Trader: Raid traders&how to get there

[trgeorge]

Damage wise it's easy for a trader to attend raid. Press 'Q' and go afk. Nanos are a bit trickier mainly since they last 3 minutes tops and have high nanoresist.
Buffin' self/other :
Quantum uncertainty ( Fixer speed/evade overruns it)
Damage modifier line( Soldiers have better buffs…overruned again)
Umbral wrangles( if you're not able to cast umbrals don't bother with normal ones)
Others buffin' you :
Composite infuses/mochams( drains have high nano requarments/resists…every bit helps)
Personal notum harvest( drains also gorge up your nano )
Damage/AR increasing buffs (Essence/Mark/other…..almost impossible for trader to get aggro even at full offence…and if you do you won't survive long)
Drains :
Plunder/divest( it does increase your AR but mainly for casting other drains if you don't have enough skill)
Drain nano resist( either to land drain AC or to help land NSD )
Drain AC( 2 stacking RK ones and SL one….if you have all don't bother with lower RK one)
Secondary nanos :
Calms/mezzes (Crats/NTs have better and easier to land ones…but help if you can)
Heals(trader heals others are DoT for himself but don't loose tank…. trader self heal is DoT for mob)

Main problem at raids is landing those drains or/and duration of those drains. Magic word here is drain pet (mob, usually gray, you train to raid location to use for plunder/divest…. no matter how you'll advertise it's pet and no one should attack it, sooner or later someone will kill it). If it's higher level mob (or if there are lower level raid participants) have it calmed. Oh…and park it away enough so mongo won't aggro it.

And now how to get your trader high enough to contribute (as good as he/she can) at raids. I won't talk about xp here, or teaming (you can do all that's listed above) but mainly on trader skills/nanos/weapons.

Race :
Any race is valid…maybe most atrox since traders are squishy and heals have too long execution time and are too low to make big difference.

Skills to raise :
Agility/Strenght - Shotgun depends on it and shotie is trader's best friend (MP too but that to follow)
Body development - get your HP as high as possible, even so it might not be enough at times
Nano pool - you'll need it at higher level since drains use up loads of it, especially if they don't land
Shotgun - only dark green weapon skill, drains can make trader valid other-weapon wielder, but only at mid level
Ranged init - shotguns are slow
NanoC init - yet again no problems at lower levels, but you don't plan to attend raid with lower level trader, do you?
Time&space - divest/plunder req….one of most important skills for trader
Psyho modification - divest/plunder req….one of most important skills for trader
Computer literacy - at level 30-40 trader can equip 6x belt without much troubles (lowest at ql 160) and after equiping ql 200 NCU you can let this skill rest for quite a while

Secondary skills to raise :
Atributes - usually can wait till title cap, it mostly depends on armor (if you're going for Tier)
Evades - those too can wait till title cap, traders can get along pretty much without them till 10 levels below new title
Other nano skills - raise at need, but do keep in mind drains and composites from thy other best friend (MP) can help a lot
Tradeskills - not essenctial for raid only trader, but if you wish…. just bear in mind that traders are secondary tradeskillers and there's huge gap between engies and them

