Ranger Archive

So I got Wayfaring I and II today. Got them at the same time as I'd built up quite a lot of scouting xp on Yavin and already had Tracking I and II. And after hearing about the changes being put in yesterday (wow, that was one helluva night, I feel for the devs!) I couldn't wait to try them out.

You see, I'm new to this and I happened to have the ingredients on me to make the Naboo kits, so off I go. Now, where on Naboo would be a good place to test my new abilities? Hmm... I know! How about the Narglatch cave near Moenia? Aggro, vicious creatures likely to tear me apart in minutes (if not seconds) if these kits aren't up to scratch! Here's what happened:

First let me say that there are around 60 or so Narglatch in the cave, ranging from cub to the matriarch at the bottom. Most were around difficulty 16 going up to 26 at the queen bitch herself. All rate 9 under viciousness. Oh, and they deathblow...

So I camo up 70 metres or so from the nearest guardian outside the cave and begin walking. I wasn't going to run for this test - the challenge, and the beauty, would come if I could walk through the cave. While I realise that walking will probably increase the success rate over running, I wanted to be sensible about this. Really, it was more for my own benefit to see whati could do.

So I started walking.

To the cave mouth and inside.

And I kept walking.

All around me narglatch growled and roared and, after aminute or two- I'm spotted! I freeze, wait, and reapply the kit before continuing into the growing darkness on my most perilous journey. I get spotted another three times as I work my way toward the matriarch, opening the magseal containers as I go (is there ever anything in them anyway?). But not once do I draw aggro. I make it to the matriarch, pet her on the head, check the (empty) containers next to her and begin to walk back out.

All in all I get spotted 6 times. That's 6 times in around 100 checks (60 creatures, most checking me twice - once on the way in and once on the way out - Matriarch and her crew excepted), and I'm only at Wayfaring II. Not a bad success rate in my opinion. And not once did I draw aggro. I even walked around and checked the other side of the cave before finally heading back to the surface.

Now, I realise that this isn't exactly darkest Dathomir, but it's still a challenge and a good success for rangers, I think.

But wait... what if actually the camo kit had nothing to do with it and anyone can walk through the cave without drawing aggro? Hmm.. am I willing to risk my life to test it?

Sure, why not.

So I'm outside and waiting for the camo to wear off and I begin my walk again, this time in plain view....

I'm glad (?) to say that I made it barely made it one sixth of the way into the cave before being torn to shreds by a female and her cubs. So they do work - quite well actually. And I just thought I'd share that with you all.

That's why I'm a ranger. If you're ever in doubt, do it for yourself - it's a buzz!

DK

I did exactly the same thing in the Rori dungeon using maskscent (this was pre-patch, i've not managed to get back in yet), about the same detection rate.

I've not tried it with mask scent, I'll admit. Although with the way mask scent was working before the patch (double-checking) that's quite a feat.Did you also draw no aggro?

In any event, it's great to have the ability to do this - whether with mask scent or camo kits. I'm sure I'll be trying some tougher dungeons some time in the future. I'll let you know how I get on when I do. (Or if any of you try, let us know how it goes here!)

DK.

I am thrilled with thefixes for the effectiveness of mask scent and conceal. I didn't have to skirt around aggro animals on Lok today. If I got in range without maskscent breaking, I was safe. If it broke, I stayed still for a few seconds and masked myself again, no aggro. Very nice.

However, I am not planning to buy the Wayfaring line again. I surrendered it last week. Maskscent is free and its in the line of scouting that has the incredibly useful terrain bonuses. So I will stick with that and just avoid humanoid mobs. Not only willIbe able to keep all myorganic lootto sell on the bazaar, I will also save myself 14 skill points.

"So I will stick with that and just avoid humanoid mobs. Not only willIbe able to keep all myorganic lootto sell on the bazaar, I will also save myself 14 skill points."

Awise decision...

