Rifleman Archive

Let's face it, Rifleman is in some serious trouble. And the thing is, most of the problems that are hammering Rifleman don't have anything to do with Rifleman. Let's take a look at these:

Bounty Hunters can hit to the Mind Pool but it costs them Action. That's a problem with Bounty Hunter, not Rifleman (though what are the odds the Bounty Hunter Corespondant is going to complain about that).

Riflemen have pitiful accuracy compared to the other ranged classes, even when BOTH classes are firing from extreme ranges. Riflemen miss MUCH more often up close than Pistoleers and Carbineers miss from far away. Rifleman distance aiming might need a tiny step up, but again, what are the odds that those other Corespondants are going to say, "We are too accurate!"
Slim to none.

Rifleman HAM costs are causing us to be sit-and-wait players most of the time. As we've learned today, the inability to heal the Mind Pool was a balance intended to stop Medics from infinitely healing, but it ended up crushing our ability to stay active in combat.

MOBs that randomly spawn as soon as we fire off our first shot are killing us before we can get away from them. On any given night, I get Spawn****ed about once or twice an hour. Since this is a game glitch that has been around since early Beta, I don't see it disappearing anytime soon. And yet it hits Riflemen harder than any other Combat class.

Melee players are getting ganked by every other type of ranged attacker. So now they plan on increasing Melee damage. It'll balance everyone else, but it will totally DESTROY Rifleman. That is, of course, unless they remember to counter-balance us. Yeah. Right.

Now, look, I can't speak for myself, but of those problems, the Melee issue has been responsible for more deaths than any of the others for me. And the Melee issue is the ONE issue I am going to address here because it is the ONE issue that we can fix WITHOUT needing to rebalance any of the other classes.

Okay, look. Post-Nerf we now have to trees of specialty shots that do nothing at all for us. Because of the slow rate of fire on Rifles, it's possible for us to actually LOSE time by using either Flurry or Flushing shot. That, combined with the reduced incident of Posture Changes and the decreased accuracy of Run-and-Gun, backs us into a corner. Does no one else find it odd that we have an entire tree devoted to countering OURSELVES? Kind of sums up Rifleman on a certain ironic level, no? Besides, there is already an excellent counter to Rifleman. it's called "walking forward for 5 seconds."

We need to lose Counter-Sniping Techniques. We'd lose two skills that only last for 5 seconds, and we'd lose two shots that cause the enemy posture to raise (which now fails half the time). Gee, what a terrible blow to Riflemen everywhere. Seriously, when was the last time you wanted something to stand up? that just increases the odds of it rushing you.

Say goodbye to Counter-Sniping Techniques. Say hello Close-Quarters Tactics.

Yeah, I know, here it comes. "But Aden, I LIKE being a Sniper. I like using my intelligence and my guile to sneak up on enemies. I don't want to be a Brawler!" I agree with you. But the game does not accommodate those desires. I much prefer the Sniper life myself. But just because it's a strong preference for me doesn't mean that I won't have a back-up plan in place.

I am not suggesting that Riflemen become Pikemen or something weird like that. What I am suggesting is that any half-way decent Sniper would have SOME sort of plan for being rushed. You know, a plan that does not include a Cloning Station.

First off, I want to make it clear that my vision for Close-Quarters Tactics would not turn us into Melee gods. And I have some severe limitations I think need to be built in. What we need are skills that are NEVER FAVORABLE to Sniping, but can allow a Sniper to survive being screwed over.

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Close-Quarters Tactics I

Block + 10
/defensivestance: When in defensive stance, the Rifleman does not suffer from the Melee Penalty. Rifleman MUST BE STANDING to initiate this stance, and it costs a full turn to enter. Rifleman cannot move while entering or exiting this stance. Also, no ranged attacks can be used while in this stance. Attack Speed would therefore be calculated as base, rather than the weapon's firing rate.

Close-Quarters Tactics II

Dodge + 10
/jab: A quick slash/jab to the eyes, causing Blindness. This attack would have e very low damage capacity, and would mostly be used for the Blinding quality. The potential for new Weapons Parts (bayonet) presents itself here.

Closer-Quarters Tactics III

Block + 10
/riflebutt: Melee Knockdown attack. This could be moved to another state, but since Knockdown is no longer overpowered, it is the most obvious one to use when trying to flee. Obviously, the Knockdown Timer applies to this attack.

Close-Quarters Tactics IV

Dodge + 10
/fend: A sweeping attack that can cause a DOWNWARD Posture Change on all enemies in the immediate area (similar range to Brawler's Unarmed Spin Attack). Again, a very low-damage attack that would aid the Rifleman in escaping. The Area of Effect properly is counter-acted by the fact that Posture Changes have less of a chance of working now.

