Rifleman Archive
Thread: Some thoughts on improving Rifleman
Firstly I'm sure I will get flamed with some crap about "we aren't broken" - I'm not saying we are, I'm simply stating thoughts on how I think Rifleman can fit our role better. Also, with talk of a minimum range cap to rifles, altering Rifleman so that we can keep ourselves in range without being crowd contol could be a good thing. In fact, I think my suggestions might make a Rifle Minumim range a non-issue, since we will probably want to stay as far away as possible to achieve maximum effect.
I think to be the Ranged Nuker in SWG in both PvE and PvP, we need to be able to do more in our Covered state. Traditionally, a Ranged Nuker in any MMORPG has VERY POWERFUL attacks but has HIGH VULNERABILITY. In other games there are different types of Ranged Nukers, and some are able to Solo better than others - in SWG we are the only Ranged Nuker. while I am sure others would disagree, I think Rifleman should lean towards solo play. We can use skills from other professions to make us better/more helpful/more usefull in groups. My suggestions below are more along the lines of the Rifleman being a fringe fighter in groups and GCW...we help pick off opponents one at a time and hope our groupmates keep the Enemy at a distance from us.
So in my mind, the most important ability for a Rifleman is Cover. If we are supposed to be the BIG DAMAGE DEALERS then we should face HIGH AGRO in PvE, and the only way to effectively stay alive is to hit while hidden. So firstly, it should be easier to "Take Cover". Secondly, as we progress up oXoo, the conditions that govern where we can take cover and how long it takes should reduce, like the "Discovery Distance" or the type of terrain we can Cover on, with a bonus of some kind at Master. This would mean that someone dabbling in Rifleman 0100 can Cover, but they would have a harder time with the "where" and "how long" than a Master Rifleman.
Next, I would make Conceal Shot do GREATER DAMAGE - we should be most powerful while hidden. I was thinking Conceal Shot would do 25% more damage than Imp Sniper Shot, and Imp Conceal Shot does 25% more damage tnan Advanced Sniper Shot. Part of the trade-off should be longer timers for Conceal Shot.
Then I would make the Improved and Advanced versions of Rifleman skills (except for Conceal Shot) be useable while under Cover without breaking Cover. We could significantly increase the timers for these Rifleman Improved or higher abilities while Covered. I would suggest doubling the timers for all non-cover-related Rifleman abilities while under cover.
To keep Conceal Shot from becoming THE UBER ability, and balance it out with the damage increase I suggested above, it would also have a timer adjustment. So, Conceal Shot is 25% more powerful than Improved Sniper Shot, but it also has a 25% longer timer. I would put Conceal Shot (if it isnt already) in a seperate cooldown group with other COVER abilities so that the Rifleman would need to mix up the differnt shots instead of just spamming Conceal Shot. I see the COVER cooldown group as Cover, Conceal Shot, BurstCrawl (see below), and Distract (see below).
In the PvP world, I think Cover requires something else to help it become viable. If you are in a PvP environment, then you are most likely looking at your radar on a constant basis, so seeing a dot on the radar one second, it disappearing the next second, and you getting hit hard the third second will probably have you running over to where you last saw the dot, which will probalby allow you to discover your attacker and commence with the butt-whooping.
I think what is needed is a Burst Crawl ability.
1. You must already be in Cover
2. /BurstCrawl does not break Cover (it should be granted in the skill box above conceal shot and below Improved Conceal, which I think is empty right now).
3. It would be in the COVER cooldown group, and therefore affect the use of Conceal Shot, as well as having to wait until the actual Cover action has cooled down.
4. This ability causes the user to surge in a straight line forward (not steerable) for 10 seconds. The distanced covered would be 50% of the distance the same person would cover with 10 seconds of /BurstRun, taking terrain negotiation skills into account. So if you BurstRan in a straight line for 10 seconds and traversed 64 meters, then BurstCrawl would cover 32 meters.
5. The Action Cost for BurstCrawl is 50% higher than the cost of BurstRun for 10 seconds.
The effct here is that the Rifleman would be able to move away from the spot they took cover in fairly rapidly so that the other Player can't easily predict where their Attacker is shooting from. This is a high Action cost, and due to the long timers can't exactly be spammed. The intent on the distance is that you would cover more ground with BurstCrawl than if you stood up and Ran for 10 seconds, but you would not be able to beat someone running a 100 meter dash while you were crawling.
Maintaining Cover should be one of the main concerns of a Rifleman and require manual effort. It should be possible for a Rifleman to Maintain Cover indefinately if the Rifleman is smart and patient. To maintain cover in PvE might be a little differnt than PvP.
In general, maintianing cover should consist of "shoot, move, distract" tactics:
"Shoot" - each successive shot increases the chance of being discovered by 40% by that specific target, so by the third shot you have a 80% chance of being discovered. This "discovery" is independant of the Target moving within the "discovery range". Also, groupmates of your target do not receive this increased chance of discovery, so against a Group the Rifleman can change Targets and be able to get a single shot off without increasing the risk of discovery (and maybe even 2).
"Move" - moving over 16 meters resets the Shoot Discovery, giving you 1 or 2 more shots. Obviously, moving 16 meters closer to the target might increase the chance of the "discovery range" being breached. In PvE especially, the Target will slowly move towards the location the Rifleman shot from, so moving to the left or right would help keep the Target "looking" instead of "finding". If the Rifleman shoots only once at a target and BurstCrawls, it might be possible to stay hidden for a long time.
