Rifleman Archive

If you are a Wookie Rifleman then you know exactly where I am coming from. I am a Master Rifleman on the Shadowfire server and have become deeply involved in the GCW and let me tell you that being a Wookie Rifleman might just be the hardest ranged combat prof to use in PvP. Before some of you say " you need to change your tactics in PvP to be effective " my tactics are sound, however when almost all the opponents you face are wearing a composite helmet and you are not, you are already at a distinct disadvantage. Add that to all the other problems with our prof in PvP and it can become a nightmare. I'm not saying that we get owned and we need fixed as a prof, but I am saying that we as Wookie Rifleman need fixed and fast. It is frustrating when you go to face a BH with just the pistol line or a smuggler with dirty fighting and you get defeated by them cause they have on awesome armor and the only thing protecting you is a coarse set of Wookie fur. A Master Rifleman should be able to stand toe to toe with any other Master combat prof with the exception of BH, Wookie or not.

Synnkarra- Master Rifleman / Master CH / Master Scout / Ranger

All you wooks need is for the bowcaster to be cranked up to the level of the laser rifle. That would offset your lack of armor skilz, right?

P.S.

I never bother to wear any armor, except a fiew pieces of 7-encumberence bone on occasion.

Use the jawa ion rifle....most composite don't have stun resists. I too am a wookiee master rifleman and never underestimate the T21's heavy AP with SS2 that shoots roughly every 2-3 seconds....not too mention mind bleeds will still finish off ur adversary even after ur getting out of the clone center urself

And its not like you get nothing for being a wookie, either. Wookies get the most pool points out of anyone in the game, so you guys can solo like no one's business.

It could be worse, you could be a bothan who gets bonuses everywhere a sniper doesn't need them.

The skill point argument would be valid only if a wookie could dump all those extras into the mind stats. As it is, a wookie caps at 1100, 650, 600. Nice stats but other races do better. Having a large amount of Health or action is pretty worthless. High level mobs can still one hit kill a wookie holding a rifle.

Disclaimer: I do not yet engage in PvP. I have just not gotten to the point where, as a Rifleman, I feel that I would prevail more often than not. So, please, bear in mind that I am not telling you I know the issues involved with PvP.

That said, there arethreecomments I would make.

First, I think that you will find that most riflemen do not wear armor under most circumstances. I have tried, but it kills my mind stats too much. I find the extra protection is not worth being unable to fireas many shots. Thus, many riflemen recommend only carrying a helm. That, of course, is your issue. You can't wear one, so my point is not that you should get one. My point is that, as Riflemen, most of us, I believe, are accepting that we are just not going to be able to use armor in general and that we are probably going to just use a helm under some circumstances. It is, therefore, not that much more of a stretch for Wookees to accept that they are not going to be able to wear eventhat one piece that others are settling for.

Second, you mention engaging people who have composite armor. Do you have a Jawa rifle?(Wookees can use them, right?) As you may know, the Jawa rifle is AP1 (light armor piercing) and does Stun damage. The stun damage is important because most armor, composite included, is vulnerable to Stun. Therefore, the composite armor offers no protection from the Jawa. The Jawa also does reasonably good damage and is very light on our own mind use. If you do not have a good Jawa, you may find that getting one will make a lot of difference in your damage output and the amount of damage you do to your own mind.

Finally, you may want to examine your overall premise. If I may, I understand you to be saying that 1) you are a Wookee, 2) Wookees cannot wear armor, and 3) this causes you problems because you are facing situations where armor would be helpful.

Respectfully, while I sympathize with your plight, I am not seeing this so much as a problem as just a matter of the way things are and should be. What I mean is, you decided to be a Wookee. I assume you perceived there to be advantages in being a Wookee. However, every race has advantages and disadvantage. Wookees cannot wear armor, so the offset to whatever advantages you felt there were to being a Wookee is that you cannot wear armor. For instance, I accept that a couple of other races have better base mind stats than does mychosen human character. As a rifleman, I would have been better off choosing one of those races. However, I wanted to be a human, so I just accept that there are other races than may have been more compatible with my profession goals.

WhileI am not saying that Wookees cannot compete effectively in PvP, it may well be that you have to accept that you may never be effective (or at least as effective as you want to be) one-on-one in PvP because you chose to be a Wookee. That is not a bug or even really a problem. It is the product of the choice you made, just as I would like to have the higher mind stats that other races can achieve. If every race could do exactly the same things as all the other races, then the only differences between characters would be the Toon graphics, and that would make the game dull and boring. The choices we make, and the advantages and limitations tied to those choices, are what makes the game rich and exciting.

