Let's rework Execution Shot

jebidiahbeetus

When I first heard about the Gunslinger AT coming out, I was looking forward to a supposedly high-impact power called Execution Shot. I pictured it being the Shadow Strike equivalent of a pistol attack, where you drop the target with one bullet. And i'm sure we all imagined the animation looking something like this:



Unfortunately, this power currently is rather bland and unimpressive, certainly in need of tweaking. One problem I find myself having is that since the attack does more damage when an enemy has 1/4th health, I wait to activate the power and by the time the animation finishes, the enemy is already defeated. Or I successfully fire the bullet, only for the enemy health bar to be a pixel shorter than it was. The description advertises it as being able to drop lower tiered enemies in one shot, but I have never done this on a badguy with full health even when buffed with Lock N Load (unlike Shadow Strike, which can take out bosses in one blow when you are doing a solo mission). I rarely even use it since Gunslinger mostly spams Two Gun Mojo so I never need to get in melee range to begin with.

How about giving Execution Shot the same damage no matter the enemy's health, increasing the damage it does and the timer cooldown, and if it has to be a point-blank attack, give it a 100% chance to knockdown/knockback like how Shotgun used to be able to do with Breaching Rounds.

And I mentioned this before, but I strongly feel Bullet Beatdown Ballet needs to be a maintain instead of a combo. It has seven hits before the cycle is completed, more than any other combo power. And since it's primarily for DPS, when would you ever want it to only hit an enemy one time instead of all seven hits?

baelogventure

Ayo hol up, whatchu be sayin'?
We out here blat-blat wit a gat n' shieet

lanternjack

+1 for Bullet Beatdown being a maintain, that power will give you arthritis. Execution Shot is definitely underwhelming, would like to see it on the level of something like Haymaker.

aesica

More like +1 for all combos being maintains. I know the capability exists to some extent, because that's effectively what most energy builders are when set to maintain/toggle.​​

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decorumfriends

jebidiahbeetus#4643 said:

One problem I find myself having is that since the attack does more damage when an enemy has 1/4th health, I wait to activate the power and by the time the animation finishes, the enemy is already defeated. Or I successfully fire the bullet, only for the enemy health bar to be a pixel shorter than it was. The description advertises it as being able to drop lower tiered enemies in one shot, but I have never done this on a badguy with full health even when buffed with Lock N Load (unlike Shadow Strike, which can take out bosses in one blow when you are doing a solo mission). I rarely even use it since Gunslinger mostly spams Two Gun Mojo so I never need to get in melee range to begin with.

I think the description is just clumsily worded and it means you outright defeat lower tiered enemies that are at 1/4 or less (and I've seen it do that many times, even if the damage isn't enough to finish them).

I like it because it's a melee power (nice finisher for some of my fighters). Perhaps that's why you're not getting the proper damage bumps with your shooter?

jebidiahbeetus

decorumfriends said:

jebidiahbeetus#4643 said:

One problem I find myself having is that since the attack does more damage when an enemy has 1/4th health, I wait to activate the power and by the time the animation finishes, the enemy is already defeated. Or I successfully fire the bullet, only for the enemy health bar to be a pixel shorter than it was. The description advertises it as being able to drop lower tiered enemies in one shot, but I have never done this on a badguy with full health even when buffed with Lock N Load (unlike Shadow Strike, which can take out bosses in one blow when you are doing a solo mission). I rarely even use it since Gunslinger mostly spams Two Gun Mojo so I never need to get in melee range to begin with.

I think the description is just clumsily worded and it means you outright defeat lower tiered enemies that are at 1/4 or less (and I've seen it do that many times, even if the damage isn't enough to finish them).

I like it because it's a melee power (nice finisher for some of my fighters). Perhaps that's why you're not getting the proper damage bumps with your shooter?

But that doesn't make sense. Using that logic, any power can outright defeat lower tiered enemies if they had only 1/4th health left. Shadow Strike drops a yellow, orange, or red tier enemy who is at full health in one shot, Execution Shot is hyped up to make us believe it can do the same thing. If you chop an enemy's health bar down to 1/4th with a maintain power, then you'd just continue to hold that maintain instead of pausing, running to melee range, activating Execution Shot, then waiting to see if that was enough damage to finish the enemy and proceed to the next one.

Maybe it's effective for Freeform melee builds, but in Gunslinger it's nigh useless as an addition to the archetype.

jebidiahbeetus

"no thanks, I'd much rather have powersets tuned so that combos are something you dont need to spam constantly but use a calculated smaller number of times. at least the way other things currently work, a combo will only become harder to use effectively with your build if you make it a maintain."

But Bullet Ballet isn't something you use a small number of times, it has seven strikes in the cycle. You do want to spam this attack until your target is defeated to get the most damage out of the chain. Who stops midway through using Bullet Beatdown if the enemy was still standing?

decorumfriends

jebidiahbeetus#4643 said:

But that doesn't make sense. Using that logic, any power can outright defeat lower tiered enemies if they had only 1/4th health left.

I don't know how you figure that. It defeats them outright, even if the damage is not enough.

jebidiahbeetus#4643 said:

Shadow Strike drops a yellow, orange, or red tier enemy who is at full health in one shot, Execution Shot is hyped up to make us believe it can do the same thing.

Where is this hype? I've never been under the impression it was anything at all like Shadow Strike.

jebidiahbeetus#4643 said:

If you chop an enemy's health bar down to 1/4th with a maintain power, then you'd just continue to hold that maintain instead of pausing, running to melee range, activating Execution Shot, then waiting to see if that was enough damage to finish the enemy and proceed to the next one.

I have no idea why you'd do any of that. Why do you think you would "pause" at all? This isn't the type of power you'd use in that manner at all. It's more for "I finished my maintain and they still have 23% health left...POP!"

jebidiahbeetus#4643 said:

Maybe it's effective for Freeform melee builds, but in Gunslinger it's nigh useless as an addition to the archetype.

Possibly. On the other hand, I severely doubt it was intended to be a "signature main power" anyway. Situational use.