Automatic Rifleman

Overview

Portrait
In-Game Description	MOS: 11B (Infantry) Role: Automatic Rifleman The automatic rifleman provides fire support through the tactical use of his machine gun. ARs are an important part of a squad, providing the base of fire to allow his squad breathing room to maneuver.
Rank Requirements	Enlisted: 1000 XP - Private First Class {PFC} Warrant Officer: 0 XP - Chief Warrant Officer 1 {CW1} Commissioned Officier: 0 XP - Second Lieutenant {2LT}
Maximum Per Game	2
Health	420*
Energy	190
Armor	1
Move Speed	2.86
Weapon Type	Machine Gun
Weapon Damage
Weapon Range	17
Weapon Speed	0.12
Rounds per Magazine	100**

(*Affected by Rank.)

(**Affected by Belt Linking.)

Primary Abilities

Soldier Skills

• Each level unlocks abilities or effects and also gives the following bonuses:
  • Increases Fitness, Dexternity, and Mechanical Skill by 2.
  • Reduces reload and unjam time by 15%.

Level	Effect
1	Unlocks Perform Self-Aid.
2	Unlocks Burst Upgrade.
3	Increases move speed by 0.10 and improves Prone.
4	Unlocks Rifle Butt.

Marksmanship

• Marksmanship grants a 12.5% chance to land a critical hit, increasing damage dealt and causing penetration splash damage on that attack.
• Each level increases the damage multiplier and also gives the following bonuses:
  • Increases Dexterity by 4.
  • Increases attack range by 1.

Level	Damage Multiplier
1	2x
2	3x
3	4x
4	5x

Suppressive Fire (F)

• Increases attack speed and decreases move speed by 80% for 8 seconds.
• Has a cooldown of 9 seconds.
• Can be manually turned off before the 8 seconds duration.

Level	Attack Speed Increase	Energy Cost
1	+150%	40 (+1/s active)
2	+200%	35 (+1/s active)
3	+250%	32 (+1/s active)
4	+300%	30 (+1/s active)

Belt Linking

• Load 100 rounds at the cost of 1 magazine, but cannot exceed maximum ammo capacity.  This ability decreases in energy cost and casting time per level.
• Each level passively increases the magazine cost per reload by 1 and the maximum ammo capacity per reload by 100.

Level	Casting Time	Energy Cost	Passive Effect
1	3.5s	44	Maximum ammo at 200 rounds, reload costs 2 magazines.
2	2.5s	32	Maximum ammo at 300 rounds, reload costs 3 magazines.
3	1.5s	20	Maximum ammo at 400 rounds, reload costs 4 magazines.

Incendiary Rounds

• Increases base damage and decreases the move speed of Light targets in an area by 20% for a short duration.
• Costs 0.6 energy per shot.  Can be toggled on and off.

Level	Base Damage Increase	Slow Duration
1	10	0.45s
2	17	0.60s
3	26	0.75s
4	33	0.90s

Additional Actions (Z)

Sprint (T)

• Drains the sprint meter to increase move speed for up to 12 seconds.
• Move speed bonus decreases linearly with the sprint meter.
• Sprint meter recharges from empty to full in 15 seconds.
• Cannot be activated if afflicted by the Fractured Leg ailment.
• Has a cooldown of 2 seconds.

Reload (R)

• Discards the remaining rounds in the current magazine and loads a new one.
• Consumes 1 magazine plus 1 additional magazine for each learned level of Belt Linking. Cannot be performed if insufficient magazines remain.
• Will automatically occur when there are 0 rounds remaining and the player has at least 1 magazine plus 1 additional magazine for each learned level of Belt Linking, but will not trigger cooldown.
• Base reload time is 6 seconds. Reload time is affected by Soldier Skills and the Quick Thinking [QT] Skill Identifier.
• Has a cooldown of 5 seconds.

Immediate/Remedial Action (A)

• Removes the Jammed debuff over a short period of time. The amount of time required to remove the debuff has a 16.7% chance to be quadrupled. Is affected by Soldier Skills and the Quick Thinking [QT] Skill Identifier.
• Has a cooldown of 10 seconds.

Drop Magazine (D)

• If the player has at least 3 magazines readied, will decrease their magazine count by 3 and place a Magazine item with 1 charge into their hero unit's inventory. If its inventory is full, then it will drop at the hero unit's location.
• Has a cooldown of 1.5 seconds.

