Blaster Rifle or Dual Blaster Pistols?

[bisurge]

I can't decide whether to give my player a Blaster Rifle or Dual Blaster Pistols.

It's going to be based around Force Speed and Rapid Fire for extra attacks. Dual Blaster Pistols would make more sense for this as this setup gives them 6 extra shots (2*2 for Force Speed and 1*2 for Rapid Fire). However, Blaster Rifle gives 3 more powerful attacks.

 

Basically, a single Blaster Pistol would do 2 attacks per attack action, a Blaster Rifle would do 3, and Dual Blaster Pistols would do 4. Respectively, with max Speed and Rapid Fire, it goes to 5(2+3)/6(3+3)/10(4+6). The bad side is that Dual Wield gives Blaster Pistols -0/-2, and obviously each Blaster Pistol (and thus each hit) does significantly less damage.

 

Aesthetically, I love the "soldier" look that a Blaster Rifle gives to the wielder.

 

Practically, I think Dual Blaster Pistols would be better. First, the Blaster Pistols would have to deal 3/5 of the damage each to deal the same amount of damage as a Blaster Rifle. Blaster Pistols however don't deal 3/5 of the damage; most Blaster Pistols I see deal 1d6 at the beginning, 1d8 later, 1d10 even later, and endgame even some that deal 1d12 or 2d6. Blaster Rifles, on the other hand, deal 1d6/1d8 at the beginning, 1d10 later, and 1d12 (with some other bonuses) endgame. Another major thing is that Blaster Pistols can have much more upgrades than Blaster Rifles. Furthermore, as early on as Telos it's obvious that Blaster Pistols expend shields much faster.

 

So should I go for aesthetics or practicality?

[Val-An Deming]

I'm really glad you asked this question, as I just came across this same dilemma, as of yesterday, with Atton (one of my main team members).

 

Dual Blaster Pistols would certainly be the stronger choice in the end, but the single Blaster is more aesthetically appealing and seems more sensible in a roleplay. I think of dual pistols as more of a Bounty Hunter type of thing, which certainly doesn't resonate with my one-time-Scoundrel-now-Jedi Atton.

 

I ran a small test between the two on Nar-Shaddaa, in having him test out both options with Master Speed and Master Rapid Shot, while also equipped with Level 4 Precise Shot.

 

The Pistols, on average, did 10-12 more damage than the rifle did. But there are a couple of problems involved: Neither of the two weapons were particularly upgraded well - the pistols maybe even to a lesser degree. Meanwhile, Atton is automatically equipped with Wep Specialization Pistol but did not have Wep Specialization Rifle, so I don't know how much of a difference that made either.

 

Ultimately, I think I'll base my own decision on how much stronger dual-wielding is in comparison. If the difference is minimal, I'll go with aesthetics. If it's huge, I feel more inclined to buck up and go with the dual-wielding.

 

So if anyone can post up, say, max/average damage with a strong Rifle vs max/average damage with equally upgraded/strong pistols, I would very much appreciate that.

[bisurge]

One thing is that the specialization only adds one point of damage (two at the second level).

The second thing is that Pistols have, once again, DOUBLE the upgrades. Therefore, when upgraded well, Pistols, which already outdamage the Blaster Rifle, should be able to wreak havoc damage-wise.

I think I'll be going Dual Blaster Pistol. Besides being better number-wise, I want to pretty much be a demolition man, meaning that dual pistols, which generally represent the "faster" style, would fit.

[Val-An Deming]

One thing is that the specialization only adds one point of damage (two at the second level).

The second thing is that Pistols have, once again, DOUBLE the upgrades. Therefore, when upgraded well, Pistols, which already outdamage the Blaster Rifle, should be able to wreak havoc damage-wise.

I've long been aware of that. What I'm not sure about is why you're declaring such as though it equates to "DOUBLE" the power.

 

Essentially, the "doubled" upgrades just mean that your off-hand weapon can be somewhat up to standards with the main-hand one, when not otherwise cripled by the penalty.

 

You're still looking at:

 

Blaster Rifle: 1 attack. 1 more with Rapid Shot. 2 more when using Master Speed. A total of 4 on average.

 

Dual Pistols: 2 attacks (1 from main and 1 offhand). 1 more attack per round from Rapid Shot. And 2 more under Master Speed. A total of 5 on average.

 

How did you factor 6 there? I'm guessing because you counted Rapid Shot as an additional attack with both guns? Powers and feats that grant additional attacks don't apply to both hands/weapons, and a weapon in the offhand is treated just like one extra attack. I've never seen the damage counter go higher than five when dual-wielding.

 

I don't know how you're getting the other numbers either. The first two Force Speed levels only offer +1 attack, not 1 per each. By Master Speed, you get a total of two. Meanwhile, Rapid Shot only offers you a total of one extra attack, the additional stages just lessen the penalty to your defense for using it. It is not an additional attack per stage, it just retains your initial one.

 

So, at the end of the day, Dual Pistols simply offer one extra good attack in comparison to a Blaster Rifle at 5-4. "Double" the upgrades with Dual Pistols don't change that.

 

And I'm not sure that one extra attack is really worth all the trouble:

- It'd be quite some time in the game before you can find enough upgrades to make both pistols as powerful

- Until you get all of those upgrades, the two-weapon tree is pretty meaningless, because an easily upgraded Blaster Rifle would be stronger in the mean time, especially with your feats otherwise going towards the Precise Shot and Rapid Shot trees.

- And since the two-weapon tree is meaningless until the pistols are strong, it might be so late in the game that the extra attack hardly seems all that worth it by then.

- There's still the penalty to factor in to the offhand, even with all three feats invested in two-weapong.

- The feats used for two-weapon can be put into other beneficial feats.

 

In fact, I think I've just came up with my own answer. Dual Wielding pistols don't seem a strong enough advantage over a Blaster Rifle to make me sacrifice my roleplay-appeal for.

Edited July 23, 2010 by Val-An Deming

[Nihilus5078]

Rifles are my prefrence. Specialization will grant +2 damage and improved will give +1 AM. The Zersium Rifle at it's maximum performance can easily be dealing 11-65 damage, and with specialization, that can change to 13-67.

[Orchomene]

Efficiently wise, I would say the most efficient is :

- dual blaster + master speed = 4 attacks

- Master sniper shot to x4 critical threat range.

- precise shot the highest possible.

- a high critical threat range weapon and of course, a disintegrator/disruptor (not a blaster) to bypass shields. Base damages are low, but with upgrades, it becomes high.

 

But I don't remember the critical threat ranges and multipliers of pistols and rifles, so may be you should find some weapon guide and decide based on this.

With the good feats and upgrades, you can quickly have a critical threat of more than 50%, meaning critic hits more than half of the time.

[bisurge]

Efficiently wise, I would say the most efficient is :

- dual blaster + master speed = 4 attacks

- Master sniper shot to x4 critical threat range.

- precise shot the highest possible.

- a high critical threat range weapon and of course, a disintegrator/disruptor (not a blaster) to bypass shields. Base damages are low, but with upgrades, it becomes high.

 

But I don't remember the critical threat ranges and multipliers of pistols and rifles, so may be you should find some weapon guide and decide based on this.

With the good feats and upgrades, you can quickly have a critical threat of more than 50%, meaning critic hits more than half of the time.

I'm not sure if they fixed it, but on my version Master Speed doesn't work with Sniper Shot.

[Orchomene]

I don't know, I've not tested recently.