Rifleman Archive

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LexxYovel wrote:

Oooh, gotcha. But what is meant by effectiveness? If its decayed, does that mean its less prone to blocking damage?

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That's the only thing I'm not entirely sure of. Logically it would block proportionally less damage as the condition decreased (i.e. 50% condition = 50% more damage taken), but I have not actually paid attention. Unless we get a good response to this I'll plan on doing some testing tonight. I'm sure I can find someone to wail away on me for a little while! =P

Seems like I'm buying a brand new set of armor every week or so. I have crates upon crates of 99.7 ART's and use them frequently, but they almost always do more damage than good. I think 1 of 20 uses gets me a 100% repair. I would probably have over 10mil creds by now if I didn't have to dump 350-500k a week on armor.

Someone please suggest what I am doing wrong here.

This will be a moot point in about 3 months when I complete padawan trials but for the time being and for my alt, any information will be helpful.

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JeffIncredible wrote:

What type of mobs are you fighting? As a rifleman you should be keeping enough distance between yourself and your mob to not get hit very often. I have the same faction armor that i've had since it first came out, and i've only repaired it once.

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I fight a large variety of mobs. I am really into group PvE with the guild, and our main goal right now is to build faction bases around our city. So I would say 70+% of the time it's factional missions against ranged energy weapons. I also do a lot of grinding on the Avatar Space Platform, where once again the main enemies are dudes with ranged energy weapons. Being one of only 2 riflemen that regularly group with us, I tend to draw the most aggro, even though the tanks are taunting, so I am constantly being fired on.

A great example was just this last Saturday where I played 10am till 2am [I hope I'm not the only one who gets this sucked into the game ]. I purchased a nice set of Tantel armor when I logged in for 350k, 45k condition, 6.8k energy from +12 (I think) guild armorsmith. I repaired the chest plate and helmet 6 times each with 99.7 ART's, some other pieces 2-3 times each, and by the end of the day the chest plate and helmet were completely useless and the rest were down to <10k condition. Now granted, by the end of the day I'm sure I had racked up close to the 350k I spent, but it seems a waste to go through armor like that. Although my armorsmith sure likes it.

I also engage creatures from time to time and in these situations I don't have any problem at all. If the mob gets close I root/snare/kd and run to keep my distance. Great example here was yesterday I did an evening-long grind killing unisor'is spiders in the Myyydril Caves. I didn't even wear armor for that. Didn't put armor on until we got to the Necrosis, who, by the way, completely and totally pwnd us.

You know what? I think I just answered my own question. If I'm going to fight against ranged NPC's I guess I should just expect to go through armor like it's nothing.

While on the subject of ART's though, is there anything that can be done in regards to the complete failures when repairing? Does an armorsmith have a better chance of success at repair than joe-combat profession? Or is it completely radom (this would be my guess based on experience).

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Kuan-Ti wrote:

With the CU came an increase in the rate of armor decay. One suit/week is about average for a heavy grinder. I suggest buying armor not based on the defense, but rather on the condition. Higher condition will last longer. You might take 10-15 more damage from a gurk, but group grinding when done properly nearly eliminates risk of dying. Save your high-defensive armor for pvp, and use high-condition armor for pve.

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What would you consider being "good" condition? 40k+?

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DirkusGentlyus wrote:
I think 1 of 20 uses gets me a 100% repair.

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InspGadgt wrote:

Wow you've gotten a 100% repair!?!?!? In all my times repairing my composite armors pre CU with asupposed 100% and 99.7% repair kits I have never gotten a 100% repair. Best I've gotten has been "Minor Blemishes" which still reduces the overall quality of the armor. Fortunately post CU I haven't needed to repair my armor. I'm Master CH along with Master Rifleman so I get to wear Battle Armor instead of Recon Armor thus take less damage.

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My guess is that you probably solo often. I think this rapid decay is yet another way to encourage group fighting and discourage solo fighting. I just wish they'd discourage people from completing the Padawan Trials.

I had a set of comp and the helmet, chest plate and leggings were dead in 3 days. I got myself a full set of Imperial ShockTrooper armour that I'm never gonna wear because of the armour decay. At the very least I think the devs should give us Armour and Weapon care kits. Use it on the armour piece and it slows decay by 75% for the duration of the kit, same with weapons. It would be nice to give us the option of actually looking after our equipment. As it is repair tools aren't worth it, best I usually get is a repair of 100 condition and then the max is brought down to match.

You are not the only one to experience this new Armor Degrade thing...

My first full faction armor fell apart before i could run enough mission to earn enough credits and factionspoints to buy and bioling a new one... guess what... i have begun looking for Anti-Decay kits. And lots of them...

Unfortunately the price of armor is set by the resource requirements... Soo... slowly the economy will bleed and the casual players will eventually not be able to afford armor.

I haven't bought one piece of new armor since the CU went live. /shrug

The Decay rate is based on Damage let through. Pre-Cu, 80% armor would let very minimal damage through, resultiing in slow decay. Post CU, with resists topping out at about 60%, Decay has increased greatly. I've had guildmates lose 10K+ condition from DJMs in one hit.

ADKs seem like the only way to go if you want to wear armor :/. Just buy one of the combined jackets, the pants and the helm and ADK those three, then you only need to replace 2 parts of the armor.