Ranger Archive
Thread: Need trapping XP? Here is how I made 50 000 in 40 minutes.
Personally I have no problem with you gaining exp. this way Denebo. It's the way the game works, and you figured out how to use the games mechanics to your advantage, but most people don't think this is how it should work. Now that it's out in the open you had better finish up your Trapping exp. in a hurry, because it will be fixed. I just hope the fix doesn't cause a lot of other traping issues.
In my oppinion after spammingthree orfour of the same traps, before the effects wear off, you should get instant agro, but who am I to say.
Vectinn
Ranger/Pistoleer
Corbantis
Well I've been reading this thread and now I'm really confused - I don't see any difference between using your skill asa Ranger running up the mountainside and using your 'knowledge of creature behavior' in knowning that red MOBs attack yellow MOBs... both seem to fit right in line with the Ranger character. Niether of them are exploits --- the later may be an undesired, easy to use method - but let's allow SOE to decide if they want to change the game mechanics.
Am I an exploiter b/c I have TKA knockdown and as long as they don't BAF I have little trouble taking out yellow cons (and some easy red ones) with never getting hit? I get scouting, trapping, combat, anda crap-load of unarmed xp each MOB... and some times the only dmg I take is from the HAM cost of KD.
Mylar --- Scylla
1. To employ to the greatest possible advantage
n, tr.v. ex·ploit
1. A (flaw) or an instance of taking advantage of a (flaw).
Regardless of what anyone here thinks, this would be considered an exploit by the developers. Why? Because it is supposed to take hundreds of hours to max out a character.
Any method that allows us to make a single skill box, much less three, in an hour is obviously not intended. Not when it should take you a week for one.
Is it smart playing? Yes. You used your brain. You probably had fun. You're being nice enough to share it with others. In that sense you are not an exploiter because a true exploiter would not share his secret.
That does not change the fact that in the devs eyes, this is an exploit. You aren't playing the game how it is intended. Player's desires versus developer's intentions. Sorry, that is the way it is, and no amount of claiming it is not an exploit will change the fact that it is one.
Before you go defending yourself yelling at me "I'm not an exploiter":
The game is in a state of being balanced. Things are broken, others work to well, some things just have not been thought out or focused upon long enough. Due to this, it is practically impossible for anyone to not use an exploit, whether intended or not.
Being a Bothan, my scouting xp shot up like crazy once I had maskscent. That was simply through normal use and my desire to explore the world and not have to deal with fighting everything I passed.
As a creature handler I enjoyed finding new babies and making my own personal catalog of their abilities. I also found it fun to sneak into lairs and play with the baby for a bit before letting it go back to its parents. Simply due to my playstyle I advance quickly through the profession.
I would wager most of us here have advanced much faster than was intended. For the most part we aren't exploiters, but that does not mean we didn't use exploits.
The Tuskan Fort was put into the game by the devs. People advanced there way too quickly. Creature Handlers were the most talked about, but other professions as well. To the devs, this was an exploit despite the fact that it was allowed by the rules of the game.
It was not in the spirit of the game, however.
If it is, maybe SOE should consider re-designing 90% of their game.
Maybe you missed Holo's discussion, but they pretty much are. They want to cut the combat classes' power significantly.
Please tell me if you consider this an exploit...
I obviously (having wayfair 3 at the time) outran him up the mountainside then he would turn away and head back down to his camp. I kept doing this for like a half an hour before I admittedly got bored of it...
Yes it was.
Not the running up the mountainside. Good tactics. Way to go.
...he would turn away and head back down to his camp. I kept doing this for...
There is the exploit. It may be poor design, AI, what have you, but the fact that the mob maintained this behavior, and you went back to take advantage of it, meant it was not working as intended.
You could have killed this thing with no risk not because of your Exploration (Wayfaring does nothing for hills) but because it repeatedly ignored you at a set distance. Thus, an exploit.
