Rifleman Archive
Thread: Novice Rifleman
Well lets admit it...Novice Rifleman, well they suck.
Im creating this thread, to say why you think novice rifleman suck, and how you would fix it.
Our number one priority, should be attempting to make Novice Rifleman more viable.
Avoid flaming, this is a discussion on what would help out the novice rifleman.
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One of the major issues with novice rifleman is, DPS. In groups, the person with the most DPS gets the most XP, and us having low DPS, cant group. Honestly, I would like to see the group system re-worked, it is the worst group system ever. I see why its in, to prevent power leveling, but when you take a novice rifleman, and a novice pistoleer...the pistoleer is going to get more XP.
Now honestly, I dont think we cant increase our DPS, without making master rifleman, far to powerful.
But, we may be able to move a few skills around. Such as, make it so we get +20 rifle speed at novice rifleman, but only +10 at Master. This would not help alot, but it would help enough to give you a bit better speed.
Or possibly, a way to fix Novice Rifleman, is to fix conceal, and make it work on BAF mobs. Now they said they were fixing this, but i have yet to see one thing on it. If conceal worked on baf, mobs, and suprise shot works, then it would be alot easier for a novice rifleman to level.
Or maybe, make Conceal Shot a pre-attack, much similar to AIM. (wich would not work with AEs) This would make it so we can target one pool. (using head shot) Or an alternative, make it so we conceal shot only hits a certain pool instead of random, or higher level up, in the conceal line, you get 3 new styles, health conceal shot, action conceal shot, mind conceal shot?
These are just a few ideas, that might make Novice Riflemans life easier.
"But, we may be able to move a few skills around. Such as, make it so we get +20 rifle speed at novice rifleman, but only +10 at Master. This would not help alot, but it would help enough to give you a bit better speed. "
Uhh, I am totally against that, I had to struggle up to master rifleman, and that +20 speed made me so happy and gave me such gratification that I actually worked for something. I think it should stay how it is.
"Orpossibly, a way to fix Novice Rifleman, is to fix conceal, and make it work on BAF mobs. Now they said they were fixing this, but i have yet to see one thing on it. If conceal worked on baf, mobs, and suprise shot works, then it would be alot easier for a novice rifleman to level. "
Yes, it will be a lot easier for them this way, but the Devs would rather nerf everyone, than fix broken classes and shots.
"Ormaybe,make Conceal Shot a pre-attack, much similar to AIM. (wich would not work with AEs) This would make it so we can target one pool. (using head shot) Or an alternative, make it so we conceal shot only hits a certain pool instead of random, or higher level up, in the conceal line, you get 3 new styles, health conceal shot, action conceal shot, mind conceal shot?"
Anything that can give us a shot that will enable us to target a specific pool other than mind would own, as long as it isn't a crap damage shot 
I think speed at novice would help some. The T-21 would help but I have never seen one on Gorath. Having some creatures that are not BAF would be helpfull. Seems almost everything I hunt is BAF. IN this regard Conceal shot would work wonders if it worked. As it is I have to rely on my scouting skills/ranger skills and swordsman skills to help me finish off.
Perhaps a Mid level weapon with a faster DPS but not awsome damage. Something that would let us use warning shot or other damage control things. The spray stick is good for this but its range is too short. Maybe a weapon similar to the spray stick but with a longer ideal range.
The 2.5 damage modifier is awfull on us too it has to go. There is no rational reason for it to exist save to give melee people a break. IMHO melee people allready have a break with the ridiculously short range needed to use a rifle and our slow refire rate. We cant hit anything at short range, We miss alot when on the move, melees burst run onto us, we basically have 1 shot to drop something and that has been nerfed on us.
The best way to get rifle xp is to shoot something while running away and when it gets close change to pistol or melee weapon. It shouldn't have to be this way. Anyone should be able to start and fight a battle with their weapon of choice if they do things the way their weapon is designed to function.
If you go for speed you use the spray stick. its short range weapon so at ideal rifle range you tend to miss more. If you get in close to use it at ideal range they pounce on top of you and with the 2.5 your dead meat. by comparison if you use a dl20a or laser rifle you get a couple shots off and the mob or his friends are on top of you and your dead. It takes me about 5 seconds between shots with my laser rifle and if I have a bad roll or a miss im in trouble in a hurry.
just my $0.02
personally I love being a rifleman. I am not far along only 1 00 0 but I dont have alot of time to play the game. Most of the time I solo. I love being a sniper. I am also a novice squad leader novice ranger.
