Rifleman

 

Guide for the New Rifleman

 

New Rifleman Tips:

Whatever you want to do, first do the helper droid quests. They give you money, xp, useful stuff and some basic ideas about how the game works. Also do the game tutorial at least once, you can do it again by creating a char on another server.

Your starter weapon is pretty bad, in fact you wont find a worse one. Go to the bazaar and look for a new one. Watch for the condition, don't take anything which has too low condition (below 50%, like 50/1067 or something) Also look if you can actually use it, you will need a certification for it! You can see your certification in your skill window (ctrl-s) Don't buy the first one you find, compare prices, lots of people try to rip off newbies.

If you don't fight, do survey missions, they give lots of money for someone starting out.

Optimize your head up display: you can change lots of stuff in the options. You can ignore all afk people (note that you ignore yourself when you are afk then.) You can activate the waypoint monitor and disable the waypoint arrows in the center of the screen. You can drag and drop the chat tabs to create more chat windows. You can expand your toolbar by dragging it down to 24 slots.

Customize your keyboard: You can remap all keys, even make macros and map them to keys. For example I have the 6 toolbars on the num pad numbers 1-6 and stand/kneel/prone on the left and right windows keys and the properties key.

Always read the Tuesday tips, also read old ones. They have lots of useful random stuff.

Don't go overt if you are not prepared. PvP is endgame, you will get killed probably, so only go overt if you don't care.

Insure your items. If you die uninsured, lots of stuff will decay. 5% if uninsured, 1% if insured. 0% if you die by someone of the enemy faction, player or NPC

Rebel=rebel,  Imperial=you are in the imperial army,  Neutral=you are an imperial citizen

Do the theme parks, they are not too hard and can be fun. There are quite a lot mini theme parks too and some 'epic quests' spanning multiple planets. Ask around for that stuff, but bring at least some basic combat skills.

When you choose an entertainer or medic, you have to rely on other people to tip you. Don't be rude, no one is forced to give you money. Either live with the fact that only 1 out of 5 people tip you or make your money with survey/combat. Do not spam to remember to tip the entertainer/medics. That's just stupid, I tip always, but not people who do that.

The next thing you will want is a mount or a vehicle. Vehicle have to be repaired all the time for quite some money, but are way faster than mounts, so everyone uses them. You got to decide yourself what to use.

Take all the 6 starter professions. No matter what you want do, take them ALL. You can always surrender everything and Novice in a starter profession only costs 100 creds. It's worth it, you will learn more about how the game works and are more independent. For example, you can heal your own battle fatigue and mind wounds when you dont find an entertainer.

Get better equipment (read: player made equipment) You can find player vendors by using the world map (ctrl-v) expand vendors, click on the type you are looking for. You will lots of green dots. Right click and save the ones you want to visit. Now activate them in your data pad (ctrl-d) and your set.

If you have a question, type /who and ask a guy with a HELPER tag in the list.

Have Fun!

 

1) What to Hunt:

 

    Generally people will tell you to go to Dantooine and hunt quenkers (not savage ones!!!)
they give great xp and pay out well if you do missions while doing it. Myself I took my time and hunted many things , pickets on lok, Quenkers, (Snorbals, Bolle Bulls, Rancors, in a novice group - no solo grouping before you have a few columns of speed!

 I found snakes on lok are easy 1-2 shot kills, and if prone they can never aggro fast enough to avoid being killed .  Tortons are also perennial favorites. Talus and Rori are good places to level as well. make sure you stay at the 55+ m mark and shoot while prone - make sure it doesn't have more then 10-15k ham and more then light armor if you plan to solo at novice rifleman. Unless you are a scout and can run like the wind.

Telling someone what to hunt is actually a very hard job,  it depends on your play style and
what you want to gain from it. Money? XP? Loot? are you already an elite combat profession are
 you a master marksmen? it helps with the speed and accuracy at the bottom end and even
more at the top of the rifleman profession.

 

Finally if you are grinding - it is best to group with something... a pet, a droid , a person?
all give you a bonus to your exp you get per kill

 

 
2) What to Hunt with:

 

PVE:  E11, Laser Rifle, T-12, DXR6-b, Berserker,  Spraystick, Sg82 gives us a huge variety of
damage types - do an examine and see what armor level a creature has and what
 it is susceptible to. AP IS YOUR FRIEND HERE! a 25% damage bonus per level
over the armor of the creature you are shooting at will help immensely!
generally you will probably use a Laser Rifle, E11, and the DXR6-b until you get some
speed and then the T-21 comes to the fore as the best all around rifle.

