Ranger Archive

weighing in on the pistoleer side. Fanshot is a mighty powerful special and I am just beginning to realize how to best use it. Pistolwhipping is always fun. and I'm only 0/1/4/2 pistoleer.

I do think that I will be dropping CH soon and I'm thinkin I'll play around with a mix of pistoleer and rifleman and see what that gets me.

P.S. JB, ever since I learned that I can tame baby rasps, I have been tempted to go get me a pair and run around with them just to spite you even tho we play on different servers.

Theres always a spot welcome for you in Lowca

I don't know enough about rifleman to compare it to pistoleer but as a master pistoleer with some BH pistol as well I rarely have problems PvE-wise with having time to harvest. I would think its more a matter of personal taste in this situation.

Pistols work just fine for me. If the creature doesn't have insane energy resist you can really do some damage from 64m with a rep blaster and your favorite special moves (I'm still low on pistol speed, so I use some double taps followed by a stopping shot.) Maskscent/Conceal and prone from 64m gives me quite a few shots before the critter realizes I'm there. When the critter starts coming at me, I stand up, launch a phen dart and equip the DX2. Then either double tap or healthshot2 if the health pool is looking close to finishing off. If said critter isn't dead after the snare wears off, then it's PMD1 followed by a stopping shot while it's on the ground. Unless we're talking some critter that's way above my char level, it doesn't live through that and my only damage taken is to my action from the special moves. If I doc buffed, I'm sure this wouldn't even be a scratch (as it is I just chef buff usually, hard to find a doc in Theed on Starsider for some reason.)

At the moment, my client is in need of Nabooian Wooly. That means gualamas or peko pekos. Gualamas are a mission critter, so I do Gualamas. My low pistoleer skill gives lvl 15 missions for power reference. I can go prone and wax the 3 gualamas in no time flat (unless there is an elder, then I get to dart him.) Basically, I pretend I'm a rifleman, but I fire a helluva lot faster, just don't hit as hard. But when the critter comes at you, pistoleer is great for when that phen trap fails (or worse is just a "dud.")

Under the current rules: rifles, no contest, though pistols may be more dabbler-friendly.

There is the additional factor that (for me at least) hunting creatures the size of elephants (or larger) with a hand weapon invokes serious cognitive dissonance.

Howver: the current rules don't have long to live. We have no freaking idea what weapon balance will be after the Impending Great Downsizing (I think we can all agree without debate that "combat rebalancing" is just a euphemism for "massive nerf"). I can't see advocating changing combat skills at this time to anyone. I've considered dropping all of Ranger except the Tracking line so I could master Rifleman instead, but I don't want to grind all that experience just to find out in two months that rifles are suddenly useless (again).

And that's really the main thing... wait for this combat balance.. I mean it's already trickeling through a bit.

Couple of things to note at the present time.

Master Rifleman w/ master marksman is just as fast as a pistoleer.

Master Rifleman doesn't miss from up close.

Master Rifleman doesn't have problems with melee defense.

Couple of new things... the AOE attacks for rifleman are having some problems...

If one creature in the cone is behind an object, you automaticly seem to get the "not in sight" message for every other creature in the cone, regardless of wether they are behind an object or not. They , however, can still shoot you.

This is new data. We don't know if other combat professions are experiancing the same type of problems.

I was in fact planning to become a MR and MP. Still am.

I have novice pistoleer as I like the speed and the fact that I don't have to worry too much about going prone and keeping my distance. I usually start with bleeds, throw in a phen dart and then just bodyshot2 until they are dead. I tried rifles but I got real frustrated if I missed a few shots in a row and got charged.

either way. i think i'll stick with pistols. It fits with my playing style, and it's just darn cool looking like a pistol weilding hero.....

Why not Carbineer? I'm enjoying that with Ranger

Pistoleer is good if you have a good pistol, and stopping shot can be a very effective tool but for out and out damage with any weapon rifle man is better sure it has a slower fire rate but it does more damage a shot for less ham per total damage. the main problem i had with both (not so much rifleman) was that the aminal would chrage you and then you have no mele bonuses to stop them chewing on you.

hense i went TKA and now i can solo mission i would not even attempt as a pistoleer and think twice about as a rifle man.

oh forgot to add i can't do musch in the way of training you in pistol but if you fancy hopping on flurry and i'm free i'll hunt with ya.

Thanks for the offer torvid. I might make a melee character to try that out (been wanting to try tk/fencer/swords/pikeman/Mbrawler combo thing for a while, but its getting nerfed [thank god] so I dunno .. maybe just TK/fencer I'll mail you if I do).

Yesterday I made "leesil" on eclipse and met up with fred. He and a few others were very hospitable and I want to thank them for that first off. Secondly I'm about | | from novice pistoleer.

Is it just me or is leveling pistol insanely easy? Maybe its been so long since going after rifle xp I've forgotten but I get buffed, without armor, and go after voritors with groups of 4-6 and make about 20k xp a lair. When I can't find a group I get buffed and go after quenkers and make more xp. I'm using a 1.4 80-200 w/ powerup fwg5 currently and have a macro of healthshot and bleedshot that goes so fast lol. If I play leesil some more tonight I expect to get a few skill boxes at least.

So far I can't really pass judgement on pistoleer but as far as a change of pace its just fun. I'm going to try BH pistol first when I get up there and then maybe smuggler. I'm also tempted to get some CH while I'm leveling for a bit of extra help.

I'll post more as I move up in pistoleer.