Pistoleer Archive

Message Edited by Randonb on 02-11-2004 12:25 PM

To get easy/quick pistol XP goto Rori and kill Levia Squalls. It doesnt matter how far up the pistoleer tree you are as these things are real slow and can be kited, tho they group aggro you so you should be careful not to attack them when they are in large groups.

I get around 1.8K xp per kill and they dont take too long to die(Around 4K HAM).

quenkers on dantooine i think are the best xp and easiest to kill

For MOBs that attack in groups, use the prone/bleed approach. Go prone, bleed the target, peace, then walk about 100m away. Once the bled target takes damage from the bleed only it will attack you and the others will ignore you. This works without pets and only occasionally will they group attack you.

Double tap is your friend. This special is your staple until you can get stopping shot. And even then, you'll have to look at your ham and speed to see what is better for the task at hand
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I disagree. Bodyshot 2, while not as powerful, concentrates on health only. Double tap is random. stick with healthshot.

And pistol melee defense 1 gives you a knockdown, which is invaluable.

2 points; first, bleeding doesn't work anymore like it used to so all the use bleed to get xp quick tips won't help. Second, not everyone is a CH or can always group to get xp. Just as a sidenote, no pun intended.

#Weapons#
The first weapon you should get is the Republic Blaster, you can use it at novice Marksman. Some say it's the best blaster we have. Also you can get a fast Scout since speed is very important when you start out and a good FWG and DX2 for a different kind of damage type later on. The Tangle Pistol sounds nice but really isn't that great to gain xp. Although most creatures have vulnerabilty to stun, the damage of the weapon is far worse than that of the others. In fact that worse that you will rather use a weapon the creature has resistances against usually.

#Problems with your droid?#
I suggest prior to getting xp (if you have some money to spend, like 20k-30k at least) you search for a Droid Engineer and buy a Probot with medium armor and 40% resistance (better two.) They make nearly no damage (thus not stealing noticeable xp) but can take a lot of hits (even Savage quenker never hit for more than 50 per hit.) You will want two of these since we do not have Droid stims until at least publish 7. But they regenerate pretty FAST in the datapad, so you can use one for 2 missions and switch to the other afterwards. The droid will be healed once you need it again. Also, you will want to a) group with him for a nice xp bonus and b) buy a lot of batteries. They "eat" them like one every 10-20 minutes.

#Where to start?#
I suggest to gather xp around the starter cities (mos entha, eisley work well. Now also coronet, don't know about the other planets but probably all are good for this at this point) until pistol 3. Then I like to switch to Kaadus on Naboo. They are non-aggro and females give 400 xp per kill. Males are social (they add) and give around 700 xp, so take out the males first. Both don't deathblow, you get enough xp for pistol 4 quickly. #Going for novice# Novice Gunfighter is more tough, either proceed killing Kaadus or go to Dantooine (you will spend a lot of time here now.) Quenker are an easy prey, but I don't know how tough they are these days if you have only pistol 4. Grouping with other players is best at this point, since you need a lot of xp but are still relatively weak. Also huurtons work well, but they can be dangerous (around 1.5k xp each.)

#I am novice, what now?#
Go for the tech tree, always use either BodyShot2 or Kipupshot/Rollshot. I think Double Tap has been nerfed, it used to be stronger, so I don't bother using it for now. Once you reach Stopping shot you can switch to Savage Quenker (granted you have at least novice medic and some stim bs.) They give up to 3800 xp at this point; 4250 xp once you get to fan shot (all grouped with your probot.)

#Alternative path#
If you are going for the dirty fighting line as well, I suggest to get Panic shot as soon as possible (best is after novice Gunfighter.) Once you have it, you should also have Melee Defense 1. Using those 2 you can kill your PvE enemies a lot more easy. KD them and use panic shot; they won't stand up again for 10 seconds which you can use to spam any special you like to deal a lot more damage than usual to them. If you haven't killed it yet, you can repeat this after 30 seconds.

#What about the rest?#
After Tech 4 it's more or less to any's personal taste how to proceed. I prefer to get more Dodge first since I usually hit quite often. From this point it's to you.

#Which skills should I use?#
Most skills are still very useless, but these have proven useful:

-BodyShot1 + Bodyshot2(makes Bodyshot1 obsolete.)
-KipUpShot + RollShot(I like to fight kneeling so I use RollShot, but you might want to kite some creatures, so use KipUpShot for those. Both do nice damage.)
-MeeleDefense1 (Does some damage, but the best part is, it knocks your target down. Has a 30 seconds time where it's useless on the same target from that time you used it first on. The timer starts whether you hit or not.)
-StoppingShot (Does a lot of damage to a single target, is very slow though.)
-FanShot (Does a lot of damage to multiple targets, they all have to stand nearly in the direction you are shooting at. Beware using it when there is a lair you do not want to spawn more creatures though.)

PS: this reflects only my personal experiences, correct me if I am wrong.

Message Edited by RazorBlade79 on 02-13-2004 01:45 PM

In my experience I always get XP fastest by going to Yavin IV buffed, and with crates of Muon. Hunt Mamiens and Mawgaxes. I did all of my weapons for BH this way, and leveled each branch within a one to two day timeframe. So far I have not gone back to do this with Pistoleer, as I have been invited on so many hunting groups I have a hard time refusing

Whether you want to smuggle or not, I recommend that every pistoleer novice go get at least Dirty Fighting 1. While I personally prefer that entire tree over our Tech tree (particularly for xp grinding), that first box is invaluable for surviving a jam, and with our similar requirements, it's worth the extra skill points.

Otherwise, my formula: Get strong armor and buffs. That's it. With hardly any skill in pistoleer at all (and DF 1 in smug), I bought some K-layered Comparmor, grabbed some doctor buffs + Muon,wandered into Endor and was almost unbeatable. You literally don't need specials at all if you pick the right spawns, weapons and armor. I chose Endor for the frequency of kinetic-dealing mobs vulnerable to acid, grabbed a trusty DX and started fighting at point-blank (I used to knockdown-bleed each mob before banging away without specials, but it wasn't necessary). Hanadans in particular are great grinding mobs (they don't DB). I picked up about ~25-30k xp from every 10-minute Hanadan Rock-Smasher mission.