Any volunteers???

[Vinkera]

are there any actual NT mains left ingame?

Yep... Me :P

[Damtaz]

Yep... Me :P

Well and me

[Vinkera]

Well and me

Haha, true! I didn't recognize you by your forum name at first... (Had signatures, etc off :P)

I think this position would take someone as devoted to NT as you and I. No offense to anyone else, but despite how disappointing some aspects of the NT profession as a whole is, I (and probably damtaz, also) log my 220, my 60, my 150 something froob (yes, i have a froob NT that i very much enjoy playing, hahaha), etc... every day and do something.

I think everyone, including us, underestimate NT's sometimes. Some of my last most notable antics were... I soloed Supply Master Eel for an orgmate's sentinel armor... (that made him happy... hahaha) and I lead an inferno mission with a few enfs and a soldier. Because I still prefer to use SI, it takes me a few seconds to get aggro, and i guess they were too impatient for that. They ran ahead and snagged 2 or 3 mobs and almost all died, so i scolded them saying "Should prolly let me tank huh? :P) I can understand their surprise at that statement... That's not a situation that happens often, but it was priceless at the moment.

My point here is, I'm a VERY active NT player, and if opportunity for Professional is available, I would definitely be up for it. I see our strengths and weaknesses, both paid and froob, across the entire level span and not just endgame.

[Dumonde]

Well, I suggest the one and only NT...

Nanoinstance.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

vinkara is your equip link up to date?

If it is, I honestly don't see how it's possible to get aggro vs a soldier or a enf with that setup. I have done some activities with endgame NT's and rarely are they producing more than 2/3's of a soldiers damage.

[Cratertina]

Well I would volunteer for NT pro, my pistol NT totally epitomizes everything that is wrong with NT profession and needs improving. Here is what I'd say to Mr Henry:

1. NT is a damage dealer, give it nukes that justify the name. 10s casting time 100k nuke with 20s local cooldown sounds just about right at endgame, that is what top single target nuke should do. Nuke like that potentially would make NT just a tiny bit better than shade in DD, but 300kish damage per minute would be easy to access even for novices in glass cannon setup.

2. NT is AOE damager. at 220 NT should have a 10k AoE 20m blast of destruction. It is fairly sad to see VE, nuke NT's can selfcast in TL3, still the best aoe nuke at 220. This just has got to change.

3. Nanopool, NT should have a very dynamic nanopool regeneration, Shields, nano manipulation. Casting badass nukes should deplete nano in badass way. Making a premium on being nanomage and regenerating nano from perks, everything possible. Make it so after 2 to 3 minutes of fighting you are out of nano whilst doing your best damage or best survival strategy. Then your damage or tanking tones down to lower tier nanos.

4. Nano damage reflect, since NT is a master of nanobots, make it so we can reflect nanodamage upon our foes. up to 100% at 3000 MC.

5. Bring in more nano damage % items, so NT has to sacrifice survivability for nano damage.

6. Give NT ranged and melee energy support, these weapon lines are underused, and compared to other nanocasting professions NT is boring in part because of lackluster weapon choices.

Right now nearly every profession is more dynamic than NT saddly, there are ways to enhance dynamic gameplay for NT, and these are a few of my suggestions. That I would push as NT pro.

Epic damage epic risk.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

I like the epic damage epic risk bit. but I also think that NT's need a wider range of nukes/dots/debuffs to use which should ALL have local CD's.

For example, lets say
* constant barrage has a 2s CD and a 10s local CD
* a bigass Dot has a 2s CD and a 15s local CD (18s Duration)
* a moderate Dot that's longer has a 2s CD and a 20s CD (30s duration)
* a super nuke has a 2s CD and 20s CD
* a moderate nuke has a 2s CD and a 15s local CD
* the regular nuke has a 1s CD and a 4s local CD
* big absorb defence has a 4s CD and a 20s local CD
* small absorb defence has a 1s CD and a 5s local CD
* big blind is X/Y
* small blind is Z/A

etc. So then you want to some how keep all your crap in rotation to get max dmg out of everything while keeping up dmg, keeping up debuffs and you switch when you're getting low on nano or whatever.

[Vinkera]

vinkara is your equip link up to date?

