Difference between revisions of "Strategy:Juggler"

Revision as of 15:31, 14 February 2012

General

If you're like me and like to carry several different weapons at once, Juggler can really come in handy. Juggler has 2 main parts, each with their own benefits.

First, Juggler lets you use swap your current weapon with your prepared one instantly. Normally, this would take 8/10 a second of time, which means that you can switch from your long range plasma rifle to your close range double shotgun if a monster suddenly appears next to you, without letting it get a free hit. Very useful against Lost Souls, as they almost always get free turns since they are so fast. This also means that swapping weapons this way (or by quickkey) no longer counts as a turn, which can save precious timewhen going for Icarus Cross medals or when under the effects of berserk, invulnerability, envirosuit packs, or light amp, which have durations in turns (if it takes less than 0.1 seconds to do, it doesn't use up a turn).

The second part of juggler lets you switch between the common weapons in your inventory instantly. This means that you don't have to have your second weapon in your prepared slot if it's one of the 8 common weapons (Combat Knife, Pistol, Shotgun, Combat Shotgun, Double Shotgun, Rocket Launcher, Chaingun, or Plasma Rifle) or the chainsaw or BFG9000. This means that you can have a ammo box in the prepared slot and still take advantage of the Juggler bonus by using the quick keys. One very useful thing this does is that it allows you to get the common weapon upgrades -- combat knife to chainsaw, shotgun to combat shotgun and/or double shotgun, chaingun to plasma rifle, and anything to BFG9000 (on bosses) ready faster. If you have Juggler before getting to the Chained Court, you can pick the chainsaw up, swap it to the prepared slot, then quickkey swap another weapon in your main weapon slot. You just picked up the chainsaw and readied it and another weapon all in 1 second and still have it ready to tear monsters apart at any time. What's really awesome is that Juggler will work with Assemblies too! Chainswords, High Power Weapons, and other assembled items can be swapped by using the quickkey for the base item.

With Juggler, you can equip and use several different weapons in a row without worrying about reloading in the middle of combat or spending time switching weapons. It works well against pain elementals and the swarms of lost souls they can produce. Start with a room clearing weapon -- the double shotgun (or any shotgun really, but the double shotgun's wide spread make it work well). Fire it, then switch to a rapid fire weapon (like the chaingun, or, better, the plasma rifle). A prepared melee weapon can be used to take care of any lost souls that actually reach you.

As a convienence factor, the juggler skill lets you attack with a melee weapon if you have it in the prepared slot (so you don't have to keep switching back and forth manually), although manual switching will still be required if you plan on having an non-melee exotic or unique on deck in the prepared slot for instant switching.

There are a few points that make Juggler flexible and a viable option on most builds. The first is that it's available as early as level 2 no matter what class you pick, since it only requires 1 point in Finesse. The second is that only two master traits block Finesse, and therefore block Juggler: Army of the Dead and Entrenchment. Therefore, juggler is a nice complement that allows you to access most of the tools you need when you need them, without letting the monsters get a turn. shark20061 20:32, February 2 2012 (GMT)

The ability to switch weapons instantly might seem minor at first glance, but it can be a lifesaver, or at least an ammo saver, in any game. Depending on the situation, you may want to use a shotgun to knock something back or spray a group of small enemies, or you might want to use a plasma gun to get something big dead fast, (such as an Arch-Vile) or you might want to use a chaingun for some precision shooting that isn't serious enough to warrant a plasma gun, (such as a Demon next to a barrel that you don't want to blow up since it might destroy useful items) or a rocket launcher to disperse large groups of enemies. Being able to switch rapidly and repeatedly in the middle of a battle can be essential in order to have the right weapon out at the right second, especially if you empty a weapon and it would be too dangerous to take the time to reload.

The benefits are limited somewhat by the fact that you only get instant switching with the most basic (numbered) weapons, so it's beneficial to make assemblies with them so you have decently powerful weapons to juggle. You can include one exotic/unique weapon in your jugglable line-up if you keep it in your prepared slot when you're not using it. (since Juggler allows instant swapping) Just remember to swap the exotic/unique back into the prepared slot when you want to switch back to your basic weapons.

An additional benefit introduced in version 0.9.9.5 is the fact that, if you have multiple of one kind of weapon in your main inventory, using the number keys to select your basic weapons now selects the one with the most ammo. (In previous versions, it would select the one with the *least* ammo which would mean you would frequently pull out empty weapons which was as useless as it was frustrating) This means you can now, for example, have multiple Chainguns in your inventory and if you empty one, instead of taking 2.5 seconds to reload, you can instantaneously switch to the next one and keep firing without a break! In order to take advantage of this strategy, there are a couple of things to remember: Using my above example with the Chainguns, after emptying one of them, you would have to first pull out a different weapon, say a shotgun by pressing 3, before pressing 6 to pull out the full Chaingun. This is because pressing 6 while you're wielding the Chaingun produces the message "you already have the chaingun in your hands" and nothing happens. The additional step of pulling out the shotgun is also instantaneous, though, so it doesn't really impact gameplay. The other thing to remember is that if the empty Chaingun is in the prepared slot, the game will default to swapping rather than switching to the full one in the main inventory. You will have to do a bit of juggling to get the empty one out of the prepared slot before you can take advantage of the ability to instantly switch to the full one.

The fact that Juggler automatically uses a melee weapon in the prepared slot doesn't usually have an advantage unless you happen to have a unique melee weapon, since you can instantly switch to combat knives and chainsaws anyway. It does have a use in helping achieve medals and badges that require fists only, though, since, for example, if you have a Chainsaw in the prepared slot while your hands are empty and you have Juggler trait, you will do Chainsaw damage to your enemies, but the game will consider them fist kills. This makes fist-only challenges a lot easier! Tormuse 10:26, February 6 2012 (GMT)