The Rifle

[Lashocracy Manifest]

Is it just me or is it utter garbage? really weak 1cost shot. Inaccurate as all hell not super strong 2cost shot. it's aoe is a decent CC debuff but that's not worth it for equipping and it's 4 is fine.

[Firedust]

Yeah the damage seems too low.

[licker34]

I have finally used one as a swap just because I didn't have anything better to give (and it's epic and has some nice boosts). It's not terrible as a 2ndary since it allows you to one shot various dudes in later nights, but it's not necessary. As a starting weapon it sure has problems though.

[Shadowmarth]

It's decent. It's obviously worse in some regards than other weapons (seemingly to balance out its generally very good range) but I won my first run with a rifleman running the specialist perk (no second weapon) to give me a second snipe and smoke grenade. Combined with a fair bit of crit, it was capable of taking out most small enemies with hip fire, medium enemies with the 2 cost base fire, and large enemies with the snipe. The snipe is one of the better single-target attacks you can get, and the smoke grenade is pretty unique and useful, especially in the last few nights when you will definitely be able to get 10-20 units with it each turn. I do think that the hip fire probably doesn't need to be inaccurate though.

[captncookie]

Yeah I think 2AP for just damage is pretty steep when most weapon can kill 1 target for 1AP. It should at least stun.

[Khnemu]

Longbow and shortbow seem a bit too op, tbh.
I think they'll be nerfed down.

[Lashocracy Manifest]

I don't know about that. The longbow is a good single target killer and aoe CC is... decent, but the shortbow has a fairly good aoe, and then weak everything else. Both have drawbacks. Melee weapons seem vastly stronger in terms of how many you can kill per AP/Mana cost and as long as you have block, you're never going to die in melee. The Two-Handed axe is utterly insane.
The rifle just appears to have almost entirely drawbacks. Assassinate is great for 1 thing and the rest of it sucks. Though the 5x2 grenade is a fairly nice slowing tool.
It also just makes less sense that it's easier to dodge the rifle than the bows.

[Khnemu]

Melee weapons = getting hit and having to move, be in range, etc.
While bows, especially on towers, allow you to hit from very far.
They don't have many drawbacks tbh.

I think it's just a balancing issue, some numbers should be lowered, some others upped a bit...

[Khnemu]

Here's some longbow
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2555985770

[Collimatrix]

Rifle still beats the snot out of the large crossbow.

[Caedwyn]

The rifle is a crossbow that went super saiyan.

It hasn't cracked SSJ2 yet, but as loud as it screams, give it time.

[Primary]

Originally posted by Caedwyn:

The rifle is a crossbow that went super saiyan.

It hasn't cracked SSJ2 yet, but as loud as it screams, give it time.

You need to consider that the 2 hand crossbow is about the same power as Yamcha...

[Caedwyn]

Originally posted by Primary:

Originally posted by Caedwyn:

The rifle is a crossbow that went super saiyan.

It hasn't cracked SSJ2 yet, but as loud as it screams, give it time.

You need to consider that the 2 hand crossbow is about the same power as Yamcha...

Before or after training with King Kai?

Irrelevant.

[enricofermi2]

I agree the rifle is bad, the base attack cost 2x but does less than 2x damage. why would you ever use that.

It also makes your movement go down, for some reason, despite already being weak.

It also seems to have below averave magic abilities.

So you have a weapon that debuffs your hero, and has bad attack and specials.

[XartaX]

The reason you use rifle is for Suppressive Fire and Assassinate. Combined with rivaling Longbow Range I wouldn't say it's bad. It's definitely not broken or at the top of the list for every situation, but I'd probably put it somewhere in the middle overall. If I want raw AoE number of targets hit I'd certainly take it over the shortbow. Due to it's range it can also easily support two different fronts.

It actually pairs quite well with the longbow, as the longbow will give you plenty of skills to use your AP on while still letting you throw out suppressive fires and assassinates. Both also make use of Isolated, and due to having similar range they can sit in a tower near one of your corners.

[oliver.bengtsson]

I generally have towers in every corner with a ground teleport attached, and the last heroes I recruit will be wielding rifle/longbow. They will be in charge of killing the bosses and supporting where they are best needed, due to their isolated skills and skill range match up. Usually starts at the west and east points.
Assassinate and snipe or even basic longbow attack if I got lucky with crit chance/power is more then enough to kill the boss with 3-4 AP and then keep picking out stuff.

Even so, the rifle is barely used outside killing the boss and the occasional hip-shot when I run out of longbow moves.

The suppression shot is a great debuff, but not necessary late game when you can just kill anything. Early game if you start with one, it is useful... But so is a shortbow or hand crossbow that can straight up murder the enemy with AoE.