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Pre Launch:Marksman
From Hellgatewiki.com
Additional Hunter Information
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Marksman Starting Equipment
As of May 2007 a brand new Marksman starts out in default light clothing that offers negligible defense, and equipped with a standard Spark Rifle. The rifle was effective up until level 5 or 6 against all sorts of demons, and has enough range to kill almost any solo target before it reaches the Marksman, even without using special shooting skills.
Marksman Playstyle
Marksmen play much like Cabalist Evokers. Both classes have huge destructive power, but as "glass cannons" they have to move quickly to use it, since they can not take much damage and have no minions to "tank" for them. Both classes get a bonus to their damage if they use skills standing still, though remaining stationary is a much larger part of playing a Marksman, thanks to the various Tactical Stance skills. For a Marksman, finding a good gun and knowing how to use it won't be enough. A successful Marksman will need a variety of weapons for different situations, and must coordinate numerous skills to maximize his destructive power; tossing grenades, using various gun skills, marking targets for higher damage, crouching down whenever possible to boost his killing power, etc. Reflexes, skill, and nerve will define the Marksman, perhaps more than any other class in Hellgate: London.
Playing an expert Marksman will take steely nerve and the ability to quickly and precisely estimate damage. The Marksmen's best attack skills require him to stand still or crouch down; he delivers far more damage in those poses, but he can't run away either, and with his defense lowered while in his Tactical Stances, he's got to commit to locking down and blowing away the target, or he's got to run and shoot while retreating and hope his movement will keep him out of range long enough to kill the charging hordes of hell. There's going to be an interesting division between Marksmen, as the guts/skill to hold in a tactical stance and kill monsters separates the proverbial men from the boys.
--Flux, Mega Community Day Report, May 2007.
Also keep in mind that as a member of the Hunter faction, a Marksman must aim accurately. Cabalists and Templars have soft aim, but Hunters have FPS-style hard aim, and must point their targeting reticle right at the target to hit it. See the combat page for much more detail on the physics of that issue.
Marksman Skills
Of the Marksman's approximately 27 skills, far more are offensive than defensive. The Marksman's skill menu was far from finalized during community day in May 2007, as evidenced by nearly a dozen skill icons being placeholders, and the fact that almost every skill, regardless of function, being labeled as part of the Tactical Stance group. Since the game labels were incorrect, the following groupings are by skill function, and will be updated once more polished official information is released.
Marksmanship Skills
Marksmen have a lot of shooting skills, as you'd expect given the name of the class. Most of these are best used while in one of the tactical stances, but some can not be used in combination with the various stances.
Description: A second burst that increases damage and greatly increases rate of fire at the cost of weapon accuracy. The marksman remains stationary while using this skill.
Cannot be used while in Tactical Stance.
Rate of Use: Every 30.0 seconds.
Max level: 6
Level One:
- Effect: Weapon rate of fire increased by 200%
- Power cost ?? This is a level one skill, so the power cost can't be very high.
This skill is the first marksmanship skill most Marksmen will use. It greatly increases firing speed at the sacrifice of accuracy, spraying shots all around the target, and is best employed against a pack of monsters or one very large target. The Marksman can not move while using this skill, so there is a danger in pulling that trigger at close range. Also, note the long, 30 second cool down time. This skill is quite effective, but can't be used very often, so is best saved for emergencies. It can not be used in conjunction with other active Marksman skills, but the bullets you Rapid Fire are eligible to receive bonuses from passive skills.
Enables projectiles to bounce off of walls and from target to target, granting multiple hits per shot. This skill increases accuracy and damage, especially when monsters are in narrow hallways or tight clusters. This skill is an active one, but the effect only triggers a very low percent of the time. Whether players will use a skill that doesn't do anything 95% of the time remains to be seen in testing.
"Sometimes, luck is better than skill. After Hunters manage to crack in a critical hit, there's a chance that the following shots will ricochet off of any hard surface and cause some additional damage."
