Loving Fabian Strategy

Nightstalker or Not

Over the last few days I have been irrationally sick.  The part of this that sucks is the fact that Knights of the Fallen Empire has been released… and I have honestly barely spent any time in SWTOR.  I keep going in there and attempting to play, but the whole standard questing construct is just something I cannot handle right now.  If it involves reading or honestly paying attention too closely to anything…  it is pretty much ruled out in my current state.  The funny thing is that playing Destiny works just fine.  I guess that is because most of that game I have committed to muscle memory, and while I may not be able to aim as straight or move as fast…  I can still function pretty well on auto pilot.  As a result I have been working on my second character, the Hunter.  By working I mean… I consumed my “free level 25 token” and pushed it from 25 to 40.  I still have yet to beat the actual quest content, but I have been having a blast doing patrol missions and completing bounties.  Right now I am mostly focused on Nightstalker but there are some quirks about the class I really do not like.  As awesome as Shadowshot is… it just isn’t in the same class of abilities as Hammer of Sol or Fist of Havoc.  It requires you to follow up with something else to take down the target rather than simply evaporating them.

Additionally my biggest problem with the class is that it seems to have shitty grenades.  I am so used to throwing grenades constantly as a Titan… especially as a Sunbreaker with their amazing sticky grenades…  and the options I have so far for Nightstalker just seem rather crappy.  I need to branch out and try some of the other classes, because honestly I was enjoying Bladedancer quite a bit before I completed the quest that unlocked Nightstalker and decided to go that direction.  Both the the Shadowshot and Arc Blade supers though are far more fiddly than I am used to as a Titan which is all about smashing or exploding things.  At some point I plan on leveling my Warlock as well so I can see what that side of the house looks like also.  So far though I just can’t get into the Warlock as much as I can the Hunter and Titan.  I guess it is my whole allergy to magic getting in the way again.  While technically it is just as strong as the Titan… it FEELS weaker since it isn’t nearly as armor bound.  Then there is the melee attack… the Titan Punch and the Hunter Stab… both feel amazing and visceral whereas the Warlock Palm Explosion thing just feels wrong.  I realize the whole battle caster thing is a fantasy fulfillment for some people…. but it just isn’t for me.

A “Lousy” Gun

Another accomplishment is that I finally hit rank three with the Gunsmith which started my next “back in the saddle” quest, this time involving Auto Rifles.  It was kinda cool since I am on a bit of an auto rifle kick lately.  That is the strange thing about Destiny… is that I will get a new weapon… that causes me to re-evaluate my feelings about an entire sub class of weapons.  I spent a lot of time on the Hunter using an Auto Rifle largely because that is what I happened to have laying around in my vault.  Then when I got to 40 I handed the hunter a bunch of past armsday orders… which included a pretty nice Hakke Auto Rifle that I never really gave much attention to. The faction three Gunsmith quest involves killing 100 mobs with an Auto Rifle while you have a telemetry device active… aka a class item with the auto rifle leveling boost.  After that you dismantle four blue auto rifles or two purple ones, and bam you complete the quest and are handed apparently a Titan exclusive Auto Rifle called the Fabian Strategy.  Honestly the gun has some strange things about it… and the fact that it is locked into iron sights mode at first seemed like a massive detriment.

Then I actually used it… I took it to the dreadnought and into a few strikes and I have to say I fell in love with the gun.  Now every guide maker is going to tell you just how bad this gun is.  In fact Briar Rabbit devoted an episode of Shard It or Keep It to the weapon… and the only real positives he was able to come up with was that it felt cool and looked unique.  I guess for me that is enough, because the way this gun handles as compared to most auto rifles just is… “different” and I am having trouble quantifying that.  It feels like you can just chew through damned near anything, and it does just enough impact to push back anything yellow or lower.  Granted it sometimes takes all forty eight rounds in the magazine… but I have shredded those crazy buffed imperial centurions on during the skyburners event with this thing like it was nothing.  The big thing for me… and why I am now using it is strikes is the the combination of Crowd Control and Life Support.  There were several times where I went into a pack of mobs at low health and exited moments later with full health just from the kill triggered regeneration.  This weapon makes me FEEL like the unstoppable Titan I am supposed to be.  Folks are going to tell you that this weapon is not worth an exotic slot… and I get that… because the special perk of the gun doesn’t seem to do all that much.  That said I love the look and the feel and am probably going to start gearing for auto rifle perks just because of this gun.

5 thoughts on “Loving Fabian Strategy”

  1. I bet that you will love playing Warlock. The palm explosion will remind you of a Jedi’s force push and the super abilities of both the Voidwalker and Stormcaller Subclasses really shine, especially the latter one.

  2. Quick note – Hammer of Sol is significantly OP, so going away from that to pretty much anything is going to feel weak. The only thing that even comes close is the warlock nova bomb, but even that is harder and slower to use, and is a single shot. When you add cauterize to the equation, no other class or ability even comes close. (and don’t even get me started on that combination in the crucible…)

    However, for pure enjoyment, it’s hard to beat shooting arc lightning from your fingers and watching things melt around you… you know, for a finger wiggler.

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