Rifleman Archive
Thread: I hate conceal shot and i wanna be a rifleman ^^
Madeiner wrote:
Hi everyone
Im a new player and im deciding whether to go Rifleman or Swordman.
I just hit Rifleman 0100 (got conceal shot) and i am almost novice swordman.
I see that swordman, at the moment, is much more funnier, with that spin attack i can kill lotsa mobs around me and take little damage.
As a rifleman, i am making exp by just concealing shooting all the way, and that is damn BORING.
I'd like to know iflater on, or at Master level, i will change my way of fighting...
I mean, let's imagine i want to go to the NS cave:
swordman: get in there and start attacking AoE
rifleman: conceal shot 1 by 1? that is damn boring.... do i need to get through the dungeon with conceal shot?
Or you can see my question from another perspective: i hate conceal shot and i don't want to use it. Can i be a rifleman?
Thanks
Madeiner
The 'Swordsman/Rifleman' question is always gonna be a tough one. At master, they both ROCK in PvE 
It all comes down to, what do you wanna do? What's your play style? Are you gonna be grouping or solo most of the time? If you're grouping, who with? Is PvE or PvP your main focus?
Ignoring combat rebalance stuff for now, since nobody knows how that's gonna turn out, and focussing on PvE (since your PvP choice is pretty clear, and it doesn't have any swords in it):
Master Doc/Master Heavy Swordsman is one of, if not the, best solo templates available for PvE. There's pretty much nothing you can't kill, and since you're perma-buffed and can one-shot heal with good Stim Es, there's not much that can scratch you. In groups, it's a great tank, since you can just stand there healing yourself, and dishing out a ton of damage too.
It can get kind of dull, though, for a couple of reasons.
a) Not much variety or tactics. Here is a typical MHS encounter with a high-level MOB...
Walk up to thing. Keep thing intimidated while running Centre of Being macro. Hit thing a lot (probably in the head) with a choice of two weapons. Apply bleeds andother DoTs you may have, as and when necessary. If thing is an NS Elder, go for beer, read paper,phone parents. Returnoccasionally to heal/eat/drink/refill combat queue. Loot thing. Say 'w00t, 800 credits'.
b) Hinted at in a), there's not a lot of variety in weapons or attacks. You only get two damage types, but usually anything you fight will be pretty weak against one or the other, so not much decision-making to be made. Likewise, no real state effects, so you're more picking between AoE/single attacks, and deciding if you wanna target the mind pool.
Overall, I'm finding MHS is getting old just because it's TOO easy - I enjoy outdamaging groups in the Geo caves, but that'sa means to an end, not something I do for the hell of it.
Master Doc/Master Rifleman, on the other hand, is still a very viable solo template, but it's just not in the Swordsman's league. However, it is (IMO) more fun because of that, and you will have a much larger variety of weapons and attacks to choose from, and those choices will matter. Having 'cone' attacks rather than genuine AoE attacks forces you to think more when attacking lairs, since you can't afford to get surrounded. You will also be able to take a far more 'tactical' role in a group, hanging back and keeping an eye on your groupmates, lending firepower when necessary, taking out the most dangerous enemies first, etc.
At the moment, I'm Master Rifleman/Master Swordsman on one toon (with enough medic to heal over 1k per heal with med use 40 stims). When I'm solo, I hardly ever use my rifle. When I'm grouped, I hardly ever use my Scythe/Powerhammer.
I'm dropping Chef soon, and I'll be Master Doc/Master Rifle, and Master Doc/Master Swordsman
I'll use my Swordsman when I'm after loot (Nightsisters, Geo Cave) and my Rifleman for grouping with guildies, plus Krayt-hunting, and any time whenI want a challenging solo session. I think the rifles will be more fun, swords will be more like the day job 
Madeiner wrote:
Nice reply, makes things a lot clearer
Could you tell me what's the difference between rifle's cone attacks and sword's aoe attacks?
The Swordsman AoE attacks hit EVERYTHING in range, including things behind you. My 'tactics' for soloing lairs as a swordsman (assuming I'm not too bothered about milking every possible critter out of it) is to shout "Ug! Swordsman bash!", walk up to the lair, and start spamming Area Hit 3 on the lair. A couple of minutes later,everything'sdead. Unless it's a wild ER lair, which can take a bit longer I killedabout 30 ERs from one of those beasts, half of the corpses had despawned by the time I got done, but I still got about 8k meat out of it.
The Rifleman cone attack, as I understand it (and please, someone jump in and correct me if I get it wrong) is basically an expanding 'cone', starting with you at the 'point' of the cone, and with your current target at the centre. So, it's easy to get outflanked if you aren't careful, and you may need to keep moving or changing targets to be getting best use out of your attacks. Also note that it won't damage anything that isn't actively aggroed on you. A common approach is to target the lair at long range, attack it, and start spamming Strafe Shot 2 once the critters aggro you (when you see HAM bars over their heads, basically). Keep moving to make sure all the aggros are close enough to the the centre of the 'cone' to get hit.
The above examples are obviously very simple, and there is more to consider in both cases, but hopefully it illustrates the difference
Madeiner wrote:
Nice reply, makes things a lot clearer
Could you tell me what's the difference between rifle's cone attacks and sword's aoe attacks?
Ranged profession AoE attacks go out in a cone. So you have to keep your targets in front of your, or at least near the primary target. However that cone extends out to a good distance.
Melee profession AoE attacks are a radius attack. They will hit anything within say 8m of you.
So the radius attacks are great against other groups of melee MOBs since they cluster around you in a circle. However the ranged AoE cone attacks are great against other ranged professions and you can also get more targets into that cone than a melee usually can since only about six or so MOBs can encircle you because of the space restrictions.
Good call, I forgot to mention that I'm fighting melee critters maybe 95% of the time. Ranged NPCs can be a real pain for a melee-only player, unless you can persuade them to switch to melee when you get close. Certainly, I break out the rifle in those situations, rather than chasing them down with the hammer
Waste93 wrote:
Madeiner wrote:
Nice reply, makes things a lot clearer
Could you tell me what's the difference between rifle's cone attacks and sword's aoe attacks?
Ranged profession AoE attacks go out in a cone. So you have to keep your targets in front of your, or at least near the primary target. However that cone extends out to a good distance.
Melee profession AoE attacks are a radius attack. They will hit anything within say 8m of you.
So the radius attacks are great against other groups of melee MOBs since they cluster around you in a circle. However the ranged AoE cone attacks are great against other ranged professions and you can also get more targets into that cone than a melee usually can since only about six or so MOBs can encircle you because of the space restrictions.
Waste93 wrote:
I would go up Sniping first for the accuracy. That was what I did. But if you use a pet tank you are probably better going up Counter-Sniping for the AoE attacks first. But still get Sniping I first. That will give you some improved accuracy and MindShot2. Which you can stack with MindShot1.