Twin Handguns to level?

[DreXxiN]

Discuss. Personally I think crossbows and shotguns beat them hands down, but if you think any are worth getting of any the elements + penetration and mayalee, post your opinion

[darkante]

Hmm let´s see..light is a good choise if you don´t already use light on crossbow.

Makes it easier to avoid those megid shoots those cheap enemies in Hive uses.
And easier time with the mages there also with there irritating foie blasts.
I wouldn´t use shotgun on mages when they are buffed...gives me the shivers lol.

[Akaimizu]

Twin Handguns have different case uses than Shotgun or Crossbow. Shotgun's biggest issue is that it stops you in place. It has a nice spread, but in most cases in which you're trying to disable creatures, it's the most dangerous way to deliver it. Shotguns is better for that secondary crossbow function. The close up assassination method. However, I like Crossbows much better for Status effect spreads.

Twin Handguns are a patient weapon, just like the Guntecher class as a whole. For it's power aspect, you really want to see them at 21 or above. They get a little extra tastiness at 31, but 21 is the most noticable bump. The bad thing is, Twin Handguns are super slow to level. This might change with the new bullet PA update. (ST probably figured it out that today's climate of parties killing mobs too fast is driving gunners away from parties if they wish to level their bullets faster)

I calculated that to get Twin Handgun bullets to 30, you pretty much have to do 80 hours of straight work with using mainly those bullets throughout missions, to get them up there. To tell you the truth, getting all but 2 available Twin Handgun bullets past 21 is a monumental achievement that should be recorded in the achievements topic by anybody who did it. Same with Rifles.

Is it worth it? I think so. But to each their own. I tended to use Twin Handgun bullets, especially early on, as long range distraction vehicles. They're a way to stay at a distance and peg a monster quickly in hopes that it'll turn its attention to you, instead of at that hunter who now has the time to launch some insane damage PA on it. (This is the case when the mob and other is too far for you to help otherwise, in time, or as with the past. They were too far for resta and I needed to draw attention to save them since Twins is much faster than running over there, casting the resta, and hope lag didn't win the day. They also have a ton of better reach than mechgun. (Which is the game's best distraction weapon but only for short range)) The twins also becomes the most damaging single-target Long range weapon a class like Guntecher can get, in the game. Especially for one that can go first person and aim. They outdamage Rifles and Bows for the class, with the exception of Bows ignoring defense with bullet resistant enemies/parts.

So the main loss for the spread weapons is distance and the ability to first person aim. Twin Handguns can be used surgical, but quickly can be spread across a group with strafe. They also can be used as a versitile multi-purpose weapon until you find yourself in the position for a more appropriate weapon.

I still use Twin Mayalee, but you want a high PP weapon for it. It was both nerfed and boosted in the expansion. On one hand, you get a level 2 Zalure right off the bat, which you can load on any enemy within the long Twin handgun range. It's a *near* guarranteed land on any mob that it does damage on. It also now does very nice damage at 21 and above. The bad is the cost, thus the need for a high PP weapon to compensate for it. How it compares to elements, is that it now outdamages any element that isn't the best element for a mob, of the same level. It's just a little bit worse in damage than the best element of its level.
That means, it's not a bad bullet to use on a Boss that happens to be of an element where you haven't raised the proper Twin handgun bullet to Twin MayaLee's bullet level yet.

Still it's cost is prohibitive of using it as a bullet throughout the entire level. You'll drain your guns. However, if you have a couple of Twins in your pallette, it's a fantastic way to open up each battle with Twin MayaLee to give them a free level 2 Zalure and you do just about your best damage during it. You can then switch right to the better bullet (or one to deliver an appropriate SE) right afterwards at almost no loss to your damage contribution. You can do that before you even close in, plus for total damage, they will hover close to your total crossbow damage.

