A "guide" as to why Title Level 7 Fixers are not cutting it (warning: very long post)

[Arlancor]

edit: the explanation to AO's Age of Adventurers: http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=329

Haha

[Cour]

edit: the explanation to AO's Age of Adventurers: http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=329

Awesome.

<3 thenoob

[sturmalfar]

You read the original post 3 times but you somehow missed the title all 3 times ?

A "guide" as to why Title Level 7 Fixers are not cutting it (warning: very long post)

Pafpuf - this is why I shouldn't post responses at night...

and Josephina, I realize that I don't understand the fixer TL7 situation other than what I've read, as I have obviously never played a TL7 fixer. In regards to your invitation to me not to go to TL7, and roll an advy, I'm wondering how long it'll take me to get to 174+ again, as my intention was for my fixer to be a "sugar daddy" to the rest of my alts. I was thinking of rolling an agent or shade, but I realize I don't understand the game dynamics well enough to pull that off an agent successfully, and shades reportedly suck at TL7 PvP almost as badly as they OD everybody else in PvM. After seeing Snarfblatt and his tremendous dmg on his 220 engi, I'm thinking of rolling an engi.
And, my main prob. with advys is that - 1) apparently, there is not much of a challenge, 2) the damn transform nanos fill up most of the screen, which is super annoying.

[Villagebike]

2) the damn transform nanos fill up most of the screen, which is super annoying.

Unless you're playing at 640x480, I wouldn't worry about the morphs.

[sturmalfar]

Fyxi, I play at 1680x1050 and in certain areas where geometry forces close-up view, esp. in RK mishes and in SL catacombs and inside smallish buildings and around angles, I get to sniff my transforms butt *all the time*... and it's super annoying. And a leet shape can't fight, so that's not a solution....

[Pafpuf]

Leet form can fight. Parrot (reet) can't.

[Josephina]

... In regards to your invitation to me not to go to TL7, and roll an advy, ...

I didn't invite you to be an advy btw, I just referred to adventurers because it used to be that a good adventurer was a good puller/dps/healer/tank/crowdcontroller (see the pun of the comic). "AO's Age of Adventurers" stopped at LE release btw (some other profs caught up with them and their CC got nerfed).

You don't really have to roll one of the lovechilds either. Look what profession's playstyle you like, then check whether they are viable in the part of the game that interests you (pvp/pve/both). Don't roll a prof because someone else told you they are wtf-pawning awesome, roll a prof because you want to play it. Professions don't perform the same at all levelranges either: tl5 fixers are probably still pretty much alright in terms of class balance while tl7 fixers are not, why continue leveling past tl5 then? The object of gaming is to have fun, not acquiring stuff/e-peen or levels, imo

As for shades: tl7 atrox shades are probably one of the most potent pvp professions, and very good (compared to fixers atleast imo ) in much of the pve game. Tl7 opi shades still probably leave something to be desired in pvp, but I don't think it's as bad anymore as it used to be.

Engineers are a pretty good prof as well overall (imo), but you need to be able to stand the widowmakers' abonimable pathing (think of it as a large chunk of meat on chicken legs that just loves humping walls and small variations of topology).

[Maxisolja]

tl5 fixers are probably still pretty much alright in terms of class balance while tl7 fixers are not, why continue leveling past tl5 then?

They are if you consider killing greens/gimps/noobs or just think that advys, agents, doctors, crats, enforcers, nt, soldier, trader are overpowered when twinked equally (not counting ga4)

keeper, ma seem to be about on par

no one plays mp, engie

and shades just fail at tl5

fixers get a huge aad boost, crit resist, root/snare resist/removers at tl7

[Pafpuf]

Never forget.

[Josephina]

One of these days I'll be adding a short paragraph to "5 Pvp specific mechanics" about perks not scaling with the damage inflation. It's not really pvp specific, nor a game mechanic, nor exclusive to fixers, but more a general design flaw. Since it is one of the contributing factors to fixers' recent downfall, it deservers a spot somewhere and thus it is going into pvp mechanics.

