In Further Defense of The Jade Rabbit

I think I finally got a good hold on why The Jade Rabbit feels better to me than comparable Scout Rifles like Song of Justice VI or Telemachus-C.

In standard Crucible, The Jade Rabbit does 40 damage on body shots and 56 damage on head shots. But, if you chain one body shot with a head shot, you do 66 damage. Chain a couple of body shots with a head shot, and the yellow numbers go up to 76. Figuring Guardians have around 200 points of health (more or less... I think it goes something like 180 to 210), The Jade Rabbit basically fills in the gaps when your aim isn't perfect. As long as you keep hitting the target and eventually get a headshot in, you won't suffer too much if you only land body shots early on.

The feel to me is dramatic... With my Telemachus-C, it often felt like I couldn't do enough damage and enemies were getting away. With The Jade Rabbit, it often feels like I'm getting a little something extra and outshooting people kinda-sorta-subtly when I shouldn't be. It feels significantly better than any other heavy scout rifle to me because of that escalating damage. And yeah, some of that better feel is also just the knowledge that the gun kinda has my back if I don't land all headshots.

The Jade Rabbit's ability to refresh its magazine when you are chaining body shots to head shots is also pretty great. You could fire continuously as long as you be sure and place your shots correctly. In Crucible... that's not always really possible due to time pressure of someone firing back at you... but sometimes it is:

That's five quick kills with The Jade Rabbit. 23 total shots, but with a set of 17 shots without reloading. A few other guns can fire that much. Crimson reloads on Critical kills. An upgraded Polaris Lance gives its shot back on a headshot. But in a tense, quick situation like that where it's hard to keep aim on enemy heads as they all keep dying, The Jade Rabbit handled the situation perfectly in a way most other guns could not have!

The 5 super kills weren't too shabby either. Oh, and I really liked killing that Hunter that missed his Wardcliff Coil. First with a hammer to the face, and last with my sidearm. Next time, dude... don't miss. :p

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The health spread is smaller (186-201, +2 for 1-5 Res, + 1 for 6-10) but your comment about Jade Rabbit sort of having your back is really interesting to me. A lot of people seemed upset that in D2 it didn't give precision boosting like in D1, but I think the general tone toward the weapon is that the perk punishes you for good habits, i.e., landing only crits.

But running the numbers, you'll kill any Guardian with 9 Resiliency (200 health) in 5 body shots (40 x 5 = 200) and any Guarding with 4 precision (56 x 4 = 224). And based on what I've seen, untested, each body shot prior to another precision hit has a +10. Damage spreads as follows:

4 Crit - - - -: 56 x 4 = 224 (Any Guardian)
1 body, 3 Crit: 40 + 56 x 3 + 10 = 218 (Any Guardian)
2 Body, 2 Crit: (40 + 56 + 10) x 2 = 212 (Any Guardian)
3 Body, 1 Crit: 40 x 3 + 56 + 10 x 3 = 206 (Any Guardian)
4 Body - - - -: 40 x 4 = 160 (No Guardian)
5 Body - - - -: 40 x 5 = 200 (Up to 9 Resiliency)

So, as long as they have either taken damage from a secondary source (46-61 pts) or you land at least one crit following a body shot you get a 4sk on any Guardian who doesn't have any active overshield or damage reduction. Order of shots doesn't matter, excluding needing the final shot to be a crit. However, even if your final shot isn't a crit (2 body, 1 crit, 1 body) you will still deal 196 damage, which is enough to take out any Guardian with 5 Resiliency, however 1 body, 1 crit, 2 bodies will only be able to take out a 0 Resiliency Guardian from full health. Though 1 body, 1 crit, 1 body, 1 crit, as far as I can tell, works the same as 2 body, 2 crit.

Moral of the story? Always try to end with a crit; also, I've now pulled the Jade Rabbit out of my vault and figure I'll give it a go to mix things up, as I didn't give it the light of day before because being "punished" for precision efficiency always sat poorly with me. But you make a compelling argument to at least use it further.

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I think you only get the bonus chain damage on the 1st crit. How would that affect things?

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It's the same. The bonuses would work cumulatively. If you deal 1 body, 1 crit, 1 body, 1 crit the overall damage appears to be the same as 2 body, 2 crit:

40 + 66 + 40 + 66 = 212
40 + 40 + 76 + 56 = 212

So you just lose out if you start with crits, really.

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