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Thread: I Just Don't Know Anymore...

  1. #1

    I Just Don't Know Anymore...

    I've been playing AO for about a month now, and I must say that I am getting kind of frustrated. I keep rolling new characters, trying out different professions, trying to find that perfect one. The problem is that I just can't decide on one. I really would like to roll a character and stick to him/her, learn a profession inside out, take it all the way to 220. But which one? Please don't mistake this for some mundane "wat prof to chose??!!11" thread. I just really need help picking one profession that suits me, and sticking to it. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated, especially from veteran players who know the end game which I will be working toward. Please help.
    Raz, dva posle pyati
    Mama papa prosti
    Ya soshla s uma

  2. #2
    The only person who can choose the best profession for you is you, I'm afraid. It doesn't sound like you've given any of the professions you've tried much time though. To get a good idea of what a professions potential is, you need tp play it a while, probably up to level 50 or 60. Some of the professions don't really start to shine until that sort of level anyway
    There are times in all our lives when the questions asked of us will leave us no option but to give answers of which we are neither proud nor happy.

    At these times, remember that it could be worse. The question that we may have to ask could be "would you like fries with that?"

  3. #3
    Well, what the heck do you like and dislike about the various profs you've tried? That might help narrow the choices down a bit.

    By the way... Trader is the way to go!!!
    Amosco -- Brokest Trader on RK2
    Coope -- His bot is his best friend

    Originally posted by Dark Kensai
    Promising the stars and then hitting the customer with a bat so that they see stars is not the same thing.


    Originally Posted by sobeguy
    If you really want this chair, why not just get a phalloplasty and address your real concern?


    Become a Lifer

  4. #4
    try reading this and realise all proffessions have ups and downs
    love/hate

    - then make a list of what you like/dislike, and see which best suits YOU.
    - Stick with it till ~tl3 and try to get reasonably equipped to better see how the profession works. eg if an enforcer; learn taunting or a trader learn draining/calming/wrangling etc.
    - and most importantly; you have 8 charactr slots per account. USE em! dont delete every day, just re-roll on a new slot and come back to the others.
    I have all 8 slots filled and still flit between characters 18months on

    it can take a bit to find a "main"
    best of luck
    'Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.'

    Fhinn, TL7 Neutral Gunslinger // Countinn, TL5 Neutral Trader
    Sleekitt TL5 Clan Fixer

    Shattered Dreams, of ye olde RK2 Recruitment thread

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by WilloTheFist
    The only person who can choose the best profession for you is you, I'm afraid. It doesn't sound like you've given any of the professions you've tried much time though. To get a good idea of what a professions potential is, you need tp play it a while, probably up to level 50 or 60. Some of the professions don't really start to shine until that sort of level anyway
    Thanks for the input. It would seem you're right, I haven't really stuck with any of my characters past the mid-thirties. I'll keep this in mind the next time I feel the urge to reroll. I guess getting to know this game really does take oodles of time. There's so much to learn and understand. But I guess that's what I love AO for in the first place...
    Raz, dva posle pyati
    Mama papa prosti
    Ya soshla s uma

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by fhinn
    try reading this and realise all proffessions have ups and downs
    love/hate

    - then make a list of what you like/dislike, and see which best suits YOU.
    - Stick with it till ~tl3 and try to get reasonably equipped to better see how the profession works. eg if an enforcer; learn taunting or a trader learn draining/calming/wrangling etc.
    - and most importantly; you have 8 charactr slots per account. USE em! dont delete every day, just re-roll on a new slot and come back to the others.
    I have all 8 slots filled and still flit between characters 18months on

    it can take a bit to find a "main"
    best of luck
    Fhinn, as usual, you pinpoint the issue exactly, and offer great advice. I lay prostrate before you, oh wise master.
    I'm aware of the link you provided, and reading through that thread made me only realize that there's probably no one profession which I wouldn't enjoy playing. It caused more problems than it solved, that one.:P
    But you have given me some good ideas. I think, rather than concentrating on a main right now, I'll play several alts, switching between them periodically. That will at least give me the chance to compare them and figure out which one I enjoy playing the most. Food for thought, thanks Fhinn!
    Raz, dva posle pyati
    Mama papa prosti
    Ya soshla s uma

  7. #7
    I have 16 chars on rk2, both have sl but only 1 with ai and i
    change chars a lot, played my nano tech last night, hope i don't get tossed out on the street, my screams in anger and frustration is not all popular i bet when time has passed midnight but that prof is driving me nuts.

