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The Silver Soldier AT Guide
zedulon
Posts: 51 Arc User
This is a guide for the Soldier Archetype, specifically aimed at Silver (Free to Play) players. It is a free AT, available to anyone in the game. Half the credit for this guide goes to my friend Berlin@Zephyrenne - the guide is based on our experiences tuning his character, Berlin. (He can't be arsed to straighten out the Cryptic to PWE forum account conversion mess, so I'm posting this, even though he wrote half of it.)
Soldier on CO-wiki
Important Note: There is an error on that page, you get a choice of Rocket or Gatling Gun at Level 35.
Why Play a Soldier?
Pros: DPS, DPS, and more DPS. A soldier can DPS better than most Freeforms in the game. In a recent Mega Destroid invasion event, Berlin started in Zone #1, and came in second on the DPS score chart (out of dozens of characters.) Then she moved to Zone #4 (which was at 0/6 Destroids when she got there), finished that event, and placed second in DPS again, despite having started rather obviously late. That is a lot of DPS. Not only did she outscore dozens of Freeform DPS toons in Zone 1, she then outscored dozens of FF DPS characters in Zone 4, despite having started almost 10 minutes late. (We would post screenshots, but they were accidentally taken without the UI.) And Berlin was not in a group, did not receive any Aura boosts, and did not use any devices. (Though if you read the discussion on this thread, you'll note that Soldier ATs seem to output about 25% more DPS than a Freeform with identical powers. It is unknown at this time whether this is considered to be a bug.)
Cons: Can you say, "Glass Cannon?" The Soldier has no mitigation abilities, no self-heals, minimal aggro management. The good news is that for solo play, your DPS will rip through just about anything before it can do much to you. But in a group situation like an alert, you will draw aggro and die a lot unless there is a good healer or exceptional tank in the group.
Build Notes:
As you will see when we get to Specializations, this build focuses heavily on the Gatling Gun. This is hardly the only way to play a Soldier - other Soldier builds focus on Assault Rifle and/or Sniper Rifle. Essentially, the goal of this build is to throw the "Wall of Crits." When done right, a solid wall of yellow text showing "Critical - ###" numbers will obscure your view of your target. Depending on your perspective this is either amazingly cool or really annoying.
One important concept for the Soldier is lockdown. Gatling Gun has lockdown which means you can't move while firing the attack. This leaves you more vulnerable, since you can't kite while using it. SMG Burst has no lockdown, you can move at full speed. Assault Rifle slows you to half speed while firing. So when picking which weapon to use in a given situation, pay attention to how much you will have to move around!
Powers and Advantages:
You don't get much real choice in terms of powers. Gatling Gun is the highest DPS power available, which makes it a mandatory choice over Rocket Launcher. And Shotgun Blast is a far more effective utility skill than Frag Grenade. I will categorize the Advantages as Necessary, Recommended, and Optional. Note that out of 36 Advantage points you get by Level 40, you can buy everything I've marked as Necessary or Recommended, and still have a few points over for stuff marked as Optional.
Level 1: Steady Shot
Optional: Paint the Target (2 points)
This is a basic Energy Builder. Paint the Target gives a crit bonus, which can be handy to get a crit with that first high-damage round from Assault Rifle. Ranking it up gives a minor increase to energy return, but the Soldier doesn't have energy problems; the points are better spent elsewhere.
Level 1: Assault Rifle
Necessary: Rank 2 (2 points), Mow 'Em Down (2 points)
This is the highest-damage single-target attack you get, so rank it for maximum damage. You can move at half-speed while firing, which also makes it useful for kiting.
Level 6: Submachine Gun Burst
Recommended: Rank 2, Rank 3 (4 points)
SMG Burst is an excellent skill for leveling a Soldier as it can take down large groups of mobs quickly. I strongly recommend it if you don't have a lot of experience in Champions Online. Late in the game its AoE DPS pales in comparison to Gatling Gun, so Advantage Points spend here may not see much use at endgame. However, it's lack of lockdown is still useful for killing Henchmen in bulk, which makes it a great endgame skill for farming Silver Champions Recognition or 5000-kill perks.