Take note, the spread weapons have even more regular use in the Cast and Beast gameplay than it would for the Human and Newman, who is more concerned for their health when they get close. A Beast GT, especially in their end game, has about 1000 point HP bonus compared to the lesser HP folk. A cast also gets a few hundred better HP with extra defense. Though the way the current game dictates DFP, the beast might have the edge on using weapons with greater risk involved. Of course, if you're talking other classes, then you also shake off a lot of those worries, you get the HP anyway.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Akaimizu on 2008-03-06 07:06 ]</font>

[kyle21]

I have all the normal twin bullets at 30, and currently working on mayalee which is at 23. I say lv all of em... all the ele's have instances where they are good against a certain mob. Like worms, gaozorans, flying stuff, jarbas, bosses, any time you want to avoid attacks by straffing... once they hit 21+ all the twin pa's are good really.

[stukasa]

I like twin handguns. I think they've gotten better since the enemy STA reduction since even SE2 works pretty often. They're the perfect weapon when you're fighting an enemy you don't want to get close to but need to stay mobile, like a group of Olgohmons or Vandas. Ground and Light bullets do a good job of silencing and confusing enemies. Ice is great at freezing them. I also like using twins on a lot of bosses like Onma, Dimma and the dragons (on dragons I only use them as GT, for fG I'd use grenades).

Shotguns and crossbows have better DPS but shotguns leave you immobile and crossbows work best up close. If you have time I recommend leveling up at least a couple elements of every weapon available to you because all guns are useful in the right situations.


On 2008-03-06 06:46, Akaimizu wrote:
I calculated that to get Twin Handgun bullets to 30, you pretty much have to do 80 hours of straight work with using mainly those bullets throughout missions, to get them up there.

You mean 80 hours total, right? It can't be 80 hours for each element, that seems too high. I have a fG/GT alt with 400 total hours and I have one twin handgun bullet 31+ and three more in the mid-20s. Twin Handguns are one of my favorite weapons but I definitely haven't used them 75% of the time, I used all the weapons available to me.

[Akaimizu]

Actually, it took me close to that for each element. At least in the beginning. Draining two twins per run. I first started with mainly 2 bullets at once. Ice and Ground. This was before I got much of my other weapons, later. It was around the 160-170 hour mark when they hit 30. They weren't exclusively levelled, just mostly used.

As with most GTs, especially now, they'll be levelling a lot of things and by the ratio of how much their Twins will play into their game, it'll probably be a similar play time to do so, along with their other stuff. GTs need a good spread of weapons and PAs or lose a lot in their game.

Now take note, I didn't calculate a late game aspect when your ATA improves and your character levels are high. The early game saw quite a bit of 0s even from a human. But even if you consider that, it's a real long time to level Twin Handgun bullets. Especially in a group, these days. So the time to level increases when dealing with increased time you're not busy landing shots.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Akaimizu on 2008-03-06 13:30 ]</font>

[DreXxiN]

Thanks for the insightful replies guys xD. I'll start with them after I finish off my xbows. *faints*

[Hrith]

Since twin handguns are so weak (comparatively), getting all six elemental bullets is the only decent option if you're going to use them at all, IMO.

[Tengoku]

On 2008-03-10 10:17, Hrith wrote:
Since twin handguns are so weak (comparatively), getting all six elemental bullets is the only decent option if you're going to use them at all, IMO.

I disagree. Their "weakness" means you don't use them mainly for DPS, but for other uses. Peeling mobs away from the main scrum, taking down highly-mobile air-beasties, and for highly mobile mobs in general. You really only need two elementals (in my opinion), merely because if you have one element, something is going to be resistant to it and you're suddenly going to be doing much less damage than you would otherwise, even if DPS is not the main focus. Less damage is less damage and doing less damage isn't something one should strive for. With two elements, you always have a PA that will do normal damage, especially if you stay away from having ice/fire or earth/lighting as your two choices. It seems to me that ice/fire and lightning/earth based mobs often appear on the same maps. I chose dark/ fire as my two choices.

Handguns also usefull for small rooms.

[Hrith]

Machineguns, crossbows, shotguns can do all that AND have DPS.

Neutral damage is never an option, I label that as total fail.