I. Introduction
This is the most-asked question I'm being confronted with in-game, and one of the most-asked on the boards - what perks should I train? Hopefully this guide will be of some assistance. It's an outline of the effect of all the perks and perk specials available to Doctors.
Perks are trained in the perk window which can be accessed via the new GUI button or via SHIFT+P. Click on a perk to train it. You can untrain 1 perk point every 3 real-life days. There's a timer in the perk window counting down to when you can next untrain something.
Each perk will have one or more (usually more) levels. To train a level in a perk, you must meet a minimum level requirement and have trained the perk before it (if any), and you must have a perk point unused. You get one perk point per 10 levels from level 1 to level 200. Post level 200, you get one perk point every level. So at level 220 you'll have a total of 40 perk points.
Each perk has special moves and/or bonuses associated with it at various levels. This guide will outline what the bonuses and specials for the various perklines doctors can train in are. As for what the "best" perks are... you're on your own.I'm just giving the info to make informed choices.
II. Doctor Specific Perks
These perks are only available to the doctor profession. There are three lines for us alone.
A. Assault Force Medic
This is a 10-level perk line. Assault Force Medic 1 is available at level 60. Assault Force Medic 10 is available at level 212. Assault force medic is a strange perk line. It has some semi-useful bonuses, a line of AOE heals implemented as perk specials, and one of our two "doctor only" offensive perk specials. It seems that this perk line is meant to help us in PvP - mass battles via the AOE heals, and duels via the attack perk.
Total bonuses: +340 hitpoints, +43 BM, +43 MM, +40 Treatment, +25 First Aid.
Specials:
Battle Group Heal 1: This special is available with Assault Force Medic 1. It is an AOE heal (not a team heal) with a radius of 40 meters. The effectiveness of the heal increases as you train more levels in the perk line. At AFM level 1, the battle group heal will restore 250 hitpoints. At AFM level 10, it will restore 5000.
The description for Battle Group Heal 1 says that it recycles in 1 minute. However, the actual special will lock your AFM 1 perk for 10 minutes before you can use it again. It also puts a hostile entry in your NCU called "affected by Battle Group Heal" which lasts for 10 seconds and prevents you from using another version of Battle Group Heal until it expires.
Battle Group Heal 2: This special is available with Assault Force Medic 5 (at level 150). It is identical in effectiveness to Battle Group Heal 1 - it heals the same amount, in the same area of effect. But instead of locking the perk AFM 1, it locks perk AFM 5. Thus, you can use this while AFM 1 is still locked. You cannot, however, use it before the 10 second timer is up on the "affected by..." nano.
Battle Group Heal 3: Available at level 204 with Assault Force Medic 8, this is another in the chain of Battle Group Heals. Like the others, it locks the perk that grants it for 10 minutes, and has a 10 second NCU entry that prevents you from using one of the other battle group heal perks before 10 seconds are up.
Battle Group Heal 4: The final Battle Group Heal, available with AFM 10 at level 212. Same deal - you can use it while another Battle Group Heal is locked, but you can't use any Battle Group Heals faster than once per 10 seconds.
Viral Combination: This is an offensive perk special that is available with AFM 6 at level 190. This special will nuke your target for poison damage if it has Doctor DoT nanos running on it. If the target is running Strain A and Strain B, the perk will land. If the target is running Strain A, B, and C, the perk will do more damage.
Viral Combination is resistable. Its attack skills are 50% BM, 50% MM. The defense skill is 90% nano resist. At least the nano resist is under 100%, so it should only rarely be resisted.
Viral Combination locks your AFM 6 perk for 20 seconds if it lands, and 10 seconds if it fails. Damage increases as you go up the AFM perk line. At AFM 6 you'll do 612-1115 damage (strain A + B) or 1107-2034 (strain A + B +C) with the perk; at AFM 10 you'll do 1748-3225 (A + B) or 2914-4862 (A + B + C) with it.
B. Nano Surgeon
Nano Surgeon is first available at level 40. It is a 6-level perk line; NS 6 is available at level 201. Nano Surgeon is primarily healing oriented, however it contains the other "doctor only" offensive perk special, a targeted heal effect debuff. It also contains a new type of treatment buff. Its bonuses are similar but not identical to AFM.
