After some discussion regarding "tradeskill weapon" I decided to look once again at our perks to re-check what we have there... Checked that we don't have that already and decided to make short overview. I'm aware that we can look it up at auno/aomainframe, but another wall of text will never hurt
SL perks.
Demolitions (10)
Mechanic (10)
Gadgeteer (10)
Alchemist (6)
Tinkerer (4)
Pistol mastery (8/10)
Shotgun mastery(10)
Power up(8/10)
Bio shielding(10)
AI perks
Creative mind(10)
Illogical patterns (8)
Unknown factor(8)
Counterweight(3/6)
Ok, here we go:
SL Perks
Demolitions:
10 perks, +200 grenade
DD and nano drain actions.
Problems with perkline: perks take too much time to execute, leaving us w/o chance for using heals/cocoon/stims/grafts. Also long time from start of perk till damage/nanodrain done often leads to us perking dead body.
Useful for: Grenade engineers for more AR and PvPers for actions. Remark - most PvPers don't use grenade weapons, grenade AR do not used in any other way by them.
Notice: Demo perks doesn't require you to wield grenade weapons, can be used with other weapons in hands.
Mechanic:
10 perks, +80 ME/EE/QFT, +130 WS, +64 MC/TS
pet heal and deconstruction actions.
Problems with perkline: Deconstruction perk action is practically useless due to role ACs have in current state of game. Also Deconstruction perk don't have recharge timer on failure.
Useful for: Soloing, where pet heal is handy, Casting hard-to-cast nanos (while leveling or 17.7 stuff), Tradeskilling.
Gadgeteer:
10 perks, +55 ME/EE/QFT, +70 WS, +30 MC/TS
4 pet-boost actions
Stats-wise it's underpowered brother of Mechanic line while action-wide it have broken/non-effective actions. Really need update.
Problems with perkline:
1. Taunt box perk doesn't work (judging by auno it taunts pet toward engineer instead of taunting mobs toward pet: tauntbox effect, agg trimmer, our blind that have taunt
2. Siphon box perk have too low effect both for it's drain and it's heal part. (need to test if it's also affected by ACs, then it's total crap)
3. Chaotic Energy proc have buggy check for removal of space nano in no beef nanos running (if I got it right it leads to either never working or always working)
4. Chaotic energy have too low chance to land/cancel nanos w/o notum overflow/accelerated decaying quarks and also no chance of mp/nt perking some1 with it due to practical useless of said perks (accelerate decaying quarks also requiring previous chain of perks from engi and mp/nt)
Useful for:
Soloing as 3rd 10-perk perkline for pet healing (goes after bio and mechanic), tradeskill slaves perked for max tradeskills.
Alchemist:
6 perks, +200 Chem/Pharmatech
Blind perk with easy defence check at 2, DoT removal at 6, weak dots at 1 and 4
Shared with docs and traders
Problems with perkline:
DoT actions have too weak damage to be of any use.
Useful for:
AI armor Tradeskillers and PvPers with IP spent in chemistry.
Tinkerer:
4 perks, +65 ME/EE/QFT
Sabotage Quark Field and Ignition Flare actions
Shared with traders
Problems with perkline:
Perks have 100% ME vs 25/35% Duck check and are easy to land + have relatively good damage, but require other professions to use their perks first. Result - doesn't work.
Useful for:
Changed: tradeskill slaves ofc and PvPers for 2 low-damage but GUARANTEED hits (hits for 100-800ish every 30 seconds and 400-1500 every 1.5min in pvp).
Pistol mastery:
8/10 perks, +115 pistol, +13 fling, +33 damage
Quick shot/Double shot DD actions, scaled with pistol AR.
Shared with advs(10), crats(8), docs(5), MPs(5)
Problems with perkline:
Perks have relatively low damage template and hard to land in pvp with our AR (100% pistol vs 100% dodge)
Useful for:
Pistol engineers to get more AR and bit more +DD. DD maniacs as 3rd line to perk.
