Questions for Marksman and Tactitian users

Gears 5
#1

TL;DR Marksman users; what levels are your cards to be able to constantly headshot stuff despite not perking up? do you always make sure you have active reload before shooting or do you sometimes shoot despite not having active reload? Tactician users; do their cards/perk NOT work with Cooperation?

Like most of people around here, I have been moving from “Level up all classes to 15” to “Level up all classes to 20” to now “Max all cards from all classes” and I was trying for these 2 classes (I like to rotate stuff so I don’t get bored from just playing one class),

About Marksman… how do you play it? Yes I know the idea is to get headshots lol buuut, do you stick with Longshot since wave 1? or Markza for the starting waves? also, in my experience, especially in frenzy matches, they are the least likely to perk with the starting 10,000 energy, Instead, there’s like a 75% chance the Marksman in my match just deposits all the 10k and still do heavy damage. Or instead of that, if there’s no engi, they are the most likely to spend their energy in barriers / repair tool… Is that only possible with level 6 cards or what? My cards are level 3-4 for reference, and all besides one Epic (the one that makes your legendary last longer) are Green/Blue so I assume people just spend the coins to level 'em to be useful? am I just wrong for instead perking Crit Dmg and Precision Weapon dmg with the 10k energy? as stated, I’ve seen 75% of Marksmans just deposit their energy, so they don’t need to perk up to get damage.

About Tactician, just for the sake of it, I tried to use all support style, basically combining Cooperation with the Gold card that makes all enemies take more dmg from my marks, plus the blue that makes whoever kills my targets get ult timedown. that one is already level 6 so I’d assume there would be nice progress… instead it doesn’t. Whenever I press LB to check, nobody is having their ultimate get charged when they kill stuff marked like that. It only works if I manually mark something with the Left Thumbstick and somebody kills it. There they get the ult recharge from the card and from Tactician’s Passive ability. Same goes if I’m with a Demolitions with Spotter Support, even if I have all the cards for fast ult recharge, besides Demolitions having Confirmed Kill equipped, they aren’t getting their ult as fast as the combo would suggest. Instead, they get more Ult cooldown by just using their Boomshot to inflict damage without me interfering, lol.

Is it all intentional?

#2

Longshot is the way to go tbh, Markza doesnt exist for me, except with a matriarch, I pop the ult and fire at it, but besides that, Markza is dead to me. In frenzies, I donate all of my money to the engi/robotics/jack/ if they are in the game, but if not. I perk up.

1 Like
#3

Regarding the Marksman, I always try to hit active reloads. The Longshot is single-shot per reload, so the cooldown for the actives is short (one of the basis’ of active cooldowns working is based on having an empty clip, so there’s a long wait if you wanted to reload say, an EMBAR or Markza with a half clip).

My build for Horde is:

Ambush
Exploit Weakness
Modified Longshot
Explosive Critical Hit
Critical Parade

Although depending on my team, I sometimes swap Explosive Crit for Icy Precision if I have two other team mates who will be primarily explosive types or high damage generally (Demolitions, Tactician etc).

I can’t remember the exact details, but a non-active Longshot headshot with perks maxed can oneshot Imagos all the way through to wave 41+ on master. All other Drone-sized enemies need an active. I honestly can’t remember the specifics of damage thresholds and oneshotting different enemies and how it scales as the extra mutators kick in. Broadly speaking I hold off on perking up until after the first boss wave (wave 4/10) as that’s when the enemy get an extra defence buff. Up to that point I’m able to oneshot everything (from memory) without perks. But my Marksman has been maxed out for a long time now, so I don’t know what level cards you’re working with.

For Tactician I tend to operate an explosives-meatshield role in conjunction with a Demolitions. If not, then just explosives really. I run:

Shredder
Ammo Resupply Duration
Ammo Resupply Amplifier
Healing Module
Interrogation

But Interrogation gets swapped out for something else if there’s no Demolitions. Maybe Recharge Bounty?

And finally about the Demolitions, I pretty much always have Confirmed Kill on. This kicks in for each enemy killed as indicated on the killfeed by the missiles icon. So this can include weaker enemies hit by the AOE explosion like Leeches, Trackers and Juvies. I always run:

Razor Hail
Confirmed Kill
Spotter Support
Custom Boomshot
Officer’s Perogative

Even if team mates don’t always mark targets or if there’s no Tactician using Interrogation, it’s worthwhile having Spotter Support as you can manually mark enemies anyway - up to 5, but with the marking mechanics it’s hard to get more than 3 usually. But as I said, the AOE makes it worth it if you can mark 3 enemies in different places. And ultimate cooldown is directly linked to damage output anyway, so even if you don’t kill enemies with the Artillery, any subsequent bleed damage will make your cooldown tick faster anyway.

