Does Marksman count for guns as well?

[Slish]

Marksman talent says its for 'distant' enemies. How far must they be?

The blunderbuss for example has shorter range, will it help that one as well?

[Nobear]

I'd like to know this as well.

 

I'm pretty sure Marksman applies to any range attack, including guns and probably even implements (correct me if I'm wrong).

 

The range is important to me, as I'm considering taking Sure-Handed Ila on a chanter off tank. The chant range is pretty big, but I'm not quite sure if it's big enough to reach PCs standing far enough back to make use of Marksman and the Wood Elf racial. The other factor, of course, is that priest/druid buff/heal spells wouldn't reach everyone at once, but maybe they wouldn't need to because some would be more helpful to tanks and some to ranged. Decisions, argh!

[RtrnofdMax]

Based on this thread it includes all weapon attacks (but not spells) and requires you to be 4m from your target like Distant Advantage.

[Nobear]

Thanks for the info!

[NOS4A2]

Hmm does that disclude Minor Blights then? Or would it get he bonus since it's tech a weapon?

[Nobear]

I've read elsewhere that conjured weapons do benefit from weapon talents, so I don't see why Minor Blights wouldn't benefit from Marksman. On my wizard, I am planning Blast, Penetrating Blast, Marksman, Dangerous Implement and WF: Adventurer. Minor Blights and Blast synergize quite nicely BTW. So he will in the end do good DPS all the time with a wand, and super DPS with Minor Blights.

[Luckmann]

Marksman applies to anything ranged. I think it even used to apply to spells, but I think that was "fixed" at some point. The effective distance necessary is 4m, which is actually a very close range, making Marksman a really solid choice. I'd personally like to see the distance increased to 8m, or at least 6m, but that's just me.

And yeah, it should apply to Minor Blights and the like. If it doesn't, I'd report that as a bug.
 

I've read elsewhere that conjured weapons do benefit from weapon talents, so I don't see why Minor Blights wouldn't benefit from Marksman. On my wizard, I am planning Blast, Penetrating Blast, Marksman, Dangerous Implement and WF: Adventurer. Minor Blights and Blast synergize quite nicely BTW. So he will in the end do good DPS all the time with a wand, and super DPS with Minor Blights.

Minor Blights counts as Implements? That's... extremely interesting. I never had any interest in Minor Blights, but if they count as Implements, it's probably an extremely good spell for the kind of Blast-focused build you describe. And Blast-based Wizards were already pretty good.

Edited June 29, 2015 by Luckmann

[Fardragon]

If minor blights count as implements, does that mean Dangerous Implements works with them?

[Luckmann]

If minor blights count as implements, does that mean Dangerous Implements works with them?

 

It should.

[MadDemiurg]

Minor Blights are a wand for all intents and purposes, so everything that works with a wand works with Blights.

[Luckmann]

Minor Blights are a wand for all intents and purposes, so everything that works with a wand works with Blights.

 

Well that completely changes Blights as a spell for me. You'd think that'd be something mentioned in the spell description.

 

...it isn't, is it?

 

I wonder if there's any way for the game to do "and/or"-qualifiers, because optimally, they should count as any one Implement, not just one of them. Blights being specifically Wand means that the best Blast-Wizard is most definitely one with Weapon Focus: Adventurer, no contest.

 

Also reaffirms my belief that we need more and more different Weapon Foci, including Weapon Focus: Mystic, which would cover all of the implements at once.

[Fardragon]

Judging by Soulbound Weapons, it is possible to set something to benefit from any kind of weapon focus. Personally, I think that would be a good idea for any kind of summoned weapon.

[wanderon]

 

 

 

 

Also reaffirms my belief that we need more and more different Weapon Foci, including Weapon Focus: Mystic, which would cover all of the implements at once.

 

 

How about a U-pick foci where the player gets to pick which weapons belong to it?  Maybe keep the number lower than the pre-built ones - like a choice of 3? 

[Luckmann]

 

 

 

 

Also reaffirms my belief that we need more and more different Weapon Foci, including Weapon Focus: Mystic, which would cover all of the implements at once.

 

 

How about a U-pick foci where the player gets to pick which weapons belong to it?  Maybe keep the number lower than the pre-built ones - like a choice of 3? 

 

 

I actually like the idea of thematic weapon focus groups and that free picks would lead to cherry-picking, I'd just like to see more options.

[MadDemiurg]

It's not in the spell description, but it's visible if you right click on the conjured weapon to see its properties. It's pretty much the same with all other conjured weapons, although some are easier to guess from the name. Rot skulls are also a wand btw.

 

I agree that it would make sense for conjured weapons to benefit from any weapon focus. I also agree that current weapon foci seem a bit random atm.

[Nobear]

The weapon foci are meant to be a tough choice bound by RP theme, rather than by what you might consider optimal to bundle gameplay-wise. They were chosen to make RP sense, e.g. noblemen would stereotypically be seen more often with the Noble weapons, and the Peasant weapons would probably be easier to afford in their basic form, or even improvised. They also seem to be designed to have at least "one of each" type of weapon, i.e. at least one type of 1H melee, 2H melee, and ranged weapon. This makes choosing a focus hard when there is not an obvious reason to prefer one type (as there is for a Minor Blights wizard). I believe all this was intended, from a design perspective.

[Luckmann]

It's not in the spell description, but it's visible if you right click on the conjured weapon to see its properties. It's pretty much the same with all other conjured weapons, although some are easier to guess from the name. Rot skulls are also a wand btw.

 

I agree that it would make sense for conjured weapons to benefit from any weapon focus. I also agree that current weapon foci seem a bit random atm.

 

The problem with the weapon foci right now is that they're not actually random at all, they're incredibly deliberate in how they work, to give you a selection of weapons that in no way can hurt you; a ranged weapon, a blunt weapon, a piercing weapon, and a slashing weapon, more or less. And I'm sure that's balanced and everything, but it's also boring as all hell and feels forced and uninteresting.

 

If they're presenting the foci from a thematic perspective, then they should've focused on the thematicism of them, and assume that if someone takes Knight, it's because they're playing a Knight, and so on and so forth. But this hasn't really been taken to heart. Look at Edér. Does the peasant veteran get Weapon Focus: Soldier? No. So, does he get Weapon Focus: Peasant? Of course not.

 

He gets Weapon Focus: Ruffian.

 

Liek wat.

[Sabotin]

The idea was that with this kind of distribution you would not be locked into a single weapon and would have some flexibility to adapt when facing different enemies. But the differences in enemies ended up not being pronounced enough to warrant a weapon switch more than once in a blue moon. Even on PoTD you can just brute force most encounters or compensate in other ways than weapon switching, though it was fun the first few levels when it actually did make a noticeable difference. Maybe that's intentional since as you level up you gain other active stuff to do instead.

[Luckmann]

The idea was that with this kind of distribution you would not be locked into a single weapon and would have some flexibility to adapt when facing different enemies. But the differences in enemies ended up not being pronounced enough to warrant a weapon switch more than once in a blue moon. Even on PoTD you can just brute force most encounters or compensate in other ways than weapon switching, though it was fun the first few levels when it actually did make a noticeable difference. Maybe that's intentional since as you level up you gain other active stuff to do instead.

I know the idea behind it, I just think that it's a mistake, even if the enemies were more thematically/mechanically pronounced (which I really, really, really want them to be).