Total Bonuses: +42 BM, +42 MM, +60 Treatment, +45 First Aid.
Specials:
Enhanced Heal: This special is available at perk 1. It locks your perk for 50 seconds per use, and heals an amount to yourself only (ie, this is a self only heal) that scales up as you train more perk points. The first perk is a 150-point heal; the 6th is a 1500-point heal.
Team Heal: This is available at level 150 with Nano Surgeon 4. As the name implies it heals your team, and like other perks it becomes increasingly effective as you level up the perk line. It starts as a 790 point heal; at Nano Surgeon 6 it is a 1300 point heal.
Malicious Prohibition: Is an offensive perk special available at Nano Surgeon 5, level 180. It is a heal-effectiveness debuff on the target, which makes heals cast against the victim only 30% as effective. Ie, if you cast a 10k CH on someone who has this perk running, it will only heal 3k hitpoints. The duration of the debuff is 35 seconds.
Malicious Prohibition is resistable. The attack skill is 100% BM; the defense skill is 85% nano resist. Although the debuff only lasts 35 seconds, a successful use of Malicious Prohibition will lock your skill for 4 minutes. An unsuccessful use will lock your skill for 2 minutes.
Treatment Transfer: This is a special that allows you to loan some of your treatment skill to someone else, much like a "treatment wrangle." The ability raises the treatment of your target by +60 for two minutes, while reducing your own treatment by -120 for the same amount of time.
The perk will lock for 4 minutes when you use it. Part of the perk requirements are that the target is over level 201, and that the target does not have this perk trained. In other words... we can't raise our own treatment via this perk unless we find another doctor to use it on us AND untrain the perk first.
Not to editorialize too much but I think this last bit is a crock of bull manure, and I have serious doubts as to my desire to train this particular special.
C. Specialist Healer
Specialist Healer is a lineup that makes our heals more efficient, and has a number of specials oriented towards removing hostile nano programs. It is a 10 level perk line; Specialist Healer 1 is available at level 70 and Specialist Healer 10 is available at level 211.
The +heal multiplier works like this: when you heal something, the game will roll your heal amount and then multiply it by (1 + (heal multiplier / 100)). So if you have +20 heal multiplier and you cast CH, it actually will heal 12001 (ie, 10001 * 1.2) hitpoints.
Total Bonuses: +21% Heal Multiplier, +30 First Aid.
Specials:
Cure 1: Available with Specialist Healer 1. It will remove all DoTs and Blinds from the selected target, with no failure rate. It locks your SH 1 perk for 70 seconds before it can be used again.
Cure 2: Available with Specialist Healer 5. Just like Cure 1, it will remove all DoTs and Blinds from the selected target without fail. It locks your SH 5 perk for 60 seconds before it can be used again. This means that in combination with Cure 1, you can remove DoTs and Blinds from one target (could be yourself) about twice per minute.
Vaccinate 1: Available with Specialist Healer 3. This will remove all trader drains from the target without fail, and will lock the SH 3 perk for 70 seconds.
Vaccinate 2: Available with Specialist Healer 7. This will remove all trader drains from the target without fail, and will lock the SH 7 perk for 60 seconds. This means that in combination with Vaccinate 1, you can remove drains from someone about twice per minute.
Hale and Hearty: Available with Specialist Healer 9. This will remove all DoTs, init debuffs, blinds, and drains from the selected target. It locks your SH 9 perk for 60 seconds.
Team Hale and Hearty: Available with Specialist Healer 10. It is a team version of the previous special, and locks your SH 10 perk for 2 minutes.
III. Group Perks
This is a listing of perks that are available to other professions in addition to doctors.
A. Alchemist
The Alchemist perk line is a tradeskill perkline, but has some interesting specials that do have a combat effect. Most of the Alchemist specials are offensive in nature, and all are DoT/Debuff related. Alchemist is a 6 level perk line; Alchemist 1 is available at level 20 and Alchemist 6 is available at 160.
