Jeremiahs Comprehensive Nano-Technician Guide

Jeremiahs Comprehensive Guide to Nano-Technicians.

Introduction.

Hi there, welcome to my guide to Nanotechs (NTs). Bit of background on myself, I'm a Nanomage NT on Rubi-ka, working for Omni-Tek. At the time of writing this I've been promoted through hard work in missions and elsewhere to the rank of Techno-Wizard (level 205). What I’m hoping to do here is bring together some excellent work done by fellow NTs in the past, add it to the work I've also done in the past and put forward a more organized fact-file for your enjoyment. Its impossible to list all the NT's that I have so much respect for out there, special mention must go to Alias, he inspired me to start writing all that time ago, wherever your hiding man, come and see me, I still make a good cup of tea and coffee.

You will find this guide broken into three parts. First you have the generic guide, then the Shadowlands section and finally a section related just to perks. Theres a lot of reading here, I strongly recommend you don’t try and read it in one sitting!

Contents.

Section One: Basic NT information

Chapter One: What is a Nano-Technician? - A brief description as to what we are.
Chapter Two: Breeds - What breed suits your play style?
Chapter Three: Abilities and Skills. -Where should I spend my IPs?
Chapter Four: Concepts - Different styles of play and how they may work out. Plus common abbreviations
Chapter Five: Nano Lines. - What each nanoline does and hints on how to get the best use out of them.
Chapter Six: Nano Programming - Not profession specific, but what it is and how to do it.
Chapter Seven: NTs and Other Professions. - A look at what buffs we give and receive and a little bit on PvP.
Chapter Eight: NT Items - Is it ubah, is it worst than a Robin Reliant going up hill against the wind?
Chapter Nine: NT Implant Ideas - Some premade implant layouts, plus some notable clusters and conflicts.
Chapter Ten: Stuff - Other People Information and Bits and Pieces.

Section Two: Shadowlands

Chapter One: What we gained and lost in Shadowlands
Chapter Two: Cyberdeck and Specialization
Chapter Three: Sided Armor
Chapter Four: Other Shadowlands Stuff

Section Three: Nano-Technician Perk Guide

Chapter One: Profession Specific Perks
Chapter Two: Group Specific Perks
Chapter Three: Generic Perks, but not all, just the ones I personally think might help
Chapter Four: My Current Set-Up and Conclusions.

Final Word: Just a few comments

Other peoples work done after this has been written

Dels Symbiant Guide: A great short reference piece on what each symbiant gives and what its missing.

Section One: Basic NT Information

Chapter One. What’s a Nano-Technician?

We are the direct damage specialists in Rubi-Ka. We take those little nanoparticles floating around in the air, and turn them into streams of acid, flying knives, blasts of fire... you get the picture? Our defense though is a bit 'lacking'. What else can we do, we can keep people vanpools refilling and we are one of the 3 'calming' classes in the game. Have a look at the nanolines father down and you'll get the picture. Also we spend time in labs, doing nanoprogramming making implants and such, basically, we're techies with ATTITUDE!


Chapter Two. Breed.

Well, as you know, entering Rubi-Ka gets you are genetically altered to one of 4 breeds. Whilst personally I am a nanomage (don't you just love the glowing blue eyes!), I will look at each of the breeds as best as I can.

Nanomage.

We are the supreme nanocasters! Our high intelligence makes our nanoskills that bit higher than everyone elses, plus we get access to some amazing bits of kit, if you can get your hands on them. Take a look at Professor Jones Vest, now is that sweet or what? On top of that look at these cool sunglasses, Shades of Lucubration, weird name, cool specs! Plus our nanopools are huge, you want to chain cast stuff, we got the pool to try it!

But yeah, we have our downsides... NTs are not exactly known for their defense you dig, we nuke and nuke some more, and nanomages have this complete lack of health. Well, you got to take some falls to be the best caster!

Solitus.

Ok these guys, they are average, not that its a bad thing, they got average life, average nanopool, decent nanoskills. You want an all rounder, these are your guys and gals! Not much in the way of breed specific items I'm afraid. Couple of bits and pieces, I'll let you do the research!

Atrox.

LARGE! Its the word that springs to mind. These guys (ok their neutered, but I have to call em something) have massive health levels, this really helps to overcome one of the main down sides to our profession. What’s this guys downside? Lack of intelligence, they aint the sharpest knife in the box, if you get my drift. They do get some access to nice kit though, just look at these babies! First, for those 'subtle' atrox out there a beam and for those pistol using NTs, take a look at this pistol.

Opifex.

These guys are agility freaks, I mean, you watch them move they don’t have bones these guys they FLOW! Pump their evades, blind the target and this NTs survival chances have got to be better than most! Couple of bits and pieces that could help you, but nothing that springs majorly to mind.

Endnote

You want to be a caster, go Nanomage, you want to be a generalist, go Solitus, you want the best survival chance, go Atrox, you want to be different, be an evasion king, go Opifex.

Update 06-02-2006: As time has passed, the relation between the various breeds has changed. Nanomages now hold very poor advantages and can not stand up to the other breeds in terms of power. A solitus is by far the best breed choice for an NT at this time. The numerous benefits they enjoy include very useful breed perks, a stable relationship between nano energy and hitpoints and very good ability scores for high-end gameplay where they offer unchallenged flexibility.

Chapter Three. Abilities and Skills.

Abilities.

The prime ability for all NTs no matter what breed is intelligence. Its trickledown is 80% of ALL nano-skills, it affects Nano Pool to. You will want to max this every level. The main affecter of Nanopool though is Psychic so that to will need to be maxed every level. By doing this it allows you to use int/psy armor, so it works out nicely. Other abilities will depend on that you want to do. Mixing stamina not only maxed bodydevs trickledown it also is the other 20% of MC, your main nanoskill. This I would recommend maxing to. Depending on what armor you want to wear then means you will max other abilities. The choice on those is your, and will come down to your breed mainly. You will always want to max nano pool, its our ammo after all, and NOT maxing Body Dev on an NT is plain foolish, we don’t have much life with it maxed!
To sum. Max INT, PSY, Nano pool and Body dev. You will also want to max stamina I believe.

Skills.

There are some skills I feel are of major importance and you should max at every level. All nanoskills, nano init and treatment. These are all vital to you. The next would be Comp Lit, Dodge Ranged, Evade Close and Break and Entry. Next you would have runspeed, nano resistance and any weapons you wish to use. Yes weapons LAST, NTs mainly work through their nanos, and in Shadowlands a new item called the cyberdeck will be available to us, but it will mean we can't use weapons any more.

Chapter Four. Concepts

NTs are the masters of nano lines. While other professions control pets, other equip large guns or weapons, or hit things with their fists, we use the very notum in the environment for our affects. So there are naturally a couple of concepts that go with this. First nano-resistance, our bane. Whenever you cast a nano at a target it has a chance of resisting our affects. Unlike the combat evades that scale damage down from crits to normal to missing, NR is an on off thing, it either works or it doesn’t. And that’s another thing, nukes don’t crit. The damage you see on the nukes is the damage you will do, normally towards the low end if not minimum regularly.

Nano Init is vital to NTs, one thing you NEVER want to be is slow. Here is how it works, up to 1200 nano init every 200 points knocks 1 second off the casting time at full agg. Recharge is never affected.

Another important thing to NTs is the agg/def bar. If you are at full agg then you will cast your nanos as fast as possible, but the evades you have will work a lot worst. If your on full defensive the evades work alot better but your casting is WAY slower. Using the reference point of the middle of the bar, its one second faster to cast on full agg and 1 second slower to cast on full def, making the entire bar represent 2 seconds.

Nano Resistance works in a simple way. Your nano 'attack skill' (normally MC but can be PM IS for example on calms) is compared and rolled against the targets NR, the nano will then land or not.

The NT as damage dealer. If our nanos are landing we do considerable damage, plus we can choose the damage type we do. Later on there are only a few viable nukes, but we do have the option to do any damage type in the game.
The NT as tank. We can get aggro VERY easy. But with our defenses we are a bit unsuited for it. If you got good healers around that’s fine, but on the whole at low levels if you get aggro STOP NUKING, plus there are a few tactics I'll discuss below.
The NT as buff machine. Ok bad news here, HE is wanted by most profs, this is a GOOD thing, shame about the messages that will spam you <you increase nano on X> etc etc, pain in the bum :)
The NT as calmer. We are good at it, no doubt, crats are better, a drained trader can be, but we get the job done well.. just remember if your calming reflect shields make things harder.

Abbreviations and terminology.

Here are some of the more common abbreviations and terms you will meet as an NT, there are lots more but this will get you started.

