Rifleman Archive

Why does everyone always dwell on the negative of Rifleman?

We have alot of good aspects to our class. Sure, we're very weak against melee. But, we do have this nice ability to be highly accurate from the edges of combat effectiveness. Against mobs, we have the nice ability to use suppression fire or warning shot to force enemies out of melee effectiveness. Do you say that the laser and T21 (the "best" rifles) can't fire twice in the time it takes an enemy to charge 60 meters?There ARE weapons faster than those two, which can get off a shot while the Mob charges.

With PvP, we have a nearly unique ability to target an opponents MIND, the only thing that can't be healed artificially. We get the wonderful ability to snipe at our enemies and then run away, letting the opponent sit essentially unhealed. We even get suppression fire as marksmen to help us retreat.

Sure, alot of our specials kill us, such as conceal shot (not a bad thing if that is working in a 1v1 PvP situation) and the other "take cover" shots, but we do get the ability to do this unique hit and fade tactic...

We are also blessed with a good variety of weapons, alot of Armor piercing (which is a wonderful thing, and often overlooked in these T21 slams, when armor is fixed) and a wonderful stun (bypasses all stock armor)and a wonderful cold weapon.

Sure, we can't stand toe-to-toe with people, but we do get some cool perks, especially if the armor piercing is brought back to the way its talked about in the armor tutorial.

I am ok with the class, we have our perks and downfalls. Mind is not our special little treat anymore and never was. We suck at novice compared to any other ranged class, but as I move up the trees I see how powerful we can be.

Also we seem to be the class that all other classesgauge how bad things can be. We also have the great pleasure of saying to the nerf hearders, want to nerf us try and be one of us then come back. It shuts them up 90% of the time.

I love Rifleman, **edit** I love Flurry shot!

I wish i could invest in more rifleman skills but current skill point cap doesnt let me

i like the class too, and as the post above mentioned, when we advance through the tree we do get more powerful, but there are some fixes that reeeeeeally need to be dealt with

A: is it just me or should conceal shot hide you from a social creatures buddies too?, or do you agree with getting sodomized by 6 dire cats as you shoot at one

Bmore marksman oriented, but who else uses it other than Rifleman?) Aim should not alert social creatures buddies

C: definately need to either lower costs on our moves or make our elite weapon actually worth using. if it takes us 300-200 mind, depending on our focus/willpower, we should deal a whole ot more damage

it is true we get to target a pool that can't be stimmed, and we get armor piercing(and the only gun that does cold dmg is pretty nifty imo).

all you beginning rifleman who read this, i HIGHLY recommend getting conceal shot, makes things w whole lot easier. when you can solo 10K HAM's and they don't even notice you, it's real nice exp, works on kimogilas even, hehe....)

well i will have to disagree with you on somethings blankgrun. well first off suppression fire is not a rifeman ability it is a marksman ability found in the ranges support branch, anymarksman based proffesion can get it and proffesions like commando and bh have to get it to even be novice. secondly any proffesion has the ability to use hit and run tactics and proffesions that use pistols are better at doing so because of there improved accuracy when moving. lastly mind dmg is not a "special ability" as you put it since we alone dont do the dmg, swordsman, tka and bh have this ability.

not only do the other classes do mind damage, but they do it better since they dont drain thier own mind while doing it.

I think it is because everything we do, someone else does better. In a vacuum, we are ok. When you dump us in a world with pistols, bh, commandos, ch, we are bad relatively speaking. The cost to be a rifleman means you are not one of the other classes that does what you like about riflemen, only better.

Here is some things they could do to give us a roll in the game (from an old post I made).




Instead of trying to get damage upped, 2.5 melee removed, ham switched from mind, or healing for mind (God I hate that idea), accuracy changed, we should be pushing for take cover/concealment fixes.



Fix conceal shot so BAF does not see you.

Cover premaster rifleman should have a toughness componet like tka hand to hand toughness and an accuracy modifier. So, at base, taking cover should reduce damage 20% and chance you are hit by 20%. Think the line gives us something like 60 total points in cover. So, at master, being in cover would reduce damage to you by 60% and chance that you are hit by 60%.

At master, they should have taking cover remove you from radar. You shoudl stay removed from radar to all people except the one you attack. Flush shot or changing position should put you on radar for everyone. You should not be targetable with TAB (much like NPCs) except for by the person you are attacking.

So, how would this work in pvp? Well, it is not as over powering as stealth in other games ...cough DAoC ...Cough. You are still visible to someone who wonders why that guy is crawling on the ground. People can still look around and see you when they see someone taking damage (or turn direction of the pretty lights shooting at them. Hell, might even give a reason to use a tuskan rifle). You can still be hit by everyone. Someone can still charge you and get into position where you can not hit them from prone position. The 2.5 melee damage is now justifiable.