If it is, I honestly don't see how it's possible to get aggro vs a soldier or a enf with that setup. I have done some activities with endgame NT's and rarely are they producing more than 2/3's of a soldiers damage.

I'm definitely still working on endgame, and they were low level (207-213) :P But to be honest, every single time i landed GIVA, i instantly got aggro, which was rather shocking....

McKnuckleSamwich and Cratertina, I think you both have some good ideas for the profession in general, but what we really need is for our professional to be appointed and start a "Profession Suggestions" and "Suggestion discussion" thread exactly the same way the 18.7 threads are setup. That way we can provide our specific recommendations that our professional can slowly feed to Michi, etc.

If we just have anyone randomly saying "EVERYTHINZ BROKE, FIX PLOX", we aren't going to get anywhere.

[Psikie]

my pistol NT totally epitomizes everything that is wrong with NT profession and needs improving.

Epic damage epic risk.

I like the epic damage epic risk bit.

I hate to even post this...but I have a STRONG feeling of the direction the devs are moving with NT's...I didn't want to throw this out there this soon until I had a chance to see what happened with 18.7 but here goes something I did this on testserver on a hunch...and duplicated it on live. http://auno.org/ao/equip.php?saveid=198216

Now it's pretty much a suicide glass cannon setup, with a base of 57% nano damage it is INSANE DD even with Garuk's. Now throw in nanobot shielding WHISTLE!!! I think it should regularly be able to bust 300k dps and possibly spike a lot more with nano dmg perks running like program overload +20 more nano dmg%. I would seriously suggest NBS lock out/ cooldown be reduced similar to shades with dimach. But not sure how much support that idea would get. Or how many nerf cries from everyone else.

*Drawback- In my normal defensive setup I could usually blind/evade tank 1-2 hsii in pande, an albratum horror, some bosses etc. In this setup I do not think any of those are possible to "tank". It would be a race to who ran out of health first that always favors the mob unless you can root or kite them.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

I assume damage is 6000 - 12000 in which case 1% nanodamage is worth 60 add dmg

Does Garuk's have a CD other than the 1.25s?

Otherwise can't you spam this about 60/1.25s = 48x per minute...

6000 base dmg *1.57 = 9420 *48hits/minute = 452160 dpm

There must be a local CD on garuks or am I missing something?

Edit: ahh I found this:

So we worked this out; the next version will have:

1.25 sec uncapped cast time
1 sec recharge
9 sec cooldown
Require 2001 MC to cast
Require any one of these nanos running on target https://aoitems.com/nano/strain/8/

The scaling stuff will remain identical, a.e. it won't do any scaling damage based on MC unless you have some insane stats, and await the launch of the other NT changes.

So it's got a 9s local CD.

So what are you casting while Garuk on CD? IU?

IU = 2s capped cast time, 1s CD so you get 3 IU's, then 1 GIVA
4826 - 8950 base damage on IU

so basically you get per minute 6 GIVA, 18 IU's
min dmg with 57% nano attack dmg
(6000+292)*1.57*6 =59270
(4826+292)*1.57*18=144635
=200k dmg minimum on nuke spam
But could be as high as 120k from GIVA and 261k from IU for 380k DPM nuking vs negligible rad dmg targets.

*Note: I can't recall if add dmg counts before % nano damage but from playing crat, given the crazy range when Justice pops (with/without awakening/suppressive horde/etc.), I think it's before.

[Cratertina]

Still, damage is low, compared to anything else with similar survivability,

I like Mcknuckles idea of several diffrent nanos on perk like cooldowns, 1-2 second casts with 20-40 second cooldowns. Get around 10 of cyclable nanos + perks and we have an involved nanocasting experience.

Good question is,.. is there any downside to greatly improving NTs?

I cannot imagine someone will log NT over other profs unless NT is boosted in major way.

Cycling diffrent nanos might also fix multiboxing, since NT is very prone to one click wonders.

[Vinkera]

so basically you get per minute 6 GIVA, 18 IU's
min dmg with 57% nano attack dmg
(6000+292)*1.57*6 =59270
(4826+292)*1.57*18=144635
=200k dmg minimum on nuke spam
But could be as high as 120k from GIVA and 261k from IU for 380k DPM nuking vs negligible rad dmg targets.

That's about spot on. The trouble is, our damage varies so much due to nukes being slow and having a wide range of damage.

