Pikeman Archive

That is why I am going fence/sword. State effects all applied with a knife and then kill um with the powerhammer. Ohh baby. Then in PvP whip out the stun baton. This allows me to have novice medic and scout so I can run my tail off.

High level SMCs and NSs (SMC Arch Witch, 28k HAM, Power Hammer owns them) are immune to kinetic, so my Power Hammer helps a lot.

You need rifleman or swordsman to really damage the high level ones. Fencer/TKM are able to hold them still while somebody nukes them.

Master Fencer and Master TKA are very good against most NS. If you have another prof that backs up your combat abilities, then you're even better off.

As for the guy saying that melee is bad for them, umm that is just wrong. Most are weak verse kinetic and high verse everything else. As a Fencer there is only one NS I can't kill and thats the elder. Now as a Master Fencer, Master Rifle, Master Brawler I can solo her too.

I would personally chose Fencer because they will hit you less (which matters) than they'll hit a TKM and for the area attacks (which matter when you have 5 on you). I've seen a TKM get jumped by 3 Stalkers and go down very quickly where I can take that as a Blademaster. Use area blind until they are blinded then use dizzy2 (our most powerful area attack). With COB on and them blinded not much can hit you.

---

Entropism wrote:

Pikeman don't have a "variety" of damage types. They have 2, unless you have a few million saved up for the ultra rare Nightsister energy lance. The queen nightsister drops the schematic & vibro units (seperately) for that one, but good luck. I know people who've killed her 40 times and didn't find either of them. With normal weapons, it's kinetic and electric, thats it. Frankly, I'd rather have Blast.

---

I've killed 16 elders in the past 4 days and Axkva twice (my template is built for them). The first time she dropped 11 59 min, 57 max, -0.528 speed NS motors. The second time she dropped the schematic.

Now the elders drop crap loot. Best is a 297 strength mind poison that last for 3 minutes, has 84% potency and infinite uses. Also a mind flame. Most of them had no loot.

---

WoodyX wrote:

let me just say this, you can SOLO anything with warcry/imtiadation. warcry, wait 10 secs too afther it wears off warcry again and again and again and make sure too COB. you could easly kill any NS!

---

I use warcry2 which is a 20 second delay. More or less you're right but there is a window that they will hit you for a few seconds. If its something that hits high enough (an at-st or an elder hits a master fencer with no armor for about 500 even with intimidate2) you're screwed anyway.

I'm Master Fencer, Master Brawler, Master Rifleman with 1/0/0/0 medic and went through about 10 deaths before I figured out the right tactics .

Once I picked up a set of 80% kinetic composite, it became much much easier. So heres how I do it:

Step 1 - Pre-fight :
Get buffed. Just about everything. I'm a zab so I need some serious mind food, drinks and buffs to keep my focus high enough. My armor has 800+ encum to mind stats. So I need about 1800 additonal focus to be able to have no mind cost with my armor on. I can get this with 2 BE brandies, 2 canapes and a musician buff. Even then the canape will not last the fight usually so I'll have to take a muon about halfway through.

Step 2:
Find Elder . They are 100% resist to everything except for 25% to energy, restraint and blast with heavy armor. The only weapon in the game that can make a dent in her is a T21.

Step 3 - the Fight:
Run straight at elder while holding my gaffi spamming warcry2. Once warcry2 hits, nail her with intimidate 2.
Pull out my rifle and spam headshot3 on her.
Soon as the warcry is about to wear off, I pull my gaffi back out and get ready for about 10 seconds of her beating the living hell out of me. While shes doing this, I spam warcry2 until it sticks. Pull the T21 back out and repeat, making sure to keep her intimidated.

Step 4:
Keep control-c open so I can actively watch all my bars especially focus. Soon as focus is under 1500, I start losing mind. This is when I pop a muon. If the muon wears off during the fight, I keep the gaffi equipped and tank her for the duration of the downer. Seems the average time for these battles are around 15 minutes (judging on how much canape and muon I go through ).


Now for reasons why I like this tactic:

Equiping Gaffi when shes going to hit me: I take about half damage from her with my gaffi verse my rifle. With my armor and intimidate2 on her, thats for about 50 (assuming she doesn't find an armor hole, then its around 500).

Warcry2: Pretty obvious .

Intimidate2: Cuts her damage by 3/4

Headshot3: The first one I ran into with my template I decided to conceal shot. It took 2 hours. Once her health gets around 180 she constantly heals it back up to that point. So for ever 50k health damage you dish out, she heals 40k of it. HS3 gives two benefits, namely it targets one pool that she can't heal and second its at the speedcap with my T21 and HS3's delay mod.

Of course with the warcry change this is going to get a lot harder. It won't be as easy to tank and dish out the damage, and will make the fight go longer giving her a bigger edge. Then again she'll still easily be taken out by 2 people.
My favorite Elder/Axkva hunting buddy is a very sexy Master Doc/TKM who if wearing her armor is pretty much invincible against melee damage.

On a side note, I find Axkva much easier for some reason (she has 100k more ham and 35% resist to energy). Elders have a tendency to randomly do an area 3k damage hit (this is after intimidate2 and with no armor) called "Cascade of Hatred". I find that Axkva is more cocky in her approach (the way she'll calmly walk after you and doesn't do her specials as much). Then again my friend was on the receiving end and I was 40m away so maybe I'm biased .