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[Svankensen]

After taking a break cause exams were comming, i decided to give the Sharpshooter another try. I've had to fight strongly against my hoarding instincs in my UV sharpsooter runs. Yesterday they took a victim that was almost a win, cause i tried to save one large medkit (and also cause i was using that shield armor, and when you kill the cyberdemon the bastard doenst let you prepare for the next floor), but that didnt anger me, cause i took a bad tactical decision. I've died a million and 1 times trying this build, and i plan to die one million and 1 more until i master it. Its all fun. BUT, i still need to learn, and UV doesnt lend itself easily for experimentation.

For context, i usually go SoG->SoG->SoG->EE->EE->WK->EE->MSs->Int->Int (by usually i mean the 2 times i've actually gotten sharpshooter in UV) with the WK mostly being after MSs, but in rare ocasions like this one entering earlier cause i had all the mods for stormbolt and i needed a strong single target weapon quickly.

So, a few questions:
- Only found the combat pistol once in UV. Just bad luck? Where should it start spawning?
- I tend to use plasma riffles against shamblers, are they better or worse than a Storm pistol? And with a single technical mod?
- When do you get rid of your tactical shotgun? (i ALWAYS build one) I usually do around city of skulls (wich i usually dont do, since i always seem to end up behind in resources).
- I ALWAYS do hells armory, specifically cause i wouldnt know how to kill the bruiser brothers without the rocket launcher and the extra experience is very nice early on. The blue armor deosnt hurt either. I usually spend 1-3 medkits in there. However, ive heard that the Chained court is much easier otherwise, and it tends to be one of my problem levels. So, Pros-Cons?
- Im starting to hate radar shooting (not really). It almost always causes humanoids to spend medkits i could have gotten otherwise. Also frequently blows up barrels wich destroy other items. Am i using it too much? Is the only other alternative run-wait?
- Sometimes when i run wait mobs shoot at me. Usually near closed doors. Is it location dependant? Any advice on how to prevent it?
- What do you build for Sharpshooter?

I usually go:
* Tactical Shottie
* Maybe a microlauncher
* Stormbolt
* Tactical boots
* B+P Red armor if i have them. In that order, i wont P a red armor without B unless im swimming in Ps or red armors.
* Hyperblaster
* Energy pistol

I've usually aimed at stormbolt, since i had a stormbolt combat pistol in my previous Sharpshooter win (HMP) and it was amazing, but the normal Storm pistol doent cause knockback, so i've been thinking of simply modding a normal pistol with power mods and abuse knockback instead.

[LuckyDee]

Ooooh lotsa questions. Let me jump straight into the fray:

- Only found the combat pistol once in UV. Just bad luck? Where should it start spawning?

It's an exotic weapon, so yeah, it's even more of a luck thing than finding regular stuff.

- I tend to use plasma riffles against shamblers, are they better or worse than a Storm pistol? And with a single technical mod?

Although there's too many variables to work this out accurately, let's just look at raw DPS:

The plasma rifle will give you (1d7)*6 with a fire time of 1.0s, halving its armor of 3. I think I've read that Shambler suffer more damage from plasma than from other types of attacks, though I'm not sure. Assuming you have Sharpshooter makes no difference in damage for the rifle. Now take an unmodded Storm Bolter made from a vanilla pistol: 1d8x2 with a fire time of 0.85s, no armor bonus, but max damage due to Sharpshooter. Because of SOG3, you also get +3 damage per shot, and a 60% fire time reduction. So average DPS for the rifle is (4-1)*6 = 18; average DPS for the MSs Storm Bolter is ((8+3-3)*2)/(0.85*0.4) = 47. I don't know how much extra damage a Shambler might take from plasma, but unless it's around 300%, I think you might as well leave the rifle out of consideration altogether.

- When do you get rid of your tactical shotgun? (i ALWAYS build one) I usually do around city of skulls (wich i usually dont do, since i always seem to end up behind in resources).

I think this really depends on how the game is going. Keeping a shotgun handy to tackle the Agony Elemental makes sense, although I'd rather have a double than a tactical. In fact, I think I'd hardly bother building a tac shotty on an MSs run at all; an unmodded combat shotgun should serve you well enough until you can rely on the pistol.

- I ALWAYS do hells armory, specifically cause i wouldnt know how to kill the bruiser brothers without the rocket launcher and the extra experience is very nice early on. The blue armor deosnt hurt either. I usually spend 1-3 medkits in there. However, ive heard that the Chained court is much easier otherwise, and it tends to be one of my problem levels. So, Pros-Cons?

