Rifleman Archive

Hello fellow Rifleman, Masters and Novices alike. It seems many people are confused about our class and how exactly we are to play. I hope this post will open some eyes, and help you accomplish your goals with the Rifleman class.

Rifleman is often referred to as the "spellweaver class" of SWG - extremely good offense, poor defense, limited effectiveness due to mind pools draining eventually.

That's what we are, and you should not be trying to change that. Compare rifleman to carbineers and pistoleers. I'm going to borrow some half-assed quotes from others here: *note: these are my opinions and thoughts on the ranged classes, and they are assuming Master level of each class - also speaking from PvP sense, more specifically*

Pistoleers: not great offensively. (i don't care what you say, light AP and fanshot is nothing compaired to heavy AP OR stun dmg and Flushingshot/Strafe2/HS2). HOWEVER, Pistoleers are also pretty good defensively. good defensive bonuses, good accuracy while moving, can heal their health and action for sustained specials, can wear the heaviest armors. Essentially, very even defense vs offense. relies on defenses and movement bonuses, takes longer to deal dmg necessary to kill enemy. can wear armor, but can't pierce it so well.

Carbineers: slightly less accuracy while moving (i think), good defenses, good KD's, minor amounts of AP (?) can also wear heavy armor and can also heal their usage stats, better range than pistols (at least, they should be). slightly greater offense vs defense (imo). Relies on KD's mostly, and decent dmg output with decent ranged/armor defenses. can wear armor, slightly better piercing.

Bounty Hunters: extremely high dmg output with LLC (at master), excellent dmg with pistols, especially with eyeshot and fire kd. can wear armor, can heal stats, can dmg mind, has KD's, has good defenses, accuracy is good at Master. excellent offense, excellent defense. (yes, they spent a lot of skill points). relies on differsity of heavy weapons, KD's, and pistols doing unhealable dmg, and armor defensively. again, not great armor piercing.

Commando: insane DOT's, insane offensive ability. to offset the offensive ability their specials are slower, they must be very close to the target and their accuracy isn't great. Can wear armor, can heal pools. Essentially: Limited range, limited accuracy, insane dmg capability, unlimited specials, can wear armor, has decent defenses. Relies on ultra-high DOT's, armor and ranged/melee defenses.

Rifleman: extremely high dmg capability. 1 special per 1.8 second (slowest), 4-5x dmg modifiers on certain specials, autofire at 1 second cap, good accuracy bonuses, not-terrible movement bonuses, (you will live longer if you move!), decent ranged defense. though - not much defense vs status (such as blind/stun/KD, etc). Relies on extremely high damage output to kill enemies. Damage capability is offset by inability to wear heavy armor due to encumberances, limited specials (cannot heal mind) and downtime between fights. Vulnerable to Melee IF melee gets within 30m. also> excellent damage diversity with rifles. Excellent energy damage (medium to Heavy AP), excellent light APStun damage (jawa rifle).

the balance of *pure* rifleman:

Can't wear armor (so well) - can pierce armor better than any class.

Can't take much damage - can deal damage better than any class, at greater range and accuracy than any class.

can't heal mind/sustain themselves for extended periods of time (without drugs/buffs) - offset by awesome dmg/piercing capabilities for that limited time - also offset by the speed at which battles end due to high dmg output. vulnerable to multiple targets/extended battles, melee.

do you see? each class has strengths and weaknesses - some have greater offense to the detriment of their defense/sustainability (rifleman). Some classes are more even across the board for offense/defence (pistols), etc.

Now> if you want to PvP exclusively (or most of the time) you would do well with rifleman. To really get the most out of any class, you must spend the skill points to minimize your weaknesses! You're master rifleman, you have a lot of skill points left over. Your weaknesses are:

1. inability to wear armor.

2.inability to sustain dmg rate.

3.less effectiveness and defenses at under 30m. very fragile at that range.

you have a lot of skill points that you can use to overcome these inherent weaknesses. I won't tell you how, use your imagination and search the boards. I will suggest either doctor or TKA though. Also, to make rifle the absolute best it can be, you need master Marksman.

you can also get temporary (1-3 hour) buffs to compensate for your limited sustainability. Befriend the master dancers and musicians on your server.

IF YOUR PLAY STYLE CANNOT ALLOW LIMITED SUSTAINABILITY (without buffs/drugs/extreme skill point use) THEN YOU SHOULD SERIOUSLY CONSIDER OTHER RANGED/MELEE CLASSES. RIFLEMAN IS NOT FOR YOU.

that said, i do just fine PvE and PvP because I have spent ALL my skill points in enhancing my Rifleman Toon.

i hope this gives some rifleman ideas and helps understand how our class is designed. Please quit crying nerf on other classes, the Republic Blaster is a much needed addition to Pistoleers, andoverall, game balance is extremely good between Ranged classes. The dev's really threw us a bone with the last patch, fixing a lot of our major headaches. Warping is down, concealshot works, accuracy is up, and you still have your speed. enjoy rifleman in it's current state as long as you possibly can, it really has never been better.