Jump (Q)

• Displaces the unit in a target direction, allowing it to traverse most terrain obstacles. Also allows the unit to move from a higher elevation to a lower elevation by jumping over cliffs.
• Has a cooldown of 8 seconds.
• If performed off of a cliff onto a much lower elevation, the unit will suffer from Jump Injury, taking initial damage and decreasing its move speed temporarily.
• Cannot be activated if afflicted by the Fractured Leg ailment.
• AR who activated the Veteran [VT] Skill identifier can die from jumping from a cliff onto a much lower elevation.

Perform Self-Aid (F)

• The unit heals itself for 35 health over 10 seconds.
• Removes Minor Lacerations.
• Has a cooldown of 30 seconds.
• Is affected by the Self-Sufficient [SS] Skill Identifier:
  • Increases the health healed to a random amount between 35 and 75.
  • Removes Minor Lacerations as well as moderate ailments.

Prone (E)

• Increases base damage by 10%. With Soldier Skills level 3, will instead increase base damage by 13%, attack speed by 8%, and range by 1 unit.
• Reduces move speed by 80%.
• Gives an 80% chance to reduce explosive damage by 35%.
• Increases evasion by 15% in PMC mode.
• Has a cooldown of 2 seconds.

Burst Upgrade

• Improves the unit's alternating attack speed buff uptime and attack speed debuff downtime.
• This ability is unlocked at Soldier Skills level 2.

Rifle Butt

• This ability is unlocked at Soldier Skills level 4 or upon using the Barbaric [BA] Skill Identifier.
• Nearby Light enemies will be periodically knocked back and damaged.

Guides

General

The Automatic Rifleman is a support role for the squad whose primary purpose is to deal damage and kill enemies. His primary weapon is a machine gun with a 100-round magazine. It is a fairly straight-forward role that can be quite powerful due to large magazine and high rate of fire capabilities. The Automatic Rifleman has Soldier Skills and Marksmanship like a Rifleman, but replaces the Grenade and Flare abilities with Belt Linking, Suppressive Fire, and Incendiary Rounds.

Recommended Skill Identifiers

First SI	Second SI	Description
Quick Thinking [QT]	Energetic [EN] Hawkeye [HE]	For Incendiary builds.  [QT] will mitigate the effect of having no Belt Linking and will synergize with Soldier Skills.  [EN] is necessary for maintaining Incendiary Rounds when sustained fire begins to occur.  For less energy-intensive games, [HE] can be taken for the range advantage as well as to counter invisible enemies.
Energetic [EN]	Hawkeye [HE] Twinkle Toes [TT]	For Suppressive builds.  [EN] is non-negotiable, since Suppressive Fire drains energy very quickly when the real shooting starts.  [HE] lets you counter invisible enemies, but more importantly keeps you in range of targets with your increased range because repositioning while suppressing is difficult.  Can also consider [TT] to help position properly before beginning suppression.
Veteran [VT]	Energetic [EN]	[VT] builds should almost always take advantage of Suppressive Fire, which requires [EN].

Recommended Items

• Automatic Rifleman is allowed to use the following weapons: M14 SAW, M241 MMG, and M135 Minigun.

Item	Description
M14 SAW M241 MMG M135 Minigun Aim Assist AP Rounds DU Rounds Ammo Case Muscle Relaxant	For DPS.

Recommended Ability Build

Level	Suppressive	Incendiary
1	Marksmanship 1	Incendiary Rounds 1
2	Suppressive Fire 1	Soldier Skills 1
3	Suppressive Fire 2	Soldier Skills 2
4	Marksmanship 2	Marksmanship 1
5	Marksmanship 3	Marksmanship 2
6	Marksmanship 4	Marksmanship 3
7	Soldier Skills 1	Marksmanship 4
8	Soldier Skills 2	Incendiary Rounds 2
9	Belt Linking 1	Incendiary Rounds 3
10	Belt Linking 2	Incendiary Rounds 4
11	Belt Linking 3	Soldier Skills 3
12	Soldier Skills 3	Soldier Skills 4
13	Soldier Skills 4	Belt Linking 1
14	Incendiary Rounds 1	Belt Linking 2
15	Incendiary Rounds 2	Belt Linking 3
16	Incendiary Rounds 3	Suppressive Fire 1
17	Incendiary Rounds 4	Suppressive Fire 2
18	Suppressive Fire 3	Suppressive Fire 3
19	Suppressive Fire 4	Suppressive Fire 4

________________

Recommended Builds

DPS Gunner

Build Order - Marksmanship 1 > Belt Linking 1 > Suppressive Fire 2 > Belt Linking 3 > Soldier Skills 2 > Marksmanship 4 

Start with one marksmanship to unlock crit and help with early game, belt linking to minimize reloads, then start building up suppressive fire for damage.