I personally still feel that simply having DM's damage figures back will help quite a lot. Definitely not fix everything related to our damage issues, but it seems like the quickest and easiest adjustment that will make the biggest impact.

I mean, with DM, it would be possible to hit for 30k dmg in one shot regularly, and likely more. That just isn't even close to possible with GIVA.

[Psikie]

From previous posts...years ago Garuks was on the nano doc and it was said at the time the devs put the scaling casting at 3k because they were leaving room for new items. So it "could" be assumed that there would be some new items they already have ideas for that boost MC that might slide in here and there?

Now that does nothing for the here and now, but it does leave that probability open. I would much prefer having DM back but would not complain if we got some 500-1k MC buffing item tomorrow lol.

[Pafpuf]

Ingame feats like who soloed what mob or held aggro against who don't really matter. What makes NTs suck is game mechanics and mastering a NT isn't hard at all but when I play it I feel like I'm dying inside. A professional needs to recognize the profession's faults in regard to game mechanics and not just what they can solo or how good their damage or survivability are.

NTs suffer from huge problems, more than any other profession in this game. The only profession that can't utilize both defense and offense at the same time, being entirely nano dependent to either attack or defend. No weapons to attack with and very weak perks. Long cooldowns on basic nanos that lock out their ENTIRE nano toolset. Rooting someone leaves you locked out from doing anything for almost 5 seconds, whereas it takes a second for most professions to get out of that root, not to mention huge %root resist on some professions. Layers are a joke with their combination of long cooldown and ridiculously low value; endgame speaking in pvp they're barely enough to absorb one autoattack and don't come close to absorbing even one hit from a high mob. Two items that are still ingame provide a 110% bonus to a whole nanoline, granted that nanoline in itself is pretty ridiculous by turning a player's screen black instead of simply debuffing AAO. Gamebreaking drawbacks on mandatory parts of their toolset, such as the 30s self nanodrain severely crippling or nullifying both offense and defense, a 19 second self root, 1 minute self shutdown on a minor damage buff perk. No weapons and very weak perks. Ridiculous proc mechanics that trigger off tanking instead of attacking. Having both capped cast time AND cooldown on basic offensive nanos is absolutely ridiculous creating even more downtime. No nano "queuing" means even higher downtimes between nanos, if anyone desn't know what I'm talking about take a stopwatch and time how long it takes you to cast IU 3 times, in theory it's 8 seconds in practice it's almost 10 if you don't lag and button mash. Etc.

[Cratertina]

That's about spot on. The trouble is, our damage varies so much due to nukes being slow and having a wide range of damage.

I personally still feel that simply having DM's damage figures back will help quite a lot. Definitely not fix everything related to our damage issues, but it seems like the quickest and easiest adjustment that will make the biggest impact.

I mean, with DM, it would be possible to hit for 30k dmg in one shot regularly, and likely more. That just isn't even close to possible with GIVA.

Oh yes gif DM like damage to giev. Even better give some extra 1000 mc and 150% nanodamage.

[Vinkera]

NTs suffer from huge problems, more than any other profession in this game. The only profession that can't utilize both defense and offense at the same time, being entirely nano dependent to either attack or defend. No weapons to attack with and very weak perks. Long cooldowns on basic nanos that lock out their ENTIRE nano toolset. Rooting someone leaves you locked out from doing anything for almost 5 seconds, whereas it takes a second for most professions to get out of that root, not to mention huge %root resist on some professions. Layers are a joke with their combination of long cooldown and ridiculously low value; endgame speaking in pvp they're barely enough to absorb one autoattack and don't come close to absorbing even one hit from a high mob. Two items that are still ingame provide a 110% bonus to a whole nanoline, granted that nanoline in itself is pretty ridiculous by turning a player's screen black instead of simply debuffing AAO. Gamebreaking drawbacks on mandatory parts of their toolset, such as the 30s self nanodrain severely crippling or nullifying both offense and defense, a 19 second self root, 1 minute self shutdown on a minor damage buff perk. No weapons and very weak perks. Ridiculous proc mechanics that trigger off tanking instead of attacking. Having both capped cast time AND cooldown on basic offensive nanos is absolutely ridiculous creating even more downtime. No nano "queuing" means even higher downtimes between nanos, if anyone desn't know what I'm talking about take a stopwatch and time how long it takes you to cast IU 3 times, in theory it's 8 seconds in practice it's almost 10 if you don't lag and button mash. Etc.