*sigh*
I'm not lecturing like this to say anyone here is bad or did something wrong. What I am trying to get across is that the Developers intent is the sole thing that determines what is and is not an exploit.
It is like the Justice System but the laws don't let you get away with a technicality because they can be altered to match their intent at any time, including after the fact. No grandfather clauses here. A good lawyer won't help you, only the benevolance of the Judge.
True, we cannot always know the dev's intent, but if you think "Was this a desired result by the devs?" and the answer is "Probably not", you found an exploit. It might be harmless or it might be game-breaking, but it is one none-the-less.
Wow lots of argueing in this thread , honestly I'm not used to seeing that on this board .
I personally don't think there is anything wrong with this method at all , it utilizes in game features to get the most trapping XP in the shortest amount of time . People like myself that have been playing video games as a hobby for 15+ years now , going all the way back to the original Zelda on the old old Nintendo system ... we have been using the fastest ways to achieve our goals with the minimum risk ... that's just the way it is . I look for that in every game I play , I don't think there is anything wrong with it at all .
I also don't think that someone who chooses to play differently , go the slower route for RP purposes , or some sort of pixle derived " morality " is doing anything wrong either .
I used a similar method to gain all four boxes of my Ranger trapping XP in about a day or two . I just found a MOB that can be kited , dumped the P.Dart on him then ran through every single trap I had and started over at the beginning . Nothing at all wrong with this method ... or anyone elses . Using a wall to block a MOB from reaching you would be an exploit ... trapping a MOB that is engaged with another MOB or can not catch up to you because it is too slow is not an exploit . It's just common sense .
As far as the arguement that a player is getting XP without risk ... thus making this method an exploit ... I don't think this is a well thought out arguement . Because , what your saying is anyone that has CH skills and uses their pet to tank while they trap is exploiting ? Anyone that sits in a cantina and dances for hours and hours and gains XP in entertaining is exploiting because they are not exposed to risk ? I don't think this is valid at all , and if anything it boils down to a difference in playstyles and an intollerance of another persons playstyle , which again is something I'm not used to seeing in the Ranger forums .
Lets not forget that people were exstatic to see the afk camping macros posted .... and let's agree that the only valid arguements being presented here are 1. people choose to play differently and b. trapping XP may be too easy and too fast at this point.
Peace all !
and good hunting
Jon
That is true. If you note my dictionary quote, one is positive in outlook, the other negative.
Depending upon your viewpoint, all of your scenarios could be viewed as exploitation. That doesn't make them wrong per-se, but it does not change the fact that they are exploits either.
If people have an advantage, of course they are going to use it to their best benefit. It is human nature.
Don't blame me for weaknesses I didn't create.
I know I am not (I won't speak for others). Personally, all I am asking is that we realize this is not what was intended by the developers.
As I said before, exploits can be harmless or very destructive. I would say this one falls more to the former because really the only one it affects is you and your final enjoyment of the game.
And don't say the designers didn't intend for it to...shhhhh! If they didn't intend for something to be a certain way shame on them not me. Don't release a bugged incomplete, untested product.
Yes, shame on them. But, to paraphrase EQ, you are in their world now. They make the rules and they get to change them to match what their intentions are.
Harmless things such as too fast of an xp gain are simply going to be rebalanced. Game-breaking things such as making 10 million credits in a week are going to be changed and possible action pursued. It would still be within the devs rights to strip us of the excess xp though. (They won't, both because it is more trouble than it is worth and it would foster bad feelings.)
If the game wasn't intended to be leveled this quickly then it was ineffectively designed.
True again. And it will be redisigned because of it.
Everyone can make there own moral and ethical judgements, it's a free country and I hold everyone's right to their opinions very high. Just don't get mad at me when I do something different than you would.
I'm not mad at all. I don't think you or anyone else that finds an easier way to level a bad person. No moral judgements on my part. (Were this game-breaking and CSRs told you to stop yet the behavior persisted, then I might start making some.)
