Eternal Soldier Guide

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Contents

[edit] About this guide

The intention of this guide is to advise those relatively new to the game looking to create an Eternal Soldier who is an effective combatant. This guide is not intended to advise those who seek to create exotic, unusual, or otherwise sub-optimal builds in the name of characterful role play or what is termed 'flavour'. It is my opinion that someone who has a desire to create such a character has done so quite specifically and really doesn't want nor need the advice of this guide.

[edit] The Eternal Soldier Class

At last count the Eternal Soldier (ES) was the most popular tier 3 unaligned class and for good reason -- he has the best innate soak of the myrmidon exits, potentially a very high dodge rating, ability to do well with all weapon types, along with a great movement ability and powerful aura. The ES is valued because (among other things) they significantly up the odds of the stronghold surviving a raid, and provide a strong backbone to raiding parties. The ES’s weaknesses are that he can’t fly, and that he can be outclassed in damage output per attack.

In this brief overview of the class I hope to guide you in your choices of making a standard, powerful, and importantly efficient Eternal Soldier.

[edit] The Beginning

The following are the seven types of ES builds you should consider differentiated by the main weapon choice:

Why have you excluded ‘XXXX’ weapon tree combination? Yes, yes, I’m not suggesting an ES can’t make use of improvised melee weapons or use Thrown Weapons rather I’m suggesting these above are the optimum character builds.

Why would I take only a single weapon type when two are better? You only have a certain amount of CPs so it’s a toss up regarding what you want your character to be able to do and what you’re prepared to sacrifice. I highly recommend you always pick up the crafting tree of your chosen weapon type, but you will gimp your character if you try to pick up two weapon trees and two weapon crafting trees. Hand-to-Hand has no crafting tree, and the two gun trees share the same gun smithing tree – synergy is important and links to my appreciation of efficient character builds. It is also worth noting that just because one may take small arms as a single focus it in no way prevents one from using long arms weapons to attack wards and doors despite the reduced accuracy – shotguns are particularly good at dealing with the latter.

Why not Long Arms on its own? Long Arms is powerful, but the ammo is rare, you are of no use if you have no ammo to attack with. You certainly can go Long Arms but you may well find yourself bowing out of raids because you don’t have enough ammo to be useful. The ES’s great strength is always being prepared – by limiting yourself to Long Arms you risk not taking advantage of your class’s main advantage which is woefully inefficient.

[edit] Mortal – Tier 1

The main focus of tier 1 is to set your character up with all the most vital tier 1 skills – weapons skills, crafting skills, and if using a ranged weapon search. You can also choose skills which I class as ‘secondary tier 1 skills’ if you need to ‘burn’ some CP before tier 2 – remember you can only take a maximum of 40CP with you into tier 2.

Your first skill, and by that I mean the one you choose at creation should be the first weapon skill of your chosen primary weapon type.

Your subsequent choices should be based on maxing you chosen weapon tree, or making it easier for you to find ammo – there’s not necessarily a *right answer* to this – you’ll know if you wish to hit more often or find ammo more often. The stronghold safe with it’s selection of ammo and weapons may or may not effect your choices early on in regards to the order of skills you take – you can earn XP through crafting but really combat yields the most XP quickest.

Primary Tier 1 Skills

Tier 1 = 105CP

Small Arms

70CP

Melee

80CP


While you can take up to 40CP with you to tier 2 I recommend only taking 20 so you can buy that first tier 2 skill; we have in effect 85CP to spend during tier 1.


Secondary Tier 1 Skills

Tertiary Tier 1 Skills

  • Everything else…


Skills Advice for Exclusively Hand to Hand Eternal Soldiers Previously the usual advice for Eternal Soldiers was to avoid boxing but because of the child skills of The Way of the Whirlwind which you *will* be buying boxing becomes quite desirable (if not mandatory) especially as it will help you level up in the early days.

Skills Advice for Eternal Soldiers with Hand to Hand as a Secondary Weapon Tree You should be cautious when investing CP into what is effectively your 'backup weapon'. Hand to Hand has a number of expensive upgrades skills in tier 3 which as a character with 2 weapon trees and a crafting tree you cannot afford. Remember hand to hand is useful to you because it gives you a backup weapon which doesn't need you to buy a crafting tree to maintain (saving you CP), plus gives you a nice dodge bonus. Avoid purchasing the skill boxing (you wont be buying any of the tier 3 60CP skills which make your punch attacks stronger) and instead wait to purchase the tier 3 30CP skill The Way of the Whirlwind which ups the damage of your kicks. Once you have purchased The Way of the Whirlwind resist investing any more CP in hand to hand related skills.

