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The player that reported this factoid says it can be invaluable
to learn how to manipulate your camera with precision to target
other players hiding behind obstacles.
Where To PvP And How To Get There
I wasted the better part of a Saturday afternoon figuring out
how to
get my level 17 fixer to the Stret West political zones for my
first
foray into PvP, AO-style. Took me for-freaking-ever. Nobody I
asked in-
game knew what to tell me. None of the bulletin boards had any
better
directions other than "run up through 4-Holes" (I'm Omni). Blah.
A
level 17 dies too easily running up through 4-Holes. Add that to
the
fact that my map skill wasn't nearly high enough to load maps of
Stret
West, etc., and I ended up doing a lot of running around in
Newland,
Athen, Varmit Woods (yikes), and Aegean, not to mention looking
all
over Stret West for the tiny little 25% zones once I got there.
All
without maps.
Stupid me. Of course now I know better, and I'm gonna save you
the
trouble that I went through. Be aware that since I've only PvPed
with
my lowbie Fixer reroll, I can't tell you much about the PvP
areas in 4-
Holes or Upper Stret East. If any of you reading this can give
me
succinct directions (and preferably coordinates, too) to the PvP
areas
that I don't list here, please email me with that info and I'll
add it
here. Eventually I plan to show actual maps marking all the PvP
zones.
Getting to Stret West and the Holes-In-The-Wall Political Zone
1. If you're Omni, use the grid to get to Tir. You need a buffed
Computer Lit. of 75 to get into the grid and take the Tir drop.
2. From Tir, take the whompa to Newland. (Note: even if you have
a
high enough comp lit to take the Newland drop, don't do it!
You're dropped from midair into the middle of Newland desert,
which is a long run away from Newland City itself. Presuming you
even survive the drop. (A trick that actually worked for me is
to
jump just before you hit ground. I kid you not--I took only 28
points of damage that way.)
3. In Newland, take the whompa to Borealis, which is a neutral
city
*in* Stret West. Both Clan and Omni can shop and restock in
Borealis.
4. Take the only road out of Borealis, follow it down the
mountain,
and you'll zone into Holes-in-the-wall about 40 seconds down the
road. Keep following the road straight for another half-minute
and you'll see a Bronto Burger stand up ahead. Go there and scan
at the insurance terminal there, for speedy return to the PvP
zone nearby.
To get to the small PvP zone in Holes-in-the-Wall
Head down the road to your right if you're facing the Bronto
Burger.
(Can't remember the compass direction right now.) You'll see
that the
road you're following forks to either side of a small hill in
front of
you. Take either fork and go around to the other side of that
small
hill.
You'll be standing at a cross-roads where something like 4
different
roads come together. Take the road South that goes up another
embankment. On the other side is a river and a bridge. The
road/bridge
leads into 4-Holes. Almost as soon as you start down that road
to the
South, you'll cross into a 25% zone. There's a physical zone
barrier to
4-holes in the middle of the bridge.
Explore and fight in this area. It's the main PvP zone in Stret
West,
at least for lowbies. Chickens will often run for the safety of
the
zone border on the bridge, so you'll have to devise tactics for
killing
runners before they can hit the zone wall.
To get to the large PvP zone in Stret West proper
There's a much larger 25% zone directly to the East of the
Bronto
Burger stand. Out there you may catch teams who are leveling up,
and
there are lots of mission areas. Just take a beeline East from
the
Bronto Burger. It's 25% all the way to the big river, with only
a few
very small 75% zones here and there.
Getting to Meetmedere
The best and quickest way is to take the Meetmedere drop on the
2nd
tier of the grid. You'll need Comp Lit of 100 to use the MMD
drop.
(Note: you'll need Comp Lit of 110 to use the grid terminal in
MMD
itself. Also note that the Grid terminal in MMD is in a 25% zone
in the
middle of the outpost.)
1. If you can't grid directly into MMD, then with a Comp Lit of
75
you can grid to Tir, then take the whompa from Tir to Newland.
2. Exit the West gate from Newland and head straight North
across a
small expanse of desert. If you have a Newland area map, or look
on your big map, you'll see a set of twin lakes right next to
each other with a narrow spit of land in between them. MMD is
sitting at the North side of that spit of land between the two
lakes. All the mobs you'll run into on the way are newbie mobs,
so it's a safe run even for lowbies.
Take your time exploring MMD--there are three different 25%
zones, some
inside the walls of the outpost and some outside. There are also
75%
zones that you can use to walk safely right into the middle of
the
outpost. Remember that once you step inside a 25% zone and
somebody
attacks you, they can continue attacking you even if you move
back into
a 75% zone. There are two different "back entrances" to the MMD
outpost, and it can be very effective to sneak into the outpost
using
these, and also very effective to confuse teams by running them
into
and out of the outpost using the different entrances.
