Rifleman Archive
Thread: Master Pistoleer going Master Rifleman: Anything I need to know? (Questions inside.)
A I M E S Why am I going from Master Pistoleer to Master Rifleman?
Well, I've always liked rifles, and no matter what everyone says, Pistoleers really do suck. (If you dont have BH or Smuggler, then its insanely good. 
)
BUT, lets put it this way: At Rilfes III, I can pull off MORE DPS with Head Shot 2 than I can with Stopping Shot. I can do it semi-fast, with a speed sliced/speed powerup Laser Rifle, and an insanely fast Speed Sliced Spraystick. (<--While not what I was hoping for, its fast. =) )
And I'm just going from profession to profession for fun. =)
Thanks all!
It's going to be abit of a grind at first. The dropping of the 2.5X melee penalty should help a lot though. But expect it to be a bit harder than Pistol. The main reason being that most of the Rifle advantages are back loaded. So the Novice Rifleman struggles a bit more than a Novice Pistoleer.
A lot fo people reccomened getting FlusingShot2 as soon as possible and just concentrating on that at first. However I would reccomment getting the first block of Sniping and Concealment first. This will give you increased accuracy, increase ability to use the new "single pull", ability to attack with a much lower chance to be attacked in response (ConcealShot), and another bleed so you can stack the two bleeds.
Going start to Flushing2 costs 775XP. Getting Sniping I and Conceal I costs 350k. But it will also increase your effectiveness enabling you to get that 775k a bit faster.
You won't need millions for Muon and such. I get away just using Breath of Heaven. Cuts the HAM costs almost in half. Lasts about ten minutes.
The T21 is good for the bleed shots. The damage is more consistant so it's a bit more reliable for this. I personally use either a T21 or sliced Laser Rifle for bleeds then switch to a DLT20a for auto-attacks and WarningShot (you want WarningShot if you don't have it). You can use a Spraystick for the same thing I use a DLT20a for.
As has been mentioned here a number of times. If you want to level fast hunt Pikets. Group with something for the XP bonus. That will give you about 4k XP per Piket. There are nine per lair plus another 4k XP for the lair. So that's about 40k XP per lair plus 9k mission pay. They are social however they don't deathblow. They are also good for their meat or hides if you have Scout skill. I've been harvesting the meat for a Chef. Just another way to make money so you can afford a new rifle once in awhile.
As for what secondary profession that depends on your play style. Though I don't think the CM/Rifle will work the way you want it to. I don't think you can heal your own mind. Even if you can it costs Mind to use. So no net effect. The most popular is usually the Creature Handler. Though not sure how good that is now with the current changes. It should be fairly effective though.
Good luck on your new endevour.
The previous poster has a point about the accuracy and conceal inhancement before going for flushing2, but I would say it depends.
If you hunt over a tank (pet or TKA) then go straight for Flushing2. I have a friend that is TKA and he runs in to a pocket of Rontos, Banthas, or Razors and he just taps them ALL so they are on him. Then he moves away from the lair.
As he is fighting them, I will open with flushing2 and its devastating. I have taken down as many as 6 Razorbacks or Banthas in two shots. Its really funny to see them drop at the same time.
If you solo, go the other route, get conceal for sure. That will allow you to snipe some bigger stuff than you would normally.
As far as weaps go... I have to say.. that too depends on your target. If you get a T-21 with low HAM cost, hope for a damage slice.. it will have a consistent damage level with high armor piercing. I only use mine for big targets or NPC's.
My laser has less consistent damage, but with the proper slice and proper powerup, you can hit for MASSSIVE amounts of damage. Far more than I can with any of my T21's. I usually just burn up the Lasers and then use the T21 for special cases. The mind cost is lower and they are dirt cheap to replace.
Keep some other rifles in your arsenal.. SG82 and Jawa Ion are must haves for the special targets that have low resists in those areas. And I have used either an E11 or DLT20a as a general purpose grinder or lair popper. I also keep a Spraystick on hand... its great for kiteing NPC's while mounted or burst running, or maybe use it with /warningshot if you have it.
Personally, I think that really expensive guns and armor are vastly overrated. I burn through weapons pretty fast because I am a VERY active hunter, so I see no reason to invest in "Krayt" or other such enhanced weapons. I buy 3 or 4 of one I like, get them sliced and always hope for damage slices. Those I keep and repair as needed, the others I give to PA members coming up through the ranks or I burn them up till they break.
Armor encumbrances are usually too high for me to wear it. I keep a basic set of Ubese and one of Chitin on me to macro on for a few seconds while I am trying to run away, but unless I am getting hit, I don't wear it. And if you are going for something big, like a Kimo or a Krayt.. don't even bother bringing it along. You WILL die if it hits you and you will decay your armor if its in your inventory.
Thanks everyone for this great information. It may help you help me more if I list what I have skill-wise:
CURRENTLY:
Master Pistoleer
Marksman: 3/4/0/4
Scout: 4/0/4/0
CH: 3/2/0/3
Based on your current skills. I'd keep the CH and just substitute Rifle for Pistol. The main reason being you are probably use to fighting a certain way. This would allow you to keep the same basics. You'd just be switching Rifle for Pistol and would probably be the easiest to adapt to.
Might be a bit easier that way but it's really up to you and how much you want to change your play style.
Definetly just keep your CH skills, they will be your best friend when it comes to getting xp.
I am a Master Pistoleer as well, and yeah.. you guess it... we ARE weak, so I too am switching to Rifleman.
With my pet helping me, and killing piket plains walkers, and huurton howlers and stalkers, I was able to get novice Rifleman (from RIfles IV) In about 2 1/2 hours. I also had enough combat xp stored up to learn 0002 right off the bat, and I highly recommend that, as it will give you + speed modifiers and Flurry Shots.
My advice is to slowly phase in Rifleman as you slowly phase out Pistoleer, that way you can still defend yourself at close range if something aggros you. once you are high enough up in rifleman you shouldn't have to worry about that as much.
A tip if you get aggroed... pull out your pistol, command your pet to attack the one that's aggroing, /pistolMeleeDefense1, run, switch back to rifle and shoot away.
Good luck!!
Leomi wrote:
Thanks everyone for this great information. It may help you help me more if I list what I have skill-wise:
CURRENTLY:
Master Pistoleer
Marksman: 3/4/0/4
Scout: 4/0/4/0
CH: 3/2/0/3
I was almost exacly this setup when i starte rifles ( 2 more boxes in CH) Just drop the first 2 lines of pistol as you get rifle skill so you can still stack health bleads before you start on a kill with your rifle ( makes marksman rifle 4 go much faster) and gives sightly increased combat xp that will help in ggoing up the spd tree as quick as posible.
When i got novice rifle i used staked health bleads on pickets along with the random pool special cause it seems to take them down quicker than mindshot2 and you can get all the pickets bleading then start working on one at a time while the others attack your pet.
Also keeping the 0044 pistol as long as you can reserves your abiltiy to use fan shot and stoping shot if you get in over your head and your pets health is going down too quick.
I just want to say that getting Master Sharpshooter is kind of hard but it'll be worth it.
I did the hard way, no spices no pets. Dont remember how long it took but **edit** I was happy when I reached master. Haha but I admit that I'm now a spiceaddict.
Good luck with Master sharpshooter