PS: the T21 is fine the way it is.

Jeisyn Blackwell ~ tempest server ~ Master Rifleman ~ Master Marksman ~ Doctor

Well everything here sounds good...except your line about BH. BH have absolute 0 defense. The only defensive benefit comes in the form of +24 ranged defense at master BH. I'm sure that if you compare how long it takes you to kill a BH compared to any other class you will find that you have killed a BH (assuming he doesn't get you first) long before any other class.

I agree about BH, they do have a defensive shortfall not quite as bad as rifle. (fewer defensive mods, but no 2.5 penalty except with LLC)

Otherwise, a very good analysis of the profession. This last patch has made rifle much better survival wise, and the new accuracy mod has offset the previous issue with pilstols being more accurate at range. (a very good way to fix it on the dev team's part with no nerf)

It also addressed accuracy in an additional way. By increasing our ranged defense, and not increasing pistol accuracy, they reduce their chance to hit us at long range, while increasing our chance to hit accross the board. The added melee defense and block gives us a chance to act if an enemy gets too close.

As far as combinations go. Rifleman TKA is very powerful, with melee and ranged defenses over 100 combined, and the abilty to fight very effectively at any range. The self buff ability of TKA also helps rifle, but requires a minute of prep time.

Currently, I'm a Master Commando that's slowly changing to Master Rifleman/Ranger. (It's something I wanted to try out so I'm going to give it a shot.) I've been a Commando forever, and I can tell you that your analysis is about half right. It's a good analysis, but it's just skimming the surface of each of these professions. I'm sure that if you posted this on each respective profession's board, you would find a lot of people disagreeing. Also, your spiel about armor completely forgets Wookiees, who can wear no armor and are getting screwed every which way because of it (no, the HAM doesn't make up for it right now).

However, I'm just going to address Commando here (because you did, not because this is the best place to do it). Commandos are very good at what they do. That said, what they do is use a flamethrower. That doesn't make up for the rest of the profession, and a nerf on it (like making it a ranged weapon instead of a melee one) hurts the ENTIRE profession. So Commandos are barely keeping their heads above water, which is more than a lot of other professions can say.

As for Rifleman, I like you summary. It seems like especially after the patch, they are becoming the Hunters/Snipers they were intended to be. Concealshot is awesome (maybe a little too awesome), but right now I'm loving it. I can't comment on Stun weapons, as nobody on my server makes any really nice ones that I know of. Otherwise, good post.

Looks very good, although I would say to almost all Riflemen who like to PVP solo against fair sized groups of other players... become a doctor, today in theed I took out 2 guys at once and used sniper shot on both of them before their gurreck and GSP could reach me Then a BH popped up at the starport, I waited for him to load, and get the first shot off (I cant stand loading kills, so I always make for certain), I took that person down in 3 shots, then another BH popped and 2 shots and they were down, this was almost simultaneous, my mind had no time to rest, they were evening spamming eyeshot and I was killing them

Oh and then a covert rebel took out 2 grauls and challenged me to a duel, they even had a muon gold and buffs enhancing their stats! I pulled out my E11 and spammed HS2 and took him out seconds after his grauls reached me

But again I must say, looks very good, and I whole-heartedly agree about the limited capabilities, we're not jedi here

godares - in the future, use a dmg sliced/powered up jawa rifle and just take the graul out. (kite it while you take out the owner first, continue to kite while you kill the graul second..)

Thanks guys, for having a look at my post. I should have stated right at the top that i'm by NO MEANS an expert of any class other than Rifleman (which i consider my knowledge to be on par with anyone's) - my knowledge of other classes is only a result of many hours of PVP. Both Dueling and GCW/overt.

I completely agree that commando's need love. your accuracy is still too low. maybe an idea would be to lower the potential DOT dmg and raise the accuracy.. but having never played anything but rifleman, i can't attest to how good a solution that would be..(and this is definitely not the thread to discuss it in! )

On the subject of BH's - wow, i didn't know they had such low ranged defense. I think my glancing analysis on their abilities is still valid though. (i think?).

Anyways, obviously this isn't meantas a be-all-to-end-all analsys on every ranged class. Mostly because i don't know enough about every class and it's inner workings. It is an extremely quick glance at how i THINK each class balances itself out, with a more detailed look at rifleman because it's what i know. What i do know is thateach class IS pretty well balanced, and I would really like to see rifleman quit whining about silly things like "the republic blaster is too uber, nerf it - eyeshot is evil, nerf it!". By the same token,today i've heard more than one person say that rifleman should be nerfed and I hope the points in my initial post are enough to cause some people to rethink that.

anyways, nice to see some constructive discussion in here!

ps: this patch hasn't all of a sudden gifted me PvP "uberness". I do as well now as i did before the patch -

the pistoleers stopping shot(panic shot maybe?)way outways riflemens damage, and they can heal the ham it takes to spam it over and over again every second. dont tell me you havent seen the screenies of pistoleers hitting for over 1k damage in PvP?

Well I feel that thedefense of the BH issummed up thusly.Sometimes the best defense is a good offense.

