Explorer path?

[mlcarson]

I'm tempted to go explorer just for the trailblazer flags, anybody else? I also liked the hidden tunnel travel routes and other hidden locations/paths. The actual abilities are a little lackluster though. Trying to convince myself whether to stick with scientist or go with explorer. I didn't really like the stake your claim missions on explorer. I usually just waited until I had finished the zone and then did all of them at the same time just moving from claim to claim which seemed to take forever.

Scientist has some useful abilities like summon group and teleport to capital (on lower cooldown). I didn't mind the scanning associated with the scientist path. I liked the additional lore but I hear finding all of the datacubes can be a nightmare. Plan on using Zenradar to help with that. My thoughts are that scientist might be a little easier to level than explorer. A lot of the scanning stuff seemed to be where you were anyway. I like that they can also find/unlock secret doors.


I figured Soldier would be the easiest to level until I ran into assassination missions that involved primes and holdout missions that became rather difficult (at least as a medic, maybe not with heavy armor classes) at higher levels. Settler has some good perks and could be easy at headstart but I didn't really like it.

Still torn on the scientist/explorer paths but whichever one I choose -- the other one will be on my first alt.

[Acha]

Going explorer myself. I really love most of the missions, especially the jumping puzzles.

[Zippity]

Exploration is cool and all, especially for completionists... There really is only one downside that I saw with Explorer, and that is the time involved with completing all the Explorer missions in each zone... It would take me just as much time if not a smidgen more sometimes, to finish all the Explorer missions in a zone as it did for the normal missions in the zone... Unless you cheat and use a map someone might have made or a addon to help find some of the things, it takes a long while to find everything...

With Science, a majority of the missions can be accomplished while doing the normal missions, with the Datacubes being the more difficult missions to complete without said maps or addons...

With Settler, you can find a majority of the matts you need while either missioning or exploring the map to get your map completion...

Soldier is pretty cut and dry, so you can complete a majority of them while doing other missions...

As far as perks or special bonuses, I wouldn't really worry about those too much... The paths were designed more around Game Play Style, rather then perks and bonuses you could get... And in all reality, you don't even need to do them at all, if you don't want to... You have to select a path at birth, but your not required to do the path stuff in game... Paths are basically bonus things to keep you busy...

Zip

[boblikespi]

I suppose it matters ultimately on why you have a path.

If it's for endgame usefulness then Scientist with it's teleports and summons is a bit more useful than explorer which benefits are more useful for questing and travelling around zones.

If it's for silly fun along the journey of levelling, then Explorer offers a bit more variety than scientist but that can come at a time cost as stated by others. If you're trying to level super fast, it might not be for you then.

I love jumping and exploring random stuff, so explorer felt like a natural fit for me. In terms of a timesink I found the settler (which i also enjoyed) more time consuming as I was constantly clicking stuff, but the explorers exploration I could handle whilst doing the quests in my area. I didn't really find myself adding much more extra time to my levelling compared to explorer/normal quests (except for the one time when I encountered a UI bug on an explorer quest relating to bees).

The only big downside I found to explorer quests was that I kept exploring randomly into super high level parts of the zone I didn't have quests for yet and suffered accordingly, but that's the kind of fun I enjoy.

I tried soldier for some of my other playthroughs and it was pretty straightforward. Some of them did require going off into weird (off the beaten path) locations but most were really easy and locale. Soldier is a great profession for alts in my opinion. Relatively fun and good training for learning a new class but not something that moves you everywhere.

I'll probably go Explorer for my main, then Settler then solider for the rest.

[twinim]

I am definitely going explorer for live. My main will also be stalker, so I think they work well together. I like to take my time and explore anyway in a game and going to places I shouldn't be yet has always been part of the fun for me in MMOs, so I am excited that I can actually get things for doing what I usually do for nothing.

Time in a game is not a concern for me. I am a slow lever to begin with. I didn't get my original main to max level until after BC had come out in WoW, and I was in game from day 1, for example.

Like Bob said, figure out what you really want to get out of your path then choose that way. Personally, I would go with whichever feels closer to your playstyle as it will keep you more engaged over the long haul, because if it doesn't all of those perks you get for high level paths is irrelevant.

[Bendar]

I tried explorer on one test character. When it took me 10 minutes to figure out how to get up the Aurin tree in the Explorer tutorial quest, I figured it might not be the best path to choose, even though I tend to explore everything, complete every quest, etc etc.

I had several beta characters that were settlers, and I really really liked building the buff stations for everyone. When ever I wasn't playing a settler character and came upon settler stations with no buffs up I was like "Why settlers, why you no build nice buffs!!!" Collecting all the resources all over the world is really really distracting though...

Even though finding all datacubes is going to be a PIB (may have to resort to guides for the one or two I may miss in a zone), I will be going scientist. I think the group summon is just going to be to awesome to pass up (World raid boss up right in front of me, pst for invite... incoming, lets get ready to rumble...)

[Schrodinger]

I was pretty sure I was going explorer, even though I kind of suck at jumping, because I love going everywhere and looking under every rock, but I'm also a lore junky. The scientist's job is not as exciting as an explorer's, push G key here then there, but all that lore and information no one else gets is intoxicating. I did some reading on all the paths and the scanbot is supposed to be really funny in some of its reports. I do like the idea of the little fellow following me around & you can name it, and customize it, and call it Bob. So at the moment I'm leaning toward scientist. I can still explorer all the map and the path abilities are sweet.

As for the other two paths, I did play with the settler and it is cool that you can build things that help other players, but the amount of resources that I have too click on is distracting. What do you mean, I don't have to click on all the them. Let me tell you...oh shiny resources..... The solder is fun if you really love killing things in a brutish manner. I like to invite them for tea, get to know them, their hobbies and history, then I kill them. Much more civilized don't you think?