A Guide to Doctor Breeds
I felt it was important to write a guide, as there weren't any stickies available on breeds of doctor. All of this information should be in one place and easily accessible for newbies rolling a doctor and thinking of making them their main, or simply just a hobby.
It should be said that, for any profession, the ability to sustain one's life is vital. However, the role of a doctor is very important. Whether it is his own life or that of his teammates, the role of the doctor is "healing and protecting." According to the doctor description, "When chaos descends on the team in combat, its survivability usually lies squarely on the doctor's shoulders."
That’s quite the load of responsibility, and here I hope to provide a guide on the best breeds of Doctor, as they relate to both level ranges and style of play. And I'll do it all without mentioning weapons, I promise.
I. Level Ranges
For each level range, I describe as many pros and cons as possible for that breed. They might be seen as a ranking in some respects, but I encourage you to read each description and choose based on your play style, and not necessarily my ranking. The advice given here is based on a regular doctor and not necessarily a stationary pvp twink in that level.
1-109: The developmental stages
Nanomage - Nanomages are the best breed for this level range. The every little bit of nanoskill you can acquire in this level range means higher nanos (heal, debuff, etc) and thus a better survivability for the team. They also have more of what all other professions want - nano pool. The hp difference at this level is not as important as the pros for this breed, thus making them the best choice.
Opifex/Solitus - Opis and Solis in this level range are in the same boat. They both have relatively the same nanoskills and nano pool, which are the defining factor. A slight edge could be given to opis in this range because of higher sense and agility, which appear in a lot of implants. Still, the difference at this level is not great enough to make one vastly superior to the other, especially with all of the twinking opportunities that are available.
Atrox - This level range is by far the most unforgiving to the atrox. A combo of bad nano pool, bad nanoskills, and low sense, intelligence, and psychic all make this for a bad breed in the early goings of a doc's life. Couple that with the fact that their major advantage - HP, can be overcome by other breeds with a set of omni/storm carb and some good implants, there’s nothing desirable about being a TL 1, 2, or 3 atrox doctor.
110-174: Growing and Maturing
Solitus - This all-around good breed is getting better in this level range. While their sense and agil aren't as high as the opifex, ability-based rings, armor, and LE research in these areas all help and provide as much as the solitus doc might need to get into symbiants. They are also just as efficient with HP as the opi. Their naturally higher psy and intel give them the edge over the opifex, as far as squeezing into slightly better armor is concerned.
Opifex - The opifex is very good in this level range because of the ability to get into symbiants easier than other breeds. This is because of their high sense and agility, which are the primary 2 skills required in all support symbs. This makes their twinking ability in regards to nano skills and everything else required by a doctor high, making them one of the more optimal breeds in this level range.
Nanomage - This breed falls back some in this range because of the lack of HP, and also loses its advantages in nanoskills when you come to the last non-shadowlands heals - Lifegiving elixir and Complete Heal. Still, they can twink to UBT faster than other breeds, and the natural nano regeneration rate is better than other breeds, which is a plus. Finally, they can twink into Merlin armor (Reqs 750 Intel and Psychic) late in this level range, which gives them an advantage in the armor department.
Atrox - The atrox gets a huge boost here because of 1 important perk - Genius 2. Genius 2 has an automatic Regain nano of 1000 points every 2 minutes, which is vital on the battle field and solves some of the nano pool problems for this breed. The difference in HP starts to come into play in this level range, which elevates this breed even more. Even though at early to mid tl 4 Livegiving Elixir and Complete Heal come into play, they are hurt still by a low nano pool which might prevent chain casting these heals like the other breeds can. They are also hurt somewhat by not being able to cast Uncontrollable Bodily Tremors as soon as the other breeds, although there are other debuffs available below this one. They will cap sense, intel, and psy much quicker than other breeds, which his a huge negative, both in the armor and symbiant categories. The atrox improves in this range from the early stages, but still has these notable problems.
175-220: Outlive, Outlast, Outheal.
