v1 Agent Nano Document!

[Dimmufodr]

I can see that Lupus and other people are full of hope and promise, but for me AO had a original and cool concept when they first made the Agent profession that has gradually been thinned.

I've had agent as a main since 2001, probably longer than most on here - including the current group of game developers - and in my opinion these changes might make agents into a viable profession, but it will no longer be anything near the profession I rolled back then. Removing the ability to cycle through mimics and use parts of the toolset from other professions is a big mistake. No new players will start playing again over changes like these, but some old ones might quit.

[Humlebien]

I can see that Lupus and other people are full of hope and promise, but for me AO had a original and cool concept when they first made the Agent profession that has gradually been thinned.

I've had agent as a main since 2001, probably longer than most on here - including the current group of game developers - and in my opinion these changes might make agents into a viable profession, but it will no longer be anything near the profession I rolled back then. Removing the ability to cycle through mimics and use parts of the toolset from other professions is a big mistake. No new players will start playing again over changes like these, but some old ones might quit.

Listen to this guy. He's talking sense.

[Anarchic1]

lupus you're wrong.

Currently we have 2 sl procs each with a 21% (1.5k dmg) and a 15% (2 hits 700 and 900) to proc. Harm Shock and Waves of Trauma.

What fc is going to do is remove one of thoses procs and give us a new proc with a 33% chance of doing just 1.3k dmg

doing simple probability here take (1-.21)*1(1-.15)= .67% same proc probablity as the replacement.

however the dmg is different though.
.21(1,500) + .15(1,600) = 555
.33(1,400)= 462

so we have received a dmg nerf based on the fact the old procs on average do more dmg


You seem to know something why we're getting nerfed this hard. But based so far, it's a lose lose situation. So when are you going to tell us allt the details?

[Ninewood]

The detaunt line already existed, devs merely boosted it up to levels that miiiight be useful if we get a new weapon in the future. The Blast detaunt proc line already existed too but nobody used it because it conflicted with the Waves DoT proc line - what the devs have done is merge Waves with Shock, and separated the detaunt proc into their own line: this means you'll gain up to 55 "extra" NCU if you don't want to use the detaunt procs!

We didn't have to give up anything, or make any sacrifices, to get access to the detaunts. If we did, I'd be the first guy to tell Funcom where to shove their detaunts.

you know i'm with you buddy, been with you all these years. but we never had 2 detaunt lines.

but well. let's not fight over that...it ain't worth it. what it all comes down to...what i want for my agent, to cut it short:

1.a viable defense option
2.a viable toolset to have a realistic shot at killing people
3.something that makes people actually want to team up with me

point 1 - as you know - was nerfed into oblivion step by step. higher ar succeeded the evades possible for agents and in addtion more and more profs started throwing around decent, fast cycled aimedshots, debuffs and the like did likewise for mimic doc.

as for the second point, we had a good run with as + perks for a long time, been going down as well over time though since other profs defenses and hp rose and we were stuck with the same dd.

as for point three...well.

you see, i understand there's something else waiting, but from what i can see up to now the bad situation agents were in when i left got even worse - aside from the mimic proposal that surely needs revision i find the 4 obsolete lines to be quite representative of this document, that's why i nagged about them.

i'd be happy to see you save this profession, but i had little faith in the whole rebalancing act from the start, and it just feels that what seemed unevitable to happen now actually did happen.

[Leetlover]

Imo, detaunts should be entirely removed the proc-system, they have no place at all there.

Clicking the repressor should simply, without fail, take agg off the agent, regardles of any dd-disparity.

Re-acheiving agg after use should follow conventional norms. Therefor ticking/mathematics is unecesarry and remained as flawed concept since the "fix" and will continue to be a fail if not changed into having a reliable, immidiate effect.

Anything less than this will make that gaming-feature useless in providing FUN (which is the only valid point imo) for the targetgroup, those with a sincere passion for it, and in addittion be practically useless for any other purposes. Mark my words.

Maybe 'Silencer' as an option for those who wanna build up detaunt in long battles so the mobs don't attack at all. Doesn't seem as a fun gaming-experience to me tho, but even if that system is unreliable and dull it could be usefull/convenient for some (the powerplayer or w/e you call them) I guess.

