Marksman help

[Shadowfigure19]

Hello there.

I purchased the game a few days ago, been having a blast on it. I decided to complete the campaign on normal on all 3 classes first to see which I'de want to play to 100 first.

I did it in the following order: Sorc > Merc > Marks.

Sorc was by far my favorite, the utility/mobility of the class is pretty smexy.

Merc pretty fun, damage is insane, utility pretty nice.

Then I hit the Marksman last night. Eck.

I assume I'm just playing him wrong, my first impression was he was pretty cool when I read over his t1 abilities. When I entered the first level and saw the cloak (health regen, focus regeneration buff) I was ecstatic. Thought it was going to be my main class with what I read.

Then i experienced his damage output, and his focus mechanic.

I read some old posts, that his damage is lack luster, but I am curious if people have found a way around this yet. His auto attack is really just a joke, I even tried throwing all my points into upgrading the damage of it, even thought using the upgraded poison trap for the 90% physical damage buff for compensation, but that doesnt even get me to a "mediocre" damage output.

Only thing I seem to be able to do is come in, use my poison streak twice, and run for my life to *regenerate my focus*.

I have to ask though, does anyone else find his focus regeneration a joke compared to the other 2 classes?

I managed to get him to level 10, Thought if I re-speced all my points into spells rather then auto attack to be more of a 'ability reliant' class would be the trick, but got stone-walled with the focus regen mechanic. The moment I hit a giant mob that got through the towers and saw the damage I was doing to it, I simply alt-f4 ragequit.

I am dreading the thought of having to complete the achievements that are marksman specific, so any marksman players out there that can help me out? Or should I just wait for a marksman rework?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Meant to put this in originally. I feel like he might be pretty decent in group-play. Where you can actually afford to run from the battle to regen for your abilities, just doesnt seem reliable currently to me anyway for solo.

[datguy13]

The Marksman is highly gear dependent and relies quite a bit on traps that slow down or inhibit the waves. You'll need a powerful crossbow, alot of +Focus boosts on your equipment and a great number of trap upgrades which reduce the movement speed of the monsters to avoid signficant frustrations.

Wayatan has a good video guide which shows how to play one in T3 and T4. That can give you some idea how to build and work with one.

Here's the thread with the link to the guide:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/310510/discussions/0/611702631210388408/

[Mykell]

Wasn't until i got over level 20 and had access to those skills that he started getting fun.

[Shadowfly]

I am playing one with a Merc on co-op, damage is dreadful but am managing to stay out of the fight so its easier. I am lvl 45ish and almost at the end of tier 3, there are one or 2 levels where having the range is an advantage but I am a little frustrated I do so little damage given my husband can't seem to give the mobs time to acually go near the traps that are uber up graded. I can toe to toe anything without being killed in 3 shots.

[Shadowfigure19]

Thank you @Datguy13, checked out a few of his videos, They deff give me a good idea on how to play, going to go start to finish on his entire guide when I have a bit of time set aside.

@mykell, Yea I checked out the tier 3 abilities, they look like they'd help but that auto attack out-put still makes my cringe T_T

@shadowfly73 #knowdemfeels :|

[mikeydsc]

The thing that seems to help me the most so far is finding gear that adds physical and gear that adds to enemies already poisoned since shoot with its passive adds poison damage. I am only level 31 but since I have been finding gear that has these 2 stats seems the damage output went up alot. Dont know about farther in and am wondering if this is appropriate?

Also is fury really good for later levels?

[[SQ]Noname]

Scattershot is quite powerful, when up close so that all bullets hit the target it hits very hard. You should try to skill that as far as possible.

Then put some points into the skill that accelerates cloaking & Focus regeneration, which helps as well.

[andrew]

Originally posted by Shadowfigure:

I am dreading the thought of having to complete the achievements that are marksman specific, so any marksman players out there that can help me out? Or should I just wait for a marksman rework?

Thanks in advance.

