Here I have listed every Pistoleer Special, and it's status. The broken specials are in Red, the redundant or inadequate specials are in Yellow, and the working specials are in Green. They are listed in no particular order. This system is copied almost exactly from Carbineer Correspondent, novamarine.
You may notice a number of DPS comparisons involving pistol speeds. The pistol speeds mentioned are accurate for a Master Pistoleer with 74 speed. Unfortunately, the speed numbers are completely made up in that the pistols may or may not be available to the player. Most of the speeds listed are either impossible with all but the Scout Blaster schematic (complete with a speed slice and speed powerup) or require Krayt Tissue, and darn good tissue at that. This will make more sense as you read on. The fastest pistol realistically available to most players before slice is between 1.8 and 2.0.
Working Specials: 2
Redundant/Inadequate Specials: 5
Broken Specials: 5
Health Shot 2: A health bleed that deals more damage than Health Shot 1. The initial hit is random HAM, which is and enormous problem and is expected to be fixed in Publish 7. Unfortunately, our bleeds do less than that of Carbineers and Riflemen. The damage is based on the weapon in the player's hands, and they all "tick" at the same speed. Since pistols are supposed to be "weak but fast," we get the short end of the stick. Our speed advantage is negated, and our damage disadvantage is maintained. This disparity is made even worse by armor piercing. (Fix: Either increase the damage or factor weapon speed into bleeds. Apply similar thinking to other professoins.)
Point Blank Single 2: It works as intended, but why would you use it? Our accuracy at point blank range is outstanding, and you get much better results with either Body Shot 2/3 or one of our better random HAM specials. (Fix: Increase damage and add temporary defensive modifiers to justify the additional risk of firing from point blank range.)
Point Blank Area 2: Does not hit multiple targets. Again, why would you use it even if it did? (Fix: Increase damage and add temporary defensive modifiers to justify the additional risk of firing from point blank range. Repair AoE effect.)
Body Shot 3: Works, but not as well as Body Shot 2. The only conditions where BS3 has a higher DPS than BS2 is when the player has +74 pistol speed (Master Pistoleer) and he has a 1.9 speed pistol. The ham costs on BS3 are significantly higher than those of BS2. (Fix: Increase damage multiplier, as was done for Head Shot 3 months ago.)
Double Tap: Technically works, but is inferior to the random HAM Marksman special Kip Up Shot until the player is a Master Pistoleer with a 2.0 speed pistol. Even then, you get better DPS with Fan Shot. (Fix: have it target 2 HAM pools at random, but have it divide the damage between the 2 targeted pools. [giving it the potential to land on the same pool twice] Increase damage slightly. Give a chance for a random pool bleed.)
Stopping Shot: Works, but is inferior to Fan Shot until the player is a Master Pistoleer with a 1.2 speed pistol. One could argue that Stopping Shot is good for single targets and Fan Shot is good for multiple targets, but this doesn't hold water. A relatively experienced player should have no trouble aiming the cone effect to avoid unwanted targets. Versus a single target, Body Shot 3 (2.5 multiplier) brings targets down faster than Stopping Shot (5.0 multiplier) unless the Master Pistoleer has a 1.3 speed pistol, and even then, it only kills 0.01695% faster. (Fix: Give Stopping Shot a posture change down or other stopping effect.)
Fan Shot: By and large, this special works. It has good DPS as far as Pistoleer Specials go, and has an area effect cone. Our only complaints would be the AoE cone bug that is present in any similar special: It won't damage targets that are not currently engaged in combat, but it will agro them. (Fix: Fix the AoE bug.)
Pistol Melee Defense 1: Works as intended. It's a melee range (10m) knockdown. (Fix: None needed at this time.)
Pistol Melee Defense 2: The knockdown appears to be bugged. It almost never lands. The special doesn't really do anything. A random HAM melee attack with a high ham cost. (Fix: give Pistol Melee Defense 2 a reliable knockdown & a state effect, such as Stun or Dizzy.)
Multi Target Pistol Shot: A master level special. It attacks all targets within a 32m radius, but there are bugs. It doesn't damage targets that aren't engaged in combat, it fails to attack and clears the combat queue if there is a Line of Sight obstruction to one or more of the targets, and it clears the combat queue when one of the targets is slain. Even so, the combat effectiveness leaves much to be desired. Players even report better results using a single target special and "tabbing through" the targets. Fan Shot has a higher DPS than MTPS until the player is a Master Pistoleer with a 1.1 speed pistol. Since it is so easy to line up a Cone effect with Fan Shot, the 32m Sphere effect of MTPS just isn't valuable in it's current state, even if it worked like it was supposed to. (Fix: fix the aforementioned bugs and either increase the damage multiplier, or make it health damage. Consider adding a state effect or DoT.)
Disarming Shot 1: Doesn't do anything worthwhile. A low damage, random HAM special. It's double damage against lairs effect was removed in Publish 9. (Fix: Give Disarming Shot 1 the Intimidate state effect. Consider making it Health damage, as it presumably strikes the hands. Return double damage against lairs effect.)
Disarming Shot 2: A master level special. Doesn't do anything worthwhile. A low damage, random HAM cone effect special with an extremely high HAM cost. It's double damage against lairs effect was removed in Publish 9. A little more damage than Disarming Shot 1. (Fix: give Disarming Shot 2 the Intimidate state effect and maintain its AoE cone. Consider making this special health damage as well. Return double damage against lairs effect)
biwan:
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