Fumble - The bane of all NTs, this is where you cast a nano but it fails.
Buff - A nano that resides in the persons NCUs improving their abilities.
Debuff - A nano that decreases a persons abilities
Nuke - A direct damage nano
LoS – Line of Sight
AR - Attack Rating
NR - Nano Resist
DoT- Damage over Time
AoE - Area of Effect
OMG - Oh my God! Normally when someone just died :p
NCU - Nano Containment Unit - this is what limits the number of buffs you can have running
HE - Humidity Extractor
CC - Multiple meanings, CandyCane (NT nuke) CrunchCom (cost reducer) Crowd Control (can be either against mobs or PvP limits)
SFA - Superior First Aid - doc buff adds +80 treatment
MC - Matter Creation
TS - Time and Space
MM - Matter Metamorphoses
BM - Biological Metamorphoses
PM - Psychological Modifications
SI - Sensory Improvement and Modifications

Chapter Five. Nano Lines

Ok this is going to take awhile, you KNOW how many nanos lines we got? OK stupid question, you wouldn’t be reading most of this if you knew the answers. Ok I just going to thro a BIG thanks at Jayde! This guy is the tops, he’s got all these things categorized and sorted in this database of his, even down to the profession level. No nanos can be bought in shops above ql 125, these have to be missioner for, bought of the trade channel found or drop off specific mobs.

Explanation of what the numbers mean.

Lets take a nano Solar Wind, that’s right boot up the link, and I'll explain what all the important numbers mean.

Nanopoints: How much of your pool its going to take to cast - 178
NCU cost: How many NCUs its going to take up on the target - 47 (not relevant unless the nano is friendly or has a debuff effect)
School: What type of nano it is - combat
Range: How far it can be cast (1m means self) - 25m
Attack time: How fast the nano is to cast - 3.45 seconds
Recharge time: How long it takes to recharge - 1.41 seconds
Attack skill: What skills it uses and in what proportion to work out your attack strength - 100% MC
Defense skill: What proportion of their NR you have to work against - 75%
To use ->> MC 713 - how much MC you need

Enfraams Line. (MM BM MC)

Now you wont find this in the shop and hey until recently this nanoline was mostly a wastage of NCU space. These are rollable as mission rewards, well worth getting. It was very expensive NCU wise, and the buffs it gave weren't that impressive. but hey some NTs well got together, and redid the coding on it, stole a bit of code from a doc line and hey presto, a lean mean buff. Low NCU reqs now, gives a nice Nano Resistance buff, health and ACs, worth getting and using in my book. the top one is actually by a guy called Izgimmer, its called Izgimmers Mockery, but hey we even improved on that, how do you like THEM pancakes Izgimmer :p

Absorb Shield Line. (BM MC)

Now this guys and gals is a superb line. Doesn’t look much to start with but hey lets explain it. What it does it causes a load of nanobots to shield you, they first absorb the damage before you (or whoever you have cast it on) take it. So-so you may say until you realize each type of damage has it OWN set of nanobots protecting you. So you get shot, that’s one set, you get stabbed that’s another, someone hits you with a fireball, that’s another. Main gripe about this line is you don’t know how many of each layer you got left, but them-the-breaks. What also makes this rock is cause you can cast it on other during combat to absorb damage, ok not as good as a doc, its expensive to do this nano wise, but it can make a MASSIVE difference to the tank plus it doesn’t seem to add to a mobs hate list like real heals do, discuss this tactic with your teams, its amazing how much they like you for it after! Ok the best one of these is Fleeting Immunity only it ain't that fleeting used properly!

Nano Programming. (PM SI)

Ignore what the others say, you want a Nano Programmer, you see us. Not only are we techies, we got these two beautiful buffs for it. Now these things have unfortunately been stolen by the dynacamp bosses, so your going to have to strap on yer boots and do some outdoor hunting. Now the first one is Enfraam's Toolkit, nice 75 bonus to your nano-programming. The other one though is a thing of BEAUTY. Izgimmer (and why do I get the feeling Izgimmer and Enfraam don’t get on) wrote is Living Codex of Izgimmer, now THIS is an amazing piece of coding. It looks at your skill, brain power, dedication to Nano-Research, and it unlocks more and more potential. At my rank it gives me like 140 points. Izgimmer, nice coding, I’ve looked at the structure of it and WOW, the code and simple lets just leave it there!

Nano Range Increasers. (MM TS SI)

At first glance these things are useless, but hey lets THINK about this. We can make docs heal from 40 meters away (note:40m is a HARD cap for nanos, you can never cast beyond 40m), we can land roots and nukes from 40m away, we can stay out of the tanks way and hopefully the extra distance means less aggro for us! The top one is Notum Overload, now if I could just work out how to get rid of the nanocost increase the top one adds in....

Hint guys and gals, NTs are RANGE based, keep it, you will be a lot more effective.

Nano Cost Reducers. (MM PM SI)

These are one of our most VITAL lines. These do a simple task, they cut down the amount of nano you use when you cast something. Simple, easy, clean, effective, need I say more? Top one is Izgimmer's Obfuscated Recomplier, 28% cost reducer, now tell me that isn’t useful and I'll nuke you into next week!

Nanopoint Regeneration. (MM TS)

Also known as Humidity Extractors, HE for short, these are the buddy for our reducer line. These simply give you nano back over time, groovy or what! The top one is Personal Notum Harvester, it gives you like 235 nano every 15 seconds... not bad by my book :)

Calms. (PM SI)

Ok now THIS is one of my expertise areas, so prepare to be bored :p Calms, what do they do, they stop mobs attacking and destroy their hate list. Very powerful when used right. Lets see what can you do with it, calm 2 mobs and fight a 3rd? Calm the adds so the doc don’t get dead? Or how about this, mobs nearly dead, but so the tank, throw a calm at it and then throw a high aggro nuke (see the nuke sections for details of this) mob doesn’t 'hate' the tank any more, but hates you lots, prepare to tank NT! OK and how about this, AGGRESIVE calming. Run ahead of the party, calming all possible adds, seen it done and it can be VERY effective. Plus, the last, but damm important one. You got aggro, your going down, CALM THE DAMM MOB, it will switch aggro, just pray it ain’t onto the doc...

Now the coding on the calms is a bit weird, I've looked at it and it gave me a splitting headache. Basically the more important your target is the harder it is to calm, WAIT you shout thats normal, yes but it ACTUALLY figures in the targets rank! This means that you REALLY need to upgrade this line as fast as possible, as the high level calms figure the targets level in less, the higher the calm, the longer it lasts and the easier it lands. Trust me, I know these things :p Ok the top calm is url=http://www.aomainframe.info/showitem.asp?AOID=100443]Peaceful Intentions[/url] and you really have until you nuke their ass into the ground :) Another use for them is against your fellow inhabitants of Rubi-Ka (PvP), its makes them feel a bit slow and tired, giving you more time to kill em! We also have another nano in this line called Neural Stunner, now it sounds a good deal, a nano that stuns, but it ONLY stuns for 4 seconds and takes 9 seconds to recharge, on top of that its got a 120% NR factor, not a great nano in my humble opinion.

Calms - how they work on mobs with innate resistance

If you get a message 'Cannot be affected by your calm' this does NOT mean calms wont work.
Some mobs are immune to calms - period. However you get exactly the same message off other mobs. I will use Legchopper as my example.
Using your TOP CALM (Peaceful intentions is recommended) on Legchopper you will get the message 'Cannot be affected by your calms'.
What has happened is this.
It has checked against an INNATE resistance factor, if you do not succeed against this then (and only then) will it check against NR.
It then checks against NR, you may be countered, you may land it.
Using lower calms DRASTICALLY lowers your chance of calming

Roots. (MC TS)

What a root does is very simple, it stops the target moving. If its got a gun, its still going to shoot you unless you get out of range though! Very effective on melee users, but again, like calms takes into account what rank a target is, so upgrade your roots as much as you can to, not just to improve duration but how easy they land! The top root is Burden of Atlas not many people can cast it though at the moment due to the high requirements.

Evades (TS SI)

Ok not so much a line as a single buff, but WHAT a buff! Its adds 80 to all the combat evade skills and is called Dark Movement.

Blinds (PM SI)

This line of nanos is so badly underused its unbelievable. It directly debuffs a targets AR, or comes in a handy sized AoE to! the best targeted blind is Visions of the Void and the best AoE blind is Legions of the Eyeblighter. Well worth getting, any NT who says they don't use blinds is not using every tool in the toolbox and might be a few screws short themselves!

