A Few Noob Questions

[iron-hands]

So yeah, been playing a few days now, wish I'd been playing longer, having a blast so far!

 

Had a few easy questions, sorta.

 

Right now I'm playing a mag, working towards a valkyr, just started crafting a dual ether to replace my cronus (since I have the stance for it).  Anyone recommend something better, or is it a decent fit?

 

Primary and secondary, I haven't given any attention to.  I'm using the starter braton and kunai.  I prefer high RoF guns unless I'm going for a sniper build, as my accuracy is pretty crap.  Can anyone make a suggestion for a better primary?  I have a grakata BP, how does it fare in comparison in terms of playability, beyond the stat differences?  Is it worthwhile, or should I just set my sights (heh) on a Karak?

 

My play style is a little aggressive, I tend to run up, fire off pull, and hack anythying that's left.  If it's a single target and close or medium, I'll hack, probably after sliding into it.  If it's long, I'll rifle, unless it's a pack then I'll try to close and fire off pull.

[sp33chle55]

Grakata fits your playstyle very well. Build it. You wont be disappointed. ;-)

Its also a very good gun, a bit ammo inefficient but you will get used to it.

Dual ether is also a good choice, dual heat swords would be better.

[vaugahn]

Dual Ethers work well enough. If you like dual weapons, once you have access to a dojo go for the Dual Ichors.

 

Grakata is good, if you have the right mods. The most effective build for it revolves around status chance. I would just go for the Karak.

[sp33chle55]

If you're interested in dojo weapons i could help you out. Got the corpus and infested weapons all researched. Just send me a friend request if you're up for it. ;-)

[Prod_Crewman]

1- Prova

 

2- Prova

 

3- Prova 

[iron-hands]

Grakata fits your playstyle very well. Build it. You wont be disappointed. ;-)

Its also a very good gun, a bit ammo inefficient but you will get used to it.

Dual ether is also a good choice, dual heat swords would be better.

I'd been reading that the ethers seem superior, I did strongly consider the heat swords prior, but I had the stance mod already so I figured it would be the better option.  should be just about done cooking now so I'll give em a look.  Maybe I'll just give the heat swords a look after.

Ammo inefficient I'm not worried about, I haven't run dry yet, since I seem to focus more on cutting :)

[Temperance000]

I've heard that the Grakata functions like a - forgive the phrase - poor man's Soma.  Having used the Soma and found it very enjoyable, I recommend the Grakata as a build up to higher-tier weapons.  You will, however, need critical chance/damage and status chance mods to bring out its full potential.  You might also consider some of the shotguns, since you seem to be an in-the-enemy's-face kind of player.

 

As for the Dual Ether, I used it way back before Damage 2.0, when it still dealt armor-ignoring Serrated Blade damage.  I loved it then, and still use it occasionally now.  I cannot speak to its comparison with the Dual Heat Swords, but from personal experience, I found it to be an excellent introduction to dual melee weapons.

Edited October 14, 2014 by Temperance000

[iron-hands]

Dual Ethers work well enough. If you like dual weapons, once you have access to a dojo go for the Dual Ichors.

 

Grakata is good, if you have the right mods. The most effective build for it revolves around status chance. I would just go for the Karak.

I'd forgotten about dojo weapons, haven't even considered them an option at this point being so new.  Since I don't have a tonned of options with the mods yet, I'd imagine that the Karak would be the better choice, simply for out-of-the-box use?

[(PSN)Kamranos]

Duel Ethers are a great upgrade from the starter melee. I would keep your eye out for something better sooner than the Mastery 6 required Duel Ichors. While they are great, they have a close range and require a high mastery.

 

I have all melee weapons and my weapon of choice is the Kronen. Mastery 3, tied for the highest damage, slower than daggers, but has the range to make up for it. Plus they are great crowd hack and slashers.

 

Primary weapons are really based on play style. Grakata is good for aggressive and so is the Boltor of Karak. If you an get your hand on the prime version, you won't be disappointed. yes everyone uses it...but for good reason. It rocks. Also you could give the Latron a try. Semi auto, very accurate and high damage.

 

Secondary. I like the Lex because it is the perfect pocket sniper. High damage and deadly accurate, but for your play style, you might be happier with a duel full autos or the non-MK1 Kunai.