--IGN Preview, December 2006
Targeted Bounce
"When the Hunter scores a critical hit, there's a chance that following shots that hit an enemy will re-target additional enemies."
--IGN Preview, December 2006
There were two skills that used the Ricochet icon as of May 2007, so it's likely this is the second, at level 15 after Ricochet at level 5. Ricochet is a prerequisite for this skill.
Like the Amazon's Guided Arrow from Diablo II, this skill lets the Hunter fire tracking bullets at an individual target. Kill a boss behind his minions, or hit a fast-moving target. We do not have the newer icon for this, but it looks just like the old one, 3d-ized. We do not have stats for this one, but it's a level 25 skill and a prerequisite for Multishot, so expect it to be fairly powerful.
Skill Groups: Boost?
Requires Homing Shot Level 7?
Description: The marksman can modify his weapons to cause certain projectile based guns to simultaneously fire multiple rounds. This boost to normal weapon functionality must be specifically activated to take effect.
Fires 2 additional projectiles.
Rate of Use: Every 30.0 seconds
Maximum Level: 4
Requires level 30
Level One:
- Lasts for 4 seconds.
- Power cost 100
Older Shooting Skils
Lots of Hunter gun skills were announced before the Engineer/Marksman character split came in. It's expected that some of these skills were modified and retained by the Marksman, but others were likely dropped entirely. So don't get too wed to any in this list. Ones that have been confirmed at least during the second quarter of 2007 are listed above, in the full Marksmanship section.
Pinpoint
This skill switches players into first person view and zooms in through a sniper scope. It greatly reduces the Marksman's rate of fire, but dramatically increases damage and range. The sight can be moved freely while zoomed in, but you'll want to have your aim pretty well locked in first, since as in all FPS games, it's hard to acquire a target while zoomed. Pinpoint controls your weapon as well, keeping spread shots much more tightly bunched than usual, making this a very useful skill with a weapon that shoots multiple projectiles like the Tempest Rifle.
Reduce Cooldown
Reduces the heating of weapons while being used. It's not known quite how weapon heat-up and cooldown will work in Hellgate: London, but some Hunter weapons are said to slow down or lock up if fired for too long, or possibly when fired with modifying Marksmanship skills? Crouching can also increase firing rate, and might combine with this skill.
There are a number of unnamed passive skills on the Marksman's menu, and this might be one of them.
Reduced the weapon recoil. Another skill we don't know much about. Recoil is presumed to affect Hunter targeting, causing the crosshairs to bounce up when you fire a large weapon, most likely.
There are a number of unnamed passive skills on the Marksman's menu, and this might be one of them.
Increases your accuracy. This has been seen in the active skill selection menu, so it's assumed to be something you use as an active gun skill, rather than a passive sort of bonus.
There are a number of unnamed passive skills on the Marksman's menu, and this might be one of them.
Grenade Skills
Grenades are Marksman speciality, and he's got four kinds to play with. (Engineers only get one.) Grenades are basically magical, in that the Marksman has an unlimited supply of them, and he creates them from nothing. The only limits on how many you can throw are their mana cost, and the rate of fire. Grenades are thrown hard and far, and can travel quite a bit further than most gun projectiles. They must be aimed up or down with the mouse angle; low throws will bounce off of monsters or other obstacles and grenades can be banked off of walls and will bounce and skid along the ground. It's not known just how realistic their physics are; if they'll roll back down inclines and such. There do not appear to be any differences in throwing range or explosion delay between the four types of grenades. There are no adhesive grenades, and none of them will stick to a monster or other surface.
Like all skills in Hellgate: London the grenade skills scale up in damage as your character levels up. The damages listed on this page are as seen by a level one Marksman -- Toxic, Flash, and Plasma grenades will do substantially more damage than listed below when your Marksman has leveled up to 10 or 20 or 30 to start using them.
Description: The Marksman lobs a high explosive grenade towards his enemies.
Rate of fire: every 5.0 seconds.
