Scouts of Albion

[Edaudric]

I have... had... would have... is having... bah... a scout, currently at level 24, and I'm wondering how you manage to go on.
I know this is definantley not the best place to seek advice form, but oh well. Might be someone useful hiding in here.

I just out of frustration of gaining only 0.2 experience per blue murder, gave away everything I got equipped while yelling "I hate you!" to Flassinus Flunkus to some reaver in the Tomb of Mithra.

I don't understand why noone wants us in parties. Me, I do alot more damage than that Highlander did, without getting hit myself. Still, noone wants me/us.

My Scout is long gone and retired now, but my question is the same - How did you get moving?

Or something...

 

[Edaudric]

As I learned from some shortfilm once; Life has a habit of making you pay for your mistakes.

I'm gonna reroll her, but this time, no mistakes.

You don't have to pay for oyur mistakes if you don't comit them.

 

[DocWolfe]

coz we dont bring anything to groups, we do terrible melee damage, and we cant heal, and against a purple miss rate with a bow is terrible, even with the best arrows... I soloed alot tbh... and getting groups seems to be based more on luck than anything if your a scout... I dinged 50 on bwcas in pennines solo

 

[Edaudric]

We do bring alot to groups.
The time I've grouped, when I target the same as my party, I always see the critter's health drop 5% every arrow I notch, while they take 1% per armsman/Paladin attack.
With the right bows and quickness (I must say the quickness hasn't made any noticeable change for me these early levels. At all) you can outdamage the tanks.
I'd imagine a party of 4 archers and a healer and possibly a wizard/Theurgist would be quite a party.
Hope I can collect something like that some time.

I wont reroll. I've got something that'll bring her back up to her feet.

Remember folks, personal outside the game problems and ingame problems do not mix.

 

[DocWolfe]

your experience is only upto 24... things change in the mid 30s, although I did most of my leveling during the old 1.36 days

 

[Edaudric]

It's only up to 24 because it's so hard.
A blue critter is not even worth 0.1.

I try chaining them until I have no endurance left, but it's still hard.


I know there's more to it than leveling. Other than exploring, what I've experienced is dying.
I need to level up to explore the huge areas of our frontiers. It's beautiful, but I can barely move unless I want to get ambushed by some Arawnite warrior or some huge rock giant or bwca of some sort (pronouncing that sounds like you're barfing).

I guess it -is- a bit difficultier with steel studded armor and elm hunting bow and footed bodkin arrows at level 24, but it's what was before I went havocing that matters

 

[accollon]

You will get a shiny new bow for your 25th epic, and take down yellows with ease- should speed you up a little.

I am a bad person to take advice from though... I got to 29 in the early days, then after the nerf just couldn't do the damage i used to, groups didn't want me and so i rolled a cleric so I could finally group.

 

[ashitaka]

Soloed to level 44, then sucked cock to get groups past that.

edit: alot of people asked me how I made it to fifty without guild... I don't know. I just kept hanging in there.

 

[Cybwyn]

Thought about jacking the Scout in a few times in the 30s and low 40s but finally got to 50 with a lot of help from my kind guildies.

 

[cHodAX]

It's a hard life being a scout unless you are very well known and people group you based on your reputation or friendship. Most scouts end up soloing most of the levels and the amount of scouts that end up dinging 50 solo at bcwa/trees is shameful. Sadly most of Albions players think scouts are not group friendly even though they are superb at blocking hits on casters/healers.

 

[blaien Kayy]

We dont block for dress wearers /points chodax

 

[cHodAX]

Originally posted by blaien Kayy
We dont block for dress wearers /points chodax

Cheeky filthy Saracen!

 

[sru]

Scouts are one of the harder classes to play - both PvE and PvP/RvR.

If you get an experienced group that has seen a good scout in operation, you will be in demand. All tanks appreciate a red-con mob arriving with 1/3 of their health gone - makes life easier.

Scouts can be seen as hard to keep alive and a mana sink for clerics. In bad groups we are. But, with a good s/s pally at your side, things go so smoothly.

One of the most effective combos I found, suprisingly, was an infil/scout combo. Arrows take foe to 2/3 life (1/2 if you lucky), infil PA's for 1/3 or 1/2 - the rest is a doddle.

Once you have shield at 42 for that slam - healers and other tanks will appreciate you ability to keep the vunerable alive.

Stick at it - Scouts are really great fun .. but hard work.

 

[ashitaka]

Keep your shield skill at max (but stop at 42) and announce yourself as a block-bot rather than scout when looking for groups. Scout guard is powerful indeed.

 

[Danya]

Originally posted by Edaudric
We do bring alot to groups.
The time I've grouped, when I target the same as my party, I always see the critter's health drop 5% every arrow I notch, while they take 1% per armsman/Paladin attack.
With the right bows and quickness (I must say the quickness hasn't made any noticeable change for me these early levels. At all) you can outdamage the tanks.

That's great, but a wizard would probably drop said critter's health 10% every nuke and hit twice as fast. Plus they have damage add for the tanks.
You don't group tanks for damage dealing in general - you group them to take hits. For fast damage casters rule supreme (in PvE at least).

 

[Edaudric]

Fast damage there and then, but then you have the long 5 minute rest to get their power up

Anyways, I'm not gonna get my shield up that high.
I'm an archer. I'll let my friend be the slammer while I shoot our targets from a distance.

Besides, I don't go for the huge trolls with Large Block Shields and a thin hammer.

