Wrote this today for my guild on our forums and decided to share it with the rest of Fixer community. Hope you like it.
Hey guys. Since someone decided that the Fixer are uber (we thought we will never see the day) everyone now wants to have one. This guide is for new players that never played AO and for veterans that are starting a new profession. Well I decided to help you in your new endeavor so here is a guide of most essential things about a fixer.
Disclaimer: This is how I see my profession played. If you see it somewhat different that's fine and if you have different priorities with the fixer you can probably ignore some stuff I did. Also this guide was made during 14.4 patch and in expectation of 14.5 With new patch weapons choices and other things may change.
So lets start:
Breed:
After a lot of disputes I had to change this breed section from 2 breeds to all 4 breeds. Most people felt like Atrox and Nanomage are also a very good breed for fixers. So now I'll change my approach and try to explain the good and the bad about all 4 breeds.
Atrox: Is the breed with the most HP. The difference is that opi and solitus get 3hp per body dev while atrox gets 4hp for each body dev. point. So this means when fixer breed caps at 666 (i think this is the right number) atrox will have 666 more hp they others and twice as much compared to nanomage. The skill that atrox lacks is inteligence wich will have to be compensated with some heavier implaning or by putting up a few towers. Also they will have a lower nano pull an that means about 1000 or more nano less then others.
Nanomage: This breed has a lot of nanopool but lacks in hp grately. That on the other hand does not make them gimps. Nanomages have great inteligence and that translates in more points in nano skills and lesser implantations so you can concentrate on weapons or other skills to implant. Also with a big nano pool you can root and snare more times then the others.
Solitus: Has a 300 HP advantage over Opifex breed at lvl 200, easier choice of armor and no dark blue Stamina. Not a true fixer breed maybe some disadvantages in future patches.
Opifex: Agility and Sense are green and the cap is over 500, which translate, in additional points in the weapon skills like SMG and Burst, which at the end adds additions attack rating. Also some specific fixer items may require agility or stamina to wear so if you don't wont to implant every time you want wear it. Also some future items like opifex rings are targeted towards fixer profession skills so if you are solitus you might miss on them.
Attributes:
Basically you will have to raise them all almost constantly. The only exception would be Psychic, which is not that important to a fixer. The other attributes are cause of the weapon skills (you need to keep some attributes up so you can max you weapon skills).
Now you don't have to max them all out. You probably will have to chose 2 that you will max cause of the choice of armor that you will be wearing. Str/sta if you wearing omni-pol armor or agil/sence if you going with steelribbed (btw Obtru is the best steelribbed)
So when you choose what armor you going to wear max those too skills in addition to Intelligence that will add extra points to you nano skills and computer lit. which is really important to the first 100 levels. And another nice skill to keep up is Stamina because it adds to Body dev. and that in the end adds to hp.
Body dev. always max. what else can I say then HP HP HP.
Nano pool. As you see fit. Make sure you have enough.
Weapons skills and weapon choice:
SMG and Burst: Max them at all times
Mausser Particle Streamer: MPS the best overall weapon for a fixer. Can be later converted to Mausser Chemical Streamer (MCS). MCS is superior to MPS but is a pain to make so if it's not ql 200 or you already have it made don't bother making one till you can wear a ql 200. You will go trough a lot of MPS till you can wear a ql 200 and converting all of them to MCS is a waist of time you can use to lvl.
Manex Catastrophe December is a great gun and its not a substitute for the MCS. Manex is a great gun that goes in pair with the MCS. Its primary use will be on the missions and in mass PvP because of his high burst damage. Also if you fighting a mob thats higly resistant to chem damage Manex can prove better at dealing damage. However if you are fighting someone one on one and the fight is gonna take a long time Manex, even tought it will have a higher damage in the first 3-4 min of the fight, will eventually be outdamaged by the MCS.
Speed, Evades, and Initiatives:
I like to max my speed and you will too even after you exceed 1600 in speed. Why? Why not.
Evades are really important. Max them as you often as you can if you want to live.
Range initiative is the initiative all the guns use. Put IP points as you can afford. Since the crits are halfed in PvP ppl now find no use for the old LLTS so everyone switched to the TIM Scope. It adds to range init. instead of taking away so fixer with full implanted range init can reach over 1200.
Later on when you close to 190 you will find it nice to add some points to Nano initiative. It will speed up your programs and helps in PvP. I personally use a recompiler to save IP and I stopped adding IP when I reached about 900 in nano initiative.
Nano resistance is fixed and its very usefull. Fixer with grid armor might have a great advantage since GA also adds NR we can be the best in it, which means resist roots and snares.
Computer Literacy:
Comp. Lit. is green to fixer and its easy to raise. When to stop? Basically cast comp. lit. expertise and intelligence boost, then try to max it at 801 when you reach around 160. Why 801? The Nano Formula Recompiler takes 801 in comp lit to wear (adds 400 to nano initiative) and it takes 800 comp lit to hack a ql 200 surgery clinic (also 850 in Braking&Entering (b&e)).
Treatment and first aid:
There is no escaping these 2. You will have to raise treatment from the day 1 of you character. The reason is Implants. Luckily for us our treatment skill is the highest in game along with adv and docs to raise. The only difference is our skill is light blue so it costs a little more in IP. Also look for these: Implant Disassembly Clinic. They add +20 to treatment at ql 200; pretty nice plus let you hack and make basic implants from already made ones.
