Rifleman Archive

Hi folks! I've recently started a new char, and decided that rifle would be her weapon of choice. I've been playing SWG for quite a while, so am not new to the mechanics or certain bugs, such as the warping of opponents to melee range, but I have found gaining xp with the rifle to be much more difficult than with pistol, carbine, or even melee weapons. So I thought I'd ask the pros for some advice!

After spending quite a while "searching" these forums I haven't been able to really pin down the current state of affairs concerning rifleman and special moves. So, I will tell you what I think is happening, and request any corrections or clarifications.

1) Somewhere along the line it was decided that holding a rifle reduced your capability to defend melee attacks. If you're holding a rifle even a dwarf nuna (baby) becomes a formidable opponents as you wait to refire at an up to nine second delay at -50 modifier (these are extremes, of course). I haven't found a personally suitable solution to this. I want to use a rifle. Not a pistol, not a sword--I don't have the skill points to waste learning to use more than one weapon proficiently. So, in effect, I can only take on MOBs that a) Don't pack (defend each other) and b) Go down in 4 or fewer shots. If a critter or NPC gets to melee range I have maybe 4 seconds to finish them off with a souped up spray stick before incapacitation or death. Is there a technique I haven't discovered?

2) As with most professions many of the specials don't work at all, work counter-intuitively, or simply aren't worth using. Taking Cover, for example, doesn't seem to me to have an effect against single opponents in how long I have before being discovered. Against multiple opponents it actually is a bad idea because all but the one I initially aim at will close in on me, and it can slow down my standing up and running in a panic. This is all important only if I didn't rubberband to some (usually just out of range) position as soon as I initiated combat; if that happens I'm either dead soon, or must run away and try the assault again. I've only got the first Mind "Bleed" right now, but it also seems worthless. If a MOB doesn't go down in the first few shots, I'm dead. I don't have time to sit back and wait for a bleed to take affect, and kiting just slows my demise. Mind Shot 2 from the first shot seems best bet. And Strafe Shot, while being able to deliver significant damage, is random in it's effect, and difficult to use strategically. What do the pros use most often, and what should I strive for as I climb the Rifleman tree?

3) The SG-82 (or whatever it's called) does Cold damage. All other rifles do Energy damage. If you're opponent is armored against Energy damage, well, as a rifle user you are S.O.L. Is there a rifle type I haven't found that is useful and does a different type of damage?

4) Because I must limit myself to mostly weaker opponents, I am having trouble gaining xp, Combat XP in particular. I haven't even got ranged support IV yet, but am already climbing the Rifleman branches that use Rifle XP. This wasn't a problem with Pistol or Carbine. How is combat XP calculated, and any hints on getting more safely?

As you can see I am a bit confused and more than a little lost. Any specific creatures that don't pack but do provide deent XP would be helpful. And it may be just that a recent patch coincided with this char's beginning, but all the missions seem to pay a lot less than they did for a similarly experienced pistoleer.

I know a lot of this must have been covered in previous threads, but I couldn't find one that seemed both current in it's info, and actually relevant to my difficulty. So, please, Rifle Gurus, help!

rabidrobot

The thing that got my ass to master was a grual mauler.

I'm only a low-end rifleman but a master weaponsmith. There are two rifles that deal non-energy damage - the SG82 which does cold, and the Jawa Ion which does stun. I think the Jawa Ion is an overlooked rifle, but not being a higher end rifleman I do not know how practical ilt is - only the paper value.

I have stocked 121-223/5.6 Jawa Ion Rifles. They are stun damage, and are light AP. I don't know how practical these are as I have no time, nor skill, to take these into the field against high end opponents, but on paper, they aren't too shabby, andstun's a nice damage type. The Jawa Ion is only one of two stun delivering ranged weapons, the other being the Tangle Pistol which on paper seems like a pop gun (30ish-100ish/3.5ish no AP, stun damage), but again, maybe it's highly effective in the field.

Combat xp seems to be a pretty solid block as well. All I can suggest is using C12s for that. And grab a pet before they nerf it outright. Unequip your weapons, send in the pet to a lair, they pack swarm him, chuck a C12 into the middle, rinse, repeat. Is it cheap? Yes. But it works. Commando customer of mine bought a powered up glop grenade from me and tested it by throwing it into an Imperial base. He killed all four of them and incapped himself. It was the funniest thing ever. It got him 2.3k straight combat xp though.

If you want to xp, get a big pet. Something with high kinetic resists. It negates the 2.5x modifier whichspells insta-death for a rifleman. My graul mauler got me to near master status (I ran out of skill points but almost have the xp for it in cache). A GSP or razor cat works well too. I've heard of many people using rock beetles successfully (especially if they're buffed).

I always carry a jawa ion gun and SG82. They're not the best weapons, but there are a decent amount of things with high energy resists and the variety comes in handy.

I agree with your sentiments and desire to want to only use a rifle, but the bottom line is that it is not practical, at least until you are at or near master. Those that have suggested using a pet are correct. This will take some of the pressure off of you, but really, what is the difference if you kill a creature witha pet vs. killing it witha pistol as far as the desire to go rifle only goes? Nothing really, you still did not get rifle Xp for the part the other "weapon" did. So that still does not resolve your problem.

Likewise, while I agree that pets make it easier, it still does not address the basic issue of what to do when enemies close to melee range. With so many BAF (bring a friend) MOBs these days, your pet(s) can only do so much. Then you still have to deal with one or more creatures doing a smack down on you while your pets are busy with their friends. Besides, how many CHs do you know that do not carry a pistol or other ranged weapon or that do not have melee skills to back up their creature handling skills?

