A tool for the Devs: Prof Simulations

[McKnuckleSamwich]

In an effort to help the developers with the rather arduous task of balancing, I have decided to curb my enthusiasm, and try to adopt a more sensical approach (3 infraction points helps, especially when you have as many as i do )

Without further ado, here is my proposition, I will, and I hope others will, describe their OVERALL PVP EXPERIENCE.

To all Posters and bumpers, in an effort to gauge how well YOUR prof stacks up, please state the following: Level/research/AI level, profession, and approximate condition (average, twinked, uber-twinked)


170/42/22 Uber-twinked keeper
In BS/mass pvp, I am a survival machine. I'm in a full evade setup, and there are on average less than 3 people who can actually inflict reasonable damage on me.
I can sometimes survive the entire round without dying. If there is an NT, trader, or a soldier or agent or decently twinked fixer, I have many problems, I spend most of the time blind, rooted, snared and/or debuffed

Well setup enforcers can do serious damage on me. Advies I avoid, and they avoid me. Soldiers will chew through my defences in seconds. I cannot even come close to surviving TMS. Occasionally I am killed while catching a soldier in TMS downtime, and thinking I got an easy kill, he can STILL kill me from full HP to 0, while TMS is down. Fixers and agents are severly problematic due to CC tools. Pet profs are not much of a problem.
die:kill ratio (with no NT/sold/agent/fixer/advy/enf/MA) 0:10
die:kill ratio (with NT/sold/agents/fixer/advy/enf/MA) 10:2

220/70/30 Martial Artist (Endgame)
In BS/mass pvp, I am killed quickly and handily. Pet profs destroy me in seconds. Soldiers, agents and anyone with AS is a serious threat. spend most of my time kiting and trying to find someone in range. "target is out of range" is about the only thing I read when playing my MA. Runspeed of targets is ridiculous. Can kill greenies easy. Can't hit advies and other evade profs, can't get in range of others. Is very boring, and usually give up playing soon after I start. die:kill ratio about 10:2

[sultryvoltron]

220/70/30 Martial Artist (Endgame)
In BS/mass pvp, I am killed quickly and handily. Pet profs destroy me in seconds. Soldiers, agents and anyone with AS is a serious threat. spend most of my time kiting and trying to find someone in range. "target is out of range" is about the only thing I read when playing my MA. Runspeed of targets is ridiculous. Can kill greenies easy. Can't hit advies and other evade profs, can't get in range of others. Is very boring, and usually give up playing soon after I start. die:kill ratio about 10:2

As a TL7 Agent, if I don't kite an MA I will die. Dueling (I know, I know. But it was toe to toe and thus a viable example for the point) an orgmate of mine, also 216, gear was much worse than mine at the time, not as much research finished, etc. he won two out of the three times. He pretty much stomped me as Mimic Doc due to Red Dusk and interrupting my healing. I beat him as Mimic Trader when I got a lucky Plunder off pretty early in the match through his UWoS and evaded him enough to AS him to death.

What's my point? The runspeed/kiting problem hurts MAs alot. Without that to slow them down, and with parry to block some big specials, I think they're going to be sitting pretty nicely on the PvP ladder. Going toe to toe against one is practically suicide for (I assume) alot of profs.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Thanks for your input sultry. I agree with your assessment.

Do you have any other overall PVP feeling you'd like to share?

[Kain97]

Isn't anything like this going to be rather pointless? I can pull a Toboe and claim I'm the best fixer that ever lived, with the best gear, etc... "BUT AWMIGAWD I GET MY ASS HANDED TO ME LEIK ELEVENTY TIMES OUT OF ELEVENTEEN!"

Skill, timing, equip, flat out luck, all play a role, and in no way can you even hope to get an accurate picture based on individual experiences here.... possibly especially here, considering trolling, exaggerations, etc... the simple fact that a lot of people who post on forums is because they are unhappy - you don't see too many people going "hey devs, everything is a-ok!" very often.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Isn't anything like this going to be rather pointless? I can pull a Toboe and claim I'm the best fixer that ever lived, with the best gear, etc... "BUT AWMIGAWD I GET MY ASS HANDED TO ME LEIK ELEVENTY TIMES OUT OF ELEVENTEEN!"

