Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Breed
3. IP
4. Weapons
5. Armor
6. Nanos
7. Implants + Symbiants
8. Perks
9. Research
10. fighting as a Soldier
11. Taunting and Aggro Control
12. Special Formulas
++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 absorbtion 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 miror shield, which gives a 75% reflect for a definite amount of time.
We are also the second best damage dealers in the game, next to shade. 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 easy to get recruited. You'll also have the ability to solo, however, soldier is definitly not the best soloer, but we do allright.
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IP wasting (yes, before I read his guide, I was putting IP in swimming, which I still have, wtb full ipr ), is long outdated.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 definitly 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 ingame.
Enjoy
Tepamina, Clan, RK1
++2. 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 groud 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 prefered 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. 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 miror 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 equiping many symbiants, not to mention combined sharpshooter. Opifex is a perfectly viable choice, although not seen as much as the first two mentioned.
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 definitly help in some situations. However, this breed should only be chosen if you really want a challenge, and to break the mold.
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. 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 stat differences for each breed, check out this thread, posted by Hellfire. It shows how breed affects each stat at endgame.
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?t=397807
++3. IP spending++
IP points are what you use to increase your skills. You get a certain amount every time you level up, and you?ll get more as you progress towards the end.
In Anarchy Online, once you spend ip points, it is very hard to get them back. You can always reset skills, thus getting your ip back from that skill, this can only be done a limited amount of times. So it is easy to see why it is important to spend your points right.
Once you open your skill window, you will see that every skill has a certain color, from light green, the least expensive, to light blue, to medium blue, to dark blue, the most expensive. It is important to keep in mind that just because a skill is light green (cheap), it is not required or advisable to keep it maxed. This guide will attempt to explain which skills should be raised before others.
You will notice that as you approach new title levels (levels 15, 50, 100, 150, 190, 205), you will start to cap your main abilities. This is the perfect time to put ip into the important skills that you couldn't max before this.
It is also important to mention that you don't necessarilly need to use all the ip you get when you level. IP that you don't use will not get wasted, and will still be there at the next levels. This means that if you don't see anything that really needs to be raised, don't feel obliged to use your IP just because it's there. This becomes especially true when you hit your breed ability caps (about level 160). From 160-200, you'll have tons of IP to spare, but don't waste them on useless skills. Save them, as you will need them for your shadowlevels (200+). Believe me, IP get tight at the end, and we need all that we can get. Although, when you hit those caps, those are the times to max all the usefull skills that you might have been ignoring until then, like evades or nanos. That IP will not be wasted.
I will use a 1 to 5 numbering system, 1 being useless to raise, 5 being very important to max.
3.1 Abilities
Strength
-5-
Strength is just that, your physical strength. It will be a very important skill to raise for most of your armors, implants, and symbiants. Keep it maxed.
Agility
-5-
Agility affects affects any abilities touching speed. It will touch your evades and many weapon skills. Like strength, it is important for some armors, implants and symbiants.
Stamina
-5-
Stamina is probably the most important skill for a soldier. It affects your health, which you will need as a soldier. Many weapons, as well as armor are dependant on stamina.
Intelligence
-4-
Intelligence is the main ability for nano skills. It not as important as the first 3, but important nonetheless. You will need this to cast your best TMS, as well as your other nanos. Some symbiants are dependant on intelligence as well, so you?ll want to have enough to put them in.
Sense
-4-
Sense affects your ability to sense things around you. Like intelligence, it is not the most important ability, but it is important nonetheless. You?ll see this ability in many implants, and symbiants.
Psychic
-3-
Psychic mostly affects your nano pool. I wouldn?t raise it much at first, as you?ll need the ip for more important things. But it will eventually need to be raised, like all other abilities. However, save this one for last. Raise it if you need it (implants), or if you have IP to spare, at least from level 25-150.
Body Development
-5-
This directly affects your health. The more health you have, the less you?ll be sent to reclaim by angry mobs. Keep this stat maxed at all times.
Affected by 100% Stamina
Nano Pool
-2-
It?s good to have a bit of nano to cast TMS. If you can cast it twice without having to heal your nanopool you should be fine. I wouldn?t put more nano than that. It?s perfectly acceptable, if not wise, to ignore this skill.
Affected by 70% Psychic, 10% Sense, 10% Intelligence, 10% Stamina
3.2 Body
Adventuring
-2-
You'll need 300 Adventuring for these : Hyper-Radiation Protection Skin and Glasses. These are the glasses needed to walk inside penumbra. Only start raising this when you're close to level 160. By then, you'll have plenty of trickle down from abilities to only have to put a few IP in this skill.
