Enforcer guide - career tanking

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Guide to Successful Enforcer Play

Howdy, I've recently started playing my fourth enforcer, and while still at low level it's been a real hoot.

My previous enforcer experience includes:

1. Noobasmurf (200/30/65ish)
2. Ultragoombah (85/9/21)
3. Tankngank (220/30/70)

So I know my way around enforcers, or so I thought - but it turns out I had some learning to do so I'll document a bit of my findings within this thread. All of the previous enforcers I've played are Atrox, so I decided to mix things up and try Solitus, mainly because this enforcer is for PVM and I know it'll be a breeze doing alphas on a Soli. Yes, it'll take a small hit to HP but 1k HP at endgame isn't a make or break for me. As well, stuff like getting a 2s nano tick, easily getting the nanoskills for endgame nanos and keeping gauntlet gear out of OE without a problem will make up for it.

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on this guide, but I will outline first of all what makes an enforcer successful in each levelling range, and what the average player might want to focus on in order to achieve that success.

Broadly speaking, the enforcer is a tank, in AO currently, and for a very long time, they have been the tank of choice, they have the highest natural HP, the best tools for generating single target and multiple target aggression, and have some of the best tools in game to mitigate damage.

Enforcers nano tools for tanking broadly fall into three categories:
* absorbs (damage mitigation)
* taunts and heals
* shield boosters and max HP buffs

That said, there are a slew of other tools at an enforcers disposal to generate agg, mitigate damage, heal damage and boost damage done in a few different methods, as well as some PVP type tools which I won't talk about here.

Items of interest that should be purchased immediately:
* nanos up to level 50ish if you can afford them, any general nanos you didn't get in arete.
* Aggression enhancer. Purchase from your basic store. The real purpose of this tool is for pulling. Since the patch where taunts no longer do 1 damage, this item essentially bypasses all social aggro problems by individually taunting but the mob doesn't let his buddies know he's annoyed at you. bonus! 40m range to boot!
* stims/heal kits

Title Level 1

Getting started. At low levels there really isn't a lot to say, enforcers don't need to "tank" they just need to be able to deal enough damage to kill a mob, tanking is hardly even a consideration here - stim kits, sit kits will always provide more than enough healing post/during fight to survive unless you really choose your fights badly.

The only thing a low level enforcer needs is a weapon, and to sink IP into body development, weapon/special skills, first aid and treatment

A good weapon will be more than enough to keep an enforcer cruising through the levels, especially if he has a team with him, or has some external buffs (keeper's and soldiers work well for this since large add dmg buffs only take 1 NCU and last for 5 minutes, easily enough time to kill several mobs)

Good weapon choices for TL1/2 include:
* dual baseball bats from starter area (1HB)
* howling skull from TOTW (1HB)
* phase blades from TOTW (1HE)
* Nervejolters from SoM (1HE)
* fear forged blades from SoM (piercing)
* Martial arts (don't need a weapon but can use FFB's)
* 2HE weapons - from starter area, nascense, or AI swords of low QL
* scythe of legionnaire (2HE)
* Stygian Desolator (2HE)
* Neleb Battlerod (2HB)
* any of the subway illegally modified OFAB weaps (needs LE expansion) (notably, these can be equipped simply with a 131 buff and a comp weapon skill, but will go OE for a while)

Good armour choices for TL1 are:

* sundance armor from arete
* newcomers armour (can't go wrong here, and levels with you)
* med suit

Basically, the modus operandi is: equip weapon, bash anything that moves - not too difficult.

Title Level 2 (25-50)

At TL2 for the first 20 levels or so you can really just carry on from TL1 but around level 20 or so you'll really be feeling the pinch for using small weapons so if you reach level 25 and you haven't yet upgraded your weapons it will be high time to do so. Getting a bit of help from org or an alt to run you through SoM or totw can pay off in spades - getting a decent weapon early on will provide you with fast damage, and much less time feeling strained while levelling. Equipped a decent weapon such as a neleb battlerod around level 25 will last well into TL3 if you aren't too fussy.

At TL2 you really want to start upgrading your armour to something other than a med suit if that's what you're wearing, start your first implants, get a 3 slot belt on bare minimum, and collect some highly useful armour pieces from TOTW, such as an exarch cloak (superior AC's, equipable at 21 without other reqs). If you got newcomer armour from Arete, stick that on as the AC's really will make a big difference over the next 100 levels or so - especially since you can level it in breaks in combat.

At TL2 you can start IPing critical nanoskills such as SI/PM (to 60ish to use composites), BM/MC to use critical enforcer nanos (but really isn't needed until you start on nasc hecks), and MM for max HP buffs - again, not needed until later really.

Tl2 is still about bashing as fast as you can with as much damage adding gear as possible. nano ring from TOTW paired with a platinum ring, as well as touch of the gripper and rockcrusher gauntlets and barrow strength will stack on damage nicely and make some serious increases especially if you didn't make a big effort twinking on a weap.

You can tackle tougher mobs in the 25-40 level range in the Crip cave (nasc) as well as the crip cave dungeons. these will keep XP capped per kill, which means you don't need to be equipping IQ rings to boost XP for some time yet. Playing with a decent team with everyone using decent weapons will result in a lot of fast kills and fast XP.

Towards the higher end of Tl2, you really want to be starting to use your mongo to heal yourself during fights, keeping agg off smaller/weaker players, and potentially casting an absorb shield between fights to limit damage taken.

Some big changes are just around the corner:

At the end of TL2, when you ding level 50, the VERY first thing you want to do is finish the research line Brawler Sense 2. http://auno.org/ao/perk.php?saveid=89627

This gives you the proc "Shrug off hits" which raises a 280 point absorb shield (it's an offensive proc, so it fires on landed hits). Shrug off hits is the BEST defensive proc to use for a long time. With 18.7 the proc was changed to stack with other absorbs, and because it refreshes often in combat, it means that you don't have to spend time/nano casting absorbs if you're whacking away successfully on something - but doing so between fights can really help a lot. While I don't advocate never casting absorb shields (I highly recommend it), it is a slow drawn out affair at low levels and you might not have a lot of IP for nano init. Thus, use this proc to raise shields for regular fighting and recast shields between fights. Later on you'll need to get nano init up high enough that you can insta cast absorbs (or closest to) during combat as this will become one of the most useful damage mitigation measures available.

This single proc changes the entire game for enforcers at low levels. In PVM with most mobs cycling damage types it means that you can absorb sometimes up to nearly a thousand points of damage before it breaking... but usually it refreshes before then anyway, so you basically go from eating ALL damage in PVM to eating almost NO damage in PVM.

How in the f*ck right? But ya, just get it, put it on your hotbar, and use it religiously. It's a fantastic proc up to about level 100, and even higher if you intend on saving IP on nano init and want to do a more evades oriented setup (I don't recommend this until level 200ish when you can actually achieve reasonable evades with 300 Ofab, fully upgraded green hud 3, predator buffs and big chunks of AAD in symbiants etc.)

Once you get that proc then "tanking" and damage mitigation start going hand in hand, and survival rate will increase dramatically. At this point, the importance of sorb shields should start to become clear.

