IntroductionDoctor's are the primary healer in AO. They will continue to be the primary healer in AO for the foreseeable future, and, as such, there is a lot of responsibility that falls on the shoulders of doctors.
This guide will provide insight on several aspects of doctor game play that extend well beyond the "bread and butter" aspects critical to doctor game play - in fact, this guide will allow the reader to explore different avenues to provide much greater team support than the stock standard response to "heal me pls!"
Chapter 1: Getting StartedEarly in game the doctors starting weapon set are pistols. Pistols are a reasonable choice for weapons, but really only start being a "good" choice after level 150.
In VERY early game, whichever weapon you choose will be fine, as long as you can target a mob and press q it will die. There's nothing else that needs to be said. As such, I won't go into any more detail.
At level 20, it'll be high time to start specializing in a weapon, and start building a plan for the next hundred or so levels.
There is only one excellent choice for doctors:
Neleb nightmare BattlerodNeleb Battlerod procs 60 nano heal twice EVERY hit. This proc makes this weapon highly valuable early in game when refilling nano pool can become a tiresome affair.
Other weapons may be useful in killing mobs, but no other weapon is nearly as effective for continuous play for so many levels, as the Neleb nightmare battlerod.
The neleb battlerod is effective (highly effective) at low levels to speed kill, even if it's 50% OE at level 20, right through to 150, at which point it'll be obvious that you really need an upgrade. For more active players, or those who want to upgrade sooner to stay more competitive, the first level that makes sense to do a big upgrade at, is level 110 when Genius opens up. I'll discuss this in more detail later.
From level 20 through to level 50 or so, a doctor really doesn't need to do more than fire a heal off once in a while, and keep whacking away at stuff.
The difference between a good doctor at level 20-50 and a bad doctor is almost negligible. A good doc might be able to do more damage and provide bigger heals, and heal a team through a tough encounter, but realistically, there are no tough encounters at this level and most people just breeze through anyway. A "good" doctor might have updated heals, and perhaps a max HP buff - but it's equally likely that half your team might not have the NCU to accept your buffs, so it's a bit of a wasted effort to be 'really good' at this level.
That said, if you intend to build a toon/twink for TOTW or another purpose, a doctor can provide a significant boost to a team since other members will likely be twinked up to some extent as well which means that you can start exploring your toolset.
Chapter 2: The ToolsetThe early game toolset for doctors is basically the same as the endgame toolset with a couple of minor additions that occur in late game. The difference, of course is the potency of nano attacks and heals, and the rate at which healing occurs. A huge mistake, however, is assumption that a doctor's
only role is healing. So lets be clear here, providing other members of the group are operating self sufficiently:
* an ineffective doctor can not heal his team
* a poor doctor can barely keep his team alive
* a ok doctor can mitigate damage and keep his team alive
* a good doctor can DPS, mitigate damage and keep his team alive
* an excellent doctor can do
great DPS, mitigate a
lot of damage, and keep his team
prepared to take damage
You can see here, that most doctors operate somewhere between ok and good. Most docs will have OK-to-great heals, and will UBT mobs to slow down their damage, but most doc's don't do good DPS, and furthermore, making sure his team is prepped to TAKE damage means that the doc is not only proactive in healing, but means that he buys time - essentially buys insurance, so that when the shit hits the fan (if it hits the fan) that the doc isn't scrambling to keep his team alive.
Simply: A OK doc can keep his team alive. A good doc makes sure his team will never get to the point where "keeping people alive" is an objective.So, lets take a look at what we've got to work with.
The doctor nano toolset is one of the strongest nano toolsets in game.
A doctor's nano tool set can be divided into six fields:
1. damage mitigation via init debuffs (offensive, debuffs)
2. long and short term max health buffs (friendly, Large NCU use)
3. short heal over times (HOTS) (friendly, small NCU use)
4. heal delta buffs (friendly, larger NCU use, only use at higher levels)
5. target and team heals (friendly, doesn't require NCU)
6. damage over time nanos (DOTS) and small nukes (offensive, damage dealing)
These six fields are all important and I've listed them in order of importance (I will explain).
I'll talk through two different scenarios to emphasize the importance of the doc toolset; note that there are other factors in play here, but this is merely a generalisation to emphasize a couple of key points.
Scenario 1: ChaosTank guy runs up to a mob and starts hitting it, half the team is 20m behind him, one guy is buffing still, the doctor didn't know the tank had started and by the time he looks at the team window the tank is half dead and the other part of the group has pulled a second mob because they didn't know where the tank had gone to and another mob was closer. The doctor is torn between healing the tank with a single heal and init debuffing the mob that was just pulled. the doctor opts to single heal the tank but the second group doesn't have a tank class and are all squishy. One team mate is lost in two hits because he opted for an irrelevant debuff that taunted the mob and now the three remaining members in the group are scrambling, the doc is in nano recharge, the tank is happy, but oblivious to the problems of the other group, and the other group will lose more members if the doc or tank doesn't do something to mitigate the shitstorm of damage about to be released on the next squishy in the straggler group. By the time the nano recharge is out, the tank has taken yet more damage and the other members of the group are starting to take more damage too, and it's looking like it might be a group wipe if someone doesn't do something quickly.
