Pikeman Archive

One thing regarding Baz Nitches I've found is that you don't need great armor to fight them. I've just started fighting them myself, and currently at 3032. I have very average Ubese armor (nothing over 50%, most of itbesides the jacket is around 30%), an admittedly nice LVA (I think it's 120-440ish), and without buffs, I can solo Baz Nitches for quite a while. Just target one, use a trap to bring it in, andsmack it into submission. They don't do a lot of damage, so long as you have -some- armor on.

For those of us with little to no money, any armor is good armor. A set of Mabari is far better than going out armorless, simply for the 50% damage reduction. In some ways it's better, too, because of the lower HAM costs...

Anyway.. be smart, and hunting without buffs is easy enough.

Message Edited by TheStarWarsKid on 03-25-2004 04:06 PM

Message Edited by TheStarWarsKid on 03-26-2004 10:06 AM

Savage quenkers are the way to go. With my AT ST grouped, i can pull a level 74 mission, with 5 per spawn at initial, first tap and 1/2 on the lair. Given there's no babies, that's about 48k or so of xp per lair. Doing 90k per run, taking time only for spice downers or to rebuff/kill bf, you could master pikeman in 28 lairs.

I'd like to see how Brawler/Master Brawler skills fit into the picture, if it's an appropriate addition

I'm still a bit confused on exactly what Intimidate vs. Intimidate 2 do (reduce damage enemies do? In a circle, area, cone?), Warcry vs. Warcry 2 (enemy can't attack, unless you attack him? Circle, cone, single foe?), and how they relate to the Pikeman's repertoire

I got xp by first going to Endor. A good buff, some good kin Ubese armor, brandy, some back up foods for action and health bars, also some KD food. I was getting 800k xp in about 3-4 hours. Arachne lairs are fun and you get a ton of creatures. If you attempt them you might want to be sure and have a healer along though since you can aggro about 15 of them by hitting the lair hehe. They also hit your head and poison. But its fun to see the piles of dead spidey's in a circle around you when you are finished lol.

If you have a doc orcombat medic present.. Janta Cave on Dantooine is great for xp. Most of them give 5k xp. I finished Master there. But you WILL need a good set of kinetic armor, buffs, muon, brandy and KD food. You will have about 5 of them aggro you at a time and they do hit hard. I burnt up a brand new 75% Kin Ubese armor chest plate in two days lol. Andbe prepared with some sort of back up for the Rock Shaper... 100% resist to Kin & Elec. But its fun to dizzy the hell out of the rest of them lol. Not to mention you can get some decent loots there.

- tysita - master pikeman / master dancer

My main tip is to get some trusty friends and farm NS for a good pike. You can find some that are much, much better then anything players can craft and with the right group its very easy. All you need is a Master Heavy Swordsman, Master brawler, person withFlame 4 and a master Doc. one of the first lances I found was a VL with about 450 dmg and low speed and HAM cost. I used it all the way through pikeman and it really helped out.

Might as well add this, since nightsisters are a common target of many pikemen. If you're not at a high level or not fortunate enough to have good armor, taking on more than one nightsister at a time is often suicide. Luckily, they're quite easy to pull away from groups.

The principles here should work with just about any NPC or creature (non-social ones, at least), though the specific details may vary a bit.

One option is to get on a vehicle and drive through the group. Let them chase you until all but one breaks off, then stop and fight her. This has the drawback of potentially getting your vehicle destroyed or ending up driving into another spawn. The following method I've found to work quite well.

The magic number is 40. At 40 meters away they'll detect you (question mark over the head), at 39 they'll charge you. Only nightsisters within this range will attack, the rest will stand around doing whatever it is nightsisters at leisure do.

What you need to do is target the members of the group to see what distance they're at. What you're looking for is one who's a few meters away from the others. Get yourself lined up to take a run at her without coming within 40 meters of the others and approach. If they wander around, switch to whoever's closest.

At 40 meters stop. She should have detected you at this point. It's possible a few of the other members of the group will also show the question mark and tracking animation, but as long as they're 41m away it doesn't matter. Step forward just a little and the closest one should attack you.

At this point, turn and run in the other direction 15-30m. This serves as your buffer zone both to keep the other members of the group from wandering too close and to keep your target from running back within range when she's about to die. It's also a handy time to intimidate your target and hit CoB. Once you're at a comfortable distance stop running and kill her without having to worry about the others.

