Guide to Professions

[Dormouse]

Much better Thanks for listening - us MAs take a great deal of pride in what we do best - kill stuff fast while not getting hit.

[deniska]

Due to lots of requests, I moved the Martial Artist from healer to damage toon classification and tweaked the description to say "Weak heals and good damage..." I hope those changes make everyone happier. I am trying to create an accurate resource for new players, but I do make mistakes and fix them eventually.

Placing MAs under healing class would be very missleading for new players who read this guide. As they progress with levels they'll notice their heals are weak and regret ever rolling a MA. As well as other classes, for instance soldiers, will see MAs ODing them and regret ever rolling soldier because a heal class ODs them. Gotta be carefull with classifications you make here. MAs are DD with rudimentary healing abilities.

[Laerthia]

Due to lots of requests, I moved the Martial Artist from healer to damage toon classification and tweaked the description to say "Weak heals and good damage..." I hope those changes make everyone happier. I am trying to create an accurate resource for new players, but I do make mistakes and fix them eventually.

good
i think this topic will be very appreciated and helpful, for new players, and for not-so-new-players-who-whant-try-a-different-toon

i choose my main basing on simple consideration (a MA has no weapon, so i have not to learn how weapons works ) and my only alt based on a strictly logical consideration (wow, tier armor for keeper is soooooo coooooool...)

btw, if i'd start a new toon, i'd search for this guide, so i can choose the one i like most
i hope even new player will read this post to know what is the profession they'd like most

[Brian00]

suppose this guide will never get a sticky

[Laerthia]

suppose this guide will never get a sticky

Keep hoping, and asking
And sticky-ing will come

Or, we send all our atrox keeper, soldier, ma, etc pwning FC

[Brian00]

sticky?

[Laerthia]

sticky?

I bump for this...

[Brian00]

up it goes again, when it gets a sticky no one knows

[Malusz]

I have to agree with the MAs that replied: they're terrible at healing. You're far better off using a trader, a MP and a keeper as alternate healing sources to one doc or two advies.

I'm a bit annoyed that MPs are under the buffing toons but I guess there's no way to prevent it. We're not too bad DDers, average healers (better than MAs ) and crappy crowd controllers, as in worse at that than traders.
Lots of fun to play, but when it comes to steep learning curves, it's the MP people have in mind. Of course you can find those that just send pets in and ignore the other 70% of the toolset besides pets they could use.

In the team of the great MPs, doctors realize half way through the missions that they didn't have to heal as much as they use to but can't really tell why.

One other thing is when the team gets wiped and the MP survived the RK mobs, chances are he'll be the one coming back and soloing the mob that wiped the team.
In case you have doubts, I have done that one personally in BS missions. I wouldn't try in SL though.

[Siorai2]

Doctor: Suggested Breeds: Nano Mage, Solitus, Opifex

I R Lose

Other than that, nice guide.

[Brian00]

Hmm did that mean you noticed that I left out the Trox doc?

Personally, I have a trox doc twink and love him, but he is very demanding to keep heals at top level. I dont think trox would be a good doc to play until someone really knows how to play the game and play a doctor first. It would make a very satisfying second doc toon though.

[Brian00]

hmm does anyone in charge of this forum even sticky things anymore?

[Brian00]

still no sticky

[corev2]

since this guide is in the new arrivals section of the forums i think it's safe to say that the guide is meant as a general outline for newbies. the suggested breeds used in the guide are pretty dead on if you are new to the game, would you people stop picking apart the guide and bear in mind that it is not meant for you? At least he/she(?) is doing something constructive and attempting to help new players. We all know good soldiers don't just hit q and sit back, we all know crats play a bigger part than just giving us gimps with big pools insurance, the guide is there to get new players started, not tell those of us who know how to play the game what we should do for each profession, some of you should try to be a little less anal retentive O.o

[Berrenta]

Edit2: Due to the fact that this guide is stickied now *grats*, the text removed is irrelevent.