Affected by 20% Strength, 50% Agility, 30% Stamina
3.3 Melee
All the skills in Melee are useless for a soldier. Soldier is a profession that uses guns, and if you'd like to use melee weapons, roll an enforcer or adventurer. They all have a 1 rating.
3.4 Misc weapons
Sharp Object
-2-
Useful for PvP. You'll want it 321 for Kizzermole Gumboil, and 680 for Lava Capsule. Only to be raised if you wish to pvp.
Affected by 60% Agility, 20% Strength, 20% Sense
3.5 Ranged
Here is where it gets interesting. As a soldier, you will have to choose a weapon line to adhere to, for most of your career as a soldier. While it is always possible to switch, it is advisable to do so as little as possible, because, as previously mentioned, there are only a definite amount of IP resets.
There will be no 1 - 5 rating for this section, as it does not necessarily apply. It is important for this section to raise only what is needed for your current weapon line. I will instead attempt to explain which lines will work best. Weapon lines not mentioned are assumed useless.
It is assumed that your current weapon line, and specials receive a -5-
3.5.1 Assault Rifle
Assault rifle is the soldier weapon line. Almost all of our guns are AR based. You simply can?t go wrong if you choose this line, at any level. For a beginner, or advanced, this is the way to go.
Affected by 40% Stamina, 30% Agility, 20% Sense, 10% Strength
Guns : Perennium Blaster, Cooperator Assault Rifle, Division-9 plasmaprojector
3.5.2 Pistol
You will certainly want to consider using pistols as an end-game setup only. The pistol setup is now considered to be the most powerful damage dealing weapon line for soldiers at the moment. Definitly nothing to sneeze at. If you choose to go this route, you will couple it with either Ranged energy, or SMG. However, this is not a weapon skill to start out with. It will be less powerful than assault rifle.
Affected by 60% Agility, 40% Sense
Guns : Jobe Portal Guard Personal Pistol (JPGPP), Jobe City Guard Personal Pistol (JCGPP)
3.5.3 Ranged Energy
Ranged energy will be very useful as a pvp soldier. Almost all of our main pvp guns are ranged energy based. So if you want to do any pvp, at endgame especially, you?ll want this skill maxed. If you don?t currently have a use for it however, especially at lower levels, you won?t need to put ip in it. The only exception is that if you don't have expansinos. Division 9 plasmaprojector and a few others will be very nice gun for you, and many need Ranged Energy.
Affected by 40% Psychic, 40% Sense, 20% Intelligence
Guns : Kyr?Ozch Energy Carbine - Type 3, Supernova MK VI, Division 9 Plamaprojector
3.5.4 SMG
SMG is currently the top damage dealing weapon line for the end-game soldier. It is not extremelly useful before level 210-215 however, before you can put a decent level SMG pistol on. It is possible to make a solely SMG soldier, thoughout your soldier career. He will not OD an assault rifle soldier however, but it might be fun. The problem with this weapon line is that a soldier does not have a SMG buff, which makes it extremelly difficult to put a good ql weapon on at any level, or have a decent attack rating.
Affected by 30% Strength, 30% Agility, 30% Stamina, 10% Sense
Guns: Kyr?Ozch Machine Pistol
3.5.5 Shotgun
This has been experimented with a bit. It is not the absolute best choice at the moment for a soldier. But with knowledge and gear, you can make this setup viable. It won't match the PB however. If you don't want to be the same as everyone however, you can try it.
Affected by 60% Agility, 40% Strength
Check out this thread for suggestions on the shotgun soldier :
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?t=425834
Special weapons abilities
Always max whichever abilities you are using on your current gun. Below are the main ones.
3.5.6 Full Auto
The main soldier special. This skill will empty your entire clip on an opponent, and will be the core of your damage. Assuming that you have a weapon with FA, and you should, always max this skill, as it will increase the accuracy of your FA, and lessen the time between each of them. Very important.
Affected by 60% Strength, 40% Stamina
3.5.7 Burst
Also a very important skill. This will shoot 3 bullets on your opponent in one shot. A very nice added damage. Most of your weapons will have burst. Max it.
Affected by 50% Agility, 30% Strength, 20% Stamina
3.5.8 Fling shot
Fling shot is basically a bonus shot. This skill is less important if you go the perrenium blaster route. It will become important with the pistol setup however, as with the pvp energy carbine. You?ll want this maxed, but only when you will be using it.
