Looking for clarification on a few things!

[fuzzles]

Hey all, most of my questions are being answered in region/universe (sorry for the spam, cho!), but there are some things I'm having difficulties clearing up as they get very mixed responses. I apologize for wanting to know all the technicalities but I have a small obsession with needing to know them

Dodge/Parry.
I understand that you can only choose to actively do one of the two, that isn't my question.
It seems to me that you are only able to parry your target (your "target" being the operative word). For example, if I'm fighting a kipee and a ragus, and have the kipee targeted, I will never ever be able to parry the ragus unless I target it.
Is this how it works? Does evade and dodge work the same way?

Melee weapon reach.
When I hover my mouse over this value, it says it gives me a bonus to accuracy if I'm fighting something with shorter reach than me (not sure on the exact wording, but something like that).
Some people say that this is also the "range" of your weapon, but I'm using a pike, yet my range still appears to be "touch" ranged, frequently when I run up to a mob and enter combat, it says it's out of range even though my character is virtually intersecting with it. Does a higher reach on a melee weapon actually mean it has a physically longer "range"?
The reason I'm wondering is because of the circular attack stanza. Will using a pike with this stanza give me a bigger radius than with, say, daggers?

Critical rate.
Simple question. What determines the frequency of critical hits? I can't seem to find any values or stanza related to it at all.

Accuracy stanza.
Will these lower all of my target's evade, dodge, and parry?
It would be useful to know if using accuracy on something that parries has no effect, for example.

Using stanza of inappropriate levels.
Say, I'm using a stanza for weapon levels 0-25 while wielding a weapon of level 30. Will this lower the effectiveness of that particular stanza or the success rate of the entire action? Will a QL 26 weapon be penalized the same amount as a QL300 one or does it scale?
The reason I'm wondering about this is that sometimes I can fit that one extra lvl1 option in without needing more credits, which is far too low for my weapon. It would be useful to know if this would reduce the effectiveness of the entire action.

This is also something I could just check ingame but figure I'll ask it anyways.
I've heard launchers/autolaunchers have area damage, but what about pistols/rifles/bowpistols/bowrifles? What are their differences?

Oof, that was lengthy. Sorry for the rant It will be really appreciated if anyone knowing could clear some of this up. I don't suppose there is a website or something explaining mechanics like these?

[XoloX]

Dodge/Parry.
I understand that you can only choose to actively do one of the two, that isn't my question.
It seems to me that you are only able to parry your target (your "target" being the operative word). For example, if I'm fighting a kipee and a ragus, and have the kipee targeted, I will never ever be able to parry the ragus unless I target it.
Is this how it works? Does evade and dodge work the same way?

Judging from my experiences, dodge and parry work the same way, not being tied to the targetted entity.
Each species has different modifiers to overcome your dodge or parry skill, however. Just like different 2H melee weapons have. Also, you have different skills and modifiers to either enhance or penalize your dodge and/or parry abilities. Take a look at them in the personal info while equipping different armors or weapons.

Melee weapon reach.
When I hover my mouse over this value, it says it gives me a bonus to accuracy if I'm fighting something with shorter reach than me (not sure on the exact wording, but something like that).
Some people say that this is also the "range" of your weapon, but I'm using a pike, yet my range still appears to be "touch" ranged, frequently when I run up to a mob and enter combat, it says it's out of range even though my character is virtually intersecting with it. Does a higher reach on a melee weapon actually mean it has a physically longer "range"?
The reason I'm wondering is because of the circular attack stanza. Will using a pike with this stanza give me a bigger radius than with, say, daggers?

It won't give you more radius, at least I never noticed.
From what was explained at the 2H weapons overhaul a year back, the reach modifies the damage done to you primarily.
It should be down at the patch notes on the home page. It's #083 here.

Critical rate.
Simple question. What determines the frequency of critical hits? I can't seem to find any values or stanza related to it at all.

Me neither *g* Tell us if you happen to find out at regular attacks being unaimed or why Kinchers love to fry me with three special attacks in a row...

Accuracy stanza.
Will these lower all of my target's evade, dodge, and parry?
It would be useful to know if using accuracy on something that parries has no effect, for example.

It has an overall effect. As the description of the stanza indicates, it raises your skill at the used weapon to try and hit whatever you're trying to hit. Usually that reduces complete misses.

