Artisan Archive

You...ummm......have to be kidding right? (you are aren't you, please tell me you are).

Now you do know that you can fight stuff, and do neato things like tackle hard-to-kill critters and NPCs?

I mean, I'm a Master Artisan, Master Architect, Novice Politican 0/3/0/1, Novice Medic 0/0/1/0, Novice Scout2/0/3/0and a Novice Swordsman. With my nice light Composite Armour, my handy 2handed Cleaver (equipped with my own +16dmg/+33mind melee powerups), a nice buff from the town Doctor and a couple of bottles of Brandy, I can solo a couple of Stormies with barely a scratch (3 is asking a bit much - especially when they spread out and fan shot you ).

I regularly go hunting and dungeon running with PA buddies and town residents and we have tackled everything from Night-sisters to Krayts (sometimes successfully, sometimes not ).

No one is stopping you from having a go at combat, at questsor at Theme Parks and Dungeons(I have just about finished the Rebel Theme park btw). So give it a try, drop some un-needed skills and go and have some fun (and you don't need droids or pets to do any of this either).

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Haruspex77 wrote:

In every other profession (though really weak for Entertainers) there is some combat advantage gained as you use up your skillpoints. Medics and elites can heal themselves and others, Scouts and elites can kite better and get combat value against creatures (and can go Creature Handler), and of course Marksmen and Brawlers are all combat bonus. Entertainers can at least heal mind wounds in camp.

Kinda makes me wonder where all these combat proffessions get all their great armor and weapons and the entertainers cloths, and there food that alow all the combat proffessions to go do all this combat. Without artisans they would be way too weak to go out into the wilderness.

But Artisan and its elite professions have nothing usefull for combat that couldn't be bought and brought along.

Uh yeah we arn't supposed to have combat skills, we are artisans. When you were in art class at school how many combat moves did you learn?

This doesn't matter much as a newbie when skill points are plentiful, but with elite crafting skills you can't afford much by way of combat ability. Most of those quests, loot drops, and dungeons are shut off to you. Don't even think about PvP or you will be promptly wiped out, faction points will be hard to get. Harvester runs are hazardous. You may even have trouble getting out of the house some days if aggressive spawn shows up on your doorstep.

If you choose to master Artisan as well as master 2 elite crafting proffessions you would still have enough skill points to get novice in one of the elite combat classes, which is more than enough combat skills for everyday needs.

What are you going to do when your friends want to go on a serious adventure? Choose between staying home or being a tag-alongwho doesn't contribute much. Or maybe start dropping those crafting skills, or playing an alternate character. In the long run, starting a crafting character is a dead end. That character will either change or become a mule who is only played on occasion.

If your friends don't want you to come with them then it's time to find some new friends. Even with my not so great combat skills I am always welcome to go anywhere my friends are going. When hunting, your combat skills are a heck of a lot more important than your characters combat skills.

There is a way out, if we pushed for it. Droids over Lv 10 cannot be given to combat types because they can be leveraged with other skills and make high-end mobs trivial. But they could be used by Artisan elite professions without any balance problems.

Guess what, there is no such thing as a combat Droid over level 10. And there will not be any for a long long time. And when they do get here the Devs will use a new proffession for them to be controled, kinda like Creature handler but with droids.

Do you want your character to die without ever seeing the Nightsister's cave, a Krate dragon, or the other great things your galaxy has to offer?

As a Crafter I have seen them, and as a crafter I will see them again. It isn't your characters skills that keep you from seeing these things, it's you.

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You have what? 250 skill points... to Master Aritsan..that takes up...77... use a few of those remaining 173 points in a combat class... that is why you have them... diversify

SSgt D'Maro Feldar - Bria - Master Artisan

Master Merchant

If your a crafter, doesn't this mean that you don't really want combat? And if your a combat you don't want to be a crafter?

A person can do both. I am a master artisan, and heading towards Commando, that is a crafting skill and a combat skill, sounds like a choice needs to be made, crafting...or combat. Although I don't seem to have any real problems balancing out both professions.

My $.02

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TheMalle wrote:
Omg Haruspex, youve been 1 staring us all? /corrects

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Not me, I am interested in the reactions positive or negative to my original post. The (not unexpected) flame intensity is probably scaring off any positive responses though.

I am a little suprised at the lack of content in the responses. Lots of fire, but nobody has really said any thing tangible about why being a crafter should mean you are gimped in combat. Yes, that is how it is now, but it doesn't have to be that way.

There were a few responses from people who don't care to be able to engage in combat. Fine, nothing proposed would make them do so. Those seemed the most constructive.

Three so far commented that you can use some of your skillpoints for combat, and one suggested an alt. If you really want to identify with your character, and be the best crafter you can be, should that make you unable to do the monthly story? Choosing to have crafting skills on a character need not so severly limit what you do with the rest of the game.

I liked the suggestion to "craft yourself an uber gun", which is kind of on-target. It isn't likely to happen that weaponsmiths would get certs to the weapons that they make, but it would certainly be satisfying if possible. It seems like the original plan for Droid Engineers was much like that, but got killed off by the same crowed [sic] flaming me here.

The flames are not really a problem for me. I think having a lot of players able to grow into the use of combat droids through crafting advancement would help the game, but the flamers have shut down any discussion in that direction. I believe in freedom of speech, for myself as well as others. But I don't understand why this idea generates so much animosity.