Marksman Fundamentals

[Aedales]

This guide was created by bailey at SWGEmu

MARKSMAN FUNDAMENTALS

MAXIMILIUS – MARKSMAN REPRESENTATIVE – SWGEMU

Edited:
2/05/08 - 12:44GMT: Added Prof Structure Images, layout


INTRODUCTION
Hello, I’m Maximilius, or Max. I’m your Marksman Representative for SWGemu, and will be coordinating the testing, development and community of all Marksmen and Marksman related tasks. This guide is designed to cover the fundamentals of Marksman from start to finish, and I will be writing parts of this guide from scratch, rewriting previously written segments and directly citing other people’s work. I will also include images either lifted from the web, made from scratch or screen shots taken from the EMU or Live.
The guide assumes basic combat proficiency, and familiarity with the User Interface and general game system.
Please feel free comment on and pick out errors in this guide. Thank you for reading and I am proud to serve you in your Star Wars journey.

SECTON 1: TRAINERS
Many Characters will choose Marksman as their starting profession whilst choosing their character, however if you wish to become a Marksman after starting your SWG journey, you will need to find a trainer! Trainers can be found in many key cities and locations, and are normally easy to find, plainly dressed NPCs with the title “a Marksman Trainer”. Pretty straight forward. Here is a list of locations for Marksman Trainers and the co-ordinates.
• Tatooine, Mos Espa, (-3028, 2420]
• Tatooine, Mos Espa, (-2931, 2121)
• Corellia, Kor Vella, (-3410, 3397)
• Corellia, Coronet, (-273, -4390]
• Corellia, Coronet, (-35, -4372)
• Corellia, Coronet, (-165, -4746)
• Corellia, Doaba Guerfel, (3338, 5516)
• Naboo, Moenia, (4722, -4997)
• Naboo, Moenia, (4794, -4730]
• Naboo, Theed, (-5982, 4254)
• Naboo, Theed, (-5456, 4088)
• Talus, Dearic, (540, -2885)
• Talus, Dearic, (586, -2873)
• Talus, Nashal, (4366, 5294)
• Talus, Nashal, (4285, 5384)
• Rori, Restuss, (5528, 5641)
• Rori, Restuss, (5446, 5815)

SECTION 2: PROFESSION OVERVIEW
Marksman, which is a very unique Starting profession, is broken up into 4 trees, just like all the others. However, the difference is in the fact that the last Tree, Ranged Weapon Support, is a general tree that can benefit all other trees. Many people choose to complete both Ranged Support and a specialty tree.
Here is an overview of the Marksman Profession Structure.
IMAGE NOT AVAILABLE

[Aedales]

SECTON 3: STARTING OUT

For some, the game isn't so much about the journey as it is about the destination. Others are on a fast track to the best possible template, and thirst only for the PvP action at the end. Marksman is the doorway to all future Ranged professions, whether you choose Rifleman, Pistoleer, Bounty Hunter or even Smuggler and Squad Leader, you will have to get past Marksman first. That is why it exists, and is so well loved, used and reused by most character that have and will ever play(ed).

"All I've got with me is a Survival Knife and a CDEF Pistol. I don't mind a grind, but Ultyma had better issue some hardware!"

Lucky you, Weaponsmiths are plentiful, and quite proficient at what they do! Powering through the Marksman levels isn't half as hard as it seems. That CDEF is fine for awhile, but it won't be long before substantial upgrades are opened up to you. You'll probably have to drop by the Bazaar to find a weapon you are certified to use, as Weaponsmith vendors seldom stock newbie weapons. Keep an eye out for the DH-17 Pistol (beware, there is also a DH-17 Carbine). As soon as you can, the DL-44 Metal is a superb newbie weapon.

Proceed to kill the riff raff that spawns outside most major cities. Gubburs, Thugs, various butterfly things, whatever. They respawn quickly and die even faster, earning you the most efficient experience possible. When these stop paying good experience, proceed to kill random missions on any non-adventure planet. You'll need the cash.

“I’m sick of killing thugs, butterflies and riff raff! Give me some real competition”

So you are progressing up the Marksman tree(s) of your choice! Perhaps up to the second or third box. Well, to set you up for the future financially, with experience, and getting grouped up, Missions are the way to go. A fast pass to both credits, and XP, they are a goldmine waiting for a young Marksman to tap!

Choosing a Mission

The most important part of completing a mission successfully is getting a good mission. There are 3 important things to consider when choosing a mission.