Recommendations:

-SIs:  Energetic + LightArmor / Barbaric

-Items: This build works with any machine guns, Aim Assistant, Ammo Case

This build maximizes DPS from fire rate and Critical shots. The AR has great potential damage from Marksmanship because of the large magazines, allowing for multiple rapid critical hits on a target. Instructor is optional because AR doesn't reload as much as linking belts, getting EN is more important so you will have suppressive fire up at all times.

Role: Straight up damage-dealer. The AR's job is to kill enemies. Provide cover for teammates doing missions or kiting bosses, and post up on defense when necessary.

Incendiary Gunner

Build Order - Incendiary 1 > Marksmanship 1 > Belt Linking 1 > Incendiary 3 > Soldier Skills 3 > Suppressive Fire 1 > Marksmanship 4

Incendiary Rounds at level 3 is the most cost-effective (+9 dmg from previous level instead of +7 dmg from previous level).

Recommendations:

-SIs: Energetic + Intelligence / LightArmor

-Items: M241 MMG, Aim Assistant, Ammo Case

This variation of the AR focuses on damage-per-shot instead of rate of fire DPS. He should go prone often to maximize his damage and range, aided by the MMG, AA, and possibly AP rounds. Incendiary rounds consume energy per shot rather than over time, so while out of combat, Energetic provides enough regeneration, along with the Mechanical boosts from Soldier Skills. Soldier Skills will boost just about everything else as well.

Role: Generally the same as the DPS Gunner, but a bit less mobile. He should stick near teammates or on high ground, and keep an eye on his map to avoid becoming vulnerable when prone.

Optional Items: Energy Cells would be good to have as a reserve in the later game as energy use increases. DU Rounds, only found in late game, provide a 40% damage increase against Armored enemies, which would be very useful for bosses.

Veteran

Build Order: Marksmanship 1 > Incindiary Rounds 1 > Belt Linking 1 > Soldier Skills 2 > Marksmanship 4 > Suppressive Fire 1 > Belt Linking 2 > Soldier Skills 3 > Suppressive Fire 3

SIs: Veteran + Energetic

Items: M41 SAW, Aim Assistant, M135 Minigun

Fitness from soldier skills ameliorates health penalty from veteran, Incindiary Rounds increases your survivability

Damage/Shot Effective

Build Order: Marksmanship 1 > Soldier Skills 2 > Incendiary Rounds 3 > Belt Linking 1 > Marksmanship 4 > Soldier Skills 3 > Suppressive Fire 3

Recommendations

SIs: Quick Thinking(QT) + Hawkeye(HE)

Items: M41 SAW, Aim Assistant, AP Rounds, M135 Minigun

Start off with marksmanship 1 to get critical chance with the added bonus of dexterity. Next get at least to Soldier Skills 2 for the improved burst which dramatically improve your DPS especially if you are unlucky in obtaining a weapon. However if you find yourself covering positions then you might want to invest into Soldier Skills 3 with the added bonus of extra stats and 15% reload/unjam time. After Soldier Skills, get Incendiary Rounds 3 for the obvious damage increase. You could chose to get Incendiary Rounds 4 if you want all the damage you can get but I prefer to spend the skill point in something else since the jump from lvl 3 to lvl 4 is 7 damage where as the damage from lvl 2 to lvl 3 is 9 damage. At this point you will find that you are reloading often and thus Belt Linking 1 is to help alleviate the reloading often by increasing your magazine capacity to 200 rounds instead of 100. That being said, due to the SI Quick Thinking with 25% Reload/Unjam + X * 15% Reload/Unjam time from Soldier Skills reloading is much more effective than belt linking thus improving your overall DPS. Lastly Max out Marksmanship for the increase Critical Damage as well as 4 dexterity/level which gives 2% more damage/points into dexterity as well as a slight range bonus.

Towards level 10 you should be doing ~100 damage/shot mixed improved burst fire from soldier skills and your items. For items its quite obvious to get one of the weapons however I prefer the M14 SAW and the M135 Minigun since it improves your burst damage allowing you to deliver those 100 damage/shot faster allowing you to wittle down mobs and bosses very quickly. That being said, it would be a smart idea to be carrying around an Ammo Case with you since bullets go by fast with the SAW or Minigun with your improved burst.