 

PVP:  Jawa, DXR6-b, and T-21
Jawa = Stun damage and ignores much of the armor
dxr-6 -b = Accurate and high damaging as well as no Shield Gen stops it damage
T-21 = all out damage!
 
 
3) Charging creatures:

 

Strategy #1 is to take the creature out quickly (while using cover, maskscent, etc)
so that it's dead before it knows what hit it and never has the chance to charge you.

 

Strategy #2 is to team up with another player or creature who can absorb the creature's
attacks while you snipe at it from a distance.

 

Strategy #3 if you have scout use traps that slow down creatures

 

Strategy #4 *IMPORTANT!* threaten and warning shot in the Marksmen 0004 column!
warning shot can be used to drive creatures away - use peace immediately after
you see the attack stick. If you can do that three or more times the creature seems
to slow down as long as you do not hit it with another warning shot. Over all the
best method if you can not kill a creature without being detected
 
 
 Tools of the unbuffed, unarmored player:

= Warning Shot
= Suppression Fire
= Phenacine Dart
= Adhesive Mesh
= Any Knockdown (Novice Pistoleer and x/x/x/1 gets you a Melee Knockdown)
= Warcry (From Brawler)
= Burstrun
= Line of Sight (for ranged opponents)
= Take Cover, Mask Scent (note you cannot Peace while under Cover)
= Conceal Shot
= Nearby Vehicle
= Pet Tank (Guard or Kill Command)
= Droid Tank (Guard or Kill Command)
= Neutron or Muon Spice (for really hairy situations)
 
 
3) Buffs and Armor:

 

First off,  yes, do slice armor!  If you can afford to get a full encumbrance - sliced set, that
could be a worthwhile investment. Second, are your Mind stats maxed out?  What
species are you? A Human with 800 encumbrance composite armor can eat 2 Ahrisa
and drink 2 Brandies and spam specials for at least half an hour up to 40-45 minutes.
 If they have their Mind stats set to the optimal 1100/1100/800. Wearing any sort of
Composite, Ubese, or Padded armor will affect your HAM greatly, forcing you to also
 invest in food and drink. Every Rifleman should have Brandy, Ahrisa, and Muon.
Canape, Citrus Snow Cakes, and Vercupti are also nice to have available. 
 
Ahrisa adds 400+ to Focus for ~45 minutes at 33 filling.

Canape adds 700+ to Focus and Willpower.

If I recall, it has near 33 filling as well with a duration of about 10 minutes. I prefer Ahrisa to Canape,

In the worst situations (basically just the DWB),

Muon Gold (spice) is good to have. +500 to Mind/Focus/Willpower for 10 minutes with the

opposite effect for 3 minutes afterwards.

 

 
4) The Learning Curve:

 

    Rifleman is slow at first due to the speed of your general attacks, this will change.
1st,  you can single draw as a rifleman - attack at target at 55+m and if it does
aggro before it dies only it should chase you (this does fail time to time)

 

2) Conceal shot allows you to attack much bigger things then you really should
great xp,  but slow and beware of random bleeds left by conceal shot - they will get you killed

 

3) Speed and Accuracy are what you should go after when learning rifle first - I
prefer speed (but only if you have the Combat experience from another profession) 
other prefer accuracy - play around a bit - if you have a highly accurate rifle go 003x, if
you laser rifle or t-21 is fast 4-5 seconds maybe go accuracy 400x
 

4) AOE's will be your life blood!

 

5) We do not have a knockdown per say - but we do have an AOE which inflicts
dizzy on NPCs and if you have master marksmen you should have suprresion fire
 which forces a posture change down - when they stand again is when they get
doing the flopping fish impression expansion.  Also you may want to
change the KD section to reflect that it is only a voluntary posture change that causes
the flopping fish. Also that Dizzy only works on NPCs. Along with the flopping fish effect.