Skill, timing, equip, flat out luck, all play a role, and in no way can you even hope to get an accurate picture based on individual experiences here.... possibly especially here, considering trolling, exaggerations, etc... the simple fact that a lot of people who post on forums is because they are unhappy - you don't see too many people going "hey devs, everything is a-ok!" very often.

Well, the point is to be truthful as much as possible. But, whichever profs aren't posting you can assume they are "happy" to "very happy" or "balanced" to "overpowered"

The point is to describe GENERAL experience.

You guys are slow. I'll do another.

111/28/12 Trader (twinked)
Only participate in tower wars. Toon is very strong against most professions except enforcer. If an MP can NSD me before I drain him, I have to kite, and sometimes will die. If I get the jump on someone it's usually game over, or they have to kite to stay alive. Self healing is awesome, dmg is so-so, AS kills. Divest/ skills nanite enhanced seems to be a bit OP'd.

[Mijjet]

220/25/70 Enforcer
I am an optimal pvm setup enfo. In pvp I can survive a long time against almost any prof. Good soldiers can kill me 9/10 times, good shades scare me sometimes. That unbreakable NT root is a pain. I love fighting everyone except advys who have so much defense that eventually I wear down. VS a well equipped enemy of any prof I feel I'm about even. I feel weak against good Doctors, good soldiers and good advys. Because of CoNC and Draw Blood I feel like I have a chance against evade profs. Keeping rage, challenger, mongo, and absorbs running all the time is fun. I dislike that I depend on procs to fire in order to take out the other guy.

220/21/65 Crat
I am about as useful as shopfood. My toon isn't perfectly setup but he isn't a gimp. I lack reliable defenses, and I don't have heals. It's ridiculously fun to root or snare the other guys and run away. I feel like I'm a debuff machine, but I do love being the pain in the ass crat that gets hate tells on BS. My pets feel under powered. The most useful part of my arsenal is my damage from nano programs.

150/6 Enfo
heh... well I haven't pvped enough to get the ofab I want yet, but setting in 225 CM with 2 Crispys I have 500 kills. I'm excited to see what this enfo will be able to do at 174 and fully twinked. Honestly... probably a bit overpowered...

60/4 Fixer
In level 75 CSS and with two tiig beamers on this toon is scary... He's fun to play but gets destroyed by casting profs (traders and NTs) Fun stuff.

[McKnuckleSamwich]

Hum, ok I remember building a 30 advy for PVP.

30/7/4 Advy twinked, melee
Runspeed too slow, not enough NCU, couldn't kill an NR1 agent with HnQ, got frustrated after 2 tower wars and leveled.

Leveled to 60

60/14/7 Advy twinked, melee
put 173 AR implants in, evade ones lower. Couldn't evade anything, ran out of nano way too fast to outheal anything, enforcers were like, lolgnak. heal casting too slow, not enough IP. Too many skills to IP. Very frustrating.

Leveled to 165

165/42/12 BARELY twinked (full 204 CM, living symbs, notucomm, no tokenboard, 250+240 axes)
Had no CH, and a really half assed setup, I had duel record of 7-7 by the time I got bored of playing. DOF/limber cycling+leader of the pack was enough to stay safe from most people most of the time. huge runspeed and excellent evades made playing a breeze. At one point I actually perked out of coon and into training seminar for AXP, and I don't think it made a difference. I got mad that the toon was so easy to play and leveled to 200 and something, the toon has been inactive since.

220/50ish/23 Soldier average setup
In BS, easy to play, had pretty bad AR, but had all perklines that I wanted for static AR maxed. Simple operation, got rooted a lot, and couldn't land FA/Burst as much as I wanted to. I couldn't run fast enough, and didn't seem to have as good range as I needed to kill the running types. Could be instakilled by NT's and traders were uber annoying. Didn't duel.