Also Ghuilie suits have been added to the game in the ranger tree wayfaring. They dont call them ghuilie suits but I think thats the best we can expect. Its a regional suit wich can be built by any ranger but put on anyone by a ranger. It increases your camoflauge chance and makes it harder for npcs or mobs to detect you.
Demenus
I'd like to be able to attack something far more often without killing myself. Either reduce the HAM costs on highend rifles like the T 21 or something, because I can't hunt mobs of like 10 or 12 and actually kill them all. Even while kiting 1 at a time I eventually get an aggro while my mind is still too low, so I either swap to pistol to stand a chance or die and seeing how I destroyed my action bar to have enough mind to do 5 shots I die then too.
Here are a few simple ideas.
1) Better weapons to compete with commandos, Ahazi doesnt even have the T-21 yet.
2) Replace some of these usless skills in the rifleman tree.
3) Remove the idiotic 2.5x melee damage when wielding a rifle.
4) Possibly increase range a Rifleman can shoot.
5) INCREASE ACCURACY!!!
Hmm, thats about all I can think of right now.
There are ways to negate everything you stated. Novice Rifleman isviable, you just need to learn some technique.
You want more DPS (I don't know what that means so I'll assume most hits), break out that Spraystick. I've seen speeds of 1.8 on them. The special moves suck with them, but they do good normal firing damage (I'm talking about enhanced Spraysticks not the crappy 7-77 one's) <-- Mine is like 16-180/2.0 or something like that.
Don't like getting hit by Meelee's (no Rifleman does and I too think the 2.5x damage modifier should be toned down). Run earlier, or take that rifle out of your hands when running. You miss so often running anyways your not loosing anything.
It sucks that some of abilities got nerfed, but they were being abused.
Finally get a pet! Everyone else is using them, and for a reason.
Even then, a 16-180/2.0 spraystick cant compare to alot of FWG5s Ive seen. 100-300/2.0? Ive seen them reach upwards of 390. Not mentioning the HAM costs for our styles are so high, that we run out fast. Wich is a problem for all rifleman.
The closest you can get toa pistol, is a sliced DLT for speed, and powered up for speed. You can probably get, 130-250/3.5 speed. (rough estimate) Even then, it cant compare, but its the closest you would get.
change the penalty at 64m for a bonus on all rifle weapons. even a +0 at 64m like BH rifle, would be ALOT better.
- Sharyn
Rifleman wananbe of Shadowfire
Master Smuggler of Kauri
Howdy.
New to the game, here. Newly minted 0-0-0-0 Novice Rifleman (about halfway to my first box) as well.
I went hunting on Talus yesterday for the first time. Most of the critters on Talus have their Deathblow flag set. I died more times in three hours yesterday than I had in the previous two weeks.
I would gladly gladly GLADLY trade the 2.5x damage penalty for an even higher chance of missing at point-blank range. Since we suck so bad at hitting point-blank targets, the only reason I can think of that they put in the 2.5x melee damage penalty was to make our fights mercifully quick.
Also, I don't know if I've just missed it or what, but it would be nice to have some way of targeting the things chasing us as we run away. TAB will cycle through targets directly in front of you, but if you're being chased by three Swoopers, there's no way to target them (that I know of -- feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).
G_Squared wrote:
There are ways to negate everything you stated. Novice Rifleman isviable, you just need to learn some technique.
You want more DPS (I don't know what that means so I'll assume most hits), break out that Spraystick. I've seen speeds of 1.8 on them. The special moves suck with them, but they do good normal firing damage (I'm talking about enhanced Spraysticks not the crappy 7-77 one's) <-- Mine is like 16-180/2.0 or something like that.
Don't like getting hit by Meelee's (no Rifleman does and I too think the 2.5x damage modifier should be toned down). Run earlier, or take that rifle out of your hands when running. You miss so often running anyways your not loosing anything.
It sucks that some of abilities got nerfed, but they were being abused.
Finally get a pet! Everyone else is using them, and for a reason.
The answer to becoming a viable Rifleman is to use something else besides a rifle. Got it, that must be why we see Luke Skywalker whipping out his Rancor on the Death Star. 
We need to find ways of fixing the profession. Creatures would be a creative TIP, but not a FIX.
