Hellgate: London Hellgate London News

I have not yet completed all of the quests from Normal or Nightmare, so I may end up with more available Attribute points. I did not have a particular distribution in mind when I started the Marksman, so I added the points as I found items. I was content with the reticle dispersal of my guns and with my ability to target enemies without experiencing excessive missed shots from long range with an automatic rifle, so I stopped increasing my Accuracy. Yes, I realize I may be missing out on higher Critical Damage potential, but the decision to place those points into Willpower leaves me the option of using more powerful weapon modifications as on the Legendary Arclight Fusion Rifle. The rifle's damage (not to be confused with the damage rating) doubled with the addition of the Legendary modifications.

I have not decided where I want to place the rest of my Skill points. I may max out Ricochet, Reflected Shot, and Homing Shot, or rather try going for Multishot. When Ricochet and Reflected Shot proc, and that's quite often, all I do is kill a mob and everything else remotely near it dies. And with my current rifle's rate of fire at 600 shots/min, the damage output is fairly nasty.

Dead Eye and Hollow Points...Increased Critical Chance and Critical Damage, respectively. Max them out. Do it.

I put 2 points into Beacon for Elemental Beacon. Beacon is a fantastic skill; no Marksman should be without it. I am considering putting a point into Multi Beacon, but for now I have my F1 slotted with a Unique Rocket Launcher with Multi Beacon 2.

I prefer to use Sniper Stance over Tactical Stance, because of the zoom and extra range. Sniper Stance rather than Tactical Stance works for my play style, but others may disagree on which is more effective. I enjoy my setup, so I won't get involved with that discussion much. I placed a few points into Master Sniper to augment my Critical Damage while in the stance.

Up past around Level 25 I neglected placing a skill point into Escape. Deaths were few and far between, and I was extremely stingy with the use of my points. However, I highly recommend at least 1 point in Escape for Nightmare difficulty. If you wish to hit 50 then you will be grinding...and grinding.......and grinding...so keep the experience flowing and keep yourself alive when the situation goes awry. A seemingly meager 5 minutes of reduced experience gets annoying and costs you time.

I'm not all that familiar with the Rapid Fire tree, but from what I have seen first hand from a fellow Marksman, it has the ability to do phenomenal burst damage every thirty seconds, tearing through difficult enemies.

I had tried Grenades/Napalm/Shock and Awe during Beta and from various equipped weapons. Personally I did not care for them but don't necessarily rule them out until you try them.

As far as playing solo vs. grouping is concerned, I soloed until the 3rd act in Normal, then partied with a summoner, Erushnak. We killed Sydonai the day after retail release in a straight play through from Angel Passage to St. Paul's. Being level 26 and in no state to tackle Nightmare, I did the dreaded grind in St. Paul's, running the gauntlet from the start up to the gate into Hell. That experience was fairly fast so I abused it until level 32. Afterwards I grouped with afore mentioned players-see my Special thanks shout out-and soloed when I had to. Around the mid 40s leveling sped up with the acquistion of my current rifle (thanks Judgement you'll get it back when I find a replacement ). I soloed more and idle partied to increase mob spawn. (Honestly, I'm not sure exactly what effects idle partying has on spawns, if any.) I finished up the grind from 49-50 with Steelshanks (50 summoner ftw, you rock man).

When you do finally get to the grind, find a good weapon, modify it well, and lay waste to mobs 3-4 levels higher than you for some nice experience.

Most important of all, figure out what you enjoy most-what fits your style of play-and enjoy Hellgate London.