Hey guys. Quick question.
I know the Prismatech Alchemer gets a lot of heat for having no bonuses. I'm assuming the advantage to it is that you'll never really come up against an enemy that can resist your shots damage?
Now, regarding the Shadowtech, the wiki says its shots ricochet or split on damage. I haven't seen this happening. I'm not talking about the charged shot either. What am I supposed to do to get my shots to split? Is it a proc?
Thanks in advance.
That's the problem with necroing ancient threads. Prismatech got buffed after the OP so it was slightly more at the time.
Consider this simple damage comparison between the 2 star weapons at depth 12:
(Damage for 2 star weapons will start to decrease after depth 12, so lets just concentrate on D12 first.)
A 2* Blaster (Normal damage handgun) does 35 pts of damage per shot at depth 12.
35 x 3 = 105 damage per clip vs any enemy
A 2* Prismatech/Shadowtech alchemer does 62 pts of damage vs weak enemies & 39 pts of damage vs neutral enemies.
(You probably won't be using it against enemies who are resistant, so I'll forgo the numbers to keep it simple.)
62 x 2 = 124 damage per clip vs enemies weak against its damage type
39 x 2 = 78 damage per clip vs enemies neutral against its damage type
A 2* status alchemer (cryotech/firotech/voltech) does 48 pts of damage vs weak enemies & 30 pts of damage vs neutral enemies.
48 x 2 = 96 damage per clip vs enemies weak against its damage type
30 x 2 = 60 damage per clip vs enemies neutral against its damage type
Analysis:
Now, if you disregard the status damage, a status alchemer is actually worse than a normal damage handgun.
(Yes, a blaster does MORE damage against constructs & undead than a cryo/firo/voltech alchemer by default!)
Even if we take status damage into consideration, a status alchemer will only out-damage a blaster / prismatech alchemer under very specific circumstances...
Shock:
At depth 12, Shock does 10 damage per tick vs constructs & undead. (Maximum of 3 ticks)
If we estimate that a tick goes off every time we empty a clip, a voltech alchemer will do 106 damage per clip.
(That is still worse than a blaster since there's a good chance enemies will not be shocked within 2 shots.)
In my opinion, the only way a voltech can out-damage a prismatech is to constantly shock more than 3 enemies at once,
so it should be used more as an "anti-horde" gun rather than an elemental gun.
Fire:
The only constucts/undead that fire does good damage against are lumbers(31) & zombies(38).
It fares badly against Kats(20) & Mecha Knights(23), while doing average damage(26 pts) vs howlitzers & the rest of the constructs.
At the estimated rate of 1 tick per clip, a firotech alchemer will be better than a blaster if you manage to set undead & constructs on fire within 4 shots, and it'll only out-damage the prismatech against lumbers & zombies if you set them on fire within 2 shots.
In my opinion, it is only useful as an "anti-horde" gun or if you are using a "peek-a-boo" (shoot & duck into cover) style vs gun turrets.
Freeze:
At D12, freeze status will do around 83 points of damage if enemies are allowed to thaw out by themselves.
However, in order NOT to break the freeze status prematurely, you can either:
1) Shoot slowly so that you can access whether an enemy is frozen after every shot. (reduce your damage output)
2) Get very close to the enemy so that the first bullet would have hit him before you are ready for the 2nd shot. (risky)
3) Get surrounded by enemies on multiple sides so that you can shoot at different enemies with each bullet. (suicidal)
4) Shoot at maximum speed & hope that the enemy is frozen by the 2nd bullet. (lower chance of freeze)
Using any method except #1, you have to freeze an enemy within 4 shots to out-damage a prismatech.
Personally, I don't think the odds are very good & I believe the gun is better used for crowd-control rather than damage.
Conclusion:
Gunners who are going for a specialized damage should use a prismatech rather than a cryo/firo/voltech as their elemental gun.
A cryo/firo/voltech alchemer make more sense as an anti-horde weapon in a 2-guns setup (paired with a blaster series) or in a 4-guns setup (Prismatech + Shadowtech + Magnus + Status Alchemer).
List of damage tables(If you want to go thru the numbers yourself):
Blaster
Firotech
Cryotech
Voltech
Prismatech
Shadowtech
My god let this 4 month old thread die already everything in the OP is irrelevant to the current state of the game
SK-Tactics post was very nice however :)
The only status alchemer i'd ever consider is the firo; while you'd need a bit of luck to out dps the nova driver on your primary target, the ability to set additional targets alight is a pretty big offensive boon if you ask me - i've never actually used one though and i'm just assuming that the split shots would also carry a status inflicting chance? Ive only ever used an umbra xd
For the shots to ricochet, you must upgrade it to at least a 3* and must hit a object for it to ricochet, if the shot doesn't hit an object, it won't ricochet.
And I think Drivers can ricochet 3 times (my Shadow Driver seems to do that).
Greetings everyone - it's a gun thread so sure I post here :D xP
Alchemers are pretty interesting weapons at upgrading:
2 Star Alchemer: 2 Shots, Range 7~, Medium Bullet Speed, 0 ricochet.
3 Star Alchemer: 2 Shots, Range 7.5~, Med-Fast Bullet Speed, 1 ricochet for each bullet.
4 Star Alchemer: 2 Shots, Range 8~, Fast Bullet Speed, 2 ricochet for each bullet.
5 Star Alchemer: 2 Shots, Range 8.5~, Fast Bullet Speed, 3 ricochet for each bullet.
This means a normal Shot of a 5 Star Alchemer that deals 200 damage (for ex) may deal 200 up to 800 damage PER bullet -> damage, 3x ricochet.
Its important to hit the LEFT shoulder of the enemy, because the bullet ALLWAYS traveles back to you to the LEFT side. So if you hit the enemies left shoulder, the ricochet often hits him again, dealing DOUBLE damage ;) Sometimes it pulls to the right, but this only happens because its the ricochet of the ricochet :D
Any other questions :)
The prismatech does slightly more damage, and you don't have to worry about enemies that are immune or get healed by your status effect, but overall I don't feel that's worth it. Though it will still do weak damage against beasts and gremlins since they resist elemental if that's what you were thinking.
The wiki must be wrong, all alchemers gain the ability to have their bullets ricochet off the enemy in a random direction at the MKII stage, then when becoming a "Driver" the bullets can ricochet twice.