The Pistoleer Grinding Guide v1.1
By RandonB

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. Still others don't feel that they are playing wisely unless they are playing efficiently. Whatever the reason, many players choose to power through professions as quickly as possible. To that end, my fellow Pistoleers and I have painstakingly compiled a variety of tips and pointers. You won't find lengthly essays and descriptions here, only what you need to achieve your goals. After all, isn't that the point?

Starting

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. This should get you through Pistols 1 and 2. Next proceed to get missions to earn some cash. When you have enough to get buffed, get ubese armor, and get a ticket to rori or dantooine you can start taking on some mid level mobs. This should be good enough to get you to Novice Pistoleer, and earn you more decent credits for when you need to supply yourself with more advanced equipment/food/spice.


"The unplanned organism is a question asked by nature and answered by death. You are a different kind of question, with a different kind of answer."

Great, now you're a Novice Pistoleer. Better start planning what tree to go up first. You've got 3 choices, really. The 4th line you spend Combat Experience on whenever you can, as soon as you can.

It isn't really a question - your first priority is to get Fan Shot in the Techniques line. It's in the 4th box, so you might have a hard time waiting that long to spend your Pistol Experience, but it's worth it. Fan Shot is a high-DPS area effect special. It fires in a cone starting at your position, branching out at about 20º.

Next, get some basic Accuracy. 2 boxes from Marksmanship should suffice before you start climbing the Grips line for some Dodge. After all, the more you hit, the faster you kill. Things are going to get rough if you don't invest in some accuracy now.


"You droids may have copper wiring to re-route your fear of pain, but I've got nerves of steel."

No matter how confident you are in your own abilities, it's a simple fact that a set of buffs and a suit of armor will make this grind go infinitely faster. It's a little sad, given that we were told prior to release that not everyone would be wearing armor, but for the time being, it's the best way to play.

If you can't afford a suit of Composite, a suit of Kinetic-layered Ubese will do nicely. If you are dirt poor, get some Chitin off of the Bazaar. Get some 3-hour buffs from your local Master Doctor (frequently found at major Starports such as Coronet and Theed) and head to your grinding location of choice. Your experience bar will thank you, and the rate at which you complete missions will turn the price tag into a profit.


"What are you, some sort of assassin?"
"When necessary."

What to kill? There are a great many opinions on this matter.

Low levels
Guf Drolgs on Talus
Levia Squalls and Tortons on Rori

Mid Levels (you will most likely need mid grade armor and buffs for these MOBS)
Grouping on Dathomir, killing just about anything
Quenkers, Huurtons and Pickets on Dantooine (beware, Savage Quenkers have an acid ranged attack and more HAM)
A variety of things on Yavin IV, such as Mamiens or Mawgaxes. Crystal Snakes are great, but sometimes poison.
Snorbals on Lok (though you can't get missions for them)
Crimson Blurrgs on Endor

High Levels (You better have armor and buffs for these guys)
Giant Baz Nitches and Gaping Spiders on Dathomir
Voritors on Dantooine
Gurks on Lok

"I just spent an hour taking down this rancor and all I got was a lousy 2000 xp, what gives? I thought I could get the entire marksman pistol line!"

XP Caps:

There are 2 kinds of XP caps and just because you can go after the big things, doesn’t mean you should. Some of you may have the cash to run out there now get advanced composite, get buffed, canape and all and be able to attack anything without fear of getting a scratch. That’s good and all, but it wont help for you to go take down a krayt just yet.

The first xp cap is an actual cap to the amount of xp you can actually get and hold. That is usually 2x the amount of xp needed for your next level. So if you currently have Pistols 2 in marksman and Pistols 3 takes 15,000 xp, you will cap your xp at 30,000 meaning if you have 30,000 pistol xp you will not gain any more even if you do kill a rancor.

The second type of xp cap is a scaling of XP for creature/your current level. You have a difficulty level associated with the weapon you are currently holding. And that is based on the amount of skill in that weapon. Whereas a Marksman with pistol 3 might be a challenge level 10, a Master Pistoleer could be a challenge level 60. How does this affect how much xp you get per kill? Well the amount of xp a creature gives will be scaled down significantly if the attacker is a lower level. If you a marksman pistol 2 take a few hours and take down a Krayt Dragon you may end up with the same xp as if you took a few minutes to take down a savage quenker. The moral of the story is, don’t go for the uber boss mob just because you can. Find creatures that give a healthy amount of xp that don’t take forever to take down. You should spend most of your leveling time from Pistol 3-most of pistoleer leveling on Dantooine with several of the mid level mobs there.

