Some questions from a Vet

[wargolem]

Its been a while, With the changed to the game and a long time of not playing was wondering if I could run a few questions by the community to refresh and enlighten myself and others.

1) Is it possible/efficient to level through hacknet from /1 to /60?
2) Are WoC Quests Repeatable (ie get multiple guns if you get a pants one first time)?
3) Do most people run Chaos cave / TG cave with LE's in?
4) Are DoY tunnels doable now?
5) Why are there no Apus? (I know anti s/d was moved onto ppus)

Thanks in advance

[lawless]

1) It is possible, you will gain more money than xp. For fast leveling drones are still the best option, though i don't like them. Hacknet is more fun

2) The Quests are repeatable as i know - especially the Regant Run (AK and the other pistol thingie)

3) 70 % of the population still have their LE in

4) DoY Tunnels still UBER but with enough firepower and some more PPUs it's possible and fun

5) There are APUs, you just have to find them (chaos cave for example)

[Faid]

1) It is certainly possible but definitely not efficient, I tried to do this myself. The lower levels are great, fast and easy, it's the higher levels (around 80 int) where it slows down horribly with no AOE.

2) Yes they are repeatable but I believe the guns you get are all 120 and 3 slot minimum now. (XBow might not be repeatable cant remember)

3) There are a ton of people in the chaos caves all the time, most of them are LE'd but I've seen a fair few leveling without LE's.

4) You can't drone DOY tunnels anymore after the drone fix. The excessive mob damage has still not been addressed throughout certain area's in game. Doy tunnels are do-able to a certain extent I suppose but you'd have to resort to special tactics, you can't just run in with a team and effectively live (especially if you get a AOE doombeamer spawn).

5) APU's were effectively killed when they took away their anti-buff, added a reticle and decreased their casting frequency from 105/min to 33/min. They are extremely weak and now their damage output is so negligible it's not worth it. It's pretty much the same with PE's, they just don't do enough damage compared to other classes, a tank or spy will massively out damage them.

[William Antrim]

APU got nerfed to buggery, high end content (MC5, WOC, DOY Tunnel etc) has moved to a more traditional TANK/PPU set up (or multiples thereof).

Chaos caving is still the levelling spot of choice for many and drones are STILL the fastest way to level a spy solo. Regants is also good for fast levelling too.

As for the other points - I have not had experience of hacknet as a leveller ever. I went there to get the IONIC weapons only a few years ago and now I use it purely as a means of cheap travel.

[wargolem]

one more thing, Do the higher level nanite tools give you a larger resistance buff or are they redundant?

ie the SPIT-28.8 is the first one, does that give as much of a buff as the SPIT-00.6 if they both have the same resistance module in them

[lindian]

Sorry guys... but you still can drone DoY tunnels. As a combat rigger myself it's one of the two spots I like to do. El Farid and DoY tunnels. DoY tunnels are even more doable than fire mobs. I normally use a PN or a punisher (trying to shoot around the edges). They fixed the drone bugging (just have been back for a few... so only heard of it) but you still can kill. It's all about thining out the masses by killing the non hackable mobs first, then try to lure them single in a tunnel so you got your personal time with your to be hacked loot. Still can happen that you die though.

Oh. And you should use at least a stealth activator 2 (better is the 3, best is obli ofc).

[Doc Holliday]

i think the issue is with the cyborg commanders in the doy tunnels. Their rate of fire causes the screen to mess up for the droner and so its hard to see what exactly you are shooting at. The doy scout units and generally the super soldiers dont have such a high rate of fire to affect this. I have tried droning the woc tunnels the same and due to the volume of shots coming at the drone from multiple mobs it makes it very hard to see and shoot back, i spent most of my time healing my drone so it wouldn't blow up.

I do not wish for safespotting to come back and am glad that its gone away as it made things too easy for people but some caves (like el farid or the chaos caves) are to me, much much easier as a droner than trying the woc tunnels etc. However some people do like it harder than others and see this challenge as a good thing.

[William Antrim]

Its not the damage that's a problem. Its the amount of plasma flying at you that is the problem which makes it hard to see and shoot back in the WOC tunnel. The damage is fine and the mechanics of it are fine these days. I actually think its better than anything it used to be. However the problem is the animation that is all. If they could tone down the huge green bursts of plasma so that the player could see what he is doing it would be easier. IF not then just shoot through it and its fine. :)