High level content player gear/guidelines?

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Porvalsh
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High level content player gear/guidelines?

Post by Porvalsh »

Hi All,

In SWTOR there was an end game system kind of like WoW (although I only played WoW until level 40 so I may be off on this comparison). Basically you have tier 1 dungeons, then tier 2 and so on upwards. If you aren't equipped appropriately for tier 2 stuff you will get annihilated...basically there is a progression that you have to go through.

So to help the guild out we created some quick guidelines to help people know what end game content they were capable of doing. It worked out well.

Is there something like this created for Anarchy Online? I have not been able to find things on AO-Universe to really reference myself against. For instance, it will say something like Alappaa is hard, you'll need a team...ok but a team of what? What attack rating or ADDef or whatever is recommended? What level should you be for the encounter?

This would be really helpful for me because there are things going on all the time in the guild but I frequently don't know if I can really join or not. My toons are between 180 and 200. I've heard for instance my Crat should be good for inferno missions but I don't like feeling like I suck so what is expected of a Crat doing infernos? What nano's should I have? Gear? What about someone filling the DD role or tank?

What about for city AI raids? Not sure.

Please excuse me for my newbish thread, just wondering about these things.
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Re: High level content player gear/guidelines?

Post by noobas »

check gear guide rojo wrote should be under the appropriate forum section...

ahem I'll try to finda link tho
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Re: High level content player gear/guidelines?

Post by Porvalsh »

http://www.athenpaladins.org/forums/vie ... =14&t=7386

Found it. Good guidelines, not totally what I was looking for but good stuff.
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Re: High level content player gear/guidelines?

Post by Chrisax »

You are asking a lot of good questions that make sense. :)

It's not at all "newbish". It shows you want to think and work! Please never hesitate to ask. :)

On the other hand, it will take a moment to answer your questions because they cover a lot of AO aspects. Give me (us) some time.

But first thing is there is nothing in AO like Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 etc. gear in general. Some items may be improved and have their own tiers (like the Dust Brigade bracer: 10 tiers) but there is no general classification of items in categories. Even more: sometimes a high level may wear an item dropped from mid-game mobs, just because it's exactly what he needs to complete his setup! (For example many top Martial Artists use an implant called "fist of dominator", actually a wrist implant, that drops from the main boss of Inner Sanctum, and sometimes from others, and Inner Sanctum is a 125ish to 200ish dungeon theoretically, although you won't go far inside at 125!)

As well, there is nothing like green, blue, purple items.

In AO, each item has characteristics and you combine items as you want for the best results for YOU.

Of course, the QL of items informs you when QL is applicable: the same model of armor is better at QL 250 than at 190.

Roughly, as a simple rule, you should at least use items (implants, armor, weapons mostly) that have a QL equal to your level (for items that have a QL) but remember there are exceptions: always pay attention to the stats of the item. In this case, you'll be able to do decently (especially on RK, it will be harder in SL) but nothing more.

Normally, with appropriate buffs and good choice in your abilities and skills, you should be able to equip very easily items that have a QL around 20% above your level, so QL 120 for a level 100. In this case, you can be consider reasonably solid.

But it's possible to do better and, when they become available for you, Hud, Utils, and NCU items help a lot. (Especially in end-game where many Hud / utils items are extremely powerful.

AO is much more open than any other game, more complex too, but the possibilities are close to infinite.

Now, to know about a dungeon, a zone, or a specific encounter, the best is to ask. With experience, you'll be able to "guess" yourself.

Also, at least in AP, we take with us, to some instances and in some teams, people who are not fully gear or really nigh enough for the challenge as long as those players are willing to learn and progress and of course not there just to loot easily. BUT this is not always possible, especially if no try/fail/retry is possible in an instance for example.

About Albtraum, the team should be 205 and above on average, depending on many things (professions, gear, experience,...) but at 205 the last boss, and even some mini-bosses, will be bad. Really really bad for the last boss who can sometimes wipe a team of 220's.

I'll come back to tell you more! This is only a beginning.
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Re: High level content player gear/guidelines?

Post by noobas »

Ent aha, now I see who you are.

Since you were teamed with Jeo (Imez) and mofakkin (Bo) yesterday, I'm sure you are aware now of the potential of crats, EVEN at mid level (200).

I assume you are at least partially convinced that having a strong DPS setup is a solid mode of play. (This is, in fact, aside from extremely specialized setups for PVP, the most reliably effective setup for all typs of play).

As someone newish to AO, you'll probably be pulling a few blanks trying to come up with what equipment to use - let alone come up with a setup that provides support towards strong DPS and that mode of play.

