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Post Guide to non-FC leveling at lower levels
Yeah, for everyone who doesn't want a cookie-cutter frigate with a swarm of slaves propelling you to level 500, this will help you. As I don't really like it when people just clone an existing setup instead of making their own, this will not be a walkthrough. Rather, it is a collection of random advice to help you accomplish something without looking like everyone else.

PART ONE: Choosing a class

I have tried every single class besides ShM at lower levels, this is my quick summery of them.

Speed Demon: Very flexible, you can do almost anything you want with this class at lower levels. When training the subskills, I recommend some Speedy Movement before the others, so you can actually dodge. Electricity can be a bit of a problem, as well as fighting AI with strong lasers or other accurate weapons, but it is still a good choice.

Berserker: If you try to make a tank berserker, like people use in T20 ships for killing the ubers, you WILL fail. Berserker can work at lower levels, but it requires creativity to make a decent setup with it. More on these later.

Gunner: You cannot fire a 2nd weapon until you get both your focus and class skill to 20, which probably won't happen until around level 500. Without the 2 weapons, it is pretty weak. It may be possible to make a low-level gunner just for missiles, though I have no experience in this, so you are on your own. Missiles get used FAST, however, and unless you build your own they are quite expensive to buy in any decent amounts.

Seer: I spent over 5 billion credits putting together my level 250 seer, and he still sucks. Honestly, it's just not worth it at lower levels, even if you have a ton of money. Without a ton of money, you would struggle against Rattie Moe.

Engineer (Also known as Drone Master): This used to be the broken low-end leveling class, much like FC is now. With the new limits (You can only deploy drones of equal or lower tech than your ship, drones get less bonuses, ect...), it is no longer nearly as good. It can still be somewhat useful, but admins are still trying to "fix" it, so I would recommend waiting for them to stop messing with it before you try.

Shield Monkey: As I said, I have not tried it myself, but I have talked to people who have. This is basically a weaker version of Fleet Commander. You use slaves to level, but the only slave bonus given is to damage. They get some of your shield bonuses, of course, and you can tank/heal to keep them alive, but I still HIGHLY recommend leaving it alone. It is a more boring FC, minus the strength. Leveling is extremely difficult, and noone wants an ShM under level 1000 anyway.

Sniper: The other stealth class. It is typically overlooked, at lower levels. Although it is still fairly weak, and it can only be used in rather specialized conditions, it IS possible. I have a level 350 Sniper. He cost me under 1 bil to make, and is fairly powerful. However, in a high vis galaxy, you are screwed. Against AI with good movement, you are possibly screwed, as they can get to you before you recloak. It is a difficult class to use, especially without a lot of prior knowledge, but it IS do-able.

Fleet Commander: The current broken leveling skill. I won't discuss how to use FC here, as this guide is about AVOIDING it. You can find about a half-dozen guides for it, though, if you really want to use it.

More to come!

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Last edited by yugioh124 on Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:56 pm
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Post Re: Guide to non-FC leveling at lower levels
PART TWO: Training your skills

Ok, so you chose a class. Now what do you do with it? In case you don't know, the class skills train in a rather special way, which takes a LOT of SP. First, you get a level in the focus skill. It takes 1 SP for the first, 2 for the second, ect. To train your class skill, you must have at least the level in your focus skill as you wish to train in your class skill. Now, the painful part: The cost stacks up. For example, if you train 5 levels of a focus, it will cost 1-2-3-4-5. However, if you then go to train 4 levels in a class after that, it will cost 6-7-8-9 to train that.

The three subskills also stack with each other, but not with the focus/class skills. So, it costs 1 SP to get a level of a subskill no matter what your focus/class skills are at, then 2 for the next level of ANY subskill, then 3, ect. That is a LOT of SP, once you want to get all 3 maxed out.

This is a quick explanation of how much to train, and when.

50-100: This is about where you should start thinking about your class. At this point, core skills (skills like piloting, weaponry, shields, ect) are more important than class skills, but getting a few levels wouldn't hurt much. No matter what class you choose, you will be pretty much the same as everyone at this level. You should probably get Piloting up pretty fast, since the biggest upgrade you can get at the early levels is a better ship.

100-250: You should start investing a bit more heavily in your class skills, as well as some other non-essential ones (tractoring is nice, for example). You should start to look a bit more like your class, instead of a generic lowbie (meaning it will be pretty obvious to anyone watching you fight which class you are). Try to keep skills balanced, it is usually more effective. This means it usually isn't a good idea to get a tech 17 energy with a T10 weapon, though it varies by situation.