Requires level 1
Maximum skill points: 5
Level One:
- Damage: 20-30 fire.
- Effect: Ignite attack is 10
- Power cost 25
Throws a grenade which explodes with substantial fire damage. This one was shown extensively in the 1up.com "Ice" gameplay video in April 2007.
Description: The marksman tosses a grenade filled with highly poisonous materials towards his enemies.
Rate of use: Every 5.0 seconds
Requires level 10
Maximum skill points: 5
Level One:
- Damage: 25 Poison
- Effect: 14-24 toxic damage.
- Power Cost 30
Plasma grenades work like the other grenades. They deal around 20 damage (like the others, subject to scaling up) and like all spectral attacks, they can cause targets to become phased. Plasma grenades require 35 mana each.
Skill Groups: Tactical
Description: The Marksman flings a grenade towards his enemies which explodes with deafening noise, bright lights, and a massive concussive force.
Rate of Use: Every 5.0 seconds
Requires level 30
Maximum skill level: 5
Level One:
- Damage: 20-30 physical
- Stun attack is 15.
- Stun has a 2 second duration.
- Power cost 40
Tactical Stances
There are three icons on the Marksman's skill menu showing crouching figures, and various other skills with different icons that seem to fit into the same family of functions. Some are offensive and some are defensive, and some work alone while others work in conjunction with various marksmanship skills. The basic theory behind Tactical Stances is that the Marksman gains some power, be it better shooting or healing or what have you, but only so long as he remains in his stance. Staying crouched as long as possible is essential, and finding the nerve to remain motionless in a shooter's stance, even as the minions of hell rush towards you, is the true mark of an expert Marksman.
Description: The Marksman steadies his aim and reduces his target profile, gaining a tactical advantage over his enemies.
TOGGLED SKILL: Activating this skill puts the Marksman into a tactical stance, halting movement. Deactivating the skill or moving allows the Marksman to rise and takes him out of this stance.
Maximum skill points: 8
Level 1 skill.
Firing accuracy increases by 50%.
Range increased by 25%
Projectile velocity increased by 25%
- Level One:
- Critical hit chance increased by 4.
- Power cost 35
- Level Two:
- Critical hit chance increased by 5.
- Power cost 40
Description: With enhanced vision, nerves of steel, and a steady hand, the Marksman reaches out and touches his target with fatal effect.
TOGGLED SKILL: Activating this skill puts the Marksman into a Tactical STance, halting movement. Deactivating the skill or moving allows the Marksman to rise and takes him out of this stance.
Maximum skill points: 5
Required level: 10
Damage increased by 200%.
Rate of fire and skill use decreased by 50%
Armor decreases by 50%
Energy Drain increased by 150%
- Level One
- Range increased by 45%
- Projectile velocity increased by 25%
- Firing accuracy increased by 50
- Power cost 50
- Level Two:
- Range increased by 50%
- Projectile Velocity increased by 30%
- Firing accuracy increased by 60.
- Power cost : 52
- Level Five [Max]
- Range increased by 70%
- Projectile velocity increased by 50.
- Firing accuracy increased by 100.
- power cost: ?
Breath of Meditation
Description: While remaining still and focusing on his target, the marksman draws cleaning breathes to heal any wounds he has suffered.
Only active while in tactical stance.
Requires Tactical Stance
Level 5 skill
Level One:
- Effect: 15 hit points regenerated per second.
It's not clear if this skill must be used while you use the Tactical Stance skill, or if the description simply means "tactical stance" as a synonym for "crouching" (but not shooting) which your Marksman will do while using this skill.
Elemental Visions
Description: While remaining still and focusing on his target, the Marksman visualizes where his target is most likely to be affected by the effects of his weapon.
Requires Breath of Meditation
Level 20 skill
It sounds like this one increases the chances for "states" to afflict the targets. Ignite, Stun, Poison, and so forth. Best used with a weapon that does heavy elemental damage.
