Critical Juncture -- L-G Rifle, Handcannon, or Elephant Gun?

Hey, all,

I tried the search function on the forum but couldn't find exactly the right answer to this question, so I was wondering if I could get other players opinions:

I'm at a point in the game where I can make the Looking-Glass Rifle, the Handcannon, or the Elephant Gun (or possibly hold out for something better). I've done the storyline up to before going to Black Mountain dwarf cave, and most of the quests in Tarant and west of it (haven't gone east yet to the Elf graveyard and so on, though). I'm currently using a Repeating Rifle with great success (just finished clearing out the hard section of the Tarant sewers that you have to access from way down by the docks, with the help of a nice load of molotovs, of course), and a Fine Revolver as a back-up for when it seems like the Repeating Rifle's accuracy is too low to afford wasting 2 bullets a shot on.

Which of the three weapons do you think I should build right now (or should I hold out for a better weapon)? I understand it comes down to a certain amount to playstyle, so I"ll say this:

I care about conserving ammo to a point, but since I've gotten my perception up I don't mind using 2 bullets with the Repeating Rifle since I seem to be able to decimate enemies pretty well with it, with a Fine Revolver as a back-up, plus I can make bullets. So ammo's not a problem.

Long-Distance fighting seems appealing but since I don't have any prowl skill it seems like enemies will just close the distance with me almost immediately so the Looking-Glass Rifle doesn't seem particularly great (especially with a speed of only 1 in comparison to the Repeating Rifle's spectacular 19).

Handcannon seems like it's pretty damaging and it's one-handed, so I can use a shield or a Flow Disruptor. However, it's way less accurate than the Repeating Rifle or the Fine Revolver.

Finally, the Elephant Gun seems way more damaging than the Handcannon, but is again only as accurate as the Handcannon. Plus it takes two hands. Also, I'm seeing a message that says "MSR: 11" when I equip it, which seems to mean it's too heavy for my character's strength or something, I've used weapons with that red MSR message before and they haven't worked very well for me at all. What does MSR stand for? I'm assuming it has something to do with my character being a puny human with not enough strength, but any help on this would be appreciated.

So I'm kind of deadlocked. The Handcannon seems best but would take almost all of my money at the moment to make, so the other two seem like cheaper options, but seem to have a lot of negatives as well. Or I could wait for some better weapon, if you guys have one in mind.

So, that's it. Please help me with any of my questions you guys can help me with.

 

I think you get an accuracy penalty for using weapons with MSR higher than your ST.

In any case, I've personally never used a Hand Cannon, but I can vouch for the Elephant Gun being a very, very solid candidate up until you get Droch's Warbringer.

Looking Glass Rifle has the wonderful TH bonus, and even if you max out your firearms skill (which you should do, of course), it can be useful on highly magickal enemies (various types of undead, like Gore Guards, have a rather strong magickal alignment), because TH lowers considerably on them and every bit helps.

My suggestion is to try them all out on different enemies: toughies, regulars (like kites etc), and magickals.

If you can't decide, just carry backup weapons in one of your followers' backpacks and exchange when needed.

 

My two cents is to start with a hand cannon. Good damage, low strength requirement and you can still carry flow disruptors or shields.

But more experienced gunslingers than I would tell you the Looking Glass Rifle reigns supreme for tactical reasons: More damage per bullet and by far the best range and accuracy.

 

I vote for Hand Cannon.

 

Just to confirm you can't make the multi-barrel pistol right?

 

Try to get the mechanized rifle. That's all I have to say.

 

It's a bullet hog unfortunately. Very expensive to operate.

 

Depends. Get A:WIP and it isn't.

 

For a character with at least apprentice training in firearms, the Looking-Glass Rifle's speed is 6.

The Hand Cannon has much greater ADPAP (Average Damage Per Action Point), though. 5,625 compared to 4,000.

It also has the awesome big-blast-coming-out-of-small-gun effect. Reminds me of the .223 pistol from Fallout. Damn, I love both those weapons.

Not in vanilla. It can be obtained in A:WIP, but it's not worth the effort - not only is its ammo consumption insane, its ADPAP is lower than that of the Hand Cannon from which it is made.

 

totally agreed. A well known way of owning one;

Spoiler

you can get it from maxims lab. in Caladon, if you give him the camera he offers you to make a mec. rifle

but until that point;
I suggest you to use hand canon and also carrying an elep. gun too is a nice idea. (correct me if am wrong) its min. dmg is 20 ( it was 20-40 i think) which blasts heavy armored targets really faster, like golem types, cursed paladins etc.

 

20 - 60, 8 ADPAP. It requires 12 strength to work properly, though, which may not suit Baramos' needs.

 

I think it is time I announced something. I only play vanilla, I have never touched any of the mods ever.

 

Ah, I forgot about how being an expert at Firearms increases your speed. That may change quite a bit about how I think about it now.

I think I'll probably go with the Handcannon because I don't feel like putting my points into Strength, I'd rather put them into Electricity or Perception or Dexterity or what have you (although my Perception seems high enough already). I'll just have to either find the guns that go into it or kill somebody for them or pickpocket a bunch of gold to pay for them (the Junk Dealer in Tarant seems like the easiest target I've found so far, does anybody else know an NPC that seems easy to pickpocket gold off of?)

I'll probably just hold onto the Repeating Rifle as a back-up, maybe turn the Fine Revolver into a Hushed Revolver (though I've heard the Hushed Revolver isn't actually silent unless you install Drog Black Tooth's unofficial patch? Is this true? If so, how useful is the Hushed Revolver in gameplay situations if it's not silent?), or just hold onto it as a backup as well (can't really think of a situation where it would be handier than the Handcannon and Repeating Rifle, though).

Thanks everybody for your help in these matters.

 

Well it's a slower weaker version of the Fine Revolver, inferior even to a normal Revolver. Pure fun.

 

The long range pistol doesn't get the looking glass rifle's huge to hit bonus, but on the other hand it's a little faster and it's a one-handed weapon. I dig it.

My first gun smith character made one of those for Sebastian and he suddenly became almost too effective.

The hand cannon isn't bad for close range combat. My only problem with it is that the random damage means that sometimes it's roughly comparable to a fine revolver. But on the other hand, sometimes you'll get nice critical hits. So it's definitely worth using.

The tranquilizer gun is cool, but you have to invest a lot of points in Chemistry to be able to make it. You may want to do that anyway because it helps you make some neat grenades and things.

 

If it isn't broken, why fix it? We all know Arcanum has no glitches or bugs in it.

 

I laughed.

Get full electrical tree and get a Tesla Gun. You should keep some bullets in case an enemy is electrical resistant, but best pure damage otherwise.

 

Isn't it insanely slow? Sort of like the blade launcher: good on paper, horrible to use.

 

Can't agree with you there.

 

Do you have an entire table like that, Muro?