Shotgun mastery:
10 perks, +200 shotgun, +80 damage
Leg shot/Easy shot actions
Shared with traders
Problems with perkline:
Easy shot have bogus requirements/description that says it need perks from "Freak strength" line landed on target. (in case it's intended to be used with freak str nano - this perk will become unlandable, since 1 man can't get all 3 stun perks out on same target before first "affected by" nano expire)
Useful for:
Shotgun engies for AR/DD, DD maniacs for +DD, shotgun PvP engies for easy shot perk (decent damage and 5% duck check).
Power up:
8/10 perks, +115 RE, +36 damage
Energize (+dd for 30 seconds/2 min) and 3 DD perks that require energize running, 1 of them with stun.
Shared with Agent(5), Doctor(8), Soldier(10), Fixer(5), Trader(5)
Problems with perkline: none spotted
[B]Useful for:
RE engies for AR/DD, DD maniacs for +DD/energize/perks, PvP engies for 20% stun chance in power shock vs non-evade profs. Power blast also have 15% chance to remove 1 protection and 1 healing nano from target up to 30 NCU (for 2k AR, it's scaled from 4 to 35 NCU with RE skill)
Notice:
Power up perks does not require you to wield RE-based weapons, can be used with any weapon in hands.
Bio Shielding:
10 perks, +80 damage shield, 890 ACs, 3% reflect
Bio shield/cocoon/rejuvenation/regrowth actions
Shared with Adventurer, Enforcer, Keeper
Problems with perkline:
Bio shielding 10 perk erroneously marked as perk action (no consequences tho)
Bio rejuvenation perk action have 4 templates for heals and at least for advs it's possible to get 1450 from top heal while other profs get 880. According to reports - it's possible that it scaled with some skill. So far real mechanics are unknown.
Bio Cocoon is absorb, and as all absorbs suffers from absorb overwrite (can be overwritten by meats from ToTW/IS, nanomage HUD, etc)
Bio shield perk is useless due to uselessness of damage shields in it's current state.
Bio regrowth have long execution time (5 seconds).
Useful for:
Must have for all but extreme team DD and tradeskill slave setups.
AI Perks
Creative mind:
10 perks, +51 grenade, +100 ranged/nano init, +51 duck.
Freak shield, Medallion, Optimize bot protocol actions
Problems with perkline:
Freak shield action with it's 4k ACs is useless.
Medallion is not landable at tl7 pvp due to amounts of NR+AAD players currently have.
Optimize bot protocol have very short duration (20 sec) with long lock-out (130 sec) to be really useful.
Useful for:
TL4-5 pvp and tl7 pvp on MR trox (AAD drain is good for more crits)
Illogical patterns:
8 perks, +160 me/ee/ws/qft/tut
Guesstimate/memory scrabble perk actions
Shared with Fixer, Trader
Problems with perkline:
Guesstimate is good snare/root/stun line, but you can't predict what will land and build your strategy on it (2 sec stun vs 40 sec root/snare). Can't land it in tl7 pvp (qft vs 100% NR). Root/snare have too high chance of breaking to use it in pvm.
Memory scrabble does laughable damage.
Useful for:
Tradeskiller alts.
The unknown factor:
8 perks, +160 pt/np/psycho/chem
hostile takeover/chaotic assumption perk actions (Int+Psy vs 100% NR)
Shared with Fixer, Trader, agent, doctor, mp, nt
Problems with perkline:
Hostile takeover lowers random initiative, therefore there is low chance of lowering right type of it.
Hostile takeover perk action don't have "on failure" lock time.
Useful for:
TL3-5 pvp, tl7 PvP for nanomages/troxes, Tradeskiller alts.
Counterweight:
3/6 perks, +40 multi melee/ranged
full frontal perk action (100% t&s vs 100% NR)
Shared with adventurer(6), enforcer(6), shade(6)
Problems/bugs with perkline:
Perkline have buggy profession requirements (twice mentioned adventurer, perks 4-6 have User Profession == 0 line instead of engineer.
Only ranged init is lowered by full frontal despite "Your movement and initiatives have been lowered from a Full Frontal Special." description.
Useful for:
Soloing (Full frontal = unbreackable snare we will land on almost any mob), twinking better pistols.