Rifleman Archive
Thread: will secondaries still matter
While willpower in some cases (most cases?) won't be much nesceserry anymore (because it won't regen your use of specials), you can spend more points to your Focus-Bar, so the specials will cost less points.
IMO it's a good change that could (first we have to see if it really works without problems) solve the problem of the big disadvantages between the different professions and their specials. Riflemen won't be the only ones now that can't spam spacials forever (because it was one of the few professions needing unhealable mind-pool for using specials).
Tarvus wrote:
Zabs can have an ungodly willpower (900) which can make a huge difference in downtime. Just ask any Zab rifleman, medic, doctor or combat medic how huge that is in a prolonged fight.
And I say it again: Zabraks are pityful compared to Humans as it is implemented RIGHT NOW. A Zabrak has max secondaries of 500/900. A Human has 1100/1100. Which means, a Human can spam Rifle specials about as long as a buffed Zabrak.
This might be a bug that will be changed, but the devs have not yet decided IF it will be changed. And given the uproar it would cause among the Human characters, I personally doubt it.
And one last thing: I don't care what a CSR tells you about this. CSRs will just tell you anything to make you go away. I consider the response that our correspondant got (we don't know if and how we will change it) more official that what any CSR tell me in game.
(or at least I thought there was....maybe I saw one of the CSR responses =P)
Either way, I'd be amazed if it wasn't fixed. It clearly isn't appropriate when looking at all of the species overall
Daishar_Valcyn wrote:
Actually, there was an official response around last week where they stated it was in-fact a bug and would be corrected in the near future.
Can you see if you can dig up that thread? I would love to stand corrected and say I am wrong and it will be fixed. However, I must have missed that thread. Well, even if it is "only" a CSR, if he posted on these boards that has a lot mroe weight than what those folks say in game or in the chat. Thanks!
From the descriptions in other threads, I do not think the basic strategies for secondaries change all that much; although, there may be a slightly increased emphasis on Focus. Here is what I mean.
Currently, both damage from our enemies and damage from our specials are assesed the same way, as a reduction of the current pool value. So if I get hit with a 50 point damage to mind and do a 100 point cost to mind special and my mind starts out at 900, I will go to 750 of 900 mind, which will recover based on my Willpower. Focus affects only the amount of damage I do to myself, so with a lower focus, my 100 point mind cost may have been 110 instead. Either way, Willpower would affect both the external and internal damage.
The proposed change as I understand it is that instead of specials being assessed as damage, they temporarily reduce the maximum damage the pool can take, which is then recovered over a fixed period of time from the time the special was fired. I believe this time is currently proposed at 25 seconds. Thus, given that same scenario above, instead of going to 750 of 900, our mind would drop to 750 of 800. The 50 points of damage would recover normally, based on our willpower stat, but the 100 points of maximum pool size reduction would recover at a rate of 4 points per second (100 points over 25 seconds) regardless of our willpower.
They may change it so that willpower has some effect on the recovery rate of the max, but either way, this means that damage from specials and damage from external sources are recovered on different schedules and at different rates. This means that willpower becomes more pointed towards damage caused externally and focus is more, if you will pardon the pun, focused on damage we cause to ourselves. Before, a high willpower could somewhat make up for a low focus. This will be less the case if this change goes through.
Overall, the strategy does not change that much. If you drop your willpower too much, you suffer from the fact that mind has to heal on its own. If you drop focus too much, your specials will still eat away at your mind pool current value by reducing the maximum achievable for a time. So both stats are still important. Focus, though, may become a little more significant since willpower will not help recovery of damage from specials. But since I already figure I cause more damage to my ownmindthan do others do, my stats are already weighted for focus over willpower. But who knows? We will just have to see how this all pans out.
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Actually, there was an official responsearound last week where they stated it was in-fact a bug and would be corrected in the near future.
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Aww, I've been having so much fun with it though! 