This guide is mostly for people, who already played the game and would like to try their hand at the Marksman class, aswell as fresh level 50 players. It aims to help you collect the correct gear and plan accordingly.
First of all I will focus on the simple “what and why” regarding endgame skill build based on cc/ccm. Of course, there are players who might use other variants, and that is fine. This is an optimised build which relies heavily on endgame gear with +skills, but I will try to provide alternatives.
Second, this build is NOT good for leveling. It’s rather slow, and without proper critical chance, doesn’t work perfectly (trust me, I leveled this bugger to 50). So it’s better to use a striker to get to 50 and then get your hands on a reskiller.
Edit: Thanks to a lot of input, I was able to review this build and make adjustments.
We will mainly focus on the Recon branch, with some necessary points in Assault. Let’s get ASSAULT out of the way first:
Escape: 1/7
- Provides an escape possibility when overwhelmed, can even negate some DoT.
Ravager rounds: 6/10 (with the Somberg’s Guise helmet) or 9/10 (without Somberg’s)
- I will explain the helmet choice in general in the GEAR part.
- Also depends on how you want to balance this skill with Multibeacon.
- Ravager rounds can make fired projectiles hit an additional target.
- Extremely usefull with Cannonades or Rocket Launchers.
Off to our main focus, the RECON branch!
Dead Eye: 6/7
- Selfexplanatory, just a raw boost to critical chance.
Weapon Master: 6/7
- Same as above, raw boost to critical damage.
Multishot: 9/10
- Fires 2 additional projectiles for each one fired and nearly tripples our damage output at maximum rank for a short while.
- Slaps skillpoint window You can fit so much userate and boost increase in this bad boy (The more of both, the better.)
Beacon: 7/10 (with the Somberg’s Guise helmet) or 9/10 (without Somberg’s)
- Explained plainly, B(e)acon makes enemies take more damage. From your whole party.
- Can be upgraded by:
Elemental Beacon: 8/10 (with the Somberg’s Guise helmet) or 9/10 (without Somberg’s)
- Provides lowering of elemental defenses of the enemies in addition to pure damage bonus.
- Excellent for boosting sfx chance and damage.
Multibeacon: 4/10
- also depends on how you want to balance this skill with Ravager Rounds.
- You get a bacon, you get a bacon, you get a bacon! Bacon for everyone!
- Marks everyone within several meters with Beacon making them very nervous and very dead within a few seconds of you slapping that Multishot.
- A must-have for group play.
- Just the tip: When you multibeacon an enemy (i.e. Boss), a second Marksman or Engineer can slap the standard Beacon on top. Multibeacon has to be applied first.
Summary:
This build is easy to understand, easy to play and doesn’t require much finesse, to be honest. Just tap (Multibeacon/Beacon) & slap (Multishot) on cooldown. Be carefull with Multibeacon tho, as it can empty your powerpool very fast when spammed too often. When surrounded, hit Escape to reposition or wait for the cooldown of your Multishot.
GEAR
Ahhhh yes. We come to the crux of the whole build. To provide good playability, this build is heavily relying on good gear providing critical chance mostly. Let us focus on armor first, weapons second. Generally what you are looking for (based on necessity) is:
- Armor penetration
- Critical chance
- Damage increase, with elemental damage being a priority
- Userate
- Boost
- Stats, with Accuracy being your main focus
The necessity can differ based on opinion, nothing is set in stone. Apart from Armor penetration. Seriously. You want to penetrate as much as you can.
As for armor choice, let’s go by specifics.
HEAD
Firstly, we are always talking about a +1 to all skills helmet. This is your priority stat to get on any of these, as any of these with a +1 to MM skills outweighs a BiS helmet without it. Tho I still recommend a Somberg’s with plenty of spectral damage over a +1 legendary helmet. Still, any of these will do. Somberg’s provides the highest dps boost, but the other two, whilst comparable, are not far behind.
