Ranger Archive

I am a Weaponsmith with a Ranger/Master Rifleman alt.

First the easy question, T21s are not as good as Advanced Laser Rifles due to the number of specific resources needed to craft T21s. Meaning, most WS have the best resources for Advanced Laser Rifles and T21s, but the Advanced Laser Rifles have higher OQ/CD than all the specific resources needed to make a T21. Both of them cap at the same max damage and speed.

The more difficult question to answer is the High/High Accuracy vs. the Low SAC/low Accuracy. Oddly enough, there is no trade off between SAC and accuracy. You should be able to get a low SAC/High accuracy rifle if you look around and can afford one. But, the SAC question is an interesting one. During all the respec'ing, I became a BH/Rifleman and used specials for every shot draining my action pool, and requiring low SAC weapons. I have dropped BH and am grinding ranger. With rifle specials alone, I use a 124 SAC rifle and never run out. Simply because I am usually alternating a special with "ranged shot". Ranged shot requires very little action no matter what you SAC is. So, it depends on how you fight, whether to get a low SAC rifle or a high SAC rifle. The accuracy mod on the other hand, without a dual fighting profession, your accuracy is fairly low compared to other dual masters. +20 doesn't make up for a lot, but it only helps. The amount of damage done to a target depends on how good your accuracy is compared to your opponents defense. If you accuracy is a lot higher than your opponents defense, you will do more damage to that target with +20 accuracy than a hitting a target with +1 accuracy.

As far as I understand, the Advanced Laser Rifle is better than (or at least as good as) the T21. As far as which Laser Rifle, lower SAC is much better as you can fire more hard hitting shots. This is assuming that the DPS of the rifles are close enough to not need to be considered. Also, at 4444 Rifleman, your accuracy should be good enough that the mod on the rifle has a negligible effect.

2 things you should consider about the rifles. If you are big game hunting it is the minimum damage you be looking at. And if you are killing loads of lower level bobs it is the max damage. As cl difference and accuracy/defence determines where in the min dam to mad dam spectrum you deal you damage.

As got the action cost and accuracy bonus. You will need a rifle that dong drain you action to fast as that will leave you with few tactically options, preferable you wand one that will let you regain action even if you are auto attacking on with the basic range attack.

Thanks a lot for sharing these usefull considerations. I'll take note of them all.

still another related thing: My low SAC (85)adv- laser with acc. +1 (two of them i have - dmg 446 - 950 or so - quite good i think) hadinitialy max condition of 890. It decayed of course - in this case down to 75% appr.Then i repaired it with a weapon repair tool purchased at the bazaar.Thena system message statedthat the weaponwas reapired but could not regain its initial max condition.It "lost" permanently about 10% in max condition.

When should i scrap it ? I'll keep an eye with performance oc but what do u guys do ?

Thx. Arboe

This is PRE-CU info; (for Iseult ) can anyone confirm or deny this is still true POST-CU?

The more you repair it, the more likely it is that it will be destroyed when you repair it. Another thing to be carful of is, as the condition of the rifle get lower and lower through repairs, the likelihood that you will forget to repair it before it hits 0 increases.

Also, once the weapon's condition get less than 25% of the current max (not the original max), the stats start to decrease, making is weaker and slower. This less than 25% of max condition becomes easier to achieve as the max condition drops.

So, basically, keep the weapon until you break it upon repairing it or you are repairing it so often that it is a pain. I don't usually keep weapons with less than 500 Max Condition.

Did any of that make sense?

If you are big game hunting you should invest in some good spice and food to increase your action pool regen rates. You don't need to pop spices for everyday hunting but it helps when going after the big stuff. Blob candy works well as does vasarian brandy. Try to find food/spices that have longer timers.