So I would just respectfully suggest you understand that we, as riflemen, have severe limitations to our ability to wear armor to begin with and that your choice to be a Wookee just means that you cannot wear even the one piece that some of us end up settling for. Also, if you are not using a Jawa in PvP, you should seriously consider it. Finally, it may well be that no matter what tactics you choose, your choice to be a Wookee may mean that you will not be able to compete one-on-one effectively in PvP. That does not mean you cannot participate. You may just need to accept that you, as aWookee rifleman,are going to be more effect acting in a support role in a group. That, they say, is where our profession really shines anyway.

The "Rifleman are a supporting role in PVP" comment was a point well made. This is the key to PVP for us being the most effective.

Thus the reason I took SQL as my second profession.

Basically, if you chose wookie and rifleman you are not screwed but you are at a disadvantage. Can you compete will just about everyone else? yes, but, you ARE at a disadvantage for 2 main reasons:

1. You cannot wear a helmet

2. You cannot get good mind stats

-Chewon

1/0/4/2 Rifleman, 2/4/3/0 Doc, Master Medic, Master Marksman on Valcyn...Need more muon gold!!!

Supersparc,

Do not get me wrong. I am not saying that there is nothing here that needs to be fixed. If the Bowcaster is not as effective as it should be, then, by all means, it must be fixed. What is the point of being a combat related Wookee if you cannot use a Bowcaster .Even so, even if the Bowcaster is fixed, it is important to make sure you check the damage type of the Bowcaster against the protections afforded by the armor type you are facing. For instance, if Composite armor protects against the damage type of the Bowcaster, the Jawa rifle may still be the weapon of choice, even for a Wookee.

My point was just that I think people will enjoy the game much more if they arebit more flexible in their thinking. I am not saying that this post is a whine by any means; it raises legitimate concerns with regard to what a Wookee can do and what he cannot. However, I think that if people spent less time worrying about how their particular character could be "better" if a specific limitation were removed, accepted the limitation, and adjusted their thinking to embrace it, their game play experience would be much more enjoyable.

Speaking of adjusting your thinking, you cannot wear armor as a Wookee, but I believe that Wookees can use Personal Shield Generators. They may not protect as well as a full set of composit, but a PSG may afford a Wookee enough protection to allow him to prevail, at least in some circumstances.

The problem with PSG is they can also be used by non-wookies. So while PSG can works as well as armor in battle, PSGcan not equalPSG + armor together. Because of mind damage only, i think wookies should get some types of helms, or a way to protect thier head.

Also, maybe they should raise the limits on what you can put your points into. Right now humans have a bug where they can put ANY stat up to 1100, even the secondary ones. So a human doctor could have mind 1000, focus 1100, willpower 1100. (does nothave enought points to max out all 3).

--Rorrimot

I'm a Wook, and I hold my own quite well in PvP. That being said, I'd like to see animprovement...

1) The Wookiee Bowcaster - As it stands now, this weapon is useless, but easily fixed! All they need to do is crank up the AR rating from AR0 to AR2 so as to make it a comparable weapon to the laser rifle. Also, since the bowcaster is actually firing magnetic bolts, shouldn't the damage be kinetic?.

Oh, and while your at it, those Ryakk blades have some cheesy AR stats that need some lovin' too...

As forWookiee health regen - [shrug] well, we are supposed to have phenomenal healing speed ( along with the lizard men too, now that I think about it..), but I just don't see it in battle. Maybe increase the regen speed by 25%? Doesn't seem too imbalancing to me, but, meh.....I could live with the way things are now.

The points made are all very valid, I choose to be a Wookiee because I want to be a Wookiee.
I acknowledge that all races are not the same, it would be silly if they were but I think the point here is that Wookies have a large disadvantage with regards to armour.
I'm not just talking about rifleman (I think Wookiees are more suited to rifleman due to the armour problems when using rifle specials) but speaking as a Swordsman aswell the lack of armour is a severe handicap compared to the couple of extra skill points, which can be easily negated with buffs.
To my mind Wookiees are supposed to be for combat roles, they have some advantages to combat, more HAM etc. but all of which is easily overcome by the disadvantage of not wearing any armour.

Sotaudi,
I believe a wookie's weakness with a rifle is a flaw in the game. The Wookies were designed to be strong with their native weapon, the bowcaster, which is a rifle. I have no problem accepting differences in races. However, I can not accept flaws in the game. To accept any flaw is problematic. It should be the job of SOE to fix the flaws, not the job of the community to accept them.