[PingBong]

220/70/30 Enf best possible all around pvp setup

90% of pvp i do is solo (bs, random tower wars, flagged brawls etc) In mass pvp i have adapted hit and run type of gameplay because other people rarely travel alone hence i cant stick around for very long also since its mass pvp theres always a doctor or trader or whatever support prof for me to gank giving me the best gank difficulty/effect on the other side ratio and since ive played this game for oh so long ive become very good at it, if there was a pvp death counter in ao id imagine my kills outnumber it by roughly 10 to 1. Sadly this type of uncoordinated gameplay seems to have little effect on the enemy tho, its not rare that while im having the time of my life in BS slaughtering everything on my path while my side is still losing on every front.
10% of pvp i do in a well coordinated org team along with people that are concidered to be among the best of their respective profs this only happens in towerwars/flag brawls where my org is heavily involved tho. On these occasions i usually serve the role of a tank (since my otherwise hit'n'run style pisses alot of people off, im among the first people to charge in and im really tall!), with proper support i can hold out for a long time while providing mostly stuns to aid in killing people.
As for duels im not actively seeking for any, i will accept whenever sum1 does challenge me tho. Thing is in ao 1v1 there is a limit to which u can play ur toon, when u make no mistakes and are properly equipped for the fight thus its not as much fun for me as mass pvp. Most of the time my opponents are neither of these hence my 400ish wins to 50ish losses since i finished the toon but when they are the prof breakdown is following:
certain win: doctor (might take couple hours tho)
good chance to win: keeper, crat, nt, trader, agent
even odds: shade, fixer
below average odds: soldier, advy, mp,
nearly impossible: engi, ma (these 2 are in this category only because a single representitive from their prof tho, otherwise MA would go under even odds and engi under below average categorys)

People might claim enfs are OP when they see me on yet another roflstomp session in BS but bear in mind that there are maybe 2 dozens max of people on rk2 with the same amount of effort and understanding put into their toons (i easily kill clones of me every day) and vs them i feel enfs are rather evenly matched which is the main reason ive stuck with this prof over the past year (because theres always a chance for any prof to kill us as there is for us to kill them)

[Moonbolt]

well my experience isn pvp is simmilar to stabbys
i tho have found 1 or 2 docs i havnt managed to kill.... i never went on for a couple of hours at it tho.
and tbh i beat more Advys in pv then i do keepers.
i duno if its my setup or my kind of bad understanding of the keeper profession that i have a realy hard time with them.
and since i do most of my pvp in BS or tower situations i dont realy agree with stabbys opints on traders. they always seems to apear when im alerady wasted my perk alpha on someoen else and manage to drain me to a shaved sheep ready for the taking.

[Ciex]

From tl5 perspective:

Lvl 170 solitus agent in average/good setup (ql 225 css/ofab armor mix, pere sniper, ql 200 symbs):
The fastest solo kills farmer in mass pvp situations. AS caps very often even on huge hp targets or on solds through TMS. Perks if land can cap dmg even on enfs. When in fp doc:
cant kill: trader, opi NT with NR1,
hard targets: MPs, opifex NTs or NTs with NR1, advys, low hp fixers,
medium / hard targets: MAs, enfs with evades, docs (sooner or later alpha will be successful).
Conclusion: CH and strong AS is a bit OP, CS shouldnt be a tl5 perk.

Lvl 166 opifex NT with average evade/NR equip:
Two main paths are possible: le nukes (fast kills, good for mass pvp) or nullity sphere + SL/rka nukes (slower kills but better standing power, good for duels). Fast kills in mass pvp, very very good in duels, its probably possible to beat anyone, even docs (but it may be tricky). Probably the best duel profession i can imagine with an option to kill every target.
cant kill: docs (unless with inf quest nanos),
hard targets: enfs, agents in fp enf, lucky traders, solds (in NS setup), ranged advys,
medium / hard: MAs (if they catch you), fixers (when craphander has its day), agents before blind, melee advys (OP in general), solds (with LE nukes setup) that know what OMHH is.
Conclusion: LE nukes and triples are silly when used vs low hp targets. Blinds are very annoying, i hate to be blinded. Nano debuffs make people reach negative NR values, maybe they shouldnt stack after all, or at last not 3 times?

Lvl 170 enf, close to perfect setup (no 2s HD yet tho, im more after evades) lvl locked symbs, +27 cmerc armor, did use SoW + ql 270 kyr axe, now with dual axes.
Good and scary on BS due to his huge size Excellent in mass pvp situations for gank and run tactic with cc breakers, cocoon, run speed and good alpha. Big NR makes him casters worst nightmare. A bit weaker in duels. Low healing when compared to capping dmg specials. Can tank multiple nubs if only their dmg types are different.
cant kill: agents in fp doc.
hard targets: solds, advys, agents, NTs, kiting fixers.
medium: docs (2nd most boring duels ever after doc vs doc), MAs, keepers (ggod evades but SA can eventually kill them).
Conclusion: very, very strong but seems balanced as it has no overpowered tricks like CH or 11s unstooppable attack. Low hp evaders suffer from huge aao that usually makes CONC perk land. NF/SA/dimach allows to farm duel wins on low hp targets. Very dependand on AR procs. Profession ring proc could be reworked. 1% chance of a 500 point heal when you have 16k hp is pathetic.