To save on nano init IP and nano in combat, you can use the lowest absorb shield (provides 280 layers) which stacks with the proc, and also has a faster cast time, plus low nanocost.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Title Level 3

TL3 is really a fantastic time for enforcers, there are some amazing tools that open up, the game is fast and there are a bevy of weapons to choose from that basically put enforcers at the top of the DPS range, the top of the tank range and have some of the best opportunities to start being a team player, i.e. the crux that holds a team together.

Early on in game, it's hard to be dependent on other players, since so many other players kinda slack off, especially since you can blaze through the low levels with an OST and NT, but honestly, this is some of the most fun in game around level 50-100. It's a veritable playground for enforcers, and to just blast through while AFKing really is a tragedy.

At 50 you should have got your brawler sense 2 proc "shrug off hits" researched. If you have you're well on your way to becoming a good tank for TL3.

You can, with a bit of work get a 6 slot belt equipped, and, if you can find one, a low enough viral compiler to start knocking down your cast times.

I have never in the entire time I've played AO, IPed nano init on any combat prof, but this time I decided to try active tanking instead of passive tanking. I didn't IP NI until around level 75, but I would have done it sooner had I realized how effective it is.

So, my IP basically looks like this:
mostly maxed all base abilities
maxed weapon/brawl/fast attack
most maxed multi melee
high body dev
high evade close
high runspeed
high first aid, high treat, medium high comp lit
those are all the skills that are like: you can't play the game if you don't do this

But then comes the DARK blue skills: nanoskills and nano init.

The trick for TL3 is first, not to spend any more than you absolutely have to in nanoskills, since they are so retardedly expensive that it can ruin your toon if you over IP.

there are only 2 nanos you really need to use in combat, so, everything else you can get a 131/CI/mochams, swap stuff for, but realistically you only really need to be careful on SI and MM. Ok that said, here is the nanos you *want* to use at TL3:

Mongo Bash: http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=100200 (cheap+easy)
Shock absorber: http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=117683 (cheap+easy)
(Optionally a fear here can provide a lot of respite for a short period if you pull 1 mob too many, a single target fear can stick a mob into 'non attack mode' for up to 53 seconds)
(http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=121133) if you are keen on using a fear.

The TRICK.... is sorting out how fast you can cast shock absorber.
here is a rough guideline: with 1k nano init you can definitely (I know from experience) insta cast fortify: (http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=117685) at full agg. So, somewhere in the 700-800 nano init range the time to cast shock absorber should be very small.

You don't need to insta cast it, I was chain casting even when it was a 2-3s cast, it was still worth it. But if I'd known to IP nano init, it would have got me tanking even better, faster while keeping the DPS up.

AGG vs DEF

Enforcers (and maybe advy) are probably the only class that has a reasonable opportunity to use both settings effectively. In general, there aren't any classes that can really afford to go DEF early in game due to lack of inits, but then again, it's difficult to setup with enough defence (evades+AAD) that it really is beneficial anyway, so most players just play more AGGish anyway until about level 100 at which point some profs with fast weapons can actually get 1/1 with the bar somewhat DEFish.

The reality is, for enforcers that if you intend on tanking, and you want to "actively" tank, that you should play full AGG. It generates more agg, it reduces IP expenditures on non-essential skills, and it increases your active damage mitigation ability significantly.

So may now is a good time to discuss ACTIVE vs PASSIVE damage mitigation.

Damage mitigation methods

Enforcers will generally bear the brunt of a mobs aggression - this is their role. As a result, enforcers really need to have methods to deal with that aggression which inevitably lead to damage taken and potentially debuffing the enforcer.

So, lets talk about damage mitigation. There are many different forms of damage mitigation, and there are several different kinds of mitigation as I will discuss here and they range from completely passive to active, to cycling, to AGG-DEF based, to blockers, to offensive nano, to defensive nano, to combat active and the list goes on.

First of all we need to talk about PASSIVE mitigation, passive mitigation is what happens without you even knowing that it's occurring.

* AC's (Armour Class) - armour class reduces damage done directly. 10AC's reduce the corresponding incoming damage by 1 point. 1000 melee AC's reduce incoming damage by 100 melee damage. Armour class is the most passive type of mitigation with sole exception of not being in combat.
* Evades 1 - primary evasion skills aren't actually evasion, they are crit avoidance. Basic skills in evasion result in non-chain crits. Mobs can always crit, but, with low evasion skills (very low) they will crit you continuously.
* Evades 2 - evasion is less passive than AC's because the game provides a log of missed hits. So, when you evade a potential hit you can observe that it happened. Enforcers have limited ability to evade in early game play but evasion becomes a much more significant aspect of damage mitigation towards endgame.
* Reflects Enforcers are by no means reflect masters, but they have naturally occurring reflects in their toolset at high levels (bio shielding 9,10). However, the most obvious reflection mechanism enforcers enjoy is a 13% reflect buff which is available from this graft, which should be purchased as SOON as possible: http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=128200 Just to reiterate: this is one of the most important items in game. GET IT ASAP!!!
* attack blockers - available from teaming with a keeper. A less significant method of damage mitigation, but can be very useful paired with good evades and some forms of active mitigation (init/AR debuffs).
* not in combat - this should never be underestimated. The best enforcers will not only tank like a boss, but they will choose their fights wisely. A level 100 enforcer without coccon ready running up to a clump of three heckles and spamming mongo may seem like a brave move, but I would classify this as stupid. Just because you have area taunts doesn't mean you should use them. Leave a mob in non-combat state until you are ready to deal with him is probably the most underestimated method of damage mitigation. Fear nanos can put a mob into non-attack mode for a brief period of time, which is often just enough to buy time for the team to kill the current mob. Don't underestimate fear nano utility.
* Deflect - added in 18.7, deflect has a base chance of 5% at 0 skill, and 10% at 3000 skill - essentially, all players have a 5ish% chance to deflect a hit. A deflected hit does half the normal damage. (there are some exceptions to this, e.g. aimed shot does 0 damage if deflected)
* Cyclic Absorbs - Cyclic absorbs are an advy's best friend (enforcers do not have access to cyclic absorbs). Not to be confused with cocoon, cyclic absorbs periodically refresh a small absorb shield which then is consumed prior to allowing damage through. Cyclic absorb shields are of dubious value but nevertheless exist and are the best lead in to ACTIVE mitigation.

ACTIVE MITIGATION

* Absorbs Absorbs Absorbs nano absorbs are an enforcers bread and butter. I cannot overstate their importance. From an early level through to endgame, absorbs differentiate the good enforcers from the enforcers who "can't tank worth ****". Period. Absorbs are incredibly effective both on RK, and SL. They are effective against nukers, against ranged damage, against melee damage, against multiple opponents and against single opponents. There is hardly a single instance where you would advise AGAINST using absorbs. So, lets just get it out there, nano absorbs are the primary tool for damage mitigation for enforcers. If you could only cast one nano, forever, this would be it.

Absorbs function AFTER AC's, AFTER reflects, and AFTER evades, so, basically they are the last bastion of defence before you start losing big chunks of HP.