 

Those are my 2 cents. A simple build that can be powerful at Mastery 2 is Boltor Prime, Lex Prime and Orthos Prime. Those could take you to the hardest none open ended games with little work. 

[iron-hands]

I've heard that the Grakata functions like a - forgive the phrase - poor man's Soma.  Having used the Soma and found it very enjoyable, I recommend the Grakata as a build up to higher-tier weapons.  You will, however, need critical chance/damage and status chance mods to bring out its full potential.  You might also consider some of the shotguns, since you seem to be an in-the-enemy's-face kind of player.

 

As for the Dual Ether, I used it way back before Damage 2.0, when it still dealt armor-ignoring Serrated Blade damage.  I loved it then, and still use it occasionally now.  I cannot speak to its comparison with the Dual Heat Swords, but from personal experience, I found it to be an excellent introduction to dual melee weapons.

Guess I was reading outdated info :(  I was going to go with the heat swords, but I'm sure they're "good enough", and besides, it's not like I'm stuck with them, right?

As for shotguns, I was mainly thinking of going with a medium-long range rifle option to compensate for my up front play.  This way I have options if there's something at range that I can't quickly get to, unless there's a secondary that would do decent job at range

[sp33chle55]

They are quite equal, dual heat just have little more damage. They got equal crit and stat chance. Dual heat also have an aoe heat proc on groundslam which is nice for a bit of cc.

I built ethers also back in the days cause i liked their looks. ;-)

Now im more into corpus and infested weaponry. :-D

[d1sc1p1e]

the difference between the Ether and the Heat swords is personal preference, they're so close any serious 'which is better' debate is moot, especially if the question doesn't consider the 2 mostly argued over, the Zoren and Ichors. in any case the Ether is a good weapon that you may consider polarizing down the line.

 

as for your other weapons i'd seriously advise buying the non Mk1 versions if you like them. the Kunai can be tricky to get used to but is widely considered an end game weapon(if you can't get Stalker to drop Despair) and the Braton is a good all rounder. in the pursuit of Mastery Ranks i'd build and level everything you can get your hands on, it doesn't matter if you don't like the weapon as you'll only be using it for it's Affinity, and i know you want that Soma right?

[sp33chle55]

Guess I was reading outdated info :(  I was going to go with the heat swords, but I'm sure they're "good enough", and besides, it's not like I'm stuck with them, right?

As for shotguns, I was mainly thinking of going with a medium-long range rifle option to compensate for my up front play.  This way I have options if there's something at range that I can't quickly get to, unless there's a secondary that would do decent job at range

Nah, you're not stuck. Just make sure you get them to 30 once for mastery. ;-)

[Darzk]

When leveling weapons for mastery, you probably aren't going to be installing catalysts. This means that the room for elementals is limited, and the base damage type of the weapon becomes a lot more relevant.

 

For example, you have 3 automatic rifle choices for your next upgrade. The Grakata, Karak, and Boltor. All three are powerful upgrades from the Braton series, but without significant installed elementals the damage focus can be fairly noticeable.

 

With limited modding, the Karak will work best against Corpus shields, while dealing noticeably less damage to armored Grineer units, while the high puncture damage on the Boltor will do a lot more to Grineer armor. The Grakata with high slash damage works okay against Corpus and Grineer, and shines against Infested. It's also a critical based weapon, so it highly rewards headshots (which may or may not be a part of your playstyle).

 

The same sort of advice goes for pistols. The lex and bolto series works great against Grineer, while the Vasto/Magnus series works well against Infested/Corpus respectively.

 

Melee damage is high enough as base to ignore the base damage type in favor of other desirable characteristics, such as reach+speed.

 

So the way I level on a new(ish) account is to have a loadout each for Grineer, Corpus, and Infested; with Puncture based weapons against Grineer, Impact based weapons for Corpus, and Slash based weapons for Infested (And Corpus when using Mag/Prime).

 

I also recommend leveling to the Akbolto ASAP - if it's a weapon you like the characteristics of, its the soonest available weapon that is worthy of a catalyst and multiple formas for extremely tough content. It's rather expensive to build, however, so work towards it gradually.

