Lot of questions...

[Tamatok]

Hey guys,
as I slowly but sure get deeper into this game there are a lot of questions coming up that I´d like to ask you...

1. I´m at level 32 now playing an Atrox Enf using a 1h blunt. I´ve seen many of you talking about 2h blunts being so much more effective, but as I just do not want to look like all the others I have chosen an other way so far. Would u really say it´s not worth playing on as I wont get effective in any way with this setup?

2. I´ve been searching for adequate equipment for some time now and still ask myself how I ever should be able to cast those spells over lvl 30. I mean there are so many skills I really need my points for, where should all those points come from?

3. What spells/equipment should I search for to really improve myself (except armor and weapons)? A friend of mine plays a Engi and I somehow get the feeling that he and his Robo are much stronger than me even so we have the same lvl...

4. I would be grateful for any other help that could help me becoming a tank worth being called so.

Thx and cu,
Tamatok

[skybert]

1: You can actually use two 1H-blunt at the same time! see the items description to see what it requires of the dualk-wield-skill. Dualwield cost some IP, but the extra attack is worth it.

2: Nano. Enforcer isn't a "nano-class". Not to worry. Get used to utilize nano's under your lvl. Go for your combatskills first, then IF any ip's left, go for nano's. (essence-line is a must when you can afford it.) When you get close to your nest title-lvl, you should have some IP to spare... (as some combatskills get maxed for your titlelvl)

3: Robo's ARE strong. bots my lvl (54) has 5 times my hp, does more damage than me, and are generally better suited for combat, BUT you have something they don't. You react faster, can have extra equipment, can run away when needed, isn't sacrifyed to save the rest of the group... and are ready to battle whenever, wherever.

Anyway, this is what I reccommend you get:
-Implants. Very important. Get nanonanny/AOhelper program to help you choose which implants is good for you and search the shops for them, get a doc/NT/whoever with nanoprogramming to combine them for you. Do not try to combine them yourself, as that is waist of IP. Get a friend to do it for you, or pay someone to do it for you (trading channel is very goos to get connections for such). Go for ability-raising implats first, then weaponskill/ac raising implats, then whatever skill you like (in that order)
-Flurry of blows. Item that goes in your util slot. roght-click it to use (or place it in your shortcutbar). increases melee init for a short period of time. helps a lot.
-Deflection shield/damage deflector (might not be those names. don't remember right now...) same as flurry, except raises ac/deflects damage
-nano's. get the basic buffs (the +10/20 ones) for the skills you need(nano-skills, weapon skills etc). Also get the enforcer nano's you can afford. (essence line is a must. Challanger only if you can afford it, as it only lasts for so long, and shuts down nano-skills for 2 minutes. Also get headcracker/thug's delight if going for blunt weapons)

4: When beeing a tank, it is important that the mobs stay on YOU, not on the doc/NT.... so get aggression enhancers.
Aggression enhancers go in util slot. select mob, then rightclick agg.enhancer to use. the mob should attack you instead of the doc healing you.
When picking mobs, remember that some mobs have friends that like to help (i.e. attack you) try to avoid that by attacking mobs that has no friends nearby (no other mob with the same name around)


This post got a little longer than first intended.... oh, well. Make me proud!


oh, btw: remember that tanking a mob and pulling a mob is not neccesarily the same thing. Good advice for all you enforcers out there: Let a long-range guy attack a mob (perhaps an agent with sniperrifle or something), then, when the mob gets close enough (but BEFORE it reaches the agent), attack it and use your aggro enhancers to get it on you, because you have probably more HP than the agent. In this example, the agent pulled, but the enforcer tanked. See the difference?

[___________Watermite]

Originally posted by Tamatok
Hey guys,
as I slowly but sure get deeper into this game there are a lot of questions coming up that I´d like to ask you...

1. I´m at level 32 now playing an Atrox Enf using a 1h blunt. I´ve seen many of you talking about 2h blunts being so much more effective, but as I just do not want to look like all the others I have chosen an other way so far. Would u really say it´s not worth playing on as I wont get effective in any way with this setup?

Yes. I've found that the difference is minimal amongst weapons. The reason blunts are better for Enforcers is that they take less IPs. and we have nanos for them. You chose 1Hblunt. Be happy with it, you made a good choice. Like the previous poster, if you aren't investing in enough Multi. Melee to use two 1hblunts then you should. If you don't, then it's not worth using.

But don't give up. The higher level you get the more IPs you end up banking. If you run out or are short, it just means you have to wait a bit longer is all. Enforcers have a devil of a time gimping themselves with IPs.

2. I´ve been searching for adequate equipment for some time now and still ask myself how I ever should be able to cast those spells over lvl 30. I mean there are so many skills I really need my points for, where should all those points come from?