Nano lines :
Plunder/divest - you can buy those at shops at lower ql and roll missions for higher ql, there's special use for them ' laddering' but about that later, they don't affect mobs, blue/red line stack
Calms - can help a lot at soloing or in teams when no other calmer around
Heals - heal self/other, yet again it can help but doc,MA,MP, adv are better healers…remember that healing others will damage you and self healing will work as small nuke (breaks calms)
Mezz - with insane meele range they are mainly useless since area mezz isn't available till higher levels (blitzing)
Drain AC - they affect mobs so use it at will for that extra damage, also some of them stack
AC transfer - mostly useless
Wrangles - both solo/team lasts for 3 min and they drain your skills, higher team wrangle can at certain point be helpfull to chaincast in mission. Also useable at start of mission so your commarades can cast better buffs. Premium team wrangle stack with itself so if teamed with trader can give awesome boost.
Umbral wrangles - SL stuff, doesn't stack with anything but at least doesn't drain you
Quantum uncertainty - only evade nano, quite good but fixer nano overruns it
Damage line -team/solo, either gives small +add damage or adds range init, highest team one is broken since introduced and no fix in sight
Computer literacy buffs- with those trader can equip best belts and NCU early in carrier, extremely handy but also responsible for good low level twinks and constant nerfs because of it
Drain nano resist - say goodbye to nano pool and be sure you have enough time to cast, extremely helpfull at raids, high nano resist on them and only available in SL
Grid- if no other grider/warper available use it to help your team out of mission, best solo one takes whooping 3 min to execute, best team one 1 min
Nano drain - you'll only get 5 ticks out of it, but if you need nano (slow ticks tho) go for it
Lend nano- mostly begged for by fixers trying to equip GA
Team add nano - as most team stuff it will hurt you more than other will get, but this is basicly a joke line (adds 100 )
Tradeskill line- Not essential, unlike engie one you can buff others too
Loan body - intended as a kind of trader's pet, but a joke since whole line broken from introduction, even if it would work it'd had limited use. Try it sometime for a laugh, but read instruction first and save before.
Anti snares - They help in missions but not essential

Weapons :
Go for shotguns, it will hurt you the least IP wise, with proper usage it can do good damage (on RK). At lower and mid levels you can get aggro and hold it.
Vektors- only shotgun req, you can equip quite high one (ql 180 highest), slow but decent damage, can get trader from level 40 to 120 if switched for higher ql regularly
Krutt - fling special, usable for lvl 120+, quick but low damage. It depends on low light targeting scopes (-ranged init) and +% buffs to be valid weapon ( boy when those crits land J )
Ithaca - fling and AS special, basicly same as krutt but lower crits. Good for missions if you run into room ahead of team and are able to surprise opponents to land FA (13k at level 140 to ql 200 mob)
Maw of abyss- decent but slow weapon, good on SL too (chem damage ) if you don't get Mudurlugu
Mudurlugu - best SL weapon for trader (don't expect it to be uber at higher levels tho)
pump - used by low level PvP twinks, have no experience with it
MTI GO4U - trader's Corpse cutter, extremely rare dyna drop, don't bother, krutt,itacka, maw are better weapons
Sweet Tear Eye Wind Onehander - rare boss drop, IP expensive, might be good PvP option
Shatterguns, sacrosanct shotguns- not great, but better than nothing if you don't get Mordulugu

Armor :
Basicly anything you can slam on you. I'd recommend sta/str based ones since you need that skill for shotgun. Have no experience with barter. SL stuff has some strange req to say the least (doc/trader, enf/trader, engie/fix/trader). Special: Bag of exchange(it changes into one of 6 sets by rightclick). Never tested it for AC values, but might come handy for twinking into something.

Perks: waiting to be added

Some leveling strategies:
Buffs: get CI/CM whenever possible mainly because 'laddering', +% crits when using some shotguns
'Laddering' - cast best drain you can on mob, then cast best other color drain on it ( it stacks), and again first color drain, then second color one, etc…that way you can cast drain you lack skill at start. Can give quite a boost to your AR and you'll able to equip much better weapon (usually traders run around with OE weapons when not in fight). Downside to this is that drains last only for 3 mins and blue line has high nanoresist.
Shoot&calm - If you engage mob a tad to tough for you, you can always calm it ( to heal up or run away) provided you didn't use DoT perk.

Shortcuts:
I used to have couple of divest/plunder nanos for 'laddering', calm and maybe heal. But bear in mind that if after laddering drains run out you might not be able to cast calm on shortcut (keep lower one on 2nd or something)

Final word:
Traders are versatile and fun to play till mid levels. Can solo well, be a good low level PvP twink and perform well in team (different roles if needed). They reach their peak fairly soon…around level 160. After that it's just dull old leveling (you have best nanos, best weapon). Due to lack of better SL weapons and extending nano lines they are impossible to solo at high levels in SL.

*Still have to add links, perks and correct some names*

[Smacdevil]

Very nice post TR You sure covered lots of stuff here and I can't find anything I disagree with, hehe

Just one little thing: The Engi tradeskill buffs aren't self only, at least not the 'Mastery' line. Could have changed recently, I don't know.