Level 8: Targeting Computer
Necessary: Rank 2, Rank 3 (4 points)
This is your slotted passive. It increases all of your damage, increases crit rate, increases crit severity, and provides a tiny smidge of damage mitigation. So rank it to the maximum.
Level 11: Shotgun Blast
Optional: Breaching Round (2 points), Nailed to the Ground (2 points)
Shotgun Blast is a decent utility power. It will never do significant damage compared to your other weapon options, but it provide some useful effects. The most common use for it is when you are charged by a melee damage Master Villain. With Breaching Round, you can knock the villain back out of his range, and finish him off with Assault Rifle or Gatling Gun. Nailed to the Ground is useful to cancel the flying powers of certain mobs (e.g. Viper Powered Armor) to make them easier to hit.
Level 14: Concentration
Concentration provides a stacking damage buff that scales with your Ego. Since that's your Primary Super Stat, it becomes your biggest damage buff. Always, always, ALWAYS toggle this on! If you get defeated, turning this back on should be the second thing you do (after turning on your travel power), get into that habit! I recommend leaving it at Rank 1. Ranking it to 2 or 3 will provide extra stacks when out of combat... But once in combat, it will max to 8 stacks very quickly no matter where it stated from. And the extra ranks don't help when you get defeated - you have to start over from zero no matter how many ranks you have.
Level 17: Smoke Grenade
Recommended: Escape Artist (2 points)
As a deaggression skill, Escape Artist is fairly mediocre - as soon as you attack, the mob will be back on you. In timed alerts, dying and respawning can be a more effective deaggression technique. However, it is the only deaggression ability available to the Soldier, and as such is worth taking.
Level 21: Retaliation
Necessary: Rank 2 (2 points)
Recommended: either Rank 3 (2 points) or Punitive Pummeling (2 points). You can't have both because of the 5-point cap on how many Advantage Points you can spend on a single power.
This is your block replacer. Ranking it up increases the amount of damage it will prevent when you block. And blocking big attacks is mandatory on a glass cannon like The Soldier. I would generally recommend taking Rank 3 to maximize the mitigation. But if you are getting swarmed a lot, Punitive Pummeling will occasionally knock back nearby enemies to open a bit of breathing room.
Level 25: Killer Instinct
(No advantages)
Killer Instinct is your Energy Unlock. It gives you a boost of energy every few seconds while firing a weapon. (Technically, it activates whenever you get a critical hit, but you will be critting far more often than the internal cool-down limit on how often it will fire.)
Level 30: Lock and Load
Necessary: Rank 2 (2 points)
Recommended: Rank 3 (2 points)
Lock and Load is an Active Offense. When you activate it, it reduces all your energy costs, increases your crit chance, and boosts your raw damage. (Due to diminishing returns, the direct damage boost is actually really small, the increased crit chance will have a much bigger impact on your DPS.) Ranking this up increases both the duration and amount of the bonuses, and is well wothwhile.
Level 35: Gatling Gun
Necessary: Rank 2, Rank 3 (4 points)
This will be your signature power. Save your advantage points so you have 4 points ready when you ding 35 to immediately rank this up. This will massacre everything in line with your primary target, out to 100 feet. Which is usually a good thing, but be very careful it doesn't result in overpulls.
Level 40: Sniper Rifle
Optional: Rank 2, Rank 3.
Sniper Rifle's slow fire rate and the ease with which it can be interrupted make it less useful than Assault Rifle or Gatling Gun in most situations other than PvP. While it can be useful as an opening shot in a fight, this seems to be a love it or hate it power. I would recommend trying it out and seeing if it fits your playstyle.
Travel Powers:
You get one Travel Power (TP) at 6 and another at 35.
If you are new to Champions Online, take Jetpack at 6. It is simple, fast, and lets you fly over the map, which will makes navigation easy while you are learning the map. Just remember that having this power on causes severe Energy problems, so turn it off whenever you are in combat!
If you are experienced with the game, and already know the maps fairly well, take Athletics at 6 (or Acrobatics, which is mechanically the same, with different graphical effects.) The benefit of Athletics is that it's energy costs are nowhere near as bad as the faster travel powers, which makes it usable in combat.
At Level 20, you can rank up travel powers to Rank 2, I recommend ranking up whichever one you have.
