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The Pyrokitty Guide to Fun Guns
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Posted on 09 April 2006 at 04:06:15 by Magi.
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Let me start by explaining that this guide will not describewhat weapons are "the best" in any way. This is anattempt to introduce players new to the game to just what lies instore for them in terms of insanely sweet implements ofdestruction. We all like those, right? My goal is to explain thevarious types of weapons, what makes them unique, and theirdrawbacks.
A couple of things for those new to the game:
--Weapons come in three overarching classifications and threesizes. Sizes are small, medium, and large; stealth classes(bounty hunter, agent, avenger) use only small, pet and supportclasses (constructor/mastermind, shaman/archon,lieutenant/engineer) use only medium, and tank classes(terminator, commando, champion) use medium until level 23 or so(until the purchase of the first tank-type chassis.. it lists theweapon size at the top of each chassis' stats) and large after.Classifications are single target (damage to one target), blast(shown as anywhere from 5m explosion to 20m explosion, maybelarger), and spray (2 target spray to 4 (5?) target spray fromwhat I've seen). Spray weapons deal their damage to whatever youhave targeted first, then extra targets in the TacArc up to thenumber listed as the spray (2 target spray will hit one othertarget in your arc). Blast weapons will affect ALL enemies withinthe radius around your target. Note that this means blast weaponshave a smaller area of effect but potentially deal much moredamage (with a large explosion on a dense spawn), while sprayweapons benefit greatly from a huge tacarc to always hit theirmaximum number of targets.
--More types of damage on a single gun is worse. Each type ofdamage gets a separate resist check, which is a chance tocompletely or partially ignore the damage. Multiple types on oneweapon do not trigger multiple damage boost per shot skills.
--Some weapons have penetration, which opposes deflection (chanceto ignore all damage) and armor (I think). This gives your weapona much higher chance to deal significant damage, especially inPvP. Slow-refire high damage-per-shot weapons also accomplishthis by brute force.
Please note that since the weapon damage balance pass, DPS of allweapon types can vary dramatically, but overall you can find aweapon of any type with excellent DPS (damage per second) if youlook hard enough. Note that DPS is now split per each target in aspray, so spray/blast weapons will deal lower listed DPS, but doit to multiple targets.
Please provide feedback for this; I don't have experience withALL types of weapons yet, and this is only a precursor to a guideI will write up at release.
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Contents:
1. Underpants.
2. Fire!!
3. Missiles
4. Grenades
5. Anti-tank weapons (LAW and MAW)
6. Nonstandard projectile launchers
7. "La-zurs" (and other purdy energy-emitting devicesof death)
8. FOUNTAINS!
9. Things that go Boom (shotguns, rifles, railguns, etc)
10. Vanilla machine guns
11. Rear weapons!
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1. Don't let the gnomes get them. That's bad.
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2. Fire!!!
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Flamethrowers are one of the earliest "special" weaponsseen in AA, and they appear throughout the game. Everybody lovesfire! Burninating things is great fun, but there are drawbacks.Flamers deal, well, fire damage. Goo sprayers (bloojet launchers,etc) use the same mechanics and look similar, but dealcontamination damage--one of the few types of contam weapons inthe game. Plasma sprayers are flamers in disguise at high level.Large fire weapons start showing up later on with suchhilarious-sounding things as the "Hot VengeanceSprayer" and other neat things you'll just have to findyourself.
Pros: BURN THINGS!! Duh!?! Trees will light on fire, as willinfantry and peasants, and the occasional building. Usually highspray, good arc, moderate refire. High refire flamers benefitbiomeks greatly due to skills that can add fire damage to eachshot.
Cons: Range. Most flamers have a 25m range tops, usually closerto 20-22m. Also most flamers are medium weapons. There are smallweapons that deal fire damage, but almost no flamethrowers.
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3. Missiles
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Missiles are another early showing weapon that stays throughoutthe game. Lots of variety in what you see here. These range fromsingle target and 5-8m explosion single missile launchers on thesmall end to 12-15m explosion large racks. Medium turrets tend tohave 8-10m blast single launchers, and the occasional rack.Missiles deal physical and/or sometimes fire damage.
Pros: Missiles tend to have penetration, especially single targettypes. Penetration gives a chance to bypass armor and deflection,both of which reduce incoming damage. They look really cool,especially with the bigger racks like the Brimstone Launcher(level 25 or so large turret) and Longbow Missile Racks (level 20or so medium turret), which fire 10-15 missiles for a greatpyrotechnics display. Potentially tactically beneficial for PvPsince players have a hard time seeing through all the smoketrails.
