Brief IP-guide for agents (pvp-orientated)

[Cyberleet]

IP-guide for max level agents and is intended to list, give insight and some tips to the relevant skills.


Priority




Abilities

Max them all, some pvp-people trim some skills (Not Agil or Sense) to get extra IP.






Body



Body-dev

Max it. Again...some pvp-people trim body-dev but thats for advanced players.

Nanopool

I didn't spend IP in this on my 220 Solitus agent and I am fine.
Most agents raise this skill high however. Makes you less reliant on stims and less vulnerable to drains.

A good idea is to raise it without maxing it if you are unsure.

For a pvp oriented agent having at least 641 nanopool is a good idea.

Ranged


Rifle and Aimed Shot

Max them both.

Fling

Raise it high enough to equip Cobra and other rifles, or max it.

It won't mean much if you choose to not max it.







Speed


Evade, Dodge and Nanoresist.

Maxing these three is in general a good idea.
Regardles of equip, with maxed dodge and evade you will avoid a lot of damage in group-pvp.

Same with Nano-Resist although most debuffs that is dangerous lands quite a lot.
NR2 is a viable choice btw.

Nano-init

Max it.

Nano-init became VERY popular with SL for agents.
I wanna see agent steered away from this but atm for this post this is one of the important skills to raise.

Runspeed

Max it.

To run from people or to chase people. Very useful in pvp.







Trade and repair



Comp-Lit

A good idea is to keep it high or max it even if we can use Trading Mogul to equip stuff.
The reason is that a lot of meds require higher complit than First-Aid/Treatment.

If you like towers you can raise Psychology some.
Also note:

Also you don't need to ip psychology to have ql250 hp tower

Nano and Aiding


Nanoskills

Maxing all of them is a good idea but not nessecary.
You need Mat-Met, Mat-Crea, Bio-Met, Psy Mod and Sense-Imp high for SL damage-nanos, True Profession, Bail-Out nanos, Dots, Ruse of Taren and Sureshot etc.

Some nanos are less relevant than othes for pvp...PM and TS gives UBT AR and Root-AR.
Maxing all nanoskills makes NR2 easier to live with too.

Time and Space is the least important skill to max per many agents views.

Either you max them or keep them high, depending on your style/setup.

First-Aid/Treatment

Having 1k 1.1k FA helps a lot in pvp. For various stims and meds.

Max treatment for symbs, although some trim it a bit if they got enough gear to equip ql 300 symbs without maxing it.

1001 FA for advanced restoration kit, 1252 for ql250 ancient spirit purge, annoying to build but they insta remove blinds.

Spying

Perception and Concealment


The two signature skills of the agent. Nothing define agent more than these two skills beside AS.

Max them both.

With Sharpshooter armor, QL 300 head-symb, Ear-implant with perception there will be only agents and a few shades that will sneak from you at all.
You on the other hand, you will sneak from everyone else.

We're among the few professions with the games best pre-requisite and itemisation for these two skill-related abilities (Hiding and Spotting) -
-so I strongly advice you to raise them.

Some agents trim these skills.
F.X perception just enough to swap scopes and 75% in Conceal.

Others ignore one of these two or both altogether and play the agent more like a fighter.

Whatever you choose, rock on!


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Extra's



Ranged Init

Putting RI here since it's a pvp-orientated guide, even if this is the extra skill many find very important in pvp.
The reason I choose to put it in extra is that many agents kite in pvp, and the main damage comes from Specials and Perks regardles.

That however can change when new rifles and things are patched.
Recalibate+ Crit/Add Damage-nanos could quickly become as important for agents as MR is for atroxes (eeeew).

None of my agents have any IP in RI, it currently works great in both pvm and pvp.

Dimach

You unequip rifle, hit AS/Fling/Whatever else you got and finish with Dimach.
The more skillpoints, the better damage.

Piercing and Sneak-Attack

Hi Kink. :>

I don't think it matters how high your Piercing skill is, but anyway...you raise these two to use Piercing Evil (melee-weapon).

It's same as Dimach but you get Sneak-Attack as addition, which you max.
Huge IP sink and works best with CC armor...so goodbye to 210 Conceal/Perception and other goodies if you do that.

You can use it with Sharpshooter too and many find it easy to pvp with using HLoA or M150.

HLoA for fast swap, M150 for Full Auto.

