City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Single Shot/Burst -vs- Chaingun/Longfang

Granite Agent

By Granite Agent,
Posted on: 2012-01-04 20:20 in Soldiers of Arachnos

 

Posted

I've been leveling a crab, currently at 38, and was thinking of respec'ing back into the gun attacks (except suppression). I find both chaingun and longfang woefully slow compared to their gun counterparts and was wondering if people have any experience with this same decision? Mainly, I'm worried about the redraw with suppression and patron attack.

 

Posted

But there will still be redraw between burst/single shot and suppression.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Trilby View Post
But there will still be redraw between burst/single shot and suppression.
Aye, that was my point; in retrospect, I was unclear on that part Going mako, so there'd be no redraw going into patron attacks, just coming out of them if I use the gun.

I went ahead and respec'd back into guns (single shot, burst, bayonet (for hard targets), and venom grenade) - my only crab attack is suppression at the moment... and it feels a lot beefier to me.

 

Posted

When I was leveling up my Crab I embraced the Crab attacks and never looked back. Why would I want to shoot people with a miniature toy gun when I could blast or slash them with deadly mechanical spider arms? Not much point in making a Crab if you don't like the backpack....

Once I got higher level the whole question of having two ranged filler attacks became moot. Even when I was doing ranged-only builds, Frag Grenade, Venom Grenade and Suppression recharged fast enough that Channelgun was the only filler I needed. Trying to fit Longfang in there somewhere just slows down the serious attacks.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by kinaki View Post
I've been leveling a crab, currently at 38, and was thinking of respec'ing back into the gun attacks (except suppression). I find both chaingun and longfang woefully slow compared to their gun counterparts and was wondering if people have any experience with this same decision? Mainly, I'm worried about the redraw with suppression and patron attack.
If you are after power, do it. Burst is one of he best attacks in the game for anim/damage. Single shot and Bayonet are pretty good as well.

Bayonet->Shot->Burst->Shot is a very good single target rotation.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Two_Dollar_Bill View Post
Not much point in making a Crab if you don't like the backpack....
Well, Serum, Crab Armor, and Spiderlings to name 3 points. I have a Huntsman/Crab softcapped to M/R/AOE with solid resists, nice HP, strong attacks, and 5 pets. That's why I put up with the backpack.

 

Posted

OK. Comparing. Single Shot/Burst beat Longfang/Chaingun. They do more damage. Apply the same debuff. Are slightly more accurate and refresh just as fast. Burst's debuff also lasts 3 seconds longer.

Bayonate also does more damage than slice, but doesn't apply the defence debuff.

Redraw wise, I don't know how it will effect you, but it looks to me that the gun attacks do more damage.

So if you were gonna go chain gun/long fang, it would be look reasons. However, channel gun does energy damage, which I think is a rarer type of damage to resist. Also the accuracy doesn't really matter once you get slotting.

My advice would be work out your attack chain, so if you are gonna take toxic or frag, work out when in the chain you will use them to lower redraw.

Edit: PS This is the 1000th thread in this forum. A milestone!

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by kinaki View Post
I've been leveling a crab, currently at 38, and was thinking of respec'ing back into the gun attacks (except suppression). I find both chaingun and longfang woefully slow compared to their gun counterparts and was wondering if people have any experience with this same decision? Mainly, I'm worried about the redraw with suppression and patron attack.
Single Shot/4s/0.9s and Burst/8s/1s are two of the fastest range attacks in the game.

I have a build specifically catered to maximize the fast shooting. I am mostly Soldier/Bane build with damage proc and AH proc (resistance debuff). I use Bayonet sometimes to finish off.

Now, if you are Crab, there are some things to decide.

1. Yes, there will be weapon draw.

2. Crab's Chaining Gun does "energy" damage, which is better than lethal.

3. Crab's ST damage is never going to be "wow!" but you make up with good aoe attacks and survival and pet damage. My Crab build is a mix of melee/range. I love Arm Lash and Frenzy.

Longfang is slow for sure. Maybe you can keep Chaining Gun, drop Longfang and take Burst instead.

What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.

 

Posted

I'm liking the gun attacks a lot more. My only regret is taking single shot over chaingun - even at a 50% longer animation time, the energy typed damage is nice. I have no such reservations about burst vs longfang though... 1.0 vs 2.0 animation for the same exact lethal damage?! That is really annoying.

 

Posted

Well, got to 50. After a bit of skepticism w/ Leviathan's attack animations, it's really beginning to grow on me... you can fit everything in those cones!

My problem now is single target damage. What do Leviathan crabs do for ST damage? Spirit shark has an atrociously long animation for the damage it does, so it's out of the question. And pets are all fine and good, but they don't help if they happen to die =( Despite my love for Leviathan, I've been contemplating making the move to Scirocco to get my hands on a decent ST attack chain.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by kinaki View Post
Well, got to 50. After a bit of skepticism w/ Leviathan's attack animations, it's really beginning to grow on me... you can fit everything in those cones!

My problem now is single target damage. What do Leviathan crabs do for ST damage? Spirit shark has an atrociously long animation for the damage it does, so it's out of the question. And pets are all fine and good, but they don't help if they happen to die =( Despite my love for Leviathan, I've been contemplating making the move to Scirocco to get my hands on a decent ST attack chain.
Crab is never going to excel in ST damage unless 1. your pets don't die 2. all of your pets focus on the same target.

Don't feel bad because Crab excels in every other area. Decent meatshield, great aoe, and has good pets.

What's left is to normalize all Assassin Strikes and improve Stalker's old sets (Claw, MA and EM)! You don't need to bring back the missing PbAoE attack. You just need to make the existing ones better! For example, make Slice a WIDER and LONGER cone.

 

Posted

Well, I realize that, but, being a ranged character with leviathan, it would still be nice to have a somewhat solid ranged ST damage chain. While the other patrons have access to a good tier one attack power, Spirit Shark is pretty poor in this regard. As it stands, I have to hop into melee position for bayonet to form a [mostly] gapless attack order... taking myself out of cone position.