Hammerfall

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I have the same question as the original poster and none of you have really provided anything like a helpful anbswer.

Look, the question is this. Those of us whon have low level stalkers in CoV find it very slow to solo conventionally - ie by doing the story arcs by ourselves.

However, it is also quite difficult to find teams - perhaps because we play during the day, perhaps because stalkers are not immediately team-members of choice ect.

We have heard that just doing paper missions - the steal/kill options rather than the kidnap options - mean you can earn Xp faster.

However, having started doing those paper missions, we find that the Xp gain is really just as slow. Therefore, we assume that we may be doing something wrong on those paper missions. So the real question is:

- How does a stalker do paper missions to optimise Xp gain? Please give your tips, techniques and experiences.

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Concentrate on "defeat X and his minions" missions. Stealth to the end of map and just clear the room (beat the boss mob) to finish the mission.

The xp gain comes from the mission finish reward, not the mobs.

Buy defense insps, so you can crank the mission difficulty to maximum and kill the boss mob when you have 4 defense insps running. (accuracy and damage may help as well, experiment) Also, at very low level, you can just wait for hide to kick in and use assassin strike repeatedly since they arent going to hit thru 4 defense insps.

At max difficulty the mission reward is very good. It all comes down to how fast and safely you can beat the bosses.

Ugh.. Well Im no friend to fast leveling but this is how I did it. This method is also boring as hell in the long run.. And after level 30ish the progress slows. Also you arent earning very good inf since you kill relatively few mobs.


I played from 1 to 29 in about 5 evenings, dunno what's slow in your xp gain..


ps. Ill never do that again..

If its a new player character, then I suspect generic PvE..

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Aside from The Gathering and one or two other players, I think most are still on Defiant

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Actually they are at it again on Union, they have made an SG called the gethering reborn...

and how I hate them..

lol

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What's wrong with The Gathering?

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They started to transfer the SG to union..

I havent left defiant, I have just been out of game for a while.

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Anyone think it would be possible or be a good night if we finally got chance to PvP against the GM's/Dev's in the Arena? I think this would be a nice way to get more people into PvP for a first time. Very likely to happen? Yay or Nay. Maybe involve some rewards and include all types of PvP, Pentads, duels etc. Would be good imo and also add a new dimension to PvP, even if it is just for one night.

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this would be nice, but I don't wanna be nerfed. So, it's either lose on purpose, or suffer the nerfbat for *insert winning powersets here*

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Rofl mesmer

"This dude beat a GM toon in a duel, we need to nerf something"

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I've seen Bridgers powers. I reckon in my hay day, I could of even given him a run for his monies!

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You think? Ive seen the powers of a dev Lord Recluse toon...

I bet nothing beats /kill $target

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Aye - when I saw Bridger, he had every powerset there was. The 10 minutes would be over by the time he had put all his clickies on and the end drain would be huge.

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Didn't he try powering up his toggles once, and crashed the game?

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Its much easier just to type the slash command to win. Or maybe spawn hamidon on ya, heh heh.

For primary, imo anything but ninja blade.

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I've seen Bridgers powers. I reckon in my hay day, I could of even given him a run for his monies!

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You think? Ive seen the powers of a dev Lord Recluse toon...

I bet nothing beats /kill $target

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I dunno, buffing the guys that are losing seems to me like rewarding someone for sucking. I don't see how anyone will get used to playing in PVP if they can only perform well when they are buffed beyond their capabilities. Conceptually debuffing someone that is winning works better if you tie it into something like fatigue.

Also, you can tie into a reward system. You don't often see people leaving Siren's Call during fights because they want to cash in their Bounty points. So you can add a factor of Risk vs. Reward in there. The challenge for the debuffed person increases, and so should their rewards. If you do that, you make it less attractive for someone to remove the debuff by leaving the zone.

I've PVP'ed since day 1 and I do know this... most if not all of the Hardcore PVP'ers in this game, like a challenge and this would certainly be a challenge. I personally would enjoy it more, if things got more difficult the longer I was in the zone, as I usually get bored after a while if things get too easy


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Well since we are assuming that they suck in the first place, it wouldnt be rewarding as such. more like giving them a chance to observe what is going on. Its all just a matter of point of view, as usual. On the other hand, giving someone who dies a lot some +hp etc is problematic in the sense that when a pvp zone functions properly, EVERYONE dies a lot. So Id be willing to tilt toward your debuff idea. Personally I hate being debuffed though.

ps. if rewards would increase along with debuff.. that sound like a VERY interesting idea.

