Initial range alpha strike, anyone else do this?

[stilletobravo]

Now while melee battles can go one way or another, I can confidently say that initially just about all my fights that involve regular monsters, as in those you don't have to talk to goes something like this...

 

1- Locate monsters with scout

2- Line up party members just outside monster eye sight, yet still within your sight and importantly in range of your weapons

3- Have every member switch to ranged weapon, like the arbalest until the patch comes out

4- Make sure all party members complete the reloading animation, which is pretty cool looking even after 5,285 times, and can easily be forgotten after using up your shot

5- With the game on pause concentrate all fire on a soon to be destroyed monster by ordering each member to shoot

6- Unpause, watch the bad guy blow up, laugh with glee and rush in with swords

 

Now the only changes to this winning formula is with some ranged AoE spells, some traps, or other little odds and ends to soften up the enemy before cleaning up house.

 

After all I can only camp so many times and that inn with the mechanic bonus is just too damn far away. 

 

Also, just to add, even without all arbalests, bows work also but I prefer guns. It means waiting for the villains to get a little closer due to range, but hey, guns also have a cool loading animation too.

 

So there you have it fellow adventurers, use the initiative to the fullest and never get caught with your pants down ever again!

[Parsong]

Yes, but I put a few chill fog's in between us and the targets. Firing squad of doom. 

[Rawrsong]

While many people still resent the inclusion of firearms in PoE, I've grown to embrace the opening salvo method. Though it is somewhat saddening that in terms of pure mathmatical DPS, firearms outclass bows in pretty much all cases except for overkilling a target.

[Schakar]

Had to use something like this to kill the named Bounty champs . But I didn't use weapons with reload animation as you need to stand still for the reload. Bows, Wands, Rods worked much better. Alpha -> run -> next Alpha -> run ...

Edited April 3, 2015 by Schakar

[EmilAmundsen]

I find it better to scout in party formation and do a salvo while hidden - saves time.

Also, you can pre-load your weapons so you don't have to wait for them to load when in position.

Thirdly, using Amatua or giving them the armed talent, you can switch to your next pre-loaded gun and run away while the action timer ticks, and repeat for another glee-full moment before closing in.

I imagine a party of 6 Amatua with the armed talent for the third alpha-volly must be very fun (although hell to load all those guns after every battle - 18 switch character and switch weapon clicks every time..).

[Gallenger]

I didn't use exclusively firearms when I ran through the game, there are some pretty nice crossbows, and I didn't mind one person using a traditional bow (sagani) - but I did have just about the whole party using ranged weapons (sometimes even my main tank) at the start of encounters - because it was a handy method of laying down the boom on one mob prior to really starting the fight - it's a particularly helpful tactic for ciphers because the early ranged damage can give you a pretty nice buff to your focus pool.