2050 weapon skill ranks

[Kylarran]

Many of you from open beta noticed there was no movement to the weapon skill ups. They remained immobile to the point you wondered if they were broken or turned off intentionally. This is not the case.

I learned this from Kusari, and was able to test it myself several hours later.
Weapon skills unlock upon hitting Ego 50... so after 50 is when xp from weapon use starts ranking up your weapon skills. It will still be extremely slow to gain ranks. 2 reasons for this.

First, compared to Defiance 2013 weapons the 2050 weapons do a lot less damage. This doesn't feel like a problem at all, I found I could still with some more intelligent application of my skills, using barriers to keep the numbers able to hit me at once lower. I was playing my Guardian with the 5 stack of heal over time triggering off of kills skill. Whatever it's name is. Of course, this will speed up for the players pushing their "potential power rating" into the 3000, 4000's faster when we'll keep improving our damage.

Second, there are 50 weapon skill ranks, not 20. So the bar crawls, and it's going to take a while to max those, if ever... depending upon the gun type and what you like. I kinda like it, since we can still slightly improve the stats of our preferred weapon types over months and months of play. I didn't pay any attention to the percent bumps on the ranks at all, despite getting rank 3 in RL's... I just didn't bother looking.

At some point, we'll be faced with mobs that have ratings near to ours. Entering SF area for the first time around 1500 Power, I was an easy mark, so I had to be more cautions. SF area got easier as I pushed my power higher and higher. So... how's it going to be going up against 3000, 4000, 4500 and 5000 rated mob groups... and where will we find them? Silicon Valley? Expeditions? The 6 tiers of difficulty in Co-ops... for certain. Yes, Six. Story mode, then 5 tiers where you face progressively higher Power rated mobs. The higher the difficulty, the better the chances of higher rarity drops in the final Ark Chests. Yes, you'll want to bring an Ark Key or two.

[Marv]

I'm not sure I'm liking this trend of, the game doesn't start until Ego 50.
Dailies for Major Ark Fall Loot Box Keys.
Weapon Skill XP.
What else? Factions?

How much play time was required to get to Ego 50?
I'm an easily distracted Ark Hunter, and find myself running from Roadside Emergency, to Roadside Emergency, to Arkfall, to whatever, while still on the same "mission."

I also suspect we'll see Skill XP Boosters available in the shop.
Has there been any word on Patron Benefits?

[Kylarran]

I'm not sure I'm liking this trend of, the game doesn't start until Ego 50.
Dailies for Major Ark Fall Loot Box Keys.
Weapon Skill XP.
What else? Factions?

How much play time was required to get to Ego 50?
I'm an easily distracted Ark Hunter, and find myself running from Roadside Emergency, to Roadside Emergency, to Arkfall, to whatever, while still on the same "mission."

I also suspect we'll see Skill XP Boosters available in the shop.
Has there been any word on Patron Benefits?

LOL... nice call Marv, yes... contracts unlock at Ego 50 so you'll have short storylines to do for some of them, I highly reccomend 7th Legion to unlock being able to buy Ark Batteries should you ever want to help call down Warmasters or other minor arkfalls that may require Batteries (spikes from Defiance, renamed for 2050). Those rep factions have dailies/weekly that unlock as well then. Its the new rep Ark Hunter Bounties that provide ways to earn the Keys to unlock the crates at major arkfall final completions, as well as those found at the end of co-ops. Those chests offer higher rarity items, so it's a decent, measured way to have a few chances at getting something special. I can see it's value, although it does come across as a tease at every final... that does give it value and add something unique, so I like it.

Getting to Ego 50 is relatively easy, there is plenty of XP available from missions and events... it will however require some playtime so your results will vary based on that. Consider it was accomplished by some with 'no life' so to speak in a few days over the 4 days of open beta. It didn't take the 4 days for some, just 2 for Kusari, the first player I'm aware who accomplished it. I don't know how many hours he played, until he reached it. I don't know myself either, since I spent a fair bit of time in zone chat helping spread useful information, took breaks for the World Cup, time with family, church and sleep of course. I managed to hit 50 Sunday afternoon/early evening. I did that while doing the storyline thru to Muir Dam, and going where the action was to test the various sieges and finals. It's useful to hit up things that earn you salvage, so the side missions, minor arkfalls, sieges and majors all contribute, on top of the drops you choose to salvage.

As to XP skill boosts, since one comes with the Ultimate Founder's pack, I'd say it's safe to assume they will be in the store.

The devs have only replied on the livestream once, to the question of patron passes... their reaction was... odd. Suffice to say they've had a bit of internal debate over it, and they replied "no" on the livestream. Patron pass won't be available at the launch of 2050.

I wouldn't concern myself with the rush to 50. You'll get there, just enjoy the game. If you like pushing it, then do anything you want, although I suspect sticking to the story and side missions might be fastest. There are a few reasons I've seen that might not be the best, but those are few. Basically, there are the occaisional missions that reward higher 'blue' quality rewards... which does include a chance of giving you a higher rarity item. For instance, I got a purple mod from a blue side mission that was rated 1496, if I remember correctly, that gave a very good bonus... a Mid-caliber Dexterous mod, which improves reload for AR/SMG/LMG. Sad part is I found not a single weapon drop I wanted to actually use it in. RNG is what it is. I could have spent scrip to buy a current rated green weapon from the common vendors for one of the weapon types I thought stronger, but chose not to.