What it does do is give snipers a role in combat. We can sneak up/set abushes. Basically, we can do what the skills line states it does. Also makes cover better in pve (granted, not a ton, but, better).

Alternative:

I had thought also of adding a cammy componet at master that would not let you be targetable by anyone without clicking on you. Meaning auto fire would not target you either until they clicked you. The exception would be flush shot which could be used by other riflemen who are being attacked by you simply by hitting the key in a responce to the damage they took.

I know this has to have been suggest by many people since beta likely. That said, I think we should be pushing for fixes like these (fixes to our lines) then to things like 2.5x. Things like 2.5x should be justifactions for why we want our lines fixed. Fixes that would give us a role in combat instead of asking to be made more like others. Things that define us.

i like the idea of a riflemen only mind heal. somethin akin to equilibrium thats only useable every 5 mins or something. a sort of meditation/mind stabalizing trait utilised by those who have studied the art of affecting the mind pool.

but thier answer to our mind pool problem was entertainer buffs...... *shakes head in dissapointment*

im very happy with rifleman . in pvp it usually comes down to whos better prepared and gets the jump to start . one on one im running around 40 wins to 5 losses . gtranted 2 of those losses came even when i got the jump but its part of pvp . /bow to those who took me out they fought very well , even the one that trash talked me when i targeted and killed his nice faction pet instead of him ( didnt see him in the mob of npc's and his pets ) and he got me , but was miffed at the loss of the nice pet heheh . if you won every fight the other classes wouldnt be having much fun would they . pretty much the same way we would feel if we were pathetic at master . im glad to see the time and effort put into becoming master really shines on here . in PVE our AE's are second to none , easily taking out mutliple 10k ham mobs with 3 or 4 straffes and a shot here or there . faction missions are even easier , i just wish we did a little more damage to atst's with our heavy armor piercing since they stick the npc atst's in the faction missions which forced me to go master ch instead of dabbling , darn things eat all but the best pets . and as much as i have wanted to drop the swordsman skills to invest in something like healingbut it will never happen , it has saved my @ss more times than i can count. if you use descent pets the swordsman will keep you alive long enough for the pets to grab agro and you can move back, re equip your rifle and finish off the mobs since pet damage is useless in pve . i got jumped by a master tka while targeting blue cons outside the starport that was very close , took half my life in a second after i got the initial shot off at close range not expecting the tef after like 30 i couldnt shoot . got that sword in real quick and lived long enough while a friend shot her down . with rifleman using so few points it lets you master another proffesion to compliment it , which is definatley needed but its that way with all the elite proffesions so pick a path that works for you and grind it out .i was a master rifleman first , and only consider CH ( even at master ) a support proffesion to it .

to those of you working your way to master its well worth the hard work ignore the whiners they need to set up a 1-800-WHAA hotline for them . sure we arent supreme but who is that would be no fun , but we are impressive when used right . remember AE's are our strength just learn how to use em right , and keep the support lines up with your mind . it makes a huge difference if you use half the HAM per shot and regen the mind that much quicker , personally ill go 300 less mind off the cap to shoot as many if not more shots on a bar and regen it back 2x as fast . i think there isnt enough recognition on how much of a difference the support lines really do make .

then there is muon gold . at lower lvls i used to burn one a lair . now i just keep a case bagged and one in inventory for emergencys . it speeds things up tremendously if ya can go thru the downer running to the next lair . now at master i only use it for the really big game like atsts( with 2 or 3 6-8k ham npcs with it )or kimogillas when solo or large pvp engagements .

in pvp i always were armor 50%+ composite makes a huge difference and if you are going one on one with straffe 2 , 2 shots 3 at the most and you have incapped the enemy , and have enough mind for sniper shot for the kill . who cares if your drained with stats right unequip it and it comes back fast , and you have yourself a win .

oops im gonna wrap this up didnt mean to post a guide lol just wanted to say Rifleman is as good a class as any elite profession IMO and good luck to those grinding there way to master =)

I like the idea of fixing concealshot and cover. I think your idea of how to fix it would make it overpowered in PvP, but SOMETHING does have to be done, because right now the way it works is stupid, there's no reason to EVER use it in pvp, and in PvE it would be nice, except that pack assist animals and people magicaly discover you to spite the fact youre USING CONCEAL SHOT.

honestly I would just be happy if concealshot concealed you. you know, did what it says it does? beyond that I think there should be a general fix on pack assist beyond the concealshot issue. I think that when scouts/rangers are attacking a pack assist animal the members of the pack should have to make a check to try and break maskscent/camoflauge to be able to assist.