Absorbs are active because they need to be refreshed constantly (cast on CD for difficult fights as long as you're holding aggro effectively, but alternating with mongo, i.e. 2 layers, 1 mongo, 2 layers, 1 mongo, is an effective cycle as well). Yes, an absorb "lasts" for up to 23 minutes, but an absorb usually is depleted within a few seconds of combat. So, to be getting the best mitigation out of absorbs these should be chain cast.
NOTE: If you're chain casting, you really want to be insta-casting so you're not losing out on normal attack damage. It also means getting enough - nano cost that you don't run out of nano on a demanding fight. The newer health/nano stims are a great addition to game in this respect, and, probably most importantly until about level 110, genius, genius, genius (perk). This perk alone will result in the capability to continuously fight for many levels.

* Initiative Debuffs - initiative debuffs are the bread and butter damage mitigation by crats, doctors, and to a lesser extent shades, agents, MA's and MP's. An enforcer can significantly benefit when initiative debuffs are placed on a mob (and adds) that are attacking the enforcer. Initiative debuffs are one of the most effective damage mitigation measures in game. Period.

Initiative debuffs are active because they must be cast and periodically refreshed on the target in order to maintain the effect.

* Attack rating debuffs - attack rating debuffs are generally significantly underrepresented in terms of use, but when used appropriately can be remarkably effective. Attack rating debuffs are the domain of engineers, and to a much, much lesser extent, NT's and traders. An engineer who knows how to operate these debuffs is a valuable team mate indeed. The best AR debuffs reduce both the damage dealing capability (weapon) of the mob as well as his chance to hit the enforcer by 1210 AAO. As long as this debuff runs on a mob, the enforcer essentially becomes once of the best effective evaders in game, and, whatever attacks DO make it through the Boolean logic of evasion will hit for considerably less than it normally would.

Attack rating debuffs are active damage mitigation because the best ones only last 22 seconds and must be constantly refreshed to maintain the effect (cast on cooldown) - note that this buff breaks easily so to keep it running it must be refreshed constantly.
http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=154715 (engineer nano, note the nano itself lasts 10 minutes, but the debuff aspect pulses every 20s and lasts for 22s. Generally a good engineer spams this nano on cooldown for best results.)

The last mitigation method is based on limitations and mechanics, and can have both positive and negative results.
* LOS tanking and Range tanking - use of line of site to completely mitigate potential attacks is both extremely effective, extremely situational, and borderline cheating. It also is risky: a mob can quickly lose interest in you and if no target is present it can result in "boss HD" which basically equates to "damn the mob is full HP again!" in about 10 seconds.

So, here is an example of how enforcer damage mitigation works, using the 4 most important tools an enforcer has available to him in early game.

Lets say a mob could crit you for 2855 damage (an ely heck chain critted an alt with 0AC's while I was dragging him around, he hit for 2855 damage 2x in a row), (normal hits are around 1500).

First you IP evade close, which first reduces the crit chance to about 4% from 100%. (damage reduced by about 40%)
Next, AC's are counted. With this setup which was easily possible at level 81 http://auno.org/ao/equip.php?saveid=197259, I further mitigate about 380 damage. (1500-3800/10=1120damage)

Next, we count reflects 1120-(13%*1120) = 974 damage

And finally, we count our absorbs. With the setup listed above, I was able to IP up to 1000 nano init which was, when buffed with focused anger (http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=29641) enough to instacast fortify (http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=117685)
974-525=450 damage

Since I was actively fighting, I also had Shrug off hits up which, if fortify ran out, it would do back up absorption of another 280 damage.
450-280=170 damage.

So, the hit that basically crushed my alt on follow in one hit, barely scratches my enf with proper damage mitigation techniques in operation. (450dmg taken from potential hit of 2855 is a reduction of 84%)

This is fundamental enforcer operation, and is the KEY to successful tanking.

Using bio shield on cooldown, a decent damage shield (whichever shield you can cast at low levels and up to Ice burn at TL5-endgame), bio-cocoon perked fully, and even later on using proc and even rage to further ****e up your damage shields, you can easily start to see that your damage shield may actually do more damage to your opponent than it can do to you on a landed hit.

At later levels, understanding the importance of damage shields will GREATLY improve your damage dealing capability. Again, this is a hugely underappreciated aspect of the enforcer toolset and I will go into some detail in later sections about how to maximize this aspect of play.

Back on topic: using these simple principles will allow a low level enforcer to successfully actively tank ely hecks. If you are not confident about heck tanking, give it a try vs Mortiigs in west ely. The final point I'll make here is that both hecklers and other hard hitting mobs in SL (and RK) cycle damage. That means, for every new damage type, the absorb shield multiplies in efficacy. This isn't a lie, the game was designed this way. Use this knowledge to your advantage.

At TL3, the importance of AC's in conjunction with basic evasion and effective absorb usage should be paramount in your learning curve. At level 100, your ability to continuously tank ely hecks should be limited only by nano supply, which, when you ding 110, it should be obvious what the perk choice should be:
GENIUS (2)

From level 75-100 you can go 100% research and still blast up levels.
Key research lines are brawler's sense 3 and Flexibility 3 - which together give a monumental 30 points to all nanoskills.

At 60-75 ideally you want to upgrade your weapons, good choices for this range are:
* howlet (2HB)
* pained panther (2HE)
* chiropteras (1HE)
* tiig beaters (1HB)
* Cook/Chef Cleavers (1HE)

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Title Level 4

At Tl4 there are huge boosts to all professions from Sector 10 gear which becomes available at 126, boosts from nice twinking gear such as the prototype cyborg board and the Bronto burger quest nano from Corporal Ashley Winstead:

http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php...des%2F&pid=355

and generally:

http://www.ao-universe.com/index.php...des%2F&pid=357

for most profs these nanos range from useful to best for sub 200, and for enforcers this is no exception, in fact, the nano reward for enforcers is the best in game until the 215 dust brigade reward.

In the spirit of my inane trumpeting of damage mitigation I will continue to harp on about the benefits of absorbs for a while longer!

http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=270350 this beast of a nano is incredibly powerful at the ripe young age of 120 when the mission is first offered/completed. Compared to fortify, this nano will provide a 63% boost to damage mitigation, which is very significant.

Be warned that the cast time is a bit longer at 6.92s and rech 4.65s compared to 6.08/3.88 for fortify so it can't be spammed quite as quickly or frequently. Regardless, the boost is remarkable, and really sets up your mitigation capability for the ado grind.

During the 120's and up to 150, you really don't get a lot more perks to play with, you may only have 2 or 3 damage perks to play with, and you won't get many more until SL levels so these levels you have to content yourself with peripheral additions to the toolset, and, realistically, TL4 is where you may want to start considering tertiary mitigation measures such as evades. Evades at TL4 really start becoming significant when you add up both your equipment, available buffs, potential debuffs and auras that are ever getting stronger from your team mates.

