Rifleman Archive

I've been looking through this board for a few days, and I'm not finding what I'm looking for, so I'm going to drop in a post and hope some folks can answer some basic questions for me. I've been swinging back and forth between doing Pistoleer/Weaponsmith, and Ranger/Rifleman for some time, but a friend from work is doing the former, so I'm clinched on Ranger/Rifleman.

Setting aside the serious problems in Ranger for a moment (as they are being worked on by the Devs), I'd like to talk about basic tactics some. I've seen a lot of guides on what to do at mid-range and up Rifleman, but nothing regarding getting started. My skill tree (when completed):

47 Marksman (Rifle IV, Pistol III, Support III)
77 Scout (Master)
63 Ranger (Master)
63 Rifleman (Master)

I currently have all the skills I'm taking from Marksman and Scout at III.

Right now I'm toting around a DLT20a (90-151/6.4) and a Scout Blaster (43-101/2.5). My current tactic is to get out at 64m, take cover (or just go prone, I try once and if it fails I just leave it). Then I start snapping off Head Shot 2's. Many times, I'll kill blue-white cons before they see me. The problem comes when I have a hay-day of misses and they rush me. Or when it's time to shoot the lair and the new spawns start charging.

Once (if) I get rushed, I chuck a Phecnacine Dart at it (and pray) then snap off two more Head Shot 2's while getting out to 64m again. Of course, sometimes that dart resists, and it's going to melee me. So then I break out the pistol and start blasting away with Warning Shots, in the hopes of buying enough time for another snare dart.

Now once I switch to the pistol, it's really a cakewalk... between snare darts and Warning Shot, and the rapid firing of the thing, I'll be fine. The problem is that I'm essentially starting over, because I can't target Mind. I'm sure I'm just making everyone chuckle at their struggle through this crap.

So how did everyone (or does) deal with getting rushed? Right now, I use a macro to switch from rifle to pistol and change toolbars, then use Warning Shot till I land it, then chuck snare darts, then switch back to rifle for two shots and pray I kill it by then.

/peace;
/ui action toolbarPane## (00-06 to change toolbar)
/ui action toolbarSlot## (00-23 to equip weapon)

That's the macro I use by the way if someone doesn't feel like digging through the threads to find it. Now is this what everyone did? Seems like swapping to pistol to get it under control again is necessary. It's having to use a pistol to get Warning Shot off that bugs me. How fast of a Rifle will I need before I can just Warning Shot with my weapon of choice?

Anyway, maybe I just wanted to reason out my tactics on paper. But regardless, thanks for reading, and if anyone has tips for a pre-Novice Rifleman, throw them my way!

I suck at everything except the rifle so right now i'm using point blank when they melee rush me. So far i can take out every bad guy up to level white, i've only killed one yellow with this strategy. I'm going for creature handler so i can get 3 good gurrecks to guard me up close so if a melee fighter does come after me, he's cat food

Well, I ended up kind of figuring this out myself, but I'll share my ending solution. I still need my rifle to be faster (eventually maybe I won't need a pistol) but this is working.

Basically, I've kinda stopped using snare darts, at least till my gun is faster. Two HeadShot2's just take too long to get off at the moment. So I hunker down at 64m as described before, and start beaning the target in the head. Usually I'll kill it before it starts to charge.

Sometimes I'm going to get rushed, and I now jump up and push my hotkey for this macro:

PistolWarningShot:
/ui action toolbarPane01; (change to toolbar 2--pistol)
/ui action toolbarSlot23; (equip pistol in Shift-F12)
/peace; (clear the attack queue)
/pause 1; (seems to need a half-second to peace)
/warningShot;

It won't fire till the delay of the rifle ends, but this accomplishes two things. First the pistol is equipped, so I won't get owned in melee. Second, if the Warning Shot doesn't take effect, the pistol will let m retry MUCH faster. Once a Warning Shot lands (rarely do I get hit), I push the macro:

RifleHeadShot2:
/ui action toolbarPane00; (change to toolbar 1--rifle)
/ui action toolbarSlot23; (equip rifle in Shift-F12)
/peace; (clear queue)
/pause 1; (needed for /peace)
/headShot2;

It will fire when the delay of the pistol ends, which is about as fast as you can switch back to rifle. End result, Warning Shot hits, then I whip out the rifle and nail it. If it doesn't die, go right back to the pistol, because by the time the refire is done on the rifle, it will be time to Warning Shot again.

This tactic is working extremely well, and I'm actually finding snare traps to be only for dire emergencies with multiple things on me. The last problem I was having was when blowing up lairs, the spawns are going to rush me, no matter what. Well I found out how to stop that.

When you have cleared everything and it's time to work on the lair again, just push Attack, then as soon as you see damage hit, hit Peace. The creatures actually spawn after the hit, so if you don't have attack on when they spawn, they won't charge. I blew three lairs like this tonight, popping them, look for spawn, pop it, look for spawn, kill spawns, pop it, etc. Was nice not getting rushed from the start on those.

the mobs around the nest should never rush you if you do it right....assuming they don't team up like some of them do. when you hit the nest, just fire once and then peace.....then wait for the spawn.....pick them off one by one then hit the lair once again and peace.....it's easy unless they're protective and gang up like womp rats and scyks and such.

LOL

That's kind of what I said.