I'm assuming you mean Hell's Arena instead. If you can consistently beat CC+ (the Unchained Court), then simply do so. Regular CC is indeed a lot easier, but you also get a lot less xp and fewer cool items.

- Im starting to hate radar shooting (not really). It almost always causes humanoids to spend medkits i could have gotten otherwise. Also frequently blows up barrels wich destroy other items. Am i using it too much? Is the only other alternative run-wait?

You can also run around like a maniac and get shot a lot.

- Sometimes when i run wait mobs shoot at me. Usually near closed doors. Is it location dependant? Any advice on how to prevent it?

Waiting always takes n*1.0s. If a monster can move faster than that, it might be able to get a shot in before your wait ends.

- What do you build for Sharpshooter?

I usually go:
* Tactical Shottie
* Maybe a microlauncher
* Stormbolt
* Tactical boots
* B+P Red armor if i have them. In that order, i wont P a red armor without B unless im swimming in Ps or red armors.
* Hyperblaster
* Energy pistol

You could skip half the stuff on this list (tac shotgun, microlauncher, hyperblaster). The storm bolter and energy pistol are smart choices. So is the BP red, as a backup armor. For other stuff, see some of Sylph's posts - she's a genius at making the most of assemblies.

[Svankensen]

Im too sleepy ATM to articulate a decent response, so ill just say a big thank you for the answer for now ;)

[Tormuse]

LuckyDee did a pretty good job of answering this,  :)  so I'm just gonna address one point:

- When do you get rid of your tactical shotgun?

Never ever ever.  Not ever!  :P  Of course, different people are going to have different strategies, but I'm really quite fond of the tactical shotgun.  It's frequently handy having a weapon with some spread that can take out groups of small monsters or knock back big ones, so it's a weapon I'll use right up 'til the end of the game.  It may not have the DPS of the plasma rifle, but never underestimate the tactical benefit.  (heh)  Even if I'm using a pistol build, I'd keep it around anyway, just in case bullets become scarce in the later levels and I need some other ammo to tide me over.  Also, a lot of people swear by the double shotgun, but unless I'm playing a shotgun build, I usually get rid of it.  The ranged damage drop-off is so great that it's only really useful at point-blank range and if I'm that close, I figure I'll just use the Chainsaw.

Again, this is all just my opinion/style and I recognize that a lot of people play differently, so take it with a grain of salt.

[Thiebs]

I like the tactical shotgun for the simple fact that if you ever have to reload the double shotgun, you're probably dead. Thata must be why shotty builds love it. ;) But is it worth building over just sticking with the combat shotgun? I'd vote yes, though I would prioritize it lower than some other assemblies. But I have also found it to be exceptionally useful, right up to the end of Ao100, even.

[LuckyDee]

if you ever have to reload the double shotgun, you're probably dead.

For the record, naturally the full strategy in putting the double shotgun to use against the agony elemental also involves carrying around a shellbox or two.

[Thiebs]

The Agony Elemental is the exception. That's one of the few fights that's less about speed and avoiding damage and more about raw damage output. In real life, I'd break my arm firing the Doom double shotgun, but if I saw an Agony Elemental coming at me, it'd be worth it. So it's totally worth it for Doomguy!

[Sylph]

- Only found the combat pistol once in UV. Just bad luck? Where should it start spawning?

You might find one in the armoury! It's extremely rare though, plan to go the whole game without it, and just shout at yourself when you find one after already making your storm pistols! :D

- I tend to use plasma riffles against shamblers, are they better or worse than a Storm pistol? And with a single technical mod?

Remember that the plasma rifle needs reloading every 6 seconds, and the shambler just so happens to teleport every 6 seconds (on average)! This means pretty much no reloads for plasma! Every 6 turns, typically, your plasma rifle will deal 108 damage to the shamber. The same 6 turns with the storm pistol, assuming you have sharpshooter, will deal 192 damage due to the nearly *3 turns* of reloading you'll spend with it! Best advice here is get a 10mm bullet box for your storm bolter pistol, which will make your damage go up to 272!

