Smuggler Archive

Hiya all,

I'm normally more of a lurker then a poster but I have been seeing quite a few questions about why last ditch shot works the way it does, and why smugglers have both a root and a snare. I have been playing on test pretty regularly since it opened. My build is MBH/MS and I frequently use my non-master level weapons to get an idea for what damage will be like for weapons I may actually see the first few weeks after live.

Of course this is all my opinion but:

Last ditch shot is VERY useful.

However, it is not designed to be used all the time. What it is designed for is those situation when you KNOW you are going to get incapped. At that point it is just a matter of timing the shot to do maximum damage. What does this mean? The lower your health bar is the more damage it seems to do. So far I haven't noticed that the action bar has any effect on how much damage it does.

Now why is this useful?

The most obvious is in PvP. When you are almost gone and pull the trigger the results can be enough to either drop another player or dang close to it. Now, it seems that the PvP damage curves may not be tweaked yet but even when they are it should be a nasty shot.

What about PvE? I have found this shot useful numerous times in PvE. The other night I was pulling lvl 80 Nym's enforcers from a base and occassionally I would find myself in a situation where an enforcer was almost down but I was going to be incapped due to lack of medic backup. This is where last ditch can be very useful. If you time it right it can be enough to drop your target in one shot (assuming you have already been working it for a while). For example, in this case I landed a 3900pt hit on the enforcer with a Czerka carbine. I was incapped but the target was also killed.

What about this whole deal of having both a root and a snare? I have heard the question numerous times, why would I snare a target if I can root it? Well in the example above with the Nym's troops I was pulling from bases with 3-4 spawns. I couldn't find a way to get spawn free of the base without agroing at least one other spawn. So, my solution was to make sure to agro just 2 spawns. I would use a concussion shot to root the target closest to me. This would agro the spawn next to him who would then turn and come towards me. Now, I didn't want to have 2 ranged opponents rooted and shooting at me so I would simply snare the newly agroed target. As I retreated from the lair I would sometimes need to re-root the 1st target but using this method I could back away from the lir far enough to drop agro on the first target while blasting the second one. (mind you this is on lvl 80 spawns)

The same tactics work with creatures just far more efficiently.

I hope this helps clear things up a bit.

Major Tatiana Von'Zorovich

STORM

Flurry server

Good stuff, but as far as last ditch goes I seem to do more damage with full action. Without action I pulled off about 700 damage. With full action I pulled a 3660 damage shot for the win. Its dang nice if you can use it right.

"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side..."
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Cahausto Lightstar
Master Smuggler
Colonel
Near Moenia/Naboo/Chilastra

My personal best Last ditch with a MR/MS characterand a LD-1 rifle on TCwas 5635.