Cons: Travel time to target. Missile launchers have one of thehigher launch-to-impact (LTI) times, as they arc gracefullyupward from the launcher and streak around lazily after theirtarget. Refire rate tends to be fairly slow. Destroying buildingsfor salvage is doable with these, unlike some other high LTIweapons.
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4. Grenades
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Grenades are a neat looking way to lob some explosive death onyour enemies. Turrets range from single target small to 12+mblast large, though most are single target. Small (possibly alsomedium) blast-type launchers do not occur until level 45-50 andup. Grenades tend to deal physical and fire damage, occasionallyonly one or the other. Mortar weapons (same mechanics, I believe)deal corrosive damage--one of the few corrosive weapon typesin-game.
Pros: Lobbing explosive death. Some launchers have a littlepenetration. Refire usually moderate, 1.3-2s. Low LTI(launch-to-impact) time, as most launchers (especially RPGs,rocket-powered grenades) will fire with a minimal arc at thetarget.
Cons: Nothing major. Longer LTI than instant-hit weapons.
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5. Anti-tank weapons
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These come in several varieties, and start showing up in theteens with the LAW (light anti-tank weapon), with the MAW (mediumAT weapon) showing up in the upper 20s. LAWs are any size, butusually medium or large; MAWs are large. Small varieties neverhave a blast that I have seen; rarely do medium ones; largeusually range from single target to 15m blast. AT weapons dealphysical, sometimes fire damage.
Pros: FIRE ZE MISSILES!!! One of the most unique-looking earlyweapons in the game. Catch a glimpse of one of these projectilesflying through your camera and you'll freak out. Large blast onsome. Single target ones almost always have high penetration.
Cons: The longest LTI weapon in the game. It can take upwards of3 seconds for a missile to reach a target moving at 50+ mph. Veryslow refire on many; min time seems to be 1.3s or so for singletarget launchers. Don't even THINK about trying to do salvageruns with one of these puppies. The fortunate thing is that themissile itself deals damage during its primer period (for thefirst 1s or so following launch, it will not detonate but willdamage anything it runs into), so you -can- clear buildings outof your way if you're desparate, but you'll get tired of watchingthe thing spiral in the air 3 times before exploding, withouthitting a single bit of rubble. *AWs are certainly the mostunpredictable turret weapon in the game, but can be used todevastating effect if you get used to it.
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6. Nonstandard projectile launchers
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This category includes primarily spike, sawblade, and boombladelaunchers (usually single target to 2t spray, blast for the lasttype which is large). Includes Pod Launchers, medium turrets thatshoot a crazy green glowy blob of death. Also includes HomingDrone guns like my front small, which is basically a smallfront-mount missile launcher with an 8-10m blast radius (one ofthe only ways to have multitarget front dmg from small weapons).These types are typically front-mounted weapons. The spike andsawblade launchers appear right away in the game; boomblades comearound 30; and homing drones begin to appear around 47. I'm suresome other varieties of weapons fall into this category, but Ihaven't found them yet. Almost all of these types of weapons dealphysical damage. I did see a level 74 or so weapon named"Billings' Rage Aura" that I suspect may be an oddvariety, and it dealt contamination damage. Pod launchers dealcontamination.
Pros: Many of these have penetration. Spike/saw/boombladelaunchers have near-instant LTI; homing drones have LTI on parwith the missile launchers. Pod launchers are one of the fewearly contamination-damage weapons.
Cons: Slow refire. Low level versions (below 10 or so) usuallyproduce too much heat to be effective without a good powerplant.Blade/spike launchers have the most annoying sound in the gameIMO. A note about slow refire front weapons: they're difficult tohandle. They're very, very good with the right tactics (drivestraight at something and unload, then run away or stealth), butthe time you spend with an enemy in your front arc is ratherminimal, unless you're standing still, which is a silly thing todo (it's boring! and you get a defense bonus for moving). Also anote about homing drones: despite the long LTI time, withcontinuous fire, the negative effect is minimal. It may seem asthough your shots miss completely even if you bring your arc tobear on target, but here's how they work: you fire when thetarget is in the arc, and the drone homes in on them even afterthey leave. If you fire with no target in the arc, they trackyour arc... sort of. If you learn how they work, they can bedevastating, as you can actually steer the drone (usually) into atarget. Pod launchers have mechanics similar to AT weapons, andcan be rather frustrating, but are effective weapons.
