I am currently lvl 5 in Laser Pistoleer, LaserSniper and Knifefighter. I also plan to level Longblade to 5 soon. Before i level up any other weapon. Now which do you suggest as a main source of damage? And why!! :-D
I would suggest definitely, if you intend on hunting, raising up laser rifle to about 10, then consider moving to laser pistol until you unlock Serendipity (level 30 hit). Pistoleer or Sniper doesn't matter all that much, its good to have one of each, the rifle for "tagging" the mob, to get it to leave its herd of potentially high aggro friends, to come to you, you hammer it on the way in, then when it gets to the closest of the 3 mini circles on your mini map, then you can let rip with your pistols. They'll seem to do less damage but usually do it quicker. Completely forget about melee weapons past about level 5ish, unless you have peds to burn. If you plan on playing fairly economically, melee is not ideal as the weapons decay quicker and by the time you can even start to damage them they're next to you. With ranged weapons you can get some damage off before they even hit you, saving you some on armour decay costs. Hope this helps ^^b
I'll most likely go that route. Im currently only messing with melee for the strength and hp skills. And getting to level 5 on each usually gaurentees level 5 hit. Same with sniper/pistol thx for the reply. Any other points of view??
My personal preference is laser pistol, blp rifle and longblades. Why? Laser pistols have good selection of amps, tend to be more eco than blp pistols. Blp rifles have longer range, so more useful as taggers (the SIR series and the arkoin broker prototypes as well as great guns like the ark-30 D). Longblades will boost your strength and give you the opportunity to use some very awesome weapons like the archon's sword (possibly the most eco SIB weapon in game) and the aakas blades (there are also shortblades too). And now that UL weapons have had their useful limit decreased to 3%, blades are much nicer to hunt with.
Melee is good for raising strength and therefore HP and carry capacity but there are a couple of issues with Melee weapons that screw with eco (damage per pec). 1. All decay/no ammo means that when calculating dpp, MU applies to the total cost of each click. Contrast this with ranged weapons that have significant component of cost per click in ammo, which has no MU. So it only takes a little MU to significantly drop dpp. Note that unlimited melee weapons don't have this issue. But basically unless you are using TT weapons or unl, the eco is going to be bad. Note that during the recent Merry Mayhem event, some melee weapons appeared that did use ammo so there is hope for future change. 2. No melee amps. A good eco amp can raise the effective dpp of your weapon. You don't currently have this option. So I would generally stay away from melee (except for TT) to start with. Keep an eye out for ok priced unl weapons. If you just use one ranged weapon, then your ranged damage level will lag behind your hit level. Ranged damage will become the limiting issue with choosing maxed weapons. For that reason I recommend using a rifle and a pistol. You can use rifle for tagging, pistol for finish, and the type of your choice for in-between. While I agree with Neil's comments on the utility of BLP ranged weapons, I would suggest staying with one damage type until you reach hit lvl 30 to unlock serendipity. Then have a look at blp and melee options. Your blp and melee levels will have grown a little so perhaps there will be some eco choices, plus your budget should be a little higher. For example the Philosopher sword is very eco but requires around lvl 20 or higher to use efficiently. Looking at the long term, from an eco point of view, amped pistols will generally outperform anything else. With smaller but more frequent damage than a rifle, a good amp will contribute more to eco as it accounts for a higher proportion of damage. However, blp has the best high damage amp in the Dante. So its definitely worth looking at your blp options after lvl 30. Guns like the ark-34D are awesome long range weapons with good eco, especially when appropriately amped. Regards, KikkiJikki
I agree with everything said (and also the bits I deleted heh), I though my thoughts up to level 30 would tide you over for a while but KikkiJikki has gone further and I'd have said the exact same thing too. Around level 30 and the Serendipity unlock, you can really start to either convert totally to BLP or certainly do some serious skilling up so your actual skill level is equal before Coolness unlock at 40. I did it 10 levels too late and converted from Laser Pistol to BLP Rifle at level 40 instead of 30 and now I've almost unlocked Wounding with Laser profession when I'm mainly using BLP and its bugging the hell out of me! :soangry: Your HP skills will go up nicely with the many different things you will try. If, like me, you're a dabbler also, you'll choose a nice melee wep at some point, some of the swords are indeed nice, also the mid level Ark shortblades are pretty sweet compared to SBs of old ecowise, too. I think there's new clubs coming out, although I've yet to see a really good eco set of power fists yet, but that could be my poor research. If you do any mining, that will contribute to your HP, as will melee and flying of a privateer or a moshi will gain you "Space Pilot" skills which is huge HP boost, but you need good contacts for that. Might be more accessable in the future ^^; so yes, I'd say enjoy lots of things to 5 (hit) if you want to try stuff out, can't hurt so bad. Then head laserward and enjoy some of the most eco weapons in the game.
So few a new player I want a rifle and pistol. What is the best to try to grab under 10 ped... Or where could i get something to get me started. I always like the tag with long range and switch to pistol to finish... But i was trying out swords too... and yes they degrade so quick. Should i just forget about them for now and spend the money on ammo?
Just a word on the side of Melee. The road crew axe and rep edge battle axe are 2 of the most efficient weapons in EU. Just check out damage per PEC at entropedia.info. Melee weapon will cause you to take more decay as you cannot use them at a distance. But with more hits you build other skills quicker like strength, evade and agility as noted earlier. Melee weapons are not a good choice when team hunting also as you tend to block others being so close to mob. However the real question is: What do you enjoy the most? There are benefits to both so choose what lets you enjoy the game the most don't be forced into something because it is better for someone else. You can do a little in each (as you are) there advantages and disadvantges in every situation. Again enjoy the game and dont get caught up in always doing whats best.
