good damage pistols for casting professions

[Unkala]

I will likely respec into SMGs for even more damage once I don't need buff pistols to cast better pets. In the meantime, there are levels where the pistol buffs aren't enough to give me access to my next round of nanos and aren't necessary to cast the current round, so a little more damage would be nice.

I've found these so far:

Rare

* Customized IMI Desert Reet 1000 (Biomare boss drop)
* SOL K-91 Monster (dyna-drop only?)
* Bronto Anaesthetic Pistol (dyna-drop only?)
* The Original Electronicum (dyna-drop only above QL40) [EDIT]

Storebought/Rollable

* OT M-10 Flechette family
* FN 7-7 family (only good with high Ranged Init.)

I'm trying to limit IP cost to Pistol, Fling Shot, and Burst, and maybe a little on Ranged Init. for now. Is there anything I've overlooked? I'm an Omni-Tek Solitus MP, if it matters.

Thanks!

[Haloer]

A few words: original electronicum...

Seem rather nice, but haven't used them, so not sure...

[Sferykal]

The Original Electronicum for offhand use (either that or the Bronto).

Edit: Hah! Haloer beat me to it

[Xpheyel]

I'd be interested in how this turns out, I've got an Omni-Tek Solitus Metaphysicist Pistolero toon as well. Not leveled up enough to use stuff effectively past shuttleport pistols though.

I was looking at various ETE Strike Guns as a rollable option until I could get Customized Desert Reets. Even though they've got Silverstone's lackeys name on it, it isn't side locked.

Hm, I look the look of those Flechette guns for the speed. Maybe I'll start with those.

[Sferykal]

ETE Strike Guns are fast, have a long range compared to many other guns (especially for pistols, that is), but lack a bit in the damage compared to slower more damage dealing guns. They are a good option for the early levels, once you have outgrown the starter pistols. There will be a turnpoint, where slower weapons are fast enough due to your ranged init, but until then it's definitively a viable alternative (and cheap on top of it).

[Tarradax]

I've used a pair of Khemo-Tech pistols on my crat... Split reqs between Energy/Pistol make them easy to twink into, but they're a little hard to come across.

[Unkala]

The Original Electronicum for offhand use (either that or the Bronto).

That's another dyna-drop only, except at low levels (RK backyards up to QL10, Jobe store up to QL~40).

ETE Strike Guns are fast, have a long range compared to many other guns (especially for pistols, that is), but lack a bit in the damage compared to slower more damage dealing guns. They are a good option for the early levels, once you have outgrown the starter pistols. There will be a turnpoint, where slower weapons are fast enough due to your ranged init, but until then it's definitively a viable alternative (and cheap on top of it).

A lot of buyable/rollable guns are close to each other in damage output, then there's a big jump to how dynaloot and raid drops perform.

No, I'm not surprised.

[Ferengi]

Is there anything I've overlooked?

The engineer pistol series. Not quite the damage of the Desert Reet, but cheaper on the IP, trivial to obtain, trivial to upgrade and rather nice crits off of it.

Guns are all pretty much the same, the 'flavor' is not important. Sometimes the SMG flavor is better, because of faster Burst cycle times (OT Kerans or Boosted Hellspinners), or the AR flavor has the best Fling cycles (with some pumping). There are lots of tradeoffs and it really requires a lot of database mining (in the XML version).

Low range can be fixed with Yatamutchys, but range isn't that important, you can only get off about 2-3 shots before the mob has closed in (OK, yes I can kill some of them without a drop of damage by then too).

Damage over time is what is important, not the IP skill color, not the looks, not the flavor, not what your buddy says, ....most people totally overlook the reload time and clip size, and a few start shouting for 'Ammo, dear Deity, get me ammo!'.

Full Auto is not that useful, once a single round misses, all other rounds miss -- which makes it very limited. It's the 'times in a row' odds game here, and your chances of more than 4 hits are rather low. That makes you want a small clip size, which means you get reloading time added on to the Full Auto cool down time.

Burst is just 3 rounds at once, but I'd rather have better crit odds since most Burst cycles are around 40 seconds (or +7.5% damage).

Fling is a zero-time shot that can get down to a 10 second cycle --effectively raising the damage over time about 10%.

Snipe? Too much trouble to make sure you are hidden from the mob, making it slow. Since you mention MP, extra range is somewhat useless [to be out of mob perception range], since your pets range is permanently fixed somewhere around 30m.

(Most MP guides champion bows or melee BTW)

[Tarradax]

Full Auto is not that useful, once a single round misses, all other rounds miss -- which makes it very limited. It's the 'times in a row' odds game here, and your chances of more than 4 hits are rather low. That makes you want a small clip size, which means you get reloading time added on to the Full Auto cool down time.