AAD, for example, might be hovering around 30-50 pre level 100, but, after your first twink-up post 100, when QL 200 Jobe implants become available, and the 1k token board (and even the 400 token board) become available, plus armour pieces and buffs become much more available, you might find yourself with up to 500-600 AAD with very little effort. Those kind of levels of AAD won't do that much on their own, but, if paired with some prudent evade close implants and even a few choice buffs such as reduce inertia, you might find that by scaling the slider to DEF that you may actually not even need to cast a single absorb during a fight - that is, you might evade all the potential hits before a mob dies.

While playing full DEF isn't the fastest in terms of DPS, it does provide a completely new level of mitigation, that is the Boolean logic of HIT/MISS. since prior to now we have always assumed that a potential hit will hit, and we must scale back the damage done by various mitigation techniques, the benefit of a missed hit can not be underestimated. Quite simply, when faced with a large number of mobs, there is no better method to mitigate the majority of damage than evasion. Late game, it is by far the most effective method to tank multiple, multiple mobs, as will be discussed in detail later.

This method of damage mitigation is, for the moment less effective than active tanking due to the lack of DPS that accompanies all levels of play up to around level 150 when you can first start getting weapons up to 1/1 at full defense, but more importantly, you cannot possibly get enough nano init to maintain absorb shields effectively while trying to evade tank, and, thus you really need to choose which method to use. There is no right or wrong answer here, but doing both will seriously hamper your damage dealing capability to the point that you will no longer hold agg and thus not tank any more.

During levels 100-150 you should start to consider the journey to scheol and Adonis, and what this means for playstyle. Runspeed becomes increasingly important in this level range, and often questing means having to traverse terrain with multiple mobs, often which will social agg you. Runspeed, therefore should be a strong consideration for IP, and supplemented with clusters, armour items and grafts such as:
http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=128354 (hacked-boosted graft: playful cub) which adds 100 RS

The rate of XP gain per mob will invariably decrease from 100-130ish so it is a good idea to stay on top of what missions are available, exercising different venues for levelling, and staying on top of your AI dailies and others.

A particularly fun mission is the mantis hive daily which, if proper damage mitigation techniques are employed, can be an extremely lucrative and pleasurable venture.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Title Level 5

At TL5 there are two very different aspects of play that will significantly shape how you choose to set up your enforcer.

Sector 10 build - Enforcers here set up for maximized damage and crit, with weapons with high max damage and low min damage doesn't matter. Setting up an enforcer to play in S10 successfully may often mean that it is viewed as an investment, and thus may have a significantly higher budget allocated.

SL/Levelling build - Enforcers here will likely opt for a mix of %XP, AC's and max health to stay alive while questing/tanking, with a bit of add dmg added in to help in solo play or hold agg slightly more easily. Weapon choices are significantly different for a levelling enforcer, with the most popular choices being AI weapons with high min damage but low max damage since AC's on ado mobs and above begin to lower your damage dealt to minimum. Therefore, weapons like the COH varieties become increasingly obsolete in Ado for popular activities such as Heckler killing.

TL5 is the first range that you may actually want to make an investment in your toon. Armour choices at TL5 will start to make a big impact in your ability to get on a reasonable weapon, and will make a significant difference in playability.

While there are many cheap options still available, there are some armour slots that will, if you choose to spend a bit more, significantly increase your capability.

Leveling to TL5, provided you have not been stopping to farm, do RK mishes and collect stuff to sell, may have cost you less than 10m credits. It's cheap, easy and enforcers certainly don't require high cost symbs - implanting in most slots will be perfectly acceptable. For top level symbs for an enforcer for S10 may run you somewhere in the 300m-800m range. They are NOT cheap. Enforcers, MA's, keepers and Advy's are some of the best professions for farming S10 and thus the top level symbs for infantry classes cost more than most endgame symbs cost. (Welcome to supply and demand 101).

You do not 'need' top level symbs, but even the lower grade ones (awakened, 180), and around that level still cost a premium due to trickle down demand for those that can't afford the enduring, 190, and growing 200 symbs.

The bottom line is, outfitting at 150 for S10 can be very expensive if you are not careful - and that's just for implants/symbs.

I highly recommend using QL 200 implants where possible and avoid the super high priced symbs which offer negligible benefit over symbs.

Weapon choices:
First off, for S10 you'll want COH weapons as opposed to AI weapons with the obvious choice being crispy chiropteras. you'll see many enforcers wearing Sword of Curiosity and Sword of wonder if they are twinked up, but honestly, these weapons don't really add a lot of bang for your buck. Sure, a SoW crits like a truck, but it also costs upwards of 600m. with a slightly adjusted setup for add dmg instead of crit (which is a lot easier to come by) a couple of crispy chiropteras at 5m/piece will do a world of good for your wallet and the farm time needed to recoup those costs.

Secondly, for SL levelling, you'll really want AI/LE weapons (a few SL options) to bring your minimum damage up a few notches.

* type 240 axe (level 200 minimum but up to 270 axes can be twinked on with some heavy duty effort)
* type 112 sword - always, ALWAYS a good choice, cheap on IP, decent perks, easy to upgrade
* type 112 hammers - decent choice, as well can go quite high level
* other AI options I've seen rapiers and melee energy
* Mongoose (1HE)
* Viper (piercing)
* Bear (2HB)
* Wolf (2HE)
* Panther (1HB) All of the animal named weapons require LE clumps to upgrade. there is really very little reason to choose these over the Kyr'ozch (AI) version. They offer no benefit for a levelling toon except late game where a QL 300 variety has a higher damage range than a 300 AI weapon.
* there are a few other weapons which you may want to look into, such as:
Maul of Gwyddawg, which has a massive min damage, but also is slow as hell (def need to be full agg)
http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=245784
* Frost bound reaper http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=206061 which can do fairly good damage (again needs near/ full agg to fight properly)
* Gelid blade of inobak: http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=206057 - I can't emphasize how good of a weapon this is, for a long times it's been very much a "doctor twink" weapon, but it's actually got all the makings to give an enforcer an edge in DPS. the 8% proc, when loaded up with cold damage, can add a staggering amount of damage during continuous fighting - when duel wielding you lose brawl but the gain in damage is formidable with 8% procced hits. at 960 base damage, procced hits will be modified by your add cold damage so you could be looking at as much as 200-300 more damage per proc (not to mention normal hits and fast attack) here's a setup for cold damage giving nearly 300 add cold dmg http://auno.org/ao/equip.php?saveid=197268

Gelids are further a decent choice since they have a pretty reasonable min damage and have a high enough max damage that you won't feel 'slow' if you chose to do some S10 prior to levelling.



The reason most players stop at 150 for a while is to farm phatz (relays) to pop and hopefully get some bots. It's no surprise that many players want to invest a bit in their toons to make this grind for cash a bit easier. Armour can be cheap, and it can be expensive. It's really all relative, but if the top of the range armour in game costs 1.8B/piece, then a piece of gear that costs 200m is just about at the bottom of the range in terms of cost. Well, if 200m is still too much for you, there's a whack of choices that might make you feel better.

Lets say you aren't interested in a full set of merc's because it's just too expensive, well, if you were to choose 1 part, which would it be? Good question, and the answer is PANTS. You always go for pants first! why?