Final tips:

If you lay prone at around 60 meters, you can fire a bleed (Health Shot 1 or 2), /peace, stand up, and run out of range (to around 100m). When the first tick of damage occurs, the single target you bleeded will engage and run toward you, but his buddies won't. This is the preferred method of splitting up social creatures who aid one another in combat.

If you group with a low level pet (anything that cons blue or green to you) and leave him in the city, you can kill things on your own and gain an experience bonus. This is because experience payouts are based on the average skill level of your group.

Obviously, a real pet to help in the tanking department would be highly advantageous. Picking up a little Creature Handler or befriending one to group with goes a long way toward making this easier. Someday, maybe we'll have worthwhile combat droids.


"We've had to endure much, you and I, but soon there will be order again. A new age..."

Okay, so Pistoleer has some problems and the fixes could take awhile. But there is some further advancement you can take to alleviate your struggle. You might try Smuggler or Bounty Hunter. If you pick up Novice Commando, you can get the Launcher Pistol and use it with Pistoleer specials to devastating effect.

PISTOLEER FAQ
By Neutral

1.0 Introduction

The "official" pistoleer FAQ was last updated August 2003 (not long after the game was released!) and is now unfortunately horribly out of date:

Quote: "The DX2 looks to be the best overall pistol in the pistoleer certifications."

The DX2 is now considered to be so inaccurate as to be worthless!

Quote: "Q. Which pistol tree should I go up first?
A. Stances and Grips "

Which would be cool if "Stances and Grips" actually existed!

1.1 Change List

The old 1.0 FAQ from August 2003 was completely scrapped.

Version 2.0 - Released Jan 2nd.
Version 2.1 - Released Jan 3rd. Added many important changes based on suggestions ny Tullius and Gold00. This should be the version for some time to come.



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2.0 Pre-Novice Questions ("So you're thinking about becoming a Pistoleer?")

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2.1 Is Pistoleer comparable to Carbineer or Rifleman? How about Commando or Bounty Hunter?

In theory Pistoleer, Carbineer and Rifleman should have roughly the same amount of firepower, with different advantages and disadvantages for each. In practice it's arguable, Rifleman seems to stand out right now, but, at the time of writing (Jan 2nd) the Devs have promised a whole new combat system to make the pros and cons of each combat profession more pronounced, obvious and balanced. With this update coming in the next month or so, there's not much point in further speculation on the current states of the Elite Ranged Combat Professions.

As for Commando and Bounty Hunter, these Hybrid professions take a LOT more XP to master and as you'd expect, offer significantly more damage and skills for your efforts.


2.2 Can I take out "tough" NPCs like Dark Troopers and Field Marshalls by myself as a Master Pistoleer?

In a sentence: A Master Pistoleer with the right weapon, HAM stats, buffs and armor should have no trouble taking on tougher PCs. (It should be noted that some PCs like Krayt Dragons and Maul Graulers are designed to be taken out in GROUPS and will likely kick your butt!)


2.3 Do I need to be a Pistoleer to use a Republic Blaster?

Nope. At the moment there is no certification for this pistol, so anyone can use it (even an Artisan)! It MUST however, have been crafted AFTER the November publish as ones crafted before are bugged for most poeple.



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3.0 Pistoleer Questions ("I'm a Pistoleer, now what?")

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3.1 What branch of the Pistoleer tree should I go down?

A very commonly asked question!

If you are a Smuggler or have the BH pistol line: Marksmanship branch seems to be the best, as you already have good Pistol specials.

If you're a Fencer: Grips branch.

Everyone else: Techniques is your best bet (Fan Shot is very useful).


3.2 Which special is the best (and what are my choices)?

This is a difficult question to answer, because despite the stats, different people seem to have different results. (Most claim that BodyShot3 is worse than BodyShot2, but some have claimed that BodyShot3 has offered them a significant boost. Right now no-one has knows why this is, but it is likely to become clearer when the Devs revamp the Combat system.)

Also your specific situation will likely alter your most appropriate special (is the enemy 2 feet away for 30?).