1.a viable defense option

Any agent-specific implementation of this should ONLY come in the form of subterfuge-combat.

Any evade, absorb w/e should only be accessed via FP (read; NOT VICARSHIP)-buffs or perks.



Suggestions:

(To clarify:
Aimed Shot is one subterfugeform, as evades conventinal limitations; def-checks. Unbrekable snare is another).



Holograms


If anyone played Robotics in Global Agenda, agent should be able to spawn a Nanowall or a Hologram with collition for a brief period. They can hide behind this while using roots in combat to enhance surrival.


Disappear


Line should be reduced to 1 nano and uploading the nano should make us resist fear as an addition, but this nano should also make any attacks inflicted heal (or is this OOC?) the agent for the duration of the buff. Healhit gets determined by level.

That would also fit into the subterfuge-theme by 'circumventing conventions'.


Detaunt in PVP aborts an attack.

If we are fast we would be able to resneak with this abillity. Taunt could do the oposite. It just briefly interupts a players so the effect om balance would be small.


Temporary cast specblocker

This is also a way to avoid attacks without using conventional methods.

2.a viable toolset to have a realistic shot at killing people

This, and significantly increase the endgame-damage.

They should rebalance and boost our unique nanos so that we can always adapt to our target and circumvent their defence which is the actual design and intention of the profession.

Coating-line could be reworked to actually matter vs players and mobs for example. Dot could matter.

Please, not multiple debuffs or enforcing caster-setups on average agents ><

3.something that makes people actually want to team up with me

1: High Damage, damage damage damage! And CC, of course.

2: Buffs! Extended access to other professions nanoprograms.

FP should work normally, not as a vicarship, but FP'able perks sounds cool and could be intresting

3: Sureshotline should buff the entire team and cost 1 NCU in their NCU.

This nano is great, fits the agent-theme, and should not be removed.

1point 1 - as you know - was nerfed into oblivion step by step. higher ar succeeded the evades possible for agents and in addtion more and more profs started throwing around decent, fast cycled aimedshots, debuffs and the like did likewise for mimic doc.

Regarding this; Too many professions matches agent's damage-capacity.

Currently; FP Doctor is a too viable defence and imo it should be made less-effective than how it is now. The fact of the matter is that the doctorbuff is, currently, a too viable defence in combination with the agent-profession. This is why our unique toolset is ineffective, neglected and dd is so low.

TMS is also descent and with perk-access it could be a sufficient endgame-defence.

SL-calms would be cool and access to evadeperks as FP crat would help.

Full access to a nanoline has in 90% of the cases been the norm, therefore agent should get access to Bol and Stare. This will help us surrive, but we'd still mainly rely on our DD and subterfuge-skills in combat.


What should be done with Mimic Doc imo is to leave the system (ideally, the false profession-buff gets reduced to one stage only _without the penalties_ that you can terminate on the fly when out of combat) as it is and leave the access as it is. Then CH on 20 sec cooldown and normal recharge, higher heal-capacity from RK singleheal and teamheal with the addition of being able to use a little of the Doctor Perk-reptoir.

That wouldn't be OP combined with a full-on stealthassassin-performance I think, but remain powerfull.

If an agent conceal themsels as a Janitor, it means they get access. It doesn't mean they suddenly become proficient in operating a electical-system for example and it is obviously not the point either. Sorry for reapting myself, but I want the FP-system to continue to simulate that, and not to be redfined into something it's not.

K'thx...

the mimic proposal that surely needs revision

Couldn't agree more.

I hope they start listening to the feedback from players with passion for the profession...

[Leetlover]

lupus you're wrong.

Currently we have 2 sl procs each with a 21% (1.5k dmg) and a 15% (2 hits 700 and 900) to proc.

Yeah this, it's two (2) lines and four (4) individual procs.

'Waves of...' ether does Direct hit of nanodamage or detaunt
'...shock' does a Dot or detaunt.

Remove detaunt and keep both effects of nanodamage when combinding the buff would I suggest-

[Shirayuki]

More thought on the proposed changes.


