158 trader for PVP

[noobas]

Hi guys, here's the setup I'm working on for my trader.

I've acquired everything in this setup except the 230 AS/TS/PM eye.

http://auno.org/ao/equip.php?saveid=194621

I'm pretty happy with this, the setup on auno is missing:

S7 belt, S7 ring (I've put in HHAB instead)

With this setup, with GSF+ICRT+doc NR+TTS+predator buff I'm sitting on

1805 dodge range+AAD static, and 1680 NR

AS skill 1161 which means about a 10 years recharge... but this toon isn't for killing, it's for disabling/survival.

It took me 2 weeks of farming every single day to get the 272 mystical force shirt - I got the 299 pants on the first mission. Go figure. Rojo messed up the IP on his fixer, so it only gains 9% bonus instead of 10%... no worries though, the gear is still very nice.

evade close/duck are 130 points less than dodge - but still very good, well unperkable by almost anyone with 1 drain.

[Anseh_Lewt]

Nice setup man, I might have shown you mine...not sure.

have you considered a snakemaster for +30 evades? thats a hefty amount.

[noobas]

I have definitely considered snakemaster

The reason I decided against it is for PVT.

if I go with snakemaster, I am basically admitting that there's zero hope of doing any damage on towers (period)

Now this isn't the end of the world, because to be honest I'm planning a multibox team that will basically function as my own personal DPS unit.

I don't really know how else to really put it, but I've got several S10 toons that are basically ready to be twinked up for some war. Some are in better shape than others, but the two I was really thinking about were two soldiers 150/161 and a doctor 150.

The two soldiers, the plan for them is really simple: all out AR/FA/burst with some decent add dmg. Cheap, easy and zero complexity. they just sit there pew pewing on towers.

Then I got the doctor. now the doctor I'm planning to make a bit nicer, I bought a nice hand crafted union arbalest for him, and I'm gunna do a setup that has decent HP and maybe edging towards a 15s or so AS setup. then I'll just stick em all on follow and assist trader.

It's not ideal but it's not bad. The doctor is a weak choice because you really need to be paying attention on doc, and it's far better in general to multibox a group that has good synergy... this group doesn't at all and that sucks but I'm not big on levelling a crapload of toons, and frankly, I looked at what was around (rocts/anseh on advy, tommy on keeper) so If I swap the 150 sold out for a 150 crat... then that's a shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitload of defence availability for the team which would basically make it impossible to kill any member of the team outright without heavy AS/SA/dimach spam

So, the next project after I finish banging out the setup on my 161 sold, I'm going to restart levelling my crat - it seems to keep taking a backseat to other stuff, but it's still the plan and I'm making great headway now that I've finally finished farming that damn mystical force shirt.

So, with all that in mind, the one thing that is probably most important, between choosing snakemaster and silverback, is damage type... So, damage type is proj on Ithaca, chem on silverback :/

So here, the argument is heavily in favour of snakemaster.

But - when you take the dmg type argument seriously, you realise the whole setup sucks balls anyway:

doc = cold dmg
trader = proj or chem
soldier (150) = energy (don't see a way around this....) unless I try some SMG/onehander thing...!?
soldier (161) = proj

ugh. that is ugly but I don't know how to handle that situation. but I think its better overall just to keep trader with silverback, and keep the setup as I've got and eat the absorbs hopefully. I might have to put both soldiers with SPB's just so they have aligned dmg though.

[Bredin]

My trader is 159, I randomly dinged him maybe a year ago to that. doh.

[noobas]

level him to 161 it's a great level.

you get easy shot, and some nice upgrades, namely:

persistant artillery eye

persistant artillery right arm

and some persistant control symbs (leg I think)

At 161 you can actually do two nice setups with trader: a CSS based offensive setup, or a CS based defensive setup.

Both are pretty nice, the offensive setup costs more though but more fun to play.

[Bredin]

I'll do it. My trader is literally only selling my trash loot right now, thats is whole purpose.

[noobas]

http://auno.org/ao/equip.php?saveid=194624

I just got really excited.