    All professions have there up's and downs, like my crat now at 53, he might be gimpish but fun, my ma that soloed lvl 80 hecklers at 58, made me feel happy even though it probably is nothing special
    My enf just recently made it to 100 having a blast killing spiders in elysium, did okey i guess since the one dying was me

    Starting to prefer melee chars, the pet classes like engi/mp/crat is okey to but a class like nanotech using cyberdeck is painfull, take a doc mob tossing phantom weight on you and a simple nuke takes 10 seconds to cast untill the layer drops and you get hit so the breakable init debuf drops, same layer that is used up before you can toss one nuke after refreshing it, root that drops faster then the speed of thought, mobs lower level then me countering my nukes or resisting calm over and over while i resist nothing with over 300 nano resist.
    Think my nt is acctually doing better in sl where the layer lasts longer thanks to mobs hit with different damage types, this goes for professions with bio cocoon to.

    Think at the moment my doc / soldier combo is very nice, okey dmg on soldier and doc can keep him alive against a turret almost 20 levels higher
    For solo i think adventurer is really nice with okey dmg and okey heals, the morphs are plain cool to and rather useful

    Sorry for the negative tone but 4 missions with the nt brought me close to delete him in anger, and the computer with it
    Rimor Server
    Robotgubben lvl 173/14/29 engineer

  8. #8
    Pro/Con lists are your friend

    Write down a list of abilities you like and dislike, then compare the list to the different profession templates. Select your profession and stick with it until at least 75 -80, and you'll have a pretty good idea of the strengths and weaknesses.

    Most importantly: Don't ever delete your first 'main' char
    Bret 'Bothead' Bannister
    Member of Rising Phoenix

  9. #9
    I've been playinig for just about a month now sicne AO went free... bought SL 2 weeks ago as i just had to have more of it

    i got myelf 8 characters on RK1... my highest being a lvl 82 adv. i've tried a couple different profs. but i keep going back to my adv... coz it's more fun to play now that he's so high level compared to my others... tho since getting SL means i got access to shades and keepers i've made a couple of those too... and they're getting to be much fun too now that they're passing 20

    the way i've learned most of the important thigns in the game is using shift-click on everything... it's amazing how much one can learn from shift-clicking

    atm my main has to be the adv... being lvl 82 and progressing really well... but along the way that might change to my keeper or shade...

    anyway.. keep messing around with your characters.. when you get bored switch to another and play that for while, eventually you'll have figured out which you like best... and imo the game really starts after lvl 40 where you no longer have much trouble making money for upgrades and other necesities...

    Regards
    Gordaxl

  10. #10
    I had the same issue when I first started. My first "main" was a Soldier that I brought up to level 55ish.
    Then I started and Adventurer that made it up to level 80.
    At that time I convinced my GF to try the game so I made another soldier so I could team with her at low levels and brought them up to level 100.
    Well I spent more time playing AO then my GF so I rolled a MA to give me something to do without outleveling her with my soldier.
    Then SL came out and I ran a Keeper all the way up to 130.
    While my Keeper was my Main I started work on an Enforcer to help org mates in ToTW. Well that Enforcer is now level 166 and has been my Main for a while........

    My GF on the other hand is still playing her first toon, a fixer, who is now over level 150

    Each toon I have rolled has tought me more about the game and more about what I want to play at level 200+ As it stands I have created and played every class out there to at least level 50.
    What I have found for myself is that I liked the "up close" style of combat such as MA or ENF. And it took me quite a few toons to figure that out.
    I would recommend playing a few different types of classes (healer, tank, pet) and see what you enjoy playing. From there you can narrow it down to a single class.

  11. #11
    Thanks to everyone who continues to contribute their new and fresh input to this thread. I love reading your stories, and do appreciate your advice. I'm surprised every new day by how open, helpful, and friendly the people who make up the AO community are; perhaps because I had become acustomed to more elitist and closed groups.

    I've been messing around with some professions, running a few alts, and doing alot of number crunching. I had an idea last night for how to pick a couple of professions which would best suit me. I ran through the skills, and made a list of those skills which I would like to use ingame. I then compared this list against an IP chart for all the professions, and voila, the answers presented themselves! A simple solution, really, and a solid way to pick a couple of professions to play around with. Thanks for the inspiration everyone!
    Raz, dva posle pyati
    Mama papa prosti
    Ya soshla s uma

  12. #12
    Glad to hear you've chosen a path (or two) and decided to stick with it (them) to see where it (they) take(s) you. The trick, however, is not just to see what skills you want to have. That's important, of course, but it's only part of it: Identifying what you like to do best is the key.

    Do you like, as nocociallife noted, up close melee combat? Then an MA (easy to play and pretty inexpensive), Enforcer (heart of the team), Keeper (versatile and good on soloability) or - when you're more experienced - a Shade (complex and rewarding; high damage output) are probably your best choices.