#1: Debuffs associated with some VPs

As a non PvP agent, I don't have much care about those massive def debuff with certain VPs.
As devs state, the numbers are not final, and it's not that we can tank anything "worthy" evade-wise in the first place,
and it's not like we will be able to, even with proposed fixer form --- which gives far lesser final outcome than real fixers after all.

And, for implied "secret defence tool" which is not revealed yet --- why don't you tell us more about that?
Showing partial change, asking feedback for that, then saying "calm down it's not everything we got" is not a very nice way of communication.

#2: Skilllock modifier... debuff?

As pointed out by several people, this line is very confusing as it is currently proposed.

1. The name of the line and each nanos and their durations implies that they are actually debuffs.
   However, the effect says they LOWER the modifier which will SHORTEN the re-use timer, thus actually a buff.
   
   If it is a debuff, it should INCREASE the modifier, not lowering it.
   If it is meant as a buff... isn't the modifier capped at -50 or something?
   
   
2. Assuming it is a debuff, again, what is this line trying to achieve?
   Most in-combat items already has reuse time of 2~3min or more, which is already longer than any usual PvP combat.
   Delaying a first aid reuse might be useful in some limited situation against some limited profs,
   but is it a reason worth enough to give such a line to... Agents?
   I thought the skilllock thing vaguely belongs to Traders, if anything.

#3: My only concern is, still, the full NCU wipe.

It's getting long again (sorry), so summing up it first:

1. Self-buff only duel is so small portion of the gameplay, it should not used as a base point of rebalancing.
2. We still can receive alot buffs from outside, so preventing "selfed" portion alone does not solve the implied overpoweredness.
3. It brings so huge inconveniences even to non-PvPing agents, without giving them any 'balance' from it.

Well the, here comes the detail --- first, let me list what are foreseeable pros/cons with full NCU wipe.

The detrimental side of full NCU wipe:

1. Practically unable to switch VPs mid-combat, since it will drastically cripple a agent in every aspect.
   Having absolutely no buffs is unarguably worse than any debuffed state associated with any VP.
   
   
2. Effectively losing benefit of generic increase of buff duration.
   While every other professions enjoy keeping any buffs they get from people for longer duration without any drawback,
   Agents will keep losing EVERYTHING from their NCU, even if those buffs are not self-casted at all.
   
   
3. Related to above, the full wipe discourages Agents from switching VP in general.
   Mind you, current proposal does not provide ANY method of safe-removal of a VP.
   There's no safe timeout, no safe canceller nano, nothing without losing everything from our NCU.
   
   With this, it is expected that most agents generally stuck in a VP of their choise semi-permanently,
   disliking the tediousness of looking around for / asking their teammates to fully re-buff them again.
   This is more true with generic buff duration increase, as we could maintain it longer if we just don't switch.
   
   (and, as I wrote in my previous post, it as well discourages helping people as a crazy buffing demon)

The benefitical side of full NCU wipe:

1. Devs can ensure Agents will not have any carry-over buffs between any VP change,
   so they can give more powerful trick to Agents without worrying about them
   getting uncontrollably overpowered by having any buffs from non-VPed profession toolset.
   
   
2. uh... is there anything else?

So, in short, we get all of the drawback solely to make the self-stuffed duel balanced?

To my knowledge, "self-buff only" regulation is only a portion of whole duel scenario which is formed by willing combatants.
(i.e. no system-wise enforcement to ensure both combatants have only self-buffed)

And, the "Duel" thing itself is already a partial aspect of whole possible PvP situation.
And then finally, to begin with, the PvP itself is partial and *optional* aspect of Anarchy Online's gameplay.

On the other hand, the drawbacks introduced with the NCU wipe affect the ENTIRE gameplay of an agent.
I mean, no matter if they are interested in PvP, no matter if they are actually engaging in PvP combat,
no matter what level they are, no matter what gear they have, no matter where they are / what they do.

Giving so huge, devastating inconvenience and unfairness to entire population/playstyle
only to achieve a balance in such, I dare to say, a small and insignificant aspect of the entire gameplay?

I am sorry to say in offensive tone, but... no, it will not work.
Please give me more clarification about to following points.

1. With currently proposed changes, as I wrote in my previous post, people around an agent
   *can* receive all the buffs the agent can cast, only limited by their max NCU.
   And it can, of course, include an another agent happens to stand by him.
   
