Best ranged weapon for PotD post 1.03?

[Cryptomancer]

Well now that the Arbalest has been rightly nerfed (as much as I loved it, it was clearly OP). What's the overall best ranged weapon for a high difficulty or PotD game?

[Ichthyic]

I was planning on trying out a blunderbus, and using the envenomed strike talent.

experiments in my current game prove than the poison damage stacks per projectile.

...and stacks with each additional attack.

so you can end up stacking some massive raw damage on targets.

but I'm weary of working around the myriad of irritating bugs, so I don't plan on even finishing the game until a few more patches come out, let alone doing  POTD run.

will check back in a month or so; see if things have stabilized a bit.  as it is, constantly having to check and see if stats or spells or damage reduction got stacked, or bonuses removed, or inventory lost when I swap characters out of the keep has taken the enjoyment of moing forward away.

but yeah, give a poison blunderbus a shot.  unless they nerf it, you'll do well with that.

 

[Odd Hermit]

Still Arbalest. No accuracy penalty, prones on crits, still high enough damage to punch through high DRs.

 

Or for some classes Blunderbuss has worthwhile applications. I like it for debuff special attacks, since you get multiple rolls to hit, and if you hit with one you get the effect up.

[Cryptomancer]

Still Arbalest. No accuracy penalty, prones on crits, still high enough damage to punch through high DRs.

Hmm, the reload time is a killer though, especially with the nerf to the Chanter reload phrase. Do Gunner and the Chanter phrase stack?

[Lasci]

Using the blunderbuss + pistol is pretty great because you can take weapon focus ruffian and have the flexibility of going between pistol for high DR targets and blunderbuss for squishier ones.

 

Most of the ranged weapons are pretty balanced now. It usually depends what you're looking to do.

[sterrius]

Every weapon is kind of balanced now.  Depends what you want and the class. 

Durance for instance gets +10 accuracy with arquebus. Kind of suicide not going arquebus with him. 

My ranger use arbalest. 

Sagani i went arbalest but you can stay with the hunting bow as long you get the DT penetration talent and save yourself wasting 1 talent. 

 

I think i would avoid only crossbows.   Too slow to keep up with the bows and too little dmg to keep up with guns and arbalests. 


 

[ErlKing]

Arqebus - Damage 24-36, Extremely slow.

Pistol - Damage 25-35, Very slow.

Same DR penetration, same Accuracy penalty.

 

I dont get it, why Arqebus does not have bigger damage than pistol?

Edited April 7, 2015 by ErlKing

[Odd Hermit]

Arqebus - Damage 24-36, Extremely slow.

Pistol - Damage 25-35, Very slow.

Same DR penetration, same Accuracy penalty.

 

I dont get it, why Arqebus does not have bigger damage than pistol?

 

Arquebus does have 2m more range. Not arguing that's enough, but for characters who shoot only once per-fight in the opener that does make it slightly better.

 

Arbalest has 12m and no accuracy penalty and can prone on crit though, so I still choose it despite its lower damage. (22-32 vs. Arq's 24-36)

[Zarkhes]

My ranged dps all got Arqebus with solider (Priest got margan talent) tallent.Accuracy and damage is pretty good, i dont see reason why i should swap it for Arbalest.

Is prone realy better then DR reduction?

[b0rsuk]

Knocking a target down with Arbalest gives you a few seconds to reload the weapon in peace, while other party members get bonuses for attacking the prone target.

[ErlKing]

My bad, for some reason I was comparing Fine pistol and regular arqebus, arqebus base damage is higher.

 

Damn, that thing confusing, base damage is not real base, but base * damage modifier (damaging, fine, exceptional... ).

Edited April 7, 2015 by ErlKing

[ErlKing]

Yeah, like

 

 

Damn, now I imagine that each time Aloth casting fireball.

Edited April 7, 2015 by ErlKing

[cdd]

Do Gunner and the Chanter phrase stack?

 

Wondering about that myself, does anyone know?

[Exoduss]

 

Do Gunner and the Chanter phrase stack?

 

Wondering about that myself, does anyone know?

 

Would be retarded if they didnt tbh ... 

[cdd]

Would be retarded if they didnt tbh ... 