 

For a good discussion on what to do first check this thread out
 
5) Rifle speed:

 

    Rifle is slow until you master- this is a no dabble profession, at master you should be
almost 2x as fast as you are currently as for skill order you might want to try to get 0103 or 0033 or some such . The three column in the last 2 gives an AOE which are very nice the 0100 column gives
conceal shot which is a shot you can shot pretty much indefinitely at ranges of +50m and never draw aggro (unless you miss a few times or land a bleed ). You might want to consider switching to a faster laser rifle  it may not be ap3 but is can have a huge upper damage range and is considerably faster. Also check out DXR6-b's they are faster than T21's and substantially more accurate in all range bands.  Both should help you low level specials get faster.you could also try 4000 for the accuracy which is always in demand . I preferred the AOE's but if you are not already uber with the armor and you don't hunt with a Meatshield (ie: your tk friend :-p) it may be better to go with accuracy - see following reason
Not sure if I agree with your idea of which branch to go up first. Going up to FlushingShot2 works great if you have someone or somethingto tank. But without that you are in trouble as it will aggro MOBs which are frequently melee to a range your AoE won't work and your accuracy is horrible.
 
 
6) PVP and You
 
PVP is not really something a Novice rifleman should participate
in as your speed will be slow and your accuracy will be bad.

   If you are still intent on it as you climb the speed and accuracy trees you will find that

 pvp becomes more and more viable. Once you hit master you literally will double
 your damage output and at that point you should be good to go.

 

1) Higher accuracy = avoids defenses better so you hit more often

 

2) Stun is a fair damage type for pvp - but it has been getting less and less so since the advent of stun armor and stun shield gens and foods such as synthsteak

 

3) Foods are a necessity currently as are buffs and stun armor and shield.

 

4) Flushing 2 creates a stun affect which can lower defenses and help you hit
more often harder.

 

5) Currently Headshot2/3 are our best attacks, this is changing and it maybe
that raw damage output will soon supersede this so ss2 (master level- again
pvp is not something novices really should be doing)  might be better.

 

6) The DXR-6 and the t-21 are also viable PVP weapons, the High accuracy of
the DXR-6b helps as does the Heavy armor piercing of the T-21

 

7) Instead of Max damage powerups go for 30%+ min damage powerups and
some other stat such as + accuracy if you can , this helps avoid Mitigation issues

 

8) Sniper shot is useful but not as useful as you might imagine

 

9) Get disease/poison inoculations now...

 

 
Armor Piercing:

 

AP means Armor Piercing. When you look at a weapon it will say None, Light,
Medium, or Heavy. Those translate to AP0, AP1, AP2, and AP3.

  For each level that the AP is above the AR (Armor Level) of the target you get a 25% cummalative bonus to damage. So AP3 vs AR0 (3steps) is 195% damage. AP3 vs AP1 or AP2 vs AR0 (2steps) means 156% damage. AP3 vs AR2, AP2 vs AR1, or AP1 vs AR0 (1step) means 125% damage. If even then it's 100% damage.

  If the target is vulnerable to the damage type then the the target is considered AR0 and the weapon loses any AP bonus. It basically becomes AP0.

  For each level that the armor is greater than the AP, you lose 50% damage. So 1step is 50%, 2steps 25%, and 3steps 12.5%.

  So which AP is better?  Usually the higher the AP the better off you are. But it will depend on the targets resists. It is possible that a weapon with a lower AP is better because the target may have lower resists to it. Also the lower AP could be better if the target is vulnerable to the higher AP damage type since you lose the AP bonus in that case. 

 

Armor Attachments and Clothing Attachments:
  •    + numbers help our skills, - numbers reduce our skills (you want positive ones ^_^)
  •    Rifle Speed is the most sought after as it can literally double your damage output (+7 rifle speed  is all we need to cap as master rifleman)
  •    Rifle Crawl is broken so the attachments do nothing as of now
  •    Never put the same type of mod into the same piece of clothing as you will just lose the second one and it will be lost forever
Max Range:
 
All attacks have a max range of 64m (no we can not do 300m sniper kill shots on players)

 

Rifleman Trainer Locations:


Tatooine
Mos Eisely
3551, -4710 or
3426, -4917

Naboo
Keren
1274, 2687

Corellia
None listed

Rori
Narmle
-5215, -2373

Talus
Dearic
587, -2870



 What are the Rifleman specials and what do they do:

Conceal Shot – Rifleman Concealment I : An attack that allows you to attack targets in PvE without being detected and attacked. The target can still detect you normally by coming close to you or if you miss a certain number of times. If standing you are detected on the first miss, kneeling on the second, and prone on the third. You can reset this miss counter by using the peace command.** Caution – This special sometimes causes a bleed. You will be detected when the bleed ‘ticks’ ** Damage 2.5X Time 3.0X Effect : Remain undected