Regardless, standard advice is the same: Use BodyShot2 until you get FanShot, then use that instead (sometimes interspersed with StoppingShot, depending on who you talk to).

You will also want to "bleed" your opponent with HealthShot1 AND HealthShot2 before you spam them with other specials. (See below for a detailed explanation on "bleeding".)

And for close encounters /pistolMeleeDefense1 is good for knockdowns.

Whatever you prefer, at the time of writing (Jan 2nd), only the following specials are working:

/fanShot

This is widely considered to be our best special. It actually attacks multiple targets and is known to be very effective. It is a tad unusual, however: When you first use it it will aggrovate (make red) all the enemies you can visibly see on your screen (but NOT attack them). From then on it will attack all aggrovated enemies in your "cone".

/stoppingShot may not doing anything close to its ingame description, but some claim to have success with the amount of damage it does.

/pistolMeleeDefense1 is a melee knockdown.

/disarm1 and /disarm2 both do double damage to lairs (but are worthless against anything else).

/healthShot1 and /healthShot2 for "bleeding" your opponent.

/overChargeShot2 is similar to /bodyShot2, but it does a lot more damage to your weapon so you should move on to /bodyShot2 when you get it.

For the rest of the Specials (the ones that are not working) see Section 4.1.


FYI: A common opening attack is:

/aim, /healthShot1, /healthShot2, /stoppingShot, /fanShot


3.3 What is HealthShot or "bleeding"? How can it help me?

HealthShot1 is actually given when the player reached x/4/x/x in the Marksman Tree ("Pistol Specialist"). When fired, the damage number you see on the combat window is NOT damage you just did, it is the value of the "bleed". Now every 20 seconds your opponent will have this damage removed from their Health Bar (the red one) until they're cured or the bleeding stops by itself.

You get HealthShot2 when you become a Novice Pistoleer, and this does the same thing as HealthShot1, but with more damage.

If you or a team-mate start to bleed, it can be cured with multiple applications of the /firstaid skill.

Notes:
Nothing can be incapacitated or killed by bleeding, health will always stop at 1, including your own.

If you try to do healthShot1 twice (for example) then it will overwrite the previous healthShot1 (rather than stack) and reset the timer.

In the combat window, HealthShot1 is referred to as "Sap Shot" and HealthShot2 is referred to as "Sap Blast". It is my fond hope that the devs will change this one day.


3.4 So, are HealthShot1 and HealthShot2 stackable?

In a word: "Yup!". The really great thing about HealthShot1 and 2 is that they work independently of each other! Use both on an opponent for twice the damage!

It is basic tactics to use HealthShot1 and HealthShot2 on an opponent before commencing a "real" attack. (Note: You cannot incapacitate/be incapacitated with bleeding, health always stops at 1.)

It's perhaps also worth noting that the two "bleed" attacks from Fencer are stackable too (giving you a total of four bleed shots if you have the skills!).


3.5 Which pistol is the best?

Another highly debatable point. At the time of writing a Republic Blaster, FWG5 or Scout Blaster are the most frequently recommended weapons of choice.

The CDEF, DH17, Power5 and SRCombat are basic pistols and very poor.
The DL44 and DL44 Metal are slightly better (depending on how well they're crafted).

The Tangle and Striker are notable for their special attacks (Stun and Kinetic, respectively). Using these pistols can prove useful against Stun and Kinetic vulnerable enemies (like Nightsisters, Kimos and PCs wearing composite armor), but they're not usually recommended for general use.

The Scout Blaster, FWG5 and Republic Blaster are all considered to be the best all-around pistols. The Scout Blaster has better speed and lower HAM costs than the FWG5, but the FWG5 does more damage.

The Republic Blaster is generally considered the best of the "all-rounders".

The DX2 (the only pistol you get a Certification in when you become a Pistoleer) is, at the time of writing, hopelessly inaccurate to the point of being bugged.

It is worth noting that some people claim to have good accuracy with their DX2s, so see if it works for you. Some of the best things about a DX2 is that it is an Acid weapon (which most armor is vulnerable to) and it also has a high minimum damage with is potentially useful against an enemy with high damage mitigation (see below for a detailed explanation of how damage mitigation works).

Despite these bonuses the DX2 is still a slow and inaccurate weapon for the majority of people (Jan 2nd).