250-499: You should have quite a lot of SP to spare now, spend it on whatever you want. Gear should last you longer now, instead of getting a new shield/weapon/energy every few levels. Start putting away money for a T20 ship, so you don't need to stay in your boring little one forever.

500-1000: Get P20 as soon as you can, and a T20 entry-level ship. The price will vary depending on you skill, but you can probably expect to pay between 1 and 3 bil (don't bother trying to use the Super Phunka, it is useless in combat). The real cost of a T20 ship, however, is augmenters. By now, you are high enough to do what you want, and there are plenty of guides for these levels. It will be at least level 1000 before you can max out the last of your class skills, though.

More to come.

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Last edited by yugioh124 on Thu Jul 16, 2009 7:28 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:56 pm
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Post Re: Guide to non-FC leveling at lower levels
PART THREE: Tips on different classes

These are general guidelines to making effective characters with the various skills. Please note that these are not absolute, they are just what I have found. If you have an idea on how to do something differently, try it out. You may just find a great new strategy (though you also may spend a large amount of money on something which is useless)!

SPEED DEMON

Firstly, a ship and gear. Although most people picture SD as being a class just for light fighters, this is not the case. In fact, it is probably BETTER to use a heavy fighter at these levels, since there are few LFs available (especially for a limited budget), and they are pretty limited on the all-important hull space. Although most of the stats on the wiki are totally wrong, the ships page is current (note that the pages for individual ships are still inaccurate, use the page which lists all ships and stats for the most up-to-date stuff).

When choosing a ship, there are many things to consider. Speed, hull, and augs are probably the most important for a Speed Demon. If you do want a Light Fighter, your best bet would probably be the spearhead, or spearhead+ if you have the money for it. Otherwise, look for a heavy fighter with a good top speed and 3 (or more, if possible) augs. One decent choice is Parsley, though there is a wide variety to choose from. The basil would also be good, but if you get one make sure it is a captured one. That gives you two very cool weapons built-in (with another two slots for additional weapons), as well as a great exterminator. Note that you will need the skills to use all the inbuilt gear in the ship, or you will not be able to undock. I don’t have the time or patience to review every ship, just look through the list for something that suits your needs and budget.

Avoid things like the Valentine, which have one massively crippling stat (900% weakness to a damage type is BAD!). 50% weakness is workable, such as will the Porpoise, but be sure to avoid AI with that damage type.

As for augmenters: There are many stats to go for, and the setup should be based around your individual strengths. One thing you will need plenty of is elec regen, of course. Range and tracking are nice too, as is shield. Try to avoid too much added RoF (the 20% of hebe isn't bad, especially with all the other bonuses, but stuff like ares+ will be awful). Also, don't use augs like good combo or heph+, which have negative bonuses to needed stats (speed, range, shields, ect. You can lose a bit of less-important stats, like radar, if needed).

Berserker

As I said before, making a berserker to tank damage and kill stuff before you die will NOT WORK. Instead, you will need to use some creativity. The one skill which is an absolute godsend to lowbie berserkers is the Control skill of their choice, which is trained in Lagrange. Basically, these skills add +1 damage per level, up to 25. This is a solid number, not a %. That makes it GREAT for weapons with fast Rate of Fire and/or multiple bullets, since EACH bullet gets the boost.

Making a low-level berserker with radiation control and some point defences used to be a very powerful strategy. You would use a speedy ship, like a hotrod, and blast the shit out of enemies from well out of range. However, point defences were nerfed rather badly in the rebalance, so it isn't as great as it once was. Look around for a weapon to use, there are many options.

Remember, do not tank. You should be at least decently fast, as well as quite manuverable, so you can dodge a good amount of shots. One idea which I have not personally tried, but have seen in action, is a stealth Berserker. Basically, you get a weapon with a lot of damage and a lot of elec needed. You get an energy with good regen, and a decent bank. You sneak up behind your enemy, and unload a ton of damage, draining your bank. You then just stealth again until you are once again full, rinse and repeat.

Engineer

Once a great leveling class, it has been rather crippled by admins "fixing" it. I have not used it in a while, so my info may be somewhat out-of-date, but this should still be generally correct. From what I know, you currently get to use 3 drones, which must be of a tech equal to or lower than the tech of your ship. Training one level of drone mastery gives an additional drone, as does the 10th level and the 20th level. Obviously, this is the first subskill you should go for.