For lower levels Laser tends to be the most eco because the Axxx series amps are really eco, but once you can use the Dante amp (and even Beast in some instances) the higher damage + medium eco gives you a better overall eco and dps than the lower dmg and high eco of the Axxx amps. Traditionally laser pistols are faster and lower dmg than rifles and so can utilize more of the amp than the slower higher dmg carbines of the same level. BLP pistols and Rifles are both fast reload, and once you have enough skill for a good SIB gun that can use the Dante amp, its hard for laser to compare any more. My personal route was laser pistols till around L31 (if I remember right) when I switched to using the Apis (the only blp rifle at that time for that lvl) + Dante which is BLP. Since then i have been 99% blp and all the new Herman blp guns are great as well as alot of the blp options from other planets. With the new choices though the lines have become alot more grey, and really you can choose eco paths in virtually any discipline you chose. The other thing to consider is unlimited SIB options for all of this if you choose to take that route. Unlimited SIB has a high initial purchase price, but you never pay markup on L again. There are good Smuggler versions for most lvls on both sides of the fence as well as UL options from other planets as well. Melee has always been something I wanted to do, but is not practical to use (L) weapons in unless you can buy them from friends for TT value. Unlimited melee though is an entirely new story, and this is something to consider if you want to go the unlimited approach. UL melee tends to be cheaper than similar level or dps for ranged weapons. Philosophers swords are a great goal starting out, buy 5 TT swords and grind grind grind with them untill you have the philosophers sword maxed. Then you wont have to keep buying L weapons, and it will be a good skilling and ECO weapon for you. Then at higher levels the Dragons Breath and Firefly are super cheap for the dmg per second they can do. I just bought one of each, and the Firefly @tier 6 probably cost me about 1/2 what it would cost me to get a ranged weapon that can do the same 75dps with and is more than likely more eco as well. You do end up with more defensive costs with melee so if you choose that route, then you should consider a good tagger or atleast mid-high range weapon to complement it. Good luck skilling and shopping, so many options, so much fun narfi
This! Started with Laser Pistols - lvl 0 ... lvl 50 Unlocked Commando with BLP Sniper - lvl 50 ... lvl 70 Not sure yet what i'll use to reach Kill Strike, but the most likely candidate atm seems to be Longblades. Totally crazy path to take, right? Crazy indeed, but hey, why not if i enjoy it! Nobody mentioned mindforce, so thought it's worth mentioning tiering can make a pretty good tagger from oldschool UL electric attack chip V (and up).
While the road crew axe is an excellent choice for low level mobs i would not advice a newcomer to go with one of the rep edges, as they are horribly uneco without skills.
Well, I am still a newbie on this kind of stuff, read through everyones posts to learn some myself but here is what I have been doing. I have a HK110 from Cyrene (Laser Carbine TT) and a SI Scorpion (Laser Pistol TT) from Cyrene to focus on Laser till I get it up a bit. I also have used the ASI TT R (BLP Pistol from Ark) to give me some BLP and once in a while I use the ARK-0 (L) BLP Rifle because I can get them at 3ped (TT value). For Melee I use the Powerfist or Combat Knife from Cyrene because they are unlimited and decent Eco. This has given me quite a bit of strength and HP (I have doubled my 150 carry cap to 300 now with just a little effort). I do have the TT Ark LAW TT R with a Hotfoot 5 and Headshot 2 scope as my "big" gun mind you for the shallow end of the mid range mobs but I always finish with a pistol or melee. Its worked well for me, maybe not the absolute to the pec best Eco but it works. At lvl 10 I can take Halix and Oro pretty easy on Ark and the Exosaurs and Daikaba on Caly. Now mind you, I have not really delved into hunting big time, or mining or crafting or even started using mindforce at all. I am a trader and repairer mostly but, I can hunt decent to low level stuff I think. Just my 2 pec worth of thought.
A little bit of a digression, but worth noting: don't disregard the Powerfist (TT item). It's a good finisher on smaller mobs. However, even more important is Agility skill gains. But, why?? Have a look here: http://www.entropedia.info/Info.aspx?chart=Skill&name=Agility and you will see, other than Evader, Brawler (DMG) is the next closest profession to skill up on Agility with. Now I am not saying to only use PF instead of some other melee weapon, but Agility is that skill we are always chasing, and the TT PF is such an eco way to sg that Agil! Ossi!
Sorry, but you got it wrong. It's not Agility skill gains, it's how Agility affect those professions: You could get exactly values in Chipping Optimizer Tool: http://jdegre.net/pe/unlocker.php
Hmm, now that I re-read what I said, I should elaborate a bit. What I have found, is when skilling pf (or whip) vs. other melee (club, sword, sb, etc) that Agility sg's become more frequent. Maybe it's just my luck, but I thought it was an interesting coincidence when viewing that entropedia chart. Anyway, if I am wrong, so be it. Ossi!
You gain Skills whilst using a Profession in exactly the same percentages as those which contribute to the Profession level. Or were you trying to say something else? Of course it is the Skill Values which are gained in the same percentages, so you need the skill calculator to translate between those and Skill levels. I'm a mid-level player, and I grind away with my Kat Dets (Lvl 61 Swordsman), but I've had to skill up BLP Pistol for extra firepower and for team hunts. The Melee has given me high HP and Evade though.
Ah, yep, sure, approximately skill gains proportional to skill affects (that's logical and well known). I just said that Entropedia link showing skill affects, not skill gains. And also pointed to exactly values (it's more easy to get them from Chipping Optimizer Tool).