Early Tactical Stances
Crouch and Sharpshooter were revealed in late 2006, long before the Marksman/Engineer split and all the skill changes that entailed. It's believe that these two are no more -- that they've evolved into current skills.
Crouch does what it sounds like; enables a Hunter to crouch down into a sniper pose. It's actively selected, like any other gun skill. It's been seen mapped to the right mouse button, but it's unclear if that means a player would right click to crouch and then use their left click to fire their weapon while modified by another skill, or if crouch is an actual firing skill, one that fires just as you would while standing or walking, but with greater accuracy, while adding some kind of defensive bonus to make fewer incoming shots hit the hunter.
Hunters get the ability to crouch down which steadies aim for the ranged weapons and decreases his or her profile allowing for better defense.
--IGN Preview, December 2006
Sharpshooter
"A better version of crouch, this allows Hunters to drop into a more stable firing position and increase the chance for a critical hit and do more damage at the same time." --IGN Preview, December 2006
Targeting Skills
Marksmen have a variety of skills that allow them to "paint" targets and increase the damage those targets take, or to call down airstrikes on the painted targets.
Skill Group: Tactical
Description: The hunter marks an area for precision strike that damages and potentially ignites anemies in the area of effect.
Ignite attack is 10
Rate of Use: every 10 seconds.
Maximum Skill Points 4
- Level One:
- 15-23 Fire Damage
- Fire field lasts for 2 seconds.
- Power cost: 50
The correct name is unknown, but the marksman has a skill that calls down a sizzling lightning strike that looks much as Napalm Strike is described. It's shown in the Unofficial Marksman/Engineer movie.
Dead Eye
Description: The marksman has trained to find the weakest point in his enemy's defenses, increasing the chance to strike vital organs.
Max skill points: 3
Level One:
Effect: Critical hit chance increased by 2%.
Level Two:
Effect: Critical hit chance increased by 3%.
Critical hit can provide a huge bonus in Hellgate: London. It's not just double damage; medium-level Marksmen in screenshots have been seen with well over 600% damage on critical hit, thanks to bonuses from numerous items of equipment. That's why a skill that only raises it a few percentage points, such as Dead Eye, is still quite important. Dead Eye is a passive skill; just stick in a point or three and it works all the time.
Exploit Vulnerability
"This allows the Hunter to become an expert in finding and exploiting the weaknesses of enemies." --IGN Preview, December 2006
This skill sounds like a passive +damage/accuracy sort of skill.
Beacon is a level 5 skill. It appears to be in use in the 1up.com "Ice" gameplay video in April 2007, where various demons in the subway periodically light up with a glowing orange light. It's unclear what it does, but the description makes it sound like some kind of "lower demon defense" debuff. It likely has a short duration before wearing off.
Finding and exploiting holes in enemy defense makes a good hunter. Beacon will paint an enemy with infrared light which will highlight their weaknesses."
--IGN Preview, December 2006
Elemental Beacon
Nothing is known about this skill except that it's a level 15 skill and on the prerequisite line between Beacon and Multi-Beacon. Likely it increases the "painted" demons's susceptibility to elemental damage. Wonder how it stacks with Elemental Visions?
Description: The Marksman simultaneously paints several targets with infra-red beams, making them all easier to hit. Requires Elemental Beacon Rate of Use: every 2.0 seconds Maximum skill points: 4 Required Level: 25
- Level One:
- Beacon affects all enemies within 4 meters of targeted enemy.
- Power cost 50
Movement Skills
Marksmen have at least one cloaking skill that allows them to move quickly and without being seen.
Description: The hunter activates a temporary cloaking device to become virtually invisible to enemies for a short amount of time. Attacking deactivates the cloaking effect.
Skill requires level 20
- Level One
- Lasts for 5 seconds.
- Power cost: 50
- Level Two
- Lasts for 7 seconds.
- Power cost: 40
The same icon was used for a passive skill on one of the "better shooter" columns, so it will likely be changed before release.
[[Category:Hunter]] [[Category:Classes]] [[Category:Skills]]