In general - there is two types of gear:

AR/Evades gear which is expensive (very expensive)

and

HP/evades/inits + mixed modifiers which is cheapish comparatively

There are literally hundreds of sets of armour that add nothing of value, so those aren't mentioned here.

Now, lets say you're interested in doing decent damage, but, youre not interesed in spending 5 Billion credits on a setup.

Well, the first things you want to do are:

1. update all your nanos http://auno.org/ao/nanos.php?prof=bureaucrat - and specifically, auras, nukes (quest), debuffs (Lost Eden, regular, Weird looking), pets (carlito, regular)
2. update your symbs and/or you might need to make a couple of implants if the modifiers on the symb aren't what you're looking for
3. decide on weapons http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=267255, http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=288293 are your best bet from level 170 through to about 215ish
4. Decide on which armour you want to use....

Now, in my opinion, you can really get by as a crat with a bit of a mish mash of gear, provided you have top pets for your level, the bronto burger quest nuke, and decent pistols (2x SE pistols are fully sufficient). But, for the sake of trying to provde insight

here's a few pieces that can really help you along prior to level 216:

boots: http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=282113 1% crit
gloves: http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=282117 3% XP omg!!
Head: http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=246313 1% crit
Body: http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=252001 --> http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=272444 (enhanced version 900 HP.... best in slot)
Legs: same as body
sleeves: whatever, goddess, predator, jathos, OFAB...

Wrists: add damage modifiers are key: Arul Saba (Jagged landscape or something) +projectile modifier, also can use:
http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=251764

At level 216, your best bet will be to upgrade ALL slots to Dustbrigade armour (DB1, DB2)

http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=269993 2% crit or http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=269994 35 nanoskills/HP/nano
http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=269994 x2 = 2% crit
http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=270394 35 nano skills (easy swap with 3% XP goddess gloves)
http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=269997 22 base stats, 1% crit
http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=270392 15 add dmg, 20 nano skills

The 216 dustbrigade armour is highly effective, with decent AC's, all adding HP/nano, lots of nano skills (helps with DB quest nanos), and many pieces also offer AAD (defence modifier), and crit (good for DPS).

IN general, when assessing a piece of armour, or once you become selective with armour, you can probably figure that about 10 add dmg is equivalent to 1% crit - so put in whatver is better fr DPS.
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Porvalsh
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Re: High level content player gear/guidelines?

Post by Porvalsh »

The main thing that Imez suggested was +dmg items.

Secondary to that he was suggesting +pistol items.

I have played AO a lot in the past...and so I'm not foreign to the idea of twinking. Its just that, I have not twinked much since SL/AI/LE came out. Suddenly there are 5 times as many items to possibly consider and additional layers of complexity created from the perk and symbiant system.

One big difference I see in playstyle, is that in the past you needed a tank/healer (pref. doc), and some means of CC. Crat, NT, or a Fixer. This was back when all you did was run missions from the terms. For the tank an Enfy was best, sometimes a fixer or soldier would do. Pure DPS team was not a playable option.

So, the DPS team setup, and solo setup was not my initial reaction. The reason why I haven't thought of it too much with my crat yet is that it seems like crat defense is evades based, and to have high evades means perking them. I don't have perk points available for that since I'm heavy into directorship. If I DPS then I pull aggro from pets and die. So mostly when soloing I just let my pets do their thing and surf teh internet between kills.

Now its apparent that I should have multiple setups depending on the scenario, one of which should be a DPS setup. In a team environment I would not be taking hits anyways...so HP/Evades/AC are second to DPS.

My symbiants are about 90% level 200. The jump from 200-210 on the requirements is insane. I'm thinking of switching to solitus just to do alleviate some problems, however, since I can cast everything my level anyways I wasn't going to spend time and resources on symbiants until 200+.



I am working on my AI levels to get to 15. Also, I have my LE research at level 5/6 and working to get them to 7. I also am pressing towards level 190.

For gear,
-I got one SE weapon from Sector7 and need to get another.
-once I hit 190 I have two dmg rings waiting. +28 each, +56 total.
-I just used VP on the Crat Gloves for the + pistol rating on them.
-Just got the +75 dmg AI Hud.
-I also plan on getting +dmg Arul Sabas.
-I have heroic measures +AAO aura but need to get the crit one as well
-I also have Lya's pants for +pistol.
-Need to get either ql 200 symbiant head and eye or the ado brain to offset losses on Nano Skills and trickle down from INT.

With these easy changes I'll have about 2x dps on pistols and +150 dmg in items.

Would love to do IS for MoTR for a shoulder slot.
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Re: High level content player gear/guidelines?