Skills Advice for Exclusively Melee Eternal Soldiers As you can see above melee costs you a ton of CP to max but frankly it has to be done. Some people claim expert blade combat is optional, especially if you intend to get the crafting tree but I disagree – there’s nothing worse than your lovely new enchanted +5 sword breaking in combat making you less accurate and frankly melee can’t suffer from lower accuracy especially when attacking higher level enemies. Depending on the faction you’re in (if in one at all) you may feel you can leave expert blade combat until tier 3, your decision will be based on the availability of pristine swords and whether you have access to a weapon enchanter.

[edit] Myrmidon – Tier 2

This is easy, your objective as a Myrmidon is thusly: take every myrmidon skill except Focused Attack and Meditation. In addition if you are exclusively hand to hand do not purchase Weapon Mastery as the +5% does not apply to hand to hand attacks. Whatever you do though take Enhanced Senses first (perhaps the best skill in the game). There should be no other Myrmidon skills that you pass up on however tempted you are to save some CP.

  • Enhanced Senses
  • Weapon Mastery does not help exclusively hand to hand Eternal Soldiers as they don't use weapons!
  • Strong Attack
  • Improved Critical
  • Super Reflexes
  • Focused Attack while no doubt useful for your tier 2 levelling is superseded by The Way of Fire at tier 3 so taking it will be a waste of CP. Some may argue that because focussed attack damages MP there are grounds to take both however I disagree. You're going to be taking The Way of Fire anyway and spending 20CP just to have the option to damage MP is simply not worth the expenditure.
  • Meditation is not a bad skill rather it is rendered unnecessary if you simply make the effort of expending a few AP to find a first aid kit. The availability of The Way of the Antitoxin in Tier 3 really does make Meditation unnecessary -- being able to heal 5HP for 5MP isn't worth 20CP.

You can take a maximum of 70CP with you to tier 3 however it is popular to take 30 and expend some CP on useful Secondary Tier 1 skills depending on your final build.

[edit] Eternal Soldier – Tier 3

No matter your weapon choice or character type the first three skills any Eternal Soldier should take are the following:

Once the above are taken we move on to the passive buff Eternal Soldier skills:

After the above six skills have been taken we move in to the specialised Eternal Soldier skills:

  • The Way of Void is perhaps one of the most powerful skills in the game however unfortunately for you spending 30CP on it is purely an act of altruism. Eternal Soldiers who raid regularly may well wish to invest in this skill as your faction mates will certainly appreciate it's effects. Factionless Eternal Soldiers can safely ignore this skill however as can Eternal Soldiers who already raid with others with this skill.
  • The Way of the Whirlwind significantly increasing the usefulness of the Hand to Hand Combat skill tree beyond an increased dodge bonus giving you a useful fall back weapon if you find yourself running low on ammo.
    • The Master of the Martial Form An absolute must for exclusively Hand to Hand Eternal Soldiers but for any other type of Eternal Soldier it's 60CP cost rules it out. The extra damage and accuracy this skill provides punch attacks raises them to a level comparable to other weapon trees at tier 3.
    • The Master of Hidden Energy Again like it's sibling skill above this is invaluable to the exclusively hand to hand Eternal soldier but an inefficient choice to those who only want hand to hand as a backup weapon tree. Although comparably small 4MP is still expensive if you wish your punches to deal an exotic damage type each time you attack but despite this having the option is invaluable. Exclusively hand to hand Eternal Soldiers should purchase this after The Master of the Martial Form.
  • The Way of the Antitoxin is an undervalued skill, for 30CP it prevents one of the most devastating combination attacks in the game – the agony curse poison combo. It is true however that the situation where by you may face a Defiler exit class varies from character to character. Obviously you can leave the skill until last to choose however it is good enough to consider adding to your build.
  • The Way of the Armorer is very useful for those who use ranged weapons but it’s child skill The Master of the Hidden Storehouse is of questionable use for characters in factions with stronghold upgrades such as a forge or gunsmithing workbench. Obviously I do not recommend either skills for a melee user – you don’t need ammo and you’re not wasting 90CP on the ability to repair your sword on the fly. The Master of the Hidden Storehouse most benefits factionless Eternal Soldiers, the sort of characters who need to hide a long way away from the nearest factory or smithy.
  • The Way of the Accurate Hand is obvious in it's application and worth – if you’ve chosen the throwing tree for your ES then you’ve already decided to do something very specific with your ES and likely have little use for this guide – for everyone else, avoid this skill.
  • The Master of the Iron Fist, The Master of the Sunlit Eye, The Master of the Swirling Blade have recently been buffed (from 2% to 5%) promoting them to decent skill status. Melee and Hand to Hand Eternal Soldiers have the most to gain from these skills and should seriously considering buying one not only because they have relatively low accuracy but because they never need to reload. Unfortunately reloading weapons counts as breaking the chain of hits so ranged weapon Eternal Soldiers should remain wary. It is best to leave these skills to the very end of the build whatever you decide.
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