I just checked a past video I posted of a nightmare pistol run I recorded on youtube sometime ago (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=DEGKushTuBQ#t=2516) , and I noticed that on nightmare, close to but not exactly 100% completion, I was level 7 when I hit the armoury. I suspect a 100% ultra violence would be similar (but I don't play ultraviolence very often), meaning with the build posted here you might not yet have sharpshooter. Bear in mind that, without sharpshooter, the plasma rifle absolutely blows the storm bolter pistol out of the water!

- When do you get rid of your tactical shotgun? (i ALWAYS build one)

You should be able to do without it. Personally, I wouldn't dream of bothering to build one. You're building for pistols, keep a combat shotgun around for radar shooting and corner knockback sure, but don't waste yummy mods on it! Power and tech mods are extremely useful for building towards special pistols (highpower is most important). Your first highpower pistol with a sharpshooter build is far more important than saving 0.2s pumping a shell into a combat shotgun between shots. Bear in mind that a sharpshooter will ALWAYS knock a target back when firing a P-modded or highpower pistol, and can fire it fast enough to knock a target back 2-3 squares for every 1 square forward it moves. Even without sharpshooter, a SoGx3 highpower pistol will tend to knock targets back as quickly as they advance, holding them in place until you start reloading!

- I ALWAYS do hells armory, specifically cause i wouldnt know how to kill the bruiser brothers without the rocket launcher and the extra experience is very nice early on. The blue armor deosnt hurt either. I usually spend 1-3 medkits in there. However, ive heard that the Chained court is much easier otherwise, and it tends to be one of my problem levels. So, Pros-Cons?

I tend to do a couple of waves of hell's armoury when doing pistols, but neglect to finish it specifically so that I get the easier chained court. This is on nightmare difficulty though, on ultra violence outside of a challenge mode I'd probably complete it too. However, you shouldn't be struggling to beat the bruiser brothers on UV whether you have a rocket launcher or not. I tend to use corner shooting and running mode to beat them. You can do it taking next to zero damage on UV even without any shotgun or hellrunner traits. This video is on HMP, but the same stuff basically works for UV (with perhaps a medkit to get a second burst of running mode to get you back to the start room): https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&list=UUBAtJjL3jUl_hIv6ufIRigQ&v=jdPcxR6yDbQ#t=1958

- Im starting to hate radar shooting (not really). It almost always causes humanoids to spend medkits i could have gotten otherwise. Also frequently blows up barrels wich destroy other items. Am i using it too much? Is the only other alternative run-wait?
- Sometimes when i run wait mobs shoot at me. Usually near closed doors. Is it location dependant? Any advice on how to prevent it? 

I'd say use more run-wait than radar shooting. You're right that sometimes monsters can see you when you can't see them, getting to attack you 'from the dark' while you're runwaiting, but as time goes on you'll get better at recognising the waiting positions that normally cause it, and avoiding them.

- What do you build for Sharpshooter?

A highpower pistol, maybe 2. That's all a sharpshooter really needs to finish the game, but after that I'd probably make your priority tactical boots, tactical armour, and hellrunner so that you can really abuse the fast fire speed and perfect cornershooting that sharpshooter offers.
If you're not going to try to be super-clever against every monster, and wanna play a bit more 'wet and wild' with it, then I'd perhaps focus on whizkid like you do, but I wouldn't dream of building the assemblies that you do. I'd go highpower pistol, tactical boots, power + bulk red, fireproof red, storm pistol, energy pistol. If on nightmare, I'd make demolition ammo pistol my number 1 priority, but outside of nightmare, don't go near it with a bargepole!

I think you aught to give other assemblies/mods a try btw - your modding is a little sub-optimal! Microlauncher is pointless, tactical shottie is not worth it on a pistol user, P mod a red BEFORE B-modding it. Hyperblaster is pointless on most rapidfire builds, never mind pistol ones! Energy pistol is not worth it for a sharpshooter - it's greatest strength is being able to play without 10mm ammo in an angel of marksmanship challenge game, and even then a sharpshooter is so ammo efficient you'll never need it!

I've usually aimed at stormbolt, since i had a stormbolt combat pistol in my previous Sharpshooter win (HMP) and it was amazing, but the normal Storm pistol doent cause knockback, so i've been thinking of simply modding a normal pistol with power mods and abuse knockback instead.