As for ships: If you want to get a freightor, you are stuck at tech 12 max unless you can spare a few billion credits. Though there are some other ships higher, they are not COMBAT freightors. Ships like the leviathan are made for hauling huge amounts of stuff around, and will probably be far too weak to use in combat (Jey, you are not allowed to comment on this). For a good freightor, the Pax Celestica, you don't need much. Once you have warp navigation 3 and a good scoutship, you can do the Paxius exploration missions until you get one, for the Empathy Field mission iirc.

Although the class is MEANT to use freightors, it may be possible to use a heavy fighter in between the celestica (or whatever other ship you get) and your T20 ship. Hull may be a problem, but I have not tried this so I am not positive. A good choice would be warden (tech 16, lots of hull, bearable resists, shiny tractor) or porpoise (tech 17, great resists besides surg, cool inbuilt bonuses).


TO BE CONTINUED (Engineer is incomplete).

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Last edited by yugioh124 on Fri Jul 17, 2009 10:59 am, edited 3 times in total.

Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:56 pm
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Post Re: Guide to non-FC leveling at lower levels
Also also reserved, just in case.

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Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:57 pm
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Post Re: Guide to non-FC leveling at lower levels
nice 1 but i gotta ask as i dont remember
Do i need 550lvl for all core skills or can I actually lvl EE, shielding and other but piloing and weaponary before?


Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:43 pm
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Post Re: Guide to non-FC leveling at lower levels
yugioh, Fwing is very powerful for a SD. Ask Cygnus.

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Wed Jul 15, 2009 2:10 pm
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Post Re: Guide to non-FC leveling at lower levels
and exactly how many low level players can shell out enough money for an fwing?

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Wed Jul 15, 2009 6:29 pm
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Post Re: Guide to non-FC leveling at lower levels
carterstrain wrote:
yugioh, Fwing is very powerful for a SD. Ask Cygnus.


I am writing this guide for first-time chars, ones who do not have the funding to pay 1.5b for a ship they will outgrow in a week.

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Wed Jul 15, 2009 7:47 pm
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Post Re: Guide to non-FC leveling at lower levels
I used my Fwing for 1000 levels, i'd not call that a week. i capped for 3 days to get the money for it, thats not too long(I was probably the poorest "Uber noob" ever to exist. Having over 100 mil was extraordinary, so i did have to make all that money from scratch, pretty much). And i could ALLMOST kill the blob with it :P

But you're fairly correct in that regard, it is an expensive ship most newbies wont be able to get. Nice guide, i like it. Doesn't tell an experience player much, but its a nice read anyhow. Im re-reading it now to see if there are any improvements you could do.

only thing i can say is that engineer is a very balanced class now. It is allmost perfect, actually, i've been leveling one recently, and have been having a lot of fun doing so, though its been a challenge. I doubt it will be changed much from now on...only annoying thing about it is the fact that controllers are a luxury that only the best can afford...oh, well.

nice guide! 10/10.

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Thu Jul 16, 2009 12:24 pm
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Post Re: Guide to non-FC leveling at lower levels
Demiser of D wrote:
nice guide! 10/10.

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Thu Jul 16, 2009 8:41 pm
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Post Re: Guide to non-FC leveling at lower levels
10/10, its well organized and an easy read, very specific and helpful advice for alts/low lvls, while not telling people to use exact items/ships/ect, therefore making it a guide, not a template like alot of others. Nice work! :D

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Fri Jul 17, 2009 5:20 am
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Post Re: Guide to non-FC leveling at lower levels
Sybir wrote:
Do i need 550lvl for all core skills or can I actually lvl EE, shielding and other but piloing and weaponary before?


Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:28 am
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Post Re: Guide to non-FC leveling at lower levels
I use a Didus Ineptus as an engineer - it's cheap, and works well, although I also like Serenities - which is also cheap, and has some nice resists, but is slower.

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Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:30 am
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Post Re: Guide to non-FC leveling at lower levels
Psh! Use an OS rosfire! looks cool while being highly effective :P

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Sun Jul 19, 2009 4:46 pm
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Post Re: Guide to non-FC leveling at lower levels
....


fc is NOT the most broken class for leveling....if you use the right gear for the right ai as SPEED DEMON you can level as fast as a FC,plus... when you get to level 20 SD is better than FC to level to 300... it's just a hotrod or a hotrod mega and 4aphrodite+ augs 1ZRQ a mag 2 and 4 a f5 and kill copper 3


Mon Jul 20, 2009 1:15 am
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