   If an agent will be overpowered with any self-casted carry-over buffs across VP switch,
   how is it different from receiving whatever buffs from people around?
   Or, are you going to make it so that we cannot receive any outside buff in VP?
   
   Don't tell me your only intention is to balance self-stuffed duels and nothing else.
   
   
2. What's the point of on-demand VP cancelling when there's practically no point of doing so?
   This is especially true for solo-PvP scenario, as it'll be nothing but a pure suicide.
   
   
3. Why there is no way of removing a VP without wiping NCU?
   You say the wipe is "an unfortunate side effect" --- no, it is not just a 'side effect',
   but is a game-destroying inconvenience that will curse the entire life of an agent.
   
   Imo, no uber defensive trick could justfy such, even if it's a total invulnerability (which is of course not).

My suggestion for alternatives (again):

1. Change it so it won't full wipe but only remove selective buffs tailored for each VPs.
   It's not that any of us asked to have all the auras and self-only evades at once,
   so just remove the overpowered things and let us keep other 'normal' stuff, which is mostly targettable buffs.
   
   Optionally, you can add a total nanopool depletion to prevent risk-free VP switching.
   
   
2. Give us a remover nano which provides the selective wipe suggested just above, with 20min-ish cooldown.
   Yes, it is an equivalent to True Profession we currently have, with added key-nano wiping.
   
   With it, we at least have a sane way to switch VP per 20min, giving a workaround for all three drawbacks I listed above,
   without giving us ability to have whatever buffs we want by ourselves.
   
   
3. Make it that we can't receive any outside buffs while in non-agent state,
   and then give us whatever super-tricks you have in your mind.
   
   In this way, you can precisely balance our performance nano-wise without worrying any uncontrollable factor.

After all, what the current proposal does is giving us an unasked mechanism (which is hidden to us atm)
only to handful of playing environment (solo-duel), in exchange of introducing many prof-breaking
frustrations to all of us whose not involved in PvP.

For other things people are pointing out (proc buff damage, detaunt efficiency etc), I'm really neutral about them atm.
Thay are all subject to our final overall dps, so we just can't say anything about it now... can we?

If I were to say something about it, it'd be "where's our big-critting rifle?" :P

My another two creds.

[Lupusceleri]

I can see that Lupus and other people are full of hope and promise, but for me AO had a original and cool concept when they first made the Agent profession that has gradually been thinned.

I've had agent as a main since 2001, probably longer than most on here - including the current group of game developers - and in my opinion these changes might make agents into a viable profession, but it will no longer be anything near the profession I rolled back then. Removing the ability to cycle through mimics and use parts of the toolset from other professions is a big mistake. No new players will start playing again over changes like these, but some old ones might quit.

Could you elaborate on the concept you're talking about Dimmu? I'll send the feedback straight to the devs, and tbh I am not too happy myself about the 100% NCU wipe between VP changes. The very least that needs to happen is for Agent nanos to become immune to the NCU wipe, so you can use the VPs to swap on the fly and use what's best in each situation without a complete rebuff (as Hotdog said).

@Humle: if you don't believe me you can ask TD if he thinks Agents will be viable post-balance based on the info the Professionals got.

Currently we have 2 sl procs each with a 21% (1.5k dmg) and a 15% (2 hits 700 and 900) to proc. Harm Shock and Waves of Trauma.

What fc is going to do is remove one of thoses procs and give us a new proc with a 33% chance of doing just 1.3k dmg

doing simple probability here take (1-.21)*1(1-.15)= .67% same proc probablity as the replacement.

however the dmg is different though.
.21(1,500) + .15(1,600) = 555
.33(1,400)= 462

so we have received a dmg nerf based on the fact the old procs on average do more dmg

I know we're losing the Waves proc, but look at the critical% buff line. 14% CriticalIncrease as opposed to our old 7% CriticalIncrease, makes for an increasement of 7%. Now, assuming that a crit will do ~1.5k more damage than a regular hit (it could be a lot more depending on what you're shooting at) we've got another "proc" right there.

.33(1,400) + .07(1,500) = 567

Which is the point I was trying to make.

You seem to know something why we're getting nerfed this hard. But based so far, it's a lose lose situation. So when are you going to tell us allt the details?

