Combat or mask scent for BE?

[lienya]

Hello, I'm a new BE on Radiant. Ive just got to the sampling thunes for armour dna stage. The main problem I have is getting close enough to aggro creatures to sample them. Not so much the case with Thunes but with grauls it can eb a problem.

I have considered dropping all my combat skills and getting master scout and a few boxes in ranger. I want to keep BE and CH so losing combat would eb a necessity. In addition the scout abilities will be nice for harvesting that extra meat. :)

How many people have chosen a non combat path and is it a serious problem with reguardsto making money or defending yourself?Is the trade off in scent masking against ability to kill worth it?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.


Lienya Galari

[Tokalar]

Maskscent is almost a requirement with BE, especially for the rancors and the like. Some people have master scout, most have exploration 4, maskscent clothing, and Jawa Beer. Also, if you give up some or most of your combat, you will harvest more per kill, but kill slower. /shrug

I can't speak for others but right now I'm MBE/MCH, 1004 medic, 0040 pistoleer. I'm going to be taking up 0400 fencer in place of pistoleer, both for roleplay value of using the Ryyk blade and because I've heard it's the best for BE/CH. If necessary, I may become a CH dabbler - possible 0404, or 0444. I find that in tanking, usually only one of my two cl35-ish pets take damage, and I provide the offense, so only being able to control a cl35-ish creature wouldn't be a big problem. Though if I do that I know I'll miss the extra CL's a little bit, and the extra pets alot.

[Lantyssa]

It really depends upon your play style.

I have been a MCH/MBE with Ranger Tracking III. These professions really compliment one another.

With good pets you can do alright (I made a post on this just last night on the CH board), but you be very slow to kill anything. You also need to become very adept at making your pets do exactly what you want, and choose their specials carefully, because they become your sole source of damage and usually your armor.

Without a vendor, I cannot say how well you can make money. I delt in tissues and made quite a bit. That was before the vendor change, which I feel BEs were left out on, so it might not be as easy to do now.

[Shadowchylde]

I'm pretty new to the BE profession. I played SWG at game release and left, just now came back and as a newb BE/CH, I've got unarmed 4. Bad choice, I don't do enough damage. So I'm going to get rid of it once I can tame or create tough enough critters to keep me safe. I personally enjoy crafting so I've started climbing the Architect tree. As far as making money, you can always drop a few harvys on some good OQ stuff and mine like crazy until resource shift. If you dont' have the ability to access a vendor, the bazaar is always handy.

Another thing, if you aren't going to take any combat, or are going to surrender it like myself, join a good guild. The one I'm in has no problem sending an escort to watch my back while DNA harvesting.

Good luck and have fun