Affected by 100% Agility
3.5.8 Aimed shot
A very expensive skill to raise. It is only really usefull in pvp against evade professions. Only raise it in lower levels if you know what you are doing.
Affected by 100% Sense
3.5.9 Multiple Ranged Weapons
Only put skill in this line if you plan on holding 2 weapons. Mainly useful for the pistol setup soldier at endgame. It's important that you only put the skill that you need to equip the weapon.
3.6 Speed
I am returning to my previous ranking system of 1 - 5.
Melee weapons init
-1-
This only serves for melee weapons, thus useless for a soldier.
Ranged weapons init
-5-
This determines the speed of which you fire your gun. This is obviously a very important skill as the faster you fire, the more times you have a chance to hit your opponent. As you get to a 1 / 1 (1 second shot, 1 second recharge), you can start to adjust your agg bar more towards the defense side. This will help with your tanking. Eventually, with enough IP in this skill, you?ll be on full defense with a 1 / 1 shot, which is the ideal target.
Affected by 20% Sense, 20% Psychic, 10% Intelligence, 10% Agility
The following is a great link, to calculate how far you can set the agg/def bar on the def side, with your current skill Inits.
http://www.unityoftherose.com/tools/aggdefcalc.htm
Physical init
-1-
Useless.
NanoC init
-2-
Almost the only times that you will cast a nano in battle is TMS, One More Hit Healing, and taunts. All of these can be easilly capped at one seconds with trickle downs from abilities. However, if you plan to PvP, you'll at least some skill in this to insta-cast the anti-complete heal lines. If you plan to pvp, it can be usefull to invest a bit of IP in this.
Affected by 60% Sense, 40% Agility
Dodge Ranged
-4-
This affects your ability to evade ranged attacks. A higher skill here will mean you will be able to evade more attacks, and will be critted far less. A very important asset for any tank.
Affected by 50% Agility, 30% Sense, 20% Intelligence
Evade Close Combat
-4-
This affects your ability to evade close combat, or melee mobs. This is also very important for the same reasons as dodge ranged. It is however more expensive than dodge ranged.
Affected by 50% Agility, 30% Sense, 20% Intelligence
Duck Explosions
-4-
This evade skills checks against shotguns, explosion, and most SL mobs. Important to raise as a tank.
Affected by 50% Agility, 30% Sense, 20% Intelligence
Nano Resist
-3-
This skill determines your ability to resist nanos, ie roots or damage nanos. A useful ability yes, but also a very expensive one to maintain. Don?t feel bad if you have to ignore it at the early levels.
Affected by 20% Intelligence, 80% Psychic
--Please note, you will want to eventually max all evade skills. This can be done easiest though, when your abilities are capped starting in the level 160s.--
Run Speed
-3-
In the early levels, you'll want to keep this skill maxed. Eventually, you can leave this alone for more important skills. It is however, not a skill that you'll want to ignore too much. TMS can only save you for so long, and sometimes, you'll need to run from tough mobs, and if you can't outrun them, you'll end up in reclaim. Also very useful for PVP.
Affected by 40% Agility, 40% Stamina, 20% Strength
3.7 Trade and repair
Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Quantum F Technology, Weapon Smithing, Pharmaceuticle Technology, Nano Programming, Chemistry as well as Tutoring all receive a 1 rating. Soldiers are not tradeskillers. If you want to make armor, roll an engineer or a trader.
Computer Literature
-5-
This skill is very important for all professions. It affects you ability to equip better belt and NCU, which enable you to carry better nano programs. It also affects your ability to enter certain grid entrances/exits. It will also affects the prices on all Rubi-Ka shops. The higher your comp lit. the higher you can sell your loot, and the lower they shops will sell things to you. Important to raise, but as with nano skills, you can only raise the IP needed when you need it. Once you get a new belt, or new ncu that you want to equip, raise it as necessary. If none are needed at the moment, it's ok to ignore this skill for a few levels, as it won't affect your fighting skills.
Affected by 100% Intelligence
Psychology
-2-
Psychology is important for certain taunt tools. This will be important if you?re the main tank for a team. It will enable you to handle adds better, and be able to hold aggro against certain professions. However, a soldier also has taunts in nano form, which should be enough. Only put IP in this if you have some to spare and if you currently have taunt tools. Eventually, you?ll want enough to be able to use a ql 200 Aggression Multiplier (jealousy augmented).