You probably would have no idea about this, but Giit's trader "sixunder" is an SMG trader.

I think he went a bit overboard with it, but honestly, it's a very interesting build.

If you take away or think about what the major shortcomings of it were... and find ways around those, there could be some pretty damn interesting stuff you could do with a few tweaks.

Check out the setup posted. the perk setup isn't right because it was from my 158 setup.

I've updated all the symbs and stuff for a 161. This setup is pretty insane. Once you get over the set of CSS, it's basically quite cheap.
The reason why this setup would be pretty good, is that you lose the massive IP sink of full auto, MR is easy to twink so probably zero IP in that.

But man oh man, you could put some big hurt on with this.

But.... there's other options too.. and this is where I get a bit crazy excited... check out these options:

1. Ranged energy main hand: http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=288297 BAM! proj dmg!!! so now you can load up on proj dmg with 300 bracer of killing intent+arul saba, and maybe even proj dmg rings, and even an RBP... if you go atrox, wit for 60 more!

you could easily ramp up dmg to +200, and way more with OSB's. with a 3500 burst cycle on this guy, you're looking at pretty bloody fast bursts, fling probably capped, and then you'll be almost a DPS machine with a AS on the side. The other true beauty of this is with fling on the RE pistol, you can IP it knowing it's not going to be wasted on the Onehander!

Epic!

2. http://auno.org/ao/perk.php?saveid=88511 OMG the perks. Note I've included the ranged energy line here, which adds more damage, and two damage perks, plus the two damage perks from shotty line (note you can use both since you've got ranged energy MH, shotty in OH)

The perk damage here in this setup is staggering. This is potentially a 10k+ alpha with a chance to stun to boot. That's pretty stupid scary if you ask me.


Some things to consider here, are: 1. RE shiny is in brain so you won't get that unless you go with an artillery brain (http://auno.org/ao/equip.php?saveid=194625)
2. which means you'll take a 100 point hit to your NR
3. you might not need to worry about it too much because traders are capable of draining up considerably for AR
4. or you just might go with a setup way more geared for offense, and aim to make a kill, and not fuss with a whack of NR and stuff (way more fun to play) but obviously this is a big tradeoff.

If you basically held off on damage perks until you had your target fully drained, then you could unload:

with the setup I posted before I thought about some stuff, and I made some changes... this is a way more offensive build, but it would be a sh*tton of fun:

http://auno.org/ao/equip.php?saveid=194626 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This would be seriously fun: burst on fast recharge, big dmg normal/flings/burst on RE weap paired with onehander AS's, easy buffed projectile dmg and just a WTF gangbanger load of damage perks. lol I'm totally tempted to try this.

[noobas]

on AO skill emulator for solitus, at 161, I get 569 RE skill.

With the last setup I posted, you'd have 443+569= base of 1012 skill.

Then you'd drain up, with buffs, nanite drains you could go up to (1012+20+210+210, with procs, another 136 more) 1588 RE skill

Add your 190AAO (setup) + predator buff (75AAO) on top and you're at 1833 AR. and then you got industrial sabotage on top +300 AAO.

2133 AR with RE. holy hot damn.

That also means 103 more AR with shotty, for 2246 shotgun AR.

I wont lie to you, but that's enough to give me the willies if I was an evader. especially with easy shot checking only 5% and the rest of those perks checking duck exp.

Also, it means your perks are going to hit like a truck.

Edit: ofc, you could also just do a standard setup with a silverback or Ithaca with a support setup too.

[noobas]

I need a 173-176 dark disc of cloudy crystal (badly) - or closest variant of.

If anyone can help with this, it would be appreciated.

[Jakereaper]

I apologize, I don't have the disk, BUT, awesome posts earlier! I must say that I read all and I really liked the ideas.

[Anseh_Lewt]

Some really cool ideas here.
I used to play tl5 trader at wars alot, even with a silverback the pvt damage is -very- low.
Most trader setups run with a fair amount of crit, igocs/scope etc, the snakemaster crits hurt alot in pvp and on the rare occasion you come across a crit tower, the damage is actually very nice.