Using stanza of inappropriate levels.
Say, I'm using a stanza for weapon levels 0-25 while wielding a weapon of level 30. Will this lower the effectiveness of that particular stanza or the success rate of the entire action? Will a QL 26 weapon be penalized the same amount as a QL300 one or does it scale?
The reason I'm wondering about this is that sometimes I can fit that one extra lvl1 option in without needing more credits, which is far too low for my weapon. It would be useful to know if this would reduce the effectiveness of the entire action.

While you should aim at using appropriate stanza's ranges, being adjusted to your skill and the weapon itself, it is sometimes either not possible or not advisable.
Not to type too much overly complicated things: it's still better to use anything too low than not using it at all... whether it's really useful is up to you. Overpaying an action is a valuable option sometimes as well, raising chances of success considerably.

This is also something I could just check ingame but figure I'll ask it anyways.
I've heard launchers/autolaunchers have area damage, but what about pistols/rifles/bowpistols/bowrifles? What are their differences?

There are quite a few threads on ranged weapons atm, as they're in line to be overhauled.
To answer the question: pistols/rifles/bowpistols/bowrifles don't have AoE damage
Other differences are eg. shorter range, less damage (ammo dependant ofc), higher ROF, bigger clipsizes and less bulk and weight for ammo. Waaaay less.

Hope that helped some up a bit

[fuzzles]

Woot, thanks for the awesome response Some digging, though!:

Judging from my experiences, dodge and parry work the same way, not being tied to the targetted entity.
Each species has different modifiers to overcome your dodge or parry skill, however. Just like different 2H melee weapons have. Also, you have different skills and modifiers to either enhance or penalize your dodge and/or parry abilities. Take a look at them in the personal info while equipping different armors or weapons.

Yeah, I'm aware of the bonuses/penalties/debuffs and such. What I was wondering is if you can dodge/parry something you don't have targetted. At least as far as I've noticed, I have never *ever* parried something I didn't target, while I can parry my target of the same mob 6 times in a row.

To answer the question: pistols/rifles/bowpistols/bowrifles don't have AoE damage

Hehe obviously. I was more wondering what the difference between a bowrifle and rifle would be, for example.
I compared pistols and rifles in game just now and the rifle seems to be better all around. A Q20 npc rifle was both faster and longer ranged than a Q20 npc pistol, the rifle ammo also does more damage. While the pistol ammo was lighter and cheaper, it was only marginally so.
Do the player crafted ones scale differently perharps? Currently I see little to no reason why anyone would go pistols.

Someone also told me that you can use bowpistol/bowrifle ammo with regular pistols and rifles. Why do you even get the option to spend 40 crafting points on each?

Maybe this is all moot though, if they are revamping it.

[XoloX]

You can dodge or parry non-targeted enemies.
Your dodge/parry will increase with increased fight or non-fight experience, so you'll notice later™. A Kincher can parry me attacking from behind blinded and looking the other way, so can I And so will you....later™.

I'm not an expert on the Ranger's way, so hopefully someone who is will pick up on that.
I can tell you for sure, though, that player crafted items are always waaaaay better than anything NPC crafted. Also, the differences between "regular" and "bow" variants are so marginal, if existant, that it really doen't matter much atm, especially since their ammos are interchangeable. Still...more skilltrees to gain SP from if needed.
And I forgot the most noticeable difference of pistols and rifles to launchers in the last post: you can run while firing
And I'd guess that nobody really sees any other use of pistols apart from interupting mages in PvP due to their RoF. It's fun at times, though.

The revamp will most likely be a rework (and is needed badly...), they can't/shouldn't/won't reinvent it all - so the basics should still apply when the last one turns off the lights in a decade or two...and who knows when it'll be done anyway.

[gretchen]

I'm still starting out, but the only critical-related thing I've seen so far is the "Opening on critical" (and similar Openings) that give you a bonus attack if you make a critical or a critical is performed on you (I haven't figured this out yet.)

The whole process of combat with queuing up actions and special actions or opportunities that become available during combat, really reminds me of EQII. You couldn't edit and customize actions in EQII of course.

[fuzzles]

Yep, I tested the parry thing just now on an unfortunate yubo (sorry dude, there's only one way to get you off my back after I was done testing!), and I did parry him, it was just that I didn't get the big bright shiny yellow text going "PARRY" over my head unless I targeted him, and my parry followup actions didn't light up (which makes sense, from both a balance and rp point of view).

Thanks for your input, appreciate it.