Arquebuse vs Blunderbusse vs Pistol

[Zarkhes]

What do you think its the best firearm?And for what class?

I use blunderbuse for my cipher, and arquebuse for any other ranged.I used pistol, and i didnt find it anymore less accurate then arquebuse.

[Ichthyic]

supposedly, the idea is to use the blunderbus for low armor targets, and the arquebus for high armor targets.

I found the pistol to shoot noticeably faster than the arquebus, so I used it on characters I actually wanted to have keep shooting during a fight.  used the arquebus on characters I expected would only take one or two shots in any given fight, like my priest.

 

[Ichthyic]

I decided to experiment with the blunderbus vs pistol myself.

yeah, blunderbus fires 6 shots, but each does a little over a quarter of the damage a pistol shot does.

what's that mean?

it means, if you use it against something with 10 dr, and you aren't very mighty yourself, you could end up doing zero damage as none of the shots will penetrate the armor of your opponent.

otoh, against something with dr 5 or below, you will do considerably more damage with the blunderbus than a pistol... provided all the shots hit (they usually do from my experience).

also, I was levelling up, and wondered... what about penetrating shot?  yup, basically penetrating shot removes the average dr from most enemies, and makes the blunderbus superior by far.

also, i saw.. envenomed weapon.  huh.  3 uses per rest, raw damage over time.  nothing in the description about it being per shot or per attack.

decided to try it...

whoa.

it's per projectile in the case of the blunderbus... which means you STACK all that raw poison damage... SIX TIMES.

first attempt:

5/6 hits with envenom.
result:

target is now taking 12.2 raw damage... per second... for 15 seconds.

how many targets you recall have 150hps or more?

it's a death sentence!

so, if you take your blunderbus, give it some enchants (like fine and corrosive damage; I'd make it a slayer of kith too)
take the skills:

penetrating shot
and
envenomed weapon

you will be a death dealer supreme against anything with DR 10 or under, which is like 90% of the opponents in the game.

also, even against high dr opponents, you will still be doing the raw damage from the poison.

my guess?  as soon as this gets figured out by the devs, they will nerf it to be envenomation on single "attack" only, and make it so the poison does not stack per projectile.

also to test:

does poison from the same skill, but a different user, ALSO stack on the same target?

so now... 2 characters with blunderbuses and envenomed weapon...

 

[Ichthyic]

I experimented a bit myself.

anything with 10dr or over you should be using a pistol instead of blunderbus.

it does too little damage per shot if your opponent is heavily armored.

against 5dr and under, it's a beast.

think:  shotgun vs rifle.  same deal.

also, since it has multiple projectiles, I wondered if something like envenomed strike would trigger on each projectile...

yup.

first attempt:

envenom hits 5/6 times.

target is taking....

12.2 raw damage PER SECOND, for 15 seconds.  ouchie.

IIRC, raw damage entirely bypasses armor, so take that talent if you want your blunderbus to be useful pretty much against 90% of the opponents you will face.

might also try penetrating shot, and fast reload.

though really, for my money, it looks like blunderbus + envenomed strike is a great combo.  I'm guessing that probably will get nerfed such that poison effects will not be stackable from a single source in the next patch.



 

[Zarkhes]

I dont know about penetrating shot.Firearms are slow as they are.

But envenom seems realy great, gotta try it out

WAIT!!!

Does cipher get focus from envenom strike? O.o
Its basicly his range dmg...that would be awesome, gotta try it out

Edited April 4, 2015 by Zarkhes

[Ichthyic]

...confirmed by testing that yes indeed, poison bypasses armor.

it goes up against fortitude instead of deflection as well, and that determines whether you get a grazing shot or a crit, etc.

tested against my paladin, who has 21dr against piercing.

4/6 hits, and the only damage was from 2 crits for 2 damage.

but the poison...

4 grazes... grazes mind, because the paly has very high fortitude saves, even so.... did 55 damage total.

so yeah, poison bypasses dr.

so I myself would prefer it for the blunderbuss over penetrating shot.