* Ofab chest if a highly valuable piece of armour adding stamina, MC, and a big wad of HP as well as big AC's,
Dchest is a reasonable choice and offers HP and a lot of add dmg if you're feeling rich, but another fantastic low cost alternative is miy's tank chest which gives % cost, stam, strength, HP and some very solid AC's.

* Ofab arms offer 1he, multi melee, HP and melee init, Miy's melee/tank arms are also decent choices, and if you were hard up for sleeves and wanted to maximize your HD you could use De-hacked fredricksons sleeves which are certainly not a bad defensive choice.

* Gloves you can choose between Ofab, silken legchoppers for 1he/2he (atrox only), rockcrusher gauntlets which add 9 dmg which is good for many levels, goddess gloves (3% xp) and spiderdusters which give +add dmg and matter metamorphosis (really not a bad choice), if you are attending Tara raids you could get smelly butcher gloves, and finally if you're hard up you could go with Brothers brass knuckles. All of these choices are very reasonable. (recently, living dragon armour gloves were added that give +22 add dmg which are also a great choice.)

* Boots you'll need to swap out for inferno so theres no reason to upgrade them significantly, but if you were going to upgrade, there are good options around such as goddess boots (1% crit), boots of the dancing king (evades+runspeed)

* finally, Hat will need to be replaced with penumbra glasses very soon and thus it is a bad choice since it won't be getting used for a lot of the next 50 levels or so. (if you want nice swappable hat choose a lower QL Ofab hat, goddess hat which has nice add dmg bonus as well as the normal modifiers, ) another OK option is predator circlet with 1% crit.

Thus, if you're going to get 1 piece of AI armour, make a nice pair of pants as this will get the most use out of them and there are few other options that provide such a nice mix of skills/defences and HP. Ideally QL 223-225 is the best for resale, but if you can't find the appropriate clump you might be out of luck. A QL 200-270 pair of pants will be good from Tl5 right through to 220.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Title Level 6

TL6 is an interesting time for enforcers, with some grinding, a bit of twinking and a bit of collecting of gear, you can do some pretty interesting setups, including:

* full QL 300 armour (Penultimate Ofab/OFAB SE hat/ OFAB back)
* QL 300 combined Merc's
* Honed edge of tarasque
* Dreadlock panther
* Dreadlock Bear
* QL 300 Axes
* 1HE/1HB setups (finally viable)
* evade setups (that actually work)
* 20k-25k HP tanking setups
* maxed nanocost setups
* TNH belt setups with 2s HD (easily) and even with 890 stam to keep Ofab out of OE
* NR 1 setups while using top nanos

Basically, at level 200, you can do pretty much everything, and, you can even do a lot of it concurrently (within reason).

For example, I have an Atrox 200 enforcer set up with 1HE/1HB, with this setup:
http://auno.org/ao/equip.php?saveid=197284 (note that this hasn't been updated since 18.7 went live)

This setup actually is pretty reasonable for damage with normal damage on the dread panther hitting 1800-1900 per hit and the axe a bit lower but still reasonable. Where this setup is really good is for defence, it's got static 700 AAD, add 75 from raidbuffs and 40ish from a TL5 transfer tower you've got a very sizable chunk of AAD to augment your evades. Teamed with a crat, keeper or advy and you can evade tank very, very well.

You're sitting on about 25-28k max health with Mongo's titan (9k VP from ofab general vendor)+CS+omnimed+LC which is oodles enough for most tanking you'll want to do. It's amazing when the doctor is watching your HP and waits to pop a CH on you since CH's sometimes won't recharge in time... but your damage mitigation simply allows the doctor to effectively heal with LGE OR pop CH's once a blue moon.

Anyway, you can do wonders with a setup like this if you use your absorb shield religiously. I have successfully tanked the technician solo in S7 with this setup, in full defence with RRFE and RI.

From my personal experience, however, the damage gains from having two combat lines perked (since 18.7 you can't do this anyway) isn't worth the loss of defence of cocoon (or another defensive line) This setup requires 1HE mastery 7 and blunt mastery 8 in order to keep the weapons out of OE. My preference, had I known it at the time would have been to go with pure 1HB and put the extra IP into nano init.

Tl6 enforcers range from garbage setups all the way to 200/30/70 epic twinks. The epic twinked 200's aren't easy, they take a long time to build, requiring a vast array of comp lit gear in order to equip TNH belts (afaik not possible on sided atrox enforcers at present), research alone requires a huge time commitment. then there is the collection of a slew of nodrop items that sometimes require quests, such as the prof star.

The bottom line is, if you want to twink up at 200, there is serious gains to be had, but, they also require a lot of work. Most twinks at 200 you see will be mostly completed on research, but few are all the way there with perfect everything.

The time to build a 200 twink compared to a 150 or 170 twink I would estimate as being in the range of 5-10x as long therefore, they are a considerable time sink to say the least.



Gameplay 200 and S7

Gameplay at 200 is very similar to gameplay at 150: there is a significant dichotomy: aliens or SL. Almost all enforcers that go to 200 will really need a lot of XP for research so many many inf hards will be on the books, as a result nearly all 200 enfs will ultimately opt for the highest end weapons in game which provide the highest damage both in SL, and damage vs aliens is a bit of an afterthought. The best weapons for SL will be completely fine for aliens. Just aim to get on the biggest weaps you can.

200 Enfs are very useful in S7 and can do Dark ruins effectively for farming opportunities.

Level 200 is the first time in game that an enforcer can really use evades. With the AAD available in a full set of 300 CM and 100AAD available on 2 pieces of 300 OFAB, you basically got the basics available without even trying. A few choice items, a raidbuff and some OSB's and you're sitting on just enough evades to make it the most effective damage mitigation mechanism at your disposal. Add to that spamming absorbs and you'll do well.

But...... playing at full def slows down your inits (a lot), so, that's where you got to start considering the rage tradeoffs (inits vs reduced healing) and mongo/absorb cycling not to mention nanocost and nano stimming. (Note that with 18.7 this has changed a bit. I'm editing now (16/09/2015) in light of these changes.

These are the nanos you should have for holding aggro at level 200:

Wrathbringer: 27% proc taunts for 2011 https://aoitems.com/item/226276/wrathbringer/
Ice Burn: 10% proc for 10000taunt https://aoitems.com/item/269460/ice-burn/
Mongo's gargantua: 8000HP+20% HR https://aoitems.com/item/223107/mongos-gargantua/
https://aoitems.com/item/301291/mongo-break/ This is the key nano at level 200 to really hold aggro while maintaining decent rate of self healing. heals for 3120HP over 20s and taunts for 15000 base and 17000 if your PM is over 1100. This casted every 20s will keep the health ticks going and can be spammed with only a 5s line CD to really boost burst aggro.
Challenger https://aoitems.com/item/49759/might...r-to-behemoth/ If you casted this before a fight, it's a good plan. I find that I want this nano up for the add dmg and extra crit rate I get out of it that makes holding aggro a bit easier. It takes up a lot of NCU so be careful. It's not a necessity, but it helps.

