Ranger Archive

So I post a lot about learning how to hunt unbuffed. Several rangers do this now and are successful at it. Why you say should you bother? Because it makes the game more interesting when you are more worried about your stats, life, and not just spamming specials. Trust me each kill feels like a reward. So Im up to 8700 HAM creatures with my little helper R3 and we have cleared the kahmurra lab solo on Talus. So now I have been working on how to do this best.

First was choice of profession. I went with master fencer over TKM. Using the vibroblade allows you to use some specials because of its very low HAM cost and AP1. Something the VibroKnucklers cant do. Second the defenses of a master fencer when added to the +20 melee defense of the village give you a good fighting chance of fighting unbuffed and even (as i do now) unarmored. Unarmored for most cases to increase regen stats.

Next came the question of how to best use food and the occasional spice. Now I have used spice only once in my entire time in game. I am not a big fan of forced drug use. But as an emergency boost Neutron Pixie can give you that last bit of edge to finish your current lair.

This food combo will change during the combat balance. But since thats not until christmas lets discuss it.These are BE foods which most of us have access to.

Garrmorl - Health/Strength/Con +327 28 min 50 drink filling
accargm - +404 Action/Quickness/Stamina 32min 50 drink
3 Ahrissa -+390 Focus 33 stomach

With these all at the same time you are now capable of enhanced regen stats as well as primaries. Since you are using garrmorl and accargm you are faced with the fact that brandy isnt an option. Im going to explore some options of foods that will do focus/willpower/mind instead of brandy since you have a free stomach open and only really need 1 to 2 ahrissa.

Again to a lot of people this is a non-issue why bother. But post combat balance understanding how to fight without superbuffs and super armor should become important if I'm right. And as rangers some of us want to live on planets and not be tied down to coronet for buffs (at least on bloodfin)

This does not address disease or poison resists. Im testing this out on Yavin due to Bloodfins current yavin wooly spawn. So you are forced to also use mask scent/conceal far more often.

Its about making the game more diffucult and interesting at the same time. Learn your limits right now I'm limiting myself to 8k or less HAM creatures. Good luck and bring pets or a droid.Im using a scout/combat droid. When your fighting like this the ability to launch traps that dont use your HAM combat turn is invaluable. Load your trap droid up with P-darts or glow wire

Message Edited by Fodder650 on 11-06-2004 10:59 PM

Throw them at 14m and it wont hurt you that bad. As a character whos made his fortune on grenades. Trust me i know a lot about them. They are a great way of setting a lair off remotely to

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Fodder650 wrote:

First was choice of profession. I went with master fencer over TKM. Using the vibroblade allows you to use some specials because of its very low HAM cost and AP1. Something the VibroKnucklers cant do. Second the defenses of a master fencer when added to the +20 melee defense of the village give you a good fighting chance of fighting unbuffed and even (as i do now) unarmored. Unarmored for most cases to increase regen stats.

Message Edited by Fodder650 on 11-06-2004 10:59 PM

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when hunting unbuffed/unarmored as a tkm, I generally go unarmed as well - HAM costs are significantly less, just takes you a little longer to kill things, but generally worth it


another food that i think helps out is Pikatta pie - listed as increasing dodge, I think I'm currently using some with ~40% dodge (note: it doesnt actually stack with the dodge skill, just another step in combat as a way to avoid the damage of an attack) It can be a little hard to find as one of its ingredients is bantha butter (milk), but most decent chefs stock it

Message Edited by Trobon18 on 11-06-2004 11:08 PM

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Trobon18 wrote:

Melee has a hard timed while armed and unbuffed

Message Edited by Trobon18 on 11-06-2004 11:08 PM

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I'll have to give pikatta pie a try. I remember that, like air cake, it doesnt modify dodge. It acts like it does. What im guessing is that its pumping up melee/ranged defenses.

JB this thread was mostly for you since I know you do this. And you inspired me to try this thats why i keep posting it. Im switching from CH to Medic because of wound healing more then the stims. I also got myself a new droid outfitted with a stim a launcher. Sure its only going to heal me for 100 at a time. But in battle this might just be an edge where i dont have to think of wasting a combat turn stimming myself.

The droid I got to help me fight unbuffed is a probot with 2 autorepair modules to heal itself. One stim a launcher to help me. One trap launcher so i dont lose a combat turn launching P-darts. Traps become far more important when fighting like this as well. I open all my attacks with a trap now. He also has a combat module to boost the built in probot capabilities. So now it hits for 110-120 with a .7 speed which isnt bad with all the other modules it has. Im still a little unsure of going with a probot over advanced R3 but i was sick of hearing the beeps. The HAM goes from 4300 to 3100 which I can see being an issue in battle that hopefully its auto-repair will overcome. Our DE builds LE Repair tanks with 5500 HAM that i havent tried out yet. Just because he would be to slow to keep up with me in battle.

Message Edited by Fodder650 on 11-07-2004 08:29 AM