3.6 What's the best HAM settings to have for Pistoleer?

I go for:

Health = Medium
Usage (Strength) = Low
Regen (Constitution) = Fairly High

Action = Medium
Usage (Quickness) = Medium
Regen (Stamina) = Fairly High

Mind = High
Usage (Focus) = Low
Regen (Willpower) = High

The logic is this: Health and Action can be healed quickly and easily (at the cost of Mind). I hardly lose any Health doing Specials so I keep the Health: Usage (Strength) at a minimum. I keep both Action and Health: Regen (Constitution and Stamina) fairly high. I DO lose Action doing specials so I keep Action: Usage (Quickness) reasonable.

Mind is a pain. I make sure I have high Mind and high Mind: Regen (Willpower) (because you use Mind to heal Health and Action and also you need it to regenerate quickly if Mind is attacked). I don't bother spending much on Mind: Usage (Focus) because I find it more important for Mind to be able to regenerate itself faster.

If my Mind bar gets bad I take off my helmet and run away for a bit, trying to let my Mind bar regenerate (doesn't always work as planned though ). I then heal Health and Action again and return to the fight.

Some have said that with decent enough Medic skills that the secondary Action skills could be better spent on Mind or its secondaries.

Notes:
The secondary stat "Usage" (eg. Strength) changes how much primary stat (eg. Health) you use when doing a Special.

The secondardy stat "Regen" (eg. Constitution) changes how quickly the primary stat (eg. Health) regenerates itself.

Also, taking off any armor will allow your HAM stats to regenerate themselves MUCH quicker.


3.7 Where are the Pistoleer trainers located?

Tyrena, CORELLIA (-5220, -2488)
Keren, NABOO (1258, 2688)
Narmle, RORI (-5240, -2455)
Dearic, TALUS (583, -2871)
Mos Eisley, TATOOINE (3356, -4837)

Note: You can create waypoints to specific locations by typing /wapoint x y

eg.
/waypoint 3356 -4837

(Just make sure you're on the right planet )


3.8 What is "Damage Mitigation"?

Damage Mitigation is a defence against attacks that you get at various points on an Elite Combat Profession tree (eg. Pistoleer ). With Pistoleer you get Ranged Damage Mitigation (as opposed to Melee).

Damage mitigation doesn't reduce the TOTAL damage done to you -- it reduces the RANGE of damage that can be done to you. What does that mean? Well let's take an example:

Someone shoots you with a weapon that has 50-300 damage (50 is the minimum damage that can be done and 300 is the maximum). With no damage mitigation the damage done to you can be anywhere between 50 and 300 points.

With damage mitigation it reduces the RANGE of damage.

Here's the breakdown:

mitigation1 (Techniques I) limits damage to 80% of the range (20% reduction)
mitigation2 (Techniques II) limits damage to 60% of the range (40% reduction)
mitigation3 (Master Pistoleer) limits damage to 40% of the range (60% reduction)

So let's take that example:

Instead of 50 to 300 damage,

With mitigation1 the damage done to you is reduced to between 50 and 250.
With mitigation2 the damage done to you is reduced to between 50 and 200.
With mitigation3 the damage done to you is reduced to between 50 and 150.

The flipside to this means that Minimum Damage is now much more important than before, so your favorite weapon (your 60-500 Krayt modified pistol) might not be so good anymore.


3.9 What's the quickest way to Master Pistoleer?

This is commonly asked question when someone has just been told to Master Pistoleer by a Holocron.

The basic answer is to go up the Techniques branch using a pet of some sort until you get Fan Shot. Fan Shot will allow you to get Pistoleer XP a lot quicker. Simply move up the branches using /healthShot1, /healthShot2 and /fanShot.

3.10 What other Professions compliment Pistoleer?
Smuggler and Bounty Hunter spring immediately to mind because both of them have Pistol Specials that are not in the Pistoleer tree.

[*]Smuggler
Dirty Fighting (x/x/4/x)

/panicShot is a ranged 10 second delay shot

/lowBlow is a ranged knockdown

/lastDitch is the the highest damage pistol shot in the game although if you add up all the damage you can do with fanshot it might beat it depending on how many mobs your damaging each shot

Also /feignDeath is not useless. What they have done is made mobs remember you when you get up so its alot harder to kill uber mobs like Krayt Dragons solo but you can still use it to get out of being incapacitated and also heal while you're down.

