Pikeman Archive

Thought i'd do a post here to fellow pikeman types, i'm hoping maybe that i'm doing something fundamentaly wrong (was not in beta), and can get some good advice here.

I'm at the point where i'm getting exp for master pikeman (70,000 exp req'd), but the critters i can fight without dying are only getting me about 220-250 exp. Any tougher critters and then i'm into the 50/50 chanceof incap or death. This appears to be a treadmill worthy of an EQ expansion....

I have almost a full set of bone armor (a billion fedex runs to affor it), but it does not seem to reduce the beating i'm taking at all. I would think a hide mat'l inlaid with pieces of bone would increase your defence to melee attacks?

The polearm stun seems to be worthless...you see the icon on the critter, but it's still wailing on me..working as intended?

How can you be intimidated by something that's dead? The critter is dead, but i still have the icon and can't sit down to heal....i know, that's a picky one, but it all adds upon theaggravation pool.

As far as combat goes, i've tried various tactics, and there are some critters that you can damage more with polearm1 or leghit1 etc, but it usually comes down to hit beserk1 and pray. I'm using a reinforced staff, and maybe thats part of it, that the crafters are having a difficult time of advancing themselves.

Any thoughts?

Z

I've gotten to Master Polearm, working now on the 125,000xp Novice Pikeman. I'm fighting Tusken Raiders with a group, and only getting 400-600xp for each one. It's just gonna take a lot of time to advance with the way group xp is now.

Best thing I can recommend is find a group, and get a good player-crafted reinforced combat staff. I managed to get one off the bazaar, and it rocks. Can get up to 800dmg sometimes whenusing polearmhit1.

I must be stupid or something, becuase I usually hit in the 150 range, and 250 with polearm hit one... ive gotten past 300 but XP is really slow here on coriella sometimes. I need to hit for more damage... Im like 10 to master polearm. Lotta work guys, this better pay off.

Bone armor only absorbs damage from ranged attacks. A painful truth I discovered yesterday. In fact you're better not wearing any bone armor if you are only attacking at melee range since all it does is lower your secondary pools thus hampering your regen rates and preventing you from replenishing any damage while being attacked. However, there is an alternative (maybe). I would reccomend checking the bazaar, then selecting armor types and searching for an armor called mabari. This is the first armor made by novice armorsmiths so it is very rare to come by right now. Mabari armorweave will absorb damage from melee attacks and works quite well. In the future we will have chitin or tantel available to us which will help with both types of attacks, but until the armorsmiths get cranking it will be quite difficult going.

As a side note I have adopted a new strategy of finding a novice weaponsmith, and novice armorsmith and splitting my lots between them so that they can have some additional resources available for grinding those first few levels in the elite profession. Most of us brawlers aren't going to use the lots anyways, at least not yet. So we might as well help out our fellow weapon and armor crafters, this will also go a long way towards establishing some goodwill between brawlers and weaponsmiths since so many weaponsmiths appear to be heading to the ranged weapon camp. I fear we may get overlooked if demand is not high enough for a crafter to really spend the huge amounts of time and resources in learning how to make some of those advanced weapons we have been looking forward to for so long.

Vash Corinth

Radiant Server

Vash,

Ya, me too. Lost count of the fedex runs to afford the bone armor only to find out for some bizarre reason it's not effective vs melee. Call me crazy, but a tailored hide mat'l, with inlaid bone should be more effective against melee vs some fibreplast epoxy 'stuff' ...seems totally backwards to me *shrug*.

The other armor you mentioned does have, in some cases, resistance to kinetics, stun etc. The stuff i saw in the bizaar tho, the resistances were so small, i think i'll hang on to the bone unless i can trade a full suit for a good pointed stick (see my post on weaps).

Zy

Hi,thought i'd post an update to this thread...

Ihad some good results tonight...went from about 4000 to 18000 exp in a couple hours (70,000 exp required for master)...

I trained in novice medic (100 credits), and novice artisan (100 credits) ... this gave me the ability to use and make medic stim-pack A's ...on avg, bout 100+ to health and action points. I had to buy a general crafting tool (to make the stims), a flora survey device (finds organics) and a mineral survey device (finds inorganics) ..all told, bout 600 or so credits...1 or 2 fedex runs...

The result is very very good tho.... use your scout skillto harvesthides/bones...these are organics...then survey for the inorganics..metals, gems, etc....sit and heal, and craft stims ...40 or 50...

Then it's bashin time....i'm using a new strategy...pull with a carbine weap..., then switch to your pointed stick, use a stun, then hit beserk1...or, stun,intimidate, beserk1..... i was ending up with on avg 1/2 of the dmg i was usually taking. Then, hit the stim-packs and your ready to go again in about a 1/2 a min.....

Bottom line....waaayyyy less down-time on avg.

I can actually see the light at the end of this treadmill tunnel.

Zy

Wow. Great thread. I had actually read every thread on the Pikeman board except this one, because I thought it would be someone complaining about downtime. Bwah! (I'm on Bria, and have yet to experience any downtime.)

Anyway, thanks for the tip about the armor - that's fantastic. I am also doing the medic thing, although I have yet to create a stim - I didn't know how to find inorganics until reading this post (sounds crazy, I know).

I've been doing the destroy missions, which gain me some XP as well as some extra cash. This is my main source of income. Anyone have a good cash flow they would like to share?

I'm on Rori - seems a little boring. Are there better opportunities to team up on other planets?

Selah - Bria Server

4306620- TOTAL POLEARM XP REQUIRED FOR MASTER PIKEMEN

this..is ...ganna..take..a..llllllloooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggg time

The best way I got exp for master polearm was to go find kreetle and tatooine mynock lairs on Tattooine. Hit the lair a couple times, then switch and beat down all the pops. Repeat till the lair dies and go find a new one. The most kreetle's that I had pop out of an earthen mound was 14. They all die in one hit, and with a decent reinforced combat staff, an attack speed of 4.5 or less isn't unrealistic. I'd get 48 exp per kreetle/mynock. That's 672 exp + maybe another 80 for the lair. I took enough damage to require 1 use of a stimpack. Half the time I wouldn't even use the stimpack because I'd just regen it walking over to the next lair.

Another veeeeeery useful tactic is to find some crafter who's gonna be off grinding, and get them in your group. Even though my girlfriend's artisan was up to 1000 km away at times, I'd still get the group exp bonus and gain 61 exp per kreetle.

That's fighting the weakest mobs you can find, and I guarantee it'll give you exp faster than taking something that hurts, causes downtime, and gives you 250 exp.

Once you get to master and get spin attack, just go hit the lair, let 3-5 critters pile up on you, and spin a couple times and they'll all fly around, it's quite amusing. At this point I was doing that on sevorrt lairs and getting around 120 exp per sevorrt. Just remember NOT to kill the lair right away. Extra mobs that pop out will heal the lair instead of hitting you, giving you time to whack them without getting hit back. AND that gives the lair more health, so you can hit it more times and cause more mobs to come out... and heal it.