[Mereditche]

170 agent Top symbiants, CSS, pen ofab chest, SPS with booster swap, can cast CH through CoF.

Overall impression:
Offense: we have very good offence. AS caps almost always on everything except enfos. CS also caps on many professions (it also lands on gimp evaders and semi-evade profs due to AS as attack skill), but it has a pretty long recharge, so you'll have to do without it in most fights. Against docs we lack killing power, but most docs you can kill during CS stun if you time it right, but on failure you have to wait around 2 minutes before your next try. Ganking doesn't happen often as you'll be out of sneak most of the time, because of low sneak speed.

Traders you need to kill immediately or you die, simple.

Because there were many docs and traders on tl5 clan side when I was playing and against them a fast kill is very important, I choose a booster swap setup, which pretty much sucks against anything but docs and soldiers. But it's well worth it against docs and the added benefit of fling did interest me less.

Defense: Here it's a different ball game. I started like everyone with mimic soldier, which imo just sucks. Well, if you're badly setup it's the best option you have, but once your setup gets better, mimic doc becomes more rewarding. Except playing around a bit I never went mimic enfo or trader, and I setup the agent with mimic doc in mind so it isn't an option anymore without a perk reset.

What are the problems with mimic doc: We're very easily debuffed, which hurts our defence a lot. Almost every profession has options to disable us from casting CH for longer or shorter periods of time: init debuffs, stuns, FoM, drains, ... So when you end up against 2 or 3 professions, even gimps, you can be sure you'll have a hard time CH-ing and your hp can drop hard when you're an agent. Everyone knows when you're gonna hit CH so all it takes is one timed stun/ubt and you drop like a fly. So you always need to be aware of your surrounding and stay away from the main fight.

Nano isn't a problem, even though we cannot CH 10 times in a row like some try to suggest. It isn't a problem because if you're in the open for the time it takes you to CH 4 or 5 times and you still havent killed your target, there isn't much chance left you aren't drained, ubt'ed or what else by then.

Also as soon as people notice you they start attacking you as they all like agents, because its one of those few professions that really eat every perk you throw at them. Soldiers and docs are certainly more annoying, but agents you see the hp drop fast so it's a fun target to attack.

So yes, when you're careless and don't know exactly who's where or go kamikazee, you die fast as an agent. Our defence lies most in sneaking around or staying at the edges of a fight picking of targets. 1 on 1 CH often works well, but in bs and wars, you're never 1 on 1 very long so after a few CH's it's often time to move as there's always someone who can disable you.

I eventually stopped going to bs for few reason:
- The options for killing someone are very limited. You have AS and CS, which is great, but always in recharge. Next to that there isn't much else. Regulars work great, but somehow you're always running on an agent. Standing still is a silent death wish. So offense while effective, might be considered a bit boring. FA swap was the most fun I had. It is pretty cool to kill a doc in a few seconds. Docs might hate it, but it makes me sad that this is removed from AO. It is very cool to learn and do effective.

- Defensively it sucks. You really need to watch out all the time. If you make the wrong move, you go splat, period. You're snared, drained and death. While I enjoyed this added dificulty at first, however being fully twinked I expect a certain robustness, like with any other professions I played.

Sneaking, while effective, to keep out of bad situations just tends to be a biiiiit slooooooooooooooooow.

I'm pretty sure agents defence is very good in duels.

Conclusion:
Overall agents were pretty balanced I think. We have very good offence, but we depend on it. Standing in the open for too long is death. To many people can affect our defence for it to be reliable, even gimps. So we need to kill fast and always keep an overview. But I guess that's what FC intended for us. That's why I don't understand all the nerfs to our offence as it will make agents pretty sucky.

[Kintaii]

I just wanted to pop in and say that I really like this thread, and the direction it's going in - Some really interesting reading thus far, and I would love to see tons more posts along these lines. Just *please* keep this thread clean, and stick to posting your impressions of your own characters and their abilities - I don't want to see this devolve into a flamefest of any type.