In a matter of 15s of fighting, the doctor is stressed out, cannot perform all the functions he needs to, and is having a hard time identifying the biggest threat. In this fight, the tank had taken over 1500 damage, a support member had taken 3400 damage and died, and 1000 heals had been provided to the tank. The outcome of the battle is unknown.
Scenario 2: organized destructionPRE FIGHT: doctor communicates with the tank to assess NCU, it turns out the tank can only spare 30 NCU after maintaining sorb shields and mongo, doc opts for a short hot instead of a max HP buff since max HP buffs use a lot of NCU for relatively small gain in performance - plus, knowing that the tank is using absorbs means the doc has to do less target heals and can focus on other aspects of play - such as mitigation and DPSing.
The doc requests that the tank lead and the DPS/support stay close to the tank. The tank pre-buffs absorb shields and mongo. The doc, knowing that if the tank doesn't have extra NCU, doesn't ninja buff him to ensure that the tank has all his aggro/mitigation tools available.
On the first mob the tank uses a puller and gets a few good whacks in before it's in range of the team, the doc casts 'tired limbs' on the approach and by the time it gets in range of the tank it's down to 75% health. The tank takes 500 dmg on the first hit and 400 on the second. the Tank's HP is down to 80% but the short hot is kicking in as well as mongo heal, the mob lands one more hit on the tank at 25% HP and then dies.
The tank took a total of 1200 damage, 600 of which were healed in fight by hots and mongo, no team members were lost and 4000 damage were mitigated by absorb shields (1200), and init debuffs (2x1400 hits)
In this scenario, the doctor played an integral roll by communicating with the tank, not over buffing, and contributing to damage mitigation and healing in the most efficient way.
Broadly speaking, the doctor's primary roll, in the most successful team situation, such as this, is NOT healing. It's
active damage mitigation and passive healing and DPSing if there is time.
In order of priority and ensuring success a doctor will do these things to assess the situation before an encounter begins:
1.
broad scope capability assessment (does the tank equip make him look like a complete noob, or does it look like he understands basics- note that an instant giveaway is lack of a viral compiler on an enforcer.... an enforcer without a viral compiler isn't using nano absorbs and can be classified as 'uneducated'/'can't play properly')
2.
what passive mitigation is available? what are other team mates contributing? (i.e. is the engineer using DVP AND reflects, or outdated reflects? does the enforcer ask for wolf (this means he wants to run big HP and might be shrewdly taking advantage of 100 evades), does the crat run a crit aura or a AAD aura?
3.
Does the tank have NCU space for: Omni-med, life channeler, best hot, Continuous reconstruction?
4.
What type of tank is it? HP tank (enforcer), an reflect tank (soldier), an evade tank (MA/Fixer/adv), a mixed mitigation tank (keeper) ?
Getting answers to these four questions will set the doctor up for a much higher chance of success, not only for the team but to minimise stress on the doctor himself.
Chapter 3: Midgame (TL3-6)The history of doctor's in AO is interesting. If you look at which nanos are available to doctors you can very clearly see that Life giving elixir is by far and away the most used nano in the doctor toolset.
From a ripe young age, even in TL3, a well set up doc can be casting the top RK heal - Life giving Elixir (LGE) in combat without too much trouble. That nano will be the crux of self/target healing for the next 100 levels, which is roughly similar to UBT which is useful right into endgame.
What's interesting, is that because this nano heal (LGE) doesn't get any stronger for 100 levels, but the mobs and encounters do become more difficult, then we must realise that single target heals are NOT the mainstay of the doc toolset.
They aren't. While many people play that way, it doesn't mean it's the most effective.
Single target heals provide some healing, but they are not the be-all end-all of the doctor class.
Consider some other classes healing. Assuming the nano is cast instantaneously:
DOC - LGE is 216.67 HP/s
TRAD - PHH is 234.86 HP/s
ADV - Moonbeam is 192.09HP/s
MA - enlightened aura of healing is 96.02HP/s
There are obviously many more single target heals available, but the point here is that it's not a prof defining nano. Further, it's not even the fastest single target heal. While LGE plays a vital role for much of a doctor's developing life, it's not the
defining nano.
So what is the defining nano?
Uncontrollable body tremors (UBT)UBT is, simply, in the upper echelon of 'most OP items in game'. From about level 100 through to endgame, UBT can be used to mitigate buttloads of damage, from Ely tiigs to Ely hecks, to Ado hecks, to TNH and the Pandemonium Subjugator (Beast is hard to UBT, due to very high NR).
At mid levels, there is no better method to reduce damage taken (on self, tank or just the aggro choice of the mob) than to slow down the rate at which the potential hits arrive. Paired with a keeper to block an occasional attack or an enforcer to recast absorb shields between every hit, UBT (and malaise+red tapes) is at the forefront of the most effective mitigation strategies in game.