"Distract" - New Ability usable in cover - "/distract left" or "/distract right" or "/distract behind" or just "/distract". Does no damage to target, but causes a 'distraction' for the Target that leads them to believe your location is in the direction you indicate, based on a line between you and your Target. With no direction specified, the direction is randomly selected from one of the 3. Tied to COVER cooldown group, but with a short recovery. Probably best to Distract before atempting to BusrtCrawl. It is possible to distract a Target into moving out of firing range. In PvP Distract is achieved by a FALSE Radar blip, so the Target would see this false blip, and move towards it to attack, only to discover no-one is there. Ideally the blip only appears for the length of time need to take cover, giving the Target the impression that someone lost cover and took cover again.
Again, the intent is to force the Rifleman to think to be able to Maintain Cover. Taking 1 or 2 shots, Distracting your target to run one direction, while you BurstCrawl to the other direction, and repeating the cycle should allow the Rifleman to stay under Cover for a while. Against an organized group the Rifleman might not fare as well, because the multiple targets might initiate a search pattern that makes it likely to stumble across the "Discovery Range".
The suggestions above lead to a few differnt strategies for a Rifleman depending on what (s)he is doing.
1. Master Rifleman/Bounty Hunter hunting a Player - at 120 meters out, take Cover. BurstCrawl at an angle that brings you closer to the Mark but not in a srtaight line from where the Mark last saw you. When finally in firing range, Advance Sniper Shot giving time for the Improved Conceal Shot to be ready from the last BurstCrawl. Then Improved Conceal Shot, Distract in one direction, and burstCrawl in a differnt direction. Avoid using any other shot that might break cover. Continue until Cover is lost, and then stand up and fight.
2. Master Rifleman/Master Commando doing GCW with Group - Stay at the back of the group, and drop into Cover when your groupmates engage the enemy. Immediately BurstCrawl sideways of the action so the Enemy doesn't look for you in the direction they remember seeing your group attack from. Advance Sniper Shot each member of your Enemy's group before hitting someone again, and BurstCrawl often to seperate yourself from the attack. Improved Coneal Shot someone already being attacked by a groupmate and getting close to death, so you can get the incap and give you groupmate time to DB. Play the supprt role of hitting someone already getting hit to help terminate them faster.
3. Master Rifleman solo hunting critters somewhere - Drop into Cover and start shooting any Rifleman ability at Improved or higher. BurstCrawl may not be as important, but Distract will be very helpful. When Cover is lost, do whatever you did before to solo.
So to sum up, my siggestions would make Rifleman more letah undre cover, and make Cover a little more useful, especially in PvP. To be a successful Rifleman would require patience and skill to maintian Cover and slowly wipe you target(s) out. It would give Rifleman a tactical support role in Groups, while still allowing solo play.
/thumbsup
I liked what you are saying, especially the burst-crawl! Soloing as a rifleman should all about a conceal-fire-move-fire circle which is impossible to do when you break cover to move at a decent speed!
. Right now I would say rifleman is already as good as it needs to be and if they were to implant all your idees I think they would have to give some love to other proffs
BountyhunterN00b wrote:
I like the idees but I think if the devs were to implent them ingame we might become super uber class
Now from the Jedi's perspective: He just got hit HARD, and is fairly sure it wasn't the critters he was grinding. He saw the momentary blip on the radar while he was healing, and instantly figures that it was a Rifleman, so the blip was only a distraction. Several seconds later he gets hit hard AGAIN, and he has to deal with all the angry animals he was killing if he stays. IF HE STAYS. The chances of him finding the Rifleman are slim, and another hit like the last 2 along with the critter damage, and he is gone. The most likely course of action is pick a direction and RUN. If he stumbles across the Bounty Hunter, then he will lay some smack down, but if not, oh well. Just run for a while and zoom out the radar, waiting for Bob to break cover, or leave for a while.
Even though Bob was a Heavy Hitter, the time between his uber shots was plenty of time for his Prey to heal and/or flee.
Ok, theres another aspect that might take the sharpness of our Uberness. Give a Profession and a single Jedi tree the Skill Ability to Detect Hidden (kinda like Knockdown Recovery of one of those). For Jedi, maybe put it in Force Defense x4xx (according to my character builder which might be out-of-date, that block didnt have any abilities in it ) Give Ranges aloost the identical ability in Wayfaring 4 (4xxx). The ability could work simple enough - anyone in a cloaked/covered state within 64 meters will appear again.
For the Ranger, it gives them a valuable purpose in a group, in being able to ferret out the Rifleman hiding along the edges of the battle blasting away his teammates. For the Jedi. it not only helps with Rifleman, but also other Jedi with Force Cloak.
Not everyone will rush to get Ranger 4xxx, becasue Ranger still requires Master Scout...thats a lot of skill points to spend just to get 4xxx. Having the ability will be very useful in GCW to defend against Rifleman, so Rangers will be sought out for groups.
The Jedi abilty should be at a 4 on one of the Force Disciplines. I only suggested Defense x4xx becasue it looked like there were no abilites granted in that line, and it might makie the line more attractive to get. Not every Jedi will decide the skill points are worth it, but some will. The availability of the choice will help balance our improved Cover performance.
It is possible to balance things out so that we can be Nukes, we can be sneaky/stealthy, but still not become hte next FOTM. People that don't mind being patient to be able to solo effectively will play Rifleman. People that enjoy doing uber damage to help out their group BUT dont expect to be the one making the DB becasue they're too far away - they will play Rifleman. If someone wants faster pace action and uber damage, they can go play Swordsman.