Carry on. =D

[Sterva]

220/30/70 endgame equipped crat, with the equip to swap to any kind of setup.

My CC toolset doesn't work very well (except the fear, which is great! Seriously, nice job making something which is both useful and well balanced). Most of all, my pets are rarely useful, either because they're off humping a wall, or because they just don't inflict much damage. My profession falls about midway up the pvp food chain.

Also, my friends that were actively playing crats pre-stun proc nerf have all since returned to other mains. However, it's not all bad. I still thoroughly enjoy playing my crat, and I largely prefer it over all of the pvp profs which are clearly doing better than crats.

[sannz]

174/42/22 engi, decently twinked, setup in sig

Had lots of fun with this engi. Been dying a good amount, been killing a good amount. Some profs like docs might be easier if I went for Lava caps, but then, farming those sucks.


Advys: Good ones? ooohh, with LOTS of luck on the AS and burst, you can make em panic and use coon early, then its about 50% chance to win, troxes that kept wit in the back make that 0% to win.
However, if I can perk them (obviously not during dof), they're toast. The problem here is outlasting those 40secs of DoF.

Agents: crunchy. The ones fp doc stand 0 chance, fp enfo die just as easy, but last a tick longer. Fp trader are troublesome, those actually have a chance to killing me.

Crats: Too few around to really be able to judge em. They can be a tough cookie, but most I encountered went down fast. Their pets (even if they steal yours) can easily be disabled via the blind aura.

Docs: Good ones? unless you get to alpha em during CH recharge there is virtually 0 chance to beat them.
Not so good/experienced ones? Kindof the same as agents fp doc.

Enfos: 2s HD == 0 % chance. For the rest, its a question of how much hp regain they have, how much total hp. A few lucky AS can make a difference there. But against a decent non-2s-hd-enfo, its 50% chance at best.

Engis: depends on their weaponry. Against another amep+crappy setup, its 50-50 for either side.

Fixers: smurfs are like annoying flys in your soup. They can't really hurt you, but on the other hand, they really take some time to kill. Css fixers hurt a bit more, but with nemesis nano (50% chance to land on good ones) you can disable em easily once they've eaten your blockers. CSS fixers usually die a lot faster than smurfs.

Keeps: trox keeps usually dont get alphaed right away thanks to wit. The rest... well, it's not a pretty sight

MAs: evil buggers! unless you've got a heavy swapper in front of you, I guess it's 50/50 if the MA is skilled and well set up. (Assuming I don't kite)

Metas: Assuming Shield/Evade setup (are there any other setups out there?) and a really skilled MP, its 50% chance to win. Luckily, most of those MPs on rk1 know not much more than to send pets in and nuke and kite. Else it would be closer to 33%.
Non-extreme-evade builds go splat rather fast.

NTs: Extreme dodge setup wins. Against all others, if you can perk em, they mostly die. 75% chance there. Gotta keep an eye out for the blinds and time perks accordingly. Against really skilled ones that use every bit its more like 50%.

Shades: errr.... lol? Run blind aura till DoF is down and play whack-a-leet. If they're NR perked, they actually have a 10% chance to win it. That is, if you don't pay attention.

Soldiers: NSD and alpha em. It's pretty much a 100% win. If the sol is clever, he can at least make it interesting but yea... making it interesting is nothing else than "almost winning". And an almost-win is still a defeat.

Traders: NERF! Before Shutdown Skills you actually had a chance to alpha the trader even with 1 drain on you. Now, you basically have 0 chance against a skilled trader. If however you get to suprise em, its about 50% chance to whack a decently setup and played trader.


Think that sums it up pretty well. Turns out engis have problems with the profs that virtually everyone has problems with. Traders, docs and enfos.

Pets are mostly useless. The dog is nothing more than a snare dispenser and debuff catcher, the slayer scores a few odd hits every now and then at least.
NR is rather low, so you're pretty vulnerable to debuffs.
The 3 blockers die way too fast, 1min refresh feels like an eternity. However, there are those lucky moments when they refresh just in time to catch the specials of the intended alpha

[Kopecz]

46/0/0 Adventurer

Made this toon early in my career for tower defense. Full 60+ish apoch, CDRs, and 112ish imps. Evades a tad low as I IPed for wolf. Never really worried much on this toon. My brother and I had identical froob advys and we could pretty much stomp anything in our range when we tag teamed. Solo and self-buffed I lacked decent NR to resist traders and enough evades to protect from tiig enfos, but other than those two profs everything was relatively cakewalk thanks to fast specials from CDRs and good heals.

