Combat Medic Archive
Thread: FAQ critique, PvE, and a few general questions
byak wrote:
The informational posts are few and far between hidden amongst the piles of nerf related posts. Argh.
Okay, let me start with some mild criticism regarding the FAQ. I'm not a hologrinder.. I play whats fun. I've dropped things, stuck with other things, etc. I have spent a lot of time in the several of the other Profession forums and have gotten accustomed to their FAQs. It seems as though the CM FAQ is more "Crafting 101" than actual CM stuff. There are a few formulas and general pointers, but not any real specifics.
I wrote the FAQ way back in July/August of 2003. Since then, I have given up Combat Medic as a profession. I have repeatedly asked for volunteers to re-write/update the FAQ, but have never gotten any help.
I am currently working on revisions to the Medic/Doctor FAQ, so I dont have time personally to do the CM at the same time, however, much of what I plan on doing for the Medic/Doc FAQ should cross-over to CM as well (eventually).
byak wrote:
HowdoesPublish 6 affect the profession?
fencer example: Bleeds have been nerfed, no longer stack, however fencer isbugged and the bleeds will stack. The damage on the bleed attacks have been greatly reduced, so even the two bleed moves stacked still don't do enough damage to even spend the combat turns on the specials.
cm: What stacks? What doesn't?
I think what was trying to be conveyed with the other post was that Publish 6 didn't have any affect on CMs. Those changes were to non-medical DoTs.
The other questions are pretty good as well, but in some cases mightr require several treatises to respond wtih. PvE tactics alone... mostly gonna depend on the CM and group dynamics. Not sure there is any really good baseline other than to say that CMs shine more in groups in PvE (or solo as long as they have a creature pet or two) than they generally will do solo. Otherwise the basic solo tactic is hit-and-run with stacking one poison of each singular and AoE level (or at least a C and a B of each) if possible. But even that tactic is debatable depending on the template you are working from.
byak wrote:
The informational posts are few and far between hidden amongst the piles of nerf related posts. Argh.
Okay, let me start with some mild criticism regarding the FAQ. I'm not a hologrinder.. I play whats fun. I've dropped things, stuck with other things, etc. I have spent a lot of time in the several of the other Profession forums and have gotten accustomed to their FAQs. It seems as though the CM FAQ is more "Crafting 101" than actual CM stuff. There are a few formulas and general pointers, but not any real specifics.
Being a CM is about one half crafting, hence the emphasis...
What is the "preferred" experimentation setup for the components?
Like Zarlor said, this varies from CMto CM, depending upon what you want to do with the stim.
Infection amplifiers are easy...all you can experiment on is power.
Dispersal mechanisms.........2 choices here. experimenting on charges increases charges and range. Experimenting on effectiveness increases the splash radius.
Resiliency compounds....experimenting on Ease of use increases potency while experimenting on effectiveness increases the duration.
On the final build...charges increases well, charges, and range. Effectiveness increases area, duration and power. Experimenting on ease of use raises potency and lowers the med use requirement.
Personally, I go all range on my dispersal mechanisms. That allows me to have at least a 32 rating for my final product without spending points on it. For resiliency compounds, I've never had a problem with duration, so I put everything into potency. On the final build, I first make sure that my potency is near 100 and range is near 32 (this may be difficult if you are not a master.) Everything else then goes into effectivenss to increase the damage. Some CMs prefer the range over damage, but not me.
What are the "baseline" stats for packs?
doc example: Depending on the server, an 850 buff pack with atleast 11k seconds is a good target to shoot for. Newer servers will be slightly lower because of the lack of stockpiles of the high quality resources.
Like you said, depends on the server. I listed some of the poisons I made on Flurry, feel free to use them as a guide.
link to poisons
HowdoesPublish 6 affect the profession?
fencer example: Bleeds have been nerfed, no longer stack, however fencer isbugged and the bleeds will stack. The damage on the bleed attacks have been greatly reduced, so even the two bleed moves stacked still don't do enough damage to even spend the combat turns on the specials.
cm: What stacks? What doesn't?
Same as before the patch.
PvE Tactics?
What do I throw at whom? What works best? What will aid a group the most in attacking difficult mobs,ie: Geo Caves? (What will stack? as above.)
The other professions are all pretty straightforward in this category.. use the attack moves on the red guys. Here though, PvE tacticsseem to take a very distant second after the PvP threads that evolve into flamewars and trollfests. I haven't been able to find anything. Very frustrating.
CMs are VERY effective in groups. On guild hunts we fight with almost NO downtime. Individulal PvE depends on what you spend the rest of your skillpoints on.
I guess this is a cry for help and/or an update to the FAQ. It is not fun wading through pages of people bashing the profession trying to find useful information that the FAQ does not include
Hard to update stuff right now because of all the non-cm posters in here. Personally, I would love to spend my time helping up and coming CMs, but I feel obligated to squish these rumors/falsehoods that keep popping up.
Thanks,
byak
Thank you Zarlor and Pahdbacca!
So I have gathered that in PvE I should only use poisons. C+B+AoE C+AoE B..of what? Health? Mind? Does it not matter? I suppose I should just make some of each and throw according to what kind of damage my group is doing with their specials, but is it generally agreed upon that one pool is a better target than another? If no one in my group is using any of the specific pool targeting attacks, should I just throw whichever I have the most of? Heh.
Thank you again,
byak
byak wrote:
Thank you Zarlor and Pahdbacca!
So I have gathered that in PvE I should only use poisons. C+B+AoE C+AoE B..of what? Health? Mind? Does it not matter? I suppose I should just make some of each and throw according to what kind of damage my group is doing with their specials, but is it generally agreed upon that one pool is a better target than another? If no one in my group is using any of the specific pool targeting attacks, should I just throw whichever I have the most of? Heh.
Thank you again,
byak
When I went group PvEing as a CM, I threw whatever poison fit the HAM pool most of the group was targeting to aid in killing the MOB faster.
In PvE, there really is no single preference.
As for the FAQ, I'm simply waiting on a few things but I will be pestering Agent/Ioo to let me have a crack at it.
Message Edited by vortexala on 03-01-2004 03:58 PM
Cakins7005 wrote:
Poisons still stack. Combat Medic is one of the best classes for PvE actually. Don't believe me? Look at this screen:
http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=44317
I use area poisons. If you are a Master Doctor/Master Combat Medic you can solo the entire Force Crystal Hunter cave before it respawns.
A real CM wouldn't waste disease on NPC mobs...Whose account were you borrowing?