I challenge anyone to a lvl 5 duel.

The reason I dont like the survivability buffs that much is because you are referring to ganking. This implies multiple enemies attacking. The buffs would have to be groundbreakingly, ludicrously, appallingly humongous to be more than a speedbump to something like team of pvp blasters with some buffs..

One way would be however +HP. That is the most efficient way to prevent quick kills. And also easily counteracts stalker twoshots. In theory res(all) could do it too, but theres a fair amount of unresistable damage flying about in pvp.

It would have to be both damage and survivability imo, to do justice to both damagedealer and support toons.

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I can understand the rant about nb (well as much as any other smash/lethal set primary on stalkers, which actually means all but 2)... but about regen?????

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Some time ago I was thoroughly surprised cause a /regen stalker was able to scrap with my blaster in an arena duel.. And whenever it wasnt fit to scrap it could just hide.. Id like to try it again sometime cause my damage has gone up since then..

And I agree with others, ninja blade is thoroughly mediocre set.

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I wonder if PvP could be "advertised". Maybe a PvE'ers PvP night?


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No way either. A full PvEer is hard to get into pvp, since it needs more effort to do it. No i dont mean that us pvpers got uber skills that pvp, its just, jump around all the time, try stay away from Mez, keep an eye out for stalkers. Pretty much multitasking which is hard to achieve the first days of someone's pvp hobby.

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The 3vP event did a pretty good job of getting us PvErs into a PvP event.

I still remember being chased around an open arena map by Mesmers Repel Forcefield and TPing about to avoid it with fondness.

As well as being turned into The Unkillable by Extremus and happily tearing a trio of blasters to pieces.

A alternative PvP specific build would be my top wish for my toons to try a bit more PvP. As is I like Fly and my AOE holds too much to lose them so I can PvP properly.

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While an alternative pvp build would in theory be good, Im afraid it takes far too much of the individuality away from peoples characters.. Then most everyone would have carbon-copy builds in pvp and everything would be boring.. At least for me.. I wouldnt like it And most importantly it wouldnt help me at all personally. So I gotta be against it.. (note: this is a personal opinion)


The best part of 3vP was the randomness of the teams (or the perception of it.. I know organisers took pains to make sure the teams were balanced). I wish something like that would take place normally, but I don't think there is any way to make that happen unless there is some sort of large arena event in which the game will assign teams from signed in players..

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Regarding this PvEvP thingy.I would love to see a PvE arena with the suggestion i made sometime ago with the increased mob spawns which would have a random chance of linking 2 teams against each other while in this PvE arena in the middle of the whole mob spawn mayhem.

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And that wouldnt be good farming place because? >_>

Everything has two sides Im afraid..

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Whilst dual PVE/PVP builds might help with some of the disparity, I think the only way to have a TRULY level playing field in PvP zones is to dynamically adjust toon effectiveness based on player performance.

Sort of like a reverse handicap rating: There's a baseline (where we are now) that noone can go under, but you can get buffed above that baseline when you perform poorly in the zone. So say Toon A gets a kill on Toon B. Toon A's bonus would decrease slightly (though not below zero) and Toon B's bonus would increase slightly (up to a predetermined 'cap').

This rating then manifests itself as a buff to damage output, mez resistance and/or damage resistance etc. to those who get killed more often. The handicap could be toggleable in the arena, and mandatory in Zones.

What this would mean in practice is if PvE'er Joe came into Sirens, after getting his rear handed to him several times he would have a much greater chance of surviving attacks and/or killing other players. Essentially you wouldn't be able to gank the same person over and over without them getting stronger and more resistant to the ganking... and it would work in a similar fashion to offset "Greater Numbers versus Smaller Numbers". Eventually the bonus the weaker player/team gets would compensate them for the stronger player/team's ability (whether that ability is due to player skill, build, or team organisation).