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"La-zurs" and other energy weapons
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These don't appear in the game until the high teens and early 20sat best, and even then seemingly only as quest rewards. There arevery, very few types of energy-damage weapons in the game (sucksto be human). Energy weapons come in the form of both front andturret mounts of all sizes, though I don't recall seeing a largeenergy weapon until spotting Quadlaser Turrets in theSky-something Tower (the INC place off of Choppin' Maul, tier 3human zone), and those are level 65+ or so. Zzyn zappers andstorm cannons are glowy blue lightning guns that cover manylevels between 25 ro so and 45. Gauss cannons might be energy, Iforget; those are 35-45 or so. Some plasma and hypercannons mightdeal fire/energy. All lower level lasers are single target, butas levels rise, the spread enters in. Both turret and frontenergy weapons can have spread, including small fronts, such asthe Hydra, with a 2 target spray. This is one of the very fewways for small-weapon classes to have a multi-target damage frontweapon, homing drones being the other (see 6). Energy weaponsdeal...well... energy damage. Some deal energy and fire, and Ithink gauss cannons might be energy/physical.
Pros: Puuuurrrdy. Despite their rarity, they invariably lookcool. Glowing beams of death range in color from white to blue tored to oh-so-cute rainbow-colored spectrum lasers. ALL lasershave high penetration for their level--the lowest have +2 to +6,higher up they go as heavy as +20. That's hazard-mode levelpenetration, folks. INSTANT LTI time. If you can manage to go 200mph, even with your turret arc jouncing around, you're stillgoing to hit things. Hard. Refire varies from moderate to high.Note that a 2 second refire laser with +10 penatration WILL NOTCARE about your victims' armor or deflection.
Cons: Many lasers produce a lot of heat. The slow refirealleviates this to some extent. The scarcity of these weaponsremains the primary drawback.
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FOUNTAINS!
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What exactly are fountains? Well... you'll see. The only types Ihave seen are fire-based, though I understand other damage typeshave their respective fountains as well (probably exceptingphysical). These things don't show up until level 65 or so andup.
Pros: 360 degree arc. Yes, that's right--you can hit everythingaround you. I recently purchased a level 64 small napalm sprayerturret, so they at least come in small and large. I believe thereare medium versions also. Most have a 4 target spray, but again Iam uncertain.
Cons: I could maybe tell you if I had used one. I'm not highenough to use my recent purchase yet. I believe their range is onpar with flamers, though; possibly a little longer.
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Things that go Boom
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This category includes mostly slow-refire high-damagenear-instant-hit weapons. The list includes, but is not limitedto: Recoilless rifles, cannons (snub, sniper, sniper mini, mini,tank, anaconda, hyper, plasma, flak, shot, etc etc etc), junkguns, coilguns, railguns, shotguns, the oh so cool soundingSpray-n-Pray shotgun, and gauss guns. They goBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM, or BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM, and will shake yourwalls, rattle your skull, wake up your kids, and get you killeddead, if you have nice speakers. Most deal physical damage; someare fire; others are mixes of various damage types. Early-gameboomsticks include snub cannons and low-caliber RecoillessRifles; level 20+ versions include the other stuff. Early typesare single-target, small varieties are never more than that, andlarger and higher-level types get larger and larger blasts orsprays. Most multitarget ones are blast. Note that almost alltypes of these weapons are Large beyond level 25 or so, exceptrifles and sniper cannons at small (sometimes medium), with mostminicannons and snub cannons at medium.
Pros: Many, or most, of these weapons have penetration. Many areslow-refire high-damage weapons; flak cannons and junk guns areless than .7 second refire blast types (I've seen one flak cannonat about .55s refire 15m blast.....drool). Almost all arenear-instant LTI. Ghetto player blind with black clouds of deathand destruction.
Cons: Slow refire can sometimes be too extreme. Some types, mostnotably the fast refire types and plasma/gauss/hyper cannons,produce copious amounts of heat.
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Vanilla machine guns
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Sadly, this category still includes most of the top DPS weaponsin the game. It's also what most small-weapon-types are forced touse until higher levels. That said, some people love them, andthe spray and damage can be nice. This category includesliterally a metric [censored]-ton of naming types, fromlight/heavy machineguns to gatling guns to hornet minicannons tonames that don't even fit on one like like the Maverick M134 GG(when there are enhancements in there, like Strategic MaverickM134 GG of Supreme Godly Power, it's really long). Odds are, ifit has low refire, no blast, and deals physical damage, it fallsinto this category. Most front weapons are machine-gun types.Sounds vary across the board from the god-awful thudding sound ofthe "Machine Gun" to really crazy sounds like thezipping noise of maverick tricannons.
Pros: High-refire spray-based turrets and fronts with large arcsare amazingly good at mowing down infantry, and are unmatchedwhen it comes to salvage runs and generalbuilding-trashing-blowing-[censored]-up. Some types havepenetration, which is very important (see below).
