Rifleman Archive
Thread: Ranged/Placed Shots vs. Adv Critical/Imp Head Shots Additional Test Results
Uthyr wrote:
Aside from my test results, one of the main reasons why I prefer alternating high-end specials is the psychological factor--I love seeing high damage numbers for every shot I fire, and I suspect that there is an intimidation factor in PVP when people see a huge damage number from a successful critical shot.
I've pretty much given up trying to convince people that one of these two approaches is better than the other. All I can say is that for me, with my player mods, the weapons I use, and the PvE mobs that I tend to fight, alternating Adv Critical./Adv Head shots deals unequivocally, indisputably, more damage than Ranged/Placed Shots, and I rarely have to worry about running out of action. If it's important to anybody to change that "rarely" to "never," or if other people find themselves running out of action for their playing style, then by all means go with the Ranged/Placed combo. I don't deny that that combo has a lot of merit too. Personally, I refuse to use unimpressive Marksman specials when my more impressive-looking elite Master specials work better for me. The game's just not as fun for me if I do not feel powerful as well as look powerful!If the action cost gets (re-) nerfed for healing, I may change my thinking about that (or perhaps I'll just give up my healing skills in favor of better offenses), but for now I am very satisfied with my approach.
To each his/her own--it's all about what makes the game fun for you! 
this is just silly, tripple posting, lol
Message Edited by Iasha on 10-28-200512:46 PM
Message Edited by Iasha on 10-28-2005 12:47 PM
Message Edited by Iasha on 10-28-2005 12:48 PM
"it works for me" is a good mantra for this game, and its no bad thing. if we all just went for the perfect attack, temp, etc this would get to be avery boring game. i show this as much for my own clarification as for others who may be curious.
sorry to appear to repeat my self, but here is a different example of the comparison....
An excellent analysis, Iasha, thanks for posting that! While my own test results don't even come close to matching your numbers, they do show the same trend--that you get much more damage over time over the short term (i.e., as long as your action lasts) with Critical/Head Shots. With blob candy and a SAC PUP, my action lasts much longer than 28 seconds though, so it's important to figure the numbers for everything that affects your SAC, whatever way you like to fight.
I may make a point today of timing how long my action lasts using my approach. I'll post the results here if I get around to it.
Okay, I ran a quick and dirty field test today to get a sense for how long my action bar would hold out while continuously alternating Adv. Critical/Imp. Head Shots. I was using Blob Candy for a +181 action regen buff, and I had a -23 action cost PUP on my rifle(bringing my SAC down to 59). I was wearing 6947-8249 kinetic-resist assault armor (different resists for the various pieces). I only mention the armor because if I had I been wearing battle or recon armor, I would have had to heal more frequently, which would havechanged the results.
I attacked a piket lair, from a close enough range that every piket that spawned was within my firing range, to allow me to continuously move from one to the next as I killed them, with no rest breaks. It took me about3 minutes to kill all the pikets and destroy the lair, during which time I had to heal a couple of times (bacta shots and bacta sprays). Even including the healing, my action never dropped below about 75% the whole time. At that rate, I would have theoreticallyhad enough action to last me12 minutes of continuous firing, with the occasional heal. In reality, assuming that I had to pick up my healing pace at some point if I started taking too heavy a beating (which would have been the case against a tougher opponent), it might not have lasted quite that long, but the point is that there are few mobs that I couldn't kill using critical/head shots without losing all my action.
I would like to posta philosohical point that kinda goes to Uthyr's perspective that the alternating Adv. Critical/Imp. Head Shots appears more impressive.
Ranged/Placed shots are acheiveable with 2 tier1 skills, and using a high-end ALR with pups and slices, anyone can perform the 'sustained damage' that people refer to here. This means that ANYONE with 17 SP to blow can do this damage.
Adv. Critical/Imp. Head Shots require a lot more work to have access to, in terms of combat. Lots of killing stuff. Lots of wear on weapons and armor. Philosophically speaking, Adv. Critical/Imp. Head Shots SHOULD be the better option. In fact, I would go as far as to say most Adv/Imp 2-shot combos should perform better than Ranged/Placed - more work was needed to gain them.
I am not saying that a Crafter/Entertainer using an ALR and Ranged/Placed shouldn't be useful and viable on a battlefield, but right now with tapes, BE clothes, buffs and foods, it could be said they were just as good as we were. That just seems wrong to me.