Damage Over Time (MC TS)

Hate to say this, but pretty useless. I think I’ve got them uploaded... yes its that bad. The top one is Eye of Light but I haven’t heard of anyone finding it recently. Plus lets do some maths. 145 damage, 9 times. That’s 1305 over 45 seconds... I mean come on...

Update: Alien Invasion brought an extension to the NT damage over time lines, but sadly these are locked to very high alien levels and require raiding to obtain. Due to slow and capped cast times on them they also suffer on the power basis, and they are only truly worth using if you can acquire the necessary alien levels to use them when you can achieve the necessary nanoskills. At many levels the DOTs are simply useless and cause a lower damage over time from the NT due to time spent casting.
Thus, getting the first DOT at about lvl 120 will be a powerful addendum to your NT, but using the same DOT at lvls high above, or even using DOT 3-4 (out of the total 5) at lvl 215 and up will only be a reduction in damage.

Nullity Sphere (MM MC)

Ok you aren’t going to find these in shops... infact its now probably easier to find is Nullity Sphere II, which drops quite regularly off a mob in DAV at a place called Drill island on the map. Nullity Sphere drops of random mobs, but your BEST chance of getting it is in the claw camp in SW Pleasant Meadows. Now what do these babies do... weeeeelllllll, imagine a bubble of folded space around you, but better than that, you can shoot and nuke through it but no damage can get through to you, THATS what these do. You can’t move while you got it up, but for 14 and 19 seconds you aren’t going to drop. Nullity I take a while to recharge, nullity II is quite fast, with lead a good friend of mine, Naraya to describes them like this. 'Nullity saves your ass, Nullity II KICKS their ass!'. A way with words that girl!

Warp (MM MC TS)

Ok these are cool, your miles from anywhere, cast this and rather than going into the grid, we head for the REAL world and warp ourselves or our team there! Now don’t look like a idiot, when you roll missions for these (you ain’t finding these in no shop) make sure you get the one that matches your side.... and when you try and use it, if you use the team one, make sure you ain’t teamed with the opposition!

Root Breakers (PM TS or MC TS)

Ok these are a bit odd, your rooted, you cant move, you can hit yourself with one of these (or another person) and it reduces how long the roots going to last for, the first one is available in the shops, after that its back to the great outdoors! As an example here’s Sunder Constraints

Combat Nano (MC)

Ok ladies, gentlemen and atroxes, these are what we do. When it comes down to it an NT without their nuke is like a doc without their heals. We nuke. We Nuke. We NUKE some more. If you don’t understand this, well I'd recommend finding a new profession.

There are different kinds of nukes, based on damage and casting times. Remembering that Nano Init affects casting but not recharge, be wary of nukes that have a long recharge time. Do look at a nuke NR value, a nuke that looks to good to be true might have a high NR.

Different nukes are good in different situations, some even have secondary effects. Try to keep your nukes upgraded as much as possible, if you have increased for MC then it may be time to look for a new nuke. When you are looking at nukes, check the Anarchy Mainframe (where all the links go to) to see if the nuke has any extra aggro attached to it. What this means is, not only does it cause aggro from the mob due to the damage, it causes EXTRA for free! The two favorite nukes for this are Izgimmers Enveloping Flame, one of THE best nukes an NT can get that’s not level locked (by that I mean you have to be of a certain level or better to cast it) and Electrifying Containment, now EC ain’t as good damage as IEF but I STILL love this nuke, and why... because it does damage AND has a chance of stunning your target, rock on baby!

Another type of nuke is the AoE version, that’s Area of Effect to those who cant stand abbreviations. These are brilliant, why hit one target when you can hit many... well OK sometimes one target is enough but you got to let loose with these! The best on is Kels Neutronium Plaything, used mainly against our fellow people (PvP), its still excellent for clearing out those pesky mobs!

Now there are a number of nukes that cant be found in the shop or missions. Kels Neutronium Plaything can't be, nor Izgimmer's Last Joke... erm I mean Word (as far as the NT community can tell, he programmed this on his one bad off day), or Izgimmer's Little Nuke which is a nice finishing nuke but that’s it. However there are 3 nukes that are found off specific mobs.
Resonace Blast is our most powerful nuke to date, and I ain’t got it yet! Found on Special Agent Lamb in DAV 1240 x 1970, need a major team for this and I ain’t talking six people!
CandyCane, didn’t mommy always tell you sweets weren't good for you? Well here is the proof, it hits the target with 540 points of EACH damage type AT THE SAME TIME! That’s got to hurt! Found on Ljotur the Lunatic in DAV 1103 x 722.
Corruption of the Pest, a nasty stream of chemicals here, very suited to who drops it, The Pest, Dav, 1270 x 2320. The Pest also drops Lick of the Pest, a nasty debuff for us that drops the targets chemical AC by loads, but just look at how hard it is to cast!

OK the last type of nukes we have are not popular at all with smurfs... yeah that’s right the blues guys and gals you see running around. You see what they REALLY are, is a projection from a holo transmitter that’s patched between them and the grid. If you the fluctuate the space ar... Ok I lost you, don’t matter, TRUST me this HURTS them like its a hot poker in the eye. Outdoor camping only for things like Partial Gridspace Inversion. these are PvP only nukes (bar one mob).

Chapter Six. Nano Programming

What IS nano programming, I've mentioned it before but haven't said what it is! Well its very simple, you can stick things in your body to improve your self, they are called implants. Well nano programming is the creation of implants. Ok the first thing you do is grab this little tool Nano Nanny. Ok its got an odd name, but it allows you to design your implants, mess around and get some idea of what they are going to do! Ok now its VERY simple to make an implant.

1) Buy an implant
2) Buy a cluster for the implant (Nano Nanny will show you what can go where)
3) Pick up cluster and shift+left-click the cluster onto the implant.
4) If your nano-programming is high enough, you have made your first implant.

Now all implants can hold three clusters, shining, bright and faded. A bright cluster and a faded cluster added together comes to approximately a shining cluster. Now don't panic further own I've got some suggested implant layouts to get you started.


Chapter Seven. NTs and Other Professions

Ok lets look at each profession, now, I'll state now I’m no PvP guru, in fact I've been owned by a GA fixer (OK so I wasn’t paying attention, I was reading that months nano-Programming Monthly). I'll make a few observations, but PvP I'll leave to the experts. So in alphabetical order...

Adventurers
Hey these guys are plain cool! They can morph your into different creatures, I love being a leet! These guy have good perception buffs you might want sometimes, and if you cant find a doc for a SFA they have Rhobust Treatment, not quite as good but still very handy. These guys love HE and some like CC to. If its a melee adventurer root them, its their weakness. Whatever you do DONT candycane one, OMG it hurts!

Agents.
These guys can be great. They have the ability to morph themselves to any profession. The downside to this is they lose out on most of their high damage self-buff lines. Most agents don’t morph at raids to buff people as it takes 20mins or so to unmorph, but the occasional one will. The agent buffs that people tend to want are Feline Grace, for agility and Enhanced Senses for well sense! Now in PvP you never know what they are going to do! Some change profs, some stay agent. If they are in agent expect massive damage against you, if you see the word concentration above their head NS or run and don’t come back! Whats REALLY scary about them is experienced agents learn and adapt very fast, opponents to fear.

Bureaucrats.
Hey these guys are rare. You don’t see many around so be NICE to 'em, you hear! they like our HE and CC, and like the range increasers to. Now these guys are the crowd control masters, we're good, they are the BEST. In teams they got a nice thing called Batons that increase your learning ability, nice.... PvP wise you don’t see many at all... they tend to like messing with your speeds and then shooting you with a rifle while you move at about 1cm every 3 years....

Doctors.
I love these guys and gals. An NT and a doc is a great partnership, its two professions that complement each other nicely. Buff wise they can help your strength and stamina with things like Iron Circle. They LOVE our HE and CC, and at camps love our range increasers. And what do we love about them? Lets see, their heals! Plus they got the groovy nano Superior First Aid, gives like +80 to your treatment, great for getting implants in, and to top things off, they make you nuke faster with Instinctive Control . In PvP, you see a doc, run. You will die. Our nanos do less damage in PvP, and are also hard-capped at 40% of a targets life, heals work like normal... you do the maths, and it just comes up plain bad...

Enforcers.
The meat shields of the world. If they are around they WILL be in front of you, they WILL do their best to protect you. Only problem is sometimes out high aggro nukes pull the mob of them, so choose wisely. Got a lovely buff called Essence which gives you life, strength and stamina and some other nice ones to! In PvP these guys use something called Rage, this massive NR bonus they gets makes them very very very hard to kill.