Yes, it'd probably be extremely difficult to code. There already exists a set of global zone buffs/debuffs for each faction in Warburg though... so in theory it could be possible.

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I like the basic concept of this, but I would like to reverse it. Instead of buffing the person that's dying, you could weaken the person that's doing all the winning. You could explain it in a way that the person winning all the time, is getting some fatigue and his powers are decreasing in effectiveness. This is probably already programmable seeing as it's possible to track kills through the bounty system in Siren's for example. They could tie that into a global debuff, the same way they already do in the zones.

This would get you 2 things:
1. the more hardcore PVP'ers will get a bigger challenge the longer they're active. Most Hardcore PVP'ers like a challenge.
2. the less experienced player learns to play without the advantage of unnatural/outside buffs, so he/she gets more comfortable with his build/playstyle/whatever.

I really do like this idea of giving someone that is having trouble in the zone, somewhat of an advantage to balance things out, but I don't think buffing someone way beyond their normal capabilities is the best way to do it.

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Im not sure with all these ideas flying around here.. There are propably some Id never agree on but I cba to go thorugh all of this thread.. Ill try to comment on what I can.

Buffing someone might make more sense in metagame point of view, because the winner could reset the debuffs by exiting the zone and coming back propably.. The loser on the other hand would have an option to stay in zone and receive the buffs. Otherwise Id agree with Mesmer.

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I still remember being chased around an open arena map by Mesmers Repel Forcefield and TPing about to avoid it with fondness.

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ah yes, that was when Force Bubble still worked properly. Good times indeed.

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It still works properly. Trust me. hurricane on the other hand is useful only as -toHit.

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Well I accept all the above points - but they are coming from people who at least dabble in PvP.

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And how could people who do not dabble in pvp, have non-biased opinions? >_>

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How to get us in? - disable Inventions / Accolades. Give us a level playing feild. Or at least give us this option in the Arena.


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I don't have time right now to go through all suggestions, but I gotta comment on some.

I agree that the best way to get pve people into pvp would be a level playing field.

However, this is impossible to accomplish in practise, if we still put all players on same zone. You can disable whatever you want, but thats not going to level anything. An experienced pvper will still come out on top, usually quite quickly. Skill, you see. This little thing called skill. It took me years to become what I am today. You don't just download a fotm build out of net and shazam! are a good pvper.

Only way to level playing field in reality would be to separate experienced people and inexperienced people from each other. How to accomplish this would be something to discuss.

I was once wondering about having arena events separately for experienced and most importantly, beginners. There would be a list of people banned from beginners event to ensure that no experienced pvper we know, could come and beat newbies senseless. This is more important than anything related to builds, although Im not completely against extra arena parameters.

Note how there is nothing that prevents a bunch of pvers from arenaing against each others pve builds right now. I dont think they are doing it however...why?

ps. I will comment other issues later.

pps. I havent put that much effort into grinding IOs or accolades. I think my pvp blaster has maybe the 5% hp/end thing and thats about it. The others dont have much more. I cba to get accolades cause they rarely have an effect in pvp. My blaster also has at least half of its enhances normal SOs still...

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These people know what they are talking about . . . I have never ever ever been stunned on my regen with resilience + integration

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I have on mine who has integration + resilience. Lots of times against pve mobs too. Try fighting lots of those Tsoo EM ink men..

ps. I didnt say integration is godly. I was saying that a stalkers holding capabilities are weak and not enough to go over integration. Please pay attention to what I am saying. so I dont have to keep repeating myself.

targeting drone < build up imo...

My blaster is a thematical pvp character..

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ice/dev pwnz in arena

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i loled at this

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You know it's true though, that's whats lolable!

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I dont know it, and thats the truth. You gotta prove it to me

/dev is hopeless for arena?

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the only way to make this work would be to give some really good range to the smoke grenade which cant happen since its unslottable for range.At the range of 70 is pretty pointless in zonal PvP at least. Well i could be wrong but i got a PvP AR/dev and when i tried smoke nade in zones the lack of range made it really furstrating. In duels or in arena situations like imaginary described can be useful.

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At normally sized arena maps it isnt much useful either, cause AR/dev is... just... hopeless for arena >_>