Your opinion on tradeskills

[____________Boadicea]

Ok, sorry, my fault. I haven't reached the 100s in lvl so that I forgot this line - as this line is just castable by higher lvl traders.

But if the nanoresist will be increased like it is planned (for 14.5 already - not sure), then you have a unresistable (30?, 40?, 50? min) AC while traders have a 3 min buff, which will be resisted a lot more and has to be refreshed every other enemy - not speaking of the time for casting in which we will get beaten a lot - while engis have AC already up and have their pet beating the enemy meanwhile. Keeping in mind that we need to keep our deprive/ransack line up, I think this AC line isn't really an alternative comparable to the engi AC line.

Killashandra, trader, DNW

[Kzak]

Different methods, that.

Most Traders do the divest/plunder dance in missions, solo or team, so they can keep their high-level nanos up and running. Naturally, some of the offensive nanos will be resisted. In addition to the Draw AC line's bonus to the caster's AC, you also steal AC from your foe.. the aforementioned Pawnbroker's Armor would give you +119 damage to every attack due to the reduced AC, up to max weapon damage. It's well worth it having that damage-bonus in addition to boosted weapon skill from deprives, increased AC from draws, as far as I can tell.

Engineers' bots are infamous for not holding aggro very well.. while it's all well and good having a slayerdroid with you, against an Ace or a Real Mean mob it's like taking a woodpecker to a giant redwood. It takes ages for a bot to knock such a mob down by itself. More likely than not, the same mob will aggro on the Engineer merely for being in line of sight - that's before the Engineer actually begins hitting/shooting the mob. And pulling aggro back to a bot can be tricky, often involving running out of LOS, around corners etc.

Still, let's get back to the core matter: Tradeskills.

Do traders really think it's terrible that Engineers ask to be a little less dependent on them? If my suggestions should (by some miracle) come true, Traders will still be able to charge for Maestros, but Engineers will no longer have to beg for minor and medium tradeskill buffs.

[____________Boadicea]

Maybe you stay alone under all the engis - as (like you can see in the vote) they either want to be better generally or even want their coming tradeskill spells to stack with the traders buffs so they would be uber - that would make me charge high prices for trader buffs to compensate the loss in selling tradeskill-made stuff - or even maybe I even refuse to buff engis to have a chance at the market.
That is all I want - that traders stay best at tradeskills.
I don't mind, if engis maybe get some lower lvl tradeskills buffs - they ARE engineers, but perhaps not in all tradeskills or different (maybe chemistry for engis (for weapons)instead of Pharmacy, and and surely no NP - that should stay for MPs - or traders AND engis both should get a buff for NP).

Killashandra, trader, lvl73, DNW

[Kzak]

Yeah, Traders will still be best at tradeskills, but they won't be -hugely- better than Engineers. Just somewhat better than Engineers. Which is all I ask for.

[_____________Krovsky]

I had originally decided to just read these posts and not reply, but after finishing them alll I decided I may as well add my opinion.


Tradeskills..some agree to disagree, some love them and some hate them. They are time consuming, expensive < after a while> , frustrating at times and over all just a pain in the butt. My Engi on RK2 is 112, my trade skills are all maxed for level and without playing the implant shuffle I can make stuff in the QL 120 range depending on the type of skill I am using. Thats not too bad, but when you are trying to work on trade skill items at 2 am, try to find a trader to buff you. Or better yet, try to find a trader. Most of them are too low, too busy, lack the skills <even if they are high enough level> or they are just plain rude.


We are not asking for our skills to be uber, we just want to be able to make the stuff we want to make, within reason, and not have to spend 3 hours looking for someone to buff us.


As for the remark about making guns and stuff "things mechanical".. one day when you are bored, go into the store and grab a recipe book, don't matter which one. but for argument sake, grab one on making a gun. Then take a good look at all the skills you need to make a single weapon. There is alot more to "Mechanical things" than just mechanics. Even something as simple as a gun uses EVERY tradeskill, from Mech Engi, all the way down to comp lit.


Maybe you should take a good long look at the skills needed to make even a single weapon, Nano, ring, or anything else.


This is not meant as a flame, just to make a point without stepping on toes. Traders trade ALL skills. Everything from combat to tradeskills, and that's fine. We aren't asking to be able to do that, we dont NEED to do that. But as an engineer it would be nice to be able to make a QL 130 nano and not have to hunt down a 50th level trader to get the journeyman buff needed to finish off the last step or 2.


Cerus 112 Chief Engineer RK2

[Highorbit]

Since I have always been of the opinion that trade skills should be more widely available I find the constant arguements that suddenly spring up a little obscure.

I'm not going to say that Traders are the best profession in the world, that certainly can't be the case since Engineers appear to out number Traders 2:1.

However, Engineers dependance on others for buffs is very frustrating, especially in the trade skills area, 99% of the time the items you end up building are not for yourself. I don't personally do it for profit either.

I don't think any of us have ever asked for a NP buff that we can use. We already have this obscure +62 Chemistry / Pharma Tech buff. All we ask if for some gadget or buff that would allow us to do roughly the same with ME, EE, QFT and WS.

Would it be so bad if both professions were roughly equal at trade skills?

As it stands Engineers seem to be getting more and more items that add small amounts to trade skills as time goes by. And if this is the way it's either equalised or changed then I'm happy.

On the Engi only side:

Modified A-4000 NCU Sheet adds 40 NCU and 40 to NP
HUD Upgrade: STM adds 35 to EE and QFT

None Engi specific:

OT 12 Grenade Launcher adds 18 to QFT
Handy Steel Ribbed Gloves
Augmented All matching Bow tie
Nano Programming Interface
1000 token board

Future items (Engi only):

Helmet of Technical Cerimonies
Breastplate of Technical Cerimonies

Not a lot of people advertise these skills, but it seems that Engineers get asked a lot more than traders.