The thing about Smuggler specials is that they aren't all that great without Pistoleer skills because even the best shot isnt any good if it misses


[*]Bounty Hunter
Pistol Specialization (x/x/4/x)

Boosts Pistol Accuracy and Speed. Also gives the following Pistol Specials:

/bleedingShot
/eyeShot
/torsoShot


[*]Fencer
Footwork (x/4/x/x)

Recommended for its additional two bleeding attacks:

/melee1hHealthHit1
and
/melee1hHealthHit2

and also its "Defence vs. ____" skills:

Defense Vs. Knockdown
and
Defense Vs. Posture Change (Down)


3.11 How effective are Pistoleer's Defense Mods?

Philosopher1976 (Pistoleer Correspondent) wrote his excellent article explaining our Defense Mods:

As promised, I spent several hours this weekend testing our new Defensive Mods. While there is still a lot of stuff that I'd like to test, the results of the tests that I ran this weekend were really interesting. Here's a quick summary of what I found:

1) Your opponent's accuracy greatly affects your ability to dodge his attacks. This is something we already knew, but it was confirmed by these tests. If your opponent is very accurate, you dodge far less than you would against an inaccurate opponent. You'll dodge the most against inaccurate mobs and you'll dodge the least in PvP, because human players are generally far more accurate than PvE mobs.

2) Dodge is weapon-specific. If you do not have a Pistol equipped, your Dodge modifiers will not work. I ran over 200 tests, both with a pistol equipped and with nothing equipped, and the results are conclusive. This probably means that the Dodge skill from Fencer does not stack with the Dodge skill from Pistoleer, although I have not tested that and thus cannot be certain.

3) Against an accurate opponent in PvP (Master Bounty Hunter), dodge is effective -- as a Master Pistoleer (+105 Dodge), I dodged around 20% of his attacks.

4) Against an inaccurate PvE mob (Cowardly Gurreck), I dodged FAR more (as a Master Pistoleer) than I did against the PvP opponent.

5) Defense v. Knockdown probably requires you to have a pistol equipped as well, and thus probably does not stack with the Defense v. Knockdown from other professions. I'll need more data to be completely certain of this conclusion, but the data I do have strongly suggest that Defense v. Knockdown works like Dodge -- you need a pistol equipped.

6) Defense v. Knockdown (50%, Master Pistoleer) was effective against an opponent who was using a CDEF Carbine to knock me down. The knockdown only works 50% as much as it does when a pistol is not equipped. More data is needed to get a precise answer here.

7) Defense v. Knockdown (50%, Master Pistoleer) was NOT effective against an opponent who was using a Laser Carbine to knock me down. More data is needed to be sure of this conclusion, but based on the tests I ran it doesn't look like Defense v. Knockdown does anything if the other guy is using a good Laser Carbine.

Based on the above, it appears that your ability to knockdown your opponent is affected by the amount of damage that your weapon is spitting out. The Laser Carbine was far more likely to knock me down than the CDEF when I had a pistol equipped. A lot more testing is needed to be sure of this ... it's something I can work on in upcoming weeks.

As you can tell by my conclusions, I focused on Dodge and Defense v. Knockdown because my impression was that people were the most anxious to get those tested. I'll keep on testing other things, so feel free to give me suggestions of other stuff that you would like me to take a look at. I'm going to test Defense v. Blind and get more data on Defense v. Knockdown as soon as I can get a chance. (As a side note, the Dodge animation is still a major problem -- it stops you dead in your tracks when you're moving, which is often a bad thing when you're trying to get away from a mob.)


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4.0 The Bad Stuff ("What's wrong with Pistoleer?")

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4.1 What's not working?

SPECIALS - Nearly all our specials are broken or bugged (Jan 2nd)

/disarmingShot2 and /multiTargetPistolShot (our *Master* specials) do nothing.
/pistolMeleeDefence2 doesn't knock our opponents down (or it does *very* rarely).
/bodyShot3 is worse than /bodyShot2
/stoppingShot does not stop or incapacitate an opponent (despite the description saying it does)
/pointBlankArea2 only hits one target. Also damage is lower than it should be (for a point blank attack)
/doubleTap is worse than /kipUpShot and /rollShot even though they are *Marksman* specials
/pointBlankSingle1 offers no boost in damage (despite being point blank)

All the rest of our specials are random HAM attacks that have a lower damage-per-second output than Marksman specials, don't have any state effects, and do not target a specific HAM pool (and thus, as "random HAM" attacks, hit health 55% of the time).