You're on the right track! You can just make a highpower pistol for good knockback with pistol builds, but a sharpshooter is capable of achieving 100% knockback with a normal P-modded pistol, so for a sharpshooter the highpower pistol is more for getting through the early-mid game - if you can go without it, then save the mods and make do with a power pistol! Oh, and you don't want a storm pistol to knockback, since it will make the second bullet miss, halving the damage! If you want a dream pistol for a sharpshooter, haev a play with a demolition ammo combat pistol! ;)

[Tormuse]

A highpower pistol, maybe 2. That's all a sharpshooter really needs to finish the game...

Here's another place where our styles differ; I prefer Speedloader pistols over Highpower pistols.  The way I see it, a pistol build's biggest disadvantage is that you can only shoot one enemy at a time.  This is fine if they're coming at you one at a time, but in this version of the game, you frequently encounter large groups of large enemies (especially at higher difficulty levels) which means frequent reloading is necessary and the slower reload time and more frequent reloading of the highpower pistol just isn't worth having a little extra damage.

Of course, there's no reason you couldn't get both.  :)  (PB on one pistol and AT on the other)  Then, just switch to whichever is more appropriate for a given situation.

You might find one in the armoury! It's extremely rare though, plan to go the whole game without it, and just shout at yourself when you find one after already making your storm pistols! :D

Why shout at yourself?  I prefer to shout at the game!  :P  Or I'll shout at the RNG...  Sometimes, I'll just shout at the whole Universe.  (What can I say?  Sometimes, I just get mad at how things are going)  :D

Take that, Universe!!!

[thelaptop]

* thelaptop appears and looks at Tormuse in interest

Somebody called for an exterminator?

That said, yes, both viewpoints hold.  MSs benefits best from cover, so in either case, try to stay in cover as much a you can; using speedloaders mostly with high powered pistols on the tough ones is a viable strategy for the long-haul.

[Sylph]

Here's another place where our styles differ; I prefer Speedloader pistols over Highpower pistols.  The way I see it, a pistol build's biggest disadvantage is that you can only shoot one enemy at a time.  This is fine if they're coming at you one at a time, but in this version of the game, you frequently encounter large groups of large enemies (especially at higher difficulty levels) which means frequent reloading is necessary

I'd totally see where you were coming from, but when playing sharpshooter games, I keep an ammo chain in the prepared slot almost all of the time (I only remove it to safely reload). Thus, I probably don't appreciate the advantages of the speedloader pistol at all, but very much enjoy the knockback and far higher damage of the highpower pistol.
The way I look at it, an ammo chain removes pretty much all of the advantage of a speedloader, whereas it removes pretty much all of the weakness of a highpower.

I like speedloaders for other pistol builds, but specifically for sharpshooters (since they aren't dualgunning) I really can't see the point in building them.

[Svankensen]

Well, im so glad i asked, this has sparked a good discussion. I didnt know the reload on the combat shottie was so short, altrough i did notice it took far less than the rest of the shotties. Maybe just pmodding it. I think my overuse of shotties may be precisely cause i love knockback. I guess with this comeback of knockbacking pistols i may let the shotties rest a bit. It may be a thing of ultraviolence, but no matter the build i play shotguns take an important role almost until hell  (even on my intuition cateye builds). Im sad to hear the combat pistol is a rarity, for some reason i came across it a lot on my earlier games, so i tought it was just uncommon. I've actually never built a speedloader. I usually stick to the T-modded pistol until i can get a DPS upgrade (weird to use that phrase on a turn based game), since the faster shot time is priceless.

Oh and before i forget, you said one high power pistol or two. Wich is god damn confusing. Were you refering to dualgunner builds? Or just in case you dont have ammo chains you stick a second one the slot for quick (1s) swap?

[thelaptop]

I think Sylph uses only one High Powered Pistol and use the quick reload capabilities of the Ammo Chain to reduce the reload time to something ridiculous, and therefore has never had the need to use Speedloader Pistols.

Speedloaders are relatively cheap to build mods-wise, and since Ammo Chains aren't actually guaranteed drops, it may be wise to invest in one in the early game.  You'll definitely do less damage per shot, but you get slightly more shots in over the same period of time, which works relatively well.

[Sylph]

Oh and before i forget, you said one high power pistol or two. Wich is god damn confusing. Were you refering to dualgunner builds?

Sorry, that's an artifact from my cut-and-pasting while I was writing my post, above. I meant one highpower pistol for a sharpshooter, maybe changing to stormbolter if you bother with whizkid (I'd rather go for hellrunner or berserker, both of which are better than most advanced or expert assemblies - whizkid only become worth it if you use your finesse to also take juggler, imo).