With so many new doctors, and so many returning doctors, and so many people starting to level up their old doctors, I felt it was time to provide my highly biased, subjective, unscientific (and undoubtedly dubious) opinions on the practice of medicine in Rubi-Ka.
Sheffy, Jynne and others have provided some of the finest advice and analysis available to the doctor profession. But they tend to give you the facts, and let you decide. Go read the sticky guides for good advice. Here, you will only get potentially bad (but possibly good) advice.
1. Mental Adjustment
The number one rule for doctors is to really internalize the following concept:
You do not kill; you outlast.
For those starting a doctor as a second career, this is very difficult to grasp initially. You're used to killing things -- you therefore care about things like weapons and damage and so on. Doctors obsess about weapons, that's true, but realize that none of us ever kill anything. We simply outlast the enemy with our heals. I've taken to calling my dual Gelids "D DoT" -- it ticks once a second or so for about 890pts of damage (if I hit at all). 890 is pitiful at 209; look at what a shade or an MA or a soldier at 209 does. THAT is damage. What I do is "D DoT", along with the other DoT's, and then outlast the monster in question.
The earlier you grasp and internalize this concept, the earlier you will find yourself easing into the medical profession.
2. Healing Ain't Just Healing
o.O? What the devil does that mean?
Being a Doctor is not to be just a healer -- there are plenty of others who can heal: Advents, MP's, Keepers, etc. If you see yourself as just a healer, even if it's the best healer in the game, you are only half-a-Doc (if that). Being a Doctor means
maximizing the survival chances of your team.
Your main tool in doing this, of course, is
The Best Debuff In Game otherwise known as Uncontrollable Body Tremors, or UBT. -1452 to inits means the mob in question suddenly slows down its attack rate to a point where you may not even need to heal before it is bludgeoned, shot, pierced, slashed, and otherwise reduced to a steaming pile of remains by your bloodlust-crazed weap... er, teammates.
However, do not fall into the trap of thinking it's "UBT or Else". I've met too many Doctors who have skipped all other init debuffs until they can cast UBT. That's just silly; it's as if a Soldier decided it's Superior Perennium Blaster or Else! They'll just use their starter Solar rifle until then.
Rapid Palsy debuffs inits by 1165; Induce Musculature Spasms debuffs by 908; Muscle Atrophy debuffs by 681. If you don't think that makes a difference, go run into a mission, pull 5 mobs, then cast Muscle Atrophy on yourself. See how that feels.
Your first nano should be an init debuff 99.9% of the time. Do it even if it doesn't
feel like the debuff is doing that much. Do it even if the mob is grey. Do it until it becomes second nature; the minute you see a red dot, your finger should automatically be moving towards that hotkey for UBT/RP/IMS/etc.
Keep in mind that "init debuffs"
are heals of a sort. It makes no difference whether your tank gets hit for 1k and you heal for 1k, or if your tank doesn't get hit for 1k at all thanks to UBT. Look at the following:
Scenario 1: No Init Debuff
Heckler whacks Tank for 1k
You heal Tank for 1k
Heckler whacks Tank for 1k
You heal tank for 1k
Heckler whacks Tank for 1k
You heal tank for 1k
vs.
Scenario 2: Init Debuff
Heckler whacks Tank for 1k
You cast RP/UBT
Heckler would dearly love to whack the Tank for 1k, but is winding up thanks to UBT
You heal Tank for 1k
Heckler finally lands blow on Tank for 1k
You yawn and organize your inventory.
Heckler is winding up for the second blow
You heal Tank for 1k
Either way, the Tank is at full health.
The damage that is not dealt has the same end-result as damage that is healed but is in fact better overall. Less wear and tear on the armor and such.
In addition to Init Debuffs, of course, we have health buffs, both long-term team health buffs (such as
Superior Omni-Med Enhancement) and short-term health buffs (such as
Life Channeler). We also have HOT's which are quite good -- just takes a ton of NCU and doesn't last very long.
And of course, we have perks...
3. Perks Shmerks
Because healing generates so much aggro, FC in its infinite wisdom has given us a full range of defensive perks. I heartily recommend maxing Acrobat, Bioshielding, and Careful in Battle line of pe... wait a minute... sorry, was daydreaming....
Sadly, we don't get those lovely defensive perks. We do, however, get some more-or-less useful perks all geared towards the concept of Outlasting. See Jynne's wonderful
guide to perks for a clear explanation. Of course, Jynne is too wise to make silly recommendations; I have no such problem like wisdom. So here we go.
I would max Assault Force Medic and NanoSurgeon with every opportunity. They add BM, MM, health, Treatment, First Aid, and have perks that heal. What's not to like?
In addition, I would max Nano Doctorate with every opportunity -- the perk actions suck, but it's difficult to contemplate casting the SL heals without this. (Once you're 205+ and have oodles of Alien perks and DeValos sleeves and org contracts and whatnot, maybe... otherwise, train these).
Genius2 for the nano regain is a no-brainer until 780 Psychic is reached with triple implanted Nanoregen clusters (or symbiants with nanoregen).