168/5/something Adventurer

Not setup for pvp in the slightest. Evades/+ Damage gear for pvm leveling. Being ranged I lack the AR to be as deadly as melee advys in the same title range, but still manage to avoid everything and kill greenies with little problem if I land FA. Defense revolves mostly around cycling limber/DoF and Moonbeam. Coon is only really used to cast CH under otherwise I don't find I need it in pvp, different story in pvm.

170/15/15 Enforcer

I play a 2hb NM enforcer and at TL5 this toon had considerable difficulty killing anything but greenies. Once I was totally geared out survival wasn't really an issue at all versus most professions. Killing definitely was the problem as I lacked AR/SA to successfully finish opponents off. Oh and 2hb perks were still less than worthless at the time so that probably had a lot to do with the meager amounts of damage output.

219/19/20 Enforcer

There's still alot to do in my setup once I reach 220, but currently I lack the AR to land my perks effectively. Extremely reliant on 2x challenger procs + Challenger + Hammer and Anvil AR perk AR boost to land damage perks on anything but docs and soldiers. NM coon can be a lifesaver, but overall layers are useless since all perks now do the same damage type as the weapon equipped.

Summary: survival is good, killing power is terrible, will improve with new gear and ability to hotswap for SA @ 220.

[Obtena]

165/19 NM NT, full research, fully twinked for PVP and Dodge (see my signature for setup on Wiktorja)

I only have BS and towers experience, though BS allows me some 'individual duels' the odd time. I have used two possible tactical routes, not using NS2 and using NS2. Each route allows me to absolutely destroy different kinds of profs, but for a given route, the other profs are pretty chancy. The defensive/offensive focus really screws me over IMO from allowing me to using my full strengths when I want to. There is a third offensive option with maxing % nano damage but the sacrifice to the dodge gear is too much, so again, I'm limited to strategies because of the need to have at least one viable defensive option. Having alot of time and effort into this character, I find that it's still rather good, though High HP profs are not worth the effort for me to kill.

Summary:

- Lacking on-the-spot access to tactical variations, resulting in very generic play, and ultimately, a downside for being too predictable in PVP.
- Further limited to a very narrow set of strategies/set-ups based on need for basic defensive PVP needs.
- Good specific performance for a decent amount of professions, depending on tactical route chosen. Conversely, the remaining professions being very difficult to perform against. Lacking tools to be effective across the whole range of profs for a specific tactical route.
- Some profs are TOO easy to kill (yes I'm complaining about this), especially Fixers or any other low HP prof without on-call healing ability.
- Good control tools for BS and Tower situations, allowing me to kill many opponents in succession or neutralize threats.
- NT's, in general, are disadvantaged to other profs because many necessary PVP tools are active, making them compromise between offensive and defensive casting activities. More passive tools for either would be appreciated (perioidic refreshing layers buff, having generic attack nuke accessible with 'Q' on nanodeck, etc...)

[Righteous]

220/27/70 Solitus Keeper

I'd say I have the epitome of an end game setup for Keepers. It's the general consensus that my current perk setup is of the "defensive" type.

I pretty much can't kill anything on BS save for NTs and a few gimps. I can widdle MA's down with damage given we're both not OSB'd beyond belief. Although comparatively damage wise, an MA will rock me unless I run. Soldiers I have to kite and catch them with AMS down, but even then it's a challenge to kill them before they have AMS back up.


Really what it comes down to is hoping that all my perks are up. With the fast paced PVP that is Battlestation, my perks are usually down and I'm out of the fight for about 2 minutes. If recharges were quicker I'd be able to stick in the fight longer.

I have a very hard time killing anyone as by the time I get them to half health they are ready for their next heal cycle and I'm out of perks at that point.

Again, I can survive very well if all my perks are up, but after that, I have to run.

[Gatester]

Hm, how many are we limited to lol?

220/23/70 Enforcer Atrox

Mass pvp I find myself quite durable. With supporting defense buffs and heals I am able to charge into a room with DB essence running even and head straight for the opposing forces Doctors, Engineers, and Traders. My purpose is to take out the support with a very high rate of survival. AOE stuns work great, especially if you trained Mongo Rage, and most doctor gank attempts are successful because of my toolset.

