Zendeal
Horizons' Edge
Orion Empire
11
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Posted - 2013.08.07 21:10:00 -
[1] - Quote
These are just some tips for new players who are willing to spend some money on DUST and how to quickly get up to moderately competitive gear for normal play.
First of all, what should I spend my money on?
The best reasonable value is by far the Mercenary Pack or the Veteran Pack. You get a decent set of items in either along with a good amount of AUR and some SP boosters. Basically you pay the same price for the AUR youGÇÖre getting along with bonus BPO items (permanent non-consumable) that you can use without having to skill into or worrying about costing you ISK or SP as you learn the game.
In both packs you get a Caldari suit (Stats are identical GÇô color schemes are different between the two). With the Merc pack you get a BPO assault rifle you can pretty much use in all situations (even once youGÇÖre fully skilled up.) With the Veteran pack you get a BPO sniper rifle which is nice but quickly becomes useless.
Cost may be an issue but with the veteran pack you get a BPO LAV which I think is entirely worth the investment. Having a free vehicle at your disposal at all times is a great benefit. Knowing that CCP is going to fix the collision damage and you wonGÇÖt be able to freely run people over for easy kills shouldnGÇÖt be a deterrent as the free LAV is amazing for covering ground and zipping to and from objectives. You can basically call one in, drive to an objective and ditch it if required. No need to worry that a teammate took your 40k ride and drove off only to get blown upGǪ very handy. On top of that itGÇÖs a much better LAV than the militia ones you can buy for ISK. With 0 SP spent in vehicles and a moderate amount of ISK you can have it up to 1500 shields / 800 hp with 17% shield resistance. This is great for keeping you on the road instead of being 1 shotted. In most cases you can take 1-2 major hits from forge guns, swarms or AV grenades. Keep in mind that Proto AV will still likely pop your LAV before you can react but most people donGÇÖt use Proto AV in normal matches.
What do I do now that I have AUR?
It might be a good idea to buy a few of the GÇ£featured fitsGÇ¥ (No more than 5 at a time) of each of the classes, Light, Heavy, Medium. You can try out some play styles without having to spend any SP or ISK (You will need ISK mainly for skill books when you start out). Once you have an idea of which style of play you like you can then begin using some SP to up your skills and begin using the ISK items. Note that featured fits (and starter fits); you can swap out any item. If you want to swap a shield regulator that comes with the fit for a militia shield extender, you can. Again, this doesnGÇÖt require any SP and the militia modules are really cheap. You can also stick with Starter fits but the featured ones have some items that you canGÇÖt access with militia gear.
Where to spend my SP?
Once you know which play style to work towards you can start using your SP. The best method for suit / weapon progression is to improve your base skills to make your current level of gear the best it can be before you use SP to skill up to the next tier. Improving your shields, armor, PG, CPU, will help with ALL suits so these are always the best priority to improve before jumping up a tier. A proto suit with basic modules wonGÇÖt help you as much as an advanced suit with proto modules.
HereGÇÖs where the quick progression comes in... Since youGÇÖve spent money for AUR you can jump tiers with a very minimal SP investment. I recommend to start with Level 1 which will give you access to Standard gear for ISK or ADV gear for AUR. Before putting any further points into a skill itGÇÖs always better to start at 1 and give the ADV gear a try by spending AUR to see if itGÇÖs worth the investment for you. For example, if you want to use Mass Drivers you can start by putting 1 point into the weapon. You can then access the ADV tier with some AUR. You can try out the standard and advanced items and judge for yourself if itGÇÖs worth further SP investment to get to the ISK versions of the next tier.
As far as modules go, same deal. You can put 1 point into Shield extenders and get access to Advanced level with AUR and then once you have 3 points in you can start buying complex extenders. The skill bonuses from having 3 points vs. 5 are minimal and eventually they will add up but if you look at the SP cost to go from 1-3 vs. 4-5 itGÇÖs a huge investment of SP and time. You will get there eventually but at least you donGÇÖt have to fight with militia extenders from the start. You may also find that with 1 skill point in and buying ADV for AUR that the higher levels just will not fit well in your current suits or might not be worth the cost. Armor plates come to mind. There is a nice jump from militia plates to basic plates for the 1 skill point, and although you can buy Advanced plates for AUR, most of the time using a basic is always the best option as ADV ferroscale or reactive just use too much of your suit PG/CPU to be worth using over a basic. Trying out these items for AUR can save you the frustration of dumping in skill points only to find that you never use the ADV ISK items in your builds.
**CONTINUED** |
Zendeal
Horizons' Edge
Orion Empire
11
|
Posted - 2013.08.07 21:11:00 -
[2] - Quote
If IGÇÖm paying AUR for items how much is it going to cost me?
Right now I have most suit and weapon skills at 3 with my basic and module skills up at 5. I can run ADV suits with a Proto weapon and a few complex shield or damage mods. I can also run the AUR Proto suits with proto weapons, complex shields and some basic or advanced utility mods. The total cost of the Proto builds suits is around 140 AUR and 20k ISK which is reasonably priced. It allows a significant amount of deaths before I will run out of AUR and makes building up ISK really easy. Since launch in May I have bought the Veteran pack and the Merc. Pack and I only spent a total of 40k AUR. I havenGÇÖt purchased any boosters over the ones provided in the packs. That is a lot of longevity for the amount I have actually consumed (20 dollars of AUR used up for 3 months of play).
Also worth noting is that new players to the game are going to die a lot. Remember that you have those BPO suits and weapons you can always switch to if youGÇÖre having a particularly bad match. If you are seriously outmatched, itGÇÖs never a good idea to stick with your top end AUR gear as you will end up throwing away a number of suits for a lost cause. If you want to be thrifty, start your matches with a cheap or BPO suit to get a feel for the competition before you bring out your costlier options.
Summary
-If youGÇÖre starting out and want to spend a bit of money get Merc. Or Veteran pack
-DonGÇÖt spend any SP until to get a feel for your play style
-Start with only 1 skill point. Try the ISK basic versions and then the AUR ADV versions to see if itGÇÖs worth further SP investment
-Try to max out your fittings with higher level weapons and modules before you jump to the next level of suit.
-You can get your skills from 1-3 fairly easily and start dabbling in some Proto gear with AUR
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