Rubi-Ka: Traders are fun! SL: Traders are not fun! Why?

[odian102]

Just got back from a 2 year break: Played final Fantasy, then WoW... And desided to play AO over the holidays, since some of my friends wanted to try it out during the free sub.

I reactivated and upgraded to AI. I desided to play a soldier this round. I checked my trader and noticed he had 150mil. So, I deside to spare no expense on my soldier. Well, my soldier is lvl 100 and Im done to 50 mil. So, I desided to pull out my old trader and makes some cash farming.

Man, I'm having a blast in Rubi-ka with him. Very complex to play him good. Man, This is great.

I rejoined my old guild (Adrastus II), and spent some time chating a way.. Super fun. In guild chat, some one just killed a ice golem and asked if i need the item. I asked whats the item for? He replied that is part of getting into inferno. I explained that my trader had the water helmet and the eye glasses for the frost level, but that was as far as i got.

Not a Problem, they would run me up there. I had a garden key to the zone before the frost zone. Put on my water helmet, a fixer put a run buff on my and off we went. Zoned into the frost land and put on my glasses. followed him to a garden insig post. He replied that the mobs run from him when he shoots them (Grey) and I needed to kill some mobs to get the key but since they were greenish-yellow to me I shouldnt have a problem. He gave me a hot and desided to log in his adv. to help me kill.

When he logged off: i desided to go ahead and start killing these tree-dog looking things... I can't deprive him, I can't root him, I can't mezz him!! he is hitting me harder than i can heal myself!! I almost died!!

Still waiting for the fixer to log his alt in.

So, Maybe some bad luck there. So, I pulled another one.

Some thing, counters everything i throw at him! this time he killed me. Zoned back to Rubi-ka..

Now, I remember why I left. this is stupid! Its like a trader in SL only has a 20% chance any nano will work!! Traders are very dependent on there hostile nanos.

After the experience, I desided that rubi-ka is where my trader will stay and just farm. ....

Really a shame, AO is a good game. ...

[Obtena]

Oh boy, you really don't know do you. I have some bad news for you ...

NVM, I will let someone else tell you.

[Ninjamancer]

Taking a toon from a RK-life only into SL will allways bring about problems, SL and RK are SO different its not even funny, nanos and weapons that are good in RK suk in SL and visa versa(sorta) plus the massive boost to nanoskills, weapons, abilities, etc that Symbients bring is no small factor as well.


and not to burst your bubble or anything but Traders basically suck at soloing stuff of comparable lvls in SL

this is why you get a team (with MAs preferably, they REALLY like your umbrals...) and everyone goes OOOOH when thier dmg gets boosted up and etc.

on a side note, the few traders I've teamed with Ado and up seem to be able to mezz the mobs on the first or second try, perhaps your using the wrong nanos?

[aridollar]

I'd say there are 2 things of note.
First of all, the rule is closer to:
Teamed: Traders are fun! Alone: Traders are not so fun.

But at the same time, if you're having as much trouble as you said even landing your nanos, you might be more RK equipped and not so SL ready. If you'd like, you can send me a tell on aridollar/aridojo and I'll see if I can't help you figure some of that out.

We could do it here too, but I'm lazy.

[Neco]

I love having traders in SL teams. Mezzing and making me feel ubah with umbral ftw!

[shark101]

hmmm You say SL is hard? Whats SL?

[Steveo]

The bane of many professions existance

[sobeguy]

On RK, we did, and still do (PVM) kick ass!

In SL, FC pee'd on our Cheerios. ;-(

Nanos define trader, more so than many other profs. Most of our nanos are taken from us the minute we hit Jobe.

In RK, we have roots, mezzes, more roots, grid ability, drains, and wrangles, to keep other folks happy.

Once we hit SL, we have - well, we have wrangles to keep other folks happy. Oh, and the mezz, but you gotta lvl a wee bit to get it - only lvl 209!

On RK, our toolset works very well together to make us versatile and powerful. I'm very happy with my trader as long as I'm doing dynas or cru missions. In SL our toolset is more narrowly focused on making our team happy. The end result is a prof that can accomplish things, but struggles to do what others do easily.

No team NEEDS a trader, but the trader very much needs a team.

[shark101]

Who could have said that better than Sobe:P

I agree 110%! and ... Sobe for teh persident pls

[EternalNoob]

No team NEEDS a trader, but the trader very much needs a team.

That pretty much sums it up. FC said FU to Traders. Although I will give them a small amount of credit for sending someone to ask an irrelevant question and pretend to listen. Ostensibly, this was to appease the claims that Traders are completely neglected and ignored by FC. A paper thin ruse to say the least.

[TheDrimp]

yeah - especially after the AC drains question that got 'answered' by some dev who didnt even bother to read the problem. gj we understand whats wrong - shame theres no response from a brick wall

[Saetos]

This may sound odd...

but how would an evade drain sound?

(low QL version)
Hampers the target's body's ability to avoid and recognize danger, lowering all evades of the target by 50 points, whilst raising all evades of the Trader by 36 points each. This also lowers the target's runspeed by a small amount.

OnCast:
ModifyTarget EvadeClsC -50
ModifyTarget DodgeRng -50
ModifyTarget DuckExp -50
ModifyTarget NanoResist -50
ModifyTarget RunSpeed -80
ModifyCaster EvadeClsC 36
ModifyCaster DodgeRng 36
ModifyCaster DuckExp 36
ModifyCaster NanoResist 36

That way more drains and stuff land, maybe curbing some rants.

[Saetos]

That pretty much sums it up. FC said FU to Traders. Although I will give them a small amount of credit for sending someone to ask an irrelevant question and pretend to listen. Ostensibly, this was to appease the claims that Traders are completely neglected and ignored by FC. A paper thin ruse to say the least.

Also, in response to this, they're not saying "Screw Traders, let's stick them in teams because that's all they're good for." Unless I'm very much mistaken, outside of PvP they were MEANT to be in teams, as a backup/main crowd control, backup DD, backup healer.

[Hafenbraut]

This may sound odd...

but how would an evade drain sound?

(low QL version)
Hampers the target's body's ability to avoid and recognize danger, lowering all evades of the target by 50 points, whilst raising all evades of the Trader by 36 points each. This also lowers the target's runspeed by a small amount.

OnCast:
ModifyTarget EvadeClsC -50
ModifyTarget DodgeRng -50
ModifyTarget DuckExp -50
ModifyTarget NanoResist -50
ModifyTarget RunSpeed -80
ModifyCaster EvadeClsC 36
ModifyCaster DodgeRng 36
ModifyCaster DuckExp 36
ModifyCaster NanoResist 36

That way more drains and stuff land, maybe curbing some rants.

I wouldn´t consider that odd at all. We can drain Skill, Nano, HP, AC and NR, why not evades ? Would perfectly fit into the toolset. Along with a team-evade buff like the Armor Distributor, it would even feel like it was always intended.

Or just some SL-Skilldrains, that don´t give back to the caster but debuff a larger amount ?
Lets say, needs top 2 drains running, and stacks with that, or works as a C-line, like Doc dots. Maybe not even Skill-, but Offense drain ?

Of course, FC could just adjust what we already have, but since that won´t happen, we can as well think of new stuff instead that will never happen.