    Do you like dealing damage from a distance but having some leeway about how you approach combat. Check out Agent (attractive as you gain some real adaptability as you level), Soldier (good damage and survivability), Fixer (evades and Fixer Grid), Crat (never want for a team again!), MP (be the most popular person in line of site everywhere you go), or even NT (especially well-suited to masochists, or so I hear ). Add flexibility in roaming by yourself and self-healing and Adventurer (rather equipment dependent, but good on soloability) might suit you.

    Do you want a wide array of possibilities and abilities - both in and out of combat? Play a trader or an engineer (choose the latter if non-combat tradeskilling is more important, choose the former if you want to be good at that but also like a versatile combat role).

    Do you like a support role, one in which you can be the lynchpin of a successful team but rarely (if ever) be the main damage dealer? Congratulations, you're a Doctor.

    HTH
    Last edited by Teljanin; Jan 28th, 2005 at 16:39:05.
    Teljanin Doctor (Gear)(Perks) - General of Obsidian Order
    Quiverdance Trader (Gear)(Perks)
    Dollashort Fixer (Perks)
    + several others spread across three accounts....

    Woefallen's Guide To Teaming With A Doc

  13. #13

    NT's are not this soft mushy often killed thing everyone thinks

    Just have to say that I often see references to NT's as being some sort of really hard prof to play, and that masochists love them.

    NT is the first and only profession I have played in AO. I have been playing for about 5 months now, and I am level 175.

    NT could not be easier to play IMHO. At lower levels you can root / nuke, or just kite mobs, and killthings many levels above you. At higher levels you can kite around massive amounts of mobs (using AOE nukes) for massive amounts of xp.

    For example, I am now kiting in Penumbra. Not Hecklers of course, but I could kite them in Elysium as early as level 100... I wasted 35 at once one time back then. Now I am kiting dryads/tigers/rafters/ecorash/anything that gets in range - in Penumbra. In one single kite (about 6 minutes of work) i got almost half a level of lvl174ish xp. That's quite a lot.

    It isn't a profession everyone will enjoy, but it fits perfectly my playstyle, and I have not had these frustrating times that I so often hear people refer to when talking about NTs.

    If you wanna be an NT, keep your runspeed up, keep your nanocinit up, and have fun. It is NOT nearly as difficult as people make out. And it is also a great prof to have started with, cuz now I am rich from kiting and can fund my alts... whenever I get around to making alts hehe.

    Kraxus Kringle / Majestic Squad Commander / 175 NT / RK2

  14. #14
    My story is quite different.
    Before rolling my first character I have spend few hours reading different forums, guides etc.

    AO is my first ever MMORPG and I was not sure whether I would be able to join big org or find enough online friends to have fun together. Therefore one of my top priorities was to play character that is able to solo a lot. (btw. I have a lot of online friends now and even I am a General in quite big org)

    I have decided to play an adventurer and stick to it. I treat this character as my "virtual ego". I was playing over 1 year without rolling even 1 alt. I just accepted that sometimes it gets better, sometimes gets worse, but no matter what happened I did not want to start new character.

    I rolled my first alt when my main Adv was already above level 210 as leveling above 210 gets very frustrating sometimes. All my alts are going to be twinks for PvP and I treat them just like tools to have some PvP fun.

    My main will remain the same for as long as I ll play AO.
    One more interesting note. My main (lev 219 adv) is my first character that I rolled and I still did not use even 1 IPR. I decided to use pistols and I stick to it.

    So my advice would be:
    Delete all your characters.
    Roll 1 new and treat it as it was you in virtual new world.
    Awikun 220/70/30 Ranged adv - my Main that I hardly ever log
    Awisha 220/70/30 Shade - Can solo 95% of all bosses
    Cratawi 200/70/30 Crat - S7/DR Solo farmer
    Awiken 220/70/30 Eng - Pvm Eng
    Nukiwa 200/70/30 NT - almost forgotten (awaiting retwink)
    Awidoc 200/70/30 Doc - 200 fun pvp twink
    Awix 200/70/30 Fix - 200 fun pvp twink
    Awienf 220/70/30 Enf - tanked every single boss (and still lives)
    Soldawi 220/70/30 Sol - Pvm Sold
    Awima 150/xx/xx Ma - best S10 MA farmer
    Doctorawi 220/70/30 - Pvm Doc
    Awienfo 200/70/30 - Atrox with Pande red belt and 2xQL300 hammers
    Macierewicz 220/70/30 - Pvm Crat
    Zlakobieta 220/70/30 - max complit +top tradeskiller

  15. #15
    An intriguing suggestion, Awi. The only problem is selecting one profession from the fourteen to stick with from beginnning to end. I would very much like to stick to just one character, but I find it difficult to fully commit myself to one of the professions without feeling I'm missing out on something.
    Raz, dva posle pyati
    Mama papa prosti
    Ya soshla s uma