Otherwise good job. We can pierce armor but can't wear it, pistols can't pierce armor but can wear it, thats what people seem to forget. Great post, and other generic uplifting statement.

pistols need SOME kind of high-powered shot, because they have no AP. (well, now they have light ap now, good on'em).

IF a pistoleer gets a lucky dmg roll, AND manages to land the shot, and you're not wearing any armor at all, good for him. he deserves it.

rifleman can wear Marauder armor, at the very least, without worry and that would greatly reduce a pistoleers ability against you.

A pistoleer can do 1000 dmg on a good roll.(btw, i don't think i've ever experienced this, but i'll take your word for it). /shrug. rifleman can do 200-1000 (pvp)every second and go through any armor type. I don't see the problem. against a non-armored target, i can do over 1000 with my powered up t21. The fact that a pistoleer can spam this 'till he is blue in the face is exactly what justifies our specials at 1 shot per second of light/medium/Heavy AP.

*we can't shoot them indefinitely.*

A few points...

1st pistoleer has 2 AP 1 guns (3 if you count the short ranged(48m) power 5 I think it was)

2 pistoleer has stun damage as well(tangle)

3 pistoleer can get a damage sliced and powered up krayt FWG5 up to 900 damage

4 at short range (in a city) pistoleer can whip you down on the ground and shoot you for 1000 damage

carabineer

1st - medium armor piercing - shots up to 7000 damage every second (that's with a speed modded shirt- it was posted on carabineer board )

2nd - ranged KD(with no timer on it)- can't fight if you can't get up

3rd kiting - well that's not a good idea against rifleman - still - carabineer bleeds are posture changes(down) as well

4th - carabineers can't wear armor unless buffed up without armor a cripple shot takes over 100 ham - with probably 200

BH

1 fire KD is not a pistol shot - it can be done with a ap2 carabine with 500 max damage which probably will kill you before you can get up

2 BH can really fire every second with the said AP2 carabine - no need of speed modded shirt

3 the said fire KD will knock you down, make you dizzy, set you on fire and do good damage to you - and when you try to get up you'll probably fall right back down

4 Eye shot is not all that powerful - especially against a rifleman that has probably eaten muon gold and has maxed out mind stats but it does give you blind which cuts your damage in half

5 LLC is great damage but right now accuracy is horrible - most BH won't even try that in PvP

Commando

1st - they not only do great DOT - they also have 1 shot kills - I saw a commando go after a tka master and 1 shot him. At short range - as in a city fight- commando can kill you easilly

2nd they have grenades that can hit for 1000 damage easilly - for some reason they don't use them so often but still(there was something about the limited range or something like that)

Anyway - I hope you all comment of my experience from the game - I want to read your opinions on what I've posted here (I'm just a novice rifleman 1/1/2/1 so I don't have too much XP with rifle but I know that our heavy hitters more often than not miss at short range)

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JohnyBGood wrote:

1st - they not only do great DOT - they also have 1 shot kills - I saw a commando go after a tka master and 1 shot him. At short range - as in a city fight- commando can kill you easilly

2nd they have grenades that can hit for 1000 damage easilly - for some reason they don't use them so often but still(there was something about the limited range or something like that)

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Grenade accuracy is horrid and so are HAM costs - proton grenades use 200+ HAM to throw. In PVP this means you'll do as much damage to yourself as to your enemy, if you even hit them.

Commandos are easy to kill if you don't let them get close enough to do specials. I went like 10-0 against some commando a couple weeks ago by kiting him around at 50m spamminghs2 with an ion rifle. He couldn't do anything except autoattack, which has pretty bad accuracy at that range. It hurt when he hit me, but that didn't happen often and I could just heal myself. With the new rifleman ranged defense mods, kiting commandos will be even easier.

Pistoleer AP1 weapons - SR Combat (crappy stats, 48m max range), DX2 (horrible accuracy), republic blaster (was broken until this patch). Tangle pistol is stun damage but is like 50-100 3.3 so no one uses them and they're not really a threat to anyone because of the stats.

Carbineer is pretty much unable to wear armor because their move costs are all broken -most of them use well over 100 HAM with a CDEF carbine. Once they fix this, carbineers will be dangerous but right now an unbuffed carbineer is mostly harmless. The laser carbine is AR2, the rest are 0 or 1.

RIS armor protects against everything but requires ultra-rare loot drop components so it's never going to be common. Composite can be crafted with stun layers but it'll only have 6-20% resists and lower defense against everything else, so most armorsmiths don't make this.

Good points Johny, but I think Griz nailed it on the head with his followup...

I dunno guys, I haven't seen anything in here or in the game to convince me that Rifleman are hard-done by... it just aint so (IF you spend the skill points).

Seflyn> of course I agree that the T21 should be available on all servers! crazy that it's not..

I would really like to see them make the change to powerhandler requirements. (i don't really think this is a combat balance issue though - except that we will see more krayt t21's, which will be exceptions, not the 'norm' - just like 900 max dmg pistols).