Engineers.
Another rare breed, nice guys, you want something built, these are the people that can do it. Not many buffs that they offer that help us NTs I'm afraid and same from us, we don’t often help engies with buffs. Occasionally one of them running their blind aura wants a HE, and Dark Movement is always helpful. You might want Extreme Prejudice, a nice 120 pistol buff though :) In PvP, root the bot, get out of range of it, nuke the engie.

Fixers.
We used to have a great relationship with fixers, but then someone wrote the anti-grid armor nuke line, and the relationship went a bit down hill. These guys are FAST. I love them! Not only can they make you move so fast its unbelievable with nanos like Grid Space Freedom, they can also increase the number of NCUs you have with Sentient Viral Recoder, tis very nice! In PvP they dash in and out using snares and SMGs mainly. If they glow blue, nuke with an anti-GA nuke. Some fixers who wear GA go get turned into wolves and such by adventurers to hide this, so beware!

Martial Artist.
Veryyyyy fast and deadly these peps! So root em! Some very nice evade buffs like Reduce Inertia, and they tend to like our HE.

Meta-Physicists.
Our BEST friends and can be a dangerous enemy, but that’s about normal if you think about it, what one person can make they can destroy. These guys buff you nanoskills, yeah clear your ears, ain’t that great! You get this matter creation, you become VERY deadly, and yes they can do the same to all your nano skills! They do like our HE, helps them out alot! On the other hand imagine being hit by THIS, its really going to spoil your day!

Soldiers.
Ok these guys are cool, they can make you nuke faster like docs can with Offensive Steamroller and if your not calming then a nice reflect shield like RRFE is really cool. In PvP these guys alpha you (that’s lots of specials to use) this tends to HURT. Plus they can also do something similar to our NS. All in all, be wary of these guys.

Traders.
These peps have got a very odd reputation, some love em, some loath em. Might be something to do with draining all your skills and giving it your back on the end of a shotgun.. hmmm just maybe :) These guys main thing for us is something called a wrangle. In PvP don’t expect to have any skills left, make sure you have a second bar with lower MC req nanos on it ready.

Chapter Eight. NT Items.

OK there are a few NT items only in game, I mentioned earlier what the breeds can use and I’m not going to mention all the NT items here.

First up is some NT only armor called Saturated Metaplast, mainly drops up to QL 56ish though occasionally higher, nice armor, but not that great.
In the Temple of the Three Winds you want to kill the Defender of One (or is it three I never can remember), he drops the Notum Splice.
A must for any NT is Nelebs Cloak found on a guy in a cave system called the Steps of Madness, do some research, people will soon tell you where to go!
You wont get these anytime soon but two Viral Eggs will really help you out.
Now if you don’t mind spending some pistol skills and are after weapons that don’t shoot but improve your skills, you can go wrong with Pepper Pistols.
Last but not least by any means must be the Gaily Painted Hood you get this and WOW, drops off the Tarasque in Camelot.

Chapter Nine. Implant Ideas.

Here are some implant layouts I did awhile ago, hope they are self-explanatory.

Atrox with beam layout, using STA, STR and INT

Head (Intelligence)
Shining: Matter Creation, Bright: Dimach, Faded: Sense
Chest (Stamina)
Shining: Body Development Bright: Matter Metamorphosis, Faded: 2 Handed Blunt Weapons
Ear (Intelligence)
Bright: Psychology, Faded: Intelligence
Eye (Intelligence)
Bright: Psychological Modifications Faded: Matter Creation
Left arm (Strength)
Shining: Brawling, Bright: 2 Handed Blunt Weapons, Faded: Matter Metamorphosis
Right arm (Strength)
Shining: 2 Handed Blunt Weapons, Bright: Brawling
Left wrist (Intelligence)
Bright: Melee energy Weapons, Faded: Nano Resist
Right wrist (Strength)
Shining: Run Speed, Bright: 1 Handed Blunt Weapons
Leg (Stamina)
Bright: Stamina, Faded: Body Development
Right hand (Intelligence)
Bright: Matter Creation, Faded: Treatment
Waist (Stamina)
Bright: Body Development, Faded: Brawling
Feet (Stamina)
Bright: Agility, Faded: Duck Explosions

Carbonum / DeCranum's Corona Armor Wearer, using STR, STA, AGI and PSY

Head (Intelligence)
Shining: Matter Creation, Bright: Nano Pool, Faded: Sense
Chest (Stamina)
Shining: Stamina, Bright: Biological Metamorphosis, Faded: Strength
Ear (Intelligence)
Bright: Psychology, Faded: Psychological Modifications
Eye (Intelligence)
Shining: Electrical Engineering, Bright: Sensory Improvement & Modification, Faded: Matter Creation
Left arm (Stamina)
Bright: Strength, Faded: Matter Metamorphosis
Right arm (Stamina)
Shining: Strength, Bright: Chemical AC, Faded: Radiation AC
Left wrist (Agility)
Bright: Run Speed, Faded: Nano Resist
Right wrist (Agility)
Shining: Run Speed, Bright: Nano Resist, Faded: Fling Shot
Leg (Stamina)
Shining: Agility, Bright: Stamina, Faded: Max Health
Left hand (Stamina)
Bright: Fire Armor-Class, Faded: Cold AC
Right hand (Intelligence)
Bright: Matter Creation, Faded: Treatment
Waist (Stamina)
Shining: Cold AC, Bright: Max Health, Faded: Stamina
Feet (Agility)
Shining: Evade Close Combat, Bright: Agility, Faded: Duck Explosions

Generalist (note the TS cluster for higher HE/CC), based on INT, PSY and STA

Head (Intelligence)
Shining: Matter Creation, Bright: Nano Pool, Faded: Sense
Chest (Stamina)
Shining: Max Health, Bright: Matter Metamorphosis, Faded: Sensory Improvement & Modification
Ear (Psychic)
Faded: Intelligence
Eye (Intelligence)
Bright: Psychological Modifications, Faded: Matter Creation
Left arm (Stamina)
Bright: Strength, Faded: Matter Metamorphosis
Right arm (Stamina)
Shining: Strength, Bright: Chemical AC, Faded: Radiation AC
Left wrist (Psychic)
Bright: Run Speed
Right wrist (Psychic)
Shining: Run Speed, Bright: Nano Resist
Leg (Stamina)
Shining: Agility, Bright: Stamina, Faded: Max Health
Right hand (Intelligence)
Bright: Time & Space, Faded: Treatment
Waist (Stamina)
Bright: Max Health, Faded: Biological Metamorphosis
Feet (Stamina)
Bright: Agility , Faded: Duck Explosions

Queen Blade User, based on STR, STA and INT

Head (Intelligence)
Shining: Matter Creation, Bright: Dimach, Faded: Sense
Chest (Stamina)
Shining: Max Health, Bright: Biological Metamorphosis, Faded: Sensory Improvement & Modification
Ear (Intelligence)
Faded: Psychological Modifications
Eye (Intelligence)
Shining: Electrical Engineering, Bright: Sensory Improvement & Modification, Faded: Matter Creation
Left arm (Strength)
Shining: Brawling, Bright: 2 Handed Edged Weapons, Faded: Matter Metamorphosis
Right arm (Strength)
Shining: 2 Handed Edged Weapons, Bright: Brawling, Faded: Radiation AC
Left wrist (Intelligence)
Bright: Melee energy Weapons, Faded: Nano Resist
Right wrist (Strength)
Shining: Run Speed, Bright: 1 Handed Blunt Weapons
Leg (Stamina)
Shining: Dodge Ranged Attacks, Faded: Max Health
Left hand (Stamina)
Bright: Fire Armor-Class, Faded: First Aid
Right hand (Intelligence)
Bright: Matter Creation, Faded: Treatment
Waist (Stamina)
Shining: Cold AC, Bright: Max Health, Faded: 2 Handed Edged Weapons
Feet (Agility)
Bright: Agility

SMG user, all abilities, abit like my set-up, but a few different tweaks

Head (Intelligence)
Shining: Matter Creation, Bright: Ranged Initiative, Faded: Sense
Chest (Stamina)
Shining: Max Health, Bright: Biological Metamorphosis, Faded: Sensory Improvement & Modification
Ear (Sense)
Shining: Perception, Bright: Psychology, Faded: Intelligence
Eye (Sense)
Shining: Map Navigation, Bright: Psychological Modifications, Faded: Matter Creation
Left arm (Stamina)
Bright: Strength, Faded: Matter Metamorphosis
Right arm (Agility)
Shining: MG & SMG, Bright: Chemical AC, Faded: Radiation AC
Left wrist (Agility)
Bright: Run Speed, Faded: Nano Resist
Right wrist (Stamina)
Shining: Ranged Initiative, Bright: Burst
Leg (Agility)
Shining: Dodge Ranged Attacks, Bright: Evade Close Combat, Faded: Max Health
Left hand (Stamina)
Bright: Fire Armor-Class, Faded: Cold AC
Right hand (Intelligence)
Bright: Matter Creation, Faded: Treatment
Waist (Sense)
Shining: Chemical AC, Bright: Max Health, Faded: Biological Metamorphosis
Feet (Agility)
Shining: Evade Close Combat, Bright: Dodge Ranged Attacks

One Rifle set-up aimed at Decranums Users.