After that... the leftover points go into XP perks (like Explorer) or Enhance DNA for the uber HOT -- no, just kidding. Enhance DNA is to get symbiants in earlier/easier.
Specialist Healer is a perkline whose utility I question. Others feel differently. Seek out the wisdom, young padawan.
4. Weapon Progression
Keep in mind that our primary weapon is the Enforcer, the Soldier, the MA, and so on and so forth, who are in team with us. Having said that, it feels good to have a D DoT once in a while. So what is a Doctor to do?
My opinion:
Level 1-175: Pistols
Level 175-205: Depends
Level 205+: Whatever strikes your fancy.
Here's why:
Cellular Recuperation. This first SL-heal, which requires 1087 BM/MM and Spec 3, should be every Doctor's goal from Level 1-175 (and beyond). Before you are able to cast CR, you are just a squishy little thing, constantly in danger of death from all manner of sources. After you are able to cast CR, you are an uber death-defying outlaster.
Now, unless you've got oodles of AI perk points, and belong to an uber org with massive advantages and got a tower up and the rest of that, chances are, you'll need some sort of a buffing weapon to cast CR at or near 175.
Three are available:
Pensive Phulakterion,
Pillow With Important Stripes, and
Soft Pepper Pistol. Of the three, the Pensive is a catacombs boss drop -- hard to find. Pillow is fine, but requires all kinds of silly skills you would never want to use on a Doctor anyhow. Soft Pepper only requires Pistol and Multi-Ranged.
So, I think Pistol is the best weapon choice for a Doctor from 1-175. There are any number of reasonable choices as the "D DoT" weapon to be dual-wielded with a Soft Pepper:
CDR (aka, Best Pistol In Game), Flux Pistol, Kyr'Ozch Pistol, heck, even an Original Electronicum. Just think of them as your "D DoT" and you'll find that you obsess about damage far less, and more about the healing.
By the way, you know that Chalice from TotW? Don't do it. Soft Pepper adds similar bonuses -- but you can have a D DoT weapon in the main hand.
From 175-205, the weapon choices open up. And you start to get tempted with all these shiny new toys:
JAME Blasters,
Maw of Abyss,
Gelids, or what-have-you. My take on this is simple: If you can cast CR without a buffing weapon, then do whatever you want. Your choice of D DoT is up to you. If, however, you cannot cast CR w/o a buffing weapon, then there's no debate: Use the Soft Pepper to cast CR. So your D DoT is a little lower -- big deal. You don't kill; you outlast.
By 205, you should no longer need any sort of buffing weapon to cast the SL heals. Yeah, maybe you got a bit of trouble squeezing out Touch of Kindness at 207 -- but you probably could, at least with a good CI. Besides, the difference between CR and AP and ToK are not enormous. The difference between LGE and CR, however, is night and day. So at this point, go with whatever strikes your fancy as a D DoT. Want to dual-wield Energy Rapiers? Go for it. Bow? Shotgun? Pistol? Gelids? JAME? Bare hands? It really doesn't much matter.
5. Important Doctor Gear: Armor
Some have asked questions about non-weapon gear. Again, keeping in mind that we do not kill -- we simply outlast, I strongly believe that having updated armor is far more important than having updated weapons.
If you are Omni, then there really is only one choice from Level 1-175:
OmniCarb. It has good AC's (hole in Energy, but that's all right), it adds NCU, it adds health, it adds nano, it adds NCU, it even adds Nano Init. What more could you ask for from armor?
If you are Clan, then head to the nearest Book terminal, buy an Omni-Tek Application Form, and fill it out.
It appears from feedback that Storm Carb is a POS.
Tier-1 is horrid. Period, end of sentence. I think basic Carb armor might be superior, simply because it has better bonuses and adds NCU.
Exceptions to the Omni-Carb Rule:
A.
Elysian Protector Cuirass: Adds MM, Adds -Nanocost, decent AC's. I still wear this at 209. You can't go wrong with this.
B. Head: I can't stand Carb helmets. So I've always worn something else on the head. Some reasonable choices are
Ceremonial Watchman's Hood (drops in IS),
Exterminator Unit Crepuscule Skin Chip (adds nanoskills),
Temple Tubes (if you're rollin' in the dough), or
Cure for Baldness (adds BodyDev, adds +2% heal efficiency, and -2% Nanocost; crappy AC's but again, it's all right).
Back Item: Please refer to the CR-rule above. If you can do it without the Blue Dress (aka,
Reanimator's Cloak, +11 to nanoskills), then wear whatever you feel like. Albrecht Tank is a fine choice, as is any of the
Notum-spangled OmniTek cloaks (999 to all AC's). But if you need the +11 to cast CR, then you're running around in a blue dress.
At 175, the option of Azure opens up to you. If such an opportunity presents itself, take it.
At 190, option of OTAF/Sentinel opens up. If you don't have Azure, then get these. Again, can't go too wrong.
After that... it's really all about fine-tuning and tweaking to become even more uber. You don't need any advice at that point.
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