I need to finish a longer post I have sitting around comparing q70 weapons across the board, which should give you a more comprehensive idea as to what stats look like.
Few things to keep in mind if you're new to ranged, with the number 1 priority being the the tree is still badly broken and isn't worth attempting for much more than kicks. Your fight skills are going to depend on your melee ability. Period. Level ranged for the amusement factor - close combat and 1H are better at giving SPs/hr - but don't build your toon around it.
aempress wrote:I would like to know which ones to build for what with my crafting and not waste too many SP building inferior things.
Unless you have a plethora of SPs, I'd suggest saving your skill points for the various ranged plans until after 50. From 21-50 the system doesn't care where you get your crafting or fight experience from, so the default weapon and ammo (pistol and pistol piercing ammo) serve just as well as anything else. Unfortunately, what you'll find is that while the other weapons are somewhat better than the pistol, the difference isn't dramatic enough so that if SPs are tight you should be spending SPs you could use elsewhere. Post 50, you split into 1H and 2H weapons, with pistols and bowpistols being the only 1H weapons, and everything else in 2H. At that point, you'll also have access to launchers and autolaunchers, which give better grind exp as they take more mats. I almost miss the 4/3/2 ammo combos for rifle/pistol ammo as while they were prohibitive in cost, the advancement rate was nice.
Oh yes, one other thing. There are enough people who can make a ranged weapon for you if you'd like - we actually get a kick out of doing it since there are maybe 10-15 or so ranged fighters (lvl 50 title) on the server, and a pistol only requires 4 mats and a rifle 6 (IIRC without looking at the plan) - bring us the mats and we'll make the weapon for free. So you don't really need to take the weapon craft tree if you're willing to ask around a bit. However, you definitely will need the ammo plan as not being able to craft ammo is a bankruptable move. And don't worry, you'll go through enough ammo so that grinding only ammo is a good way to advance in craft.
Especially in things as to which cause the most damage, fire the fastest, range, and so on.
The sad part is that the only two stats that seem to be enabled for ranged weapons in any noticable way at this point are speed and range. I have maxxed damage weapons that don't do a thing more than a 10% one, and the adversary dodge mods don't seem to do much either. Ammo on the other hand matters a lot - use choice mitexi bark and choice gulatch oil and you'll max out your damage. Also remember that using ammo above your weapon quality reduces the damage done to the quality of the weapon.
As far as maxxing out range, early on ragus mats are good; later, find supreme mats, especially for triggers (you'd be surprised at how much a good supreme caprice seed helps.) Unfortunately, I have yet to find a particularly good +speed mat that doesn't clobber other stats.
More specifically, the differences between pistols, rifles, bow pistols, and bow rifles.
Pistols are mediocre damage but ok firing rate, max range 30. Rifles offer slower fire but better damage, max range 40. Launchers offer great damage, but ammo is uncarryable given its so bulky unless you bring your mektoubs in the field. Also very slow firing...like 8 rounds per minute. Max range 50. Autolaunchers I haven't screwed around enough with to comment on, with same bulk issue. Max range 50. Bowpistols and bowrifles I have never really used after an early bad experience with them, but will try out on ATS to compare stats before I finish my comparative numbers post.
To me, though, the DPS (damage per second) potential for each weapon with good ammo if properly constructed feels about the same given the difference in rate and ammo damage. So...YMMV, but I am using rifles and pistols only until I hit 100. The range benefit to the rifle is noticable when you're pulling things though - being able to snipe stuff out of a crowd helps, and even my good pistol with 28 range gets me awfully close to aggro groups.
Cheers.
Lunchers look soo kool when they do dmg too 