Well a lot of buffs and stat modifiers in this game sadly don't stack... i also hope that Gunner and the Chanter aura stack, but at this point i wouldn't be surprised if they didn't

Edited April 8, 2015 by cdd

[PIP-Clownboy]

The wand with Marking and Jolting Touch

[Zarkhes]

Ok, so i tried playing (like hour and half) with arbalest and i dont see any diference.i didnt get any prone, but i didnt noticed any less dmg.-BUT!-

What if there is a wizard.Its better to let him go with scepter and talents like blast and pene. blast?Along with weapon focus.

What if priest go Magran with inspired flame?+10 acc. is pretty big deal i think.

[Eos]

As far as damage is concerned, the most lethal weapon should be the Dulcanale Pistol that you can buy in the savage town's shop in Hearthsong. It has the Rend mod (+3 DR) AND the Crit mod (+0.5 Crit multiplier), putting it ahead of the best arbaleste Hold-Wall (which only has 1.2 reload timer in terms of offensive mods). In terms of utility I would still go with Hold-Wall because prone is such a good status effect and if you stack crit chance (i.e. +accuracy talents, +accuracy items, wood elf passive, rogue talents) you can basically perma disable one target with your rogue alone as well as allowing said rogue to almost always have sneak attack or double sneak attack.

 

So in practice, for raw damage: Dulcanale Pistol from the shop in Hearthsong, for damage + utility: Hold-Wall.

 

In general it should still be: Arbaleste, Pistol/Arquebues, Bow, each approriately enchanted and with the right talents. Blunderbluss is complete garbage damage-wise because you need to punch through the target's damage reduction multiple times, making it horribly on everything but naked targets. Only real application is with some sort of wonky game mechanic like the cipher's focus generation which triggers off all of the individual bullets, or applying some other effect which treats every bullet as a seperate attack.

[cdd]

As far as damage is concerned, the most lethal weapon should be the Dulcanale Pistol that you can buy in the savage town's shop in Hearthsong. It has the Rend mod (+3 DR) AND the Crit mod (+0.5 Crit multiplier), putting it ahead of the best arbaleste Hold-Wall (which only has 1.2 reload timer in terms of offensive mods). In terms of utility I would still go with Hold-Wall because prone is such a good status effect and if you stack crit chance (i.e. +accuracy talents, +accuracy items, wood elf passive, rogue talents) you can basically perma disable one target with your rogue alone as well as allowing said rogue to almost always have sneak attack or double sneak attack.

 

So in practice, for raw damage: Dulcanale Pistol from the shop in Hearthsong, for damage + utility: Hold-Wall.

 

In general it should still be: Arbaleste, Pistol/Arquebues, Bow, each approriately enchanted and with the right talents. Blunderbluss is complete garbage damage-wise because you need to punch through the target's damage reduction multiple times, making it horribly on everything but naked targets. Only real application is with some sort of wonky game mechanic like the cipher's focus generation which triggers off all of the individual bullets, or applying some other effect which treats every bullet as a seperate attack.

Dulcanale is the best pistol in the game, but why would you compare it to an Arbaleste when Arbalestes are mediocre at best since the damage nerf? Also, Hold-Wall isn't even the best Arbaleste in the game...

 

The real contenders for Dulcanale in terms of best ranged weapons are Pliambo per Casitàs and Lead Spitter. Which of these guns is best for you depends on your class, stats, talents etc. - but it will but one of those three. The most damage potential per shot is probably Lead Spitter with Penetrating Shot (-12DR per projectile...)

 

Back to my former question: does anyone know whether Gunner and the Ila chant stack?

Edited April 8, 2015 by cdd

[Eos]

 

As far as damage is concerned, the most lethal weapon should be the Dulcanale Pistol that you can buy in the savage town's shop in Hearthsong. It has the Rend mod (+3 DR) AND the Crit mod (+0.5 Crit multiplier), putting it ahead of the best arbaleste Hold-Wall (which only has 1.2 reload timer in terms of offensive mods). In terms of utility I would still go with Hold-Wall because prone is such a good status effect and if you stack crit chance (i.e. +accuracy talents, +accuracy items, wood elf passive, rogue talents) you can basically perma disable one target with your rogue alone as well as allowing said rogue to almost always have sneak attack or double sneak attack.