First aid is somewhat easier to deal with now cause or our HoTs (Healings over Time). So know you can substitute the first aid with a nice HoT so you don't have to worry about it but nothing can sub a nice +600 hp in a desperate situation. I raised it enough so I can use a ql 125 first aid kits from the store cause that's the highest they sell. Later if you get stims you will probably have to raise it to the req. first aid of the stim, but they are usually only used for pvp so not to worry about it till later.
Nano skills:
First before even starting to talk about this be sure to make NCU Hacker Interface because it's a tool that helps fixers with the nano skills. I was lvl 170 when this came to Rubi-ka and changed my game around not to say implants.
As a fixer you will require to raise all 6 nano skills and since they are dark blue its impossible to do it as a low lvl, so managing is a must and ignoring some skills in the beginning is a something you will have to do.
To help you decide for what skills to raise at the start I made this table of fixer nano lines showing each skill necessary for that line.
Nano Line
Run Buff - TS SI
Roots - PM TS
Slow (Snare) - TS SI
HoTs - MM BM TS
Damage Buff - MM SI
Griding Nanos - MM PM SI
NCU Buffs - MM TS SI
Grid Armor - MM MC TS
SMG buffs - PM SI
Summon line - PM MC
B&E buffs - PM SI
As you can see from the table the 2 most important skills for a fixer are SI and TS. So those should be your focus, although you can keep TS about 2/3 of whatever your SI skill is at because it's required less. It applies to BM also. The next 2 skills you have to look out for is PM and MM. Usually if a line needs both they are required in the same amount so keep them equal if you can or if you think SMG buffs are more important to you raise PM or if you think NCU is the one you wont over SMG raise MM more. In any case at high lvl they will end up about the same around 787.
The next skill you got to keep an eye out is BM. When I used to play we didn't have the new HoTs so the choice was easy First aid and prayer. But now, with the new HoTs, you can save on first aid and raise BM as you can afford.
MC is the only skill you can ignore till you get grid armor since summon line is crap there is no other use for it, and GA is rare enough that you want to wait till you get one before you commit all that IP to MC.
Spy skills:
Concealment: You are a fixer so you use your speed and evades to blitz the missions. Leave the sneaking to the agents and adventures. It may have some use in pvp later on when they fix all the bugs concerned it. But it does have one good use. A high conceal can hide you in towns and crowded places so ppl wont page bother ya for buffs as much. A lot of my friends use this skill to hide from ppl and from me so they have some peace.
Breaking and entering: Useful skill for hacking and opening chests. Some pointers:
Use B&E general and fixer buffs to save IP. When you can reach around 420 b&e buffed at lower lvl stop till you can afford the IP to raise it further to 800+. At 420 you can open any chest in ql 200 mission, after that only use is to hack items but you can get some other fixer to do it for you so you save IP and put it in something more useful. After 420 in b&e it's your choice if you wonna raise it further or not (i.e. Do you wonna be able to hack ql 200 implants or just leave it to someone else?). For hacking ql 200 implant you need 950 B&E just some FYI.
Trap disarm: NO use. You will never die from a trap if you are full health so you just have to watch your hp before opening a chest. There is nothing to gain from disarming a trap except some xp, which is miserable. Waste of IP.
Perception: I raise it only cause of my Yatamutchy Movement Predictor. So when I get a higher ql one I raise my skill enough to self equip it. Also Blood Makes Noise and Karma Harvest stack for a 237 buff in perception. In addition Adventurers can buff perception insane amount. How much? Dunno ask an adventurer. I never really needed it but just FYI.
Map navigation and Vehicle air:
Map navigation: Initially raise it to 130 so you can have arrow, machines, people and monsters map upgrades. Later as you explore Rubi-ka raise it to the point so you can have maps or your most visited places like Pleasant Meadows and Broken Shores. At higher lvl you wont to raise it to 490 and that's the maximum ever required. At 450 you will get the side upgrade and with a full set of ql 200 map nav. implants you will get 700 in map nav. So you can upload all the maps. After that you can throw the implants away. You are done with this skill, for now.
Vehicle air: Buy the lowest ql yalmaha possible 30-32 and raise your skill then to meet its requirement in vehicle air.
Some items you wonna have:
Handy steelribbed gloves (around ql 180-190 adds 11-12 B&E) (need to be ql 180-190 cause you can't wear higher without major implanting) (boss loot)
Pick-a-finger (adds +16 to b&e) (you can buy in the fixer shop)
With these 2 items and a bright ql 200 b&e cluster you can have 950 b&e around lvl 197+ so no major implant switching for hacking ql 200 implants (the bright implant does not go in a spot where you have to give up major things - only other good option at that spot is radiation ac)
Some other notes:
When the new NCU buffs came and I was lvl 175 and I could cast Active Viral Compressor and with my GA4 that adds another 100 NCU I took out 3 of my 64 NCU Memory out and added these 3 things: Nano Formula Recompiler, Computer Deck Range Increaser, Hardcore CPU Upgrade.
With this I have 495 NCU and its enough to be fully buffed not to mention I'm still not usung the highest NCU buff Sentient Viral Recoder that adds 250 NCU.
Oh yes if you have some questions and wonna get in contact with me page me in game or leave a post here.
Dedication:
To Argulace, the model I based my fixer on, for all the times I picked his brain, and a great leader and friend.
To Methodikal, Fargon, Spear, Zindel, Saurun, Psiraven and all other MoK's my friends and leveling buddies that made AO so fun.
To Eliteblast that drives me crazy.
To Auno for the most usefull and visited page about AO.
To MoK, simply the greatest.