Than why would SMGs be hit harder than pistols? Going from Uber Awesome to 'just' Awesome is not as bad as going from barely viable to crap. Or is the new Gunslinger, that affects 1 out of 3 pistols categories, that great? On my pistol build i didn't really feel like i needed more initiative, except arena champion fight.
Because the new Gunslinger compensates faster pistols for decreased DEX bonus completely. Let's take 14 DEX and a 16 AP pistol as an example:
With old DEX formula it would get down to 10 AP and Gunslinger (-2) to 8. Now it get's down to 11 AP and Gunslinger (-3) to 8. So for faster pistols there is no difference at all. The change encourages the use of firearm pistols as a sidearm with low/mediocre DEX. Yes SMGs are still way better, nobody argues with that.
SO... SUMMING UP... Recommend me two pistols I should go with.
If you want to use firearms only stick to 15 DEX + eel and any best quality frame you can fit a 9mm on (10 AP per shot). For your secondary take the unique
Bieretta 99 pistol. 5mm shock bullets are pretty g ood. Always do the special attacks (Aimed Shot, Rapid Fire, Point Shot, Execute) with your 9mm and with the rest of your AP spam with the 5mm. At 16 DEX it fires for 5 AP per shot so it's the fastest pistol in the game currently (except for RR 5mm hawker which sucks) but for the same reason you get virtually no critical chance from Steadfast aim which is 0.5% per AP above 10 (I thought it was just x 0.5 so it's worse than I remembered it), but as you see it shoots for exactly half the AP of the rapid 9mm so again, you have easy time min/maxing your AP pool.
The problem here is: You can't have 15 DEX, 6 AGI, 10 PER, and 7 INT. At level 24 there is 1 point missing so I'd drop INT and STR completely and invest into 11 PER, high AGI and replace Steadfast Aim with Uncanny Dodge for example.
Or you just play something else... Balancing seems to be an everchanging thing in Underrail. In alpha pistols used to be awesome, the crossbows lame, now it's exactly the other way around.