Solo pvp kiting is a real pain, and my DB essence is not useable because of the runspeed. Having 70k health in most situations would be incredibly overpowering with the ability to also run down opponents (or run away), however the 35-40k you will run around with is a handicap because of commonly capping hits.
I tried using Mongo Rage in pvp, and found it situational at best. Occasionally I could fully perk and kill a few more people, but overall the perkline is a joke with the kiting of enforcers and resulting snare and escape of the target. Without Mongo Rage my enforcer has an AR similar to most other melee professions, and I need to proc to perk a lot of players. I have issues with Proc based success in pvp but a fully offensive setup can get around it. However I do not believe a prof that kills with perks should rely on a single (offensive) setup or Mongo Rage to be effective against the majority of professions.

High DPM usually gets me killed, and profs that can shutdown my nanos. I feel that MAs, Shades, and Soldiers having a strong advantage over enforcers is very balanced, and those three profs should always win if both players play to their fullest. Trader's drains have an unfair factor of completely disabling my enforcer, otherwise every other encounter seems quite balanced.

Crats and possibly fixers need more reliable CC tools to use against enforcers.


74/7/14 Meta-Physicist Opifex

Mass pvp I annihilated my opponents, and with some minor healing support and GSF/Wolf my setup allowed me to outrun all but enforcers. My DPM was incredibly high with self buffed 179 Emnity and Mind Quake nuke in addition to Aimed Shot opener. Agents that were "immune" to my nukes could be dropped by the attack pet, and their lack of CC meant they died. Enforcers could be root grafted once and finished off. In my prime I was able to take out a tl3 keeper, enforcer, doctor, agent, and fixer without any trouble because of damage, debuffing, multiple-targeting with pets, and kiting.

Solo pvp I maintained an offensive setup. I never actually maximized my setup but I also did not need to. I had over 700 runspeed self buffed and utilized my pets and nukes to make short work of a lot of players. My biggest trouble was two profs, first being end game enforcers because of their speed, but both root grafts available made them a joke at least once per fight on the Battlestation. The other problem would be high nano resist NTs who would not only mezz my pets, but resist much of my nuking attempts.
I was easily self casting Odin's Eye, Curatem the Grand, Mind Quake, and the top Emnity attack pet. The damage was higher than any other profession over time because of the insta cast and fast recharge of my nukes, as well as the pets damage. My best fights were taking out 5 soldiers alone through kiting, pets, and 40m nuke spamming as well as a duel against another "defensive" MP, whom I alphad

TL3 MP has high defense, offense, healing, debuffing, and versatility. This has been the strongest state for my MP and I had no real nemesis asside from Nano-Technicians and occasionally Enforcers. Worst of all, if I did not want to lose, I could just conceal

30/3/7 Agent Opifex

Agent is in my Signature for reference. My agent can reach over 500 Runspeed self buffed.

Mass pvp tower wars are nothing but OSB'd traders and a few desperate twinks that try to hold their own. Thanks to how overpowering CC tools are at lower levels I have no trouble rooting anyone in my pvp range except NR toons who only required 2 or 3 recasts. My damage is incredibly high because of the twinking False Profession trader allows, and I can actually alpha layers with the use of AS, kizzermole, and a crit+regular hit. Traders I can kill unless they are so heavily OSB'd that after the first drain they are already healing more than I can damage them.

Solo pvp I have only one person I cannot defeat in a duel, and that is a 30 enforcer twinked beyond even my agent is currently. He survived our last duel because my Aimed Shot did not cap on his 4k+ health I have a false profession viable for any duel and different setups adapt to different playstyles.
For Battlestation or random fighting, I can use several setups. However the two most effective were sticking with pure agent, or using FP enforcer. In pure agent I can spam the root we obtain from noob island, and with it I am able to root every profession, including 49 enforcers, because of the aggdef mechanic and its effect on nano resist. In pure agent form I have defeated the best 49 enforcer twinks on RK2. Chain rooting allows me to dominate anyone without a 40m attack range as well, even kiling 3 49 players at the same time.
False Profession Enforcer allows my agent to gain 2000 max health, absorbs to reduce return player damage, and challenger to boost my damage and AR. I can match 49 agents 1 v 1 in FP enfo, and take out evaders or support profs with my high damage and AR. Traders are honestly no problem without their OSBs (unless they have blockers)

[Gatester]

174/18/42 Adventurer Solitus

I have had 3 Title Level 5 adventurers, all 3 are/were ranged.