 

So in practice, for raw damage: Dulcanale Pistol from the shop in Hearthsong, for damage + utility: Hold-Wall.

 

In general it should still be: Arbaleste, Pistol/Arquebues, Bow, each approriately enchanted and with the right talents. Blunderbluss is complete garbage damage-wise because you need to punch through the target's damage reduction multiple times, making it horribly on everything but naked targets. Only real application is with some sort of wonky game mechanic like the cipher's focus generation which triggers off all of the individual bullets, or applying some other effect which treats every bullet as a seperate attack.

Dulcanale is the best pistol in the game, but why would you compare it to an Arbaleste when Arbalestes are mediocre at best since the damage nerf? Also, Hold-Wall isn't even the best Arbaleste in the game...

 

The real contenders for Dulcanale in terms of best ranged weapons are Pliambo per Casitàs and Lead Spitter. Which of these guns is best for you depends on your class, stats, talents etc. - but it will but one of those three. The most damage potential per shot is probably Lead Spitter with Penetrating Shot (-12DR per projectile...)

 

Back to my former question: does anyone know whether Gunner and the Ila chant stack?

 

 

Not sure if arbalestes are really only mediocre now. They still seem to be on par with pistols (slower rate of fire but higher damage, resulting in bigger burst damage while dealing the same DPS.. and burst is good to take out critical targets). Which arbaleste is better than Hold-Wall? Haven't found any that can keep up with the 1.2 speed mod, and I visited every area except the area with the vendor of the douche family of Defiance Bay (Dunamel or something like that..).

 

Lead Splitter is a bunderbluss, right? So it's horrible imo. What it basically says is: Mod: The enemie's DR is multiplied by 6. Even if you take somethign like Penetrating Shot (which effect is also multiplied by 6), it's still horrible. Later on in the game, enemies have much more than just 12 DR, and every single point of DR above 12 is felt tenfold when using a blunderbluss. For the captain's weapon.. yeah, dunno. I guess it comes down to Prone vs. 5 more damage. Not more than that.

 

But please correct me if I'm wrong :D (and tell me where to find an arbaleste that's better than Hold-Wall )

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

I was planning on trying out a blunderbus, and using the envenomed strike talent.

 

experiments in my current game prove than the poison damage stacks per projectile.

 

...and stacks with each additional attack.

 

so you can end up stacking some massive raw damage on targets.

 

but I'm weary of working around the myriad of irritating bugs, so I don't plan on even finishing the game until a few more patches come out, let alone doing POTD run.

 

will check back in a month or so; see if things have stabilized a bit. as it is, constantly having to check and see if stats or spells or damage reduction got stacked, or bonuses removed, or inventory lost when I swap characters out of the keep has taken the enjoyment of moing forward away.

 

but yeah, give a poison blunderbus a shot. unless they nerf it, you'll do well with that.

 

 

I really doubt this unless you've actually tested and seen enemies actually dying faster -- this was something we looked at in beta and it didn't work then, so working now would be a new bug. Just because the combat log showsnthe dots hitting isn't conclusive, the stacking rules should be wiping all but one dot right after they hit.

 

When you hit an enemy then mouse over it, does it show one dot on the target ticking down, or six?

Edited April 8, 2015 by Dr. Hieronymous Alloy

[cdd]

Not sure if arbalestes are really only mediocre now. They still seem to be on par with pistols (slower rate of fire but higher damage, resulting in bigger burst damage while dealing the same DPS.. and burst is good to take out critical targets). Which arbaleste is better than Hold-Wall? Haven't found any that can keep up with the 1.2 speed mod, and I visited every area except the area with the vendor of the douche family of Defiance Bay (Dunamel or something like that..).

 

Lead Splitter is a bunderbluss, right? So it's horrible imo. What it basically says is: Mod: The enemie's DR is multiplied by 6. Even if you take somethign like Penetrating Shot (which effect is also multiplied by 6), it's still horrible. Later on in the game, enemies have much more than just 12 DR, and every single point of DR above 12 is felt tenfold when using a blunderbluss. For the captain's weapon.. yeah, dunno. I guess it comes down to Prone vs. 5 more damage. Not more than that.