• If a player doesn't require the skills on a regular basis, there is really no reason to spend their valuable skill points on them.

About midnight, I was able to login so I appear seated right where I left off - alone and 5km from the Trade Outpost on Dathomir.

The first thing I did was open inventory and create a Dathomir camo kit. I didn't bother with setting up a camp with general crafting station in it as a base kit would do me fine. My first attempt resulted in a critical failure. My second attempt was a good success.

I was 95m from purbole hunters and purbole stalkers and 115m from purboles and an elder purbole. I start walking towards them. Knowing that stalkers and hunters have a better chance to detect me, I wanted to see how close I could get to them. Within 62m or so, I was detected and my conceal broke. I saw the equivalent of "You are being stalked by a creature" over and over and over again. It could get old, but I liked knowing it.

I did an about-face and walked back trying not to burst run. Over some hills and through some valleys (past grand-ma's house), I was a good distance away and the message stopped. I pulled out my 2 mountain squills, grouped them and put them in a wedge formation (just to protect me).

I make my way around them as getting too close seemed too risky at the moment. I would come back with more confidence later.

Walking/Jogging around, I ran close to many many creatures including Rancors of all types, Nightsisters and high level Singing Mountain Clan dragoons. I usually stayed above 50m from them and camo didn't break but a few times. It seemed to wear off in a good amount of time, but didn't specifically test it.

It made travelling very difficult walking everywhere.


NRass, what types of specific tests did you do and at what ranges? I would like to test as well, but didn't have too much time to do full testing of my own.


I will be interested to see how this works when mounts came out. I was not able to conceal my pets (but checked just the same). No one was with me so I couldn't test it on anyone at the time.

"what types of specific tests did you do and at what ranges?"

The primary test I performed was the success rate of /conceal itself.

• Simply by counting the number of times I succeeded versus the number of failures against a particular creature.

I also tested social assistance seeing through my /conceal (which they still do ).

As well as testing to ensure that creatures previously successful still ignored me if I lost my /conceal. The creatures will eventually recheck concealment, but it takes several minutes.

Almost all my concealment checks were at range of 50m to 63m.

• After success I would occassionally wander up to the creatures just for the fun of it (loved sitting down next to a Mauler Master, that made my day ).

I also tested success rates of /conceal applied by myself, to another person (namely my Medic).

My testing was limited to <50 Creature Level as collecting the resources for the more difficult planets was beyond the skills of my Test Center character.

• I know there should be a drop off in success rates once a certain Creature Level is reached, but I don't know where that level is, or what the progression will be. (GreenMarine avoided the question )

My results are posted in the following thread:

forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=ranger&message.id=19095

At best (prepatch) I was able to create a 7charge camo kit with maxed out successes on experimentation.

Anyone got feedback on how many charges we can get now, with master ranger and no artisan experimentation?

(humans get a bonus, so i'm really looking for Non Human or Wookiee success rates...)

Thanks!

Kryibacca

Master Ranger, Chilastra

"Anyone got feedback on how many charges we can get now, with master ranger and no artisan experimentation?"

With no experimentation and decent quality resources, I received 6-8 charges with no experimentation.

With top quality resources and maximum experimentation, I believe 20 charges can be achieved.

With an OQ 269 Meat, OQ 311 Bone and OQ 784 Hide i got a 6 charges unexperimented and could exp it up to 13 Charges. I had 4 experimentation points left that i could not use. I was at 53 % then.

Tobolt Glittergem

Master Ranger - Gorath

With lower OQ Bones (102) i only could exp up to 12 Charges (49%). Unexp was 6 charges.

So i think 25 will be the max charge number.

Tobolt Glittergem

Master Ranger - Gorath

I will double-check... but I think there was no xp given.

Confirmed. I had 17989 wilderness XP before making a kit, and 17989 after. And as a double-check, I checked my totals on Gencrafting, Scout, and Trapping. None showed any xp gain after making a camo kit.