Rifleman Archive

heh in a group fight commando and rifleman can do almost the same damage (to groups of people)- the only difference is that commando does it at short range and rifleman does it at 50 meters

Anyway - I think I forgot 1 profession - smuggler

they dont have any pistol speed or accuracy mods so most smugglers go with pistoleer as a secondary profession

1. Smuggler has panic shot - it makes you stop shooting for 10 seconds

2. smuggler has ranged KD - I think the only ranged KD any pistol wielder has

3. smuggler has last ditch - more powerful than stopping shot - actually probably the most powerful pistol shot there is.

Anyway - for elite professions I've noticed that whoever has the first shot usually wins.

When dueling I've also noticed that whoever accepts the duel second has like 1 second advantage - I guess it takes a second for the info that the duel is accepted to travel to the server and back to the chalenger. So if you duel - try to accept chalenges not issue them - this one second might be the difference between a win and a lost.

The whole point of game balance is just that, balance. As things stand today, SOE is closer to a balanced PvP environment than they have ever been. Every ranged class has strengths and weaknesses, and no single class dominates combat. Even melee classes are closer to a balanced state.

There are notible exceptions, such as pikemen.

Rifle is no exception. We are an overall well balanced class. Our strengths and our weaknesses are farther from neutral than most. We are also a class that requires some basic skill to play well, we don't have a magic spam button. If you look at rifle over the last few months, our main issues have been related to BUGS in various parts of the combat code, not major issues with the class itself. (mob warping, social BAF, commando melee at range)

We are also a profession that does not have any additional ability to stack offensive capabilities. We are, on the other hand, an excellent profession to stack DEFENSIVE abilities with.

If you want a profession to make you Uber, or to have the full power with minimal investment, or to have a magic attack that wins for you, this is not the profession for you. If you want a very competitive tactical profession to master, this is it.

Nice post, but I have a couple of points.

1.) The new armour type has stun resist I believe.

2.) While I'm sure the latest patches bonuses were helpful it seems SOE is turning towards longer combat, which is a bad thing(tm) for riflemen if HAM costs remain the same.

3.) Most of the "best" PvP templates require spending most of your skillpoints, Rifleman+ Doc / TKA, Pistoleer + Smuggler and / or doctor, Carbine + BH carbine4 / Doc, TKA + Doc.

4.) I still think the T21 is not fine when some servers have Jedi and still no T21.

One thing I have learnt is that Rifleman is not a Tree that you can Dabble in. Face it we are the only Ranged Weapon user that cannot you really dabble with.

Pistol Users can go Smuggler or BH.

Carbineer can go BH.

We do not have this option. As a concession we are extremely Powerful at Master. With the Non-Group Aggro now we can nowreally hold our own.

Good Summary though

I agree with everything but the T21.

Ya the T21 is more consistant than the laser rifle, but the laser rifle still only chews away at one pool. The T21's on Starsider have HAM costs of 39-43Health 31-37Action and 67-69Mind. Where as most lasers are 14-23-61 and with minimum secondaries with for health and action, and 900 focus I can spam specials for hours.

BTW when I Master Rifleman should I drop CH or is Master Rifleman/Master CH a good PVP template?

yeah, but the laser doesn't do Heavy AP, now does it?

i would drop master Ch for master marksman, myself. just because i like my rifle to be the best it can be -

besides, you can still do amazing things with a rifle and a pet as low as a GSP.

(my opinion/experience).

Jeisyn...

Good thread. I appended a note/link tothis thread to the end of my stickied thread:

Thank you for the response, I'm just gonna try out the T21 for myself then.

Actually I think I can master all 3, I just wonder if I should............ (incoherently thinks and taps fingers on desk) mumbles "If I had superpowers would I run around in yellow tights or green"

Cool Wayne, if I had known it would become a sticky somewhere I would have spent some more time and crunched some numbers...

Psycho - well.. i like the laser too, even though I haven't used one in a long time (Haven't gotten a dmg slice in a while, so i stick to my 170-597 powered up T21) - but the low(er) ham cost on the laser is definitely nice!

I think i'll have to buy a bunch of lasers and use a good slice for PvP, to try it out.

These are all great point no how rifleman can wear big armor and pistoleers dont have good ap and such but us wookies cant wear armor so that doesnt help at all for me in PvP. The bit of extra HAM doesn't even come close to not being able to wear armor. period.

wookies got the shaft, for sure.

instead of "crappy extra ham" (basicallly, BS) - they should give wookies a 15% resist to energy or something.

or just make wookiee armor available. i don't see why a trando can wear some composite, but a wookiee can't. /shrug

seems silly.

I have been a TK, CM, Pistoleer, BH, Rifleman, CH so I know something about PvP and I believe that the ONLY valid point in this thread is the fact that Rifleman have to stop firing at some point because of mind cost whereas other professions such as carbine, Pistoleer and Bounter hunter etc... can heal and spam indefinetly.

Practically every other point is based in bias or just pure ignorance of a class they have never played themselves, especially some of the things flying around about uber guns which at the dmg some people are mentioning are uber rare.

As for Rifleman weakness, I believe there is only 2 true weaknesses.

1. Mind Pool being finite

2. Average duration of PvP when buffs, armor etc.. are factored in

Even these 2 can be circumvented by a smart player.

Comparisons between classes in regard to PvP are impossible and even harder to balance. The best example I can think of is PvP with and without armor. When your opponent has no armor a Pistoleer is great but with armor a Pistoleer is useless, this also applies to doctor buffs, both easy to come by.

Raw DPS means very little in PvP to me, most of the time there are ''trump'' specials which will get by any and all defences such as flamethrower dot,KD/DIzzyand mind attacks in general area fewgood examples.

Jeisyn, good post.

I have to agree with your evaluation of rifle and pistol. They do not do as much damage as a rifleman. Even at novice, both my FWG and my T21 had about the same effectiveness (see Volsted's weapon effeciency thread) Now that I'm at level 2 special abilities, the T21 has a huge effectiveness advantage over the FWG. Unfortunately, the pistoleer does have wonderful status and melee defenses (no meaningful ranged defense until master though)

As far as rifle accuracy, in PvE, I never miss from 20m or more. (I get worried when I get in closer than that, old rifleman reflex)

All in all, I think its adang good analysis for the rifleman class. Ironically, no one mentioned the CM/Rifleman template that now gives you a mind heal command. (From what I hear, its a nearly 100% regen of your wounds for about 100 mind wounds... not too bad if you're hitting a cantina or camp immediately after the fight)

The others, I have no clue... I do know that BHs have little in the way of defense though.