This time I mean it: Shotgun Soldier

[Sidarion]

Alright...

I have been thinking this thing over and over for a long time:

Last night I finally did it, I rolled a new baby soldier after I have brought up my main (lvl 204 soli soldier) the usual path over the course of three years.

Throughout my career, I always have been eyeing shotties... I just think they are sexah guns. With my main, I would lack the IP to invest in Shotguns without risking getting seriously gimped with my main setup.

As I said, I rolled a fresh Soldier yesterday, this time I will plan him to be a shottie toon exclusively.

Never mind the fact that I will be a little gimped compared to your regular or high end soldiers out there, but I don't care. Since I am a somewhat social gamer (I HATE camping and can't bring myself to do it,, not even with my main), I figure that I will not be top of the line armor or gunwise anyways.

Since I won't be wasting any IPs into any other ranged skill but shotgun, I figure I will be sorely gimped for the first 50 levels or so. Ranged Init will be too low to get Targeting Scopes for Crit bonuses in, so I will be fumbling around with minimum damage in the beginning.

Ever since I was using twin Revolving Cold Lasers on my main toon when I was lvl 150 (and freaking everyone out with the weird Blaster Rifle sound they make), I have been a crit junkie.

For that reason, I will walk the Path of the Krutt... low min damage, insane crit shotties.

I will start farming creds with my main to eventually be able to afford an ELLTS (much, much) later on.

I believe, that around lvl 80 or so, I can squeeze into a setup with enough NCU to constantly get MOP and TTS from friendly MAs and Agents.

After having spent the better part of the last two years in the Shadowlands, I will be refocusing on Rubi Ka with my new toon, in order to limit gimpedness (staying clear of the high evade mobs).

Any suggestions from the community are welcome. Any thoughts on weapon, item, armor choices?

[papadie]

Maybe http://auno.org/ao/db.php?id=165168 if you rolled trox + all the crit stuff you can get your hands on

[Lillagumman]

yeah that one or the upgraded one if you get to 210ish and a viral scope
+15%critscope.

[Mastablasta]

yeah that one or the upgraded one if you get to 210ish and a viral scope
+15%critscope.

Problem here being that you can equip DKPs at lvl 100ish they are awesome weapons on RK though, I loved them when I used them, but SL killed that joy

Hats off to your project though I'm doing a similar thing myself at the moment, though mine involves using only RK items and going the Assault Rifle + Ranged Energy way

[Sidarion]

How about a Krutt Assault Waltzing Queen?

Easy to blitz, thus cheap... and the highest crit stat existing for anything not "Trader only".

Hell... I didn't even know that the QL 260 Viral TS had a 10% crit chance increase. I got a QL 260 from a Aliums raid with my main the other day...

Unfortunately quite useless if your main is still lugging around a QL 212 Cooperator.

I figure I will be drawing aggro a lot with my shottie soldier. So I need the best shield nanos possible... thus choosing atrox as a breed would make this a pain.

Armor choice will definitely include a crepuscule skinchip.

There is ways to boost your crit stat quite nicely, unfortunately it will involve hogging advies, ma's and agents:

MOP, TTS, Sabretooth and Grinning Hunter, Crepuscule skinchip, lower QL viral scope (+7 %)... thats already 21 % crit chance without too much hassle... with a waltzing queens crit stat of 1143... statistically every fifth shot is going through the roof...

Oh... found some more interesting items... Exterminator Ocular Enhancement... wonderful stats on this item.

Globe of Clarity is overrated and way to expensive imho... so I'll skip that.

But what about building an atomic turret in the land control area of my base? Anyone got any info on how to get the parts for such a turret? Mods are sure nice.

Sid

[Cerber]

Awsome plan man.

For towers, you can equip Ithaca, O.E.T. Co. Type 77a Ranee and for regular RK missioning Krutt Assault 219 Waltzing Queen Special or my personal favorite O.E.T. Co. Urban Sniper Kaiser.

You probably already know it, but just in case:
Ideal setup - 15% LLTS, 2 GoCs, Notum Infused kevlar vest, DB skirt, predator circlet.

Team with crat (assasins focus), MA (MOP) or Agent (TTS).

Crit setup worked awsome back in a days (Nova flow MKIV pwns with it) , of corse we had UVC buff, but we did not armor crit buffing items. All in all, shoty/crit setup will be awsome for RK, and in case FC will produce more crit items it will pwn even in SL.

Expect crits climb all the way to 4.2-4.8K on RK .

[Sidarion]

Dammit... Atomic AF is not ingame... bleh

[Cerber]

I think it is....I might be wrong but I have a feeling i have it in my bank.


I recently also made soldier extravaganza, a nanomage female soldier with a focus on RE .