Cons: Penetration is vital for low-damage fast-firing guns, sincearmor easily negates a lot of the damage, and player abilitieswill completely shut down their damage with ease. Heat buildupcan sometimes be a problem, and almost all machineguns will getyou killed (or at least take a massive hit in DPS by, you know,not DOING damage) in extended firefights without some form ofextra heat dissipation (or an ungodly cool powerplant... HAHA!PUNNY!). Oh, and machine guns are boring. At least to me...
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Rear weapons!
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Ok, so one thing every low level player asks is when and wherecan they find a rear weapon. We all asked it, believe me. Or atleast thought it. Well, here's the answer: NEVER! Just kidding.The basic ones start dropping around level 25. Here is a completelist of the types of rear weapons I've seen, their level, anddamage/type (and/or effect). Each one has a 2s primer period, 30scooldown, and 2min duration. The charge-based ones are availableevery 2s. I'm iffy on the damage on some of these, I'll try toupdate once I check them. All are autohit with +5 penetration.
Explosive Mine Dropper: lvl 25+, 50-75 physical damage. 15mblast.
Goo Dropper: lvl 25+, 4-9 contamination damage/pulse over 10pulses (10s). Also slows by 30%. 1 charge. 25m blast.
Oil slick dropper: lvl 25+, slows by 60%. 3 charges. 15m blast.
Flame dropper: lvl 35. 5-8 damage per pulse, 10 pulses over 8s,on impact. 5 charges. 10m splash.
Explosive seeker: lvl 42 is the lowest I saw, iirc. 50-75 dmgplus 10.
Acidic seeker: lvl 45. 5-10 dmg per pulse over 10 seconds, plus10, iirc. Didn't retain one of these in my locker.
Caltrop/spike dropper: lvl 45. 55% slow. 1 charge. 10m blast.
Flaming oil slick dropper: lvl 49. damage as flamer, 30% slow(standard slow effect). 5 charges. 15m blast. Has 1000 fireresist.
Electric seeker: lvl 50. 50-75 energy plus 10. 15m blast.........just noted that it's 50-75 per pulse. ...15 pulses... 12seconds. That's... 750-1250 dmg. Maxed nuke skills don't evendeal that much. Been /bugged.
Incendiary seeker: lvl 54. 6-9 fire dmg per pulse over 15 pulses,10s total, plus 10. 15m blast.
I recently discovered that rear weapons begin receiving updatesat level 61. Found a level 62 Aged Explosive Mine Dropper and lvl61 Goo Dropper... expl one did 90-160 damage; go dropper did5-12/pulse over 15 pulses (12s). Also explosive seeker dealing85-165 plus 10, also level 61.
Note that, yes, the caltrop/spike droppers are inferior to theoil slick dropper in every way. Only possible explanation is thefact that speed reduxes are reversed atm (the amount it says(-55%) is actually the amount you go at (55%), not the amountspeed is reduced by (would have you at 45%)).
Here's how these work: you hit alt, and one drops (useable every30 seconds). Mines and goo droppers will drop, stay put, andaffect one target when it comes to within around 5m of them,exploding all over everything within their blast radius. Chargeddevices will drop, stay put, and affect every target that comeswithin range, disappearing when their charges are expended.Seekers will drop, follow you with a leash around 40 or 50m (toolong IMO), and once they get close to a target, will incessantlypester them until they decide it's time to explode. Seekers arethe coolest thing ever, second to the flaming oil slick dropper,but they can take a very long time to finally explode. It seemsas though they circle a target until they wind up behind them,then try to physically connect with them. Regardless, seekers aredevastating fire-and-forget weapons, especially for stealthclasses. Lay a mine, use a speed boost skill, go stealth, thendrive past a bunch of enemies... seeker chooses a target andexplodes; whip around, hit stealth stun attack, and open fire.
Acidic seekers are currently bugged in that they do not properlyfollow you. They shoot up into the air, then reappear rightbehind you once you pass leash distance. These are very, verydifficult to use effectively. Electric seekers look like they dothis graphically (blue firefly of death effect goes up in air),but the orb still follows.
Rear weapons generate no heat, and I forget if they requireenergy. Don't think they do.
Oh, and my Electric Seeker of Electricity wins the silliest nameaward so far. maybe not absolute funniest; that would go to someof the higher level and large weapons (spray n pray shotgun, hotvengeance sprayer, etc).
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Comments
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| 2 Comments |
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Posted on 20 April 2006 at 11:53:46 by Anonym. 
![[feu]](/forum/smileys/feu.gif)
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Posted on 20 April 2006 at 11:54:07 by Anonym.
 
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