Infernal rage: while this nano used to have no downsides to use in regular rotation during tanking, it now has a significant downside, and should only be used sparingly and situationally. I would say there really is no value in using this nano in most PVM venues. There are some minor benefits, but they are offset significantly by the -30% heal reactivity. Also, some key parts of rage were removed in 18.7 such as the damage shield which was helpful for holding aggro. Simply: situational at best, and you probably won't need it.

Notes: if you have NCU for challenger cast before the fight starts then pop a treatment/nanokil to heal your nano. Casting mid fight can be risky, and unless you're really sure you can fit it in your cycle without a aggro lapse... don't cast it.
More notes: At level 200 there really isn't a lot of value in the malice/single taunt line. In game, there is only 1 boss mob where it might have utility and honestly it's not needed (nurse in S7). Imalice is very useful, but I wouldn't bother with this line prior to 215. There are simply better casts at any time in the cycle.

For a fight where you know you're going to be "tanking" and not simply spamming damage until everything is dead... I use a nano cycle like this:

1. pre fight cast challenger to behemoth and absorb shield, pop bio shield
2. enter fight and pop Flurry of blows any mechanical taunts you have, fire melee specials and queue perks, also arouse anger/cause of anger if you have these perked
3. pop mongo as soon as you see damage getting past your absorb shield.
4. cast absorb shield next to refresh
5. cast absorb shield next to refresh about 10s later

From here, tanking is a breeze. the nano rotation is simply mongo/absorbs/absorbs repeat.

There is rarely necessity to cast challenger mid fight. and rage is only moderately useful. If you don't have enough nano init to cast greater fortify at full defence, you might be better off using rage so you can spam it without damage interuptions since the gain in absorb refreshes will offset the loss of healing received.

Watch your nano, and I would generally use your nano/health stim to heal your nano in opposition to using it to heal your HP. In otherwords, don't use it to do a health heal, use it to heal nano. Genius perk is useful for longer fights/continuous fighting, and battle prepared nanokits are also useful. PNH/IOR if you have NCU space for them help a lot as well. The larvae from S7 is situationally useful but check that you have enough psychic to use it (500).

In terms of perks and procs, I've found that Ogre shield is an unbelievably good proc to choose for tanking, and frees you up from casting Gfortify continuously. If you don't have cost/PNH/IOR/or the fight simply isn't that difficult, I've found using ogre shield is a great way to keep shields refreshing regularly without the fuss of casting in full defence.



SL inf grinding

Anyone who thinks that they don't need to equip well because they are just going to log a 220 and get pulled along to 220 is shortsighted. While this may be a valid exercise for levels 201-205 or even 210, it is a significant drawback for ANY team to have one spot taken up by a toon on follow. It doesn't matter how good your 220 is, if you're pulling around an alt on follow from 200-220 you're immediately and irrevocably slowing down your team by a GUARANTEED 18.3%. (how?) Well, in any team there is only 6 slots, if one slot is a toon on follow, that's one toon that isn't DPSing. 1/6 = 18.3% If you argue that your 220 is doing more DPS than your alt on follow, this is true, but it's also true that the slot your alt takes up could easily be filled with another teammate who isn't on follow/afk the whole mish, that means, no matter what way you cut it, you've just increased the time it takes you to ding 220 by about 20%.

Therefore, the objective, ALWAYS is to reduce that number. So, what is the best way to reduce this number? Well, the best thing you can do is understand what methods you have of producing DPS:

1. The size of your weapon is the absolute key factor here. Any combat prof should never, ever settle for smaller weapons than one that is JUST out of OE, even if it IS OE is better than "I can Rclick it and it goes on". Why? The closer a weapon is to being OE the greater the QL, thus the greater the min damage (this assumes you choose a viable weapon for SL fighting with high min damage and max damage is irrelevant)

2. Add dmg/crit. Simply, get as much as you can of both. Purple hud 3 is good, a 13-15% crit scope is better. depending on your weapons, usually a crit scope is better, but at low levels in inferno where you may not have enough AR to perk/hit some mobs (spiders doh!) purple will up the chances to land attacks and therefore be superior.

3. Perk choices. universally, it's better to go deeper into a line than not. But, if you're dead because you didn't take cocoon with you is universally idiotic. Unless you're twinked to the max and know exactly when to pop rage and run random agg will affect you at some point - so always perk coon. Nobody will fault you for not having a lot of perk damage, but people will fault you for playing like an idiot, and many players will fault you if you don't play hard.

A reasonably setup enforcer at level 200 can crank out 50-80k DPM in inferno. If you're missing that target by more than 20k damage, you are not set up well enough for inferno.
Here's how to estimate your damage:
Take your average hit and multiply by 50.
Average hits with QL 300 weapons is about 1800dmg *50 = 90k DPM That includes dual wield (36), fast attack (10), brawl (4), and no perks. Perks generally don't add a lot for enforcers so I don't count them. enforcer perk damage is maybe 8k if you're fast and can land them.

If you're not hitting 1000 regulars, you should try for a bigger weapon. Special edition weapons are easily available and dead easy to acquire and equip. SE weapons will hit for 1k damage and with even a rudimentary setup with arul saba's and a couple reasonable pieces of armour to boost crit rate and you should be able to get about 45k+ dpm.

That said, if you're not dual logging and slowing the team by taking up two slots with one active toon, the best you can do is work your ass off to make up value. That means not dying, pushing DPS as hard as you can, using stims to feed the carrier, buffing everyone with normal buffs, and making sure you're communicative with team leader/roller.

If you are dual logging for inferno, it's generally accepted that you're doing a bit of babysitting and often lower players won't mind too much. Usually in these cases you'll be doing inf easies which is totally appropriate.

If you are doing a LOT of babysitting, it might be worth learning how to multibox so at least you get your alt contributing - but, by far the best method is to gear up, and learn how to DPS like your life depends on it.

To get an understanding of actual enforcer DPS capability, there is a thread on AO forums where I successfully refuted the myth of enforcer damage inadequacy; you can see the results in this thread:

http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...tankjoo&page=8

Post number 156.

This thread as well as this thread:

http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...t=enforcer+dps

These are some really interesting reads with a lot of solid arguments presented. These threads argue that enforcer damage is dismal, I effectively show how to do decent DPS on an enforcer, and many merits are discussed by veteran enforcers.

Enforcer, for the most part are the best tanks in game. However, the main thing to remember is if you want to be adaptive, and useful if you aren't the main tank is to get a few swaps together so you can do reasonable damage. As well raid buffs (as with any prof) will significantly up your damage dealing capacity.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Title Level 7

TL7, while in theory is merely a continuation of TL6, is actually a much broader scope than what one would expect.

With mid SL levels, enforcers get a bit of a 'by'. There are low expectations, and people don't really mind if you aren't thumping and raging like an bull seeing red. But this guide isn't about how to coast by, how to slack so you don't get kicked from teams. This guide is about reaching higher, blowing away the cob-webs, and making people re-think their assumptions. This guide is about making enforcers that kick-ass, hard.