At Level 35, take whichever of the above travel powers you didn't take at Level 6.
At Level 40, you can rank TPs to Rank 3. I would rank Athletics to 3 for use in combat. Having Jetpack to 3 as well is good for convenience. Only buy Versatility if Athletics 3 isn't fast enough to let you kite.
Talents:
Most people will recommend that you use your Talents to increase your Super Stats. I'm going to recommend the opposite: Use your Talents to increase your off-stats (the non-super stats you want to boost.) There are two reasons for this: First, high-end gear tends to boost individual stats a lot, but off-stats little or not at all. So using your talents to boost off-stats will let you focus your gear on your super-stats. Basically, what it comes down to for a Soldier is that you will want CON for hitpoints. By using Talents to get CON, you won't need to use a primary gear slot to boost CON, which will leave that slot to further boost your Super Stats. The second reason to boost off-stats with Talents is point efficiency. Your gear will always give you the same number of points overall - all you can do is swap them around. By taking a 13-point talent like Field Ops Training, you get 13 characteristic points in stats you care about, compared to only getting 8 if you took Agile. In this case, stats you care about are Ego, Dex, Rec (your 3 super stats), and Con (for HP), End (for max energy), and Int (for a bit of cooldown reduction, energy cost reduction, and perception.)
Recommended Talents:
Field Ops Training (13 points to stats you care about)
Jack of All Trades (2 to each of 6 stats you care about is 12 points)
Survival Training (10 points worth)
Boundless Reserves (5 CON, 5 END)
Acrobat (5 CON, 5 DEX)
Ascetic (5 CON, 5 EGO)
Specializations:
Ego:
Force of Will 2/2 - more defense = less damage taken
Aggression 2/2 - more offense = more damage dealt
Insight 1/3 - helps your energy management, although this will be pretty minimal when you get Level 40 gear.
Follow Through 3/3 - bigger crits!
Sixth Sense 2/3 - more crits!
Vindicator:
Aggressive Stance 2/2 - this turns into a lot of defense with Relentless Assault later on
Merciless 3/3 - bigger crits!
Mass Destruction 3/3 - more crits from Gatling Gun!
Rush of Battle 2/3 - not a great self-heal, but given that it's the only one available. Alternatively, put the points in Focused Strikes for more crits from Assault Rifle and Sniper Rifle.
Avenger:
Ruthless 2/2 - bigger crits!
Round 'Em Up 3/3 - bonus damage for Gatling Gun
Relentless Assault 3/3 - 150 more offense? yes, please!
Honestly, it doesn't really matter where you spend the last two points. Anguish gives a bit more damage. Can't Touch This can help with kiting when needed. If you like Sniper Rifle, spend the points in Surprise Attack instead to get more opening crits with it.
Mastery:
Ego Mastery 1/1 - +20 Dex, +20 Rec
Gear:
As a note about Berlin's gear: Here is where you will see the Talent strategy paying off. With CON built by Talents, she doesn't need much CON from gear. Further, REC secondary gear was available on the AH, so REC was built that way, leaving all of her primary slots for EGO and DEX.
Offensive Gear:
Focus on Critical Strike (more crit chance) and stats.
At level 40, Berlin is using:
Primary: Heroic Gloves of Precision (Silver Champs Recognition gear - in this case, bought on AH) slotted with Dex and Ego Enhancements and a Gambler's Gem (all Rk 5) (55 Dex, 55 Ego, 19 Defense, 68 Offense, 181 Critical Strike)
Secondary: Transgression Belt (purple drop, bought on AH) (20 Rec, 6.5 Defense, 17 Offense, 47 Critical Strike)
Defensive Gear:
Focus on HP and stats. At endgame, get an Avoidance intrinsic with a Gambler's Gem for Dodge.
At Level 40, Berlin is using:
Primary: Circumvention Duster (blue drop, bought on AH. It has +53 Ego, +26 Defense, and +124 Avoidance intrinsic.) Slotted with Rk 5 Dex Armoring (+55 Dex) and Rk5 Gambler's Gem (+127 Dodge Chance). The standard here would be the Avoidance SCR gear slotted with an Ego Armoring. Using the blue item instead sacrifices a trivial amount of stat points and saves a large amount of G.