- Somberg’s Guise (BiS): Can get up to 2% critical chance, with bonus in phase damage. You want the highest stats possible. Also comes with +2 Beacon and +1 Elemental Beacon, which allows you to spend 3 points elsewhere, as You will not be exchanging that helmet. I always recommend just adding the point to max out Multishot. Also, the additional curse time prolongs your Beacons.
- Visor of the Invader: Bonus firing speed up to 10%, Demon damage, Shield penetration, Duration of boost and +2 Ballistics skills. The ballistics skills are: Rebounder Rounds, Ravager Rounds, Concussion Rounds. If you decide to spend some points in each one of them, they can provide you with additional bonuses. As your main focus are the Ravager Rounds, you gain two additional free skillpoints thanks to this helmet (compared to 3 from Somberg’s). The firing speed bonus is why this helmet excells.
- Eyes of the Maverick: +3% critical chance, damage increase and a LOT of armor. And movement speed. Good allrounder.
SHOULDERS
This is a rather tough choice, because:
- Advanced Scout Shoulderplates (BiS): These are a bit of a bugger. They are very roll-dependant, as the +aa and armor penetration can vary. Can also come with a small userate boost. The main stat for them is ofcourse armor penetration, but unless it’s 5%+, SuE’s would probably be a better choice.
- SuE Steadiers: 2% critical chance, accuracy and firing accuracy. Can also come with a small movement speed boost.
- Techa Bladeguards: Damage and physical damage boost, critical damage, necro damage. Also a viability, but surprisingly the worst of the three. Still decent.
TORSO
Only two real choices here, with the Battlecore outweighing the Reap3r’s by a lot. It’s possible that a legendary/double-edged/mythic Cybernet Core with good augments can still outperform Reap3r’s too.
- Techa Battlecore (BiS): All you want, really. Damage increase, critical chance boost, accuracy, damage to beasts, userate. A dream, even unaugmented. CC and damage increase are always 2% and 8%, accuracy can vary, userate goes up to 15%.
- Reap3’s Reinforced Jack: It became quite viable after its upgrade. Monstrous shield penetration, good stamina bonus and additional splash increase. Good starter. Would still choose a decent Cybernet Core tho.
ARMS
Contrary to Shoulders, the choice is rather clear.
- Duellos of the Duelist (BiS): By far the best choice. 3% critical chance, accuracy, can come with small userate boost. Easy to get, low stat feeds.
- Techa Gauntlet: 1% critical chance, damage boost, stamina, total armor bonus. Damage boost is too low (only 3%), and since one guardian helmet gets more armor than the whole Marksman armor set, you don’t really benefit from that total armor bonus.
BELTS
There’s no way around this.
- Techa Band (BiS). No other belt provides that armor penetration (up to 9%), damage and critical damage (up to 50%) boost. Cover it up with a nice accuracy bonus and you’re covered. Legendary/double-edged/mythical Cybernet Belts will do aswell, but you lose the critical damage boost.
LEGS
Here you choose between the kill-fast or go-fast part of the build.
- TechaWeave (BiS): Critical chance 2%, damage and demon damage boost, willpower bonus.
- Lanzer’s Longrunners: As the marksman usually dies when sneezed on by any demon-rodent, you can use the movement possibilities these turbo-pants offer. Raw movement speed, +2 Escape skill, and some stamina to boot. Not a bad choice.
BOOTS
Compared to the other classes, the should-be-nimble marksman class suffers the loss of movement speed on the BiS item. Go lucky or go home.
- Techa Deathstompers (BiS): Ye olde critical chance bonus (1%), damage and spectral damage bonus, with a cherry shield penetration on top. However, you have to get lucky to get +Sprint or bonus movement speed augments on these.
- Kyle’s Everpresents: For the high-heel lovers out there, these kinky boots offer the same as Lanzer’s Longrunners - a lot of mobility. Movement speed bonus, +Sprint, +Escape Artist, accuracy. Can even come with a small damage boost.
- Tiffney’s Nefarious Boots: Kyle’s smaller brother. Movement speed bonus, +3 Sprint.