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Now I am not saying that these skills are perfect, or are the end-all skills for Melee defense. But what I have set up are a way for a Rifleman, when cornered, to escape with his life. Not particularly deal and damage, just get the hell away. These skills are inferior in every way to even Basic Brawler (as far as damage goes), but a Rifleman SHOULD NOT be doing damage up close. He should be trying to put some distance between himself and his targets. Surely he would have some sort of plan for doing that other than running away and hoping the enemy gets distracted.

The other thing is that no other combat class could REALLY justify going through Rifle Skills just to have these ones. They're not really worth it for anyone who has even a smidge of Melee resistance. Plus, these would still require Rifle XP, which will further deter dabblerss. For most people, buying Unarmed would be more useful and more cost effective. However, for a Rifleman, Unarmed would be suicide. Close-Quarters Tactics would be survival.

You know, every time I write one of these I leave all of the important stuff out of the description.

Obviously, all three attacks, not just /riflebutt, would be performed WITH THE RIFLE IN YOUR HANDS.

I still vote for two new rifleman-onlymoves that I suggested a while back....

1. "/stepAside" ...to be used when MOB is running or teleporting towards you

2. "/cramRifleUpAzz"...works particularly well after #1.

/utterlyshamelessbump

Mostly because I have seen half a dozen posts in the past day that this one addresses. At least five or six people specificly asking for /riflebutt. Heh.

i cant agree more. anyways how can someone miss something that is so close, /insertbarrelintomouth pull trigger???? plus all snipers have the chance to hide, so why dont we get something that when we prone makes us less vunerable to getting shot and not show up on peoples radars.

I threw this up on the Dev board, too. Go support it!

Sadly, this is how classes get fixed. By creating massive threads on boards that actually get read.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=513824

/bump
/grind

Hmm, don't know why it gets such a bad wrap, but flushingshot2 is awesome. It's all i use right now, at least until i hit master. Flurryshot2 seems to be useless on the other hand.

Actually i think they should just reduce the damage penalty we take in melee, that's really all that needs fixed.

True, the last thing I have to worry about is another sniper. They're just as gimped as I am. I'd much rather have some sort of melee defense seeing as a rifle is a decent melee weapon, at least good at knocking someone unconcious with a quick bash to the face. Not sure I totally agree with removing countersniping, though. How about putting in rifle butt in the specials line.And the #1 thing, remove the melee damage penalty!! It makes no sense and has no reason to exist. A rifle is not a bulky weapon like a big flame thrower or acid rifle. It can easily be weilded as a short staff.

I DARE someone to come at me with a knife when I have a rifle (with no ammo even)in my hands. Even a sword, there's a good chance you'd go down before I even got a scratch.

I was a Pikeman before I went to Rifleman, and I can't disagree with you more on that PvP melee damage "problem". You have about 50m worth of time to shoot the meleer in, then you can kite him to pieces. Every disadvantage has been given to these melee classes. They take incredible amounts of damage, require excellent armor, have HUGE special move costs, had beserk nerfed, had their area knockdown (crowd-control) effectively removed, their defense bonuses are buggy, their block skill does not work, they gain XP excrutiatingly slow, and they have about a 1-in-6 chance of hitting anything. The only thing abrawler is good for in a PvP battle is acting as a distraction to route out posture-changed marksmen or support medics. Giving them yet another disadvantage just so Rifleman can get closer to perfection is hardly an act of balance.

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Stonelegs wrote:
You have about 50m worth of time to shoot the meleer in, then you can kite him to pieces. . . Giving them yet another disadvantage just so Rifleman can get closer to perfection is hardly an act of balance.

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Now hang on. First off, I have always suppored the Melee'ers in the game and always said that they ought to be able to take more abuse, considering their profession. My suggestions are aimed at the real problem Riflemen have, which is the fact that the MOBs directly outside of town can single-handedly kill an advanced Rifleman.

The "50m" we have to shoot in is usually 1 shot. 2 if we are LUCKY. And due to the new run-and-gun penalty, it is nearly impossible to hit a target while running, especially at close range. In fact, it's almost impossible to do if you are running within your ideal range.

Just because Melee needs work doesn't mean that Riflemen need to stay equally hosed up. And Riflemen are a LONG WAY from perfection. Master Rifleman is a bad***. Anything below Master Rifleman is a punching bag. Besides, we already take 250% Damage from Melee, we ought to be compensated for that by being given a chance to survive.

By all means, Melee Professions need to be fixed. But we are only allowed 1-2 shots before we are thrust into a melee situation. And we miss far too often for those 1-2 shots to do us any good.

Of course, if there are 3 or more enemies, it's kind of a moot point.