1st) The distance to the mission: Depending on your location, it is helpful to get the lowest distance to your mission as possible. This will lower the chances of you running in to "Evil" red mobs on the way to your destination. I have found that you can find missions are close as 300M but sometimes you have to settle for 900M or more. If you can't find anything low enough then just get the lowest possible distance that you can. But before you choose consider the other 2 important things to consider before choosing your mission.

2nd) The difficulty level of the mission: Sometimes missions are close but their difficulty is high, make sure than you have a fairly low number before traveling off to find you are trying to solo 4 red mobs. Anything from 3 to 8 is reasonable for starters.

3rd) The type of layer or mobs you need to destroy: You may find that the difficulty rating is low but the mission is to take out a "Jabba Camp" or very hard human/monster mob camp. It is important that you know your surroundings on that planet. For example, the ideal destroy mission for a starter on tatooine would be: 454M -Difficulty rating 4 - Nuna Layer. Nuna's are very easy to kill for any skill level for a marksman.

Getting to your mission safely

This is a huge problem at the moment because there are very difficult easily aggroed red mobs surrounding most cities. It helps if you can take the time to familiarize yourself with the surrounding of your city. Even though the mobs spawn in different areas it helps to know the terrain and how to potentially move around the mobs. The best most obvious way to get to your mission is to run around red mobs as quickly and as far away from them as possible. I have seen people run within 10M of red mobs because all they are doing is following their waypoint and not considering that they are going to agro the mob. If necessary run WAY out of your way to go around all of the surrounding mobs. It's better to lose time and stay alive then rush through a camp of tusken raiders and die.

The bottom line, run around mobs that can kill you, and if all else fails Burst Run.

Destroying the Mobs/Layers Successfully

Now that you are at your mission site alive you now have to kill all of mobs associated with that layer or site. It is important that you kill ALL of the mobs that belong to that layer before you attempt to destroy the layer. Distance yourself away from the mobs and kill them off 1 by 1. As you gain experience it helps to use your different specials shots like Body Shot 1, 2 – Head Shot 1,2 etc. Once you have killed all of the mobs in the area hit the layer with 1 special shot and then stop. This will immediately spawn more mobs from the layer that will immediately run toward you to kill you. If you do not stop hitting the mound more mobs will spawn and you will likely die. Target the mobs either healing the layer or charging you and kill them off. Most layers have 10 to 30 mobs, this is time consuming but I assure you the mobs will eventually stop spawning. Once you can hit the layer without mobs spawning then you can go all out and “special move” the layer till it is destroyed.

You have now completed your mission by yourself successfully and can reap the rewards accordingly. Don’t get discouraged if you aren’t able to do it all right the first few times, it takes a little practice. But from someone who has done it 60 times since release, trust me it works. Good luck and may the force be with you

[Aedales]

SECTION 4: DEATH AND DECAY

What is Decay?
Every item in the game has a condition number, representing the condition of the item. For example: 857/1000 (current value/original value) , could be the condition of a Survival Knife that has been damaged. NB: Some miscellaneous items (like crafting tools and crates) also decay and may be broken.
Conditions of items can be reduced through the following circumstances:

• death (armor/cloth/misc)
  taking damage (armor)
  using (weapons)
  repair failure (armor/cloth/weapon)

The reduction of the condition value of an item through these circumstances is what we call Decay.


Limiting Decay

• insure your items (uninsured items decay 5% per death, insured ones decay 1% on non-factional death+clone and don't decay on factional death+clone), it costs 100credits per item to insure
  don't clone, try to get resurrected by a Doctor if you can there won't be decay and your items will still be insured
  if you die+clone, insure your items again
  be careful about the triple incapacitation (3 times incap in less than 10min) in PVP, it's considered "normal" death even in PVP and lead to decay
  use storage droids, the items inside are "decay proof" (very useful when you clone in the corvette to prevent items that lost insurance or are simply uninsured from decay), you can have up to 5 droids with a max a 10 items storage per droid
  repair items only when they need to AND make it done by someone experimented in repair

Armor Specific:

• use a high resist armor, the more it resists, the slower it will decay. (using a PSG might prevent up to 50% of your armor normal decay during the PSG life time) Typically a hit cause 10% or so of the "going through armor" damage, that's why a 90% resist armor decays 2 times slower than a 80% one and 3 times slower than a 70% one. (example: a 1000 damage hit on a 80% resist armor with the same AP/AR would let 200 damage go through cause 20 points of decay).
  resist-sliced armor decay slower because of the higher resist
  dispatch decay on different parts using a full suit in PVE
  if the armor reach less than 25% condition its resist will diminish until repair so decay will accelerate from there