Secondary: Garrison Bracers (purple, bought on AH) (+338 HP, +37 Rec, +9.7 defense)
Utility Gear:
Focus on Cost Discount and stats.
At Level 40, Berlin is using:
Primary: Heroic Helmet of Efficiency (SCR gear, in this case won at a Costume Contest) slotted with Rk5 Dex, Rk5 Ego, and Rk5 Gambler's mods. (+55 Dex, +55 Ego, +19 Defense, +93 Cooldown, +271 Cost Discount)
Secondary: Friendly Eyepiece (purple, bought on AH): +338 HP, +20 CON, +6.5 Defense, +46 Cooldown, +46 Cost Discount.
Net Stats for Berlin:
STR 12, DEX 246, CON 49, INT 29, EGO 270, PRE 15, REC 139, END 21
HP: 6,214, Energy: 138, Equilibrium:132
Offense: 101.4 (base), Defense 146.2 (base)
Crit: 51.7% (base), Severity 92.2%
Dodge: 39.2%, Avoidance 56.3%
Note: She can run Gatling Gun indefinitely without using her Energy Builder.
Final Note:
There will be lots of times you have to kite a boss in an alert. Kite Smart! The proper way to kite is to keep the melee characters between yourself and the boss. That slows the boss down when he collides with them, and ensures that the melee toons stay in their own range of the boss. When the boss goes one way around them, you go the other way, and keep the melee toon between you.
Soldier on CO-wiki
Important Note: There is an error on that page, you get a choice of Rocket or Gatling Gun at Level 35.
Why Play a Soldier?
Pros: DPS, DPS, and more DPS. A soldier can DPS better than most Freeforms in the game. In a recent Mega Destroid invasion event, Berlin started in Zone #1, and came in second on the DPS score chart (out of dozens of characters.) Then she moved to Zone #4 (which was at 0/6 Destroids when she got there), finished that event, and placed second in DPS again, despite having started rather obviously late. That is a lot of DPS. Not only did she outscore dozens of Freeform DPS toons in Zone 1, she then outscored dozens of FF DPS characters in Zone 4, despite having started almost 10 minutes late. (We would post screenshots, but they were accidentally taken without the UI.) And Berlin was not in a group, did not receive any Aura boosts, and did not use any devices. (Though if you read the discussion on this thread, you'll note that Soldier ATs seem to output about 25% more DPS than a Freeform with identical powers. It is unknown at this time whether this is considered to be a bug.)
Cons: Can you say, "Glass Cannon?" The Soldier has no mitigation abilities, no self-heals, minimal aggro management. The good news is that for solo play, your DPS will rip through just about anything before it can do much to you. But in a group situation like an alert, you will draw aggro and die a lot unless there is a good healer or exceptional tank in the group.
Build Notes:
As you will see when we get to Specializations, this build focuses heavily on the Gatling Gun. This is hardly the only way to play a Soldier - other Soldier builds focus on Assault Rifle and/or Sniper Rifle. Essentially, the goal of this build is to throw the "Wall of Crits." When done right, a solid wall of yellow text showing "Critical - ###" numbers will obscure your view of your target. Depending on your perspective this is either amazingly cool or really annoying.
One important concept for the Soldier is lockdown. Gatling Gun has lockdown which means you can't move while firing the attack. This leaves you more vulnerable, since you can't kite while using it. SMG Burst has no lockdown, you can move at full speed. Assault Rifle slows you to half speed while firing. So when picking which weapon to use in a given situation, pay attention to how much you will have to move around!
Powers and Advantages:
You don't get much real choice in terms of powers. Gatling Gun is the highest DPS power available, which makes it a mandatory choice over Rocket Launcher. And Shotgun Blast is a far more effective utility skill than Frag Grenade. I will categorize the Advantages as Necessary, Recommended, and Optional. Note that out of 36 Advantage points you get by Level 40, you can buy everything I've marked as Necessary or Recommended, and still have a few points over for stuff marked as Optional.
Level 1: Steady Shot
Optional: Paint the Target (2 points)
This is a basic Energy Builder. Paint the Target gives a crit bonus, which can be handy to get a crit with that first high-damage round from Assault Rifle. Ranking it up gives a minor increase to energy return, but the Soldier doesn't have energy problems; the points are better spent elsewhere.