Total Bonus: +200 Pharm Tech, +200 Chemistry.
Specials:
Taint Wounds: Available with Alchemist 1. This is an offensive special that requires another special to have been used first. In the description text it says that it needs to have either "Deep Cuts" or "Bloodletting" running on its target, and will do more damage if Bloodletting is running; however my interpretation of the database entry from AODB is that it doesn't need Deep Cuts running at all to land. Bloodletting will still make it more powerful, though.
Without Bloodletting, Taint Wounds will inflict a 24 point, 10 tick DoT with 3 second tick intervals. If Bloodletting is active on the target, it will inflict a 41 point, 10 tick DoT with 3 second tick intervals. Taint Wounds is resistable. The attack skill is Chemistry and the defense skill is 70% Duck Explosion. If you succeed in landing Taint Wounds your Alchemist 1 perk is locked for 70 seconds. If you fail, your perk is locked for 35 seconds.
Chemical Blindness: Available with Alchemist 2. This is an offensive special that, as the name implies, attempts to blind the target. The blindness (in addition to blacking out the screen) has a -180 AddAllOff debuff. The attack skill for this special is Chemistry 100%, the defense skill is Duck Explosion 65%. Successfully using this perk locks it for 50 seconds; failure for 25.
Poison Sprinkle: Available with Alchemist 4. This is an offensive special that inflicts a DoT, like an upgraded version of Taint Wounds. Like Taint Wounds, it is more effective if the Bloodletting special is running on the target. Without Bloodletting it will inflict a 170 point, 20 tick DoT with 1.5 second tick intervals. With Bloodletting it will be a 211 point DoT.
The attack skill for Poison Sprinkle is 100% Chemistry, the defense is 70% Duck Explosion. Success locks the perk for 90 seconds, failure for 45.
Seal Wounds: The Alchemist 6 special. This special will remove DoTs from the selected target. While the description says that it has a 70 second recharge time, the database entry shows it locking the perk skill for only 10 seconds.
B. Nano Doctorate
This is a 10-stage perk line that is primarily a nano skill buff for all nanoskills. It does have two specials however, for removing the Nano Shutdown effect. Nano Doctorate 1 is available at level 50; Nano Doctorate 10 is available at level 216.
Total Bonuses: +100 BM, +100 MM, +100 MC, +100 PM, +100 SI, +100 TS
Specials:
Shutdown Removal 1: As the name implies, this wipes Nano Shutdown out of your NCU. The perk special description says it also grants a short immunity to NSD, but the actual database entry does not support this - it just removes NSD and doesn't seem to leave any NSD-blocking effect behind. This is available at Nano Doctorate 7 and the perk locks for 60 seconds.
Shutdown Removal 2: Available at Nano Doctorate 10, this does the exact same thing as Shutdown Removal 1, locking the ND 10 perk for 60 seconds. There is no immunity indicated in the database, contrary to the perk description text.
C. Pistol Mastery
First available at level 10, this is a line of pistol buffs and specials. Doctors can only train Pistol Mastery up to perk level 5, but it is a 10 level perk. Pistol Mastery 5 becomes available at level 120.
Total Bonuses (for Doctors): +59 Pistol, +6 Fling Shot, +16 (all damage types).
Specials (for Doctors):
Quick Shot: Available with Pistol Mastery 2, this is just a direct damage special. You hvae to be wielding a pistol for it to fire, but it does 71-133 damage, independent of what pistol you happen to be using. It uses attack skill Pistol 100%, and defense skill Dodge Ranged 100%. When you hit, it locks your PM 2 perk for 45 seconds; when you miss, it locks for 23 seconds.
Double Shot: Available with Pistol Mastery 5, this is another damage special. To use it, you must be wielding a pistol and you must use it as a follow-up to Quick Shot. Attack skill is 100% Pistol; defense is 100% Dodge Ranged. The attack does 475-881 damage, regardless of what pistol you do it with. A hit locks your perk for 55 seconds, and a miss locks it for 28.
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). For some reason it's available to us up to Perk level 8, starting at level 10 and ending at level 201. It's a 10-stage perk but only Soldiers can take it that far.