I would've told you Friday if I could have, but I'm under a non-disclosure agreement as a Professional. Short version, if I publish the details without clear permission of a dev I'm in big trouble.

I sure do hope they'll give it out tomorrow because I'm just about to be fed up covering for them. Failing to publish it along with the document was a mistake to begin with, because I haven't got the slightest clue how you're supposed to interpret this document correctly otherwise.

you know i'm with you buddy, been with you all these years. but we never had 2 detaunt lines.

We do have two detaunt lines, one's the standard click-and-detaunt and the other's the Blast of XYZ line, which conflicts with the Waves of XYZ line.

Sooo in effect nobody ever uses it, because you need to run Waves for a damage whoring setup. See my reply to Anarchic for the explanation where Waves damage went to.

but well. let's not fight over that...it ain't worth it. what it all comes down to...what i want for my agent, to cut it short:

1.a viable defense option
2.a viable toolset to have a realistic shot at killing people
3.something that makes people actually want to team up with me

1. is coming in multiple forms.
2. is not really treated in the nano documents, that is mostly perk, special attack, and weapon territory.
3. is coming just as we all requested; filling gaps in teams.

[Leetlover]

Imo, perk-checks should remain as is now, exception is assassinate and deathstrike.


This must be seen in relation to power, complex charracter customation and diversity. For some professions, that rely on evade and temporary evadeperks, getting fully hit with all the perks is certain death for them (at least 1 on 1 if agent attacks first from stealth)...and not getting hit at all is certain death for agents.

Several def and attack-checks enables more advanced twinking and gameplay-scenarioes on both sides. 100% rifle on all perks would make it predictaible and cookie-cutter.

SU and Tranq should alway land, they last short anyway.

I wish the generic AI-perks becomes stealth-unfriendly and The Shot as a stealthperk.

#1: Debuffs associated with some VPs

Delaying a first aid reuse might be useful in some limited situation against some limited profs,
#but is it a reason worth enough to give such a line to... Agents?

I thought the skilllock thing vaguely belongs to Traders, if anything.

2nd!

Also...this scope of extensive debuffing appropiatly belongs to professions specialised in casting, no?

My only concern is, still, the full NCU wipe.

It's unmerited imo, 'cosmetic balance' as I call it.

I think new FP will be discarded by players cause I know for a fact this doesn't represent so many.

Mechanics for terminating programs in NCU however would be good for disabling certain keybuffs or perk-effects from FP when swapping profession, or for applying OE-mechanics to Pets and Spawned items...GA for example.

The benefitical side of full NCU wipe:
Devs can ensure Agents will not have any carry-over buffs between any VP change,
so they can give more powerful trick to Agents without worrying about them
getting uncontrollably overpowered by having any buffs from non-VPed profession toolset.

Mostly it's osb'able or not too significant static buffs, so there is no power-related reasoning for full wipe.

90% of the current FP-repetoir is just convenience-access. Advantage = we don't have to buffhunt.

For other things people are pointing out (proc buff damage, detaunt efficiency etc), I'm really neutral about them atm.
Thay are all subject to our final overall dps, so we just can't say anything about it now... can we?

imo, detaunt is independent from dps and not a tool for powerplay. Just4fun, my 2 credatz

[Leetlover]

1. is coming in multiple forms.
2. is not really treated in the nano documents, that is mostly perk, special attack, and weapon territory.
3. is coming just as we all requested; filling gaps in teams.

So Agent becomes a def-class and a vicariate? FP-system gets deleted? We didn't ask for this

[Mordo]

So Agent becomes a def-class and a vicariate? FP-system gets deleted? We didn't ask for this

A team of all shades did pand the other day. I can guess how if it were a team of agents how it would have turned out...

[Gatester]

Not using IVC we lose 70 nr and 5 nanodelta and with more nr on buffs we will break even or just about... The agent motto is what "mediocre"?

If you do not want another 192 NCU worth of OSB's then that is your choice. Making hard choices is probably somewhere in the agent motto along with "versatility".

Removing the ability to cycle through mimics and use parts of the toolset from other professions is a big mistake.

After five years I must admit, I have never come across a tool that allows me to ffreely cycle through my agent's mimics. In fact, I believe what the rebalancing is doing is allowing an agent to...cycle through mimics.

