PDA

View Full Version : Thoughts on Weapon Lore



Halbarad
05-08-03, 16:46
A lot of people have commented on how rough it is to level a tradeskill spy. For us to be able to fight worth a damn, we HAVE to take 100+ weapon lore or large amounts of willpower for droning, which seriously cuts into our ability to tradeskill-which is the main reason most people make a spy in the first place. Leveling by USING your tradeskill is impossible (as any constructor knows, the higher you get the less exp you get for building, not to mention the distance between levels increasing dramatically).

The best solution I can come up with is to remove weapon lore as a requirement on weapons. I would give 100% aiming to anyone who can use a weapon (decent aiming speed, more than enough to do PvM), and any investment in weapon lore above and beyond that continues to improve aiming up to the cap. It does tend to stick it to droners a bit more (if anyone has a suggestion to improve that, feel free to name it), but it solves a number of problems with spies at the moment: it frees up 150+ skill points that are usually tied up in weapon lore that can then be invested in an appropriate tradeskill, and it still requires a combat specialization for any spy who wants to engage in serious PvP-100% aiming isn't going to cut it in PvP. That loss doesn't provide any major combat advantage for the spy, since there are no other combat-oriented skills in Int (unless you count PSU, and there's not a lot of reason to take PSU as a spy anyway). It MIGHT give PEs a slight leg up, but pistol aiming has never required mass amounts of WPL anyway. For a rifle PE, you've got the same problem as a PvP spy-the basic 100% aiming you get from the ability to use a weapon isn't going to cut it for PvP, so you'd have to invest in WPL anyway to gain aiming speed above the basic level.

I'm not looking to make spies uber; I'm just looking for a reasonable way to level a tradeskill spy without having the huge added gimp that the WPL requirement gives us now. Since fighting is the only reasonable way to level, that would be the end to fix-as I doubt KK is ever going to raise tradeskill exp to a point where leveling beyond int/dex 30 or so would be viable.

Lethys
05-08-03, 16:53
Most tradeskillers level by using pistols, and you need hardly any WPL to aim well with them.

Beefheart
05-08-03, 17:05
I have a rifle/droner/constructor spy and I honestly havn't found it a problem to do well at all 3 (and no, my construction is not gimped)

I've 150 const, I use a pain easer amd use the rare drones as well. I havn't a single point invested in anything like tech combat and I'm real happy with my PE.

What I did was at initial character creation invested as much as I could in remote control and will power, then went to the sewers and aggie cellars and droned like a maniac till I got to level 50 in intel and dex. As I played I planned out how much I'd have to add naturally to rcl & wp to be able to use the rare drones. Once I got to that natural level I added everything else into rifle combat, weapon lore and construction. If I'm going to be building for the day I pop out my droning implants and replace them with const chips 2&3.

The thing is, you can't have everything you want in this game, if you wanna be a good tradeskiller you can be assured you can be a good rifleman and droner, you won't be the Uber be-all-end-all but you 'll be well respected by your clan for the weapons you build, you'll kick warbot ass with your pain easer and you'll be an invaluable sapper with your drones at op fights.

Weapon lore is a necessary skill that shouldn't be done away with because as I have pointed out, you can excell at many things and not be gimped, you just ned to be flexible in your situations. Don't get stuck on one set of imps and never remove them, Imps can be repaied when they wear out so don't be afraid to change them.

ReefSmoker
05-08-03, 17:10
Weapon lore and Willpower are fine as they are. So says this spy who has always accepted that tradeskills and combat skills require balancing to a personal preference.

Maybe you should try drones, then you'll realise that you're much better off with rifles or pistols. Personally I've moved on to Pistols and so far the amount of weapon lore I require is immensely less than the willpower I required for droning.

Take care,

ReefSmoker

\\Fényx//
05-08-03, 17:34
with imps... i have a TL 90 hacker, TL 150 researcher and he has around 130 lore ontop of that aswell. I dont see anything wrong with that, he more than caps his PE and also uses stealth O_o

Spy<VS>Spy
05-08-03, 18:15
well with drones you really need the build skill to construct your drones, i recomend anywhere from 130-150 natrual. with the drone imps you can afford to spare a bit of willpower...when you trying to build those partical nemises you shall thank me.

but alright, lets say your like me. fuck the drones, i just dont want to level fast, i want to support my clan, they need anouther gun providing some support and i am NOT going to give KK the satishfaction of buying 2 accounts so i can have a fighter class.

now pistols, are a good alternative, they are pretty uber and not so difficult to use...but your gona have to get close. for me, i love the rifle spy. pain easer for the distance fighting, and ray of god to challange whatever poor sod that thinks he can out damage a spy. (well, alright, fear the APU monk. lol)

hook yourself up, specail science specail forces, distance weapon cpu 3 and targeting computer three...keep in mind you can substatue the specail science with a synaptic accelerator or even the targeting computer. but the point is to get as much tech combat and weapons lore as possible from imps, it will help you cheat and further enhance your fighting abilitys, if say you DO get your hands on a SA you might want to go with an exsperimental backbone, you'll gain some more athletics or agility...(speed is important for bugging out when the bugging is good...your main challange is to make sure your rifle spy is really fuck all fast with his gun out compared to any tank with their gun out.)

once you do that, you carefully balance your high tech combat...and presto...you have your trade skill assasine spy equiped with cloaking device and just enough dex to use the rad suit or even the first love. with a basic construction booster i get 165 construct, which is perfectly acceptable for your average building, if you want more, you rip out the targeting computer and DW, and put in construct chips.

though in my eyes, they should make tech combat count towards tech weapons, at least for rifles.