Mission to skill up for BLP sniper

[phunksta]

Inspired by the SIB charts (http://www.eu-chronicle.com/cmps_index.php?page=sibguide) to gain some skills through increase bonus, I went off into the world to buy myself a GeoTrek Manis (http://www.peauction.com/itemlisting.php?id=4302). After a big sellout of some of the junk cluttering up my storage, I came up with the 350 PED asking price (I paid above the odds due to impatience!) and collected my loverly new toy.

After heading out to the bots NE of Twin peaks, I was disgusted to see the yellow 'you do not have enough skill' message.

I double checked and low and behold - I got fooled by my professions saying I had lvl 17 in BLP Sniper (hit), and ignored the fact that I had only lvl 10 in Ranged BLP (dmg).

Now, you may or may not know it abou time but I've never really been that bothered about skills and that part of EU, so I discovered I had a lot to learn about professions, how skills effect them and specifically the role of hidden skills in 'boosting' your professional levels.

Red pointed out Erach's post about the useful skills calculator tool (http://www.eu-chronicle.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3814) to me, but first I had been looking at the data that this was based on in EntropiaForum, where there is a very useful post showing all these contribution factors - sorry I lost the link - but the tool is much more useful anyway.

This told me that if I wanted to skill to level 17 Ranged BLP (dmg) then I would have to part with 650 PED for various chips.
Of course the total cost would be much more than this, and although I don't mind the occasional chip when they are a good bargain, I don't really want to go along that road.

So I've decided to go on a little mission to obtain these skills one way or another, and I'll chart my progress in this thread for you guys to help and follow along. I'll try to keep a track of my strategy, expenditure and skill gains.

:D WISH ME LUCK :D

[Burgerman]

I think BLP weapon technology and anatomy help to increase BLP damage, so maybe crafting some low level BLP weapons such as Maddox 1's might help your damage level. Good luck and I hope you are able to use that nice weapon soon.

[Erach]

Find yourself a BLP weapon with SIB on damage. It'll help speed things along a bit :-)

[Shearer]

i have a emik s 50 (L), pistol that gives lots of blp skills,, but prehaps you handgun skills are much higher than my 600 or so..............

just me 2 pecs worth ;)

[cantbe]

Quick way to skill up BLP, i use ISIS CB 5[L] rifle and Svempa 40 [L] pistol.
Both are vey economical, similar stats to Apalo, use no armour and only fap 5 , its suprising what you can kill alone.
If you do not like hunting alone , i'm sure a disciple or noob would love the chance to team up.
The more shots you fire the more skill gains[Emik 30 is a 1 shot if you can take the pain].
I try to go skill BLP skilling everytime i'm on and use Laser for serious stuff.
It works for me :)

[phunksta]

Thanks to everyone for their useful advice! Especially Burgerman who helped me straighten things out and find a nice way forward.

So, Here is the starting position. I've included laser and BLP, but I'm only working on BLP for now, it will just be nice to see the side effects on the PS I'm *not* working on:

current professional standingslevelBLP Sniper (Hit)17BLP Pistoleer (Hit)9Ranged BLP (dmg)10Laser Sniper (Hit)19Laser Pistoleer (Hit)11Ranged Laser (dmg)13

So, after a nice chat with Burger and checking out some stats etc. I will be going at it like this:

Firstly, it seems wise to push up BLP pistol skills, because they are at a similar level (10,9) and this will help to push damage up to lvl 17 where I need it.
So, I need SIB pistols to get from 9/10 to 17. I'm starting with the Svempa 60 which promises SIB on both dmg and hit. :)

Anatomy will have a great effect so lots of scanning, healing etc looks to be a good idea.

BLP tech help lots, so crafting some Maddox 1's is on the cards

Finally, unlocking Ranged Damage Assessment has a big contribution to these PS, so although I'm still unsure which really comes first -I'm hoping I can head towards this fairly soon.

Relevant skills from the starting point then are:

SkillValueBLP Weaponry Technology1176Laser Weaponry Technology2462Handgun1200Inflict Ranged Dmg1357Anatomy2278

[phunksta]

So far so good. Following my little global tonight I had a green swirlie too.
It seems I've levelled off at 10 for pistoleering.

Also shown is current wear and tear on the Svempa 60 to indicate how far through my skilling I'm getting.

There are certainly more green messages in my chat window than I'm used to but I can't notice a huge difference yet - we shall see as I progress.

[Burgerman]

Good work. :ok:

[phunksta]

Out hunting with Una and JAW tonight along Echidna ridge... good fun - low loots.

Along the way I hit lvl 11 Ranged BLP dmg.

I'm about half way through my first Limited weapon on this misson...
TT value currently 48.84/90

So I wonder, levels 10 - 17 = 7 levels to get. 1 level per 1/2 of a weapon - should be about 4 guns LOL

Skills update

SkillValueBLP Weaponry Technology1355Laser Weaponry Technology2476Handgun1343Inflict Ranged Dmg1378Anatomy2343

[phunksta]

Shortly after I got the next level on hit too :)

[phunksta]

Things have been slow going lately and my old impatience at how slow skilling really is found me looking at impants in the auction.

Luckily I found a nice cheap BLP implant at a reasonable level for my purposes, so I chipped this up for a bit of a boost.

It proved a good move - providing several PS levels just where I needed them.

Now - a new resolution to SKILL SKILL SKILL!

