Is Weapon Specialist Worth it?

[j.benjamincebrero]

it seems like alot of points for minimal gain honestly.

[Steinar]

You can make a build with it, but imo the ability is really boring to use.

[JuX]

Depends on your loadout and if you are going down the path already.

The branch has melee talents and brittle talent is outstanding for rapid fire weapons. Thou secondary talents are mostly underwhelming with "Always prepared" being only interesting one. Since you can for example reload a shell in to your double barrel just by killing any enemy in melee.

[The Hermit Gamer]

Weapon specialist vet with the plasma gun is the strongest build you can currently put on the vet. Mainly using it for free reloads, crits and shooting speed. It's also a fun play-style if you like to weave in and out of melee with any weapon that is punchy and benefits from being passively reloaded.

[Low Infra Fold]

Yeah, it greatly depends on your loadout.

To put it simply, if you swap weapons a lot (something that is not recommended except for weapons that are notably quick to bring to bear), this would be useful.

For example, I have a Tactical Axe and Revolver build; the revolver can fire almost immediately after I swap to it, and I can swap back to the Axe. I still need almost a full second before I can use the Axe, but the Revolver shot would likely have cleared whatever that is in front of me to give me that one-second reprieve.

For that build, I used only two points on Weapons Specialist and its nodes - specifically the one that reloads the gun with at least 1 unit of ammo after swapping to it. 1 unit of ammo goes a long way for a Revolver, that said.

[Arani]

Originally posted by j.benjamincebrero:

it seems like alot of points for minimal gain honestly.

As opposed to what? Most of my vet builds use weapons specialist and I consider it by far the best of the 3 keystones.

Marksman's Focus path offers very little past Precision Strikes if you can manage your ammo, while MF itself needs both ridiculously good aim & an extreme finesse ranged. Focus Target by design runs counter to how I use tagging in the first place (I mark priorities for awareness or to better spot them, not just spam it on whatever I'm shooting at in the moment), and most of the talents on the path there after Tactical Awareness are very situational. Yes ofc it depends on builds, both can be great, but not in my usual builds.

Weapons Specialist path gives +25% crit for both weapons on any extended fights, insane melee crit & speed bonuses, while WS itself gives autocrits, autoreload, and constant on-demand stamina generation. It also flows naturally into how T5+ plays, mixing between melee & ranged.

Most of the time I use shotguns, bolt pistols or laspistols for ranged and either a knife, TacAxe or DClaw for melee. In all of those cases Weapons Specialist adds a constant massive DPS buff. Invigorated is also a fantastic match for Deadshot, both ensuring you can always parry / push-attack after switching to melee as well as refueling Deadshot itself once you switch back to ranged.

[Sea Base]

Originally posted by Arani:

Originally posted by j.benjamincebrero:

it seems like alot of points for minimal gain honestly.

As opposed to what? Most of my vet builds use weapons specialist and I consider it by far the best of the 3 keystones.

Marksman's Focus path offers very little past Precision Strikes if you can manage your ammo, while MF itself needs both ridiculously good aim & an extreme finesse ranged. Focus Target by design runs counter to how I use tagging in the first place (I mark priorities for awareness or to better spot them, not just spam it on whatever I'm shooting at in the moment), and most of the talents on the path there after Tactical Awareness are very situational.

Weapons Specialist & path gives +25% crit for both weapons on any extended fights, insane melee crit & speed bonuses, and Weapons Specialist itself gives autocrits, autoreload, and constant on-demand stamina generation. It also flows naturally into how T5+ plays, mixing between melee & ranged.

Most of the time I use shotguns, bolt pistols or laspistols for ranged and either knives, tacaxes or Devil's Claw for melee. In all of those cases Weapons Specialist adds a constant massive DPS buff. Invigorated is also a fantastic match for Deadshot, both ensuring you can always parry / push-attack after switching to melee as well as refueling Deadshot itself once you switch back to ranged.

Don't forget it combos soooo well with Agile Engagement, giving you +25% ranged and melee damage.

[❛❛Vénttea❜❜]

Weapon Specialist is probably the best utility keystone that more supports more aggressive playstyle. Mileage may vary, like if you run a MK6 Knife, Invigorate is a godsend but if you run a MK3 Knife it really isnt.

Of all the nodes on Weapon Specialist, the most useless is definitely Stamina reduction. Whereas reload and toughness regen is great on saving on points and the benefits of it outweights a lot if you have a habit of weapon switching. All I can say is, if you're good at Weapon Specialist you are more likely good at the game due to how nuanced it is, similar to Marksmans Focus if you can consistently maintain your stacks.

[j.benjamincebrero]

I don't really see the appeal though because the left side of the tree has some pretty good nodes and Weapon Specialist needs too many points to access, since you can just do away with the nodes on the right side of the tree. Only Desperado seems good and Onslaught on the right.

[j.benjamincebrero]

Also is Rending Strikes worth it?

[Democratic Terrorism]

Yes.

[Kreddi]

It's part of one of, if not the, best veteran build currently.
So yes.

[miscellaneous unc]

Originally posted by j.benjamincebrero:

it seems like alot of points for minimal gain honestly.

Never having to reload your gun, getting free on demand critical hits and getting on demand attack speed is... Minimal gain?

[Cyzxxikz]

Originally posted by j.benjamincebrero:

I don't really see the appeal though because the left side of the tree has some pretty good nodes and Weapon Specialist needs too many points to access, since you can just do away with the nodes on the right side of the tree. Only Desperado seems good and Onslaught on the right.

gotta disagree here, the talents above weapon specialist are all really good

[Real_]

Originally posted by j.benjamincebrero:

it seems like alot of points for minimal gain honestly.

its only really good for RP builds. allot of people dip into the left for perks like reciprocity with desperado, or onslaught, or invigorated. the only other use is for the penances.

if you go solid right path or right build you can get a fun build that you can take in to damnations, its not its not as good as the meta but it requires you to know the class inside and out to use right, it will like a weaker defensive zealot, so play like that.

[Urinietszche]

Useful to speed up clunky melee weapons such as chain sword or combat axe