Based on STR STA AGI INT

Head (Intelligence)
Shining: Matter Creation, Bright: Ranged Initiative, Faded: Sense
Chest (Stamina)
Shining: Max Health, Bright: Matter Metamorphosis, Faded: Sensory Improvement & Modification
Ear (Agility)
Bright: Concealment, Faded: Intelligence
Eye (Agility)
Shining: Rifle, Bright: Psychological Modifications, Faded: Matter Creation
Left arm (Stamina)
Bright: Strength, Faded: Matter Metamorphosis
Right arm (Stamina)
Shining: Strength, Bright: Chemical AC, Faded: Radiation AC
Left wrist (Agility)
Bright: Run Speed, Faded: Rifle
Right wrist (Agility)
Shining: Ranged Initiative, Bright: Rifle
Leg (Agility)
Shining: Dodge Ranged Attacks, Bright: Evade Close Combat, Faded: Max Health
Right hand (Intelligence)
Bright: Matter Creation, Faded: Aimed Shot
Waist (Stamina)
Bright: Max Health, Faded: Biological Metamorphosis
Feet (Agility)
Shining: Evade Close Combat, Bright: Agility, Faded: Duck Explosions

Pistol one, designed for dual possibilities, with a bit of fling and burst thrown in for good luck.

Set-up aimed at Decranums Users.

Based on STA AGI INT

Head (Intelligence)
Shining: Matter Creation, Bright: Nano Pool, Faded: Sense
Chest (Stamina)
Shining: Max Health, Bright: Matter Metamorphosis, Faded: Sensory Improvement & Modification
Ear (Intelligence)
Bright: Psychology, Faded: Intelligence
Eye (Intelligence)
Bright: Psychological Modifications, Faded: Matter Creation
Left arm (Stamina)
Bright: Strength, Faded: Matter Metamorphosis
Right arm (Agility)
Shining: Fling Shot, Bright: Chemical AC, Faded: Radiation AC
Left wrist (Agility)
Shining: Multiple Ranged Weapons, Bright: Run Speed, Faded: Nano Resist
Right wrist (Agility)
Shining: Pistol, Bright: Burst, Faded: Fling Shot
Leg (Agility)
Shining: Dodge Ranged Attacks, Bright: Evade Close Combat, Faded: Max Health
Right hand (Intelligence)
Bright: Matter Creation, Faded: Treatment
Waist (Stamina)
Bright: Max Health, Faded: Biological Metamorphosis
Feet (Agility)
Shining: Evade Close Combat, Bright: Dodge Ranged Attacks, Faded: Duck Explosions

Here is a MA based NT - abilities the implants are based on are

INT AGIL and STAM

Head (Agility)
Shining: Matter Creation, Faded: Sense
Chest (Stamina)
Shining: Max Health, Bright: Matter Metamorphosis, Faded: Sensory Improvement & Modification
Ear (Intelligence)
Faded: Psychological Modifications
Eye (Agility)
Shining: Aimed Shot, Bright: Sensory Improvement & Modification, Faded: Matter Creation
Left arm (Stamina)
Shining: Brawling, Bright: Strength
Right arm (Agility)
Shining: Strength, Bright: Physical and MA Initiative
Left wrist (Agility)
Bright: Run Speed, Faded: Nano Resist
Right wrist (Agility)
Shining: Run Speed, Bright: Nano Resist, Faded: Multiple Melee Weapons
Leg (Stamina)
Shining: Agility, Bright: Evade Close Combat, Faded: Max Health
Left hand (Agility)
Faded: Martial Arts
Right hand (Agility)
Shining: Martial Arts, Bright: Matter Creation, Faded: Treatment
Waist (Stamina)
Bright: Max Health, Faded: Biological Metamorphosis
Feet (Agility)
Shining: Physical and MA Initiative, Bright: Martial Arts

Generic Cyberdeck Layout, no specific abilities choosen, using Jobe clusters

Head
Matter Creation
Nano Pool
Sense

Eye
Map Navigation
Psychological Modifications
Matter Creation

Ear
Exp Modifier
Nano Cost Modifier
Psychological Modifications

Chest
Max Health
Matter Metamorphosis
Sensory Improvement & Modification

Right arm
Strength
Defense Modifier
Nano Range

Left arm
Defense Modifier
Strength
Matter Metamorphosis

Waist
Nano Cost Modifier
Max Health
Biological Metamorphosis

Right wrist
Run Speed
NCU Memory

Left wrist
Shield Radiation Damage
Run Speed
Nano Resist

Leg
Dodge Ranged Attacks
Evade Close Combat
Exp Modifier

Right hand
Trap Disarmament
Matter Creation
Treatment

Left hand
Shield Chemical Damage
Nano Range
First Aid

Feet
Evade Close Combat
Exp Modifier
Defense Modifier

Chapter Ten: Stuff - Other People Information and Bits and Pieces

Found a nice piece of writing on conflicts from weapons, thinks its by Naraya, but the name is missing off the bottom, I'll include this anyway...
Note on conflicts:
The cost for the skill is in brackets.
The shining dodging & ducking clusters both go into the leg slot.
The faded evasion & dodging clusters both go into the waist (which also conflicts with the faded stamina cluster).
The shining MC & NR clusters both go into the head slot. :\

-Ranged-
Pistols (1.6x):
Conflicts with MC in the right hand & eye.
Does not conflict with NR.
Does not conflict with Max Health.
Does not conflict with any evades.

Rifles (4x):
Does not conflict with MC.
Conflicts with NR in both wrists.
Does not conflict with Max Health.
Does not conflict with any evades.

MG/SMG (3.2x):
Conflicts with MC in the right hand.
Does not conflict with NR.
Does not conflict with Max Health.
Does not conflict with any evades.

Shotguns (3x):
Conflicts with MC in the right hand.
Does not conflict with NR.
Does not conflict with Max Health (yet it does conflict with Stamina in the waist)
Conflicts with evasion/dodging cluster in the waist.

Assault Rifles (4.5x):
Conflicts with MC in the right hand & eye.
Does not conflict with NR.
Does not conflict with Max Health.
Does not conflict with any evades.

Bow (4x):
Conflicts with MC in the eye.
Does not conflict with NR.
Does not conflict with Max Health.
Does not conflict with any evades.

Ranged Energy (4x):
Conflicts with MC in the head.
Conflicts with NR in the head also.
Does not conflict with Max Health.
Does not conflict with any evades.

Grenade (2.4x) / Heavy Weapons (4x):
Does not conflict with MC.
Does not conflict with NR.
Does not conflict with Max Health.
Does not conflict with any evades.
Grenade & Heavy Weapons are in total conflict (all three clusters share the same spots)

-Melee-
MA (2.8x):
Does not conflict with MC.
Does not conflict with NR.
Does not conflict with Max Health.
Conflicts with the dodging cluster in the foot.

1h Edged (4x):
Does not conflict with MC.
Conflicts with NR in the right wrist.
Does not conflict with Max Health.
Does not conflict with any evades.

2h Edged (2.5x):
Does not conflict with MC.
Does not conflict with NR.
Does not conflict with Max Health (yet it does conflict with stamina in the waist)
Conflicts with the evasion/dodging cluster in the waist.

1h Blunt (4x):
Does not conflict with MC.
Conflicts with NR in the right wrist.
Does not conflict with Max Health.
Does not conflict with any evades.

2h Blunt (3.2x):
Does not conflict with MC.
Does not conflict with NR.
Does not conflict with Max Health.
Does not conflict with any evades.

Melee Energy (3.2x):
Conflicts with MC in the head.
Conflicts with NR in the head.
Does not conflict with Max Health.
Does not conflict with any evades.
Ok back to me now, yeah I’m going to bore you again :D Now some clusters you may wish to get your hands on are the jobe ones, nano cost reducers, range increasers and nano regen. Keep yer eyes open for them!
Chapter 10: Stuff
Yeah its not finished yet! I'm not the only guy to write stuff round here, I'm going to drop in a few bits and pieces that people should read that ain't fitting in anywhere else. Lets start with Eazes, how to build a Corruption Tower.
Tower construction.