[phunksta]

Must apologies for this crappy update because I lost my screenies.

However - the update is that I maxxed out the handgun, and now I must go shop for the next one up.

Also, I found a nice cheap 140 PED handgun chip going, so I now have a nice boost up on the required PS and now only have a few levels to go.

That's the last chip though - the next levels wil be all skilling. (HA he said that before LOL)

[Erach]

How's this going phunksta? Chipped again yet? :-)

I'm just doing a similar thing. My levels aren't too different to yours, but my BLP is a bit lower than your starting point.

Using the skill calculator it's strange to see that I'm largely just missing BLP weapon tech... all the other skills seem to be in common with laser.

[phunksta]

How's this going phunksta? Chipped again yet? :-)

I'm just doing a similar thing. My levels aren't too different to yours, but my BLP is a bit lower than your starting point.

Using the skill calculator it's strange to see that I'm largely just missing BLP weapon tech... all the other skills seem to be in common with laser.

Yeah I found the little BLP weap tech chip made a world of difference.

I'm not playing much at the moment, but when I am I plug away with the new pistol, which is great and easily maches the Jashonic FP I had become so attached to.

I'm not going to hunt though until the miss rate, bad loots, equip decay etc. are sorted out. If this is never then it could see me parting company with EU :(

Update: looking back at my last post I need to do a better update on this thread LOL

[Erach]

I have to say that since the last VU I've had good loots on the whole. I've had a better time recently than I did for a while before, and consequently I'm playing more.

Not sure about the miss rate though. I've not noticed it much, but that might just be me being ignorant :-D

I'd hate to see you leave BTW!

[Kets]

Bad loots I can identify with. Seems that no matter what I hunt loots are a little short in coming. Hits come and go though. Just when it seems that I can't hit that Alophyl even when it's on top of me, I take it down in three shots. (Of course, I get about 7 oil residue for my effort. LOL).

I have uneqipped my E-amp 13 due to the high decay cost however and only use it when the Troxies attack. It seemed to last a bit longer before but now that I upgraded to the Justifer from my Hero I felt that that may have contributed to the overall increase.

[UnaAlconbury]

Same for me as for Erach, pretty good loots since VU9 actually. Haven't noticed any high amount of missed shots either, it was like that shortly after the VU, but it seems fixed now.

As for equip decay, seems like we will have to live with it.

[phunksta]

I'd hate to see you leave BTW!

Awww shucks!

I guess I'm just waiting for the EU 'mood' to take me again.
I've had a lot of fun playing the titles from Valve's Orange Box release, but now I've clocked Portal and Half Life 2 Episode 2 (both FANTASTIC!) I guess I'll have more time to get back to EU.

Miss rate may be a feature of my new weapon, although my hit rates are better than my Jashonic, which I used to very rarely get a miss from, which now also sux.

[phunksta]

Quite some time has gone by again, and I'm still heading toward this goal albeit at a snail's pace ;)

The most recent development was that I used up my Svempa T5 pistol, and then started shopping again.

Unfortunately, it seems I'm now in a 'gulf' between suitable weapons.
I got over-excited and purchased the next pistol up the SIB chart; the Geotrek Mina.
3460

It seems I'm only 90.6% progressed on using this pistol, leaving me pistol-less and saddled now with 2 weapons I can't use!!

This only again highlights the problem I have where my dmg standing is so unbalanced with the hit one.

So, now seemed a good time to take stock and work out where I've got to:

First I looked into the professional standing I'm trying to acheive again, and found The relevant info on EF (http://www.entropiaforum.com/forums/785495-post49.html). I could then easily identify the relevant ones for me due to the minimal unlocks I have :(

Agility*20 1% Inflict R'ged Dmg 4% Kill Strike 11% Ranged Dmg Asmt 15% Marksmanship 10% Wounding 10% Serendipity 4% Anatomy 20% BLP Wep Tech 25%

And now checking my PS and skill levels:

current professional standingslevelchangeBLP Sniper (Hit)19+2 BLP Pistoleer (Hit)16 +7Ranged BLP (dmg)14+4 Laser Sniper (Hit)190 Laser Pistoleer (Hit)16+5 Ranged Laser (dmg)14+1

SkillValuechangeBLP Weaponry Technology2551+1375 Laser Weaponry Technology2509+47 Handgun2236+1036 Inflict Ranged Dmg1452+95 Anatomy2506+228 Marksmanship2430?

So as you can see, none of these are particularly remarkable. it does seem though that IRD is signifcantly below the other contributing skills, albeit only contributing at 4%.
My strategy of concentrating on pistols is having effect, with a nice levelling off of those skills against sniper skills. Saying that I'm happy with that amount now so I can concentrate less on this factor now.

[phunksta]

Finally I popped lvl 15 ranged BLP (dmg) tonight. Thanks to Mad Nutter Woman and theNoize who joined me on an enjoyable trek - even if the loot was bad and mobs didn't seem to want to play much.

[Erach]

Good going phunksta. I'm still plodding along behind you... I've not caught up yet though :-)

[phunksta]

Finally - Level 20 BLP Sniper! Another advancement in the Prof Standing I'm NOT trying to achieve LOL

[Burgerman]

Finally - Level 20 BLP Sniper! Another advancement in the Prof Standing I'm NOT trying to achieve LOL

Gratz on the new sniper level. :ok: