the 45 degree cone.

Multitarget Pistol Shot: Attacks all opponents in a 32 meter radius for high random HAM damage. This needs to be a master gunfighter special for a reason, since I do believe this is the only AoE ranged combatant attack...

Defense:

A pistoleer should actually be one of the hardest ranged classes to kill, defense-wise, due to its high defenses in the Pistol Techniques line. The 50 knockdown resist alone should help us survive more PvP, but some people still report some defenses not working. While a rifleman can wipe out people with mind damage easily at master, and the carbineer :will: be able to wreak havoc with ranged knockdowns and stun attacks, a pistoleer's advantages should include high defense modifiers (including the ranged defense modifier for running, a la pistol accuracy while moving.)

Fix the dodge animation so that it won't activate if a player is moving. Thus, if you dodge an attack while in full blown run, only the +DODGE+ thing shows up above your head and you keep running (should be fixable with a hotfix)

DX2: Give it higher damage ranges, lower the speed, have the art team give us a better animation, and fix those horrible ranges! (example: +0 at 0 meters, +20 at 30 meters, -70 at 64 meters)

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I've been running these by several pistol users, including bounty hunters, smugglers, and pistoleers. The bounty hunters and pistoleers mostly agree, but the smugglers seem a little ticked off at the Pistoleer Panic Shot idea, so the "combat round delay" for disarm shot may be a more viable option to keep Smuggler in line asa used combat profession.