Rifleman Archive

Lasers seem to be easier to get higher max damage with, but the dang gap between min damage and max damage is huge..

T21's have less of a gap and look way cooler =)

t21 also has a very nice heavy AP

depends on a lot of different things.

quality on your server
High ham costs on the T21?
does your character have the mind to handle a T21, if you want to use alot of specials
what are you attacking? does it have armor or no armor?
personal preference....do you want it to shoot faster with lower dmg?
the list goes on and on

I would buy both and then some.

currently i carry the following around all the time and looking to add a Jawa soon

4 T21's (varying dmg ranges/HAM costs and of course with the less damage they are cheaper then the good one)
3 laser (2 dmg and one speed)
1 sg82? (cold damge attacks)
1 spray stick (mostly i use on little things that i want to shoot fast)
2 dlt20 (has low ham costs so its nice when mind running low and shoots at a pretty good speed)
1 tusken (has poison that i looted, dont use much but fun to play with also sounds cool)
1 E11 (dont use much, but it has pretty good speed and smaller min-max range)

and always a few weapon repair kits. mostly i use the lasers, unless the targets are armored or i need to drop something fast, that has a ranged attack.

the ones i use most are probably (in order of use)

1. laser
2. T21 (love to use them but so darn expensive cant bring my self to use iunless i really need to)
3. DLT20

the quality is top notch on chilastra

Ham costs arnt going to be huge deal cause i always carry around 2 crates or 4 types of food that gets my mind up to 2.5k np

It depends on the situition. I keep 4 or 5 rifles in my toolbar and switch weapons to adapt my fighting style.

I have a low HAM laser to spam specials, I have a speed sliced laser to autofire as I run away when I get agro, I have a speed sliced t21 to autofire at stuff with armor, I have a regular laser to spam concealshot with, and I have a cold rifle (forget the name) to use against stuff with high energy resists. I hope to find a Jawa soon to use PvP. I don't use my spraystick anymore since I get a better dps with the speed sliced laser.

There is a thread in the marksman forum that has a good spreadsheet to figure your DPS with different waepons based on your accuracy and speed modifiers. Its is written by Volstad (I think).

Also don't forget powerups.

Main choices for me are:

T21, Jawa, Spraystick

Depends on what I'm doing.

If you haven't yet, get yourself one of the new spray sticks (the CRM's can be experimented on effectively now) and have it dmg sliced with a dmg powerup.

I don't really use a laser rifle other than for getting to Novice Rifle because of the dmg intervals being to widely spread to be able to predict if I would be able to take a mob or not.

Spray stick is useless at master, its damage is so low there's no reason to use specials with it, and you can auto fire a T21 with a speed less than 10 at the same speed you can autofire a T21 at the same speed as your spray stick, and most likely with about the same accuracy

Never use a T-21 for pvp. For pve it's ok. In pvp you'll kill yourself faster then your opponent. Use a jawa.

Eaca,

Spraystick is not entirely useless at Master. It's damage is low, but sometimes, as a Master, that is a useful trait. I use one when I am out with people who are still grinding their skills. If I pull out my T21 and spam Strafeshot2, I kill stuff so fast that people complain they cannot get any XP. And as you pointed out, if I can autofire a T21 at 1 shot per second, I am still doing a lot of damage, plus, since I use powerups on my rifles to lower HAM costs and boost damage, I am also wearing it out faster.

On the other hand, if I cannot shoot, the only thing I can do is stand around healing people as they need it and be there just to keep things from getting out of hand. Not that either of those things are bad things, but it sure gets boring. Having a weapon like a spraystick allows you to at least participate without taking the lion's share of the XP.

Lasers can have higher damage, but you can get T21s that, with a good damage slice, will do some pretty hefty damage. That combined with the much higher minimum damage and the fact that it is heavy AP means that you get some consistent high damage.

Remember that, sincea T21 is one level of AP above the Laser, you cannot just look at the raw numbers. For instance, take an off the shelfLaser that does 42 - 400 damage. With a 35% damage slice and a 33% max damage powerup, this Laser could get to a max damage of 718. Not bad.

However a T21 will get a 25% damage bonus from AP over the Laser, so to get the same max damage number as a 718 max damage Laser, a damage sliced and powered up T21 only has to get a max damage of 574. That means that, with the same damage slice and max damage on the powerup, the starting max damage of the T21 only has to be 320 to match a 400 max on a Laser. And given that the minimum damage of a T21 can be two to three times that of the minimum damage of the Laser, you can use a 33% max damage / 16% mind cost reduction powerup, where as you would need a 33% max / 16% min damage powerup to help out the Laser. That brings the HAM costs of the T21 closer to the Laser as well.

So, do not just look at the max damage of the Laser to make your decision. To make a fair comparison, divide the Laser damage by 1.25. That will give you an apples to apples comparison.

If I'm out helping people grind XP I have another tactic, equip my T21 then run this macro:

/mindshot2

/mindshot1

/pause2

/peace

This sticks whatever with a nasty nasty bleed then stops me from fighting. Heck, I'm a master, capped on rifle and combat xp, I don't need any. If they want me there for damage control why take even 5% away from them.

Spraysticks aren't useless, I'm master rifleman and master marksman. They are good for close encounters. I have a spraystick sliced and powered up that has a max damage of 340, not too shabby.

In PvP use a T21 against unarmored players, but make sure you use the proper food/dring/buff/spice combination. Against armored, use the Jawa since its more effective