Don't worry about nanos. Spend the points when you can, but don't make it a priority. Combat skills first, nanos second. Yes, it means our nanos won't be available until long after we've passed their quality level, but we get good nanos and can live without 'em.

Then again, don't neglect them entirely. Mongo, Essence, and Challenger have saved my big Atrox ass more times than I can remember.

3. What spells/equipment should I search for to really improve myself (except armor and weapons)? A friend of mine plays a Engi and I somehow get the feeling that he and his Robo are much stronger than me even so we have the same lvl...

Well, we're pretty equal. In PvP, it's no contest. An Engineer -is- his pet, so naturally it needs to be good. Want to beat an Engineer? Hit him, not his pet.

Another point of view is: Do we really have trouble beating down oranges? No, not really, so him having an orange or red pet isn't that big of a deal. We're faster, we smarter, and let's face it, you vs. his pet means a victory for you. You vs. him is a victory for you. You and him vs. a monster is a victory for you guys. What's the problem?

As for advice: Implants! Implants! Implants! Your weapon skill first, Brawling second, Melee AC third. Fill in the rest with useful stuff like Melee Initiative.

4. I would be grateful for any other help that could help me becoming a tank worth being called so.

Thx and cu,
Tamatok

Like above, get an Aggression Enhancer. Also, I spent the cash on a little quality level 12 nano called Taunting Glare (it has upgrades, but I can't get at 'em yet). Between my Rider damage, Aggression Enhancer, Taunting Glare, and Mongo (a must have for any Enforcers worthy of the title), every monster stick to me like glue.

If it's a group of monsters, it's a little trickier. Mongo so that all the mobs are ticked at you. Target and attack. Now find a target that you're not attacking and Aggression Enhancer it. Find another mob (if there are that many) and Taunting Glare it. You now have every mob's undivided attention and your group can kill it safe and efficiently.

Invest, if you have the points, in First Aid. From personal experience, ANY little bit helps. Also, if you know it's going to be a tough fight (the mob is red), use First Aid as soon as enough damage to warrant is done.

For example: I get into a fight with a red mob. Say my First Aid heals 170. As soon as 170 pts. are done to me (like, 2 hits), I First Aid and get them back. Chances are, if it's a tough fight, First Aid will cycle back through and you can use it again. It's not much, but it does help. From personal experience, I've fought very, very deep red mobs and ended the fight with 4 hit points. Still, seeing that experience chunk is nice.

Stick with your weapons. Stick with what you want to play. As long as you like what you're doing, what another guy has won't make any difference. Gummizluv here is cranking people with his hammer for gobs of damage and he can equip a hefty one because of Headcracker. True, but I like my Riders and won't change 'em for the world. Big fuggin' swords. It means I'm happy with my Enforcer and look forward to playing him everytime I log in. I'd be less happy wandering around with a hammer or girder.

[Vikus]

Just made an Enforcer and I am basically working missions right now. At some point, though, I would very much like to start finding some groups and doing some hunting. Being new to the profession, I have a few questions:


Agression Enhancers:
I found a QL 10 Agg Enhancer in a mission chest at level 15 or so. I put points into Psych and tried it out. It didn't seem to work. I imagine there must be a QL/MOB level limit. My question, then, would be this:

What is the relationship between Agg Enhancer QL and MOB level? If I am level 20, and I have a QL 20 Agg Enh, will I be able to taunt all yellow and lower MOBs? I understand the only hard and fast rule for this would come from the Devs, but can anyone share experiences they've had with this? I would be grateful for any observations.


Breaking roots:

Of course, the best way to break roots is to up your nano-resist. I find this to be a painful process, IP-wise, so I have been looking for alternatives. In another post, Obitus talks about kicking off a root with a "rage nano." What are those? Does anyone know to what he is referring? Is it the Mongo line, or something different? The post below is what I am referring to:

http://aoforums.funcom.com/showthread.php?threadid=626

Thanks for all the help. This Enforcer board has been *very* useful in answering some of my other questions about the profession.

It seems with all the recent Aggro changes, we tanks have our work cut out for us. Just want to be well prepared to tank when I find a good team.. =)

Later,
-C

[Kinkstaah]

In regards to agression enhancers - DONT USE THEM.

DONT WASTE IP IN PSYCH.

Instead, use the mongo line. It works MUCH better.

[Kinkstaah]

Rage nano. Breaks roots. Places a small DoT on yourself. Adds runspeed, inits, nano resist - etc.

Lasts about 22 seconds. Dont pvp without one. The ONLY legitimate non-exploit root breaker nano in the game.

[______________Obitus]

For a complete list of Enforcer nanos, go to:

http://www.aodata.net/programs.cfm?&...l=N&mskipsort=

This is the most comprehensive list of nanos I have found.