Level 1: Assault Rifle
Necessary: Rank 2 (2 points), Mow 'Em Down (2 points)
This is the highest-damage single-target attack you get, so rank it for maximum damage. You can move at half-speed while firing, which also makes it useful for kiting.
Level 6: Submachine Gun Burst
Recommended: Rank 2, Rank 3 (4 points)
SMG Burst is an excellent skill for leveling a Soldier as it can take down large groups of mobs quickly. I strongly recommend it if you don't have a lot of experience in Champions Online. Late in the game its AoE DPS pales in comparison to Gatling Gun, so Advantage Points spend here may not see much use at endgame. However, it's lack of lockdown is still useful for killing Henchmen in bulk, which makes it a great endgame skill for farming Silver Champions Recognition or 5000-kill perks.
Level 8: Targeting Computer
Necessary: Rank 2, Rank 3 (4 points)
This is your slotted passive. It increases all of your damage, increases crit rate, increases crit severity, and provides a tiny smidge of damage mitigation. So rank it to the maximum.
Level 11: Shotgun Blast
Optional: Breaching Round (2 points), Nailed to the Ground (2 points)
Shotgun Blast is a decent utility power. It will never do significant damage compared to your other weapon options, but it provide some useful effects. The most common use for it is when you are charged by a melee damage Master Villain. With Breaching Round, you can knock the villain back out of his range, and finish him off with Assault Rifle or Gatling Gun. Nailed to the Ground is useful to cancel the flying powers of certain mobs (e.g. Viper Powered Armor) to make them easier to hit.
Level 14: Concentration
Concentration provides a stacking damage buff that scales with your Ego. Since that's your Primary Super Stat, it becomes your biggest damage buff. Always, always, ALWAYS toggle this on! If you get defeated, turning this back on should be the second thing you do (after turning on your travel power), get into that habit! I recommend leaving it at Rank 1. Ranking it to 2 or 3 will provide extra stacks when out of combat... But once in combat, it will max to 8 stacks very quickly no matter where it stated from. And the extra ranks don't help when you get defeated - you have to start over from zero no matter how many ranks you have.
Level 17: Smoke Grenade
Recommended: Escape Artist (2 points)
As a deaggression skill, Escape Artist is fairly mediocre - as soon as you attack, the mob will be back on you. In timed alerts, dying and respawning can be a more effective deaggression technique. However, it is the only deaggression ability available to the Soldier, and as such is worth taking.
Level 21: Retaliation
Necessary: Rank 2 (2 points)
Recommended: either Rank 3 (2 points) or Punitive Pummeling (2 points). You can't have both because of the 5-point cap on how many Advantage Points you can spend on a single power.
This is your block replacer. Ranking it up increases the amount of damage it will prevent when you block. And blocking big attacks is mandatory on a glass cannon like The Soldier. I would generally recommend taking Rank 3 to maximize the mitigation. But if you are getting swarmed a lot, Punitive Pummeling will occasionally knock back nearby enemies to open a bit of breathing room.
Level 25: Killer Instinct
(No advantages)
Killer Instinct is your Energy Unlock. It gives you a boost of energy every few seconds while firing a weapon. (Technically, it activates whenever you get a critical hit, but you will be critting far more often than the internal cool-down limit on how often it will fire.)
Level 30: Lock and Load
Necessary: Rank 2 (2 points)
Recommended: Rank 3 (2 points)
Lock and Load is an Active Offense. When you activate it, it reduces all your energy costs, increases your crit chance, and boosts your raw damage. (Due to diminishing returns, the direct damage boost is actually really small, the increased crit chance will have a much bigger impact on your DPS.) Ranking this up increases both the duration and amount of the bonuses, and is well wothwhile.
Level 35: Gatling Gun
Necessary: Rank 2, Rank 3 (4 points)
This will be your signature power. Save your advantage points so you have 4 points ready when you ding 35 to immediately rank this up. This will massacre everything in line with your primary target, out to 100 feet. Which is usually a good thing, but be very careful it doesn't result in overpulls.
Level 40: Sniper Rifle
Optional: Rank 2, Rank 3.
