Rifleman Archive
Thread: I WANT YOUR OPINION!!!
Well as a Rifleman/Weaponsmith I'm average and can compete with non-profession stackers ie Pistoleer/Weaponsmiths or Carbineer/Weaponsmiths. Most of the PVP I am forced to do with this template is large Zerg raid type stuff.
BTW to nail Nightsisters you will need buffs, with buffs + Kenetic armor any combat profession can solo any PVE MOB.
So no Rifleman does not need to be nerfed
On top of that there isan apparent bug with our abilities in melee range (we should be hit more often and hit less I feel, but no words beyond token combat response)
Our profession is a one-eyed man in the kingdom of the blind. ("man" as a general term, no offense to the ladies.)
*end voice*
To be quite frank, yes, this profession works well in this game, but if we are to be called powerful it must be known that our power is totally relative. We work well where as many other professions don't work well. They are broken, and therefore not up to par. That Riflemen meet par (a rarity in this game) is not a sign of power, but a sign that the Devs should get their collective arses in gear and get the combat balance done. (read: done correctly) Fix the other professions. Get everyone to par, and then tweak out minor stuff.
Riflemen by far are not perfect. Many things about our profession are non-sensical, misunderstood, or innefective.
In a kingdom of the blind, a one-eyed man will rule, for he has something that the rest lack, despite it not being close to perfect.
My weaknesses: 1. Defenses (should be) 2. HAM costs (I hate when you clone you still have a full stomach making riflemen useless for a good 20 minutes after dying)
brandyaddict wrote:
aight so many non-rifleman i talk to who pvp say that you guys are powerful and need to be nerfed. what i wanna know from rifleman themselves is how good are you in pvp? what are your strengths and weaknesses? also pve, cuz i wanna be able to nail nightsisters hehe. comments are greatly appreciated
thanks
Yes many say this. But what was changed to make Rifleman so? Nothing. We are a mostly working profession. That is a step above many combat professions at least.
But other than getting ConcealShot fixed, a couple new toys, and some added accuracy and defense bonuses (which most of the other professions also did), Rifleman hasn't changed.
The reason people think Riflemen are overpowered is because of Armorsmith, Doctors, Dancers, Musicians, and Chefs.
The reason is simply armor. High powered armor was rarely worn because of it's downsides. Then came buffs. This made it practical to wear the high end 80% armor. Yet it was vulnerable to stun which caps out at 40% roughly. So you can do twice as much damage with a stun weapon.
Buffs allowed people to boost their Health and Action to extremely high levels. At first there were no Mind buffs. Which made it an attractive target in PvP. Then we got Dancer/Musician buffs but they only double your Mind and substats. While Doc buffs can triple it. So Mind is still the weakpoint.
Chef foods add extra buffing. Which lets people reduce their HAM costs for using specials.
Factor in Stims were added and only effect Health and Action, and you can see why people claim Riflemen are overpowered even though nothing was changed in the Rifleman profession.
The problem is that people think they should be invincible. Look at those calling for a nerf on the Jawa Rifle. The Jawa is the same as it was since launch. The problem is the high end armor. But you don't see nearly as many people calling for an armor reduction do you? They want to nerf the Jawa and Riflemen so they can be invulnerable for the most part.
If you want to be a Rifleman. You won't see good paying results until you Master. That is just fair warning. Your weapon speed and accuracy will be poor as you grind up the branch. So be prepared. Once you Master you will need to carry crates of food to lower the HAM costs on the specials. Otherwise you'll burn thru your mind using 10-12 specials.
The advantages. At Master you will have a large variety of weapons to choose from. That helps in most cases. You will also enjoy StrafeShot2. Probably the single most important reason people grind all thru Rifleman is for that special. You will enjoy it.
I feel for ya. Altho, we Rangers do have cool stealth abilities that get us killed more often... ok, so they are not so cool...
PyscoJuggalo wrote:
Well as a Rifleman/Weaponsmith I'm average and can compete with non-profession stackers ie Pistoleer/Weaponsmiths or Carbineer/Weaponsmiths. Most of the PVP I am forced to do with this template is large Zerg raid type stuff.
...snip...
rifleman alone sucks at killing nightsisters 
only thing we're good at is killing elders...
a swordsman can solo all nightsisters! trust me, I've used my brother's swordsman... and managed to solo an elder without any medic skill! and only had to run away and recover once!
1. Support role - If a melee class or creature is there to tank, then I use my rifle to do heavy dmg and take out high end npcs and creatures.
2. Fighting ranged npc's - If they are shooting at me and staying out of melee range then rifle owns, especially the area dizzy. Npc's tend to change posture a lot and fall down by themselves.
3. PvP - I rely on my rifle in pvp for dealing dmg. My pikes can put DOTs on, but I don't have any 900 dmg pikes yet and the ones I got don't even dent a buffed non armored player, if they have armor on I don't even see white on the enemy bars. I have to switch to Jawa or T21 to do enough dmg to offset the regen rate. I usually use rifle to dizzy, stun from long range, then as they get within 20m either knockdown with a dot pike or if the dizzy didn't stick hit a warcry then intimidate 6 times so my hits don't cancel the warcry. I will always try to dizzy knockdown though and once they are down switch to rifle and blast away while moving away from the target.
Its the combo of ranged and melee that make me a decent pvper, not just the rifle. The problem is that the other 2 ranged profs of pistol and carbine don't add anything in the way of offense. Carbine has good status effects and pistol has good D. Rifle has decent defense (no status D though), High dmg and speed, and good status effect shots. We don't have knockdown, but most melee do and rifle leaves a lot of extra skill points for you to put together a good template.
Most fights will get to melee range because of group tef, revenge tef or some other reason so having melee is always a good idea. And when you look to a ranged class to suplement your melee template the best option you got right now is rifleman. At least thats the way I see it.
As for pve I use my pike 80% of the time and 20% rifle. Rifle is more of a support weapon for me when fighting creatures. The only thing I can see that makes rifle better in pve is concealshot, but I've never liked using it personally because it takes too long and feels like cheating.