So, TL7 technically begins at 205, but lets be honest, you really aren't going to be able to do much more than what you did at TL6, due to a few systemic constraints:

1. you are limited to the nanos you had at 200 (and were using at 130 - note that this is no longer the case, 18.7 added a few nanos for high TL5/TL6/low TL7)
2. unless you twink really hard, you're not going to redefine the toon until you're capable of getting on 300 armour and endgame weaps. (you can do this at 200, so if you do it at 210, it's not exactly groundbreaking)

From 205 to 215 there is no other objective than to power through - maintenance of DPS, getting on a QL 300 weapon as soon as possible, and making sure your perks are sunk into good choices to enhance DPS is the best approach.

Big boosts to DPS come from:

* crit - make sure your NCU is up-to-date so you can receive MOP/TTS and whatever other buffs are around.
* crit - a 6% crit scope will likely OD the 100 add dmg purple hud 3. Try to find a decent crit scope - this really is a very decent item and it should never be underestimated.
* crit - Igocs. If you can afford one, get it.
* crit - get your Superior Icy shoulderpad of Brawn, it's a fantastic item giving 3% crit and some nice stats.
* crit - goddess boots (an easy swap) for 50m or so, alternately, plan for it in advance and farm DR
* crit - predator circlet. honestly, it's a can't lose item (only use if you dont' have OFAB SE head on
* calculators are difficult to equip at 1k intel, and ACDC is difficult to acquire, but for the hardcore they are cool util items.
* more crit - sniper's friend (1k agi is a bit tough to get but can be done fairly easily around 205)
* Add dmg - arul saba's, particularly the left wrist should be kept up-to-date for your level, 38/53/82/120 for the various level arul sabas.
* Dust brigade bracer - quite easy to get a 5/10 bracer on at level 200, at which point it becomes kind of tedious to keep upgrading, so I recommend doing a minor twink on CL at 200 to put it on and then just upgrade it when possible. You should max CL on enf so no worries there if you're concerned about IP waste.
* MOTR is a decent left shoulder choice if you can't afford an Igoc.
* cloak of reanimated gladiator is a decent backchoice and also gives 3% xp, runspeed and dmg/nano boosts.
* other armour slots should basically be upgraded to 300 CM for reasonable DPS increases as they become available.

The method to doing good DPS is easy. Get to the mob fast, and establish aggro before your mates show up, the longer you have aggro, the more DPS you can do - remember, dmg shields!!!!!!

This is the modus operandi from level 200 (205) to level 215.

At level 215 the world crumbles, and the good enforcer will pick up the pieces and rebuild the world to his liking.

At level 215, every. single. prof. is ranked by the strength of the APF and DB nanos. And guess who has the best nanos in game? you guessed it. Enforcers.

So, now, EVERYTHING you've worked so hard for, is suddenly invalid. why? QQ right? Ok, I admit, it's hard to switch gears, but trust me on this one, you'll want to.

OK, first up - if you haven't been collecting gear, now is the time to break the bank open a bit and start to figure out how in hell you're going to make up to 1550 nanoskills. GOD DAMN! who in their right mind designed such nanos?!

Well, in AO there is a plan, and that plan has been stuck to and it works: make defensive gear less effective offensively, and offensive gear less effective defensively, and make powerful stuff hard to use. No worries, lets just figure out what we need to do! You got three choices:
1. try to equip betas and then get a few nano skill adding items
2. don't equip betas and get more nanoskill adding items.
3. get a few nanoskill adding items and ALWAYS team a trader/get MP buffs.

It's kinda tricky equipping betas, but really, at 215 is not that difficult. With a reasonable selection of gear including quest items (ring of plausibility), BoC, hadrulfs belt, masterpiece ancient bracer, perfected infused DB bracer, DB covering, pistols for intel, ring of divine teardrops for sense, Ring of computing, and the regular bevy of assorted gear, it may not be too difficult ... but it's unlikely that you have all this gear if you're reading this guide. Therefore, the probable route is to use whatever 200-220ish symbs you've got in, and work around those deficiencies with direct nano adding items.

Checklist time:

1. 1x memories of a scientist, 1x empty ancient device, 1x DB infuser (50 skill)
2. cloak of reanimated gladiator (+15 skill)
3. level 3 nano research device, (+75 skill )
4. QL 250-300 communication relay (if you don't have this, go for a S7 viral larvae) (+25 skill)
5. Upgraded Xan weapons - a very good option, but again might be difficult to acquire (up to 30 nanoskills in select skills)
6. Dustbrigade notum gloves (+35 skill)
7. Dustbrigade flexible boots, sturdy boots give 5 more but no add dmg, so I go with regular (+20 skill)
8. Time to perks Champion of nano combat if you have not done so (+100 skill)

All of these will add a colossal 250 nanoskill while not significantly reducing your tankability. Clearly, though, if you can avoid swapping out the scope in hud 3, that should be the priority for levelling to keep up the DPS.

If you're still a bit low on nanoskills, and you really don't have an option to team a MP/trader on a regular basis, here are a few other items that help:

* S10 alien augmentation hud (nanoskills) (+15) - I don't recommend taking off the snipers friend if you have it on, rather swap out hud 1 (key)
* Gauntlet Right shoulder - hard to get, but adds 20 nanoskills
* Dustbrigade spiritech chestpiece (will require a bit of twinking to get on) (+35 skill)
* The obvious - Phulaks, these are great for buffing, but not good for continuous play (up to +100 skill)
* The obvious - Arithmetic armour/combined Scouts adding up to 30skills/pp

Note that in my opinion these should be viewed as secondary nanoskill adding items, whereas the first list are much MUCH easier to acquire, and may find use right into endgame.

So - you've got the nanoskills now what do you get for that massive shift in play? Well here's the list:

Alien Matrix alpha box hellish rage
Alien Matrix beta box valiant challenger to behemoth
DB nanos (and quest)
DB nano 1: MUIB
DB nano 2: Improved mongo crush
DB nano 3: Superior fortify
DB nano 4: Improved malice

Your new goal? Tank like a boss, and these nano's will make that happen.

Now, here is the bottom line:
MUIB: 1534 BM + 1534 MC
IMongo: 1534 BM + 1534 PM
imalice: 1534 PM
Superior fortify: 1335 MC 1335 BM <-- note these are lower by 200 points!
Hellish rage: 1235 MM 1435 BM 1435 MC <-- lower by 100 points!
Challenger is less important but: 1235 BM 1235 MM <-- these are lower by 300 points!

The same rules to tanking apply now as they have ALWAYS done, for the last 200 levels: nano absorbs are of utmost importance.

Once you've got agg, spam absorbs. Your DPS now will be far LESS dependent on your capability to DO damage, since you now have by far the best tools in game to generate aggression. Your taunting capabilities, now, are hugely significant. So - fire up your damage shields (ice burn, proc violation buffer, use hellish rage (or lower if in SL), and perk your bioshield (perk 1 in coon line) for some beast damage shields. With 1-5 mobs attacking you continuously, you will double your DPS from level 214.

Incredible!

What is next? Good question. The best enforcers in game understand their role, they utilize KEEN awareness of the situation, and have very, VERY good relationships with both crats and doctors.