[Solsssss]

Either way im enjoying it more in Tl7 bs on a gimpy 215 fix compared to a wide-load 220 soldier.

Fun prof is fun.

[ariiadne]

this was an awesome post thx for the read, i agree with pretty much all of it.

i think fixer is a very 'experienced needed' proff as well, though. know when to hold em, know when to fold em. there are certain things you do in certain situations to stay alive. i dont have 300 symbs in or ai30 (halfway into 29), or all the LE lvls cause the thought of another inferno mission makes me physically ill, or all the zod items or a boc or a red and yellow tnh belt, and no dustbrigade bracer, but i pretty much have all other endgame stuff that i want or need (before legacy of xan.) id say im at 95%. but i still hold my own and am often better than many others at pvm and pvp. powerleveling to 220 doesnt make you good. having all endgame levels and stuff makes you better, but not the best. it still takes a lot of practice, and only this will make you the best you can be (which despite all our weaknesses, still makes us incredibly fun and good)

i do 210+ bs. a lot. its a lot of fun, and the repetitive nature of it has brought me to understand the nuances of being a fixer a lot more. its amazing practice. knowing what class you are fighting and exactly how to deal with that class in any given situation can be daunting, it takes a lot of fighting to hold this kind of knowledge. even if you read every post on how to pvp you couldnt possibly be better than somebody who goes in and does it 100s of times. you gotta have your hotbars setup perfectly, you gotta have whatever you can get your hands on to heal, you gotta know how to kite, you gotta have the kind of reaction speed that lets you know exactly what buttons to push and even then you gotta be fast enough with the mouse and 1234 numbers for hotbars all usually while kiting and rooting and debuffing and healing as well as tabbing to see how many opponents are in the vicinity and what classes they are and what order to attack those classes and how to attack the class you are currently attacking

yes this could be said of all the proffs, but its the weaker proffs that need to be the best at it. since we are the weaker proff, you cant just say fakit and not even try to get better. you gotta die a lot of times, bs is good for this cause you are fully buffed in decon. rezzing on fixer sucks - you should add a section for that =P

pvp is kind of like a history of society. in many instances in human history we progress only through war. innovations like gunpowder, or even things like radios that have progressed into walkie talkies and cellphones we all use today, innovations in war are kind of dumbed down and made cheap in price and are now a part of our everyday life. this is kind of an unfounded statement in that i cant really back it up with any historical facts at this moment off the top of my head cause its 2 am and time for bed, but it does pertain to your AO character. the better you get at battlestation, theres basically a trickle down effect into other aspects of your game, pvm, towers, tara, instances, etc. you get better at everything else the more you pvp, you set up your hotbars better to deal with all circumstances, your reaction time to events (like 'o no im close to death, run away' or 'o no the tank is getting low, short hot short hot!!') becomes faster. you just know how to be a better fixer. i hope you understand my retarded metaphor rofl

if you cannot kite, you are dead. learn how to do it. a good fixer on bs should only die to nt, and then only cause if they cast the second triple or double before you run out of range of them it seems most times it will land even if you are far far far out of range when the spell goes off. i've died numerous times when nt's hp bar has grayed and dissapeared completely from me running out of range, that damn double or triple still hits me.... i have noticed that if you zone through lift then it wont hit you. you can also hide after the initial triple, most nts don't know how to press q. an advy or enf can follow you but rarely kill you before you can root them and run away and heal to come back - or jarring burst works too. there are of course times when you run into a group and wtfpwned by aimedshotters. try a few battlestations where you only stop running to cap a point.