Sniper Rifle's slow fire rate and the ease with which it can be interrupted make it less useful than Assault Rifle or Gatling Gun in most situations other than PvP. While it can be useful as an opening shot in a fight, this seems to be a love it or hate it power. I would recommend trying it out and seeing if it fits your playstyle.
Travel Powers:
You get one Travel Power (TP) at 6 and another at 35.
If you are new to Champions Online, take Jetpack at 6. It is simple, fast, and lets you fly over the map, which will makes navigation easy while you are learning the map. Just remember that having this power on causes severe Energy problems, so turn it off whenever you are in combat!
If you are experienced with the game, and already know the maps fairly well, take Athletics at 6 (or Acrobatics, which is mechanically the same, with different graphical effects.) The benefit of Athletics is that it's energy costs are nowhere near as bad as the faster travel powers, which makes it usable in combat.
At Level 20, you can rank up travel powers to Rank 2, I recommend ranking up whichever one you have.
At Level 35, take whichever of the above travel powers you didn't take at Level 6.
At Level 40, you can rank TPs to Rank 3. I would rank Athletics to 3 for use in combat. Having Jetpack to 3 as well is good for convenience. Only buy Versatility if Athletics 3 isn't fast enough to let you kite.
Talents:
Most people will recommend that you use your Talents to increase your Super Stats. I'm going to recommend the opposite: Use your Talents to increase your off-stats (the non-super stats you want to boost.) There are two reasons for this: First, high-end gear tends to boost individual stats a lot, but off-stats little or not at all. So using your talents to boost off-stats will let you focus your gear on your super-stats. Basically, what it comes down to for a Soldier is that you will want CON for hitpoints. By using Talents to get CON, you won't need to use a primary gear slot to boost CON, which will leave that slot to further boost your Super Stats. The second reason to boost off-stats with Talents is point efficiency. Your gear will always give you the same number of points overall - all you can do is swap them around. By taking a 13-point talent like Field Ops Training, you get 13 characteristic points in stats you care about, compared to only getting 8 if you took Agile. In this case, stats you care about are Ego, Dex, Rec (your 3 super stats), and Con (for HP), End (for max energy), and Int (for a bit of cooldown reduction, energy cost reduction, and perception.)
Recommended Talents:
Field Ops Training (13 points to stats you care about)
Jack of All Trades (2 to each of 6 stats you care about is 12 points)
Survival Training (10 points worth)
Boundless Reserves (5 CON, 5 END)
Acrobat (5 CON, 5 DEX)
Ascetic (5 CON, 5 EGO)
Specializations:
Ego:
Force of Will 2/2 - more defense = less damage taken
Aggression 2/2 - more offense = more damage dealt
Insight 1/3 - helps your energy management, although this will be pretty minimal when you get Level 40 gear.
Follow Through 3/3 - bigger crits!
Sixth Sense 2/3 - more crits!
Vindicator:
Aggressive Stance 2/2 - this turns into a lot of defense with Relentless Assault later on
Merciless 3/3 - bigger crits!
Mass Destruction 3/3 - more crits from Gatling Gun!
Rush of Battle 2/3 - not a great self-heal, but given that it's the only one available. Alternatively, put the points in Focused Strikes for more crits from Assault Rifle and Sniper Rifle.
Avenger:
Ruthless 2/2 - bigger crits!
Round 'Em Up 3/3 - bonus damage for Gatling Gun
Relentless Assault 3/3 - 150 more offense? yes, please!
Honestly, it doesn't really matter where you spend the last two points. Anguish gives a bit more damage. Can't Touch This can help with kiting when needed. If you like Sniper Rifle, spend the points in Surprise Attack instead to get more opening crits with it.
Mastery:
Ego Mastery 1/1 - +20 Dex, +20 Rec
Gear:
As a note about Berlin's gear: Here is where you will see the Talent strategy paying off. With CON built by Talents, she doesn't need much CON from gear. Further, REC secondary gear was available on the AH, so REC was built that way, leaving all of her primary slots for EGO and DEX.
Offensive Gear:
Focus on Critical Strike (more crit chance) and stats.