Stage 1) Put Polychromic Nanoclouds on Conductor Building kit
Stage 2) Put result of that on Program of Corruption
Stage 3) Put result of that on HSR Armor

Conductor Guardian of Corruption.

First step has the highest reqs, QL220 took about 1250 Electrical engineering.

And here is a load of stuff on Tower Battles

Vergil tips.

AE Blinds

AE Nukes

Root/Stun Anything you can

Full Def

Meatshields for you to pull back behind while recharging

Battle Prepared Kits

Combo Stims

Run From Raging Enfs (/follow sucks!)

Arena Practice for when they rush your AEing Behind

Practice the Nullity/AEBlind/Kel's Suicide Combo

From Nayara
Mass battle tips.

#1. Patience
Always be patient. Losing patience is the first step to the reclaim. Stick with your team, stay near a healing tower or a doc and use your range to your advantage. Range is a pretty big thing in NW believe it or not. Do not give in to the urge of wanting to nuke something and go running out into the open looking for a target.

-edit: If you go link dead, exercise patience and take a break. Crowd Control is broken and will put you in a "Server Lost" link-death loop if it tries to teleport you....grr..

#2. Communication
Communication in any mass battle is critical to success. If someone is running a raid-bot at the time, it is best to be on it so you know what is going on with the team.

#3. Preparation
Always have the best first aid items ready to go, have your armor of choice on before even heading to the battle and whatever armor you need for casting stuff ready to go, have sufficient ammo for your weapon (if you carry one), and have multiple Y-bars prepped for different circumstances. Before actually doing any battle, get whatever outside buffs you can get before self buffing. This will depend greatly on who is present, but every last bit helps.

Routeen
A few small tricks I have found effective on defence... Hide by the controller. Come out, AOE blind, then AOE nuke the attackers.
The meleers will often reflexively put you on follow
Run back to the centre of base, then chain root em, and let them soak up the tower dmg. Drop your specials then, if you have any...
If they don’t chase, then keep harassing, and look to pick off strays...
Another amusing tactic -- Watch for those PvP enabled people. They are extremely easy to pick off when people are massing for the attack, or there is a standoff.

Ravenous Tip
1) stay behind the meatshields, try not to get targeted if possible
2) make short pushes to enemy lines, special, AoE blind, Kels, retreat, wait for recharge, rinse repeat; as always, apply rule #1, stay behind meatshields and avoid to be targeted if possible
3) watch out for people that have locked onto you; lots of soldiers with their alpha up will rush after you once they see you're a NT or recognize your name; time nullity right and stay near healing towers, or pull back to towers and root your opponent, so the towers lock on him;
4) always go full def, but play with your agg/def slider, as for various situations full def is not the solution
5) keep moving once the attacks are commencing, use the terrain to your advantage (LoS with trees, rocks etc);
6) use range as your advantage; watch out if enemies get area rooted/snared, step up and AoE as much as you can, until roots break; use roots to keep melee enemies off your butt, stuns on lower NR targets (no, not enforcers or fixers);
7) as already said, situational awareness, one of the prime things in CQB; check the situation, keep your team/raid members updated on enemy movements, use information you get in return to your advantage (a nice system is SALUTE - size, activity, location, unit, time, and equipment, some of you might recognize this one ), use your whole arsenal for various situations (e.g. injured fixer, toss a GA nuke on him as you run by, hit him with your specials, try to get him as low as possible so his target has a higher chance of survival, or even get a fast kill); use tactics you learned from duels, use the weaknesses of the professions (e.g. chain-root soldiers in TMS, debuff caster classes as you dash by, -115 might not sound much but in some cases its just enough);
8) use calms, roots and stuns if you are in "support mode" even if calms break upon a hit, it might just buy someone a few secs to get in the next first aid stim that saves his butt, if you keep on moving tab - root, tab - root etc a few times, helps melee classes to catch up on a target.

Section Two: Shadowlands

Chapter One: What we gained and lost in Shadowlands

Ok, first off we gained out Perks, now I'm sorry I'm not going into them again, just follow the link, and have a read there.

Let’s do the bad side first, and look at what we lost. Well for starters, we can't warp while we are within Shadowlands, for some reason no NT has managed to do a recode of our warp nanos yet, but the Meta-Physicists have, something to look into perhaps, does this indicate the nature of Shadowlands is a purely Meta-Physical universe, do you really exist while inside it, who knows, but more research is needed.

OK, next up is our calms. For some reason our calms just don't cut it in Shadowlands. We CAN calm, just don't expect to do it in one try or even ten, it can take many many attempts to land it. If you want something calmed send for a 'crat, who have had some luck writing new calm programs for the Shadowlands or a fully drained up trader, well Wobble assures me he can calm Hecklers (Whats a heckler??!? Well I’ll tell you about those a bit later) like a knife through something soft and squidgy.

Roots, now they seem to work ok, especially the perk one I discussed in the perks section, but some mobs have a tendency to hit well over 40 meters, so be warned a rooted mob ain't a safe mob.

Not a loss, but definitely a change, our 'old' pre-Shadowlands nukes now seem to really annoy mobs, seems to have an inbuilt taunt factor on them all now (except the area of effect ones), so be warned, watch out for the aggro!

OK, so what did we gain? Well two things, firstly we gained a range of Intelligence and Psychic buff lines, the top of which is Izgimmer's Hippocampal Augmentor. Quite helpful, allows you to get into the new armors easier, and a nice trickledown to our nanoskills.
The other things we got were a range of new nukes that have very low nano-resistance checks on them, and have pretty good damage and speed. However there are a couple of points, firstly you have to use a Cyberdeck (don’t worry there is one type for each breed, I'll discuss later how you get them), that means no weapons, no martial arts, so its nanos or nothing folks. Secondly all these nanos have a minimum casting time, probably to stop us overloading the deck or something, which means we can be interrupted easier, so just be aware.

Ok, what didn't we see? Well no extensions to old nano-lines and no new nano-lines either and no new AoE nukes. Plus while a lot of people still love us for our HE, the new perks out-there makes it less helpful. However we do good, consistent damage and out first level 220 Nano-Technician Gunnandahalf says the top Cyberdeck nuke Izgimmer's Ultimatum is quite tasty... Once more, congrats Gunn on being the first 220 NT! (even if you are clan and need a bath :p)


Update sometime in 2005: NTs received updated roots and calms working in SL. They do have massive requirements though and capped cast times. Don't hesitate to post complaints about capped cast times, because we all hate them so. They do work very well, despite their cast times.

Chapter Two: Cyberdeck and Specialization

Ok, now what does the word, 'specialization', mean to you? Well to me it means going down different roots, but that’s NOT what it means here. What 'specialization' does is allow you access the ability to use your new nanos, some need spec one (as its called), some need two, extra.

I’m going to use S1, S2, S3 and S4 as shorthand here. The other thing you need to know is what a CD is, well duh, it means Cyberdeck, ok.

OK, now your CD is a groovy glove thing, with some quite high tech in it. Basically it holds some code stings ready prepared for this new range of nukes so you HAVE to wear it to be able to use them so don't lose it. However each one is genetically bonded to you (aka nodrop) so unless your a idiot you won't lose it easily.

Good news here and bad. Each CD requires a different level of advancement to be reached to use it. Now don't worry that they look like you need to be a certain breed to use them, each breed has one at each level for each sex, so don't panic! Here’s the list.

Complete S1 and you get the Basic Cyberdeck. This you have to be level 50 or more to use.

Complete S2 and you get the Augmented Cyberdeck. This you have to be level 100 or more to use.

Complete S3 and you get the Jobe-chipped Cyberdeck. This you have to be level 150 or more to use.

Complete S4 and you get the top model CD in the Izgimmer-modified Cyberdeck. This you have to be level 200 or more to use.

That’s the bad news, now here is the good news. Lets say your level 75, and you get the stuff you need for S2 you CAN go ahead and get the new Spec uploaded. You keep the old deck AND get the new one, so don't worry, go ahead and get the best you can, and just swap up as you can.

Now how do you go about getting this wonderful CD I hear you ask, well ok I don't exactly hear you but anyway this is how! You want to go and speak to a guy called Professor Dedlock in the basic store of IPS found in the Harbor Area of Jobe. Now he will ask you to find some books for him, then he will give you your specialization and your CD. Nifty huh! For more details on this I strongly recommend reading this as it will give you some help.

Chapter Three: Sided Armor

Ok another addition is a new line of leveling armors available at your IPS guy.

the first lot requires collecting a load of insignias and handed over a lump of cash to him, to get the basic armor. This you will need if you want to progress through the levels of it as you place upgrades upon it. The Basic Armor ain't that great, but here is how you get it.

