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+Tepamina's Soldier Guide v1.1+
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Breed
3. IP
4. Weapons
5. Armor
6. Nanos
7. Implants + Symbiants
8. Perks
9. Fighthing as a soldier
10. Taunting and Aggro Control
11. LE Research and Specials
12. Special Recharge Formula
13. Boosting Your Defenses
++1. Introduction++
A soldier strives for excellence in armed combat. The skill advancement in soldiers focuses entirely on assault and survival. They use unique nanotechnology to protect their bodies, enhance reflexes, weapon skills and their armor. Perhaps more importantly, Soldier are able to create strong damage absorption shields around themselves, which make them partially invulnerable and even reflect some damage back to the attacker.
-Anarchy Online Introduction Screen
If you want to play a soldier, be prepared to get your hands dirty. We excel in a large number of fields, and are wanted in many situations. We are tanks, we are reflects, we are damage.
We can tank anything that an enforcer can. Our add management, is however not as efficient as an enforcer's. Our taunts are not as powerful, and we only have singles, which complicates things when there are multiple mobs. That said, a good soldier tank can handle his adds, with practice.
We have the best reflects in the game. These are often critical for the success of a team's survival. We also have the command of one of the greatest nanos in the game, total mirror shield, which gives a 75% reflect for a definite amount of time.
We are also massive damage, both in pve and pvp. We have nice weapons to help us with this, and great perks.
A soldier is a very fun profession to play. You'll be very useful in teams, so you'll get recruited easily. You'll also have the ability to solo, however, soldier is definitely not the best soloer, but we do alright.
A few forums posts have been asking for a guide such as this one for a while now, and I had been working on this one for a while, so I thought that I should finish it. I think an updated guide for soldiers was long overdue. Poweredge's guide, which I really enjoyed, and to be honest, saved my soldier from total IP wasting (yes, before I read his guide, I was putting IP in swimming, which I still have, wtb full ipr ), is long outdated. For example, it still mentions that it's a good idea to at least think about putting IP into WS and EE, for an Extreme Low light Targeting Scope, which I did at my low levels while following his guide, only to realize a long time after that this item no longer drops. I did however use his guide as a reference for this one, at least in form. I found that it was very well made, and I especially enjoyed how his IP spending section was made, and I have used the same format for this guide. I hope those reading this who are going to play soldier for the first time, will enjoy the profession as much as I did, and I really hope that this guide is of at least some help.
I welcome any comments/corrections/suggestions. This guide is definitely not the final version, and I will probably add sections, or beef up some sections, especially if I get some great suggestions, or if people point out stuff that I missed (and I'm 100% sure that I've missed tons of stuff, especially in the weapons, armor section) At this point, it was finished enough to post, and, will probably advance way faster with people's suggestions Post suggestions here, or you can always /tell me in-game.
Enjoy
Tepamina, Clan, RK1
Spartan’s Notes: Due to Tepamina leaving, I will be taking over the guide and providing my input as necessary. Feel free to nitpick at any new things that I may miss or not.
++2.0 Breed++
The most important first decision that you will make in your AO experience is breed. Breed affects things like abilities and perks. Choosing the right breed can mean the difference between an easy experience and a hard one. Mind you, and it doesn’t matter what anyone tells you to the contrary, it is possible to make any breed work, if you know what you’re doing. But it goes without saying that certain breeds will have a much easier time. Below I will try to point out the pros and cons of each breed. I will also put the max abilities for each breed, as found on www.auno.org.
2.1. Solitus
Solitus is the middle ground for all breeds. They basically have the same potential for all abilities. None are too expensive to increase, but none are really cheap either. This breed will have the most expensive cost for abilities of all the breeds. Solitus is the preferred choice of many soldiers, because of nice health, with nice intelligence. The intelligence especially will make it much easier to equip endgame symbiants, compared to the Atrox. Solitus soldier will also have access to some very nice pvp perks.