[Kzak]

Another item that adds to Engi skills, though it has no profession restrictions:

Arwen MO-404 Grenade Launcher.

QL100-199 gives +10 to MechEng, ElecEng and Weaponsmithing, while the QL200 version gives +20 instead.

Well, everything helps.

[____________Boadicea]

Traders aren't that easy to play - especially when they focus on tradeskills from early on. Bugged charm and adding more nanoresist won't make it easier. It's hard to solo for me at lvl 73, but I see my trader more as an support character. But on DNW it's not easy to get a team sometimes - even on weekends - as we have still a rather thin population.
Maybe that is a reason that there are much more engis then traders - same reason - many MAs - easier to play - easier to solo then other professions.
Are there only few engi specific items, or are there some trader specific items as well?
/whine on
Traders never get some love - just nerfs and other profs throwing them out of trade.
We need to whine more...
TRADERS UNITE!!!!
WHINE!
NERF ALL OTHER CLASSES!
/whine off


Killashandra, lvl 73 trader, DNW

[Highorbit]

Originally posted by Boadicea
Traders aren't that easy to play - especially when they focus on tradeskills from early on. Bugged charm and adding more nanoresist won't make it easier. It's hard to solo for me at lvl 73, but I see my trader more as an support character. But on DNW it's not easy to get a team sometimes - even on weekends - as we have still a rather thin population.
Maybe that is a reason that there are much more engis then traders - same reason - many MAs - easier to play - easier to solo then other professions.
Are there only few engi specific items, or are there some trader specific items as well?
/whine on
Traders never get some love - just nerfs and other profs throwing them out of trade.
We need to whine more...
TRADERS UNITE!!!!
WHINE!
NERF ALL OTHER CLASSES!
/whine off


Killashandra, lvl 73 trader, DNW

I haven't seen any trader specific items unfortunately. But the Engi items aren't in massive supply and don't really constitute an upgrade to our profession. After all, we may find they are extremely rare and require massive amounts of camping (Mmmmm... what fun).

I find the decline of the trader profession slightly disturbing though, that I think FC should take seriously, especially since Funcom wants so many people and professions to rely on their buffs.

Engi's have also suffered from the repeated nerfs, not in the same way, but we have been putting up with pet pathing for quite long enough in my opinion, and the OE nerf hurt a lot of Engineers.

I know that not all of my profession would agree with me, but as far as I am concerned fixing pet pathing would consitute a massive fix for our profession and would put the damage we are capable of at higher levels into a fairly pleasant area, since the main problem would be solved: That of the bot just not being able to get to the fight quick enough.

Trade skills are essentially a seperate issue, we are pretty much forced to raise half the skills in order to use our bot properly (all trimmers require trade skills) so that's NP, ME, EE and QFT. Therefore it is kind of annoying to have see an entirely different profession if we would like buffs.

The highest level trimmers for Divert have stupid requirements, and I'm not entirely sure why they even bothered putting them in the game.

For most Engineers weapon skills are something that only high levels can really do. At level 165 I have only just started using a QL200 weapon (OT 12 Launcher). To equip that I had to get mochams to boost PM and SI, then a 132 wrangle to put enough on PM and SI to allow me to run our (Engineers) own Pistol/Grenade buff and also to add to Grenade skill.

I suspect that like Engineers Funcoms vision of what a Trader does is different from the reality that you all face, but nothing that I can really comment on with my level 10 trader

Anyway, I would like to see an item that can be used by both Engineers are Traders, or anyone that chooses to dump enourmous amounts of IP into trade skills that will allow a certain independance of buffs.

[zombikiller]

GAH Boadicea, don't say the "N" word :P

As far as the tradeskills go, I don't care who's better. It's really a pointless arguement. Either Funcom gives engis a buff line or they don't. Either way it will not effect me... Although since there seems to be alot more trade skill oriented Engis as opposed to traders I am all for giving Engis a buff line... here take mine */me gives Engis Maestros* As it stands Traders are really running out of uses here in AO anyway :P

Until you Engis get a buff line you can still /tell zombikiller for free MAESTROS (RK-1)

[__________Distortion]

It's nice to see some engis are still playing.

However, please do not pretend to know how to play a 150+ Trader. Getting real traders in this thread may make you look bad.

[Highorbit]

Personally, I'd quite like to here the opinion of the high level traders on this if any happen to be watching of course

[Kzak]

Not to mention opinions from the devs or Cz. Should -they- happen to be watching. :>

[______________Shista]

Originally posted by zombikiller
Can we stop bringing Traders into this debate??
I don't think I can handle another nerf :P

Yes our heals have been nerfed but when you think about it they are still the 4th best in the game. Using the highest level team heal i will remain at about 50% health starting from 60% not much of a loss considering my teammates all got 1K health.

I cast any nano i want in mission pretty much at any time.

I have a weapon on 80ish levels ahead of me and its not OE'd.

I do 3k crits consistently while most of my teammates lay out a few hundred damage and unless with a MA i will take aggro most of the time.

I am vastly superior to any class in tradeskills.

I own PvP( not that i do it much)

I have 6Xql200 NCUs on at level 100.

I have calms for when i get myself into trouble essentially meaning i rarely die when i **** up.

I am seeked out by every prof just to equip their weapon

Any engie who hopes to do any tradeskills needs me.

All profs should be so nerfed.

seriously any trader who thinks they have it so bad should be taken out back and severely beaten.