At level 40, Berlin is using:
Primary: Heroic Gloves of Precision (Silver Champs Recognition gear - in this case, bought on AH) slotted with Dex and Ego Enhancements and a Gambler's Gem (all Rk 5) (55 Dex, 55 Ego, 19 Defense, 68 Offense, 181 Critical Strike)
Secondary: Transgression Belt (purple drop, bought on AH) (20 Rec, 6.5 Defense, 17 Offense, 47 Critical Strike)
Defensive Gear:
Focus on HP and stats. At endgame, get an Avoidance intrinsic with a Gambler's Gem for Dodge.
At Level 40, Berlin is using:
Primary: Circumvention Duster (blue drop, bought on AH. It has +53 Ego, +26 Defense, and +124 Avoidance intrinsic.) Slotted with Rk 5 Dex Armoring (+55 Dex) and Rk5 Gambler's Gem (+127 Dodge Chance). The standard here would be the Avoidance SCR gear slotted with an Ego Armoring. Using the blue item instead sacrifices a trivial amount of stat points and saves a large amount of G.
Secondary: Garrison Bracers (purple, bought on AH) (+338 HP, +37 Rec, +9.7 defense)
Utility Gear:
Focus on Cost Discount and stats.
At Level 40, Berlin is using:
Primary: Heroic Helmet of Efficiency (SCR gear, in this case won at a Costume Contest) slotted with Rk5 Dex, Rk5 Ego, and Rk5 Gambler's mods. (+55 Dex, +55 Ego, +19 Defense, +93 Cooldown, +271 Cost Discount)
Secondary: Friendly Eyepiece (purple, bought on AH): +338 HP, +20 CON, +6.5 Defense, +46 Cooldown, +46 Cost Discount.
Net Stats for Berlin:
STR 12, DEX 246, CON 49, INT 29, EGO 270, PRE 15, REC 139, END 21
HP: 6,214, Energy: 138, Equilibrium:132
Offense: 101.4 (base), Defense 146.2 (base)
Crit: 51.7% (base), Severity 92.2%
Dodge: 39.2%, Avoidance 56.3%
Note: She can run Gatling Gun indefinitely without using her Energy Builder.
Final Note:
There will be lots of times you have to kite a boss in an alert. Kite Smart! The proper way to kite is to keep the melee characters between yourself and the boss. That slows the boss down when he collides with them, and ensures that the melee toons stay in their own range of the boss. When the boss goes one way around them, you go the other way, and keep the melee toon between you.
Post edited by zedulon on
0
Comments
9/30 - Dropped 'Paint the Target' from Recommended to Optional. Completely changed discussion of SMG. Expanded discussion of Frag Grenade. Added 'Escape Artist' to Recommended list. Changed discussion of Sniper Rifle to 'try it out.'
Also added Berlin's stats to the Gear section.
10/1 - Changed Assault Rifle to use Mow 'Em Down. Added alternative choices for Specs.
10/1, later - added note about ATs outputting more damage than identically-powered FFs. Dropped note about Lightning Reflexes.
:: reserved for future updates ::
Smoke Grenade! Take Escape Artist. The enemies affected by it will be unable to attack you for the duration of Escape Artist's debuff... until you attack. Great for aggrodumping when you're in danger.
Skip Paint the Target.
Sniper Rifle is amazing and extremely useful for opening fights. One-shotting a troublesome Master Villain from out of their range never gets old.
Retaliation doesn't need any points.
Doing all 5/5s for your Talents is probably better. Mine are:
Dex/Rec
Dex/Ego
Ego/Rec/
Con/Dex
Con/Ego
Con/Rec
Right now I'm running a Soldier decked out in all Silver Champs rec gear, her primary defense is all about bonus HP, and that extra 1.7k health above an average Soldier is extremely helpful!
I've got 241 Dex, 242 ego and 222 Rec, with a hefty 52.9% crit chance and 86.3% severity, which one might think is rather low, but I still hit incredibly hard.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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Cupid@Tool-box, stunningly radiant stag ready to play matchmaker between villain and arrow!
Vixon@Tool-box, frighteningly eager to summon despair for his adversaries!
Jebin Zedalu@Tool-box, elementalist weaponmaster. ...One of these things is not like the others!
But I feel that the Soldier peaks the second you get the SMG because the rest of the attacks are much later on and they're not that good.
