> NOW ACCESSING 'HUNTING: PULSE WEAPONS and COMBAT'... > ... As a technician, you are given a freebie weapon to be proficient in. This, namely, is the pulse weapon group. Why you might ask? Well it's simple. Techs get some nice bonuses with pulse weapons, more than any other profession. There are some things to keep in mind when using pulse. 1. Pulse weapons are pretty weak per shot, but they hold between 4000 and 5000 shots per core (that's the ammunition). You can see how many shots are left if you hold your weapon and COUNT CORE. Example: At my current level (59), I have only had to change pulse cores in my weapons three times. 2. There are three different sort of pulse weapons for general sale. One, gridguns. Gridguns work on ionic cores and therefore best suited against opponents with high electrical resistance as they are able to blast through this protection. Then there are two types of handguns. Pulse handguns and heavy pulse handguns take standard pulse cores. And then there are the MP series of pulse handguns. These take multiphase cores which are a hybrid of standard and ionic energies. I use one heavy pulse handgun and one MP9 pulse handgun. 3. If using handguns, you can have one in each hand. They will work together as one gun, so you don't have to type AIM RIGHT GUN, FIRE LEFT GUN and so on. Speaking of aiming, aiming is optional. You'll get a better shot with aiming, yes, but I tend to go for the quicker, less RT heavy way of SHOOT CREATURE HEAD. Shooting things in the legs will make them tumble over, so that's a viable option too. 4. Pulse handguns take two seconds each to aim and one to fire. If you use two handguns, double each roundtime. Quick potions can often reduce these roundtimes to 1 second...which makes hunting a breeze! Pulse guns also have a 2-3 second 'recharge' time between every three rounds. This means that after you shoot the weapon three times, you need to let it 'recharge' for about 2-3 seconds...which is roughly the time it takes to search a creature or to completely aim so it's not a problem. 5. With all the new hunting changes, you'll be wanting to hunt AT or JUST BELOW your level. Techs are good at security (lockpicking and disarming), so you'll be able to pick boxes of things that are ABOVE your level, but I don't recommend hunting too much above your level. You won't get more treasure...just more death. Hunting at or just below your level gets you the most treasure. 6. Training your stats to better use pulse weapons: For Defense: Train evasion. Parry is useless, you have a gun. To get the most out of your evasion skill, train up your agility and perception. To Attack: Coordination is the primary stat to ranged weapons with mentality being the secondary stat. Right now, mentality doesn't play as much of a part in combat, but that's going to change in the coming weeks. Coordination is also useful if you use paired weapons. It helps to lower RT for the second weapon. Mentality is now the key in aiming at specific body parts. Other Stuff: Below is what Trevor posted on the boards that either have already gone into effect or WILL go into effect in the coming days (this page was updated on May 4, 2005 for refrence). Also, some of these aren't very applicable to Techs, but I figured I'd post it in it's entirety. Stats: Agility: Evasion (primary), balance, stealth Remember, some attacks can only be evaded and others only evaded or shield blocked. Charisma: Essence pool, focus pool, regen. Effectiveness modifier for future fear-type attacks (for attackers, not defenders). Coordination: Parry & Shield (primary), To-Hit with melee (primary), To-Hit with secondary (ranged), THBP. Intellect: Sometimes tied in with tactics related systems/rolls, magic resist. Focus pool, regen. Mentality: Evasion & Parry (secondary), To-Hit with ranged (primary), To-Hit with melee (secondary), mental resist, stealth. Focus pool, regen. Perception: Finding hiders, damage modifier for fired weapons, enhances loot found post-kill. Strength: Shield (secondary), damage modifier for thrown/melee, encumbrance, might be tied into health/stamina (secondary) - undecided. Vitality: Overall health and stamina points (primary) and regen, encumbrance (secondary), natural wound healing, poison resistance. Skills: (I'll skip the obvious attack/defense/armor skills) Acrobatics: Affects chance to "roll to your feet" after a knockdown, which if successful not only negates a knockdown, but can help you -gain- balance. Athletics: Tied into some aspects of the engagement system. Intimidation: Will be tied into effectiveness of fear style attacks in the future for attackers. Persuasion: Will be tied into some influence type abilities/spells/powers in the future. Streetwise: Finding hiders in urban areas. Tactics: Tied heavily into the engagement system (ES). Primarily, it affects how seriously being engaged to multiple opponents at one time hinders your combat ability. Also modifies chance to score critical strikes. Tracking: Finding hiders in rural areas. NEW! This stuff was just added (May 4, 2005) 1. The effect of perception on fired attacks was increased. 2. Technicians will now have a very slight bonus to achieve a crit death kill when using pulse weapons. 3. Fatigue has been lowered for general attacks, but will be raised for some special use attacks in the future. Written By: Kit Murphy