DYE
Gotta look the part, right?
- Shadow Dye Kit: Usually the best choice, provides bonus to critical chance.
- Scorched Dye Kit: Provides bonus to elemental damage. Great for applying sfx and boosting overall damage.
- Ultimate Rift Dye Kit: Bonus to phase/spectral damage. Helps tremendously, especially in party play.
RING
Sydonai liked it, so he put a ring on it. You will have to work the game for these, as they are only crafted, the ressources are costly and the game hates you. You have been warned.
- Squadro’s Masterwork Crystal (BiS), Dark Master, Talox Masterwork Soulband
- Squadro’s Masterwork Crystal: Armor penetration (up to 7%), and every elemental bonus.
- Dark Master: up to 3% critical chance and 125% critical damage. Very close damagewise to Squadro’s.
- Talox Masterwork Soulband: Elemental damage increase, bonus movement speed and range, even the projectile speed increase can be used with cannonades or rocket launchers.
- Other: Any ring with ignite or phase damage increase. +1 to marksman skills work aswell, aswell as bonus to any other skills used in this build.
WEAPONS
We will now take a look at all the direct death-dealing boomsticks in every marksman’s arsenal. There are some choices here, with some maybe awaiting nerfs, maybe boosts. Who knows. I will divide these into a tier list with 1 being the best and 3 being the worst.
TIER 1
- Gau’s Equalizer: The Yeetus Deletus of the current version. The holy grail. Can only be dropped in areas around lvl 21-23. Whilst the description doesn’t show a lot, be prepared for applying every existing sfx out there. As they are a hand shotgun type, they also stun very nicely, especially Multishot. Other rarity types can offer decent damage and stun.
- Railguns: F-S Rail Pistol, T34 MAG Pistol. Probably the best single target damage weapons out there. The range can be used very well pseudo-sniping orbiles before these little flying fartclouds even see where you are. Great bosskillers. The unique variant (Nanto’s Third Rail) is kinda decent, gets outclassed by double-elemental and ccm rolls which they often come with automatically.
- Bunkport’s Tsunami: The boom tube. The destroyer of worlds. Strong phase damage, hits like an 18-wheeler on race fuel. Best for large groups of high health monsters, like in DoD or Talox/Squadro.
TIER 1.5
- Global Arclight Cannonades: These double-edged annoy-boys with massive splash damage could belong to Tier 1, but need very good augments and tripple-elemental mods to really shine. And annoy everyone in your party to no end with the explosions. There’s no better room clear, especially in solo play.
- Odin’s Legacy: Great allrounder. Can come with up to 3% critical chance, bonus spectral damage, shield penetration and accuracy. Has direct AND splash damage.
TIER 2
- Ravager: Previously a god tier weapon, still not a bad choice by now. Can offer up to 6 mod slots, some physical damage bonus and is a fire-based weapon, so a decent ignite possibility. Has a hidden bonus of 5% critical chance and 200% critical damage.
- Tropical Storm: A decent choice for a one-hander. Double the bonus when 2 are equipped. While being weak in the damage department itself, it brings critical chance (up to 3%), movement speed, boost duration and userate. Also fire-based, so there’s always some room for ignite. Since you will be double-wielding these probably, the bonuses and possible augments from these can be immense.
TIER 3
- Lee’s Lightlance: Shield penetration, fire damage, +Beacon, up to 6 slots and 600rpm. Nice ignite and a great starter weapon.
- The Fragger: The one handed destroyer of shields. Nice critical chance and critical damage bonus aswell. Outclassed by Tropicals tho.
A FEW FINAL WORDS
As for mods, you generally have two choices - either go for CCM ones, if possible only one enemy type per weapon (or set of two). Or you can always opt for elemental damage bonuses, with tripple-elemental mythics being the best choice due to low willpower feeds.
I am by no chance saying that this build is the only way to go. It’s just a collection of tests with other people, solo testing and personal experience. If anyone has other opinions, they are welcome and I’ll gladly try the changes to the build.