From there you upgrade first to Tier One armor, which ain't that great either, I mean ranged energy buffage!?!?!?! Then we got to, shock horror, yes Tier Two which is a bit better buff wise but not great, however it is the last stepping stone to getting this or this depending on your side.

Now to do the upgrades ain't easy. First I recommend you read this as it will give you some ideas what your up against, and then go and talk to the IPS guy and see what he says you need.


Chapter Four: Other Shadowland Stuff

Ok a few bits and pieces that aren't just about NTs, but hey worth mentioning. Firstly, gardens. This is where you buy your nanos, now I'm not going to go over how you get into gardens or anything, just have a look around the forums and you will find the info. Next up are rings. These are rings off Ergo himself that allow you to move between zones. If you are advanced enough, he will simply give you the ring, and any protective gear, you need to progress, if your not you have to go quest for bits and pieces he wants before he will give you the ring.

Lastly there are Hecklers. Now these are mobs you find on the Brink. Now I’m not going into what the Brink is, but Hecklers are one of the most rewarding things you will find in Shadowlands, and also the most deadly. That’s it, not telling you more, you can learn yourselves, I just recommend a good pair of running shoes.

Section Three: Nano-Technician Perk Guide

Chapter One: Profession Specific Perks

Channeling of Notum

This perk is a permanent HE aura for your entire team. It has four levels to it, and as you put more points into it, it speeds up the tick and increases the amount per tick. This perk has no specials attached to it. Multiple NTs in a team will cause just the highest one to run.

Code:

---

Perk Level        Level                  Affect
    1            40          25 Nano per 14 second tick
    2            90          60 Nano per 13 second tick
    3            170          90 Nano per 12 second tick
    4            SL1          170 Nano per 11 second tick

---

Enhanced Nano Damage

Ok, the name of this perk speaks for itself, like it makes your nanos hit harder… this can never be a bad thing… Now at the time I write this its not quite right… each level is meant to stack up, but at the moment only the highest value gets added, hopefully this will get changed soon. It also provides a small bonus to our Nano Pool

At the forth level of this Perk we get a special called Breach Defenses which lowers a targets nano resistance.

Code:

---

Perk Level    Level                          Affect
    1          160                +2% damage and 150 Nano Pool
    2          180                +2% damage and 225 Nano Pool
    3          200                +3% damage and 270 Nano Pool
    4          SL 3                +3% damage and 335 Nano Pool
    5          SL 9                +3% damage and 420 Nano Pool
    6          SL 15              +5% damage and 600 Nano Pool

---

End total should thus equal 18% damage and 2000 Nano Pool.


Essence of Notum

Ok, nice simple Perk line this, it increases your Nano Pool. You can buy it at levels 80, 180 and SL3 and it increases by 600, 1600 and 3800 for a total gain of 6000 Nano Pool.

At level one of this perk you gain Nano Heal which is a direct heal to your Nano Pool.

Notum Siphon

Just in-case anyone has no braincells (what you doing being an NT if you haven’t) this is out MUST perk. Every-other perk have really nice affects, some of them I would say are a must, but this one you HAVE to have, it’s like amazing. What does it do? It increases your MC and it gives you a permanent self HE!

We get two specials based off this perk, the first is Fade Anger at Perk level four, what it does is simple, it reduces the mobs hate towards you, nice huh! The second one is Tap Notum Source which puts a large HE onto us, oh and it works better in ShadowLands folks, which you get at Perk level seven.

Code:

---

Perk Level    Level                Affect              Nano/min
    1          30          +3 MC, 50 Nano/10sec          300
    2          60          +4 MC, 90 Nano/10sec          540
    3          90          +5 MC, 130 Nano/9sec          867
    4          130        +6 MC, 190 Nano/9sec          1267
    5          170        +7 MC, 200 Nano/8sec          1500
    6          200        +8 MC, 215 Nano/8sec          1612.5
    7          SL 3        +10 MC, 240 Nano/7sec        2057
    8          SL 9        +11 MC, 260 Nano/7sec        2228
    9          SL 14      +13 MC, 300 Nano/7sec        2571
  10          SL 18      +18 MC, 417 Nano/5sec        5004

---

Totals are +85 Matter Creation and 5000 Nano Pool every minute.

Chapter Two: Group Specific Perks

Ok, now we share some of our perks with other professions, now now, don’t be jealous they help us out you know!

Nano Doctorine

This line is shared with Agents (PL 7 max), Crats, Docs, Mps and Traders (PL 7 max)
Now at first look this line is REALLY good. It boosts all your nano skills, can’t go wrong really. If you want nano skills then yes go for this, personally I’m going to only have a few points in it to start with, I have other things that have priority, but I’ll be putting points here when I can. This also has a wonderful special attached to it, Shutdown Removal which you actually get twice on the perk list, once at Perk level five and once at ten, so you can use it again while the first one recharges.

Code:

---

Perk Level    Level      Affect
    1          50          +5
    2          80          +6
    3          120        +7
    4          160        +8
    5          200        +9
    6          SL 2        +10
    7          SL 5        +11
    8          SL 10      +12
    9          SL 13      +13
  10          SL 16      +19

---

Giving a total of 100 to all nano skills.

Notum Source

Ok, we share this Perk line with MPs, who, like us, can get the entire line. What it does is increase your natural nano heal rate (known as heal delta) whilst also giving Nano Pool and a bonus to Int and Psy.

There are four specials attached to this Perk line. At perk one you get a team nano heal called Access Notum Source.
At perk four you get a Nano Pool and Nano skill attack called Blast Nano, but to get this to work it needs an affect called Zap Nano already running on the target, this is found in the Notum Repulsor Perk line, one that I doubt any NT will ever have, so you will be relying on someone else to use their Perk first.
At perk seven you get Stop Notum Flow which is a lovely debuff that lowers the targets nano resistance.
Finally at perk ten you get the ability Notum Overflow which makes people 15% more vulnerable to nanos… which is meant to increase the damage done by 15% for one minute with a 6minute recharge!

Code:

---

Perk Level    Level                      Affect
    1          20          +3 ND, +40 Nano Pool +1 Int/Psy
    2          50          +3 ND, +50 Nano Pool +1 Int/Psy
    3          80          +3 ND, +60 Nano Pool +1 Int/Psy
    4          110        +3 ND, +70 Nano Pool +1 Int/Psy
    5          140        +4 ND, +80 Nano Pool +1 Int/Psy
    6          180        +5 ND, +95 Nano Pool +1 Int/Psy
    7          SL 1        +6 ND, +100 Nano Pool +1 Int/Psy
    8          SL 3        +10 ND, +120 Nano Pool +2 Int/Psy
    9          SL 7        +19 ND, +150 Nano Pool +2 Int/Psy
  10          SL 10      +30 ND, +235 Nano Pool +4 Int/Psy

---

Totals are +15 to Int and Psy, +1000 Nano Pool and +86 Nano Delta.


Starfall

Ok, you want specials as an NT in combat, you envious of that burst, that full auto, chewing your backside, well THIS Perk line is our specials for combat, the PvP orientated amongst us will probably rate this line more than I do, personally, I’m not investing in it at the moment, but hey, things change you know, you want that extra damage potential, you come here. Now we share this line with Crats, Docs and MPs, all who can max it, just like us. The Perk also gives you a bit more Nano Pool, a bit more life and a bit in nano skills.

OK at Perk one you get access to Dazzle with Lights, now what its meant to do is slow those critters down and decrease their chance to hit you, well I’m told by a good friend of mine, Drlog that it causes major fluctuations in everyones inits nearby…
When you reach Perk three you get Combust which needs you to already have Dazzled your opponent which nukes your opponent, oh and this is better if you got a Soldier using Napalm Spray on the target first.
Next up is Thermal Detonation which appears at Perk six. This needs Combust running on your opponent and again is better is a soldier has sprayed them. Basically its an upgraded version of Combust.
Finally if you master the entire Perk line you get Supernova, I’ll let you work out what it does, and if you can’t guess go and get some schooling! This needs Thermal to be already running on the target.

Code:

---

Perk Level    Level                        Affect
    1          20          +10 Nano Pool, +5 Life
    2          50          +15 Nano Pool, +8 Life
    3          90          +20 Nano Pool, +10 Life
    4          120        +25 Nano Pool, +13 Life, +1 to all nano skills
    5          150        +30 Nano Pool, +14 Life, +1 to all nano skills
    6          190        +35 Nano Pool, +17 Life, +1 to all nano skills
    7          SL 2        +40 Nano Pool, +18 Life, +2 to all nano skills
    8          SL 5        +45 Nano Pool, +20 Life, +2 to all nano skills
    9          SL 10      +70 Nano Pool, +22 Life, +3 to all nano skills
  10          SL 14      +110 Nano Pool, +33 Life, +5 to all nano skills

---

Totals are, 400 Nano Pool, 160 Life and 15 to all nano skills.