[Jerrmy12]

Kylarran, I got to ego level 50 during the first day of open beta, and I was actually the first, so it's not too hard to get to. It took me maybe 16 hours.

[Kylarran]

Kylarran, I got to ego level 50 during the first day of open beta, and I was actually the first, so it's not too hard to get to.

Sheesh. Congrats. There you go. Zero to 50 from 10am Friday until whenever Jerrmy12 hit 50 before the day ended. Not too hard. Didn't realize just how much I was slacking... lol, yes I did.

The dev's never intended getting to Ego 50 to be difficult.

[Kylarran]

Jerrmy12... by any chance do you remember how high you bumped your weapon skills, and what bonuses each rank gave that weapon type? Curious now.

[Jerrmy12]

Jerrmy12... by any chance do you remember how high you bumped your weapon skills, and what bonuses each rank gave that weapon type? Curious now.

I don't remember weapon bonuses, but I got to rank 11 or so on some weapons.

[Marv]

LOL... nice call Marv, yes... contracts unlock at Ego 50 so you'll have short storylines to do for some of them, I highly reccomend 7th Legion to unlock being able to buy Ark Batteries should you ever want to help call down Warmasters or other minor arkfalls that may require Batteries (spikes from Defiance, renamed for 2050). Those rep factions have dailies/weekly that unlock as well then. Its the new rep Ark Hunter Bounties that provide ways to earn the Keys to unlock the crates at major arkfall final completions, as well as those found at the end of co-ops. Those chests offer higher rarity items, so it's a decent, measured way to have a few chances at getting something special. I can see it's value, although it does come across as a tease at every final... that does give it value and add something unique, so I like it.

Getting to Ego 50 is relatively easy, there is plenty of XP available from missions and events... it will however require some playtime so your results will vary based on that. Consider it was accomplished by some with 'no life' so to speak in a few days over the 4 days of open beta. It didn't take the 4 days for some, just 2 for Kusari, the first player I'm aware who accomplished it. I don't know how many hours he played, until he reached it. I don't know myself either, since I spent a fair bit of time in zone chat helping spread useful information, took breaks for the World Cup, time with family, church and sleep of course. I managed to hit 50 Sunday afternoon/early evening. I did that while doing the storyline thru to Muir Dam, and going where the action was to test the various sieges and finals. It's useful to hit up things that earn you salvage, so the side missions, minor arkfalls, sieges and majors all contribute, on top of the drops you choose to salvage.

As to XP skill boosts, since one comes with the Ultimate Founder's pack, I'd say it's safe to assume they will be in the store.

The devs have only replied on the livestream once, to the question of patron passes... their reaction was... odd. Suffice to say they've had a bit of internal debate over it, and they replied "no" on the livestream. Patron pass won't be available at the launch of 2050.

I wouldn't concern myself with the rush to 50. You'll get there, just enjoy the game. If you like pushing it, then do anything you want, although I suspect sticking to the story and side missions might be fastest. There are a few reasons I've seen that might not be the best, but those are few. Basically, there are the occaisional missions that reward higher 'blue' quality rewards... which does include a chance of giving you a higher rarity item. For instance, I got a purple mod from a blue side mission that was rated 1496, if I remember correctly, that gave a very good bonus... a Mid-caliber Dexterous mod, which improves reload for AR/SMG/LMG. Sad part is I found not a single weapon drop I wanted to actually use it in. RNG is what it is. I could have spent scrip to buy a current rated green weapon from the common vendors for one of the weapon types I thought stronger, but chose not to.

Kylarran,
I greatly appreciate your reply. It offers more information than I had hoped for.
I returned from vacation during the middle of the open beta. I tried the Medic, Guardian, Assassin, and Assault classes (Assault again as I played the closed betas), and only reached an ego level (Class level) of max 9ish (If memory serves, which it betrays and deceives these days.) Never further than KTAM Radio... LOL
I recall my highest "power rating" was in the 600's.

I'm looking forward to 2050. I'm desperately holding onto hope that they do right by this.

I look forward to following and watching your (and other's) wake wash upon the shore.

Cheers.

[Kylarran]

You are welcome, and I like the poetic symbolism of your parting line. Nicely done.

Feel free to poke around at many of the threads since open beta ended. I'm blabbing a lot in them, but my point was to get the systems of 2050 out there for the casuals or all the folks from PS4 and XB1 that didn't have a shot and would end up completely in the dark come early access and launch. Defiance/2050 are easy to jump into, but getting into some details can improve gameplay and experience... the game's just not that forthcoming on how things work. I'm fine with that. This leaves it up to gamers to help each other, troll each other or fall somewhere in between.

Point is... we all need to pass it along. I'm certain you will.

[Tesseract]

How much play time was required to get to Ego 50?

I did pretty much everything wrong (so I'm learning now), could only devote a few hours a day to it (busy weekend and work on Monday) and still managed to get to EGO 30 during the open beta.