Rifleman Archive
Thread: Rifleman Irritation
When hunting wild game, I simply MUST be in a group to not die constantly. I have also started to wait until someone else has hit something before I start shooting. This is an effort to stop the creature from noticeing me so I get a few more shots in. If I don't do this the creatures are on top of me before I can get my second shot off. As you all know once they get with in 10m of you your dammage is reduced to 80%.
Now I can throw traps and slow them down, but I only seem effective at takeing one animal at a time. It seems that every **edit** animal in this game has 3-10 friends. They all bum rush me as soon as the first shot goes off. My only hope at this point is to run up to any melee fighters in the group and hope they are spamming knockdowns and for the rest of the fight deal out 24-124 dammage every 6 seconds.
I have taken to using a macro that will equip all my armor and pistol for when the animals rush me. This seems to be the only way to fight and live. Get to 60m from whatever you are going to attack /mindshot2 /mindshot1 hope that the second shot goes off before they get to you then get the macro to drop my rifle and equip my armor. The result of this is I have enough pistol XP to train pistoleer and have ONLY TRAINED ONE RIFLE SKILL!
So I am left with this decision, drop rifle in favor of pistol like every other person out there or stick with it in hopes that the T21 makes me a contender.
Your advice please.
I don't think the Rifle you are using is your issue, per se. I should say, I don't think that a T21 will solve your problem. Let me ask a few questions to see if we can isolate your troubles.
Your sig says Master Marksman, are you using suppression fire & warning shot?
What are the stats on your laser rifle, are you using any powerups?
What are you hunting that is killing you?
What is your general plan for attacking mobs?
I am only 1 - 0 - 1 - 1, but I have the Master Marksman & very rarely have problems solo. I have a bunch of different rifles that I carry with me, each has a special use. Some of the more experienced riflemen will likely have better advice, but here is my setup:
#1 Don't fight mobs that bring a friend.
#2 Have some scout, so examine the mob and look for resistances / vulnerabilities / armor rating.
#3 From 60 meters, open up with laser rifle bleeding attack & get a good headshot 2 in. Switch to DLT20a, E11 or Spraystick depending on armor/resists.
#4 Mob starts to charge, I usually lay a suppression fire or 2 and get it to bow before me.. Then I move back out to ideal range for my weapon.
#5 I have been keeping the mob pinned down (suppression fire) & using regular shots to kill it. But I am training myself to use warning shot more often now with the upcoming "adjustment". So in this step, as soon as the mob starts to run toward you, hit it with a warning shot (or 2) & it will run away from you.
This usually keeps everything a decent distance away & I pick it apart until death. Mind you, there are always exceptions (The teleporting mob factor, ranged attackers, BAF mobs etc..) but this is essentially my personal template for hunting.. I keep a DLT20a, Ion Rifle, Laser, E11 and Spraystick on me and that keeps me ready for just about all situations.
It really depends on what you are hunting. If it cons red do not even consider hunting it as a rifleman. There has been some very good advice so far and some of it I will repeat. If you have some CH as you indicated it gets easier.
1. Multiple rifles are a must. Each one has a purpose.
2. Always examine the target for defenses and vulnerabilities. (a GOOD Jawa Ion Rifle is a must, it does stun damage, relatively fast ROF and average damage.) This will let you pick your targets.
3. If it BAFS, you are in trouble. If you have a good pet, use it to tank.
4. My normal approach is MS2, MS1 with a T-21 or Laser. Switch to E-11 or Jawa (see #2) and fire suppression, then flurry. Normal shot til it moves, then warning shot, normal shots, rense and repeat.
5. With a good pet (3-5K HAM). Send in the pet with the second shot. If the bleeds were high, you just have to keep shooting. Keep the pet alive and let the bleeds do the work. This saves mind so reduces down time. If you suppress as the 3rd shot this gives the pet plenty of time to get aggro.
6. If there are 2, hit the first with MS2, HS2/3, send in pet. Switch target to #2, supress, MS2, warningshot. If it runs, switch back to #!, HS3, then back to #2. Let the bleed/pet take #1, you keep #2 off you, then send the pet in on #2.
7. If there are 3 or more run for your life. Use warning shot to get them off and keep running. Sometimes you can get all but 1 to break off, then you can handle that one.
It is all about knowing the target, and your weapons. Sometimes ROF is more important than damage. Sometimes HAM cost is most important. Sometimes the damage type or Armor Rating is critical. Know your tools.
WolfShot,
The knockdown / suppression fire "adjustment" is a 30 second immunity for players/mobs that are hit with it. This was done in order to stop players from trivializing encounters. For example, a Marksman could take on a large critter and keep it pinned down while blasting it to bits by cycling suppression fire. If the creature had no ranged attack, the Marksman would kill it with little or no risk to himself.
Knockdown was a similar case, as some players were soloing "raid type" creatures by spamming knockdown. As Jagen88 pointed out on the Pistoleer forum, the knockdown had an added effect of delaying the next combat action of the victim and it was cumulative. Every knockdown added 15 seconds before the creature/player could fight back.
A lot of people claim that the true reasoning behind the "adjustment" was PvP. Knockdown, even with the greater HAM cost, OWNED a lot of people. Suppression fire was not really ever talked about, but again, you could keep a melee player pinned & just pick him apart.
Now the parts that are colassaly forked with this change are: Many classes rely on posture changes in order to function, TKA especially. Knockdown for Carbineers was essential for crowd control & they are going to be hard pressed to develop tactics to replace it. And now uber leet eye shots once per second own PvP duels.
All players will adjust in time. In the interim, players will cry.
Iodan wrote:
As Jagen88 pointed out on the Pistoleer forum, the knockdown had an added effect of delaying the next combat action of the victim and it was cumulative. Every knockdown added 15 seconds before the creature/player could fight back.
Good post, Iodan.
What I've never understood is the 15 second inability to heal or fight back after KD. If I can run around, why don't I have sufficient grasp of my abilities to at least heal? I can understand something like a 5 second delay, but 15 seconds/KD on a cumulative basis?
TK is my complimentary profession so I would love this to continue. Except for the fact that TK KD costs are insane. And the fact that I can't get close enough in PvP to KD very often. Usually, I'm recovering from 5 KDs that were spammed by a carbineer/BH. 
KD should be something that stops someone temporarily from kiting or charging you. It should be able to make a player a walking incap.
Jambolaya wrote:
It should be able to make a player a walking incap.
Shouldn't.
But then you guys probably got that.
This is the first I had heard about the Nerf to Suppression fire. It was working normally last night... when is this supposed to go in?
Personlly, this means the grind up the Rifleman tree for me just tripled in length, and it was looking long enough before. I DO use suppression fire on the high XP Mobs, but I'm not getting so much XP that I'll be at master next week... or the week after that... or the week after that...
I have never had good luck with Warning shot... guess its time to go learn what I've been doing wrong...
Crap.
Let me clarify, it is a change not to suppression fire, but 30 second immunity to Knockdown and Posture Changes. Which is why TKA's and other melee classes are up in arms. Supression Fire = Posture Change.
I don't think it is onTC now, there has been no word on when it will go test or live. The debate about testing all of it has to do with getting enough people on Test to see what it is all about. I guess some devs want(ed) to copy a cluster over to Test, for example - Lowca. Now, put in a note at login telling Lowca players to all play on Test for a week and see the new changes, your character is already there!
Now the catch is, you wont get copied BACK to Lowca. Wouldn't be able to do it. So any progress you made with your Lowca character on test will be for nothing. SO, how many people are going to do it? In addition to that, you would prolly overwrite the existing TC characters, which would be bad..
Needless to say, I think that idea got killed.