180 degree flip in the last 2 years? (re: heavy repeaters)

[KillingGameshow]

I played this game back at launch (2 years flies by), but could never get any of my friends to play with me, and in a group heavy game, you can see why I shelved it for a while. Now my friends are all sick of wow and ready for some real dungeon crawling. Now back in the day everyone raved about how great bards were with the heavy repeater, and all the other classes cried foul it was so nifty. Now i never made one myself, but now it appears that everyone is against the repeater for bards. What happened? Was everyone nuts in the beginning? Or was the level 10 cap keeping it useful? Let me know!

[Justan]

Not so much as a 180 degree flip - it is more of a type of build now. Depends what you personally want to spend your 'feats' on. With Dragonshards fairly easy to get ahold of, play it however you want and switch it a little and respec your enhancements (wait 3 days and change it back if you immediately don't like).

[Pellegro]

I have a lvl 9 character (7 bard / 2 rogue) that uses hvy repeaters. I have the rapid reload feat, and a relatively high dex.

I use a +3 Flaming Burst Hvy Rptr of Deception. Its a quite nice repeater.

In my opinion, the ability to "keep up" in DPS drops out in quests lvl 9-10 or so. Even with my sneak attack bonuses.

Up to now, however, its been a wonderful little toy. I will continue using it but I anticipate in a level or 2 switching those 2 feats out and picking up finesse instead (and meleeing with a keen rapier of puncturing or such).

[Talon_Moonshadow]

For awhile it seemed it was a good low lvl build.
But recent changes have made it a better build at higher lvls now. The changes might not last though....some people think repeaters are overpowered now.

My repeater builds are very low lvl, so I can't comment for sure......but I still think it is a good build. Some very powerful weapons are now in the game that can be even better when rapid fired from a distance.

[Arianrhod]

Repeaters can still be nice at lower levels. I think the reason people disdain them at the higher levels is that ranged attack rates fall behind melee, and the extra damage from a high strength (and high crit ranges/crit multipliers) far outpaces anything a repeater can do. On the other hand, bards can get quite wealthy at higher levels, so respeccing from repeaters at lower levels to something else at higher levels is a valid option. The hard part is getting enough strength to be effective in melee at those higher levels....maybe repesccing from a repeater to a spellcaster (replacing repeater feats with things like heighten spell, spell penetration, etc.) would make more sense.

[edit - and, of course, as is the nature of MMOs, the rules are constantly changing, so any build that can be effective in theory has some chance of becomeing the FOTM eventually ]

[Blind_Skwerl]

Back in the day, repeaters offered impressive damage per second (dps), especially at lower levels. As we have leveled up, melee dps has scaled with it, growing higher and higher. Numbers into the 200's are readily available to barbarians, and even some melee bards under ideal conditions. Repeaters have not scaled with the levels. Your dps is essentially determined by the repeater you are using, and that's about it. The damage you were doing at level 8 is probably within a couple points of what you are doing at 16. I'm not saying a repeater build isn't viable in the long run, but looking to a repeater build for end-game dps is futile. If you have a collection of special repeaters (banishing, paralyzing, disruption, etc.) you can easily do great things in high level content. On elite or raid scenarios, expect your repeaters to be of far lesser cosequence than your buffs/cc/etc. for the party.

[Mad_Bombardier]

Repeaters can still be nice at lower levels. I think the reason people disdain them at the higher levels is that ranged attack rates fall behind melee, and the extra damage from a high strength (and high crit ranges/crit multipliers) far outpaces anything a repeater can do.

Incorrect about Repeater RoF. Starting at BAB+8, with Rapid Shot and Rapid Reload, repeaters actually attack faster than 1H melee (but, still slower than TWF). And you are correct in that crossbows do not benefit from STR for damage. They are capable, however, of laying down a lot of cover fire in the form of special effects (Cursespewing/Paralyzing/etc.).

[geoffhanna]

I played this game back at launch (2 years flies by), but could never get any of my friends to play with me, and in a group heavy game, you can see why I shelved it for a while. Now my friends are all sick of wow and ready for some real dungeon crawling. Now back in the day everyone raved about how great bards were with the heavy repeater, and all the other classes cried foul it was so nifty. Now i never made one myself, but now it appears that everyone is against the repeater for bards. What happened? Was everyone nuts in the beginning? Or was the level 10 cap keeping it useful? Let me know!

It was the level 10 cap thing.

[Ghoste]

There is a dmage curve in the game. Repeaters still rule at low levels because the monsters have fewer hitpoints and the repeater can dish it out small amounts fast over a distance. At higher levels though, with inflated monster hp and their damage reduction, repeaters fall behind. They still have their uses though, especially if you can find a wounding repeater of puncturing.

[Strakeln]

There is a dmage curve in the game. Repeaters still rule at low levels because the monsters have fewer hitpoints and the repeater can dish it out small amounts fast over a distance. At higher levels though, with inflated monster hp and their damage reduction, repeaters fall behind. They still have their uses though, especially if you can find a wounding repeater of puncturing.

Banishing/smiting/disrupting repeaters still have their place at higher levels.