Mission to skill up for BLP sniper

Inspired by the SIB charts to gain some skills through increase bonus, I went off into the world to buy myself a GeoTrek Manis. 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 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

 

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 standings	level
BLP Sniper (Hit)	17
BLP Pistoleer (Hit)	9
Ranged BLP (dmg)	10
Laser Sniper (Hit)	19
Laser Pistoleer (Hit)	11
Ranged 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:

Skill	Value
BLP Weaponry Technology	1176
Laser Weaponry Technology	2462
Handgun	1200
Inflict Ranged Dmg	1357
Anatomy	2278

 

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.

 

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

Skill	Value
BLP Weaponry Technology	1355
Laser Weaponry Technology	2476
Handgun	1343
Inflict Ranged Dmg	1378
Anatomy	2343

 

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

 

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!

 

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)

 

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

 

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.

 

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.


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. 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 standings	level	change
BLP Sniper (Hit)	19	+2
BLP Pistoleer (Hit)	16	+7
Ranged BLP (dmg)	14	+4
Laser Sniper (Hit)	19	0
Laser Pistoleer (Hit)	16	+5
Ranged Laser (dmg)	14	+1

Skill	Value	change
BLP Weaponry Technology	2551	+1375
Laser Weaponry Technology	2509	+47
Handgun	2236	+1036
Inflict Ranged Dmg	1452	+95
Anatomy	2506	+228
Marksmanship	2430	?

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.

 

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.