SMG has a wider firing arc. I find that more useful when mobs are running at you. And since GG self-roots you it just makes you a target for the baddies coming in at a different angle.
Decent first strike assuming you're somewhere you can use the range to your advantage. Useless otherwise.
There's really no other places to put your points. But if there were, I'd suggest skipping these turkeys.
And Frag Grenade is a decent way to clear some space if you start to get overwhelmed.
Wait? Whaaaa..?
Most soldiers won't pick frag grenade for the sheer fact that shotgun is your essential kb and nttg carrier. Frag would be nice as a random bonus power, but given the choice, shotgun wins over based on sheer functionality.
There's more than 5 of us that pvp - and we typically won't do it with ATs anymore.
Gatling and sniper are core powers for my soldier. Gatling simply puts out more damage than rocket can, and sniper rifle, while limited, can be used very effectively in the right situations.
As Keiko said, skip paint - I never touch the energy builder anymore since the changes, that alone boosted my soldier's damage well beyond what it used to be.
Also, as keiko said, smoke with escape artist - it's the only AT with the option, take it. Used well it's very
powerful.
Oh and forgot. R2 Mow em Down for AR is your best damage option. Constant taps are less efficient negating the benefit of going for r3 instead.
Thanks for the feedback, everyone!
Here's the update notes:
9/30 - Dropped 'Paint the Target' from Recommended to Optional. Completely changed discussion of SMG. Expanded discussion of Frag Grenade. Added 'Escape Artist' to Recommended list. Changed discussion of Sniper Rifle to 'try it out.'
Some specific comments:
- When running bosses like Gravitar or the invading Mega-Destroids, extra ranks of your block skill make a large difference in saving you from their massive one-shot attacks.
- The difference between your talents and the ones in the build are pretty trivial if you count the points. Also, you'll note that Berlin was built for D/A gear at endgame. It sacrifices about 700 HP (which is a lot). But you'll make that back in one dodge against the big boss attacks. And the extra mitigation you get makes the little healing available to you (notably healing devices) go a lot further.
- I'll ping my friend and get him to send me a screenshot of Berlin's current stats. Posting those would certainly improve the Gear section.
My most likely next review is for Marksman. There is a similar situation with a FTP Silver friend I'm helping with their build. I'm trying to focus on the completely free ATs, to help people new to CO (like CoX refugees) get started.
I'm not sure what that would be referring to - ATs are subject to the same diminishing returns mechanics as FFs.
I did some testing of full-maintain damage with AR, and Rk 3 was better than Mow em Down. Higher damage numbers across the board mean that Mow em Down only produces superior damage numbers in the middle third of the maintain. That testing was prior to On Alert, though.
I do applaud seeing AT guides, especially ones updated for post-On Alert and form changes. As for Marksman, there was an excellent Archery guide that took an approach of being relevant to FFs and the Marksman AT both. The guide was... um...
*hits search function*
http://co-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=152041
There we go.
Might be useful research while putting together your own guide for the AT.
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I'm updating the OP with Berlin's stats in a sec.
I wish I can link something but there's been a lot of stink about it, multiple times at that. Same exact stats, powers, and ranks with the FF performing considerably lower. Hopefully you didn't think Soldiers regularly topping charts would be because everyone is that terrible at playing, hehe. Well, I take that back, most of the playerbase probably is that terrible at doing DPS.
AR R2 Mow Em Down will output more DPS than GG on a full maintain. But given a crit build, anything that won't take a full maintain of AR dies faster with GG, specifically 1 health bar enemies. GG's initial DPS is higher than AR.
The guide has been updated to reflect that.
Let me see if I can find it...
EDIT: Yep, Silverspar tested it. I believe there are some hard numbers further into the thread.
That Dork In The Suspenders, signing out.
WARNING: Not An Actual Internet Reviewer
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Soldier AT: 7386 (8124) on a non-crit
Freeform with identical powers: 5847 (6432)
That was with 8 stacks of Concentration, 5 stacks of Relentless Assault, and Lock On (proc'ed with Assault Rifle). Both characters were Level 40 firing at a Level 40 Powerhouse Test Dummy.
So the AT nets out 26.3% more.
Updating the guide to mention this.