My take on a PVM defensive Soldier

[Vinkera]

For a while, I had a Soldier I was leveling. I always referred to her as my "lazy lever" because I just send her in to shoot things and watch something on YouTube etc while it died. After a while, I just lost interest and went on to other things. I guess the idea of Soldier wasn't really appealing. I felt like just getting slapped and depending on AMS was old fashioned and boring.

But, I decided to switch things up. Around 170, I changed breed from Solitus to Nanomage, threw on some AAD stuffs (nothing crazy, just 200 left arm implant and HD feet) and I instantly loved how well it worked. Fast forward to 220 and it not only works well for soloing, but instances like DB3. However, her evades work best with team synergy like Crat/Keeper for +AAD, or NT, Shade, Engi for -AAO.

We did back to back DB3 runs, and with a Crat in team, I'd say mobs averaged 4/7 misses. Having AMS and Dredadlock HUD to fall back on made that a breeze. Notum grenades being so terribly broken allowed me to keep aggro without much trouble, despite being lower damage than the average Soldier.

She's still a work in progress as I gather the last few bits and pieces she needs, but this is what I'm using at the moment. (Blank spots are Dust Brigade Operative parts) Generally, this is focused on HP and AAD, and she sits at a respectable 25k HP with about 860 AAD (IIRC ;P)

http://auno.org/ao/equip.php?saveid=203049

Just figured I'd share. It's different and I'm really enjoying it so far.

[Nomad]

seems like ppl rediscover the good old soldier pvp setup since alien armor was introduced a few times each year, and yes its probably the best pvm tanking setup if you can hold agg too

[Vinkera]

Other Soldiers are a bit of an aggro issue. I plan to use Aim of Anger once I get her Alpha ear to help that.

PVP wise... I don't know how it works. I'm not much of a PVP'er, but using SMG I'd just assume AR would be too low to be really effective. Maybe I'll try a little when I have aboc and stuff, but probably not ;p

[McKnuckleSamwich]

where do you get notum grenades?

I haven't been in game at all since December.

[nanoforcer]

Le shop

[Vinkera]

Finally got Portable, and after some small adjustments my Soldier sits at 909 AAD. I figure I can work that up to about 1k, with 1900ish Evade CC and 2k Dodge. That's a bit higher than I expected to get before throwing everything on, which is kinda cool. AR should be a little over 3k

In PVP with those numbers, I expect I'd faceroll gimps, but be splattered by everything else.

*shrugs*

[Nomad]

By old pvp setup I mean ancient, when you would actually dodge and evade the few who didn't bring aimed shot and pvp fields had lotsa ppl with low attack rating, this sorta ended after LE. You can still make it work with the trox dodge perk wit and mongorage tho.