That's not how full auto works. Full auto drains your entire remaining clip in a single shot - You can land up to 15 rounds, and you can deal up to 15k Full Auto damage. It makes for a very good alpha, but I wouldn't suggest MPs or pet profs to be carting assault rifles around... After all, you want your pet to hold aggro and not your squishy self. The main downside to FA fire is that it has a longer cycle period compared to other specials, and it eats ammo in giant packs. If you do go with FA guns, let your pet build up some decent aggro before you go guns blazing. (Oh, and FA has exactly 0 buffs to it except the expertise, so prepare to bleed IP.)

[Ferengi]

That's not how full auto works.

You need to go read some Soldier forums, only BSers get 15 hits.

[Sferykal]

The FA skill decides how many bullets you fire for a FA attack. That means at lower levels it will be less than 15 bullets. Secondly, at least it's said so, the bullets are 'streamed', and as soon as one bullet misses, the following will miss, too. For example, your skill allows for 11 bullets to be used in a FA attack, your clip has 11 or more bullets in it. You fire FA, 1st bullet hits up to the 7th and the 8th misses. Then the remaining 3 bullets will miss to, making this a 7 bullet FA.

For starters I wouldn't suggest special-heavy guns, though, your IP are needed elsewhere. Pistols have the advantage of offering a good set of buffing capabilities beyond the damage dealing aspect, which can help getting equipment on.

[Tarradax]

Full Auto is not that useful, once a single round misses, all other rounds miss -- which makes it very limited. It's the 'times in a row' odds game here, and your chances of more than 4 hits are rather low. That makes you want a small clip size, which means you get reloading time added on to the Full Auto cool down time.

That's not how full auto works. Full auto drains your entire remaining clip in a single shot - You can land up to 15 rounds, and you can deal up to 15k Full Auto damage. It makes for a very good alpha, but I wouldn't suggest MPs or pet profs to be carting assault rifles around... After all, you want your pet to hold aggro and not your squishy self. The main downside to FA fire is that it has a longer cycle period compared to other specials, and it eats ammo in giant packs. If you do go with FA guns, let your pet build up some decent aggro before you go guns blazing. (Oh, and FA has exactly 0 buffs to it except the expertise, so prepare to bleed IP.)

Vote for making sure the post says what I wanted it to say before posting it. Let's see if I can rephrase it a little:

At level 25, my little soldier was firing off a 50-round clip from his trusty PBlaster and landing 7 bullets. The old 6 round minimum still holds, with 1 more bullet to reflect the incredibly uber skill a level 25 soljah has. /terminate sarcasm

This means that anyone who fires in FA has a potential of landing 7 slugs atleast, be it a soldier or a MP. And since when is it impossible for someone to land 7 normal hits in a row? As long as you don't mess around with mobs that you barely hit, you should be fine. Also, as I said, FA drains your entire clip, and the universal damage limit for a FA is 15k in one strike - Just like the AS limit is 13k.

(BTW, I'd think that a TL6 Non-sol can still fire 10+ rounds in FA - It's a skill that can be raised just like any other, unless I'm missing some soljah-only rules here)

[Unkala]

The engineer pistol series. Not quite the damage of the Desert Reet, but cheaper on the IP

Sure. Pistol and Weaponsmithing instead of Pistol, Fling Shot, Burst, and Ranged Init. But do you single-wield it or put a generic fast-with-no-special-attacks pistol in your left hand? The engineering pistols are right-hand-only.

trivial to obtain

Really? It looks like multiple tiers of tedious rare drop farming and shop hunting (which is like rare farming, only without the incidental XP and credits). Those are features of AO I've had about enough of.

and rather nice crits off of it.

This may affect whether I eventually switch to SMGs or stay with pistols, but right now I'm not taking crits into account. Most of my IP are still going into nanoskills, so my attack rating isn't stellar and crits are anomalies.

Guns are all pretty much the same, the 'flavor' is not important. Sometimes the SMG flavor is better, because of faster Burst cycle times (OT Kerans or Boosted Hellspinners), or the AR flavor has the best Fling cycles (with some pumping). There are lots of tradeoffs and it really requires a lot of database mining (in the XML version).

Really... I would not have expected all weapon types to potentially do comparable damage.

Full Auto is not that useful, once a single round misses, all other rounds miss -- which makes it very limited. It's the 'times in a row' odds game here, and your chances of more than 4 hits are rather low. That makes you want a small clip size, which means you get reloading time added on to the Full Auto cool down time.

Full Auto cycles twice as slowly as Burst, too...average, what, a minute and a half? That's once a fight? Is that enough to offset the fact that guns that can FA tend to have lower base damage?

(Most MP guides champion bows or melee BTW)

And the reasons I saw for those choices were things like "they feel right" and "your Creation items are 1hb/2hb", respectively. Those aren't great reasons. Pistols, on the other hand, give casting buffs, and SMG implant slots allegedly don't collide with any casting slots.