Two Professions, can't decide. FixerVSShade

[Robokey]

So I'm having a -Major- problem here that's been bugging me for days. For some odd, impeccable reason, I just cannot seem to decide on rolling a fixer, or a Shade. I mean, they're two totally different professions, how can you compare them? It's probably because I can't choose a playstyle because I enjoy them both. Love daggers, love sub-machine guns, but still...


In terms of a *team-player*, who is more likely to perform more damage? I'm gonna go ahead and say shade 100%, in terms of PVE. The only problem I see, is that Shade is an extremely costly profession to play. I've heard that people spend billions in bank-roll on their shade near the 220's to be a team-player, and compete with the damage others do. I understand the point of the game is not to be the best, but if I want to compete, spending money in those terms to compete at any level range is simply out of the question for me.

Now what exactly does the Fixer do? What is the Fixers job? Is he a team-player. Is he a light damager-dealer and healer? I've never understood the profession of the Fixer, and the threads and posts in both Shade and Fixer forums are very discouraging, but the saying goes, "Do what you love".

Can anyone help me out here? I made a thread like this a long time ago, but forgot about it completely because alot of stuff in real life came up.

Please, can anyone answer any of my questions? I want to roll a character that I will enjoy for a very long time, and that can help out a team all the time.

[Saetos]

Originally Posted by Robokey In terms of a *team-player*, who is more likely to perform more damage? I'm gonna go ahead and say shade 100%, in terms of PVE. The only problem I see, is that Shade is an extremely costly profession to play. I've heard that people spend billions in bank-roll on their shade near the 220's to be a team-player, and compete with the damage others do. I understand the point of the game is not to be the best, but if I want to compete, spending money in those terms to compete at any level range is simply out of the question for me.

Wrong. This is a rumor that has spread very far and wide, and here's what I will say, as a 208 Shade: for a PVM shade, the most expensive parts of your equipment will be your Kyr'Ozch Energy Rapiers. All the other "expensive" equipment people like to put on their shades (read: Blood-Soaked Cloak of Dishonour, Slippers of Screaming) have other variants suitable for the job (read: Reanimated Cloak of the Jester, Omni Steel-Ribbed Armor Boots). Spirits are campable, radiation aruls are rather cheap, you can level in Ribbed, Kevlar (especially chest), OFAB gloves, and TOTW/IS +damage pads for ... quite a while actually

Most damage that 220 shades do come from perks. To be at your ABSOLUTE BEST of course will require equipment that will hit your wallet, but you can still use other equipment that may be inferior, but at a MUCH lower cost.

Now what exactly does the Fixer do? What is the Fixers job? Is he a team-player. Is he a light damager-dealer and healer? I've never understood the profession of the Fixer, and the threads and posts in both Shade and Fixer forums are very discouraging, but the saying goes, "Do what you love".

As the game has gone on it turns out that the Fixer has become more of a "lite Soldier". After gaining a respectable FullAuto (2nd best in the game, I should add), they've gotten a great boost in damage, but of course not eclisping SMG soldiers. On top of pretty good DD, they have HOTs, which help with secondary healing; good evades for soloing (on top of HOTs ); runspeed buffs which can come in handy in Pande raids especially, since Enforcers use SL essences which take a big blow to the Enf's RunSpeed; a special grid only Fixers and their teammates can use, which can go to many remote spots on RubiKa (great for towers and city shops); among other cool stuff.



Both Fixer and Shade will do very well as PVM team characters. Fixer will outperform Shade in solo PVM up until the Shade reaches 190; at that point Shade becomes a good soloer as well.

[Mamman]

Shade isn't that expensive really, and a shade with cheap gear will perform closer to max in pve than a fixer with cheap gear will do, at least at high levels. Every profession cost billions to get the absolute best stuff for. Or I could say the gear is worth billions, you don't have to buy it all to get it.

It takes a comparatively long time for a shade to become "uber" though, you won't really be good at anything until you've come a fair bit into your shadowlevels (you can be decent for sure if you spend some effort but the same effort on other profs usually give higher rewards), soloing will be tough until you have enough perks to support it, at end game shades are one of the better soloers though.

Both professions are generally used as damagedealers in teams, they have some support tools, fixers a bit more than shades but generally when you're asked for a team you'll be there to do damage.

[Robokey]

I've decided to roll a shade. I've read over multiple posts and forums about the profession itself, and the benefits that backs it up, and the required needs as well. I've twinked a few characters before, but nothing major. The usual, ya know. QL 180-190 implants at level 80, Stygian Desolator at level 25, and a few other non-major twink things, so that should help a bit for equipping the character properly.

I'm willing to deal with the benefits and downfalls of the profession, I'm not sure why, but the profession itself is just so interesting.

[Robokey]

I was uhh, talking about...other characters

Just getting equipment n' junk off of my old characters now, preparing for the mass spirit farmage.

[Chrysocome]

This is almost a month old, but I figured I would note it here for reference if anyone else is having the same kind of issue.

Most of the "expensive" equipment for shades, and other classes, is for PVP. You need things like alien armor for optimal setups that boost your AR/Evades/etc to a point to where you can be competitive with PC's.

In terms of PVM DD, that is not so much the same. You need to cap your specials and have decent AR, but PVM does not require the same fine tuning. Instead, things like +Dmg and +Crit are more useful than more AR because you are not going to be struggling to hit most NPC's.

Below is my opinion, take it as you may, I don't plan to argue with anyone.

In the end, I would almost always wear Enhanced Dustbrigade pieces and/or other +dd/+crit items for doing PVM DD. Of course, there are still slots to use alien armor in, but it shouldn't end up costing a ton of credits, unless you want RBP, Dchest, and etc

[Mortipharma]

Originally Posted by Chrysocome In the end, I would almost always wear Enhanced Dustbrigade pieces and/or other +dd/+crit items for doing PVM DD. Of course, there are still slots to use alien armor in, but it shouldn't end up costing a ton of credits, unless you want RBP, Dchest, and etc

why should shade wear a rbp ??? no 220shade would wear rapiers and rpb give no add-melee-dmg

[Acronyms]

I don't think they were talking about just shades, more or less, DD setup for PVM for most chars shouldn't involve a huge payroll of alien armor etc, because you don't need more AR to hit trivial content.

But, point is, you don't have to buy anything in this game, including alien armor, so the point is, in terms of expensive, characters are only as expensive as people make them out of sheer laziness.