Scout Archive

If you haven't already done so, go read Brisc Rubal's Scout Guide that is stickied on this page then come back and read my post. Its important you digest his info first.

:: sips coffee and waits for you to return ::

I can stand here to tell you that Brisc's Scout guide kept me from making a lot of mistakes and kept me on track to my goal of Master Scout...which I have not achieved but am only 80 AXP from getting. (Truthfully I need more than that...I need to get Master Artisan first as a stepping stone to my next profession so I will be spending my accumulated AXP on that sometime soon -- Master Scout will be achieved next while working on becoming a Weaponsmith. Its no big deal since the only bonus I miss is a +10 bonus to terrain negotiation in the meantime.)

Brisc mentioned that the Artisan/Scout combo, which if you notice I have, is the most self-sufficient profession combination in the game. I don't know if he realized how right he was.

This isn't to say all Scouts should jump on board the Artisan wagon. Artisan is a tedious, thankless, and penniless grind, but there are aspects to Artisan I'd recommend to every Scout.

Learn To Survey

Every new scout needs to find the nearest NPC Artisan trainer (/find trainer:artisan), spend the 100cr and get Novice Artisan. Next you should get a Mineral Survey Tool and a Chemical Survey Tool and keep it with you everywhere, especially after reaching Trapping III (IIRC) where you are given the ability to make Phecnacine Traps. Phecnacine Traps are like the "Ghetto Adhesive Mesh" because they slow down your prey allowing you to get in 3-6 good shots on a yellow or red con'd critter before it attacks. The only problem is they require metal to make which will cost you money unless you can get it yourself. Adhesive Mesh traps require Polymer which will again cost you money. These two traps are so useful you can almost not live without them.

In order to grind up the Surveying XP so you can get better range, higher sampling results, and the ability to sample from lower concentrations, set your camps up when its time to heal on top of 60-90% concentrations of metals or polymers and sample while you heal in camp. Each time you sample you get XP for surveying and you'll be at Surveying IV in no time and will be able to survey in a 320meter radius and sample 25% concentrations like a pro.

The nice thing is, even if you have no use for the resources you sample you can store it in your Safety Deposit Box to use later when you need them for the aforementioned traps. By then you should have tons of it that can keep you knee deep in traps for days. (Same thing goes for hide/bone -- store about 100units/day in your SD Box for those days you just need to make a bunch of traps and don't want to spend the time hunting Chubas in the Newb-Zone around your city for it.)

Later on in your carreer after you begin grouping up on Dantooine and Lok and raking-in 10k and 25k per mission you can drop the Surveying skills for something else and just buy resources, however Surveying is a good thing to keep around as long as you can because you never know when you'll need a quick sample of Polymer to throw together some Adhesive Mesh.

Get A Pet

As soon as you can, get a pet. Personally I'm a Star Wars Purist and I don't believe in Pet-Wars (or the Pikachu syndrome) we have now. I use a Probot (which can take an amazing beating, 40% resists to all damage, 812HAM and heals its HAM damage over time). Either way its good to have a pet that can divert your prey's attention while you kill them. Pets are also good for taking the brunt of an Aggro MOBs wrath when they BAF. I can't tell you how long I avoided Krevol nests which Con blue and light blue because they BAF in 3-4's and together deal out so much damage they are tough to beat even with AM traps as a Novice Carbineer using a Laser Carbine. Now I just stand back 100M, tell ColdBeer (My Probot) to attack the nearest Spiked Krevol (the harder of the two you usually find) and let it BAF him. As soon as the MOBs hit my droid I run in to my ideal range and pick them off with LegShot3.

Just a warning, however. Some smacktard dev thinks its a good idea to change MOB AI to encourage more grouping even tho polls and game data, by their own admission, show that 70% of players prefer to solo, which won't change due to the clientel that this game caters too but that's a debate for a different forum. In an upcoming patch when you send in your pet/droid to "tank" for you (take damage for you while you sit back safely and pick the attackers off) there will be a chance the critter will change its mind and attack you. So be warned. You'll still be able to use your pets to "tank", but there will be a chance the attacker will target you so keep those traps ready and keep your distance.

As an example of how useful a pet is, I sent ColdBeer in after a Peko Peko last night. Since I'm working on pistol skills to eventually do away with Carbineer (until the extremly HAM costs are fixed - another bug/issue that is on the table) I whipped out my DL-44 "Han Solo" pistol to kill it with. I sent my droid in, lobbed an Adhesive Mesh trap and laced into it with BodyShot1 over and over (targets Health Damage). Between me and my droid we put a good 50% hurting on that Peko when the trap finally broke and it attacked ColdBeer. While the droid took the abuse I finished the Peko off and got 560-something Pistol XP (there was much rejoicing).

This example shows how, using a pet, you can solo higher-level critters for gobs of XP for your combat skills. Krevol nests alone give the Novice Marksman 200-350XP per kill. On 2 nests last night I racked up 5000XP toward Pistols III for a total of 10000+ thanks to my droid.

So to all you struggling, new Scouts, get some Survey skills and a pet, you'll be glad you did.