That doesn't change the fact that in the intended system, this is an exploit. The system is the problem, not you, not anyone else. The System. And that is why the System will change to match what was intended.
(Mostly I am arguing symmantics and from a long-time MUD developer's perception. I am simply pointing out that this is a "flaw in the system" and that people are "using it to their best advantage" wether they are aware of either of it or not. It simply is a fact and not a failing of anyone's character.)
One thing alot of you are missing.. This game is not EQ.. It was not designed to take months and months to gain your top levels.. It has been stated over and over by Raph and the other devs.. SWG is about what you do AFTER you reach your skills. I do think that Trapping XPS are easy to get but there is no way to balance it and make traps usable but as most of you will find.. Trapping xps are always the first to get maxed.
Lets worry more about what to do after Trapping xps don't matter!
I see no exploit here. Plain and simple - survival of the fittest and smartest. Use your surroundings to your advantage to make sure you stay alive. There is the element of danger as the "yellow" MOB might not necessarily attack the "red" MOB - that's when your butt is toast and you'll be visiting your local friendly clone center.
If this is considered an exploit, then would it be considered an exploit if CH creature[s]were attacking the MOBwhile the CH or someone else was throwing traps? That's what I did while helping out a group on Rori - the CH sent the animal to start the fight and 2 others threw traps.
and i thought the ranger boards were safe from insanity....there goes the neighborhood =/
I think this is a very cool way to gain exp.. Ranger does have some quirks (advanced survival is an example...I had all other branches at 4 when I finished my 1st tier in that), and I think anything that eases some of the grind isn't exploitive.
I am a master CH and master ranger. I used the same tactic when fighting with my own pet. Pet attack, unload every trap I could make, kill. Repeat. I went from trapping I-IV in one day, np problem, because I didn't have to intice other beasts to fight, I just picked the fight with mine. I challenge anyone to tell me that this was exploitive.
Point being that the use of different tactics shouldn't be labeled as an exploit just because one tactic is so much better then anothers. Besides, If struggling with trapping exp. is a huge problem for anyone, I'd suspect they have way bigger problems. It is easily the quickest to earn.
Standard tactic which works for me is:
Hit them with the phec dart while they are at 45-50 meters.
health shot 2 - startes them to bleeding
Hit with another trap, usually glow wire to bring down their defenses
hit them with health shot 2, aim, double trap, etc (or whatever)
now they are waking up from the phec dart and they are mad, lol
hit them 2-3 times with warning shot, hopefully this will work and they back off a bit
Time for another phec and repeat as necessary.
Add in any other traps you feel are appropriate for whatever effects you desire( there are actually very few traps that I do not use)
And as an added bonus if I can drag them past a vynock lair, mores the better. Apparently, tortors like the taste of vynock flesh. And if it were up to me, they would like to eat something a bit more time consuming.
With tortors and tortor bulls(talus) I usually get around 2-3K trap xp per creature, thats if they all work, which is rare.
Repeat til your heart is content, but more likely til you run out of traps.
That is my suggestion on gaining trap xp quickly, which is what I thought this thread was going to be about.
Just trying to get things back on track.
Karandis Hoplite
Aspiring Master Ranger/ Aspiring Master Pistoleer
Nashal, Talus
Bloodfin
PS Intra-creature conflict was not my idea, im not a dev, and its hard as heck to solo and survive. Which is something rangers are supposed to excel at.
This is how I used to get Trapping XP...
2k xp per trap from Kimos, and I can hit them about 10 times as my pet takes all the damage. I can kill about 5 or 6 of them in an hour. So 20k x 5 is 100k an hour.
Unforunately, nerfing the Gurreck armor killed that and I sacrificed the Advanced Trapping line because I need the skill points for more important things.
Of course it's an exploit, and those of you who use it are just trying desperately to rationalize.
Any time you can level that quickly with little to no risk to yourself it's an exploit, as defined by Holo.
This isn't rocket science.