Clothing:

• clothes don't decay unless you die
  they are still wearable and working when reach 0 condition (even attachments that were socketed on still work)

Weapons:

• sliced weapons decay faster (superior to the bonus provided)
  power-uped weapons decay faster (equal to the bonus provided)
  slow weapons decay slower but the also hit slower, it's up to you to make your choice
  using specials highly increase the decay of the weapon
  if the weapon reach less than 25% condition its damage/speed will go the bad way until repair

How to Repair

You cannot repair the miscellaneous damaged items. You can only repair armor/cloth/weapon. In order to do so you will need either a:

• armor repair tool
  clothing repair tool
  weapon repair tool

Each has 5 five uses max and can be found in crates of 25 max.

Repair possible results:

• the item is repaired with only minor blemishes (MB, 5% max condition decay)
  the item is repaired, but the max condition is reduced (RBR, 20% max condition decay)
  the item is only marginally repaired, and the max condition is reduced (MR, 35% max condition decay)
  the item falls apart in your hands (F, condition goes to 1/1)

here's how to repair:

• Get a good tool
  the tools have an efficiency value maxed at 100 but you'll find more easily 99.8 or 98.9 tools. It's said not to influence the repair from user experience but eh, would you throw away even a 1% chance of success when you repair? I wouldn't.
  Get rid of you Battle Fatigue (BF)
  a null battle fatigue always helps to prevent "critical failures" and encourage "minor blemish" events.
  Get the Force Sensitive Repair skills
  you can grab up to +20 FS (general) Repair
  Get repair attachments
  you can get up to +25 in repair, armor repair, clothing repair, weapon repair (some say only repair works but eh even if the others don't, why not hav them on you "just in case")
  Loot armor/cloth/weapon problem
  it's a fact: it's harder to repair them
  slicing a loot greatly enhance to difficulty to repair the item (slice wisely your loot)
  Do not repair too early
  repair has the same results on a badly injured (but still over 25% condition) item and on a brand new one
  repair is harder when item is under 25% condition meaning you will get more "critical failure" and less "minor blemish"
  as a result, only repair when the item is around 26% of its original condition

Be careful with complex items
complex armor/cloth/weapon are said harder to repair (but it seems a very minor factor)

Look for a professionnal

• master armorsmiths have a hidden armor repair bonus
  master tailors have a hidden clothing repair bonus
  master weaponsmiths have a hidden weapon repair bonus

Standing before a crafting station

• it is said to give a little bonus to stand in front of a good crafting station (legend or not i guess it's not bad to be near a 44+ crafting station)
  be sure it's a armors crafting station if you repair armors

Powered up weapons
NEVER EVER REPAIR WITHOUT REMOVING THE POWERUP FIRST, or else ..... (try it on a CDEF pistol to understand) your basic weapon stats will be reduced forever!!!

[Aedales]

SECTON 5: FAQ

Q) What is the best way to get XP?
A) Shoot stuff, lots of stuff. If it moves make it stop moving. I suggest getting a MSE or DZ70 droid, grouping with it, and leaving it in town. You get the group XP bonus, which can turn that 1400XP critter into an 1800XP critter. Going after big game may seem the best way to go at it, but in my experience its not in all cases. I've advanced faster while killing normal starter planet mobs than taking trips to the advanced planets. Crazed Durnis are 400XP a pop and one shot is usually enough, a random spawn can generate 20 or so of them. There are other mobs out there(diseased bocatts and such) but I have a fondness for ventilating durnis.



A) Just about each one has its use. Weapons have a damage type, mobs usually have resists and/or vulnerabilities. Use the damage type that is least resistant or vulnerable. /examine is your friend. Maximize your efforts by using the correct damage type on mobs and you'll see that XP/Time ratio shoot to the positive and climb. See below for damage types.