Getting to Stret East
I've been to Stret East only for full-difficulty missions, so I
haven't
seen much of the area because it's pretty dangerous for my
mid-20s
character to run around out there. What I do know is that Omni
can get
there via whompa or grid into 2HO. The 2HO military base is
heavily
guarded by scads of NPC guards, so it would be certain death for
a Clan
to grid there. The roads near the 2HO base are heavily guarded
by Omni
NPCs as well. The only feasible way for Clan to hunt in Stret
East
would be to run there from somewhere else, avoiding the guards
that are
probably located near bridges and crossroads.
Despite the danger to Clan of gridding directly into 2HO, a lot
of
Clan, particularly the high-level ones, try to do it. So if
you're over
level 75, watch your back while in 2HO.
Getting to 4-Holes
Similar to Stret East, 4-Holes is easy for Omni to get to via
either
whompa or grid. I know that the whompa drop would be certain
death for
Clan, due to the high density of Omni Guard NPCs. I haven't
taken the
Grid drop yet so I don't know what the story is at the grid
exit.
I have noticed a lot of higher-level clan running South from
Stret West
into the 4-Holes zone, but never followed them. There is a
bridge
leading to 4-Holes right near Borealis, in the Holes-In-The-Wall
area
that I describe up above in the Stret West section. So it seems
fairly
easy for Clan to get down into 4-Holes via Borealis and Stret
West.
One interesting thing about 4-Holes--there are a ton of Clan NPC
mob/guards that spawn in the same area as the Omni NPC guards,
so even
if you're Omni you can die easily to a Clan NPC within sight of
Omni
guards. There are always firefights going on between the local
Omni
guards and these Clan NPCs. I tried sneaking past a Clan NPC
once,
thinking that it would ignore me since it was already fighting
with an
Omni guard. Wrong! I was dead in one hit.
General PvP Tips and Tactics
Here are some useful tips and tactics, in no particular order,
that
apply equally to solo and team fighting:
Equipment Has a Huge Effect
* Equip the best weapon/armor that you possibly can for your
level.
Preferably things that you have to buff attributes/skills to
even
be able to equip them. You want max killing power. I fought a
level 17 fixer when I was level 17. He had a QL8 Mausser, while
I
had a QL24 Mausser that I had to use Expertise buffs and
implants
just to equip. He had mission loot armor; I had armor from a
previous high-level character that I had to buff up just to
equip
some pieces. Can you guess who won? He was dinking me for 8
points of damage per hit, while I was whacking him for 40 per
hit. Yes, your AC really does make a difference.
* Know your actual damage output per second, and yes, do keep
upping your combat initiatives, at least to a certain point.
There is a lot of misinformation floating around on what the
"best" weapons are, whether or not ranged initiatives have any
real effect, and so on. If you want to understand exactly how to
determine which weapon puts out the most damage when you are
wielding it, then read my guide to evaluating weapons.
* A useful extrapolation of this tip is this: don't PvP all the
time unless you really love being a PvP-nut. Instead, go level
up
in the non-PvP zones until you're ready to make your next set of
major equipment/nano upgrades. Then, when you've barely squeezed
into your new upgrades, take a few days off from leveling and go
live in the PvP zones for a while. You'll perform well and rack
up lots of kills to advance your PvP titles. When you get sick
of
PvPing, go back to leveling again until your next major
equipment/nano upgrade.
A downside of this approach, however, is that opponents who like
to use skill debuffs on you can make life difficult if you've
just squeezed into a higher-level first-aid, nano, or weapon (if
you like to switch weapons in combat). By debuffing you
appropriately, you may not be able use first-aid in combat, or
get off that killer nano that you can barely cast, or swap out
weapons mid-combat.
Speed Kills
* Root nanos and speed buffs are your best friend in PvP. A
simple
fact is that when a player is obviously losing, they will very
often try to just run away before you can kill them. Yes there
are some steadfast warriors who finish what they start no matter
what, but many people can argue that it's just good tactics to
run away until your first aid and specials recycle. I know that
I've killed some of my toughest opponents this way, by letting
them think they've got the kill if they can just get a few more
shots in followed by their special---I'll run like the wind and
wait until my aid and burst recharges (and my HOT nano is slowly
recharging my health too), then turn around and lay into them
again. So you want to prevent players from bolting and running,
if you can. If you've got root capability learn to use it to
keep
the other guy trapped until you can deal your death blow.
* Here's a new tip for those of you who don't have root nanos,
and
who keep getting killed by stinkers like me who use root-n-shoot
tactics effectively. If your Nano Resist skill is kept fairly
high, you will resist roots more often, and you will have a
chance to break roots early. I can personally verify this after
another fun weekend of fighting in MMD. I was battling an agent
who was 5 levels above me. Normally, since my Mausser has longer
range than a typical agent's rifle, I would use root-n-shoot to
my advantage. However, the agent didn't seem at all affected by
my first root. My second root held him well, like I would
expect,
but my third root broke after I'd hit him just one time. Okay,
that was enough to make me wonder if he was using some /follow
exploit to break my roots, until he tried rooting me! (This is
the first time, surprisingly, that I have ever been rooted by
another player.) Well what do you know? Even though I had the
blue nano haze all around me, I could run just fine, and the
blue
haze disappeared almost instantly.
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