Guns for Glory wrote:
I'm going to try this and maybe stick with scout if I like it. Shotguns are my favorite weapons in all games but yet to use them on here. What about sp placement?
And thank you
This is a pretty decent way for people who are SUPER fresh. When I first started, I went with a BPO Logi. Militia Repair, Militia Spawn, regular Nanohive but this is similar. Repairing people is a lot of points and it doesn't require as much knowledge in the game. Find the person with the most amount of armor who is actively taking damage and shoot them with the Repair Tool. You may want to try Nanohives though as militia Uplinks have a 15 second spawn time so no one will want to use them. Nanohives will grant 10 WP per person that it gives a 'packet of ammo' to while Uplinks give 25 per Spawn. I would hazard that throwing a Nanohive in the middle of your team every once in a while might be worth more SP than really, really slow Uplinks. YMMV.
For point placement:
1. DO NOT GET ANYTHING TO 5. NO. STOP. If you notice the SP prices on things, it scales really really fast. Here are the numbers:
Level 1 = 6220 SP
Level 2 = 18,650 SP
Level 3 = 43,530 SP
Level 4 = 87, 060 SP
Level 5 = 155,460 SP
It is then multiplied by the Skill Multiplier. If you notice, every jump is more expensive than the last set combined. Level 4 is half the cost of level 5. This means that you can get a set of really important skills to level 3 for far cheaper than a single skill to level 5, assuming the multipliers are the same. When you have all the things you need like your Passives at a good level, your weapon of choice at a good level, and even your equipment at a good point, then you can worry about pushing for something to 5. Dropsuits especially as they are a x8 skill, needing 2,487,360 SP to get to Prototype so put that on the back-burner.
2. If you want to try something, use Militia first. Militia is crappy. You know what is more crappy? Putting a bunch of points in a weapon only to realize you hate it. Use Militia first. If you like it, drop a single level into it. If you decide you don't like it here, no big deal really. Just don't overspend on a skill is the big one.
3. While it is not as necessary now with greatly increased SP and purchasable Respecs, set up a plan for what you want your guy to do. It is generally accepted that it takes about 8-10 million SP to get a single role to Prototype level, though some are cheaper and some are more expensive. 10 million invested into being a Scout will yield a far more terrifying soldier than 10 million invested into Assault, Logi, Armor Dropships, Shield Tanks, Amarr Heavy, Minmatar Heavy, etc.
4. Plan ahead before you invest SP. Protofits.com lets you save your character and has a Skill Tree available. Look at where you want to put your SP to determine what you can do.
5. If you are ever unsure where to put your points and have consulted your planner in Protofits, Passive Skills are a safe bet. No matter what role you will play, 25% more CPU and PG is going to be something to strive for. Skills such as Engineering, Electronics, Armor Upgrades, Shield Upgrades, and Dropsuit Core Upgrades are great. However, DO NOT OVERSPEND ON ELECTRONICS/ENGINEERING EARLY ON! If you are not pushing your suits to the absolute max and only have 3 points in Electronics or Engineering, putting in more points *for now* serves no purpose. When you are putting in bigger and better modules and need the CPU and PG, that's when you upgrade it again. Other passive skills are also nice but the ones I mentioned are the big ones.
5. While it is counter-productive to what I mentioned before, it is okay to have multiple roles before you have one that is maxed out. If you want to throw a point into Sentinels, go ahead. Just don't over do it. Think of it like a diet. A candy bar a week can keep you sane but one it starts to be two and then three and then four, that is bad. Again, plan.
6. Personally, in regards to 5, I would say grab a Logistics suit. Getting more Equipment slots is huge. Because the Standard level ones have 3 Equipment rather than 2, I would suggest Gallente or Minmatar. Minmatar/Gallente Logistics 1 would let you equip a Repair Tool, Spawn Uplink, and Nanohive. Even the basic quality stuff will result in good SP. With the recent Bandwidth changes, there are fewer Uplinks. If you are the only Uplink game in town, that is 25 WP a pop.
7. Money. This one is important. Math here helps. Answer these questions:
A: How often do you die a match? Be liberal here. "3, sometimes 4 or 5" is 5. This number is Y.
B: How much ISK do you make a match? Be conservative. This number is X
X / Y = Z.
Z is the cost that your suit can be and still break even. So if you make 130k a match, die 6 times, that means if your suit is under 21.6k you will make money. Make the suit even cheaper and you can expect to come out well ahead.
8. Consider joining DUST Uni. They are a great group of guys that can help you out. Asking in Corp Chat can lead to some good personal advice, especially if you get in a game with some of them and talk over a mic.
Best of luck!