Pistols

• cout, Energy, AP0
  FWG5, Heat, AP0
  Striker, Kinetic, AP0
  SR Combat, Energy, AP1
  Tangle, Stun, AP0
  DX2, Acid, AP1
  CDEF, Energy, AP1
  Launcher, Blast, AP0
  Scatter, Acid, AP1
  DL44's, Energy, AP0

Rifles

• CDEF, Energy, AP0
  Tusken, Energy, AP1 (should be kinetic but bugged)
  DLT20a, Energy, AP0
  SG82, Cold, AP0
  E11, Energy, AP2
  Laser, Energy, AP2
  T21, Energy, AP3
  Jawa Ion, Stun, AP1
  Spraystick, Energy, AP0 (should be acid but bugged)

Carbines

• CDEF, Energy, AP0
  EE3, Heat, AP0, Blast Radius 3m
  E11, Energy, AP1
  Elite, Energy, AP1
  DXR6, Acid, AP1
  Laser, Energy, AP2
  DH17's, Energy, AP0

Q) I just hit specialist but the XXXshot1 isn't doing any damage?
A) /actionshot1, /mindshot1,/healthshot1 are all DoT attacks. You hit the critter(and no it doesn't matter where as long as you hit it) and it will start to "bleed" from that HAM bar. It will take about 20 seconds for the first tic to bleed off, but it will bleed.

Q) What is a DoT and a mob?
A) DoT means Damage over Time. This includes things such as bleeds and flames that will slowly harm the target over time. Mob simply means creatures that will attack in groups. So if you attack one, all of its friends will attack you as well.

Q) How can I tell how much the bleed is for?
A) Look in the combat spam window. Bleeds are not affected by armor or resists. Its generally a good idea to use the weapon with the highest gross damage to start a bleed. For example I use my launcher pistol to start my health bleeds. With novice pistoleer I can get a 40-60 bleed.

Q) Do bleeds stack?
A) You bet. You can stack XXXshot1 and 2 together. What you can't do is stack a bunch of XXXshot1's. This happens in groups where everyone fires off a DoT. The highest damage bleed will always be the bleeder, but each attempt will reset the clock and delay the bleed. You can how ever bleed each HAM bar. I've seen mobs with action, health, mind bleeds, be on fire(another DoT), and have a bleedingshot from a Bounty Hunter.

Q) I'm getting my butt handed to me with this rifle.
A) Rifle users take 2.5 melee damage. Meaning if a mob slugs you for 100 points, you're going to take 250. Carbine users suffer from a multiplier as well, around 1.5 I believe. If you can afford it get a Probot with medium armor and 40% resists to tank for you. This isn't the best tanking out there, but it will work for getting through the marksman trees. An alternative is to get a Mountain Krevol from a Creature Handler. These boys have Armor 1 and 30% Kinetic resists and 2200 HAM. You don't need to be a creature handler to use one, but you'll have to have one train it and transfer it to you. I prefer the bot, but that's more for style and less XP loss(yes the critter will take XP from you, the probot will take some, but not as much).

Q) What's the best elite profession?
A) Total matter of personal preference. Pick one, have fun, don't like it, switch to another one.

Q) What does Threaten shot do?
A) If you hit the mob it has the ability to make the mob run in a random direction. It won't always work, but it can be a life saver if you don't have anything else.

Q) What do the roll to shots do?
A) Make you roll for 12 seconds unable to perform specials. May provide defensive bonuses, but we're not sure. I only use them in camps to generate survival XP for HAM regeneration.

Q) What does Threaten shot do?
A) Its similar to threatenshot but it will make the mob run away from you. No more random direction, straight away from you. It seems to make the mob run away more often than threaten and is more controllable.

Q) I've warned/threatened but the mob keeps coming after me.
A) First idea is to /peace after the shot, if it worked the mob will run away from you. If its still coming after you, you may need to hit it with the shot more. Or it just might not run away from you, its too high a level mob for you, or its just stubborn and wants to taste you. These shots do not work on NPC's, don't even try it. I believe these are on a 30 seconds timer, haven't tried to test it out, but one of the previous patch notes makes me wonder.

Q) What does suppression fire do?
A) It lowers the posture of the mob by one step. Standing to kneeling, kneeling to prone. It can provide a nice chance to run away from a mob that just won't stay away. It'll only pause for a few seconds so make the most of it. If possible this shot works wonders when the mob has been dizzied. You'll have a knockdown that sticks on the mob(speaking from experience Posture Change + Dizzy= sucks to be you). This shot is on a 30 second timer, meaning the mob can only be affected by a posture change shot/hit every 30 seconds. That just doesn't include you, its on the mob itself, so make sure it counts when you use it.

Q) Where's a good place to hunt while still new and learning?
A) East of the Mos Eisley starport on Tatooine. Mos Eisley is a neutral city, there is always big game at the specified location, and no one can build in that area, so it will always be there.

[Aedales]

<Reserved for future additions>