Edit: I do think your guide is a good one though. Just might want to list all breeds in order from most recommended to least for each profession, if you choose to.

[Brian00]

It's always nice to get some positive feedback.

Sticky one day?

[Telcea]

It is rooted >_o

[Techna]

Worst Advice I ever received: "Always max out your base abilities because eventually they will be breed capped, then you can spend all your IP on weapons and other skills."

Sorry, but i do not agree with this. Maxing out all your base abilities IS a very good advice. Why? There are several reasons.

First of all, your other skills are all based on the core skills. This is called "trickledown".
So by maxing your core skills, you are raising your other skills too. This is also why i recommend to train Enhanced DNA perk (if you've got SL expansions) as soon as you can.

Another reason would be your ability to equip implants (or symbiants). Depending on what clusters you need, your implant will be based on one or the other of those core skills and you will need them as high as possible to equip the best implants.

As i rolled my engie, i read the forums and followed an advice saying an engie doesnt need strenght, no need to put IP into that. Well, the day i got to Penumbra with my org team, we were headed to the unredeemed temple for the key quest (yes, i am clanner ). We took the usual route which is to jump up a platform in order to not have to run through the hostile mob crowd. And guess what? I couldnt jump up, no matter what. Heh, my strenght was at 125 at that point (for a level 160ish char) and yes, jumping relies mostly (if not totally) on strenght! So i had to run through the mobs, with the help of my orgmates, we built a big train and got yelled at by other people waiting quietly in front of the temple for boss respawn. :P

Anyway, my advice to newbies is: max all your core skills, treatment and comp lit and then see what is left for other skills. It's a fact that at some point you wont have enough IP to put into evades AND weapons skills AND nano skills but still, your best chance to raise all your skills is to max your core skills and, this way, get points in other skills from trickledown and high implants/symbiants.

[Telcea]

While I agree with always raising core skills, Comp lit and treatment should, in my opinion, only be raised if it's needed for implants/ncu/better heal kits. Maxing it every level is rather pointless if it doesn't help you use better stuff, especially if you're nearing your skill caps and you'll have spare IP for them in a few levels anyway.

[varrus]

Maxing out all your base abilities IS a very good advice.

No, it isn't. It MAY be good for some professions and at certain level ranges. Then again, there are level ranges when some professions benefit more from investing IPs directly into skills. In this way, you can use certain nanos 10 or more levels earlier then other players of your profession, can equip bettter weapons earlier etc. Of course, if you have enough IPs to raise all your critical skills AND basic abilities, you raise all of them.

Another reason would be your ability to equip implants (or symbiants). Depending on what clusters you need, your implant will be based on one or the other of those core skills and you will need them as high as possible to equip the best implants

You can also build custom implants based on abilities that you are maxing. And by the time you switch to using mostly symbiants rather than implants, you should have enough IPs to raise all abilities.

As i rolled my engie, i read the forums and followed an advice saying an engie doesnt need strenght, no need to put IP into that. Well, the day i got to Penumbra ..... ...And guess what? I couldnt jump up, no matter what. Heh, my strenght was at 125 at that point (for a level 160ish char)

That what comes from following advice mindlessly. Not maxing certain abilities is is a good policy for level ranges when IPs are scarce. But at 160, you got to have enough spare IPs for everything important. Actually, I am not sure about engies. From what I hear, engies that rely on their pets mostly rather then weapons and don't invest heavily into tradeskills until later on, have it easy IP-wise. So, as an engi, maybe you can afford raising abiliites ALWAYS. I wouldn't know, since my own engy is at level 40. But that doesn't mean that this is universally true for all professions and all level ranges.

It's a fact that at some point you wont have enough IP to put into evades AND weapons skills AND nano skills but still, your best chance to raise all your skills is to max your core skills and, this way, get points in other skills from trickledown and high implants/symbiants.

Wrong. As I said, it very much depends on your profession (and gameplay style, I might add). Give me ONE reason why, say, a fixer at level 80 needs maxed psychic. And this is just one example.