Finally, look at the range modifiers on ALL of our weapons. Not one of them, spraystick included, have descent range modifiers at melee range. That should tell you that, along with the 2.5x modifier, should tell you that they have designed the game so that you should not be using a rifle at melee range, just as you should not be trying to do melee combat out at 64m. So avoid it altogether or find alternative tacticsfor when it is unavoidable.

So as far as I am concerned, sentiments aside, the only practical thing to do is have a pistol. I went to Pistol IV specifically to be able to use an FWG5 (partly for the pistol, partly so I had a Heat damage weapon available); others have come up with some clever alternatives. One guy had a weaponsmith custom build him a Krayt D18. Either way, the purpose of the gun is not to try to kill the target with it. It is simply there to help you survive the melee attack until you can get them off you. When they close to melee range, if you feel you are not going to kill them before they kill you (and with big creatures, at 2.5x the damage, this is likely just one hit), switch to your pistol, eliminating the modifier, then hit the target with Suppression Fire or Warningshot to get them off you. Both of those skills are part of the Ranged Support branch, so they can be used with any ranged weapon. Once they are off you, switch back to rifle and continue your normal tactics.

But the bottom line is that you are going to go down if you are holding your rifle when any respectable target gets within melee range. It happens too quickly to hold any reasonable expectation that you should be able to use your rifle only.

Therefore, give into the Dark Side. Use a pistol, even if it is only a D18 or DL44. Or spend the points and go up higher in the branch to get a truly usable weapon and some additional skills. You do not have to rely on it. It is not there as a primary or alternative weapon. It is just there to counteract the 2.5x melee modifier.

Agree with the above poster, a pistol for backup just makes it a lot easier. You don't even need any skillpoints invested into pistol, just warning shot or supp fire for npcs.

I agree with the above posters (except about the pets,3 boxes away from master and never used em). Riflemen experience at the early levels are really hard to come by and really are based on your skills at the time. If you have conceal shot, find non-social critters and fire away. If you run out of mind, just unequip your weapon till it regenerates or become a spice fiend. You can also use the yo-yo method of shooting your critter and sending it away with warning shot. It helps to switch to a spraystick for this. If you have the bleeds, (they stack) simply kite slow animals to death. Leviasqualls and vir vurs at Rori are excellent for this. They are slow, you bleed em, hit em with a regular attack and run around in circles. If you are feeling up to par, pick on some faction npcs, most are ranged and like to posture change a lot. Bleed em and shoot once and run out of range. They tend to go prone a lot so it's easy to remain out of range. Currently, I do this with stormtrooper bases, they provide quite a bit of xp. Basically, it's more about tactics. I know you are against using another weapon, but having a melee or pistol with save you many times. In fact, if your mob is bleeding to death and closing in, just unequip your rifle and kite. It saves you that 2.5 melee modifier, so you'll live longer. Just my 2 cents worth.

Fielord - Scylla

As far as tactics *while* using a pet....

I dropped all of my pistol skills and no longer carry one around with me. The most common problem while figthing with a pet isn't getting the whole lair on you, just one of them. My standard solution for when I see a mob heading my way is to hit /peace, unequip my weapon, spam /tellpet attack on the mob that's after me, and run toward my pet. Usually only takes a couple hits from the pet to get it's attention off of me.

I can't really say much about not using pets. I started CH when I was around novice rifleman. Before pets I would generally just hunt things I could bleed kite (preferrably non-baf) with warning shot from pistol if they got too close. With pets I could hunt pretty much whatever I wanted (within reason--and without risk). Early on with the pet it was the pet tanking while I bleed them to death (still fairly fast as you can agg an entire lair and stick bleeds on all of them). Later it was pet tank while I AoE'd. At master it's a bit ridiculous (the change between 4/4/4/3 and Master was huge). Naturally I don't need the xp now, but it's made harvesting creature resources extremely easy.

I haven't found an SG82 I like yet, but did find some decent Jawa's. In general, between energy/cold/stun you're covered in a lot of situations. Bleeds ignoring armor help a ton too. Getting that 2nd bleed and kiting slow mobs is a good way to go.

Combat xp is (iirc) 10% of your weapon xp. It seems to be designed for you to roughly fill all 3 rifle boxes on 1 tier to earn enough combat xp for that tier.

I don't know what changes might have happened in the interim, but early on I focused on bantha's near Mos Taike for my xp'ing. Others used snorbals quite a bit. Not sure whether they've been changed to baf since.

Daishar

I wanted to thank you all for your suggestions. I gritted my teeth and did low-level mission after low-level mission to get together some credits, and was able to buy a rock beetle. Even as a baby he has been very helpful in distracting enemies for a precious few seconds and sped up my XP and money gathering substantially--although the poor guy gets incapped as often as I used to, and so has less than 90 vitality already at not even half grown .

I was also fortunate to pick up a used SG-82(?) and Ion rifle from a retiring (why, I dunno) Rifleperson, so now have some varied damage types. Warping MOBs still get me, but other than that rifle using is much more fun now that I don't spend half (or more) of my time incapped or regening mind. I've still resisted using any other weapon types, but do occasionally use bare hands rather than take melee multipier damage.

Now, another question for y'all. Is armor helpful to a Rifleman? My stats are already so skewed towards mind, I don't know if I could even wear much armor. Is one type more useful than another, or should I just get the best composite I can find?

Thanks in advance,
rabidrobot

i just carry around some padded armor i rarely use.
Due to the extreme mellee dmg modifier Kinetic Armor doesnt make much sense..

Grab yourself an infiltration suit and dont get hit