I've very aware of Giit's nm trad, I've discussed it in depth with him a few times.
He describes it as frustrating and underwhelming :p, but he uses a hawk5 not a kmp.

It's a very IP hungry setup, even at 164, I couldn't see how I could pull it off and still manage to max SO for caps.

Another viable setup for pvt damage on a trader would be Special Edition Ranged Energy Pistol + 300 Finesmith Shattergun.
You don't really have much pvp clout but you can still debuff etc.

Alas with any setup you're not gonna have any real dps, best leave that to your soldiers/keeper imo.
Me and rocts have decent DD on our advs, mine moreso probably as it can backstab, plus tommys keeper which wrecks towers.

I personally think your trader should aim for being unperkable to any ranged before drains, defense is key with trader, you need to be able to keep slinging out the drains on key targets and staying alive, you WILL be called fast.
You may want to consider getting Nanobot Defense from Anansi Quest in Inf, It's not great but it's a brilliant escape nano. (iirc it removes roots etc).

A Nano range increaser is a MUST.

http://auno.org/ao/equip.php?saveid=194656

This was my 164 trader, I tried many setups on her, but this one was my favourite by far.

CS > Css 100%.

So, my 2c are twink evades EVERYWHERE, even consider 270+ boots of the dancing king. (I may have a 260~ somewhere but you can easily find better.)
Use the snakemaster, perk easy shot, You'll have a nice amount of offense with those 2 alone, especially if the gun crits.
If I were to rebuild another tl5 trader (which I'll probably do at some point, love traders) I'd 100% make him trox, wit of the atrox is so so effective when using a dodge setup.
Other breeds are nice but Trox has a clear advantage imo.

If you plan to multibox I'd suggest using the trader and making all others assist it.
It's an tricky profession to really master but it's very fun, imo.

I'm quite experienced playing traders so if you need any chat about them, just get hold of me.

- Ans

[Anseh_Lewt]

= I looked at what was around (rocts/anseh on advy, tommy on keeper) so If I swap the 150 sold out for a 150 crat... then that's a shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitload of defence availability for the team which would basically make it impossible to kill any member of the team outright without heavy AS/SA/dimach spam

I would do anything to get a trader/crat in our little tower team, we'd be nigh immortal.

Although I really think 150 is a poor level to twink at, especially if you don't frequent s10.
IP is ridiculous at 150 and many setups will struggle because of it, I really like the idea of a 160-164 Crat tbh, I may even make it!

Carlita is a beast at tl5 and you bring amazing utility, you may not even need a weapon, just wear 2 premium bio-shields and use nukes/perks and pets!

Paired with a keep/adv/trader you'll be extremely hard to kill.

I'd pick the trader over the crat if it was me but i'm very biased

[noobas]

Anseh,

I'm 85% complete on trader (158), I just assembled 6x sense/intel/psych NCU's which I need to get on the 264 scouts.

Once that's on, the MotFK and mystical force will pop on easily, then I'm basically ready to go. My trader is basically as maxed on evades/NR as you can possibly go. And I totally agree with you, that bredin should do the same (NR/evades), but I wanted to just do some thought experiments with a more offensive setup.

That said, once this trader is done (this weekend), I have a few chores to do:

1. build a 244 CSS set for rocts

2. I'm levelling G's atrox advy I'll take him to 158 and stick on the 213 CSS set that my trader WAS wearing

3. level the crat I've been working on...

4. finish the 150 doctor on Rojo's account

Those are all the toons I'm working on for TL5 (all of them multiboxable)

The question is, after I'm done my trader - what's the next highest priority?

The doctor is a bit of an annoyance because of the implants and crap needed, so he might get pushed off to the side a bit. The advy is easy to do, but the crat will make the biggest impact. the crat has 2 options:

1. go 126 for teaming, but out of range of 170's
2. go 161 for persisting.

I haven't decided what to do yet.