A team of all shades did pand the other day. I can guess how if it were a team of agents how it would have turned out...

If agents had better access to SL tools, just fine. Can 220 agents charm pande mobs, because that would have pretty much made it a piece of cake.

[Anarchic1]

according to xyphos it's 15% lupus, but i guess you know anyways, I guess we'll just stfu till Monday

[drainbamage]

Is it just me or do a lot of the complaints seem to revolve around FP: Doctor being nerfed

[Rktim]

Im kinda with Gatester here... When the hell where agents ever allowed to freely cycle threw FPs to give themselves self only buffs from 13 other professions?

At the most you can have what? 2?, how is changing that to 1 even remotely considered breaking the FP mechanic and going against the core design of the profession?

Only reason you can swap freely between 2 professions today is the true profession agent nano and you have only had that for like 2 years tops, and doesn't that thing have like a 20min lockout?

By the look of it id say that originally agents where never ever ever intended to use the buffs from more then one FP at once, and they wont after re-balance.

I seriously don't see the issue here..

I think the idea is really clear.. If you go doc you become more of a doc and less of a agent.. You swap some evades for a s**** of heals and +nano...

Oh and as for RRFE, me and my fellow soldiers will still be just as happy to provide as today...

[Joralf]

After five years I must admit, I have never come across a tool that allows me to ffreely cycle through my agent's mimics. In fact, I believe what the rebalancing is doing is allowing an agent to...cycle through mimics.

He never said that agents where able to cycle freely through the mimics. If you are gonna have a go at people you should read their posts properly first. I myself have never had a high level agent, but as far as I understand, the current mimic system allow people to use parts of several (2-3) professions toolset. The new system does indeed allow for cycling through mimics, but it does not allow for use of more than one profs toolset. Now if you read Dimmus post again, can you spot what he was saying?

I'll make it very easy to spot for you. Also note, he never said freely.

Removing the ability to cycle through mimics and use parts of the toolset from other professions is a big mistake.

On a different note. Releasing this document without this supposedly essential information is both stupid and evil. I can't see any reason what so ever for doing so. The only thing they gain is making people upset and spending time giving feedback on something they have no basis for understanding. This might lead people to not give feedback later, when they have a better basis for giving feedback. Making people think they have every bit of information (with the exception of the accurate numbers), while keeping back one piece essential information is just evil.

[Parranoid1]

Thing is, allowing for these fast profession switches would be awesome for adaptability. If they change it so that you dont lose your agent buffs when swapping, it could be amazing.

Ponder it for a moment, in sneak you pop around a corner and notice a fight that you can get into but there is a mean looking enfo in there. Quick convert over to soldier, pop TMS/AMS(if its open to agent) and bam you're now ready for a frowny enfo.

You're in enfo and you've taken a ton of damage? Swap to doctor, pop off 2 heals and swap back again to enfo after 10 seconds (heal cooldowns) slap the few enfo buffs back on and you're good to go.

In soldier and notice a particularly evadey trader nearby? Swap to enfo and challenger for the alpha, once fight is over, swap to doc for a heal and be off.

See a soldier? swap to engi for a reflect ripper?

Think of it as a profession swap for their active abilities rather than for their buffs. Soldier tms, enfo rage/chal, doc quick heals for little down time, NT for null sphere, engi for blocker/ripper, etc. etc. If we get some sort of viable defense from this surprise that the devs have for us, then we can use the mimics for purely situational advantages.

The quick swapping REALLY allows for situation flexibilty, you know, the thing everyone has been saying is core to an agent? As it currently stands you can mimic to get buffs but you are then locked into that thing for 20 minutes giving you essentially no on-the-fly adaptability.

You just gotta think outside the box.

[Starphoenix]

So we do not know which nanos agents will be able to use under FP yet there is a massive amount of whining?

[Shirayuki]

Parranoid1,

The problem is, the document does not say we can maintain our agent buff at all.

Yeah if it's said we could do such, the tone in this thread would have been very different from start --- including myself.
But I, at least, am giving my thought purely based on what the document *currently* says--- not based on what I, or you, hope it would be.

