Scout Archive

I've been playing a wookiee scout from the very beginning, and I've loved it the whole time. reading some of these posts I wonder what you all expect from the profession. Sure markscent doesn't work as well as it once did, but are you really expecting to run through a group of red conned animals and not get noticed??? Come on, think about that for a minute, you come running over a hill into a herd of mutant womprats and just because they can't smell you they shouldn't see and attack you.

Sure the new markscent has bugs, I've sat their and killed creatures from a distance and not recieved any exp at all and my maskscent was up the whole time. Other times the animal comes running right in and starts attacking but my masked scent stays up (agin I receive no exp).

I think the maskscent ability should give you exp for things like sneaking up in creatures. And by sneaking I mean crawling slowly up to them, not running full tilt through a herd.

Maskscent should get better as you increase the skill tree level and should extend into at least the Ranger class skill tree (maybe it already does, can't remember off hand)

I think mainly markscent is a skill that should be used as a stealth tactic for getting in close to creatures to kill/train them, not as a skill for escaping attacking creature, you have a radar to stop you running into creatures.

I also beleive that foraging should give some scouting exp, again, limit it as markscent should be limited.

As for the overall usefullness of the scout profession.... I found out early on in this game that the best part about it was being able to make hybrid characters. Nobody in the game has a character with just one profession, and if they do they are not exploring the game to its full potential. I've taken levels in both artisian and marksman. Extra professions add to a character, making them unique from all the others out there. If you want one class ubers go play EQ.

Always remember that as players build their characters higher up in their prospective skill trees they will begin tospend more and more time working the skills which define their characters. What I mean is that those beginner artisians that started with basic scout so they could havest hide and bone won't have the time to be going out and collectingthese things when they are a master armorsmith, they will be relying on the scouts to bring in the materials.

I liked the idea I read about new items becoming available for harvesting the higher you go in the skill tree, such as special organs, etc.. that a Doctor might need (sorry, can't remeber who came up witht this idea). This will give Master scouts a skill not available to the casual part time scout.

Traps- love 'em, love 'em, love 'em. Simple as that. Some-one made the suggestion of allowing scouts to actually catch an animal live with traps. Good idea, but add it in Ranger, or better yet Creature Handler as these two professions are the master classes of scout.

Trapping should become lethal in the Ranger class (I beleive I read that in the discription of the traps you gain in Ranger), but I also like the idea of them being usable on humunoids when we've reache Ranger level, it does seem the natural progression of a hunter to be able to utilize their skills on any creature they come across when in the wild.

Camping- Get over it!!! Medics sit for hours in hospitals, same goes for entertainers in taverns, if scouts want tobe the only ones tohave the ability to set up healing areas in the wilderness get used to sitting around for awhile. Once creature mounts and vehicles come into play and people can reach far off wilderness areas without needing to worry about all the red cons along the way I think you'll find more and more medics/entertainers willing to travel outdoors, and you can bet that they'll be very happy to have a safe area to stay in while everyone else attacks a Tuscun Fort or other lair. Admittedly I'm under the impression that at least in Ranger levels camps should be extremly secure against wondering creatures.

As for those you complain about the unevenness of the XP being given out.... my god, the games only been out for what- 3 weeks and I've already seen people running around as master professions (eg Bounty hunters, Creature handlers). If you just want to power-level your character I guess you have a right to complain it takes to much XP, however I'm enjoying that part of being a scout you seem to be missing--- exploration of the worlds available. I've covered just about every inch ot Tatoinne (**edit** how is that spelt?) and have died many times and ultimately I haven't "leveled" very quickly as I avoid many creatures and try to stay out of red-con creatures ways (instead of blindly hoping my maskscent will see me through)

There's towns that see no people just because you'd actually have to take the time to carefully pick you're way out to them and take time from making that 10K of XP an hour.

The scout proffession does have troubles, but I do not think it should allow you to travel unhindered through the wilderness, that's why you can take Ranger and further those skills.

Everyone should read the descriptions of the proffessions on all levels of the skill trees. A ranger is going to further their ability at traveling the wilderness and surviving in it, a Creature Handler is going to furhter their ability to understand and use creatures. Don't think that just because you've become a Master Scout you should be able do it all, that would make the game pointless

Good post, but there is one little thing that I want to address.

"however I'm enjoying that part of being a scout you seem to be missing--- exploration of the worlds available."

I am a scout and I love exploring... But so do most other scouts... The problem here is, that scouts don't have much else for him out in the wilderness then any other class! People who are complaining about scouts all want the same thing. To get XP for things that scouts do, like.. EXPLORE You have to advance whether you like it or not.. and its hard to advance when the tasks that require advancment are so tedious, that at times, they make the game, not so much fun. But I like your post. Rock on scouts!

Personally I had no problems getting to Master Scout just by normal exploring. I made no attempts to grind or force experience. I just played around as I normally would and before I knew it I qualified for Master level. So what did I do?

• Wanderingaround
  Sometimes I would wander into a lair and get pretty beat up. So I set my highest level camp up and healed up.


• Craftingitems
  I make traps in my camp. I usually have about three traps of each type I know and I put them on my toolbar.


• Use traps
  I throw at least two to three traps at each mob I fight. I use them for pulling, for reducing their ranged or melee defense and for dizzy, stun, root or snare. I mastered the trap line before any other line in the scout tree because I used the traps to survive.


• Sampling
  When I find a source of metal needed for traps, I'd set up a camp and sample what I needed.


• Harvest everything
  I have a macro that harvests whatever I happen to need at the moment. I was gathering some avian meat for a doctor, so the macro has /harvest meat when I'm fighting avians. I keep at least 600 bones and 1k in hides at all times. Meat I don't care about except as gifts to the doctor. I just setup the macro to harvest whatever I happen to need at the time.


• Maskscent
  When I wander into, or need to get through two groups of aggressive mobs I enable maskscent. As soon as I pass the aggressive mobs, I turn it off. I really didn't find it to be very effective until I hit Master level, but I'd still try. And if I got beat up, I'd heal in my camp! It helped me travel faster as I wouldn't need to find away around all of them. Just continue running through the mobs on my way to wherever it is I'm going. The side bonus (if I'm lucky) is some experience.

I think many people are so focused on grinding their way to being masters that they forget that it's not nessisary. I wasn't even trying to get master level, it just happened through my normal exploration and travels. Heck, I'm thinking of surrendering these skills - it wasn't my goal to become a Master Scout!

In any case, I don't see why people complain about an EXP grind to go up the Scouting path. If someone really wanted to grind it, they could probably make master level in less than 15 hours.

Regards,
Gabriel