I too use Riders and am very happy with them. I made lvl 108 today and also aquired a ql 193 Rider. With a full 132 point wrangler (provided by a friendly trader) and my challenger to gargantua, I was actually able to equip this rider with a little room to spare. I am now critting for over 1200 and brawling for over 1600. Life is good.

I have several beliefs about growing a good Enforcer. These are just my opinions.

1. Don't waist time on flurry of blows or agression enhancers, the IPs you waist can be better used. (with a well build enforcer, the mob will aggro you as soon as you smack it.

2. 1h blunt is a fine choice but do not get any weapon that has sneak attack in it's requirements. I think sneak attack is a waste of IPs as well. Get a weapon that at most uses 1h blunt, brawl, dimach and maybe fast attack or heavy weaps, otherwise the IP drain is too much at lower levels.

3. Spend IPs on combat first! Strenth, Stamina and Body Developement need to go up EVERY level. Also, add to Brawl with every level, this is a great and frequent special attack. Dimach is good also but it should not be made a priority as it is dark blue and only works once every 30 mins.

4. HPs = LIFE Get the most hps you can. Life implants, essence, and the damage shield line of nanos all add to HPs.

5. One of my biggest regrets is having a low token board. Pick a side and stay with that side. Work your way to lvl 6 and then save as soon as you lvl. go to the mission booth in the town you are in and pick a mission on full easy, with the good/bad slider on full bad and the money/xp slider on full money. This will give you a very small mission in town that has all green mobs that you WILL get a token for if you clear the mission. If you have the patience, run 2 or 3 missions taking care not to level and then /terminate. This will drop all the xp you gained and put you back to a base lvl 6. Then repeat this process over and over. This is call TOKEN FARMING. It is by far the easiest way to build a good token board. But be careful, do not let yourself level past level 7 or this get a bit harder. Don't get me wrong, you can get tokens for missions later in the game, but it will never be easier than at lvl 6 or 7. If you are wondering just what a good token board can do for you, take a look. http://ao.stratics.com/content/statistics/awards.shtml

6. Implants are a must. Get nanonanny http://www.timezulu.com.au/NanoNanny/ and play with it untill you feel like you have a good setup, if you will send me you email addy in private msg on this forum, I will email you my nano nanny setup to give you an example of a good enforcer setup.

7. Save often. HAVE FUN!

Hope this helps. If any of you are just starting and want some help token farming, I have a lvl 7 MA and lvl 6 NT that are busily collecting tokens. Send me a private msg if you wanna hook up and run missions with me in Athens.

Others may have a better strategy than I, so take this for what it is worth. One player's opinions

[Downsizr]

Mmmmh... very good infos for beginners.

I will just had the obvious ...

90 Of our base skills are about STR and STA. So just use armor that are STA / STR (unless you are really low lvl) : Heated / Chilled Plasteel, Vito's and Organic.

Remember that upgrading armor is vital : the higher the AC, the less damage you take. The limit being mobs minimal damage, that you will ALWAYS take.

Parry and Evades are dubious, let's say they are not working in a spectacular way. But they do help lowering crits probability on you.

Tank armor when you can grab it is a nice AC booster with some penalties, like doubling nano cost. You'll find people that still like the AC boost (a majority) and a lot also that use Decus armor based on STR / AGI, with less AC (well less AGI) and no penalties.

As an enforcer and getting up in lvls you'll have to find hunting spots or missions that are far away from cities. At this time your running speed should sux really bad compared to your friends. Don't raise it with an insane IPs cost. You have 2 options :

1) Invest 130 in Comp Lit, you'll get access to the Grid and be able to teleport in new zones (your Comp Lit will help for NCU too - see below).

2) Buy a Q30ish Kodaik car that will add about 350 to running speed for 50-60k creds. To find this car look for a shop selling the model and visit it often until appropriate Q pops up. You can also camp the shop as it will recycle every 2 min if noone enters it (find a secluded one).

Last point is : don't only spend money on implants, buy ASAP a 300x belt and 3x 32 NCU. A Comp Lit of 130 will allow this. You will then be able to stack some nice buffs that with implants will let you over equip armor and weapon.

Note that I say weapon and not weapons as you should go the route of 2HB.

[__________BrutalThug]

Well

My ql110 Aggro enhancer at lvl74 saves more docs than my mongo does..

And now with the new "team heal aggro" getting mobs of ur doc is more vital than anything. Docs that die often seem to leave a group pretty fast.

Especially those slow 2hb hammer wielding Enfs (me should imo invest in psych. And i seem to have all the same buffs as 2hblunters my lvl. even if i used alot of ip in it.

Already ive been asked by doc in team twice about if i used any kind of agression enhancer. Also i hear from other Enfs that they have luck using the psy mod nanos that increase agg on to you.