A couple notes/warnings:

This obviously won't work if you have good faction with nightsisters. You need them to make the first move, if you just shoot one from a distance they'll all come running.

Nightsister stalkers may have either a slightly longer aggro range or more of a tendency to attack as a group. I seem to end up with multiples on me more often with them than with any others.

Intimidate is a single target damage debuff... makes you take less damage, which is -always- good. Intimidate 1 and 2's only real difference is the amount of time they last... 2 lasts quite a while, 1 usually requires reapplying on most of the higher critters.

Warcry now.. uh... well, yea, it's a crowd control feature, in a cone, but since you'll automatically attack the mob right after warcry goes off, I can't find it's use yet besides draining your HAM bar. Again, 2 lasts longer than 1 (20 secs vs. 10 secs).

That said, I'm split on wether to keep Master Brawler or not. The longer time on Intimidate is very nice, and Lunge 2 is decent (20m knockdown is handy on those obnoxious kiting mobs), but with the changes to Warcry, and the very modest skill enhancements (what, +5 damage and speed? I can get that easily through SEAs, and I'm not sure the CoB bonuses amount to much over master pike), I'm leaning more and more towards dropping it.

Of course, I'm taking up Ranger instead, so let's move from one set of skills that aren't too helpful to another.

Another, safer method, any ranged single target bleed shot can be applied while prone, at 60-64m out. Peace out immediately and move back well out of range of the group of night sisters. Being prone generally allows one or two shots to be let off without the NS being able to identify your location.

NOTE: If the bleed does not stick on the 1st shot, play it safe, peace out and back out of range for a few. When you head back in, attempt to pull a different NS. If you put too many shots at em' they will all aggro in my experiance.

If you have no professional ranged skills, but have some skill points availible I would suggest grabbing novice marksman and carb II. Go out and find an enhanced E11 carb, made from the imperial theme park mission. Most of these in circulation have a very high bleed potential, and a health bleed between 80-150, pricing can vary from 12K skyward dependant on tissues, stocks etc. My experiance is that with a chargeshot that hits the target, you will stick the bleed. Again, if you miss, relocate and pick a different target.

Also make sure you have /kneel or /stand hotkeyed so you can get up from prone as quick as possible. I tend to keep my bike in the area with /mount ready to go in the event things go downhill.

I know it is out of theme, but is a very safe way to assure a 1 on 1 situation with a Nightsister. Play it smart and be aware of your surroundings. There are also other ranged weapons capable of DoT's however the e11 has a very high potency by nature. Your skillpoint requirements for this coming from a brawler only standpoint will be 18 (fairly sure about that, not at home).

SKILL TAPES

Polearm Damage - Adds right on to the damage of your weapon. A +10 polearm damage mod added onto a 120-500 damage LVA, will make the weapon a 130-510 damage LVA.

Polearm Speed & Accuracy - Adds on to that skill mod. If you have 65 speed (or accuracy) and add on a +15 mod, you will have a total of 80.

Block - Works the same as speed and accuracy tapes.

Polearm Evasion &Counter-Attack- DO NOT WORK. They are skills that were removed before release yet still remain on the SEAs. They are worthless.

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TheStarWarsKid wrote:

I'll tell everyone what I'm leveling on.

I'm doing savage quenker missions on Dantooine, they pay 6.8k, and are easy.

They give 3932 xp per kill and around 3k-4k for the lair.

You need to get buffs, I dont know about armor...(I'm a wookiee) I used Fishak and Bivoli until I ran out, now I use Muon Gold for my mind. (I use the muon as soon as I start fighting)

I'll tell you how good they are xp-wise. I got 450k in about 2 hours doing JUST these missions, I'm going to master pikeman on these guys. Hope this helps

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I forgot to mention, You need to be grouped with something to get 3932 xp from each savage quenker. Also, VERY rarely a "terrible quenker" will spawn, and it gives 4118 xp. (Also when grouped) Hope this helps

Message Edited by TheStarWarsKid on 03-25-2004 04:04 PM

Additions to skill tapes discussion:

Block (along with melee/ranged defenses) are now capped at 125, so don't bother getting more than +10 worth, and don't spend a lot on it as it won't help that much.

Speed: Each point is a percent increase, so do not waste money getting more than +100 total speed. If you do not have master brawler, you'll need +25 to get +100 total, less if you do have MB.

antares
master pikeman