* the best enforcers never use area taunts unless they absolutely have to
* the best enforcers never break mezzes
* the best enforcers will maintain agg on trash mobs and bosses (unless it's communicated that an alternate tank will take a sideboss - i.e. a soldier might AMS tank RH in xan instance)
* the best enforcers will mitigate as much damage as they can via reflects, AC's, evades and most importantly absorbs prior to taking damage, and, will know when to roll with MUIB - note that you can ALWAYS use MUIB now since the RS debuff is gone - this should have 100% uptime.

These things take practice, patience, and a lot of tabbing and liberal use of /assist to assess aggro.
One thing that will help a LOT, is turning on the nano target NCU. This will give you a good idea of when, for example, LMN is running out, and whether the mob is fully debuffed or not - if not, it might be a good idea to get your big defences up (i.e. start charging bio regrowth and coon).

Once you are comfortably using the top end nanos, the next and most important aspect of play is looming like a great pot of gold at the end of a beautiful rainbow. We all know that pots of gold aren't there, the best we can do is go in that direction and enjoy the ride. What? Ok, evades.

It's time, now, to start the never ending journey to evasion, and I mean now. Go hard, and never look back. evade close, dodge range duck, AAD and nano resistance... these are the KEY parameters for boosting damage mitigation to unprecedented levels, and the MOST successful endgame tanking capability.

At bare minimum, you want these slots filled:

http://auno.org/ao/equip.php?saveid=197752

This setup has nothing fancy, but is producing 900+ AAD and 390ish evades - that's very reasonable for an enforcer at endgame and nobody would ever question your dedication to tanking with this type of setup.

Note: I've left out chest/boots, boots usually are CM, but you could try boots of the dancing king or even DB flexible boots if you don't have on alphas in brain yet which takes a lot of gear. Chest is a very nice slot to boost DPS with a DB combat chest (2 crit+15 add dmg, 500nano/HP + 2k AC's).

A final note: with full alphas, and all research completed, and a couple of nano skill adding NCU's from zods, you do not need ANY nanoskill adding gear to cast all endgame nanos, in which case you can go into full defence mode with impunity.

Happy tanking!

Noobas

[paperjockey]

This is awesome. I haven't seen an updated crat guide in years so its cool just to see a guide! And i just made an enforcer so this is great. Well done XD.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Thanks!

It's sort of a mixed guide for people either new to the profession or new to the game but there are some pretty good fundamental play guidelines that should resonate with experienced enforcers.

If it finds some use then I'm happy I posted.

[Awikun]

Its quite good guide, however I have slightly different approach to tanking. I am more focused on my ability to tank and survive rather than to be among top DD.
In your set up you should use infused hardcore CPU upgrade instead of regular one

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Its quite good guide, however I have slightly different approach to tanking. I am more focused on my ability to tank and survive rather than to be among top DD.
In your set up you should use infused hardcore CPU upgrade instead of regular one

The only time I say that an enforcer should focus on DD is between levels 201 and 214. Enforcers aren't needed to "tank" in inferno missions, so why bother doing something that isn't needed?

The only thing you need to do in the low SL levels is do as much damage as you can. At 215+, again, it's about tanking.

Thanks for reading 5 sentences out of 6 pages...

I think that setup you looked at is for level 200, in which case you can't use a infused cost NCU.

[Eqvestre]

Nice guide ......Great details ......i love it ! Please make a keeper guide too ( even tho i know most of the info about keepers..... i would love to read an updated guide for Knights !

[Eqvestre]

i have a question but i would like to mention first that it's only for 220 enfs that are main tanks in raids like apf,pande
Could http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=292194 be a more viable back armor than http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=267510&ql=300 ( ofc if u can keept it out of oe w/o many sacrifices )
Less def and Ac'c but more hp/nano , nice HD/ND ,nano skillz , inits , when youre tanking pande does aad still counts for an enf ?

[Awikun]

Thanks for reading 5 sentences out of 6 pages...

I think that setup you looked at is for level 200, in which case you can't use a infused cost NCU.

Your set up is a part of TL7 "guide" so it is not for level 200 ...
Thank you for thinking I ve read 5 sentences out of 6 pages ...

[McKnuckleSamwich]

on atrox if you can keep it out of OE to be honest it's probably better just so there's no wtf moment when you go to cast mongo or whatever and you come up 1 point shy in BM.

The 220 atrox I built a few years ago was just on the cutting edge for nanoskills, and I remember it being something that I absolutely needed to consider if I (for example) died in 12m and ran back to try to help recover on xan or something.

On my soli enforcer, there's a lot more room for nanoskill trickle inconsistencies and I've never had a problem because a lot of key slots can be swapped while in rezz. For example, I can swap nanoskill hud 3, an infused nano thingy + a regular nano thingy in util 1/2, and if I was really hard up I could swap in DB nano module in util 3. That gives about 180 more nanoskills during rez which brings your capability up to endgame nanocasting well before you're fully rezzed.

The collatz backpiece will only add to that. While maybe only 1-2% of the game is played in rez, or less even, that 20 nanoskill won't go OE so it'll always be useful.

I don't know if atrox enf can keep those pieces of collatz out of OE though. I recall atrox keeper being close (needing support chest) but then with the 40 sense tacked on guardian nano it was easymode. Enf doesn't have that but might get some more sense/psych/intel in research. Even if it was OE, the boosts that don't go OE are very useful, nano delta, nanoskills, HD, melee init, are all good on that thing.

I don't have a keeper guide. I can maybe build one though... it takes a lot of time.

[Biancha]

Super guide, thanks for creating it.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Super guide, thanks for creating it.

Buy in from the premier PVM 215 enforcer! Thanks!

But do you have any additions or comments that you think should/could be included?

[Eqvestre]

this is my next project when i resub : http://auno.org/ao/equip.php?saveid=201653

pure pvm just tanking raids & stuff, aything that can be improved ?

[Eqvestre]

Bump!
Any thoughts?

[Kitesfear]

I might think of swapping scope to Def research device, backpiece to Ofab, boots to CM and l-wrist to Albt bracer. Mostly for maximizing AAD, but Albt bracer also for keeping Gaunt pads out of OE - that is, if you're rolling a trox.
Other things that I might be somewhat alone with are not bothering with ACDC and using Infused Speed Preserv Unit instead, you won't really notice the HP you get from ACDC, and lose 30 AAD compared to ISPU. Another thing is using iGoC instead of left shoulder Gaunt pad, tho you have to decide yourself if sacrifing all those nanoskills and stuff is worth that extra 10 AAD. To me, it was, but mostly because I'm too lazy to regear my trox enfo to actually keep Gaunt pads out of OE (and to farm them).
Also, swapping Stellar Deck and Enfo Booster around makes easier time when raiding Biodomes.

[Herkulease]

I miss my enforcer, but only a little bit. 8p

Also, I always try to break mezzes unless they are seriously needed, or as a courtesy to someone who thinks their mezz is the only thing saving the day. 8p I never liked mezzing though, cause with gazillions of HP you don't need it. 8) With some obvious exceptions, Mongo should be the go to taunt for anyone in almost every situation. Unless you are too squishy to tank and get yourself killed and cause your doc to panic.

Me and Mongo go way back. 8p