On low levels. Just replace poison streak with scattershot. Scattershot on 120% poison trap removes 2/3 hp bar of mini boss and 1/4-1/3 boss's hp bar. And you can do it twice per full focus bar.

It is all about moving around portals and defense points.

[Shadowfly]

I repeced to the same as the guy on the videos, much better dps but still die quick

[andrew]

The main problem, probably, is that you trying play marx after merc. Merc is a fat guy who packs together mobs around and smash them down. Marx goes other way: build slowing down traps/towers, meet wave asap, damage mobs that might cause problems for defense towers, jump away, regen focus, help towers to burst down pack... regen, jump to "problem" mob again, unload focus and run to meet new spawned pack, jump/run, finish mobs who pass through killing box, jump/run to finish "problem" mob, and so on.

Marx don't fight mobs face to face like merc (or sourc, ranged but still face to face), if mobs reached you then you did something really wrong early. Marx is fast and sneaky ranged killing machine. It was hard at start till I became familiar with marx gameplay, but then it became a way easy that merc. At lvl 20-24, when I got some piercing/phis damage items, it became even too easy. For example t3 bottomless pit is a big pain for merc but it is a joke for marx with all his mobility and ranged dps skills.

As starting combo you might try full upgraded sentry gun (full upgrade), monster cage (3/3/3/0/0) and poison trap (full upgrade). You can add razor here for armored mobs, however armored mobs not a problem on low level, they all slow so you can do 3-5 scattered shots unload jumps on them till they get close to the gate. SG will deal with giants and pack horde into compact groups, monsters will tank mobs and acid trap has pretty good dps but also boosts your's and trap's damage a lot.

[mikeydsc]

Originally posted by andrew:

As starting combo you might try full upgraded sentry gun (full upgrade), monster cage (3/3/3/0/0) and poison trap (full upgrade). You can add razor here for armored mobs, however armored mobs not a problem on low level, they all slow so you can do 3-5 scattered shots unload jumps on them till they get close to the gate. SG will deal with giants and pack horde into compact groups, monsters will tank mobs and acid trap has pretty good dps but also boosts your's and trap's damage a lot.

And where did you get all the essence for these builds in T3 bottomless pit? You start with 300ish. No way you can build like this - its not possible.

[andrew]

Well, that was combo for low level.

I saw your posts in other topic about t3 BP problem. Here is some hints. As was mentioned, main problem is behemoth's shields on armored/poison mobs. Behemot cast shield when you attack him, so you have to be careful not to attack behemoth when little guys next to him. For example, you can body aggro poison guys from a parallel lane, so they stop to spit on you, behemoth will move away -- burst down little guys. You can hit behemoth so he just pop up shield when he away from other. There is spots on map with empower towers which buffs your dps for 30% (2 towers is 60%). You can build it, kill mobs on parallel lane and remove it to place it at other empowered point.

And SG with full upgrade deals with behemoths pretty well.

[datguy13]

Originally posted by mikeydsc:

And where did you get all the essence for these builds in T3 bottomless pit? You start with 300ish. No way you can build like this - its not possible.

It's possible to produce up to 1,000pts worth of additional Essence in Wave 1 of Bottomless Pit, Tier 3. Upgrade the Essence Trap prior to the start of the map to around 8 and 8 for each category, then get 2 Stars in the first in-game Upgrade option. Then, in the map, make sure to put down two Essence traps; one for each side of the Portal. Kill as many of the wave on these Essence Traps as possible, while building up a pair of Ice Pillars to cover flyers. This works with all three classes, although for the Marksman, you need to build the Essence traps further out from your Portal than with Mercenary or Sorceress.

[mikeydsc]

I assume your meaning of portal is the core housing?

[datguy13]

Yes, I mean put a trap on either path tot he side of your base. Just make sure you place them far enough out so the Marksman can retreat to regenerate Focus without you losing out on too much bonus essence.