WEAPONS - We have one weapon; it doesn't work properly

The DX2 Pistol (the only "Pistoleer" pistol in the game) is inferior to the pistols we can use as Marksman, which is why the vast majority of Pistoleers use FWG5 Pistols or Scout Blasters. The DX2 is by FAR the least accurate pistol in the game, the resources it requires are far too rare, and the armor piercing is bugged.

Old versions of the Republic Blaster (the new pistol in the game) are completely bugged. Some people have a certification for it, while others don't, and there doesn't seem to be a reason for it. (Note: Republic Blasters crafted after the November Publish are working correctly.)

Ultimate Guide to Pistoleer PvP
By Ovin Lightheart

First off allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ovin Lightheart of the Valcyn galaxy. I have been a pistoleer throughout my entire Star Wars Galaxies experience which has been since July. As an avid PvPer I have learned a lot about how to fight in small and large scale encounters. I have tried out many different combinations to compliment pistoleer, everything in this guide has been tested thoroughly by me.

At this point in time pistoleer definitely isn’t a powerful class, but with the right equipment, some good planning, and knowledge of the profession we can easily rival any other combat profession. If you want to be a successful PvPer as a pistoleer you will have to spend good amounts of money.


Templates

Master Pistoleer/Master TKA/Master Smuggler
This is one of my favorite templates as a pistoleer, it has it all. With this template you’ll have killer defense and some great offense. With this template it will be very hard for someone to use a KD on you successfully, so don’t be afraid to stand up to another TKA who thinks they can use KD2 on you. Smuggler will give you access to the best pistol specials out there. The combination of Low Blow and Last Ditch is great against any opponent. Some added perks of this template you get a very well rounded character that can easily participate in RPing as well as PvP and PvE and Triple Threat sounds really cool. Alternatively you can drop The Spice and Slicing trees in smuggler and go for novice medic which can be a lifesaver.

Master Pistoleer/Fencing Stances/Novice Commando/Novice Medic/Dirty Fighting
A pure pistol template. With this not only will you get the added speed and accuracy mods from master marksman, but you will also get the Launcher Pistol. The launcher pistol can be incredibly useful during PvP, not against actual PC’s, but against turrets and AT-STs. These two have no defense against blast damage making them very vulnerable to a master pistoleer with a Launcher Pistol spamming Last Ditch. Commando can also help you out during base destructions since it is needed to destroy a base. Dabbling in Fencer gives you a better chance of an enemy missing you since it will give you a large number of ranged and melee defense.

Master Pistoleer/BH Pistol
One of the best PvP templates in my opinion. This will give you the ability to target mind, burn and hit the speed cap. This template can be extraordinarily helpful against defense stackers since you get a great amount of accuracy to the point where you hardly miss anyone, except maybe a fencer with COB. Right now targeting mind is a big deal, and with this template you’ll be able to eyeshot people to oblivion. The two variations of this template are either doing Desperado and getting investigation 3 or getting Pistol 3 and novice medic. With investigation 3 you’ll be able to hunt jedi on the other hand with novice medic you’ll be able to heal you and your buddies. I wouldn't worry about the defense with this template either. Obviously it is low, but you have a high damage output, and your dodge from pistoleer will pick up the slack of not having a high ranged defense. Don't underestimate the value in terrain negotiation either, it is a valuable skill that can help you catch target who like to run away.

Other Template Strategies
Many people prefer having novice brawler over medic. Personally I use novice medic as it makes me nearly invulnerable to being incapped through the Health or Action pools. Brawler could come in very though, intimidate decreases the defense of a target and it makes them do only half the damage. Both will serve you well, but the choice is up to you. Getting some terrain negotiation from scout is also a good way to go, it is helpful if you need to kite a melee target and to catch running opponents.


Weapons


Geonosian Sonic Blaster
This gun is currently the King of the pistoleer’s PvP arsenal. It does stun damage so it’ll cut through most composite like butter. A krayt version of this weapon is obviously preferred , but these are very decent even without the tissue. I know many pistoleers limit themselves to only this weapon while PvPing. Bad idea, these can be easily defended against by PSG’s and stun layered armor

Modified Republic Blaster
My favorite weapon to use against melee weapons. These have a high range between minimum and maximum damage, but their mitigation won’t protect them against that. Krayted versions of these weapons can get up to 500 max damage with a powerup, and I’m sure they can go beyond.