In terms of perks, I don’t tend to get perks for Demolitions until after the first boss wave. This is purely because the more damage you do, the faster your ultimate cooldown ticks, and the enemy don’t get the extra health buff until after the first boss wave anyway, so after wave 4/10 you should see a noticeable difference in your cooldown based on damage. More enemy health = more damage for you to do.

4 Likes
#4

Active long shot will deal most damage, so it all comes down to ammo for me. I’ll save my long shots for x-ray if I can, using the markza to help with approaching enemies.

I’m trying to see if the card patience is worth it, and mostly play an ultimate build.

Ambush is a hit or miss, if there is plenty of range it works. Other than that, it works great with x-ray, but I’m not sure if it’s needed.

Icy precision is level 1 for me, it’s completely useless.

Longshot handling and critical parade are awesome and go hand in hand during x-ray. If you can knock out drone headshots, this is fun.

I don’t typically use long shot bonus damage (I forget card name), I cover bonus damage off with perks.

#5

How to play Marksman？

I would let the answer giving to @Ektope when I last time saw him/her using the Ember Build, which is Oh My Gosh.

Mostly, 99% would be the Longshot Build because it’s easy and 1 Shot kill no matter in Health x 2.5 or above except the Heavies (Need to use X-Ray to kill).

The Ember Build is simple：

You don’t need Modified Longshot, you just change it to the Modified Ember.

For the Tactician, I would like the Hammer Burst Build more than the foolish Explosive Build.

HB Build：
Supply Healing Module
Custom HB
Displined
Recharge Bounty
Resupply Amplifier/ Resupply Duration

This Build can prevent you facing some of the Tough Modifier like reduced explosive damage / reduced bleeding damage, but a huge disadvantage when it’s an execution rule there.

#6

Though Marksman isn’t my most played class, I try to hit an active with the Longshot every. Single. Time.

According to one of the damage charts a forum member shared (remind me if anyone knows), the Longshot and its Crit damage in particular benefit massively from perfect reloads.

Even if you struggle with pulling them off, they will get easier with practice. Well worth it. Exceptions are maybe when you know for a fact the enemy will die even without an active, at which point you should either switch to your secondary or go for it anyway. Unless it’s a life or death and you can’t risk going for a perfect and failing, or the time involved in hitting it instead of the second you’re in the grey.

Once you do it enough it becomes second nature.

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#7

It could have been mine but I think there was another.

#8

My disciplined card didn’t work until recently, I don’t know if it was just some accounts that were fixed or all of them, but I cannot recommend that card more for Tactician.

The HB buff card is nice in combination, but even just by itself I find myself doing so much more damage with Claw’s using disciplined, or even an Enforcer or GL lancer. It allows you to pick up any ballistic weapon in the game and be a force to be reckoned with.

#9

Not that it now works correctly but rather that it is now bugged :joy: it was explained by… I think it was @Siul_S249, but let’s just leave it at that it’s currently a good card and that it’s worth using until gets fixed.

1 Like
#10

Tactician:
Shredder
Resupply Speed Loader
Resupply Duration
Healing Module
Recharge Bounty

Pump points into explosive reload until maxed. Get yourself a GL lancer. Between 3 boomshots and 3 GL grenades you can basically get your ult back.

The most important aspect of the tactician that not everyone knows is that speed reloader sucks until level 5. The card then completely changes and automatically reloads for you. At level 6 it reloads weapons with active rounds. This means with max explosive resupply you can have machine gun boomshot basically, or carpet bomb with GL grenades because your ammo replenishes as fast as you can shoot.

Takes some power investment, but once you get your perk maxed and a GL lancer you become a completely self-sufficient one man wrecking ball.

#11

I headshot everything.

@link_ntzelda

#12

Just in case for people who read this… As I said before, my classes are already level 20, I just have very specific questions about some cards/stuff… Like for example Tactician I wanna know mostly about a card setup focused on marks and to see if they work or not. I already know the best usage of it and what not, this is not a post asking “what’s the best card setup for those classes”.

#13

About Marksman, my build:
Ambush
Exploit Weakness
Longshot Handling
Explosive Critical Hit
Icy Precision

All of my Marksman’s cards are at Level 6.

If you are sure you will have enough ammo for Longshot, you can try this build, using X-ray to wipe out most of the enemies:
Ambush
Exploit Weakness
Modified Longshot
Longshot Handling
Critical Parade

#14

If you’re only focused on a mark synergistic build try…

  • Cooperation: Aid team damage, after mark
  • Eagle Eyes: Ability to mark additional targets
  • Situational Awareness: Automatically mark aggressors
  • Grenade Pouch: 8 Flashbangs for easy meatshields that’ll aid towards Interrogation faster)
  • Interrogation: Mark all enemies

This is really a support only build, and I don’t no anyone that would use it (I might even try it out myself).

The last two options alone can keep all enemies marked consistently throughout the match. One flashbang per enemy; rinse and repeat.