[Institute-Marksman]

If you're gonna go with a medium-ish primary, take the Latron. Semi-auto, accurate medium-long range, nice Puncturedmg. Once you can, upgrade it to the Tiberon. 3 Burst fire, accurate medium-long range rifle.

[iron-hands]

the difference between the Ether and the Heat swords is personal preference, they're so close any serious 'which is better' debate is moot, especially if the question doesn't consider the 2 mostly argued over, the Zoren and Ichors. in any case the Ether is a good weapon that you may consider polarizing down the line.

 

as for your other weapons i'd seriously advise buying the non Mk1 versions if you like them. the Kunai can be tricky to get used to but is widely considered an end game weapon(if you can't get Stalker to drop Despair) and the Braton is a good all rounder. in the pursuit of Mastery Ranks i'd build and level everything you can get your hands on, it doesn't matter if you don't like the weapon as you'll only be using it for it's Affinity, and i know you want that Soma right?

Completely forgotten about mastery/affinity (gotta re-read that info) - should probably finish off the Cronus and Skana, at 24/15 iirc.  everything's around 25ish right now.

 

Soma... hmm, I suppose I do (but I honestly don't know what it is yet, I've only been playing a few days lol).  Not sure how I feel about the spin-up on it though, looks great on larger targets, or am I misreading it and it's just as fine on lower target, just slower RoF?  seems like it might suffer with fast movers or medium health targets.

[MM209]

I used the Duel Heat Swords when I was lower rank,they were quite good; I considered them my best melee weapon until I made a Kronen.

 

They do good damage and have a very nice ground slam which procs an aoe heat blast (lots of fun!).

 

Unfortunately I have not yet used Duel Ether so I can't compare them.

 

Grakata is a crit based weapon, if you have the crit mods to go with it (point strike & vital sense) then you will do well with it, if not then it will feel like you are shooting rubber bullets.

 

If you do go the route of the Grakata then strongly consider upgrading to the Soma at mastary rank 6; they don't call the Grakata a poor man's Soma for no reason.

[iron-hands]

Thanks everyone.  I'm kind of shocked to get so many excellent resposnes so fast, sign of a great community!

[d1sc1p1e]

Completely forgotten about mastery/affinity (gotta re-read that info) - should probably finish off the Cronus and Skana, at 24/15 iirc.  everything's around 25ish right now.

 

Soma... hmm, I suppose I do (but I honestly don't know what it is yet, I've only been playing a few days lol).  Not sure how I feel about the spin-up on it though, looks great on larger targets, or am I misreading it and it's just as fine on lower target, just slower RoF?  seems like it might suffer with fast movers or medium health targets.

 

definitely go for the levels. even if you end up with a weapon you dislike hold on to it till you've got it to 30 as Affintiy is rather precious.

 

as for the Soma yeah, it's the go to rifle and it's praise is well deserved. it's ROF at spool up is faster than most other rifles and once full on is at almost continuous laser level lol. the hardest thing i've found is not wasting 50 bullets on something that took 2 to kill, it's almost too fast and too powerful.

 

oh and second advise, join a good clan and get involved with it. there should be a few vets that take care of the newbs and do awesome things from helping to farm, taxi'ing, even giving them BP's.

[ShadowofBlades]

Personally I think for you the standard Braton is a good choice as you can just buy it outright. Plus ( my opinion) a maximized Braton is quite Affective through most of the star chart. I've seen it take out the jackle in 30 seconds flat ( just for example).

[Pandaman444]

We where all noobs once, dont sweat it

[iron-hands]

definitely go for the levels. even if you end up with a weapon you dislike hold on to it till you've got it to 30 as Affintiy is rather precious.

 

as for the Soma yeah, it's the go to rifle and it's praise is well deserved. it's ROF at spool up is faster than most other rifles and once full on is at almost continuous laser level lol. the hardest thing i've found is not wasting 50 bullets on something that took 2 to kill, it's almost too fast and too powerful.

 

oh and second advise, join a good clan and get involved with it. there should be a few vets that take care of the newbs and do awesome things from helping to farm, taxi'ing, even giving them BP's.

awesome!

 

As far as a clan, yeah, it seems there's tonnes of great benefits (and i really like the crafting mechanic required to enter, helps combat player market/"gold farming").  Being so new though, I'm a little hesitant to start looking yet and end up embarrassing myself with my crap gear.  Maybe once I unlock a few more planets :)

[Magnar21]

awesome!