Hi, the way that I liked best to get out of Novice Rifleman is to find a small group on Dantooine. There was a mid-range CH, a Novice Commando and myself, a Novice Rifleman (err, close to it, I had sniping 1). The CH had a 6k HAM pet that he would just tank and the commando in his suit if composite woudl also tank the pikets we were killing. I would sit back and attack the pikets with my pre-patch T21. I was also a master medic at the time, so I could heal with my Stim D's, if you dont have a medic you will want to bring one along. I was gaining upwards of 200k xp in 2 hours or so. This way I found was the best, I've tried soloing on Lok and I wasnt getting as much. Just my 2 cents.
P.S. By the way, even with the DPS disdvantage that we have I was still getting 3 or 4k xp per piket.
I read this forum alot but never post but in light of recent changes I cant help but post. The best way to make Novice Rifleman a viable class again (Not the only way, all of your suggestions are very good.) is to take the **edit** nerf off of the T-21. Holocron being the usual hyporcrit says that the T-21 was nerfed because the Possible Damage was just plain scary.......... so I suppose he was spacing out and not paying attention when they created the new LLC with Damage up to the 800s and probably above that. IF this was only Commando useable then I am all for it cause those guys had it ALOT worse then we did or do, but adding this thing to the already stupidly overpowered Bounty Hunter is just plain insane.
So let me get this right..... Nerf the T-21 so Riflemen blow even more, then add in the NEW LLC that makes the old T-21 look like a Peashooter anyway? AND the BHs can hit Mind just likewe do, use Health and Action pools instead of mind, haveKnockdown (Moot point now since the 30sec nerf that screwed our Dizzy/Posture too) , have no 2.5x Melee penalty, and the stupid LLC has range effects that make it viable from any range, but of course a CDEF Pistol can shoot at the same range as our Lasers and T-21a and are most of the time more accurate to boot, and I could go ON and ON.
But anyway sorry for the rant. I know this option doesnt hold alot of weight to servers that dont have T-21s yet but trust me, Novices are alot more powerful with a good weapon in their hands. The added speed I think would overpower the Novice and wouldnt maintain balance if they do un-nerf the T-21. All in all the best thing that will improve all of the class, especially us is.....
STOP THE NERF BEFORE FIX ATTITUDE!!!!!
You have classes out there (like the Rifleman) that have had broken skills and attribute bonuses since launch and you pay absolutely no attention to it whatsoever.
Lodinn Malignitas <HAD>
3/1/1/1 Sharpshooter
AldeonAvardulin wrote:
Even then, a 16-180/2.0 spraystick cant compare to alot of FWG5s Ive seen. 100-300/2.0? Ive seen them reach upwards of 390. Not mentioning the HAM costs for our styles are so high, that we run out fast. Wich is a problem for all rifleman.
The closest you can get toa pistol, is a sliced DLT for speed, and powered up for speed. You can probably get, 130-250/3.5 speed. (rough estimate) Even then, it cant compare, but its the closest you would get.
I have one of the best DLT's I've ever seen (120-204/4.0 22% speed slice) so the number you put forth are easily attainable. The problem is No ap and energy damage, as opposed to the FWG-5's heat damage.
First my strategy, then my gripe.
What I do for xp (25k from novice rifleman) is hunt gualamas. they give 450-750 xp, not counting the elders that give 1000. I put a bleed on, then putone or two HS2's in it. As it charges me, I switch to my 2.5 speed Scout and que up 2 warning shots. When it runs, switch QUICKLY to rifle, as it will be on the pistol speed counter (bug) , and put one or twos HS2'sin it. Lather, rinse, repeat. They won't DB you if things go awry, and they spawn quick enough to geta perpetual supply out of one nest soloing. You WILL get pistols xp, but only about 50 or 60, as warning shot does pitiful damage with my low damage scout.
Now my gripe. I play casually, maybe 6-10 hours per week. I have seen no noticeable gain in 2-3 weeks of playing. It takes forever to earn 125K, let alone the higher amounts needed for better skills. This just makes me wanna Doctor more, where in 2-3 hours on a good night I can get a new skill or at least halfway to one. I'm not asking for them to make things so easy to be a master that everyone can do it, but after 2 or so months, I should at least be closer than a novice! A fix would be less BAF higher level baddies.
I've wanted to be rifleman from the start, but this grind is dishearting, especially when you find out that novices are effectively useless, and T-21's don't exist on your server, and they suck even if they did exist. I will eventually bea master, maybe then it be worth it, but for now, it so tempting to go to the Dark Side and grab pistols or maybe even carbines.
Anyway that my $2 on the matter
Khyras, On Bria.
Doctor/ Wannabe Rifleman
"The nerf of God is coming!!! Pistoleers Repent!