Ability Breed Caps
Strength 472 / 772
Agility 480 / 780
Stamina 480 / 780
Intelligence 480 / 780
Sense 480 / 780
Psychic 480 / 780
HP per point in Body Dev = 3
Nano per point in Nano Pool = 3
Total IP cost 3 633 132
2.2 Atrox
Atrox is also a very nice breed for soldiers. They will obviously be very nice tanks because of their increased health. They have a cheap cost for strength and stamina, which are key abilities for a lot of soldier armors. They have the cheapest cost for overall IP in abilities, which is really nice at endgame, when IP starts to get tight. Also the boosts in stamina and strength will help with a lot of your other important skills like full auto, and assault rifle. However, Atroxes are not the smartest bunch. They lack in intelligence and psychic. This will make it hard to get into many symbiants, and also make it difficult to cast up to date nanos, including total mirror shield. However, with shadowlands and Alien invasion, this have become less of a problem. If pvp is your thing, the atrox breed also has a very nice perk, Mongo Rage, which is one of the main reasons why people build atroxes.
Ability Breed Caps
Strength 512 / 912
Agility 480 / 780
Stamina 512 / 912
Intelligence 400 / 600
Sense 400 / 600
Psychic 400 / 600
HP per point in Body Dev = 4
Nano per point in Nano Pool = 2
Total IP cost 3 055 545
2.3 Opifex
The opifex is the master of evades and speed. As an opifex, you’ll benefit from much higher agility and sense, which to be honest, are not the usual stats for a soldier. An opifex will have slightly lower health and nano than a solitus. They will also have expensive strength and stamina, which like previously stated, are key abilities for soldiers. There are benefits to being an opifex however. You’ll have an easier time equipping many symbiants, not to mention combined sharpshooter. Opifex is a perfectly viable choice, although not seen as much as the first two mentioned. You also have a very easy time installing the highest Exterminator Occular Enhancement as Opi, than you would other professions.
Ability Breed Caps
Strength 464 / 764
Agility 544 / 944
Stamina 480 / 680
Intelligence 464 / 764
Sense 512 / 912
Psychic 448 / 748
HP per point in Body Dev = 3
Nano per point in Nano Pool = 3
Total IP cost 3 277 475
2.4 Nanomage
Nanomages are the masters of nano-technology. They have the highest intelligence and the best skills required to excel with nanos. This, for obvious reasons, is not the best choice for soldiers. While some of our nanos are really good, all other breeds can cast them just fine. While this breed will get to cast them at earlier levels, this is not really necessary to our survivability. They will also have the second highest cost for abilities. They will have a certain advantage with certain symbiants however. Also, casting a higher TMS earlier can definitely help in some situations. However, this breed should only be chosen if you really want a challenge, and to break the mold.
Spartan’s Notes: After recently looking, the Nanomage may be a viable choice given the items given in 17.0-17.6 patches. With no real good AI genome perks, allowing you to perk Champ of Heavy Artillery/Champ of Nano Combat without losses in genome perks and access to a Dreadloch Nanomage 5k absorb and coverage of the strength/stamina loss with new buffing items, I’m pretty sure that they can hold their own.
Ability Breed Caps
Strength 464 / 664
Agility 464 / 664
Stamina 448 / 748
Intelligence 512 / 912
Sense 480 / 780
Psychic 512 / 912
HP per point in Body Dev = 2
Nano per point in Nano Pool = 4
Total IP cost 3 317 676
2.5 Which to choose?
The following statement is personal opinion only. Like I said previously, you can make any breed work, if you try hard enough. However, the best breeds for soldier would be solitus and atrox. These two, in my opinion, are pretty equal, and whichever you choose will be for personal preference. Atrox will have a bit more weapon skills, due to increased stamina, solitus will excel a bit more in nanos and symbiants. Opifex is a close third however, and if you don’t want to be like every other soldier, and not have the hard experience of a nanomage, then choose opifex.
For additional info on the stat differences among each breed, check out the thread posted by Hellfire. It shows how breed affects each stat at endgame.
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=397807