Affected by 50% Intelligence, 50% Sense
3.8 Nano and Aiding
As soldiers, we have access to alot of very useful and crucial buffs. What is important with nano skills however is that they don't necessarily have to be maxed at each level. You'll probably want to max the skills with a 4 and 3 raiting, until level 25-40. When you're past those levels, start to only raise what you need to get to the next nano that you can use. There's no sense of putting ip in here, if you won't be able to cast a nano for another 5 levels. Instead, raise evades or other important skills. When you're able raise these enough for the next nano, by all means, do so.
Matter Metamorphosis
-4-
This nano line will enable soldier to cast their add damage line. While not being incredibly powerful at starting levels, it becomes a really great and must have nano line. It is acceptable to ignore this line a bit, especially at the starting levels. There is also a weak, but still semi-useful AC line. Only raise it enough as to cast your desired nano.
Affected by 80% Intelligence, 20% Psychic
Biological Metamorphosis
-1-
A pretty useless nano line. I wouldn?t waste my IP here. We have a weak add health line, and a weak heal. One More Hit Healing does have its uses though. It does not require that much points in BM however, so only raise what you need.
Affected by 80% Intelligence, 20% Psychic
Psychological Modifications
-4-
You'll want to raise this to cast your weapon buffs as well as any taunts. A very useful place to put IP.
Affected by 80% Intelligence, 20% Sense
Matter Creation
-4-
Almost all of the soldier's nanos use this skill, including your reflects, which are the most important nano a soldier has. Make sure you can always cast your top reflect.
Affected by 80% Intelligence, 20% Stamina
Time & Space
-4-
Time & Space goes hand in hand with Matter Creation. It also affects Treatment Laboratories.
Affected by 80% Intelligence, 20% Agility
Sensory Improvement
-3-
This skill goes with the Psychological Modifications line.
Affected by 80% Intelligence, 20% Strength
First Aid
-3-
This will be one of the only ways that you will be able to heal yourself, since a soldier has little heals. Putting skill in this will enable you to get out of certain messes, and to live a bit longer. A useful place to put IP, especially at first, although try to only put as much IP as you need to get to the next first aid kit. Eventually, you will want to ignore this skill for a bit, to concentrate on more important skills.
Affected by 40% Sense, 30% Intelligence, 30% Agility
Treatment
-5-
Treatment partly what determines what ql implants / symbiants you can put on. For this reason, it is quite important to keep it maxed. It will also be helpful for treatment laboratories, to heal yourself once a battle is over. While it is a high priority skill, as with comp lit, you don't necessarilly need to max this one every level. If you're not planning on equiping any symbs for a few levels, it's ok to ignore this one for a few. Keep in mind that no IP spent here will be wasted though.
Affected by 50% Intelligence, 30% Agility, 20% Sense
3.9 Spying
Concealment
-1-
Not very usefull for a soldier. It useful to be able to hide if you like to pvp, but there are definitly more usefull skills that you can spend your IP on.
Breaking and entering
-2-
This is the skill that determines how well you can handle a lockpick. It's a nice skill to have if you're planning on doing some missions. You'll find many locked chests, and many hold some very nice loot that you'll be able to sell. You'll only need around 2X the ql of the mission to open the chests inside, so don't go crasy on this skill.
Affected by 40% Agility, 30% Sense, 30% Psychic
Trap Disarmanent
-1-
Useless. As a soldier, you should have plenty of health to survive any explosion.
Perception
-1-
Can be usefull for pvp. However, as concealement, there are better places to spend IP. There are also some scopes that require this skill. However, there are plenty of ways to get the skill without using IP, like adventurer buffs, or solitus ShadowBreeds (SB).
3.10 Navigation
Vehicle Airborne
-1-
While this is a very useful skill if you ever want to have a yalmaha, I would advise against spending many ip here. If you search long enough, you'll find a Yalmaha that requires only 81 VA, which can easily be attained with little or no IP spending.
Affected by 60% Sense, 20% Intelligence, 20% Agility
Vehicle Ground
-1-
Don't invest in this skill. Wait for a Yalmaha. However, with LE that might change. Only time will tell.
Vehicle Water
-1-
The most useless skill of all. Even worse than swimming
Map Navigation
-1-
Warning!!
IP spent in map navigation can never be reset, and is permanent. This cannot be stressed enough. It is very advisable to have maps, and the map upgrades. However, try to implant as much as you can before putting any IP in this skill. If you wait long enough, and do it right, you can have all your maps without spending a single point here
Affected by 50% Sense, 40% Intelligence, 10% Psychic
Please continue on to the second part of this guide. It will cover weapons, armor, nanos, perks, and research.