Creature Handler Archive
Thread: With all the CU testing that you guys are doing... will soloability still be viable?
Page 1 of 1
ChewbaccaWookie
Sat Apr 23, 2005 5:47 am
#1
I see mixed reviews on the above message subject. I am an admitted soloer, it's what I have always done in any MMORPG that I play. I go for the class that allows me to solo effectively. It's not that I hate grouping, I group on occasion, but I prefer to solo. In Everquest my first character was a Druid and then I moved to Beastlord. In SWG I am a CH as you all may know.
I have many reasons for soloing and they are all valid to me. For one I am a Volunteer Firefighter/EMT and when my company/squad gets toned out I go and there aren't many groups that I know of that appreciate that. I am also a father of 4 and as most parents know, you don't have major time to play or when you do have time, it's mommy this or daddy that. I am frequently AFK and again I don't think most groups appreciate that.
With the CU will soloing still be viable? I don't mean killing Durnis or Gubbers, will I as a CH be able to solo bigger things? I don't mean Krayts or Gorax, but maybe things in between or am I going to be forced to group?
"
Tyyylowyspetily
Sat Apr 23, 2005 11:07 am
#2
I tested CH with various professions in the CU environment. TKM was excellent given the current state of aggro, as powerboost allowed me to take more hits while my pets continued to pound away. As for what sorts of things you will be able to "solo", unless the level system is changed significantly, as a level 80, you will be more or less limited to soloing lairs of 60-70 lvl creatures. Rancor lairs are doable, provided they are natural spawns, as mission lairs are keyed to your level. As the aggro system now stands, some form of profession beased crowd control is neccesary even to fight just one of the mobs solo, as a yellow con enemy really is a tough fight. It's still possible to hit these missions solo, but it is a very long process. The key point being that you need to let your pets knock 30% of the mob's health down before opening fire, and when you do start up, rotting the enemy is highly advisable as a ranged fighter.
Combinations tested (subjective impressions)-
Carbines CH- decent
Pistoleer CH- poor, damage output not good enough
BH- decent, but only when dabbling in pistols or carbineswas this successful pve (root and snare)
Commando -poor
TKM- decent, particularly as innate armor allows taming bonus clothing to be worn withoutas much risk ofa one hit incap if a nearby mob wanders in to your taming attempt. Mask scent bonuses from clothing are particularly useful here as well.
Overall, without a change in aggro mechanics, and a change to the level system, CH is going to be a challenging solo profession. Potentially viable, although IMO much hinges on what happens with pet special attacks, the level system, and aggro mechanics. The best advice I can ofeer, is to get onto tc-ep3 before you have to respec, and check out the options if you intend to solo.
Hope some of that helps.
Flatulencioso
Sat Apr 23, 2005 11:38 am
#3
ChewbaccaWookie wrote:
I see mixed reviews on the above message subject. I am an admitted soloer, it's what I have always done in any MMORPG that I play. I go for the class that allows me to solo effectively. It's not that I hate grouping, I group on occasion, but I prefer to solo. In Everquest my first character was a Druid and then I moved to Beastlord. In SWG I am a CH as you all may know.
I have many reasons for soloing and they are all valid to me. For one I am a Volunteer Firefighter/EMT and when my company/squad gets toned out I go and there aren't many groups that I know of that appreciate that. I am also a father of 4 and as most parents know, you don't have major time to play or when you do have time, it's mommy this or daddy that. I am frequently AFK and again I don't think most groups appreciate that.
With the CU will soloing still be viable? I don't mean killing Durnis or Gubbers, will I as a CH be able to solo bigger things? I don't mean Krayts or Gorax, but maybe things in between or am I going to be forced to group?
there will be plenty of soloing. Master CH/Swordsmen soloing a herd of kaadu (but needing to visit a med center after). Chuba hunts, and the famed horned krevol bashing.
theorb22
Sat Apr 23, 2005 11:42 am
#4
It seems if you have the right pets and about an hour of time and pet stims, you can solo a gorax :/. Silly EQ2 level system!
LostMyLunch
Sat Apr 23, 2005 1:53 pm
#5
Iremember when the game launched it was very hard and many bugs.
The new system reminds of it alot, yes we shall be able to solo many things, for how long will be the question. I expect in the next several months much balancing to be done. It will effect the creature handler profession much as it did in 2003-2004. The main reason is that the samr mistakes are made over and over again.
History will repeat itself as it is doing now, The game was not really ready for live back then and this "i cant even say the word without laughing" upgrade will not be ready. They will bring it live though.
You are best to keep your expectations low, whatever strengths creature handlers have right now will be changed. Considering the majority of bugs right now on test center concerns creatures.
