Planning Ahead

Planning Ahead is a foundational Tier 0 talent in the Marksman branch that reduces your Passive Reload speed by 5%, 15%, or 25% depending on rank. For any build that relies on Pistols or Muskets, this talent is an essential quality-of-life pickup that keeps you firing more consistently during drawn-out engagements. Because passive reloading occurs whenever you are not actively shooting or performing another action, even a modest reduction compounds over the course of a fight, letting you maintain pressure on distant targets while your allies close in.

This talent pairs naturally with Quick Hand, which accelerates your Active Reload speed, giving you both passive and active coverage for keeping your weapons loaded. When combined with the Marksman's Rig armor set, which already favors sustained ranged output, Planning Ahead ensures you spend less downtime fumbling with ammunition and more time landing critical shots. Players who also invest in Bull's Eye will appreciate the smoother cadence of fire, since every reload saved is another window to line up a precision hit on a weak spot.

For build advice, Planning Ahead is best taken at rank 3 as early as possible in any dedicated Marksman loadout. It serves as a strong prerequisite pickup on the way to Tier 1 and Tier 2 talents like Bulletstorm and Sniper's Focus, both of which reward sustained firing sequences. If you are running a hybrid build that splits points between Marksman and another branch, even a single rank still offers noticeable improvement. Prioritize this talent alongside the Pierce Damage bonus from Deep Impact to establish a reliable, high-throughput ranged foundation before specializing further.