Atrox - With all kinds of nanoskill increasing components available to this class, between perks, LE research, AI and LE armor, and the ever-popular Nano Controller Unit, this class can make some its weaknesses null and void. It might take alot of work and some sacrifices, but eventually, the trox doctor should attain the ever-popular 2 second nano tick midway through TL 7 with a bit of effort. This compensates somewhat for the atrox's lower than average nanocost cap, 45%. Due to the fact that all breeds strive for maximum HP in the final stages of the game, to utilize the very powerful shadowlands heals to their maximum capacity, the innate HP of this breed, added to all of the HP-increasing items ingame, make this a very popular choice as an endgame breed. (The more HP you have, the less you will 'overheal' your HP, thus making the most of it and maximizing your chances at survival). Their natural amount of nanopool is still less than any of the other breeds, which could be a hinderance in the eyes of some.
Solitus - The mediocre nature of this breed, although it is not exactly hindered by it, exudes no such huge benefits. The Con is also a pro, in that there are no huge weaknesses to be overcome, and you can focus on maximizing your strengths. You can, with a bit more work, still equip very high symbs endgame. Much like the opi, you can afford to work moderately hard to stay on par with the reqs of the SL heals. Your hp can be twinked to very high amounts, although not quite as high as the atrox. What is higher than the atrox, though, is the nanocost reduction cap on this breed, 50%.
Opifex - The agility and sense differentials can no longer be ignored in this level range. The opifex are the best at equipping symbiants. Some may argue that other breeds can equip the top symbiants, but the opifex can do it much easier. One of their own weaknesses can be overcome (the lack of strength and stamina available) by many items available exclusively both to this breed and to doctors, in order to twink these skills. Their HP, although not as good as the atrox, is almost on par with that of the solitus. This breed has a nanocost reduction cap of 50%.
Nanomage - Due to the level lock on the SL heals, your huge nano skill boost isn't much of a factor. With every other class also gaining the highest nano regeneration rate in this level range (55% reduction), your nano pool advantage becomes less of an advantage as well. Still, with a higher nanocost reduction cap and larger nanopool, problems with high-cost healing and Damage over Time nanos becomes that which this class won't worry about. Your HP is less than any of the other breeds, which hinder your ability to solo somewhat. Still, many have tried and succeeded with the HP "difficulties" of this class late game
II. Endgame Symbiants and Armor
Opifex - Symbiants are the main reason one would roll an opifex doctor. With their high sense and agility, the endgame symbiants are most easily equipped on a 220 opi doc. Some people prefer to take the time and equip ql 300 symbiants (which have only slightly increased stats), whereas other people choose to utilize their strength by being able to swap in and out symbiants for buffing implants to change their gear around as often as they want. Armor wise, opi docs aren't the best for that which requires Intel and Psychic, but they are good enough with a little bit of work. With the introduction of Lost Eden, a lot of doctor armor has high stamina requirements, which make opi's less appealing.
Solitus - Solitus docs can equip almost the same symbiant set as an opifex can these days, except it does take a little bit more work. Solitus docs usually go for 1 step down in symbiant ql, as most of them don't usually see the insane twinking time required worth the small gains that they would achieve. Because they have no deficiencies in basic skills, they can really choose to twink on whatever sets of armor they desire.
Atrox - Base skills must be mentioned. With Ofab being used more and more, the atrox doctor would probably have the easiest time with the high stamina requirement. The positive is also a negative, as their intel and psy are lower, which make other armors a bit harder if one chooses to go against the normal choices. Even though the psychic requirements on the ofab aren't as high as the stamina, they are the only armor that usually goes along with a doc's final setup in which strength or stam. are required, which are an atrox's best stats. As far as symbiants go, you might have a little difficulty, but nothing too major. Still, it seems that most endgame atrox doctors stop at symbiants around ql 250/260 because they're good enough and harder to twink on larger.
Nanomage - The one major factor that can be said about this breed is that they like to self-equip a lot of their armor, and possibly even symbiants. This is a huge advantage that can't be overlooked. This is one of the main reasons that people choose Nanomage docs - aside from their great nano skills, their high psychic and intelligence go along perfectly with many great sets of armors. However, with more ofab armors being used, their deficiency in stamina, like that of the opi, might hinder them a bit.