Full Auto

Edit on behalf of Letah:
Can use M150 rifle without IPing burst and FA
Max it if you wanna use use M150-Rifle.
Works great with Consentration nano but fails most the time vs anyone with good dodge.

On that note tho, on TL7 BS I'd say those with good dodge are rare. Unless it's a dodgy profession itself

Sharp Object

Extra damage-things like Tear of Oedipus.
Made buffs SO and many used to to start with The Shot, CS, Specials and Finish with a tear or SO-item.

The Shot is currently bugged tho and it's unclear when it will be fixed.

Some agents likes to use this anyway tho, it lands decently
Same with the more rare Bow special attack (arrows).

Duck

Helps against some weapons and perks.

[Szyylin]

Body-dev

Max it. Again...some pvp-people trim body-dev but thats for advanced players.

It's easy to get 18k-19k hp or so with bodydev at 75-80% without pushing it if you have a nice equip (both phat bracers, ofab chest,maybe acdc etc). That's fine for mass pvp. Ofc if you like to tank/duel (enfos/advies...) max it.

Comp-Lit

A good idea is to keep it high or max it even if we can use Trading Mogul to equip stuff.
The reason is that a lot of meds require higher complit than First-Aid/Treatment.

1481/1501 is nice to swap albtraum huds, and from there its easy to go trader and swap bracers/beast armor/basically anything that requires CL. the only problem i have is that i cant hotswap combat tuners (1601 CL)

Nano and Aiding

Nanoskills

Maxing all of them is a good idea but not nessecary.
You need Mat-Met, Mat-Crea, Bio-Met, Psy Mod and Sense-Imp high for SL damage-nanos, True Profession, Bail-Out nanos, Dots, Ruse of Taren and Sureshot etc.

Some nanos are less relevant than othes for pvp...PM and TS gives UBT AR and Root-AR.
Maxing all nanoskills makes NR2 easier to live with too.

Either you max them or keep them high, depending on your style/setup.

BM/PM/TS for ubt and roots, no need to max the rest to cast all your nanos if you dont mind a few swaps. for pvm go trader every 3/4 hours and cast your best procs, TP and there you go. (im talking NR0)

First-Aid/Treatment

Having 1k 1.1k FA helps a lot in pvp. For various stims and meds.

1001 FA for advanced restoration kit, 1252 for ql250 ancient spirit purge, annoying to build but they insta remove blinds.

[valedilene]

Thanks for the tips.

I think a IP scheme must always relly on a particular symbs/equip setup, breed and level. It would be interesting to see that symbs/equip too

[Wakizaka]

Nice outline, but please trim all the extra empty lines.
Also, note that Dimach gets better once 1001 Skill is hit.

[Xootch]

word szy and waki, otherwise nice guide although the beauty of the agent is...and one can sorta see that in your guide...that iping is highly player dependant

that sorta annoys me a lot. i always have to unperk nr to go pvm and then reperk ate3 to rego pvp. bump that ate3 with ai30 thread...if that ever goes live you'll see me grind aixp like only ahab was chasin moby dick

[Mamman]

Nice outline, but please trim all the extra empty lines.
Also, note that Dimach gets better once 1001 Skill is hit.

Maybe your keeper dimach does, but regular dimach has smooth transitions between the different tiers.

2000-2000 (1) is the weapon at 1000 skill, 2001-2001 (1) at 1001 skill. After 1000 skill dimach increases in damage only 25% as much per skill point as before 1k skill, so I think 1k is a good IP/damage compromise.

For a pvp oriented agent having at least 641 nanopool is a good idea even if you could get by with less nano. How much you want to raise this is laregely dependant on phat loot like ACDC, DB-Bracer, Albtraum bracer, and your nanodelta. I'd keep it high while leveling and if needed use an IPR to trim it at 220 when you have your setup in order.
Not like IPRs needs to be cherished to the extreme these days.

[Xootch]

Maybe your keeper dimach does, but regular dimach has smooth transitions between the different tiers.

did you ever skill dimach? if you had u knew by experience that dimach is worthless below 1000 and a real good hit with 1001. you can argue all you want, it IS that way. i tried it. you obviously did not.

[Biggysmallz]

This guide seems to be written from lvl220 point of view, I for example wouldn't max strength till lvl100+ when I can put good symbs on.
Also while lvling I wouldnt suggest upping FA or even piercing.
If you are writing this guide for lvl220 agents then meh... I feel sorry about them.

And the Shot is only bugged only from ganking point of view, its still does dmg/snare/nano init buff.

