If I'm jumped from behind and my magazine is empty, what would be the best sidearm? I've tried the Commissioner and, of course, the Mag-Shot already. I'm thinking of either getting the Pilot or the Emissary. I'm not going to be using these to charge in and fight, just to either finish off a wounded enemy or to defend myself at close range.
Depends on faction and purpose. If your goal is a fast drawing panic weapon, I hear the desperado is still a good pick with the NC. The underboss is also good if your aim is up to the task. Admittedly, I don't have a great opinion of either the pilot or the emissary, but I also have barely touched them.
The NS-61 Emissary is accurate and has long range for a sidearm, but does low damage and has a low rate of fire. I have used this one extensively and although this gun consistently lands hits, it just doesn't have enough oomph. NS-45 Pilot, hits pretty hard at close range, I use this gun with extended mags and a 1x red dot sight. This one is quite dependable, but you have to deal with hard recoil and limited ammo. Also, I'd avoid using the suppressor because of it's limited range. I am happy to recommend the NS-45 Pilot.
Pilot is a solid choice with its good damage and TTK at short range, more than enough to kill an enemy in a 1v1.
If your Jumped you have little chance to react, so full stopping power is needed, Commissioner really would be the best option going for the head shot. That said, the Emissary is great option, but for being jumped, less so.
Definitely a burst pistol for the situations you've described, unless you can instinctively hit headshots first time when jumped by someone. Even then, you may still need two hits. Desperado has been my go-to for a long time but I am just trying out the Pilot. Emissary does not have a short enough TTK for me and the revolvers fire too slowly for me if (when!) I miss the first shot.
The Emmisary is a poor choice of sidearm if you are looking to finish off wounded foes or emergency switch at close range. The Emmisary is meant to act as a Pocket Primary weapon with good sustained damage, controllability and range. Ideally you would pair the Emmisary up with something like a Sniper Rifle, Shotgun or the Archer. The Pilot is pretty snazzy as an emergency Draw weapon. It has high damage if you hit the entire burst. But it only has 3 or 4 bursts in the whole magazine. The Commissioner was just nerfed and has a long draw time, but impressive stopping power per shot. The Underboss is an acceptable substitute in CQC. If you are NC I might look at the Rebel perhaps. It has high alpha for those wounded foe situations, but 10 rounds vs the 4 or 6 from the Pilot or the Revolvers. It also equips faster than the Commissioner.
The NS-45 Pilot's mag capacity is 12, or 15 with extended mags, so you get 4 or 5 bursts. I have to say, the addition of extended mags has improved the usefulness of the Pilot quite considerably.
If you are jumped and in near panic then powerful sidearms with high DMG and low RoF aren't the best choices (Commissioneer, Pilot,...). The other side of the spectrum is the Emissary that can go full auto, however with a very low DMG, relatively low RoF (for an auto weapon) and a reduced headshot multiplier. The happy medium are - IMHO-- semi-auto but spammy weapons like the Repeater (TR), the Desperado (NC) and the Spiker (VS) with a good mix of DMG and RoF.
If you get attacked from behind and your magazine is empty, your best chance is to get to cover, because you'll need 0.5 sec to switch to your sidearm before being about to fight back, and i'm not even counting the time reaction + lag. Anyway, the best weapon in this case would be the Pilot or the Underboss and if you're TR, Repeter and AMP are nice too. Comissionner won't be the best weapon here, because of the extra equip time.
As others have said, the Emissary isn't the weapon you want for close range emergency defense. It's my most used secondary, but primarily on a stalker infiltrator where I can come at my enemies from unexpected locations and use surprise to my advantage. The range and low recoil let me do that while also keeping enough distance to disengage if things go poorly.
the Inquisitor for everything oh wait lolNC Rebel is prolly the most balanced pistol u have. are u talking about YOU getting jumped, meaning u need the pistol to take u all the way? Rebel or Desperado for that. The commish is good for finishing off wounded foes (like if you empty your mag in a 2v1) due to high alpha making the 1 shot more likely, but it isn't the best fighter IMO. I would call the pilot more of a stalker's weapon due to the low shots per mag. sooo, rebel or desperado, depending on your preferred flavor.
You can try out the pilot(not for inaccurate players*****) Or try using the stock faction pistols Personally i like the pilot, commisioner and the repeater(laser/flashlight) Pilot-3 best theoretically because of the 3(burst) kill potential Commisioner - 0.8 ttk potential Repeater - panic mod 1.2 ttk potential(higher survival chance and kill chance) Also ffs dont take the sniper magnums... Emmisionary - noob weapon, low skill potential, low accuracy, dps and id call it the worst pistol ingame(imo lower than the flare gun) Ive never had a tough time dealing with an emmisionary user(even infiltrators)
The NS-44 "gimme a second", the NS-44 "wait...for it", the NS-44 "hold that thought", the NS-44 "its here somewhere" or the NS-44 "fiddlesticks". Loving names for the Commish, a dinosaur of the past.
Personally I like the desperado. When running the Archer on my engie, I can almost get away using the desperado as my main weapon if there's no maxes all of a sudden. Not quite as good as a carbine, but it does acceptably well.
