Quick question: friend is an MA, and we're leveling together. I enjoy playing both a trader and a crat. Any analysis?
Quick question: friend is an MA, and we're leveling together. I enjoy playing both a trader and a crat. Any analysis?
I'm sure that, after (almost) 10 years, someone could tell you to the 3rd significant figure which pairing is better. With trader, depending on gear, you guys could have fun seeing who out-crits who; with crat, you could more easily deal with adds, blah blah blah. Go forth and have fun. Having a good time is more important than optimal levelling.
Best,
Gora
Good answers already provided. I always took doc along with MA, but not really sure I needed to or even enjoyed it. But then again, I take doc along with engi and/or soldier on city raids as I am absolutely addicted to that big HD buff even though they are easy-mode without doc.
Is that the standard non "dual-logged with my alt" team size these days, two?
Liamboru 220 Engineer - Brianboru 220 Soldier - Padraigboru 150 Soldier - Tadghboru 60 Engineer - Cormacboru 15 Engineer
...and ofc, the army of buff hoes
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PvPDood: Hey, come back and duel me again, I hardly ever get to fight a gimp like you! - Get a /tell like that and it sort of makes you want to evaluate what you thought was a twink!
Walker: Anarchy! Anarchy! Anarchy! Anarchy!
Texas Ranger: I don't even know what that means, but I love it!
If your options are trader and crat, i think both are ok, but offer a bit different weak and strong points.
Trader will benefit the MA a lot, because of the umbrals and drains and AC drains. Both ma and trader also have heals, while crat doesnt. Trader also have good crowd control abilities. Traders personal damage output is normally rather weak. (You can bring it up to ok or good with a lot of twinking).
Crat on the other hand makes awesome soloer (atleast at higher lelels) and has excellent CC tools. Crat's AAO/AAD auras also help the MA, but ma would be the only healer in that combo. Crat's dd output is very high at tl7 and pretty good even before that.
So, my personal choice would most likely be Crat because of the better soloability. But I think both will work.
Doc+Ma would work too, but i think there'a a bit too much heals and too little DD with that combo.
Advy+Ma might be interesting after the rebalance since advy's are getting some nice tanking and even CC tools.
Aeliniyah Opifex Doc | Venkula Solitus Doc | Rohtoiivari Trox Doc | Yutheron Solitus Trader Ianamura NM Crat
Technigyro Trox Enfo | Gizmoplex Trox Keeper | Icarya Opi MA | Vinetto Opifex Shade | Retku Solitus Engineer
Geraplex Trox Sold | Tuulispaa Opifex Fixer | Wertion Solitus MP | Kemoplex Trox MA
And a fleet of other alts...
I've been leveling crat and trader a little and have played a lot with someone who had MA. I think I would suggest crat rather than trader just from my own experiences. Most of the time crat just needs a little bit healing and MA can provide that. MA on the other hand can take advantage of the added AAD and AAO plus crowd control.
crat if you like pets, trader if you don't
Crat is very desirable for teams, good DD and a great soloer.
Trader is great in teams (though will find it harder to get em!), average DD and a poorish soloer.
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Crat i would say, trader is somewhat frustrating to play if you ask me, everything is about the 3 minutes that your drains last.
Crat with the dark pistol from Crypt of home does okey dmg and the pet while not as good as engi/mp still is okey, add calms, and 2 charms in the mix and the dd should be okey.
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Robotgubben lvl 173/14/29 engineer
Incredible responses...thank you guys so much!
We have a third friend joining us, who will be playing a pistol adv. Would that affect the choice?
If you are still deciding between crat and trader I would be even more inclined to go with crat. Between MA and adventurer there should be enough healing for the team for most leveling content.
Can't say i see trader as a healer, mostly cause the trader take dmg from healing, had some nasty things happening when you try to use the top "heal" at low hp
But a pistolero adv will be nice, i have one myself only lvl 36 but he is fun, i do have a trader for easy access to bbi's from the trader shop though
With MA and adv in team I think crat is the way to go.
You should have enough healing and crat offers calms/mezzes + on top of that XP buffs to level faster.
Awikun 220/70/30 Ranged adv - my Main that I hardly ever log
Awisha 220/70/30 Shade - Can solo 95% of all bosses
Cratawi 200/70/30 Crat - S7/DR Solo farmer
Awiken 220/70/30 Eng - Pvm Eng
Nukiwa 200/70/30 NT - almost forgotten (awaiting retwink)
Awidoc 200/70/30 Doc - 200 fun pvp twink
Awix 200/70/30 Fix - 200 fun pvp twink
Awienf 220/70/30 Enf - tanked every single boss (and still lives)
Soldawi 220/70/30 Sol - Pvm Sold
Awima 150/xx/xx Ma - best S10 MA farmer
Doctorawi 220/70/30 - Pvm Doc
Awienfo 200/70/30 - Atrox with Pande red belt and 2xQL300 hammers
Macierewicz 220/70/30 - Pvm Crat
Zlakobieta 220/70/30 - max complit +top tradeskiller
True, trader isn't much of a healer but if there is very little healing to begin with then every little bit can help. There have been couple of times in (weak) teams with my little trader where it was worth it to sacrifice my own health to keep the tank alive when doctor's healing just didn't quite cut it and tank's hp was very slowly going down. Of course having doctor main might explain my tendency to try to heal with trader too...
Bah just CH the tank and take over the tanking with doc
Trader healing can work out when there is not that much incoming dmg but i been in team in ely killing heckler where brown smelly stuff hit the fan, not pretty at all and this would of course be a good time for the drains to run out
Yes, CH tanking works nicely. My trader experiences though are from low levels i.e. doctors without CH. Almost makes me want to make a new doctor... except there are no teams anymore.
Well my doc could do ch from 115 or so, still rather low level, my trader is 102 and a total gimp but can do 132's with drains and that is all i care for, he is for my own personal wrangle needs
After several discussions, the three of us have decided on a sold, adv (for heals), and either the trader or the crat (both profs I've enjoyed playing up to our current level 100)
I have another game mechanics question regarding this setup. I enjoy playing both, enjoy both toolsets, and enjoy adding to and enhancing our team's combat abilities. When the crat runs the +40 aao aura (and a couple from Commanding Presence), the sold's AR only jumped by about 6 points. With the trader's 62 umbral running, his AR jumped 30 points. Since both can calm and root, which buff is more effective? The aao/aad aura or the umbral?
Perhaps the usefulness of the increased AR from the umbral and lessened AR of the mob is offset by the aad/init debuffing?
Sorry. No. Trader is one of the best classes for soloing. Unlike pvp, the Drains still affect mobs. With a decent evade build, a trader can tank almost anything.
AR is not that important for PVM. The trader's ability to fill the team's nanopool is the advantage over crats.
Last edited by Shareida; Jun 18th, 2011 at 03:26:25.
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Is the ability to fill the team's nanopool enough of a benefit to counter the loss of init debuffing the crat provides?
Thank you guys for the analytical answers! I'm a big fan of Eve Online as well - love the game-mechanics side of these games!
Tough call honestly. If you want to keep busy trader would be the best, there's just so much more all around toolset for a trader than a crat, which is fun to learn.