Post by noobas »

wow, your'e really considering what/how you play. thats awesome and a sign of a very good player.

coolness.

next time I see you online, I'll hopefully have some time for IS (MoTR).

Just an FYI - you don't need multiple setups, BUT, what can be effective is having 4-10 items that you can swap to flesh out your gear depending on encounter.

for example: your rings are a good thing to swap (low /no reqs).

Backpiece, later on, chest, Hud 3, etc.

I agree with Imez (jeo), that add dmg is a very effective way to increase your DPS and presence in a team.

For soloing, I also agree- evades, lower DMG and balancing pet agg is important.

But keep in mind, aroudn 190-200ish, you should be working your way towards inferno, and once there, 100% of activities will be teaming.

Also - as a crat, as with other pet professions, if you race to 220, you can do very well to roll, with best pets and even with a fairly gimpy setup, be able to crank out decent damage, and finishing your research with pick up teams and dailies, quests and other stuff goes quite quickly.
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Re: High level content player gear/guidelines?

Post by Rulzern »

Don't forget the most awesome attainable item you can get fairly easily, the token board.

Also, some swaps from DD to HP/evades are nice if you want to experiment with soloing hard stuff as a crat (highly reccomended! you can solo some crazy hard stuff very early and at a reasonable pace, and it's loads of fun).

Don't forget to use your full toolset when appropriate, there are loads of neat little tricks with the crat toolset that will save your butt and the collective butts of your teammates if you know how and when to use them.

Also, a well-equipped crat is quite possibly the most fun class to level with IMHO, since you can do so much, so well, so early (get bored waiting for an inf team? solo inf dynas pre-200!).
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Re: High level content player gear/guidelines?

Post by Porvalsh »

Hey, I can see how Commanding Presence is important for teams = AAO and AAD. Is Directorship really that big of a deal? If not I could move those points to Pistol Mastery for damage or Shuffle for some evades.

Right now Directorship I think adds 4% xp, plus you get the temp xp buff. I also have Insurance Claim at one for those people. To me, the 4% and short term xp buff is not really that great, possibly a waste of 4 perk points. Do INF groups look for this? I'm already bringing the 19% xp buff.
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Re: High level content player gear/guidelines?

Post by noobas »

Porvalsh wrote:Hey, I can see how Commanding Presence is important for teams = AAO and AAD. Is Directorship really that big of a deal? If not I could move those points to Pistol Mastery for damage or Shuffle for some evades.

Right now Directorship I think adds 4% xp, plus you get the temp xp buff. I also have Insurance Claim at one for those people. To me, the 4% and short term xp buff is not really that great, possibly a waste of 4 perk points. Do INF groups look for this? I'm already bringing the 19% xp buff.
Directorship is meh.

it IS helpful, but, there is also boatloads of %add XP items and buffs in game.

For example, your best BUFF is 17% or 18% maybe, but, the best buff (and you should always have this running if youre not 220/30/70), comes from the union foreman in 4 holes. (35%) at 35%, that is enough of a boost that if you have it you almost dont' ened to worry about any other XP buffs. That said, directorship STACKS with the 35% buff, while your 18% buff does not.

So, directorship is helpful for that.

Other evades, to be honest, unless you've maxed (I mean MAXED) out every single slot the crat evade line won't do diddly squat for you. It's really only an endgame evade line.

Your best bets are:

1. max directorship (if you aren't 220/30/70)
2. max Careful in battle (if you're dead, youre not helping)
3. max commanding presence
4. get the nuke from bront burge quest, Balanced freedom arms, SE pistol, and top crat pets

#4 WILL provide you with enough damage in any team that they'll be happy to have you. However, if you don't have directorship, and you have about 15k more damage/minute with perks, people won't invite you back. an axtra 10% XP and 50%, 75% 100% boosts are insanely powerful when used correctly.
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Re: High level content player gear/guidelines?

Post by Elrojo »

Saying people won't invite you back is pretty extreme. In the case of a sub 205 crat then probably yes. People have you in inf for the XP boosts. With the baton buff going to 19% however there is a small window where people will be happy enough with the boost and won't be hugely picky about no extra, extra %xp.

However you should remove from your head that crats are XP sticks. If you are debuffing, calming and dealing good damage the extra usefulness will pay off in the long run for teams.

If you do, like most people do, and don't bother debuffing except bosses or don't bother calming cos it's "just inf" and you don't bring super XP then you won't be reinvited to many teams.

I'm raids stick to your tool set. Forget DD if you want to DD roll something else. Your job is to have everything massively debuffed and that includes regular mobs.
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