With the new Genome perks (check Friday With Means, Nov 13th in Community Corner) and the upcoming option to change breed as a one-off, this post will serve as a Pros/Cons to help people consider what breed they may want to change to.
Atrox
Pros:
More HP, less need to train PiN (so potential for more AI perk choices)
MR now has no Drawback and is a pure 1500 AR buff (very sweet)
Atrox secondary genome provides a "defensive option" with 500 HP and about 5.5k healing for AMS downtime (nothing great there)
Cons:
Slightly lower nanoskills
The worst choice for a survivalist build, once AMS is finished you're in trouble
Absolutely horrible look, can you say dump truck?
Notable builds:
Atrox Primary 10, CoHA 10, CoNC 10 (selfing AMS 5 with 300 EOE, lower HP and AR, CoNC perks will always land)
Atrox Primary 10, CoHA 10, PiN 10 (More HP and AR, but using Art eye and an Infused ancient nano enhancer for AMS 5)
Atrox Primary 10, Atrox Secondary 10, PiN 10 (PvM large HP build with minor healperks)
MR is now better than ever, and for soldiers, it will be all about killing the people you otherwise couldn't before they get the chance to kill you. Offense is often the best defense.
Nanobreed
Pros:
Very nice survival options, constant 10% damage to nano to augment reflects, a 20s 25% damage to nano shield for AMS downtime, about 9.5k nanopool without IP for an endgame soldier with ACDC, and a 3k nano HoT via Nanomage Secondary
Some small form of defense vs LE nukes
Nanomage dreadloch endurance booster, this plust Notum Shield will make survival to a second AMS a lot easier!
Slightly higher nanoskills.
Option for a 1k snare and 1k init debuff which checks Duck
Cons:
Lower AR from trickle
It might not be possible to get a 300 EOE in as a nanomage
You'd probably need to give up Freak Strength for Genius 2
Notable builds:
Nanobreed Secondary 10, CoHA 10, CoNC 10 (Selfing AMS 5 without Anger of the Xan, but relatively low HP)
Nanobreed Secondary 10, CoHA 10, PiN 10 (AMS 5 with an Art eye, better HP but no CoNC DD perks)
Nanobreed Primary, CoHA 10, Nanobreed Secondary (1k snare for 15s to slow down a fleeing target or escape from something, 50% heal modifier to make healperks and Lifeblood a little more potent, or will allow for Healperks and OMHH spam before using AMS in duels with other soldiers or vs traders)
The mechanic of damage to nano and how it will work with reflects will need some clarification, but from what I've seen and what others have said, reflects will reduce incoming damage, and then % damage to nano will further reduce that remaining amount. Apparently 30% caps are calculated in between Reflects and % damage to nano, which means we will have some protection from ASes and FAs in AMS downtime via the 10% and/or 25% DtoN perks.
Also, I'm not sure if the long term 10% DtoN buff will stack with the short term 25% one.
The nano reflects one their own are lovely, but with the dreadloch absorb they provide the best possible AMS downtime defense out of all the breeds. The drawback is that there isn't much offensive potential, whereas with Soli and Opi you get a small AAO bonus and small AAD debuff respectively.
Opifex
Pros:
Brimstone from Opi Primary, 150% AR check for a -150 AAD debuff.
Decent defensive option with Opi Secondary. Blockers are relatively good for us because unlike evade profs, we wouldn't be evading those attacks anyway.
Cons:-150 AAD for 10s is probably enough to land tracer (and then LPT) but falls far short of Mongo Rage.
The AAD from Derivate is going to be extremely annoying for us on other profs, but would be almost useless to us as soldiers.
To me, opifex offers a decent offensive and defensive option, but nothing that (for soldiers, anyway) Atrox or Nanobreed doesn't do better.
Solitus
Pros:
Decent offensive option with Soli Alpha, with a 10s root and a 125 AAD/25 crit perk (sphere got a lot better!)
Decent defensive option with Soli Beta, which now houses Tacky Hack (TH now removes roots and snares as well) Survival is now a nano HoT as well as HP.
Cons:
The 25% crit buff on Sphere will hopefully provide 3 capped ASes with an EC3 and a couple crits on evade profs, but the 125 AAO is no MR.
Apart from the root/snare remover, there's nothing new that will make it easier for us to survive AMS downtime. Survival now heals less than the corresponding trox heals.
I love being Solitus, as I adore the way my character looks and she doesn't look like A) A gigantic vertical slug or B) An elf with a hangover. I feel though, that with the relatively big changes to Nanobreed and Atrox genome perks, Soli soldiers that choose to stay soli will have to do so knowing that their genome perks aren't too much better than they were before.