Yes, damage is definitely an one of the bigger issues, but you summed up many of my thoughts paf But, believe me, I've got a few bones to pick with Funcom about the problems plaguing NT's.

Such as:

Being dependent solely on the single-threadedness of nanos is a huge problem. Cooldowns of more than 1 second totally ruin us.

Nanos, in general, bugging out. (polymorphed, if different nanos are spammed too fast, etc)

Having to devote the lion's share of our perks to nano regeneration is very annoying. Especially since even those don't cut it, and we still run out of nano.

Not being able to kill anything high level that we can't evade regularly, and no perk support for evades of any kind.

Unmeasurably bad damage at TL5, and before that, awful SL nuke options and dependence on AoE's for their lower nano cost and higher DPS than anything else at lower levels.

No pistol mastery perkline.

Just being able to classify more than half of our nukes as "utter crap". Izgimmer's Last Word and Izgimmer's Little Nuke claiming first and second prize in that department.

Many nanos being extremely difficult to cap casting time on, and others impossible as a froob.

Nullity Sphere nanos not being rollable or buyable. These are not luxury... they are essential.

Blinds not causing a player to lose the NT as a fight target.

The fact that a player can become 100% immune to our blinds.

Not being able to OE nukes (that goes for crats, docs, and MP's too), while every other profession can OE their weapons all they want.

NR debuffing nukes having higher NR check than IU..........

Mobs that are completely immune to nukes and debuffs make us worthless instantly.

The fact that GIVA even can hit for less than IU, and often does (that one makes me cry inside a little bit every time)

GIVA having 100% NR check...

1 of only 3 professions in the game that has no native ability to heal ourselves, in any form other than perks... while the other 2 (engineer and crat) have pets to share the aggro with.

...just to name a few...

The biggest problem though, is that we have no real identity of our own. What is an NT to AO? Simply a power leveling tool, which isn't even one step above my lawn mower or food processor. It's such a shame, and so disheartening because there is so much potential for us to be great. Sadly, at the moment, we really haven't got much in our favor. Even the game's mechanics and flaws with nano execution work against us.

Clearly, we have an uphill battle to fight to sort out these issues.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

from puf's post, seems like NT's could use two nano cast bars: one for offensive nanos, one for defensive nanos.

[Cratertina]

Two nano bars... or just short recharges and local cooldowns..

[Psikie]

NT's are basically AO's version of a wizard. We aren't really supposed to be able to "tank" anything honestly. The fact that players creatively can doesn't make it law.

But my take is the following:

I think nanos moving to local cooldowns instead of recharge would be the first step. Then you could become a true "caster" prof and have several nanos on your hot bar to cast in order during local cooldowns.

***HINT HINT Sort of like a starter nuke, main nuke, and finisher nuke??? Recharge prevents that atm.

I think our defensive nano blinds need some adjusting. Let me give you a comparison.

Visions of the Void -244
Optic Plague -499
vs
Engi DVP -1210, yes Engi blind does break on combat, but it is also spamable.
vs
Trad Corporate Protection -350 aao AND +300 aad to the Trad= 650 total defense.

So I would suggest NT's "blinds" be moved into different line like the Trad AAO debuff or be increased to at least 800. If they remain to be removable as "blinds".

DtN change on NS is a serious nerf. The way nano gets sucked down to zero is also horrendous. It wouldn't be so bad as is IF it did not set nano to zero after duration. Then Izzy wealth would have an actual use.

Future Izzy Wealth change to nano CH is also a nerf. The only time you really want to use it you are already at zero nano and cant cast it. If DtN change to NS goes through, IW needs to remain a nano HoT.

[Cratertina]

All this NT talk made me play my pistol NT again...

You ( 577.395 / 199.080 / 118 / 10 / 8% / 16.325 ) on 250 PW dyna over entire fight.

Removal of CC set + RB seriusly hurt my damage... also removal of detonation matrix... Now in nanodamage % setup. Biodome, ofab... etc.

What kind of gear are you guys running with these days? And what kind of damage you do?