Mass pvp I could kite, heal, spam AS, and if they are perkable attempt to alpha them. My solitus zerogates is neutral and lacks a token board, but my atrox has the 1000 token board which means very high runspeed. I am able to hide and sneak in a lot of situations thanks to CSS and some IP and leet form, and perception allows for some fun against some players as well.

Solo pvp I relied entirely on my alpha ability, which consists of the 2 AI perks, AS, and Full Auto. Most profs could be killed with the two perks and 60% damage from two specials if they were around 70-80% max health, but it is getting consistently harder with every dodge buff and support for other profs defenses. Currently the main offensive tool is the Onehander shotgun and Aimed Shot. Full Auto has no support to be effective against anyone with dodge, and Burst also lacks enough support to provide a viable alternative wep.
Low health setup proved terrible (2500 max health) but high max health provides any adventurer with a great deal of survival. I have no problems surviving, I just have a horrible time killing other players.

Ranged adventurer at tl5 has no burst/fling shot weapon worth using (burst recharge = Jobe pistol FA recharge, and lower burst skill). Full Auto lacks support and a shotgun is the best tool for killing. Ranged advy needs a tl4-5 pistol with cappable burst/fling shot so we are not totally screwed in the future.

1/0/7 Trader Nanomage

It is in the signature Trader drains need a serious adjustment for the current state of the profession. My level 1 can self ql30 drains, OSB'd I was using what I needed to twink with, so imagine me using that in pvp

Nerf Trader, see one of the many many threads for ideas.


I have a ton of others I could summarize but these are the ones I used the most. Main point I would like a Dev to realize is that Notum Repulsor does nothing to stop the onslaught of title level 2 traders in pvp, and something should be done to adjust that profession. Everything else I could deal with lol, but Trader domination has to go.

[Grind42]

220/70/30 Keeper Trox (Endgame Setup) Possibly practically the best you can get

I have tried many different setups for different PVP being Mass PVP BS & Duels, Generally I rely on AAD or HP the latter more against soldiers. I have a high survivability ratio in any fight if I play my cards right. I would say the hardest prof for me to kill is Soldier, waiting out AMS is practically impossible (I wont even attempt to duel one without Dimach up) Alpha-ing them when AMS is down is also hard considering we have practically 0 roots.
Our HHAB upgraded helps but it is pretty useless & grafts just plain suck. It is a definite pissmeoff when you ready to alpha a toon & they are out of range.
In repect of easiest to hardest to kill are:

Easiest :
Crat if not in AAD setup then you cant perk them & thier pets still chop away at you
Trader... chop chop
MP (If doesnt have shield)

Meduim :
Fixer if not super pimped like Worb for example.
Engi, hopefully does not refresh blockers otherwise its pointless
Keepers
Shades.... nerf thier nano
MA's - Only dueled a few & has been generally 50/50
NT's (depends on Pref NM has to many absorbs & just eats through Coon our only real defence)

Hard :
Soldiers (Just plain Stupid)
Adventurer Ranged & Melee (To much def, & cannot nano drain enough to stop heals)
Doctor (Way to many Hp to alpha) PS They cant kill me either


Who am I forgetting.... at work & kind of preoccupied.

Mass PVP I generally aim to keep docs busy maybe throw an alpha at someone half dead allready (Range becomes a prob) I aim for support clas toons & catching them unaware with a root & alpha mainly NT's, Traders & MP's. Range sucks & its annoying.... especially with any ISP issues & lag WTB better range without AS on my Keeper I would have thrown the toon away along time ago.

BS- I generally run around waiting for coon & perks to cool down & cap points, try not to get rooted & keep others busy then evac I still find myself in the chamber 5+ times in 1 round.

Duels - Spec different setups depending on class im fighting, I have ADD, HP & NR setups. Any of them can seriously retard my AR except for HP one that is semi ok in terms of keeping my AR above 3200.

Other toons I have to check specific research & AI lvls. I have a 116 Adv & 60 Agent working on a TL5 NT. Wont even discuss 14 trader cause its retarded.