------

About our ability to have more than two prof's toolset at once, which some people are pointing:

There's two different category in the "toolset":

One is, obviously, the "active" toolset like Healing or TMS or any other short-term things.
For this category, we have been able to cast any active toolset of, and only from, Agent + FPed profession,
and no one would never, ever asked anywhere that we should be able to cast more than that.

But there is other: the "static" toolset, which is generaly referred as buffs.
For this, for limited nanos, we always have been able to utilize more than one FP even without TP.

Haven't any of you used Reflect/Behe/MP pet/whatever other longer buffs across FP time-out which definitely have helped our squishy $^&?
or help yourself / your friends with SFA/IC/Odin to puzzling around implant management?
We *were* utilizing more than one toolset even before TP days, definitely.

----------

I'm not sure why some people, seemingly including devs, are sticking with "solo-stuffed" part so much.
As with current document, we still can receive whatever buffs from outside,
so addding full NCU wipe will never prevent us from becoming so-implied overpowering.

And, I as well don't understand why they refer about solo-duels so much.
Hasn't it cleary stated by FC that efficiency in solo duels, self-stuffed or not, will never be used as performance measure?

[JustinSane4]

One note on the NCU wipe: In the rebalance, nearly all buffs will have 1 second cast time and 1 second recharge. It's not going to take forever to re-buff after a visual-profession swap.

Additional note: While Kintaii's opening post states "Agents will not be allowed to combine their 'vanilla' Agent nanos with the nanos of the visual profession they choose. The incoming v2 nano documents will include all information on what nanos may be used while under a visual profession effect", the current nano-doc does have some nano-lines requiring visual-profession = Agent and others lacking that requirement.

Given Kintaii's statement, I'm not sure how much to read in to this, but in the nano-doc as it is, here is how things would work (unless I've misread):

Agent Nano-Lines That Can Be Cast While In a Non-Agent Visual Profession:

1. Concealment Buffs: 193 (these used to be Ruse of...)
2. Enhanced Senses (the Agi/Sense/AAD/NR buff)
3. Aimed Shot/Rifle/Sharp Objects Buffs
4. Way of the Executioner line
5. Critical Increase Buffs: 182 (these are the long duration crit buffs)
6. Agent Damage Buffs: 635 (detaunt proc line)
7. Agent Damage Buffs: 636 (this is the line with add all damage and a damage proc)

Agent Nano-Lines That Can Only Be Cast in Visual-Profession=Agent

1. Agent DoT
2. Critical Increase Buff Lines B (short duration massive crit/damage buffs on long cool-down)
3. Skill-Lock Modifier Debuffs
4. Critical Decrease Debuffs
5. Bail-Out Line

Agent Nano-Lines That Can Be Cast In Visual-Profession Agent and One or More Other Visual Professions

1. AOE Snare (VP Agent, Crat, or Fixer)
2. Single-Target Snare (VP Agent, Crat or Fixer)
3. Single-Target Root (VP Agent, Crat, Trader, NT, Fixer)
4. AOE Root (VP Agent, Crat, Trader)
5. Evade Debuffs (VP Agent, Fixer)
6. Detaunt (VP Agent, Soldier)
7. Root/Snare Reduction Other (VP Agent, Crat, Fixer, NT, Trader)
8. Root/Snare Reduction Self (VP Agent, Crat, Fixer, NT, Trader)

Put that all together, and after a visual profession switch an Agent could have all allowed Agent buffs along with composite ranged, ranged special and nano expertise up in roughly 10 seconds. Figure another 5 seconds for buffs from the chose visual profession, and an Agent could switch roles faster than I can re-cast my heal pet. I'm not an Agent, and maybe that 15 seconds is actually devastating in some way I don't understand - but it doesn't, from the outside, look all that punitive.

Additional implication if the above list of nano-lines that don't require VP=Agent is correct: Agents will be able to have 365 in add all damage from nano-lines. If we assume the Agent is wearing an LoX defensive token board and the perfected infused DB Bracer, that's another 150 add all damage for a total of 515 - which means that the -500 add all damage on VP NT, MP, Crat, Doc, and Engineer won't totally kill an Agent's weapon based DD. I would guess that Agents will be able to keep their rifles out of OE even with a -500 AS penalty also.