Theoretical Research

Ok people, listen carefully, who says understanding how things work is a bad thing? At first glance this line looks weak in comparison to the others, but let me tell you, I wouldn’t be without it. Its got a nice bonus to nanoprogramming, yeah ok Im a bit geeky like that, I love my nanoprogramming, and a bonus to Nano Pool. Doesn’t sound to exciting yet, but this line has some AMAZING specials on it. We share this all the way with those guys and girls in the MP field.

Quark Containment Field even has a cool name for a cool affect, it’s a root, but trust me, it’s a root you want, go try it out, and be IMPRESSED, you get this at the third Perk level.
Next up is at level six, Accelerated Decaying Quarks, stops their nano skills verrrry nicely and also does them some pain, shame it needs Sabotage Quark Field running off either and engie or trader first.
Last up is Knowledge Enhancer boosts how much damage you do, who said learning never hurt! You get this at Perk nine. It adds 12% damage, for 30 seconds, with a three minute recharge.

Code:

---

Perk Level    Level              Affect
    1          40          +10 NP, +25 Nano Pool
    2          70          +10 NP, +40 Nano Pool
    3          110        +12 NP, +65 Nano Pool
    4          140        +13 NP, +75 Nano Pool
    5          180        +14 NP, +90 Nano Pool
    6          SL 1        +16 NP, +110 Nano Pool
    7          SL 3        +18 NP, +130 Nano Pool
    8          SL 5        +22 NP, +145 Nano Pool
    9          SL 8        +30 NP, +160 Nano Pool
  10          SL 9        +55 NP, + 260 Nano Pool

---

Totals are, 200 nanoprogramming and 1100 Nano Pool

Chapter Three: Generic Perks

Now I’m not going to go into depth on each of the generic perks, I’m going to highlight the ones I think are important, personally, I have no Generic Perks trained at the moment, but there are a number I seriously would consider.

Cartographer

Ok simple perk this, gives you map navigation and adventuring. That’s not the reason to take this. What it does give at level one Perk is the special Elementary Teleportation 1 which allows you to travel back to a set location, South Ent for Omnis for example, very helpful for a quick exit from the ShadowLands.

Enhanced DNA

Not a bad perk this, especially at lower stages in your profession. Gives a nice +4 to all your abilities per level, good for equipping items, and a bit extra life. Oh and by definition +4 means a +1 bonus to all your skills via trickledown. Also has a HoT and a DoT remover specials later on.

Enhanced Health and Enhanced Nano

Do what they say on the tin, you want more life or nano, get these, personally I don’t see these being that important. No specials off them.

Explorer

Want to progress fast? Want that little bit more crash for your cred? Well take this, gives a bit of run speed and a nice exp bonus. Plus it gives something similar to cartographer, at Perk two you get Exploration Teleportation 1 which again goes to fixed locations on Rubi-Ka. In total you get 5% exp and 100 runspeed.

First Aid

Very nice Perk this, gives you a treatment and first aid bonus. Very helpful for getting higher implants in. Plus you get a nice Heal at Perk two, but the reports I am now getting in (thanks Dropcid) indicate that how much it heals by is based on your First Aid skill.

Genius

This is like Enhanced DNA, but aimed exclusively at Int and Psy, plus a bit of Nano Pool. Adds 8, then 12 then 20, for a nice +40 bonus overall. Plus at Perk two you get Regain Nano a Nano Pool heal.

NCU Extensions

One of the main problems NTs have always had is lack of NCU room, take this, gain NCU and Computer Literacy, simple no.

Notum Repulsor

Ok, if you take this as an NT I will ask the wife to track you down and shoot you. OK so I won’t be able to do much against you as you have gained lots of Nano Resistance, but you have just LOST all your nano skills, and an NT without their nano skills, is about as useful as a dead duck… actually no cooked duck is tasty, so your even less use. Only GOOD thing about this Perk is if someone ELSE has it and are helping you, when they use Nano Shakes our Breach Defenses gets better. Also we need them to be running Zap Nano for our Blast Nano to work, as previously mentioned.

Training Seminar

If Explorer gave you a large crash for your cred, this is bucketful of creds. No specials, no extras, just a straight exp buff line, 7% in total.

The Unmentioned Generic Perks

There are a few that I haven’t bothered mentioning, they are Ambidextrous, Freak Strength, Kung-Fu Master and Motorist. They do what they say, and if your interested in them, that’s your call.


Chapter Four: My Current Set-Up and Conclusions

Currently I'm maxing Enhanced Nano Damage, Notum Siphon, Theoretical Research and Nano Doctorine. This may change again :)

Final Word

Phew, never realised it was so much when put together! This is the last bit, promise. Well, I hope that this has been some use to you all, there are SO many people I would have to thank that the list would go on for ages (this an Oscar speech?) so I’m not going to bother bar a couple :D.

First, thanks to Alias, we wrote the first NT guide together, and even though hes not around any more, he is still a major inspiration to me. Next to AODB and Anarchyarcanum that I’ve linked to and finally to you, the NT community, without ALL of you, there wouldn’t be much point in writing this.

Hope you enjoy playing as much as I do, and see you around, my PM box is always open.

Dels Symbiant Information

Del has posted a great short Symbiant guide, so its been added here, great work :)

Eye:
Tutoring, Treatment, SensoryImprovement, PsychologicalModification, NanoProgramming, ComputerLiteracy, Psychology, Pistol, SpaceTime, MaterialCreation
Nanoinit and Intelligence are gross oversights here. QuantumFT are also one of the tradeskills that are cheap for nt's.
(Nanoinit, Intelligence, QuantumFT)

Brain:
NanoProgramming, ComputerLiteracy, QuantumFT, Intelligence, MaterialCreation, SpaceTime, MaterialMetamorphosis, BiologicalMetamorphosis, NanoResist, NanoC.Init, Psychic, PsychologicalModification, Psychology, SensoryImprovement, Treatment, MaxNanoEnergy, NanoPool, Sense
No horrible oversights here.

Ear:
MaxNCU, Psychology, NPCostModifier, PsychologicalModification, Psychic, Intelligence
Tutoring would be a nice addition, but nothing gamebreaking.
(Tutoring)

Right Arm:
NanoDelta, AddAllDef, ChemicalAC, NanoRange
Flingshot cause it's closely tied to the pistol skill.
(FlingShot)

Chest:
Sense, NanoPool, MaxHealth, Psychic, MaterialMetamorphosis, BiologicalMetamorphosis, Strength, SkillLockModifier, SensoryImprovement, PoisonAC, NanoC.Init, MaxNanoEnergy, InterruptModifier
Stamina would be a great addidtion for those few points of MC it would give.
(Stamina)

Left Arm:
NanoRange, HealDelta, AddAllDef, Strength, NPCostModifier, MaterialMetamorphosis
Looks about right.

Right Wrist:
RunSpeed, Pistol, NanoDelta, NanoResist, MaxNCU, ProjectileDamageModifier, FlingShot
Looks about right.

Waist:
NPCostModifier, Sense, MaxNanoEnergy, MaxHealth, DuckExp, NanoPool, EvadeClsC, DodgeRanged, BiologicalMetamorphosis, Agility
Stamina would be a great addidtion for those few points of MC it would give.
(Stamina)

Left Hand:
SkillLockModifier, NanoRange, FirstAid
Again with the missing InterruptModifier.
(InterruptModifier)

Right Hand:
Pistol, SpaceTime, MaterialCreation, FirstAid, Treatment, NanoProgramming, ComputerLiteracy
FlingShot cause it's tied closely to pistol. QuantumFT cause it's one of the tradeskills NT's are good at.
(FlingShot, QuantumFT)

Thigh(leg):
SkillLockModifier, DuckExp, DodgeRanged, Agility, EvadeClsC, RunSpeed, MaxNCU, MaxHealth
Can't see why they neglected the InterruptModifier here. Stamina would be a good addition too.
(InterruptModifier, Stamina, HealDelta)

Left Wrist:
ShieldProjectileAC, RunSpeed, ProjectileDamageModifier, NanoResist
Why oh why shield on one single piece of symbiant?!?
(-ShieldProjectileAC)

Feet:
EvadeClsC, XPModifier, DodgeRanged, NanoDelta, DuckExp, AddAllDef, AddAllOff
AddAllOff on a envisioned pure caster.. Rather have Agility instead.
(-AddAllOff, HealDelta, Agility)