So my advice would be Go for the agg enhancing

to the 1hblunt issue. DONT TOUCH THE STUN BATONS

Otherwise keep up the Enforcing !!

BrutalThug
MOTHER - Mobile Omni-Tek Heavy Emergency Response.

-----
FunCom unfix Tank Armor.. no point in using them now
-----

[______________Yazule]

I have never.. yes NEVER had ANY mob resist 2 mongo bash's doc or no doc, red green or yellow. Only ONCE in my memory did I need a second and yes this was due to a doc. I am level 90 and I am talking 150 level mobs here.

DONT WAST IP's ON AGRO ENHANCERS.

Unlike EQ where a lot of little damage drew more agro, in AO BIG chunks of damage draw agro even if with long delays. 9 times out of 10 my first hammer blow TAKES aggro and KEEPS agro for the whole fight without needing mongo. (maybe 8 times out of 10).

I used mongo bash at bullies one day as an experiment. I was not in the team that was hunting, just passing by. They were all green/grey to me and bullies were green/yellowish. I cast mongo bash with def bar all the way on defence (no auto attack). I did 1 hp damage to the mob the entire fight (from mongo) and the mob NEVER stopped attacking me while 2 enforcers, an NT, adv, and doc did their worst to him. I think that says it all.

[Bierbauch]

Your little Fixer friend will love the Aggression Enhancer once you hit for 92 points of damage with you Beam after his 1000+ burst crit at lvl 95 and you are OOM ...

[______________Yazule]

Well that is all in the planning... I have 726 nano, I use 255 nano kits (threw the orange first aid kits away) so I get 3 mongo's in 35 seconds, a 4th after 35 seconds (but 20 of those seconds were ticking away while I cast the second and third), 5th after 35 more seconds.

if my party is pulling SO badly that I cant stop to recharge nano by then then they are idiots.. the doc and the tank decide the pace, that is the way it works.

that BTW is Garunteed agro 5 times (lets say 3 for arguments sake) and 5000 hp healed helping the doc out a little to boot (unless you have to chain cast mongo which takes 1000ish hp away from healing.

sure, if you want to wear tank which adds to crits, lowers your casting ability and does *little* real damage absorption (negative absorption when you think of the crits your getting due to it) then you should get an agro enhancer. Personally when I tank, if someone is going to die it is ME 90% of the time. I can have some friends come tell you about it if you like.. naa that is too much work. Take it or leave it.. it is just *my* advice.

*edit* I use a beam and a hammer switched out every hit, I hit every 4 seconds or so, so a 95 hit with the hammer is not *that* big of an agro deal, as my hammer crits for 1800 (and often esp with an MA crit buff which is the ONLY way to fly)

[Downsizr]

Unlike EQ where a lot of little damage drew more agro, in AO BIG chunks of damage draw agro even if with long delays.

/Agreed

[Downsizr]

One thing that I forgot for our noobie FAQ : the W gate Newland insurance terminal is the cheapest one I know. Use it and save your creds !

[Arinia]

6. Implants are a must. Get nanonanny http://www.timezulu.com.au/NanoNanny/ and play with it untill you feel like you have a good setup, if you will send me you email addy in private msg on this forum, I will email you my nano nanny setup to give you an example of a good enforcer setup.

You have private messages disabled. Can you please send to:

yldvig0df6fd001@sneakemail.com

You might have to use cut and paste :-)

Thanks a million -- I don't want to screw up my enforcer too bad, so I'd like to take a look at this before I level anymore.

PS: I think I (finally) decided to go 2h blunt. After your post about the QL 195 rider @ 105, I think that i am safe in that I can switch later. Plus, the hammer looks absolutely rediculous on me, which is always a bonus.

Thanks in advance.

[______________Obitus]

I have sent all the setups I have on this computer, in a couple of days I can send you a couple more setups.

Private messaging is now on btw.

[Arinia]

Rock.

I'm going to use the QL20 setup as 2h_blunt.nan (QL 20 implants in there). It looks good, but not what I would have expected :-P .. I suppose that's a good thing -- maybe I won't screw anything up.

Looks like it's time for some mission blitzing, and some hunting to get my skills up to those reqs.

Thanks a million.

[______________Obitus]

Kaerem

That setup is specifically designed to help get a Yalm as early in the game as possible. Later on, you will want to drops some of the flying clusters and replace them with other, more usefull clusters. Also, see if you can put anything helpful in any of the blank spots.

[Arinia]

I realized that setup was a little (too) strange.

I took the 125 setup, changed it to 2h blunt and tweaked a bit (removing navigation, etc) and changed QL to 20. I have about 2/3 of the clusters purchased now, and am getting sick of shopping :-). Missions break that up though (man, shining clusters are EXPENSIVE!).

Thanks again.