Keep in mind also the less you can solo, the longer you play. The longer you play the more you pay.
Starmage
Sat Apr 23, 2005 3:30 pm
#6
Tyyylowyspetily wrote:
I tested CH with various professions in the CU environment. TKM was excellent given the current state of aggro, as powerboost allowed me to take more hits while my pets continued to pound away. As for what sorts of things you will be able to "solo", unless the level system is changed significantly, as a level 80, you will be more or less limited to soloing lairs of 60-70 lvl creatures. Rancor lairs are doable, provided they are natural spawns, as mission lairs are keyed to your level. As the aggro system now stands, some form of profession beased crowd control is neccesary even to fight just one of the mobs solo, as a yellow con enemy really is a tough fight. It's still possible to hit these missions solo, but it is a very long process. The key point being that you need to let your pets knock 30% of the mob's health down before opening fire, and when you do start up, rotting the enemy is highly advisable as a ranged fighter.
Combinations tested (subjective impressions)-
Carbines CH- decent
Pistoleer CH- poor, damage output not good enough
BH- decent, but only when dabbling in pistols or carbineswas this successful pve (root and snare)
Commando -poor
TKM- decent, particularly as innate armor allows taming bonus clothing to be worn withoutas much risk ofa one hit incap if a nearby mob wanders in to your taming attempt. Mask scent bonuses from clothing are particularly useful here as well.
Overall, without a change in aggro mechanics, and a change to the level system, CH is going to be a challenging solo profession. Potentially viable, although IMO much hinges on what happens with pet special attacks, the level system, and aggro mechanics. The best advice I can ofeer, is to get onto tc-ep3 before you have to respec, and check out the options if you intend to solo.
Hope some of that helps.
Thank you for writing my reply, my testing mirrors yours exactly...good work. ***** stars
raynedog
Sat Apr 23, 2005 10:06 pm
#7
Depends on what kind of solo content you see worth of being solo content, that is to say, now on live, there are very few things anyone needs help with. In the CU you'll wanna group with people just for the extra added ease it adds to hunting IMO.
That's not to say that you can no longer solo anything, you'll just have to stick to White cons and under, anything above that and you're going to have a challange on your hands. Some planets or zones IMO where never ment to be areas for solo players to thrive so don't be shocked if you can no longer do NS to harvest crystals, or take out a full nest of rancors afk.
I think the solo game will have a place, you'll just have to use your head more.
That's not to say that you can no longer solo anything, you'll just have to stick to White cons and under, anything above that and you're going to have a challange on your hands. Some planets or zones IMO where never ment to be areas for solo players to thrive so don't be shocked if you can no longer do NS to harvest crystals, or take out a full nest of rancors afk.
I think the solo game will have a place, you'll just have to use your head more.
hobieone
Sun Apr 24, 2005 12:08 pm
#8
it hard to tell since to things were sdmited by the cevs or should say acknowledged by them recently and that was the pve balance is in deed messed up and not were they want it and secondly the ogro system concerning pets is working right. but so i think it =headed ing the right direction it should be at least min of another month of testing in my opinion to iron things out but it will be push live in little over one week so will have wait it out ans see i guess
jexicredent9669
Sun Apr 24, 2005 9:44 pm
#9
Starmage wrote:
Tyyylowyspetily wrote:
I tested CH with various professions in the CU environment. TKM was excellent given the current state of aggro, as powerboost allowed me to take more hits while my pets continued to pound away. As for what sorts of things you will be able to "solo", unless the level system is changed significantly, as a level 80, you will be more or less limited to soloing lairs of 60-70 lvl creatures. Rancor lairs are doable, provided they are natural spawns, as mission lairs are keyed to your level. As the aggro system now stands, some form of profession beased crowd control is neccesary even to fight just one of the mobs solo, as a yellow con enemy really is a tough fight. It's still possible to hit these missions solo, but it is a very long process. The key point being that you need to let your pets knock 30% of the mob's health down before opening fire, and when you do start up, rotting the enemy is highly advisable as a ranged fighter.
Combinations tested (subjective impressions)-
Carbines CH- decent
Pistoleer CH- poor, damage output not good enough
BH- decent, but only when dabbling in pistols or carbineswas this successful pve (root and snare)
Commando -poor
TKM- decent, particularly as innate armor allows taming bonus clothing to be worn withoutas much risk ofa one hit incap if a nearby mob wanders in to your taming attempt. Mask scent bonuses from clothing are particularly useful here as well.
Overall, without a change in aggro mechanics, and a change to the level system, CH is going to be a challenging solo profession. Potentially viable, although IMO much hinges on what happens with pet special attacks, the level system, and aggro mechanics. The best advice I can ofeer, is to get onto tc-ep3 before you have to respec, and check out the options if you intend to solo.