Flurry Shot 1 – Rifleman Rifle Abilites I : This attack can cause a dizzy state on a target. While Dizzy, the target can not burst run and may fall over if it makes a voluntary posture change. Damage 2.5X Time 2.0X Effect : Dizzy attack

Flurry Shot 2 – Rifleman Rifle Abilities III : This attack can cause a dizzy state on multiple targets. While Dizzy, the targets can not burst run and may fall over if they make a voluntary posture change. Damage 2.0X Time 2.3X Effect : AoE Dizzy attack

Flushing Shot 1 – Rifleman Counter-Sniping I : This attack can cause a Stun state on the target. While Stunned, the target has lower defenses and forfeits its next attack. Damage 2.0X Time 2.1X Effect : Stun + Posture Up

Flushing Shot 2 – Rifleman Counter-Sniping III : This attack can cause a Stun state on multiple targets. While Stunned, the target has lower defenses and forfeits its next attack.Damage 4.0X Time 2.6X Effect : AoE Stun + Posture Up

Head Shot 1 – Marksman Rifles I : Ranged attack that targets the Mind pool. Damage 1.5X Time 1.5X Effect : Mind pool targeting

Head Shot 2 – Marksman Rifles III : Ranged attack that targets the Mind pool. Damage 2.5X Time 1.75X Effect : Mind pool targeting

Head Shot 3 – Rifleman Sniping II : Ranged attack that targets the Mind pool. Damage 3.0X Time 2.0X Effect : Mind pool targeting

Mind Shot 1 – Marksman Rifles IV : Ranged attack that targets the Mind pool and causes a bleed. Damage 1.5X Time 1.8X Effect : Mind pool targeting + Bleed DoT

Mind Shot 2 – Rifleman Sniping I : Ranged attack that targets the Mind pool and causes a bleed. Damage 2.0X Time 2.0X Effect : Mind pool targeting + Bleed DoT

Sneak – Rifleman Concealment III : This ability allows the Rifleman to crawl while using TakeCover

Sniper Shot – Rifleman Sniping IV : Ranged Deathblow attack. Can only be performed in PvP vs an opponent that is incapped.** Caution - even while incapped, it is possible for the target to Dodge or Counter-Attack and negate this ** Damage 50pts Time ?? Effect : Ranged DB

Startle Shot 1 – Rifleman Counter-Sniping II : This attack can cause the target to raise its posture. Damage 2.0X Time 2.1X Effect : Posture Up

Startle Shot 2 – Rifleman Counter-Sniping IV : This attack can cause multiple targets to raise their posture. Damage 4.0X Time 2.6X Effect : AoE Posture Up

Strafe Shot 1 – Rifleman Novice : Attack that can clear a target from a covered (Take Cover) state. Damage 2.0X Time 2.0X Effect : Removes Cover (Take Cover)

Strafe Shot 2 – Rifleman Master : Attack that can clear multiple targets from a covered (Take Cover) state. Damage 5.0X Time 3.5X Effect : AoE + Removes Cover (Take Cover)
Surprise Shot – Rifleman Sniping III : Ranged surprise attack that can only be performed from cover (Take Cover). ** This special is currently broken. It can be performed without being in cover (Take Cover) **. Damage 3.0X Time 3.0X Effect : ?? Currently broken

Take Cover – Marksman Rifles II : Can only be done while prone.. Increases your ranged defense. You can not move while using this ability unless you have the Sneak ability. Effect : Increases Ranged Defense



What is an AoE attack?  AoE stand for area of effect. For ranged weapons the AoE goes out in a cone approximately 30 degrees in width. This is different than melee AoE attacks which are radius attacks. You will only cause damage to targets that are currently aggro'd on you. You will see hits to non-aggro'd targets in the combat spam, however they will take no damage until they gain aggro on you or a party member.

Know issue with AoE attacks. AoE ranged attacks can cause aggro even though there is no line of sight. This will cause targets on the other sides of walls and such to gain aggro on you if they are caught in the cone effect. This will draw MOBs on you in places such as caves and the Corvette.

    I Dizzied a target with FlurryShot1/2 and then used StartleShot/FlushingShot/SuprressionShot to change it's psoture, but it never falls down. Is something broken?

No. The Dizzy/KD or Dizzy/posture change 'flopping fish' effect you are trying to cause only works on voluntary posture changes. A target that is Dizzy only has a chance to fall down if IT tries to change it's posture. Not if a posture change is FORCED upon it. Also Dizzy has no effect on creatures, only on NPC's.