Rifleman Archive

---

Metherian wrote:

---

Manbush wrote:

[snip]

---

Rifleman is not too strong? Perhaps. But you have to ask yourself, "Do you think the dev's initally designed certain mobs to be solo-able in this game?"

I see rifleman all the time soloing Krayt dragons because they can. Sure, it may take some time to accomplish, but it is possible. And while it's a foregone conclusions that pistoleers, smugglers, carbineers, etc. have no chance of effectively soloing Krayt dragons, one has to wonder whether it was in the dev's initial design to have a profession (or two) that could. Should any of the 'uber' combat profession be able to solo all of the so-called high-end content in this game? Should certain combat professions be able to solo the Genosian bunker?

There is no group dynamic in SWG at the moment. Was this the dev's long-term vision for their massively multiplayer game?

---

If a Rifleman's concealshot is 'effective', certainly a Smuggler/Pistoleer's FD is effective, and a Carbineer's Chargeshot spam is effective(when it was spammable- which it was for a long time). And a CM's poison? Not more effective than concealshot? How about Swordsman? They actually are effective at it. Not to mention any profession combined with Doc. All of these are just as 'effective' as concealshot and, in some cases, much more so. Troll all their forums as well if you must do it to ours.

---

Metherian wrote:

It's interesting to note the glory days of pistoleers and smugglers. Afterthe game's release, almost everyone had "a little bit" ofthe Pistoleer tree, as it complimented other ranged professions rather well (especially smuggler). At the time, however, pistoleers and smugglers were comparitively strong, but hardly the mind bar damage-dealers that rifleman are today. With the recent buffs, armor, chef foods, Rifleman power has far outdistanced anything a pistoleer or smuggler could do, even 'back in the day'. In fact, the only profession thateven came close to the power ofthe Riflemanprofession was the 'old school' Bounty Hunter profession, and that didn't last long.

The reason that Pistoleers and Smugglers at that time were so strong was because of KD. It was spammable at that time. Once you saw the timer put in is when you started to see the decline in these two professions.

Nor was the BH that only one that came close to the Riflemens perceived power. The old school professions that had spammable KD were more powerful since once down the opponent could not get up.

LikeRifleman, Bounty Hunters benefited greatly from the lack of buffs, armor, high pistol speed and lack of mind healing. With their infamous mind-hitting Eye Shot ability, Bounty Hunters enjoyed a few months of total domination on the PvP battlefield. Some would argue that, with Bounty Hunter skill requisites being so high, it was 'okay' for BH's to be that powerful.Nevertheless, a lot of people complained that PvP was starting to become very one-sided. There was even talk of moving Eye Shot to the BH Master skill box. But before that could happen, Chef's got a revamp that made things like brandy and canape readily available, effectively relegating the BH profession to the same backwater pond populated by pistoleers and smugglers. Naturally, this left nothing but Riflemanas the dominant ranged combat profession.

The Rifleman did not benefit from the lack of armor or buffs. Pistol users did since AP of the weapon didn't matter then and the lower HAM costs of pistols made them more effective.

You are also off in your Chef revamp. That wasn't what changed it. It was buffs. Chef revamp came later.

The problem with Rifleman at the moment is this: back when pistoleers and smugglers were 'king', people could still compete with them. Even carbineers (if buffed) could defend themselves quite effectively with the use of some tactics. During the Bounty Hunter craze, many people adopted new tactics with which to deal with them. They either fought 'fire with fire', or enlisted the help of a combat medic or two to make sure that *nothing* was even-handed. In short, people learned how to deal with BH's, even though they clearly showed that mind-bar targetting was a little too powerful. After the chef revamp, though, the scales of equality were thrown almost completely to the rifleman's favor. With brandy, canape, etc., Rifleman were now able to *spam* mind shots in a way they never could before. At the same time, with buffs and armor being completely out of hand, all of the former, 'dominating' ranged combat professions quickly became useless.

Actually you couldn't. For once they landed a KD you were toast. Just like it was very difficult to compete with BH and EyeShot once the KD timer was put in. BH could hit the Mind pool but used pistol HAM costs that mostly drained Action and had much lower costs than Riflemen specials. Unlike the Rifleman that was using Mind to hit Mind. With the PvP reduction put in, the Rifleman was frequently doing more damage to themselves than the opponent.

The biggest boost to Riflemen were buffs. Both the Entertainer types and the food type. However this is an issue with buffs, not with Riflemen.

Also the way the buffs, stims, etc were put in it made the Mind the main target in PvP. Since it can not be healed like Health and Action and it can not be buffed to the same levels. This made Mind hits the way to go. With buffs making very high end armor possible the only vulnerability was Stun damage. Something that the Rifleman has. So Rifleman was put in the position of having the best weapon for the job because of poor foresight by the Devs of the consequences of their changes to other professions and how it effected PvP.

If you have been here since the begining you know that almost nothing has changed within the Rifleman profession itself.

Currently, rifleman are uber-powered--but this isn't the main problem. (Players develope ways of dealing with over-powered templates.) The problem is that all of the other ranged combat professions were so watered-down and made effete by recent changes that there is simply no comparison between the ranged professions any more. Rifleman stand alone at the moment, and that is the most over-powered profession 'advantage' ever seen in this game. (Look at the combat medic profession for another example of this.) With nothing on the horizon except the constantly-postponed Combat Rebalance to 'review things', it's no wonder that a lot of people are bored with PvP at the moment. Unless you play a temploiter 'build', there's just no point in participating.

I noticed you said all ranged professions. You didn't include melee for good reason. The melee professions can be very effective. Right now the Swordsman is probably the best PvE template. Riflemen do not stand alone at the moment. There are also the CM's. You also have the Fencer template stacker. Pikemen are becoming popular because of their DoT weapons. Should we even mention Jedi here too? Riflemen do not stand alone.

Also the main focus of your whole arguement is only about PvP. Something that is a minority. Most people PvE. Attempting to balance the professions based on PvP will lead to a larger number of problems in PvE which effects a much greater number of people.

Almost all the Riflemen haters out there are PvPers. All their arguements are based on this very small aspect of the game. They have no regard for the majority that PvE.