DX2 or Scatter Pistol
If you’re a pistoleer use a DX2, if you’re a bounty hunter use a scatter. These have a good minimum damage which makes them good to use against ranged targets if you’re sonic blaster fails you.

DE-10
I don’t recommend this pistol to everyone. If you can afford attachments or are a BH/Pistoleer hybrid this can be your best friend. It’s not worth it to not krayt this weapon, if you can find the components for it get it krayted. Hitting the speed cap on a damage sliced gun is great. These can get to over 600 damage so one last ditch can easily kill an unbuffed opponent in one shot.


Other Equipment

Armor
I personally prefer armor with a high base and around 4% stun resist. This can block out other pistoleers and fencers with stun batons. This armor has some good HAM costs for what you’re getting as for resists, and it can usually be sliced up to 90%. Some people prefer to use armor with a higher stun resistance, but I feel that the HAM cost doesn’t justify the resists. I’m sorry to say that we’re still going to pretty defenseless against a rifleman carrying a Jawa Ion Rifle.

PSGs
There’s no doubt that the Imperial Personal Shield Generator is the best you can get. Stun resistance on them can be sliced over 50%. Plus they have better durability than any other PSG. Don’t rely on these for armor though, their durability is still very low and they do not always work.

Vasarian Brandy
I’m sure everyone has this by now, but I thought I’d add it anyway. You’re going to want the BE’d version of this as it can give you around 400 to all mind stats, and you can take it twice. Take two of these things and you’ll have an instant mind buff.

Vagnerian Canape
This is only useful if you don’t have a musician buff as every special will get to a pretty low mind cost with that combined with brandy. If you can’t get a mind buff you’ll need this stuff or else specials cost may get out of hand. These should give you at least 700 to your mind stats. I recommend only taking one at a time to keep your stomach free for the next dose.

Vercupti (Double-Buff)If you don’t need any Canape this is the stuff to take. You can pop two of these at a time and get plus 2000 to all your primary stats. Once you eat some of this and get fully buffed you’ll be a walking tank and incredibly hard to take down.

Muon Gold
This is to be used only in emergency. In case you get into trouble with your mind pop one of these and your mind pool will be replenished. Be careful of the downer though..

Attachments
These are only for the very rich. You’ll want pistol speed and accuracy attachments, and maybe even some dodge. With these you may be able to hit the cap with a DE-10 which can be VERY dangerous.

Synthsteak
Personally I don't like this food item, but many people do. I would only use this if vercupti is not available as this fills up a large portion of your stomach capacity. With this food a percentage of damage will be reduced when being attacked. This could be useful if you get KDed.


Air Cake
I would reccomend this to a BH/Pistoleer hybrid who has relativly low defense. This food has low filling and makes your dodge modifier more effective.


General PvP Strategies

Run!- Don’t just stand still and shoot, we have the best accuracy while moving modifier, use it to your advantage!

DOT Weapons- Make sure you have at least one of these, spamming fanshot into a large group of enemies can be lethal for them. If you can get ahold of a mind poison or better yet, fire sonic blaster you’ll be toasting large waves of enemies in no time. If not get a modified republic blaster, don’t underestimate the bleed on these bad boys.

Know your specials- If you have Last Ditch, forget about Stopping Shot! Start off any encounter with a low blow to your opponent if you have it, it can give you the extra jump start you need to survive. If you’re a BH, don’t let people tell you Eyeshot is cheap! Eyeshot is one of the best PvP moves a pistoleer can obtain. Many people are armored and buffed so well they are nearly invulnerable to Health and Action. This is where you can use eyeshot to put your enemy down.

Don't stray far from your group- In large scale PvP encounters I wouldn't reccomend straying too far from your group. Walking around alone will make you an easy target and people will focus their fire on the straggler. If you stay close to your group though even if you get poisoned by a combat medic a doctor will be there to heal you.



Well that’s the guide, I hope you enjoyed it and it works well for you. I may add more to it later on as I discover new things. Don’t let people get away with making fun of pistoleer guys! Let’s get out there and show em all who’s the best!