Rifleman Archive

Rule #1 in the "Developing your own MMORPG for Dummies" : ALWAYS overnerf.

Rifleman were giving the devs, who are all combat medics, teras kasi, and bounty hunters, too much trouble. They were bleeding people to take advantage of distance, before other classes close the distance, making our attacks useless. They wish for a return of the days, where pistoleers rule(because they are faster), and bounty hunters are unstoppable. I can no longer fight the creatures that I used to. I can no longer do faction missions. I can no longer have fun in this game. It is riduclous. I used to spend hours killing pikets, by bleeding them and warnign shotting them, and taking a good 30 minutes having fun, only making 10k. Now I suppose that was exploiting, because I cannot do that. They want everyone to do things in groups(Genosian Dungeon). This game and its Sony(high price, state of the art, crap) design doctrine cannot handle any large groups, so they need to keep fun at the individual level. Read Rich Vogels letter to the community he says many things will be changed, which will hurt the individual, but be better for the whole community in the long run. I am now paying $15 a month for YOU to be having fun, that is what you are paying for. Big bad rifleman like me, who have only won 2 pvp battles, are going to be completely ruined soon, Watch. Mind Stims are coming. They have already done away with bleeding the mind.

The fundamental problem I see with the dev treatment of the rifleman profession is whenever one thing seems overpowered, they take that away and don't balance out by improving the SEVERAL things that just stink about rifle use. For instance, when was the last time you went to a cave/dungeon/installation and found more than a couple cave spots where you could find a 50-65m firing position to get into ideal range? HA!

Here's another: pretty much every mob I've seen in the game has kinetic attacks, and a lot of NPCs can use both ranged and melee or brawler-based attacks. So, while everything you fight can do damage in tight quarters, rifleman (and carbineer) players are forced to run to maintain range unless they are lucky enough to be undetected, and except for poor-HAM stuff I can drop in 1-2 shots, I don't remember the last time I stayed hidden from a mob. As a result, the system not only rewards rifle/ranged for using kiting tactics, it CREATES THE PROBLEM and forces this play style. If they don't like people using this style and doing good damage with it (and I could see a reduction in bleeds, but maybe by 1/3, not 2/3 -- OVERKILL!), then stop forcing absurd penalties on ranged players to begin with. Give them abilities/specials that work so they aren't forced to use bleed kiting.

One of my all-time favorites is the resistances system that means you almost always find some energy resistance on a given mob, 100% for things like certain nightsisters and other really tough mobs (so bleed is the only way to do any damage at all), yet the top two rifles are both energy-based. Sure, add an acid rifle, but why make it a loot-only item that will be overpriced to the point of making it a non-option for all but the uber players? They're the ones who don't need more options and toys -- give some love to the players who actually need it.

Bottom line, we should be pulling for changes that make sense as a balanced whole, so if a nerf comes down, the other aspects of a profession offset that and give players more viable options so they aren't forced into just one tactic or out of the profession altogether.

Well thank the little punks who were stacking bleeds and fire on epic mobs then jumping on speeder bikes and kiting. That is the reasonfor the DoT nerf.

It is a big crap sandwinch and we all have to take a bite of it.

---

Mack_Dorgeans wrote:
For instance, when was the last time you went to a cave/dungeon/installation and found more than a couple cave spots where you could find a 50-65m firing position to get into ideal range? HA!

---

You know, I have to admit,this does not bother me much. I used it more for the pull effect when I had 2-handed. I do think that the way it worked before invited exploit or exploit-like behavior. Somehow tapping a Krayt with a bleed and running away seemed cheap... but that is just me. Despite my better judgement I'm gonna side with the devs on this one.

bleed stacking is still in.. put 100 and 210 pt bleedson a commando NPC.. doesnt really help much.. but they do still stack.

While I agree the bleed was surprisingly low, I only have a problem with it because of the instant aggro when the first bleed kicks in. If I can use ConcealShot or other attack and have it bleed and not instantly attack then the lower bleed is still useful.

But to find myself in combat as soon as the first bleed kicks in makes the bleed worthless.

---

Leana_Txorana wrote:

But to find myself in combat as soon as the first bleed kicks in makes the bleed worthless.

---

Bleeds have always been like this, for as long as I can remember. Bleed and as soon as the tick hits it ags on you.

If you can't play without bleeds, then you're doing something terribly wrong. I haven't used a bleed since I got flushingshot2..... and after master, I use strafe2 consistantly, unless i want to use concealshot.

And I've been a rifleman pretty much since release.

---

Katal wrote:

Honestly... How often does the military send in a soldier with an M24 or an M82 Sniper Rifle for a CQB? I'd say carbines/pistols would realistically have the advantage in caves or indoors. (This is not the case - I have played a master pistoleer, master carbiner, and master rifleman - Rifleman outdoes both of them easily)

---

My point is, all the new "content" the devs are focusing on, plus the bulk of existing static adventures, is dungeons. What's so great about seeing the same freakin' dungeon layouts over and over filled with different critters and NPCs? That's not new stuff -- it's repetition. How about some more places built outside without walls in the way? As for carbines, their specials are a mess anyway, so it's hard to compare with them.

Plus, when people talk about using other specials all the time and not bleeds, are they able to contribute against those nasty high energy resistance mobs? Bleeds as they were may have been too good, but they were over-nerfed into a footnote. Was a middle-ground even considered? What about bleed chances? It could have been made much harder to apply a bleed to prevent the easy bleed-and-run tactics. I also agree the instant agro seriously hurts the use of bleeds. When it comes right down to it, the nerf seems like a knee-jerk reaction to a problem that didn't take into account the limitations some classes face.

This change supposedly is meant to prevent a tactic that allowed players to handle stuff much tougher than they should be able to solo, but what does it accomplish? The people who want to be able to solo big mobs will just go to other professions that can do so instead. The result is the people in affected professions who really like the profession get stuck with the nerf and those who use the loopholes the most just move on to the next loophole.