 

But please correct me if I'm wrong :D (and tell me where to find an arbaleste that's better than Hold-Wall )

 

Aedrin's Wrecker is better, don't know how to get it though, sorry. Also, Pliambo per Casitàs does way more than just 5 damage more than Hold Wall, plus it has 5 DR reduce It is way beyond Hold Wall in terms of raw damage potential.

Lead Spitter with Penetrating Shot should be the highest average damage per shot up until ~15 DR targets, second and third will be Pliambo per Casitàs and Dulcanale (the latter obvously has higher potential crit damage because of the Destructive modifier)

Edited April 8, 2015 by cdd

[Eos]

 

Not sure if arbalestes are really only mediocre now. They still seem to be on par with pistols (slower rate of fire but higher damage, resulting in bigger burst damage while dealing the same DPS.. and burst is good to take out critical targets). Which arbaleste is better than Hold-Wall? Haven't found any that can keep up with the 1.2 speed mod, and I visited every area except the area with the vendor of the douche family of Defiance Bay (Dunamel or something like that..).

 

Lead Splitter is a bunderbluss, right? So it's horrible imo. What it basically says is: Mod: The enemie's DR is multiplied by 6. Even if you take somethign like Penetrating Shot (which effect is also multiplied by 6), it's still horrible. Later on in the game, enemies have much more than just 12 DR, and every single point of DR above 12 is felt tenfold when using a blunderbluss. For the captain's weapon.. yeah, dunno. I guess it comes down to Prone vs. 5 more damage. Not more than that.

 

But please correct me if I'm wrong :D (and tell me where to find an arbaleste that's better than Hold-Wall )

 

Aedrin's Wrecker is better, don't know how to get it though, sorry. Also, Pliambo per Casitàs does way more than just 5 damage more than Hold Wall, plus it has 5 DR reduce It is way beyond Hold Wall in terms of raw damage potential.

Lead Spitter with Penetrating Shot should be the highest average damage per shot up until ~15 DR targets, second and third will be Pliambo per Casitàs and Dulcanale (the latter obvously has higher potential crit damage because of the Destructive modifier)

 

 

Mh. But where to get Aedrin's Wrecker? Finished the whole game without seeing it.

 

Pliambo per Casitàs does 35-52 base damage, Hold-Wall does 29-42. On average that is 43 damage for the rifle, 36 for the arbaleste. So yeah, the rifle does 7 more damage per attack, but also has very slow attack speed instead of slow. Though I don't know what the exact difference between the two ist. Now the gun also has built-in DR bypassing of 6, but also -5 accuracy (which means less crits, less hits, less grazes, more misses). The impact of -5 accuracy on damage is rather hard to gauge, and the +6 flat damage isn't as much as one might think because the attack speed is so low.. what makes Hold Wall still good is the x1.2 attack speed. The rifle comes with +10 accuracy for an ally, which can be great if it works on another ranged DD, but which can also completely go to waste if noone else attacks the target or only your supporters/tanks.

 

Taking all of that into consideration and just by looking at the numbers in combat (though a rather unprecise way of measuring) the rifle does more per-hit damage, but less frequent. Less frequent than it should to justify the increase in damage.

 

So long story short: pretty sure Hold-Wall is still up there :D

 

But where do your numbers on Lead Splitter come from? As far as I can tell, almost all the targets in the later portions of the game (all the difficult ones anyway) have high DR, making any Blunderbluss rather ineffective, no?

 

Aaaanyways.. to the OP: just take any sort of named Pistol, Arbaleste or Arbeques and stack all the talents and damage items you can. And you're good to go. Most likely you'll have more than one dedicated ranged attacker anyway, forcing you to spread out

[Larsenex]

I am using a Blunderbus for my Cypher and was going to switch to a Arqe for my Ranged Rogue, however with the information regarding Hold Wall,  I am going to save up for it and get it for my Ranged Rogue. 

[billythegreat]

Aedrin's Wrecker is on level 10 Endless Path dungeon, eastern corner of the map in a hidden corpse ( stealth needed to spot it ), near the location where you find the adra key.