weapon question

[_____________Praetorxx]

i am still a lowbie MP at the moment. but from reading various posts on weapons, i got one last question.

-----from what i have read, we basically have 2 choices (shottie and rifle)

shottie being vektor?
rifle being x-3

i know many players prefer shottie because of PvP and players not maxing their ducking skill hencing the higher damage/criticals

However, what is shottie like in PvM case? How does shottie compared to rifle in PvM?

[Xtremtech]

Hey,

You might want to check out this recent post in the How to Choose A Weapon Guide for the MP rooted thread.

X

[Alpherah]

[Edit] x beat me to it

[Metalynx]

Hate to say it but im having a breif foray into the realms of a MP, and allthough that guide is very ...long and verbose...it still doent really give me any information.

If I may Sum up the guide in a few short sentances:

"There are many Differnt ways to use weapons on a MP"

"Each way has its benifits and disadvantages"

"A MA Mp is pretty good" :P


(SOrry this actually isnt trying to be snyde or me being a smart ass...it does ahve some great info in it. But im not a number cruncher myself. Im workin my way up right now, but a simple question I woudl like answered..withouth being pointed towards those 2 links again, is....)

If im not Ub35 level 150+, (meaning im level 10) IS ther any weapons wypes that are BAD to use. Im asking this becasue I wish to make my own desision..but I dont wish to pick somethin that 20 levels from now will shaft me. Im not talking about if its usefull at level 150+, my question is iif anyhting is a bad choice to start learning.

(note: I wont have crit scopes....I wopnt have a TIM scope at level 15....my ultimate goal here is to use something as a resaonale backup that I can defend myself when my meatballs are humping each other. Oh yeah...and not look like every other x-3 using freak out there :P)

(My Apologies to the MP community. I dont wish to Poison your world I promise to be a nice guy in here and only ask constructive things. I have read that guide...several times, and im not a compleate moron, but I still didnt see any usefull infor for a lowbie who doesnt want to waste IP's )

[_________Demonsguile]

It is very hard (read: impossible) to keep any gun skill at a decent skill lvl while maintaining the ability to cast decent lvl pets.

If you're below lvl 100, I'd suggest you concentrate all of your IP towards busting out blood red pets.

The pets are by far the best form of dmg that a MP can put out, pre-lvl 140'ish. Otherwise you're gonna end up with "fair-to-middling" weapons skills and yellow'ish pets. Not to mention dying alot from the aggro your pet won't keep, if its not blood red.

[Xtremtech]

Yup,

The guide does say right at the very beginning that at low levels the best option is not to go for a damage weapon at all because most of your damage will come from your pets and MPs can't spare the IP for weapons skills. It goes on to say that most MPs would go for the creation weapons at low levels if they were going to choose one, since they allow you to nuke more and give you a little defence in the shields. It really couldn't be much more clear.

The creation weapons can usually be wielded easily enough using an implant or two and maybe an easily available buff. You'll have to spend very little IP indeed in order to wield them and would thus waste very little IP.

The section on Low Level MPs also states clearly that if you want to go for a real damage dealing weapon, most MPs prefer a ranged weapon in preference.

That's really all you need to know right now.

I'd be glad if you'd read back that portion of the guide though (it's at the very beginning of part 2) and give me some feedback on how I could have made it more clear. I'd thought that by writing in the low level section (level 1 to ~85):

Low Level: This phase ranges from level 1 to ~85. In this phase the MP is usually focussed on Attack Pets and Nukes as their damage dealers. The heal pet will largely be stuck to the attack pet when soloing and to the tank when in teams. In this range of levels the MP has usually spent the most IP on their nanoskills and their stats with some points having gone to defensive skills like body dev, evades and first aid.

In this range most MPs should not be using weapons for damage. The pets are the key playing elements during this period. Many players find that using the Creation Weapons is useful during this period: the increases to NanoPool and nano-cost reduction are often useful for nuking and the HP, AC and DMS benefits of some of the shields are valuable as they don't take up NCU which most MPs will be filling with nanoskills buffs in order to reach their best pets and pet buffs. The damage that the Creation Weapons do is a secondary factor at best compared to other weapons and MPs will generally choose to stay at range if possible during the low level phase, because their defensive skills are likely to be weak. Creation Weapons/shields are melee weapons and will only work at close quarters. As a result, they are rarely used in anger, being wielded more for their Nano/defensive benefits rather than to actually do damage. A few MPs use weapons from the very beginning and to good effect... in general though MPs move to weapons much later.

I'd pretty much said the above... let me know if you can think of ways to improve that section.

X

[_________Demonsguile]

Originally posted by XtremTech
I'd pretty much said the above... let me know if you can think of ways to improve that section.

X

Add some nude pics of Bea Arthur for Deac...

[Xtremtech]

Bea Arthur... wasn't she in Golden Girls... Maude....?

Eeeeeuuuuuwwww!

X

[Cotharin]

Vektor vs X3

Back to the original question on which is better. Both have advantages and disadvantages:

Vektor Dis -

Slow
Not huge damage (although could be worse)

Vektor Adv -

Only shotgun skill req
Large crits
PvP evades are usually lower (as stated)

X3 Dis -

Rifle/AS reqs (more IP we dont have)

X3 Adv

Crazy crits


However a few things to keep in mind here. I went the vektor route from level 65-120 or so. Personally I really liked the weapon as it did pretty decent damage. However without a scope (just got TIM's two days ago at level 132) you crit so rarely in PvM that you don't see the crit value much.

X3 does less average damage than the Vektor and requires 2 skills. The crits are amazing though, so if you get them often they make a very large difference (all my agent guild mates out damage me 5 to 1 if we went head to head gunning it). However the big key to a rifle and getting those 10k crits with your ql200 X3 is conceal. Most people over look that they simply can't get enough conceal to ever get a aimed shot off on a mob. One agent I team with all the time has around 1700 conceal right now, and he still gets spotted quite regularily.

Either way, like said before the choice is your own. Also with the wonderful invention of IPR, you can now always go and change later if you get bored or are unhappy with your choice.

[Archerror]

Once again, the verbose in our profession win the day.

I think your best choice for a lowbie MP is a shotty. Keep one on even a little below your level or wrangle into a higher one, but only put spare IP into it. Only raise Shotgun skill. More shottys that only use 1 req can be found. Stick with those. So the vektor is your best bet, if you NEED a weap.

I use a (QL200 - AR 830) x-3 but only started that nonsense at 120 and now at 161, I am thinking of dumping into shotty again.

But seriously try being a nuking MP with a pet for awhile. Can be very cool and saves 13.9 billion IP in the process.

Thats all.

[zophee]

At starting levels you can easily equip with outside help any weapons you may get. For lower levels I found nuking and pets most effective. Since I'm nanobreed I found during lower levels the creation shield helpful since it gave a good bonus to max HP. So I started using the creationa a long while. Between 50 and 100 I actually had no IP left to up any weapon skills due to cost.
After 110 I started using a bow but If you going for max damage you may prefer to follow the flavour of the week. I'm using bow since I didn't want to be a 'physical weapon' user. Bow is the weapon I can tolerate most on my _Meta_physician