[Sidarion]

Thanks for your comments Cerb... however, CoC's, DB pants etc. are sure nice... there is only a slight problem. They are absolutely uber items with an insane droprate... neither do I have 500 mil creds, nor am I fond of camping.

So I am looking for viable alternatives that won't chase me away from playing AO for another year due to camping frustration setting in again.


How about the Notum infused Kevlar pants? Where do you get them?

[Cerber]

Fierry soldier, also drops Master of combustion. And beeping BP.

Might seems like hard to raid her, but a team of a healer, high lvl shade and you, would be able to quickly dispatch her.

Those pants are considered 'useless' by most players, so I bet lots of them are siting in bank doing nothing, you might be able to find one for free or for very reasonable price.

[Gholden]

Notum Infused armor drops from Notum Soldier (same one that drops the upgrade for the Hellfury and the Nophex II)

[Sidarion]

The chronicles of Muzzleloader, Shotgun soldier extraordinaire, Day 1:

After having killed last nights character, I rerolled Muzzleloader as an Atrox Soldier.

I arrived in the alien starter pf and immediately cut all annoying advisors short by razzing them rather rudely and running off to kill the usual plethora of Leets, Reets, Lizards, Snakeys etc.

I adamantly refused to spend a single IP in AR, RE and the usual staple soldier skillz... Instead I raised Shotgun and a staple of the other Skills, limiting myself to the bare necessary, saving Treatment, CL and nano skills till after leaving the basic pf.

Breaking with my tradition, I chose my toon to become a loyal employee of the corporation. The choice is based on making it easier for me to obtain affordable armor down the line to help me preserve credits for the uber expensive items I will be aspiring to buy later down the line.

I left the alien starter pf prematurely to hit the scene in Rome Green. Right now I am at lvl 4, wearing only the stuff I found on assorted leet bosses. As soon as I can afford it, I will don a medsuit which shall carry me through level 20. I figure that capitalizing on being able to use higher First Aid kits far outweighs the measly ACs you can get from lowbie armor.

I am still running around with the starter Assault Rifle but will do a higher QL mission later tonight as soon as I have the Medsuit fitted, and will get me a mission reward shotgun.

More to come soon!

Sid

[Lillagumman]

crat critaura dont stack with MoP though.

[Cerber]

Yep, it doesnt, i mentioned that there are 3 crit buffs available for him, not as a stack order

Oh, Sidarion, one more crit thingy you forgot about coffe.

Make a habbit of purchasing it from a friendly crat, it does not expire anymore and you can have backpack full of them. They give nifty 1%crit bonus for 5min. .

[Louderer789]

I think you might find the Ithaca fits your plan better than the Krutt, at least that's the conclusion I've come to on my trader. It's hell of a lot faster, and fling recharge is also very quick on the Ithaca, not so on the Krutt. My Waltzing Queen is a buff gun and nothing more. You can get most of the AS required for an Ithaca by using a VE scope instead of alien.

On another note, the medium shotgun is an extremely underrated and underused option. I tend to use it when running RK missions and don't need the range and speed of the Ithaca.

[Sidarion]

Thanks for your thoughts bockrocker!

And I completely forgot about the Crat Crit Crotfee...

One thing is for sure: The pair of starter guns sucks! I have made the switch from the solar powered rifle to the shotties... bleh.

Which of the Shotties were dual wieldable... I remember that I once rolled a Trader on RK-2 who dual wielded two shotties that looked like short Ithacas... decent damage, at least at low levels.

I so wanted to build my toon from scratch, but I guess I will kick-start its funding through my main after all. I will buy assorted stuff like Med-Suit, implants etc. (and two Globes of Clarity... on a lvl 4 toon... rotflol!!!... j/k... j/k).

[Sidarion]

I think I found myself a good lowbie gun for my starting levels...

How about the Chimera Shotgun? Very decent damage at QL 14, low req and quite fast...

It says in the description that it is made from a chimera leg... anyone knows where to get one?

Sid

[Gholden]

Sid:

A dual-wield Shotgun is the S. A. Home Defender. Very nice shotgun too. I remember plenty of traders, advies, and other shotgun-wielders using this weapon in classic before SL.

Chimera Shotguns are made from parts that drop in the Jobe Backyard: I believe you need a chimera bone, a (something) stone (its like laughing, singing, etc.), and I think 1 more Item but I forgot. You should try checking some tradeskill websites since they might have the info on how to make them.

[Sidarion]

Thanks for the info, Gholden...

found the resources to make a chimera shotgun... anyone knows how to make the Notum Infused version?

[caileus]

I believe it is just the level of the Chimera bone that decideds if the gun is Notum Infused or not... could be wrong mind you! :P