Hope some of that helps.
Thank you for writing my reply, my testing mirrors yours exactly...good work. ***** stars
/agree
I us the BH with carbines and think snare is great keps them off of you long enough for your pets to get some good hits in 
jexicredent9669
Mon Apr 25, 2005 9:15 am
#10
Well i marked your problem in red...... it is very diffrent and takes some getting used to. I soloed a lvl 80 rancor lair and a lvl 82 bull rancor lair usung the same template I posted (without using pets becuase I had none at the time) If your trying to play it the same way you do in live then yes your not gonna last long. The CU requires you to actually use tactics to survive.
Iakimo wrote:
At the level I was expecting when I went into the test center, I would say "No." Not really. But then, I've only gone into TC a couple of times and only briefly experimented. But the results of that experiment were extremely disappointing.
I tried going in as a level-80 Master Bounty Hunter/Master Creature Handler, and decked myself out with the best armor and weapons available: Advanced Scatter Pistol, LLC, Proton Carbine, and two types of Assault armor. When I arrived at the Smugglers' Outpost on Endor, I took a Boar Wolf mission off the terminal, then rolled out. (Level-81 mission... hmmmmmm.....)
When I arrived at the mission, I attacked my first Boar Wolf... and was incapped in four hits without so much as disturbing the pig's pompadour. So, I got up, let my stats regenerate, then tried again. Again, a four-hit dirt nap, so I gave it up and drove back to the outpost. HOWEVER, I did manage to salvage some fun when I stumbled across a baby Merek Assassin and tamed it en route. Then I logged for the day.
Next day, I headed back to the same mission, only this time I pulled out my new pet, which I named "Scarface." Amazingly, he was already fully-grown. (Gotta love those growth-acceleration hormones on TC-ep3!) Well, the result was little different. Scarface was incapped in six hits, with me following shortly thereafter... but at least I managed to muss the Boar wolf's pompadour a bit this time. Think I did like 100 points of damage.
I now officially HATE the level-based damage-multiplier system. I predict that it will gate players into a narrow portion of the game's total content unless it is drastically reworked, or better yet, scrapped entirely.
Iakimo
Mon Apr 25, 2005 12:21 pm
#11
At the level I was expecting when I went into the test center, I would say "No." Not really. But then, I've only gone into TC a couple of times and only briefly experimented. But the results of that experiment were extremely disappointing.
I tried going in as a level-80 Master Bounty Hunter/Master Creature Handler, and decked myself out with the best armor and weapons available: Advanced Scatter Pistol, LLC, Proton Carbine, and two types of Assault armor. When I arrived at the Smugglers' Outpost on Endor, I took a Boar Wolf mission off the terminal, then rolled out. (Level-81 mission... hmmmmmm.....)
When I arrived at the mission, I attacked my first Boar Wolf... and was incapped in four hits without so much as disturbing the pig's pompadour. So, I got up, let my stats regenerate, then tried again. Again, a four-hit dirt nap, so I gave it up and drove back to the outpost. HOWEVER, I did manage to salvage some fun when I stumbled across a baby Merek Assassin and tamed it en route. Then I logged for the day.
Next day, I headed back to the same mission, only this time I pulled out my new pet, which I named "Scarface." Amazingly, he was already fully-grown. (Gotta love those growth-acceleration hormones on TC-ep3!) Well, the result was little different. Scarface was incapped in six hits, with me following shortly thereafter... but at least I managed to muss the Boar wolf's pompadour a bit this time. Think I did like 100 points of damage.
I now officially HATE the level-based damage-multiplier system. I predict that it will gate players into a narrow portion of the game's total content unless it is drastically reworked, or better yet, scrapped entirely.
Iakimo
Mon Apr 25, 2005 9:40 pm
#12
Well, it's obvious that midlevel pets are useless as tanks against higher-level creatures due to the damage multiplier issue. What tactics worked for you with the rancors? Traps? Knockdowns? Kiting like the wind? Or a happy combination of the three?
jexicredent9669 wrote:
...... it is very different and takes some getting used to. I soloed a lvl 80 rancor lair and a lvl 82 bull rancor lair usung the same template I posted (without using pets becuase I had none at the time) If you're trying to play it the same way you do in live then yes you're not gonna last long. The CU requires you to actually use tactics to survive.
Iakimo wrote:
...Scarface was incapped in six hits, with me following shortly thereafter... but at least I managed to muss the Boar wolf's pompadour a bit this time. Think I did like 100 points of damage....
Page 1 of 1