50 Stealth and 50 Longbow is my way to go. At least close to 50 Stealth. No questions. That's my choice.

 

[Aoln]

Thats not the way to go imo, 50 stealth/bow is gimping urself for sure.
can get 50 stealth with items easily - so about 30-35 stealth is the most u should be putting it.
Raising longbow in the 40s has little reward - not much point taking it over 45 or so.
High Shield is a must for a scout imo, good defence and slam at lvl42 is the only thing that helps u in melee, can get another shot or 2 in after it and makes it easy to take down any SB that jump u anyway

My specs 44longbow, 35 stealth, 29 thrust, 42 shield and i've got to rr6 with it so it cant be that bad

 

[Cybwyn]

Definitely 30-35 stealth. Anything more than that is a waste of precious spec points.

Longbow of 50 might be worth considering for the 100% damage penetrating arrow we get in 1.62. I'm still unsure whether to respec though.

My current spec is..

45 Longbow
34 Stealth
42 Shield
29 Thrust

Post 1.62, I'm thinking of

50 Longbow
34 Stealth
42 Shield
20 Thrust

In which case, I'll be swapping my rapier for a feather duster.

 

[ashitaka]

By the way.. I think scouts should get like 0.1 or 0.2 x more spec points than rangers and hunters to compensate for the laughable melee damage.

 

[Edaudric]

I thought higher stealth makes you move faster (essential for a scout) while stealthed as well as harder to detest.
If I can get 50 Stealth with items, having 35 as my base skill, it would be even nicer to have 70 stealth with items.

Better longbow skill should make it easier for me to hit.
Thrusting I'm not really bothered with. Doesn't have anything to do with the damage of thrusting arrows, does it?

 

[Cybwyn]

Stealthed movement speed takes into account your modified stealth (base + item bonuses + RR bonuses). Once that hits 50 you're moving as fast as you're ever going to move in stealth mode. The detection radius increase for stealth above 50 is so negligible as to be not worth the points spent - assassins with detect hidden will still nick you if you get too close to them and any other classes will have a hard time finding you unless you're right on top of them.

As for Thrust/Slash spec - it has nothing to do with the damage done by those types of arrows but higher spec increases your weaponskill, which in turn increases your chance to land a Slam. So even if you have 42 in Shield, your base weapon skill gets taken into account (sucks tbh but shows no sign of ever being fixed, and that's a rant for another day anyway).

 

[Edaudric]

I'm not gonna be that near an assassin unless he comes near my himself.

Anyways, is there any chance I might move as fast as someone walking normally while stealthed?

 

[Repent Reloaded]

I know this is definantley not the best place to seek advice form

ARGHHAHAHAH!

 

[Cybwyn]

Originally posted by Edaudric
I know this is definantley not the best place to seek advice form, but oh well. Might be someone useful hiding in here.

Hey, never noticed that at first. Dunno whether to feel offended now.

 

[Glacier]

Originally posted by Edaudric
We do bring alot to groups.
The time I've grouped, when I target the same as my party, I always see the critter's health drop 5% every arrow I notch, while they take 1% per armsman/Paladin attack.
With the right bows and quickness (I must say the quickness hasn't made any noticeable change for me these early levels. At all) you can outdamage the tanks.
I'd imagine a party of 4 archers and a healer and possibly a wizard/Theurgist would be quite a party.
Hope I can collect something like that some time.

I wont reroll. I've got something that'll bring her back up to her feet.

Remember folks, personal outside the game problems and ingame problems do not mix.

a tank's main job is not to deal damage.. its to taunt the mob, to hold agro so the Damagedealers (Mages) can dish out some on it..
and with scout's low hp and low armour tanking is not really a choise unless you got 2 earth theurgs in your group.. and archers gain great XP solo

 

[ashitaka]

Oh, by the way. Get yourself a buffbot and some good equipment and you'll be soloing orange before they get to you. The only downtime will be mobspawn and endurance. Oh and one more thing... do caster-mobs..

 

[Graknak]

Whats the fuss about scouts anyway, i can solo orangecons at ease, most of them near redcon even, did lvl 26-28 solo in a few hours, nearly no melee, but if i did it cost half hp max. And that with still using lvl 24 gear, using no buffbot and not training for 2 lvl's. Average miss&fumble rate is about 10%, but sometimes theres 5 misses in a row or 5 crits for that matter(nerf the so called DAoC randomness)

 

[Tranquil-]

Originally posted by Edaudric
Anyways, is there any chance I might move as fast as someone walking normally while stealthed?

No, your stealthed speed will never be as fast as normal walk. A modified stealthspec of 50(base+items+rr) will make you move as fast as the game lets you. Look at it like this: you can move up to 100% stealth speed, if you have a modified 25 stealth at lvl 50 you will move at 50% of your potential stealthed speed, etc..

Stealthspec when it comes to detection is practically(the differance is severely hit by diminishing returns, you'll need developer tools to see the differance) capped at 50 when it comes to PVP since it's measured against the character level of the guy that detects you. In PVE, versus mobs that are higher than lvl 50, stealth spec above 50 works.

 

[Cybwyn]

Oh, unless of course you buy the Mastery of Stealth RA, but you don't want to be doing that.

 

[Edaudric]

Why wouldn't I?

I don't mean to sound sarcastic, but why wouldn't I? 5% speed improvement doesn't sound -that- bad, although 5% is a bit little.

Might be better to get Falcon's Eye instead.