The only nano in game which is even close to as powerful as UBT is available via the DB quest for crats, and is only 71% as effective as UBT. (1452 init debuff vs 1034) remarkably, though, Doctor's UBT is available at around level 100, whereas malaise of zeal is clearly an endgame nano (215+).
With prudent pre-buffing of likely targets of choice, and liberal application of UBT, midgame encounters will range from:
* easy - tank is capable of mitigation strategies in tandem with primary mitigation (UBT) resulting in no target healing during the fight. [0 LGE casts per fight - doc focuses on DoT application]
* moderate - tank is somewhat capable of mitigation in tandem with primary mitigation [1-2 LGE casts per fight - doc focuses on maintenance of tank HP and perhaps can apply a dot between heals]
* difficult - tank is incapable of mitigating any damage by traditional means (no evades, doesn't know how to use absorbs effectively, lacks AC's) [LGE spam, 3+ casts per fight, doc is in constant recharge of LGE]
* downright retarded - tank (haha ya right asshole) fails to grasp basic concepts of aggro management, lacks damage, aggro tools, HP, evades, AC's and absorbs or reflects; cannot even tank 2-3 hits without looking like he needs a CH, Doc is hard pressed to outheal damage taken by LGE and HOTS, CH becomes only option and doc becomes tank by default, doc HP bounces wildly due to lack of proper tanking toolset and doc/tank/team wipes are common]
Note: from the above description how incredibly important mitigation is on the aggro target. If the aggro target is incapable of handling damage by mitigation or self healing, the doc will invariably end up tanking due to CH mechanics (In SL).
Note: up till now I have not mentioned CH. The reason for this is simple. CH, to a large extent is NOT NEEDED IN COMBAT for general levelling and general play. It can be used in some scenarios, but I highly, highly advocate using damage mitigation and pre-buffing to passively heal paired with strong secondary/tank mitigation to preserve HP as opposed to trying to recover lost HP. Any doc who thinks he can use CH as a "go-to" heal for levelling in ely, ado or inferno is badly, badly mistaken. Some docs are highly effective using it late in a fight when the tank has well established aggro, but it is risky even then due to rate of DPS decreases in late fights due to perks running out (i.e. DPS slows down often late in fights since specials/perks are used early on) paired with being put in nano recharge for a solid 8 seconds can easily result in a doc wipe. This situation only gets worse, WAY worse, if the tank happens to have aggro of two mobs.
Midgame SetupsAt level 110 when genius perk becomes available, it's an ideal time to assess whether your weapon (neleb nightmare battlerod) is holding up.
It does still supply nano, but now at 110 you have a 1000 point nano heal available, and paired with higher than average first aid skill, the doctor really can produce some quite reasonable nano healing. As well, with higher NCU and more classes coming into their own with regards to mid game nanos, more nanocost buffs and nano recovery buffs are available. What this means is that it's a good time to assess if you want to be up close an personal with mobs. For some, it's good, and others don't like it.
The best support doctors have is in:
Pistol (best)
MA (so-so)
Ranged energy (so-so)
Heavy weapons (so-so)
At 110 there really aren't a lot of solid natural choices for doctors: MA is easy, easily implanted, but is a bit slow and doesn't really do a lot of damage.
Pistol is fast, can dual weild and if you choose pistols with only fling shot you get one special and isn't too heavy on IP
Ranged energy is ok, but due to having no RE in brain symbs (shiny), it's a bit weak and can result in a lot of missed hits.
Heavy weapons are ok at 150 and up, but there aren't a lot of good options.
One weapon choice that isn't well supported but feels ok to play with is assault rifle. Using a JAME with 175 min dmg 'feels' decent and isn't too IP intensive with fling/burst/ AR. I used a JAME on a doctor many levels.
http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=245679An alternate choice might be nanoskill (or base skill adding weapons), just as the soft pepper pistol, or even a pair of 100ish O.E.T Jess (
http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=123863)
Armour really isn't that important, but the best armour provides AC's, nanocost, nano init, first aid, HP, nanopool, nanoskills, heal eff % or some combination thereof. Some simple cheap choices for levelling TL3 - TL5 are:
Head: cure for baldness
Chest: elysian cuirass/Miy's nano chest
pants: miy's nano pants
arms: doc OFAB sleeves/miy's nano sleeves
Hands: miy's nano gloves
boots: OFAB boots/miy's nano boots
At level 150, a reactive armour set will greatly improve AC's and HP and boost your base stats a bit which can be handy. Wrists can be either nanopool/HP or add dmg arul saba's. It's beneficial on doctor to have a nice large nanopool and a high token count board will greatly improve function with a massive boost of HP and nano (not to mention AAO which really helps doctors do a bit more DD due to not being able to land many perks very easily).
For TL4, don't worry too much about high powered weaponry - there just isn't many choices - instead focus on getting UBT, LGE, CH (for emergencies), Life channeler, Omni-med enhancement, deathless blessing and the bronto burger quest nano team health plan.
Being able to cast these nanos without a MP/trader around is key. Getting your nano skill up early, paired with enough nanopool to cast the higher end nanos (UBT+LGE) in a fight without feeling the pinch is the key.