  16. #16
    Also look at Predscore :

    http://project-starlight.com/predscore/

    Predicament made this thingy trying to share his views of how the endgame situation looks like for the different professions.
    | Evilbaffle - 220 Tra | Dominixe - 210 Doc | Maram - 207 Eng | Juling - 160 Enf |
    | Yumn - 169 NT | Niemo - 118 MP | Lucine - 185 Agent | Incision - 70 Shade |

    A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.- Herm Albright

  17. #17
    We've all suffered from alt syndrome. (Most of us still do, but in a more controlled form where we manage to stick to one main)

    As you said, the main problem is that nearly all professions seems like a lot of fun. Reading the short description in AO character creation makes them look interesting, and spending an hour or two reading professional forums is often enough to make you want to log in and get started right away.

    Playing most characters to between 50-100 is often a good idea to learn a little more about the prof. Make sure you read the starter-guides on the professional forums and take a look at the nanos and equipment available to the prof to get some decent basic knowledge.

    My personal advice though, would be for you to choose one main relatively quickly and stay with that even if you play other alts. The game is a lot different 100+ and 150+ then it is at low levels, seeing as pre 100 is mostly leveling. (This of course is determined by personal playstyle, but seeing as most people only want to level pre 100, options are fewer then at slightly higher levels) When you get one character up to a decent 150+, starting a new character is a lot easier, as you are now able to make money and find items a lot quicker then you used to. Starting a new character and playing it from scratch is fun, but starting one after you have collected equipment allready is very nice too. As an example you can put a ql250 scope, ql50 perennium and some decent armor on a lvl 20 agent with ease, and that experience is quite a bit different from a 20 agent with an ICC backyard rifle.

    The main goal should allways be to have fun, and no matter what you do you will allways start a new alt at least once a month.
    When I make mistakes, I use a lot of salt,
    cause salt makes m'steaks taste great!

    Beornin - The original Shotgun Adv
    Obsessive - First 220 Trox Engi
    Euthanizer - Reanimated NT

  18. #18
    I've been playing for a loooong time, and I still can't pick my main. I love my alts, every single one of them, and when I can't get a team or find something to do with the character I'm using, I just choose another one. This way, there is always something to do.

    Oh, and I have also found that knowing other profs really helps me in teaming. When we for instance are looking for a new member in a team (if one leaves), then I know what type of character that could benefit us. There are so much to learn in this game, and after 3,5+ years there's always something new to learn, every day. Gotta love it.
    Sort Martial Artist 220/15 :: Alienchild Enforcer 212/10 :: Sortcrat Bueraucrat 209/10
    Sortmorph Adventurer 206/06 :: Nipple Nano Technician 202/00 :: Sortmezz Bueraucrat 209/05
    Svik Fixer 193/04 :: Sortenf Enforcer 161/00 :: Sortkeep Keeper 173/05
    Sort2 Martial Artist 143/02 :: Sortmedic Doctor 201/05 :: Nipple2 Nano Technician 167/02
    Sortblaster Soldier 67/00 :: Sortha Shade 43/00 :: Sortmp Meta-Phycisist 31/02
    Sortsnipe Agent 30/02 :: Iscrewbots Engineer 6/01

    .:Total Levels Gained:.
    Rubi-Ka: 2383 :: Shadow: 48 :: Alien: 68

  19. #19
    Which prof is a question I had to ask myself when I started playing again. I chose a Doctor and here are my reasons.

    * Never have to worry about finding a group at any level. Some days I've got to beat the invites off with a stick

    * Best solo'ers in the game. Hands down. You'll hear all kinds of nonsense but no other prof can solo before we do in Pen/Inferno +

    * Decent blitzers

    * I like healin'.

    There are a few cons however.

    *We outlast, we don't kill. It takes a LONG time to kill a mob as a doc.

    *Money is SUPER short until lvl 120ish or so. Docs are an expensive proffession and aren't TRULY self sufficient until the 150's (When I say self-sufficient I mean having more money than you really need. I obviously did it, but it was rough until the 150s)

    To be perfectly honest, it all boils down to play style though. If you like to do a TON of damage, then a damage prof is for you. Trades skills? Engi. (or trader to a lesser extent)

    Enjoy your time here!

    Peace

  20. #20
    Adventurer is easier then doc if you just want a decent first main. Easy to get team, good blitzer, good soloers at all levels, cheap.
    When I make mistakes, I use a lot of salt,
    cause salt makes m'steaks taste great!

    Beornin - The original Shotgun Adv
    Obsessive - First 220 Trox Engi
    Euthanizer - Reanimated NT

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