 

As far as a clan, yeah, it seems there's tonnes of great benefits (and i really like the crafting mechanic required to enter, helps combat player market/"gold farming").  Being so new though, I'm a little hesitant to start looking yet and end up embarrassing myself with my crap gear.  Maybe once I unlock a few more planets :)

Can't make a fool of yourself with your junk gear unless you try making them out to be something they are not. Let people know that your gear is sub-optimal, and most would be glad to take you to get better stuff. We all were newcomers once, and don't listen to the trolls who say "Go Pro or GTFU".

[Sh0ck-Wave]

Grakata is great fun, pull trigger and everyone eats bullets. 

If you can get your hands on a Shred mod and Magazine warp you'll have a low level infestation defence mince meat canon. 

Just remember it's a submachine gun, so think of it like an Uzi where-as a Soma is an M249 Light Machine Gun (LMG).

 

The Karak is another option and gives you that awesome AK look and sound, but I never liked its small magazine. 

 

Another option, get a Latron to train your accuracy and see if you can pickup and a pair of AkStiletto's from a dojo.

They are great little room clearers that don't cost a bomb in components and rank up pretty well. 

Plus their reload animation is awesome :)

 

re: embaressment ..

Dude I've seen guys decked out in prime everything that couldn't hit crap, and were a lead weight to the team .. where as some plucky guys at rank 3 or 4 kicked butt and got the job done. It's how you play that matters, not the stuff you use. End-game guns with the best mods are useless if the guy can't hit the target. Play with the base stuff so you appreciate the higher end stuff more, and train yourself on what it takes to get the best out of them. 

Edited October 15, 2014 by Sh0ck-Wave

[iron-hands]

Grakata is great fun, pull trigger and everyone eats bullets. 

If you can get your hands on a Shred mod and Magazine warp you'll have a low level infestation defence mince meat canon. 

Just remember it's a submachine gun, so think of it like an Uzi where-as a Soma is an M249 Light Machine Gun (LMG).

 

The Karak is another option and gives you that awesome AK look and sound, but I never liked its small magazine. 

 

Another option, get a Latron to train your accuracy and see if you can pickup and a pair of AkStiletto's from a dojo.

They are great little room clearers that don't cost a bomb in components and rank up pretty well. 

Plus their reload animation is awesome :)

 

re: embaressment ..

Dude I've seen guys decked out in prime everything that couldn't hit crap, and were a lead weight to the team .. where as some plucky guys at rank 3 or 4 kicked butt and got the job done. It's how you play that matters, not the stuff you use. End-game guns with the best mods are useless if the guy can't hit the target. Play with the base stuff so you appreciate the higher end stuff more, and train yourself on what it takes to get the best out of them. 

Thanks!  I don't think my accuracy is going to improve, been playing shooters since Doom was new, which is one of the reasons I'm digging this, accuracy isn't as big a deal when you're spraying everything or slicing up close.  The combat (and overall gameplay) really reminds me of the ME3 co-op stuff - I had a beast of a Vanguard in that - basically a character that charged in/through enemies causing damage, and if that didn't do it, finish them off with an SMG good and close.  I really find the Mag plays a lot like the Adept or Vanguard type classes, they served me well in that series.

 

Finally managed to score my Kubrow egg today - couldn't finish Earth until I did lol.  Gonna take forever to farm the rest of the parts, but that's 3 planets unlocked now.  Still mixed on the new rifle though, because my inventory slots are getting kinda full, but once I hit 30 with the mk1 I can just toss it to free up space, right?

[sp33chle55]

Thats right, throw it in the trash can. Mk1 weapons arent good enough to be kept. If you can spare some money think about getting some plat and buy inventory slots. They are quite cheap. 12p for 2 weapon slots, 20p for one frame slot. These are the only things i think investing plat in is a good decision, besides reactors, catalysts and stuff for customization.

If you have enough time you will get reactors and catalysts to boost weaps and frames by playing alerts or invasions. But i find myself powering my stuff with plat sometimes.

Ah and yeah, if it's not self explanatory. Every weapon and frame can be acquired without spending a single dime.

Edited October 15, 2014 by sp33chle55