root is very very useful. root engi chickens and mp mortiig, and they are a lot less of a pain =P they rarely have AS so theres not much else they can do other than annoy you, and you can always run away. id say 60% of the time if you stand and fight people at low health they will find a way to kill you (nuke, AS, sneak attack, slice and dice, DoTs, and dimache have gotten me more than a few times whilst being... overconfident =)). run away and heal to full, come back, its like 5-10 seconds for fixer with veteran healing lab or 275 battleready and 275 healing stim and 2 hour hot and short hot and a solitus perk i love, Survival, get it if you can. you will be full again, they will not (unless of course they healed too, haha, but its a chance you have to take) being alive is better than being dead, if they are full again well thats just more practice for you =P

i love sneak. i really do. it helps in so many situations. if a nt casts triple on you, sneak, they rarely push q and cant follow up. i can sneak to A without being attack 1000 times, or up to core if apts are present. avoiding combat is probably the best measure of self preservation, albeit boring, and one thing that a fixer does well is avoid confrontation or least kite it while figuring out next strategy to take against it. sneaking is very useful imo.

the spatial displacement line makes you basically unsnareable and unrootable (for more than a few seconds), there are so few others that will land those on you that the recharge between perks is enough to stay not detainable indefinately. as a plus you can use on those n00bs who forgot stims =P

there's just so much to know while fighting other people. ill admit ive been horrible at 1/1 duels, winning less than half, especially vs soldiers and doctors and of course NTs but no fixer in their right mind will duel a nt. but duels prove nothing. especially when gauging a fixers ability. because theres no set of circumstances in any pvp event in the game where you would just fing stand there and take your azz whoopin. fixers kite, get use to it other classes. therefore its flawed. i think a more true test of skill is to see how long you can survive in BS, because all those skills you use there you will use at tower battles, Tara and whatever else is 'open' pvp, ie, where anyone can attack you and you can attack anyone (or the other side)

did i ramble? i just rambled. anyways i guess fixer is that class that you love and hate at the same time. i dont have a hard time getting teams, but ive been playing a long time and a lot of people know me and im good at being a fixer, even with limited skillset, i still got skillz =P

and the only way to get skillz with a limited skillset is hella practice. because its straight pvp and you are able to get right back to it after dying, battlestation is one of the best places in the game to discover your own fixer's nuances.

[Racatti]

Sneaking is for the pussys.

[Kaylinne]

avoiding combat is probably the best measure of self preservation, albeit boring,

Probably, but not my idea of BS or fun.

[ariiadne]

Sneaking is for the pussys.

/trollblock

[Racatti]

I mean it.

[Kaylinne]

I actually agree.
Sneaking is for pussys.

[ephedrae]

Why isnt this sticky but useless stuff like altered lyrics are?
I want the devs to read this!!!

[-Bugsplat]

Because there are currently no fixer professionals.

[Doctorhyde]

Fixer seems to be a "1.5 steps forward, 1.45 steps back" profession. I'll just voice my 2 main concerns right now that aren't an issue -yet- but may be in the very near future.

1) Reverse Knockback. If we don't have immunity to this like we do to fears we will be food for the profs that get them (and not like NTs needed help with us ). Here's hoping Experienced Survivor is extended ... but I'm worried that it won't.

2) Xan of Envy. "What? You're worried about this great gun upgrade?!oneone?". Yes. I'm worried that the devs will see it and think we're now ok on offense (we aren't) and that promised improvement on the Craphander will evaporate. Xan of Envy is a great upgrade ... but I don't think it will help us kill those profs we currently stand no chance against.

Fixer has definitely received some help lately ... but so has everyone else or close to it. Pretty much a wash. And we still have a laundry list of things (everything from adding a timer to SWS ... and look at Kicker of Kell for one way that could work ... to giving us a %-based self-only short HoT ... to still not having enough damage to kill a healing prof and no way to inhibit their heals). It will be real easy for us to slip even farther.

Fixer is fun, I wouldn't keep playing mine if it wasn't, but it is definitely an "on the razor's edge" prof when it comes to balancing and being knocked out of balance (and not to the OP side ... at TL7 anyway).