Also you don't need to ip psychology to have ql250 hp tower

[Cyberleet]

Stole some quotes, thanks for the input

[Ebondevil]

And the Shot is only bugged only from ganking point of view, its still does dmg/snare/nano init buff.

Bugged from a PvM crowd control point of view as well, it used to be a nice guaranteed way snaring a second mob out of a fight.

And Yes, I know we got a new snare that works in SL, but you have to stop to cast it and not be in recharge to use it

[Mamman]

did you ever skill dimach? if you had u knew by experience that dimach is worthless below 1000 and a real good hit with 1001. you can argue all you want, it IS that way. i tried it. you obviously did not.

Excuse me but what have you been smoking? A "good" hit with dimach? That's like saying a good hit with FBR, at a given skill it's always the same damage except it has no MBS so add all off has a minor effect on it, melee add damage also affects it.

Here is the dimach weapon for 1000 skill (not MA/Keeper/Shade)
Here is the dimach weapon for 1001 skill (not MA/Keeper/Shade)

Smooth transition as the rest of us probably can see, you can probably see it too but since I'm expecting you to stick your head in the sand and try to justify your IP spending by claiming the database lies I will also include 2 recent screenshots.

999 Skill
1001 Skill

This doesn't really look like a huge jump in damage does it? Next time perhaps double check your info before you make a fool out of yourself.

[Szyylin]

And Yes, I know we got a new snare that works in SL, but you have to stop to cast it and not be in recharge to use it

tbh im fine with agent CC in SL, tranq/SU always land and SHV lands 90%of the time on deep red mobs.

[ithacana]

Excuse me but what have you been smoking? ... [stuff] ... This doesn't really look like a huge jump in damage does it? Next time perhaps double check your info before you make a fool out of yourself.

Pwnd.

Mamman ftw.

<--- fanboi.

[Ixiaan]

Excuse me but what have you been smoking? A "good" hit with dimach? That's like saying a good hit with FBR, at a given skill it's always the same damage except it has no MBS so add all off has a minor effect on it, melee add damage also affects it.

Here is the dimach weapon for 1000 skill (not MA/Keeper/Shade)
Here is the dimach weapon for 1001 skill (not MA/Keeper/Shade)

Smooth transition as the rest of us probably can see, you can probably see it too but since I'm expecting you to stick your head in the sand and try to justify your IP spending by claiming the database lies I will also include 2 recent screenshots.

999 Skill
1001 Skill

This doesn't really look like a huge jump in damage does it? Next time perhaps double check your info before you make a fool out of yourself.

I tested this in game (on an agent with the same buffs each time aside from dimach expertise/proficiency) and Mamman is correct.

@ 991 Dimach You hit Leet for 8049 points of Dimach damage.
@ 1001 Dimach You hit Leet for 8371 points of Dimach damage.
@ 1011 Dimach You hit Leet for 8464 points of Dimach damage.

So 10 points above 1k dimach still gives a lot less than 10 points below 1k dimach skill.

Maybe you should make sure what you are posting is correct before flaming others Xootch.

[Xootch]

I tested this in game (on an agent with the same buffs each time aside from dimach expertise/proficiency) and Mamman is correct.

@ 991 Dimach You hit Leet for 8049 points of Dimach damage.
@ 1001 Dimach You hit Leet for 8371 points of Dimach damage.
@ 1011 Dimach You hit Leet for 8464 points of Dimach damage.

So 10 points above 1k dimach still gives a lot less than 10 points below 1k dimach skill.

Maybe you should make sure what you are posting is correct before flaming others Xootch.

these numbers are wrong. thanks for playing. but good try. believe whatever you want, i raised dimach in hundred steps back then, i'm not going to do it again to provide you numbers, just like you didn't.

[Biggysmallz]

Others ignore one of these two or both altogether and play the agent more like a fighter.

Whatever you choose, rock on!

Agent fighter ftw!
I'm too impatient to wait for my 'target' to arrive. Its like girl waiting for prince on a white horse arriving, I prefer killing or daiing to everyone than waiting for one perfect kill
If concealment had faster moving speed then it would be okei, but playing agent as it should be played is damn too boring for me, but I do sometimes hit sneak in BS just to prevent zerg from attacking me to attack my mates first

offtopic:
And it sucks that we are primary targets just like docs

[Chrys]

but I do sometimes hit sneak in BS just to prevent zerg from attacking me to attack my mates first

I h8 joo