Intro
I have read the forums for quite a long time; having been a forum goer of various other games, I lept right into these forums once I had a paid account. I soaked up a lot of information. For 2 and a half years I have played only one character, my solitus enforcer known as Bunny "Lumifly" Rabbit.
It has been quite a long journey to this point, and it was bumpy for the longest time. I think I have learned a lot about the game, especially about enforcers. I believe I have made a number of friends, and at the very least, have impressed many people with the ability to not only play the game, but to do my profession's job incredibily well.
The hot topic these days is about nanos and symbs, who can do what, with what, and how. Today I finished putting in the symbiants that, with any luck, will remain the best through the rest of AOs life - because really, reperking sucks :p From Intelligent Brain down to Intelligent Foot, the symbiants have bonded with me! *(Right wrist was granted a special exception)!
So now, I want to share my own thoughts on this matter, but geared towards something a solitus can use more easily than trying to use the trox setups and rework them for solitus. I can only speak of my direct experience, but will give my own thoughts I had while doing this if applicable.
What I had at my disposal
Although I do have quite a large collection of nodrop twink items and some droppable twink items, I do not have everything under the sun. This becomes a good thing for others, since now you know you don't absolutely need everything.
The caveat to this is that I did have things that would still require a lot of farm time unless you're in a good org.
For anything I didn't manage to have myself, I was able to borrow from some friends. Big thanks go out to them, who I will let remain nameless so they don't get begged for items :p
On to what I had that I actually used that might take time to get:
- Burden of Competence
- Maar's Red Belt of Double Power
- Maar's Yellow Belt of Double Speed
- Maar's Blue Belt of Double Prudence
- Masterpiece Ancient Bracer
- Cancer's Time-Saving Memory
- Intuitive Memory of the Aquarius
- 1x ql300 Ring of Divine Teardrops
- Ring of Plausibility
- 2x Freedom Arms 3927 Chapman
- Set of ql300 Combined Commando's, sans gloves
- Fly Catcher's Specs
I didn't keep exact notes, but I believe that is it. I had all the dustbrigade stuff minus one sleeve also, but since that can be farmed easily, I don't think it would take long to get with a competent team.
Yes, no farming of ql300 Rings of Computing needed!
There is one other caveat, however, and that is I also have a large ql300 city and the following org contracts:
Universal Advantage - Muscular Compactness
Quality level: 246
Universal Advantage - Medical Expertise
Quality level: 249
Universal Advantage - Logic
Quality level: 240
Universal Advantage - Heart Pump Boost
Quality level: 245
Universal Advantage - Concentration
Quality level: 247
Please note, these contracts were only needed on the brain step! More info later.
Givens
Level 220.
LE research completed up to all ability buffing points.
Perks: first max perks into First Aid and Combat Knowledge. Max Freak Strength and Genius. Max Enhance DNA. Max Mountaineer. Max Solitus Beta Genome. Rest of points in Solitus Alpha Genome. Feel free to max NCU Extensions if you want an easier time swapping belts.
Protip: you get 40 non-ai perks. You only need 25 of them if you don't use NCU Extensions. Don't waste time unperking that which doesn't need unperked!
What you don't need
You do not need ql300 buffing implants. My highest buffing implant was a ql297 treatment right hand. All the rest were less than ql290. Most were only in the ql250 range. If you have higher, use higher. More base abilities combined with trickle can help stave off some of the complications I, personally, encountered.
You don't need AI30. I am AI25.
You don't even need AI25. What do you need?
You need AI22, if you are patient enough to perk and unperk AI expertise for alien armor to put on buffing weapons.
If you are really hardcore, you could actually get away with even less AI levels, but I feel that would incur too much time penalty. You could get more AI levels in the time it would take you to shuffle around perks. But, if you are curious, the shuffly with less than AI22 would revolve around AI expertise and the genome perks.
Let's get it on!
First things first. This is not meant to be an indepth guide. It will not tell you every little detail for each and every step. Suffice it to say, the only hard part is getting your order right and putting in the brain.
For reference, this post here with Shimka's setups is a good guide for how to setup your implants for most of the steps.
I used this order of putting in symbiants:
- Feet
- Left Arm
- (right wrist) (this is a caveat, since not using a symbiant...)
- Eye
- Left Hand (no particular reason)(implant is better, and I would prefer to use one if I ever got the clusters, but, really, neither are super or horrible)
- Left Wrist (implant is better, but both aren't great either)
- Right Arm
- Brain
- Waist
- Ear
- Right Hand
- Chest
- Leg
Color groups are where I used the same setup.
This may not be the best order, honestly. I didn't put a huge amount of thought into it, and, in hind sight, I probably should have done the brain first, and then follow the rest of the order.
If you have looked at Shimka's order, you might wonder why my order differs. After all, it worked for him, why won't it work for you?
The right hand near last is because the implant gives more treatment than the symbiant. You'll want treatment when putting on the brain.
The right arm before waist and leg because I needed the agility AND stamina. The thing about this step is that if you remove your right arm implant, you lose strength. So you need to make up for that loss with prodigious strength. But, since you are using prodigious strength, you lose 20 stam from IC. And in either case, you'll want the agility only found on the implants. Atrox have more wiggle room when it comes to the strength and stamina side of things. Solitus has to keep a balance a lot more.
Leg last because the agility (and stamina) were needed to get the chest symbiant in.
Throughout the whole process, there were pieces of my setup that never changed. I would call this the base line.
Hud1 was primarily the inferno sanctuary key, but a couple steps I used the dreadloch endurance booster - enforcer special for the strength.
First creation of the sagittarius was swapped for a ql300 bracer of focused concentration for the brain step only.
Other than those two exceptions, the base line equipment never changed.
You will want to use treatment guns for putting in the eye and the brain.
Use V-five Breathing Space for intelligence steps other than the brain. You can use pistols if you want, but, excess is always better.
The brain
For the longest time, the infantry brain has been the bane of enforcers. Stuck at ql180 because there was no alternative until ql280. With LE and DB and Alby, 280+ becomes a realistic dream.
Pretend the following setup has a pair ql157 Freedom Arms 3927 Chapman equipped. Use an Extruder Nutrition Bar. Also, this is the step where those contracts became active.
For all your ql300 Intelligent Brain Symbiant, Infantry Unit Aban needs.
You'll note the buffing implant quality levels. If those were higher, lower contracts could be used. Maybe even no contracts, save for the treatment one.
I said before that I had additional thoughts on this: if you have the Helmet of Hypocrisy, you can substitude one of the ncus for the aquarius intelligence ncu. Would only need treatment contract this way. If you have the Gloves of the Caring Capricorn, you could do the same and not have to worry about contracts other than the treatment contract. If you had the Ancient Medical Bracer, you could use Fly Catcher's Specs and Aquarius ncu and only worry about the treatment contract.
Prologue
And so I have typed a lot, with hopes some of it will be useful to somebody. There is not many enforcers these days, let alone solitus or other non-atrox breeds. But I still hope this helps anybody, somebody :)
If you have any questions, comments, or other thoughts of your own, this is what this thread is also for.
