Rifleman Archive

Hi,

Currently I m TKM, master marksmanand working my way up rifleman tree ( 4 2 2 2 atm ) and also got novice scout withthe first explore skill and medic skills in the first aid tree.
However I m at the point I need to surrender skill in order to continue my way into rifleman and I m thinking of different possibilities to have the necessary skill point :

1) Take away Explore 1 and novice scout, alsokeeping only the firstFA skill in the medic tree and thusstill having Master Marksman.
( Though I m loosing terrain negotiation and got somehow low healing skill, on the other side, I have +9 ranged defense, +10 rifle accuracy and +5 speed )

2) Surrender Master Marksman and the pistol and carbine tree, thus beeing able to keep explore 1 and have FA 4.
( On a side, I can move easier on hill and have a way better healing, pretty nice for pvp. On the other hand, I loose some bonus to my rifle skill and range defense)

Which option would you choose guys ? Do you think the bonus given by having Master Marksman worth it compared to climbing hill easily and healing better ?

Thx for your answer

Noone wants to give his idea on the topic ?

I'm facing the same type of choice. I've decided to keep master ranger, dump master marksman, and hold on to medic as long as possible, since:

- I don't useOverchargeShot2 much
-Idon't find myself using carbines at all any more. (14 skill points right there unused)
-I won't notice the decrease in rifle and pistol speed and accuracy once I get some good skill tapes
- I use my medicskill quite a bit and my wife is a doc so medicine is easily available to me.
- I'm hoping master ranger will be worth it after the traps and camp linesare improved.

So master marksman and carbinesare goingaway next when I need some skill points for rifleman.

Jamga Gibbrad

Master Ranger
Master Marksman
Novice Rifleman
Novice Medic

Keep in mind that the little 'rifle speed +5' that you get with Master Marksman DOUBLES the speed of your rifles at master. So I think the whole question comes down to "Is doubling the speed of all my rifles worth all the markman points to keep master.".

If they implement a 3-second cap on rifles, MasterMarksman becomes worthless. But then, Rifleman becomes worthless so it doesnt matter.

Assuming WayneInAustin is right about doubling the speed at Master Rifleman if you have Master Marksman, I may have to reconsider, but presently, I have decided I need my Ranger skills 2030, and my Novice Medic (for obvious reasons) and Novice Artisan (for Survey for finding resources). Thus, I have no choice but to prune my Marksman tree if I am going to make Master Rifleman. Since I need to be able to avoid the 2.5x modifier if a melee char gets too close, I have chosen to retain pistol through IV mainly to be able to use my FWG5 as a fallback. Despite the timer nerf on Suppression Fire, I still use it a lot, so Ranged Support IV has to stay. If characters moved slowly enough, I suppose that I would go rifle to a specific distance, then to carbine, then to pistol, but they are on you so fast, there is no time to use Carbine anyway, so I hold on to rifle until they get too close then switch to Pistol if I do not figure I am going to take them down with rifle before they take me down with melee.

So when I needed it, I dropped all of my carbine, and am remaining at Marksman 4404.

The short answer is, if WayneInAustin is wrong, no, Master Marksman is not worth the 16 points I need to devote to it. If he is right, I will have to see how fast I am at Master Rifleman with my current expected configuration.

One other thing, do not give up your explore skills if you can avoid it. The terrain negotion bonuses can save your hide. They can also help you stay with in range safely with mobs that can out run you, but do not have the negotion bonuses. I have run up and down the sides of long gullies forcing a big beast like a Fambaa to try to negotiate the ditch multiple times. He can keep up with me on level ground, but done right with my terrain bonuses, I can keep just far enough ahead to keep from getting killed but still be able to engage him.

The only thing more important than that is probably at least Novice Medic.

basicly i think the dbl +speed (5) that you get at master marksmen pointless, once you reach master rifleman you can shoot once a second, now believe it or not the rifleman cap is one second. whats the point in keeping something that can give you a capped bounus?

i would recomend for the person wanting advice on the TKA + Rifleman combo, get master in both drop your medic skills, as you will not need them as you are a TAK and have mediate. regen wounds and heal very fast + you can buff your self i think it is 200 to Health Action and Mind for 15 - 20 mins.

once you have done this you should have enough points left over to keep ranged support and maybe, if you are lucky enough for explore 3.

o and for the person worried about traps, don't really understand why you would want speed in pistol and carbine for them, but if holding a fast weapon while you chuck them around would'nt it make sense to use a spray stick?

no rifle speed +5 does not double your rifle speed. At master your speed modifyer is +95 and this bumps it to an even +100, so its a pretty small number actually At +100 your speed is at 1 second, at 95 its just slightly over a second. The +10 accuracy seems good to but compared to sniper level 1 its sauce. So if you need MMarksman for some hybrid tree fine, but otherwise using all those carbine and/or pistol skill points for a +5 speed modifyer is overkill and will keep you from being able to use a stimpack or first aid or some other vital skill. As soon as I need the skill points (tomarrow probably), im dropping all carbine skills and master marksman because using stim ds is more important to me. Pistol still rocks for close range Im keeping that no matter what though. Heres a hybrid tree for you: Master marksman + trickshot. Seen the status attack modifyers for that? coupled with rifleman skill mods nobody should be able to knock me down or blind me at all. yeah right....

actualy lergthebutcher at master rifleman you get +90 rifle speed with master marksman it is +95. how the speed bonus work is that the number is relaly a percentage so that at master rifleman you are 90% faster and with master marksman you are 95% faster so you dont have to be master marksman to fire at the 1 sec cap but when you start to fire those big delay specials then is when the +5 will do you good.

I am faced with the same problem pretty much. I have master marksman (except for carbine4), master scout (except trapping), intermediate medic, and novice CH, almost novice TKA, and working my way up to advanced rifleman. I'm down to about 30 skill points left. I'm gonna keep Explore for sure but I don't know if I should drop Carbine/Pistol (among others if I have to) to save up for Rifleman and TKA when it comes down to it.