First off lemme start this with saying that this is a comprehensive guide for beginners as well as veteran players just wanting to try something new. This guide is not designed around any one specific breed and I will try to be as all encompassing as possible while maintaining a compactness for server space. With that said lets begin.

-Stokely

Atlantean

The above chart represents the starting value's for each breed with the Doctor class. In the beginning game this is an insignificant value. However it serves as a valuable refference as to how each breed progresses in the big scheme of things. With all things being equal and relatively speaking the values shown in the chart give you a good look at how these stats will look in advanced levels. I do believe this site has an already made chart representing each breeds Ability cap so I'll not waste the space reproducing it. If not email me and I'll send you one or I will provide a self made chart in a later installment.

To make this simple the Nano Mage has the upper hand with Abilities. Abilities are your six primary stats. Which in turn affect your skills. At lower levels the effect is minor however at higher levels it is quite significant. The down side to a Nano Mage? As you can see with the above chart their HP is absolutely laughable. With a doc that is a BIIIG no no. Pull aggro off of your team mates with a Group Heal and kiss your butt goodbye. So if your going to go with a Nano Mage you better keep that Body Development and Stamina maxed out to keep your HP up to par. Plus Nano Mage's just look goofy ; )

As with most classes a Solitus would be next in line, in terms of efficiency. Their Ability increase multipliers are set at a static 2 so your paying the same amount of ip's for each Ability. Their HP is the 3rd best of the four breeds. This is your well rounded no weakness, but no edge either, breed. My personal choice. And they're the second best looking of the four breeds. But that is purely a cosmetic aspect and has no serious bearing on the game.

Opifex and Atrox I have to say tie for third place when it comes to the Doc class. Neither of them are really suited for this role. The opifex's primary abilities are irrelevant to this class as is with the Atrox. Of the two the Opifex has the edge as far as Nano wise but the Atrox has the edge as far as armor and (obviously HP) plus an Atrox for some reason just looks cool no matter what armor they wear. But this is a moot point. If your choosing either of these breeds it should be out of fun as oppossed to having a determined character OR your looking for a serious challenge out of your doctor. I'm not saying these breeds are inferior. Not at all. Just not suited for this class. But it is pretty surprising, and fun, when you discover that the Doc for your group is an Atrox. ; )

I'm being suscinct with breeds in this guide because it's a simple matter and doesn't need more explanation then what was provided. That's the meat and potatoe's of breed selection. Everything else is just semantics.

Now on to the good stuff that really matters.

Doctors are suited for one purpose and one purpose only. Healing your team mates. If your looking for a soloing class you've come to the wrong place. Don't get me wrong. A Doctor is a decent solo'er. But if your going to solo with a Doctor your cutting your true efficiency by alot. The Doctor is the King of Grouping from levels 10-150. Every team wants one but no one wants to play one. Why doesn't anyone want to play one? Some see the role as monotonous (this group comprises mostly of those who have played a Doc to about level 50 at most). Others quit playing a Doctor because it's too stressful (this group has yet to pass level 150 at best). The role of a Doctor is fast paced. You have 1/2 a dozen things to worry about at once and you have to be quick to get all of them done and keep the group alive. It's fast paced and energetic. If you like that then stick with it and you'll have great satisfaction with your Doc. If your looking for easy. LOL sorry bud... you picked the wrong class : )

A Doctor's role is that of the group's main healer. If your lucky you'll have a good martial artist or adventurer to back your healing up in case things aren't going your way. But all in all when your in a group it's your responsibility to keep your damage dealers from biting the big one. They in turn will ensure that you stay alive by keeping the big meanies off of you, so you can get your job done.

As such your primary focus is going to be HEALING. I cannot stress this enough. From levels 10 to around level 130 you should NEVER have to put a single improvement point into a combat skill. EVER. Completely ignore all combat skills. Trust me, it all makes sense later on. Just keep reading.

Nano Skills:

There are only three nano skills you need to worry about from level's 1to 150. That's Biological Metamorphoses (Bio Met), Time & Space (T&S) and Matter Metamorphoses (Mat Met). These three skills are all you'll need to cast Group Heals, Single Heals, Heal Over Times (HoT) and your Group HP Buffs. These are the only nano's you will EVER have to worry about until level 150, roundabout. Bio Met is your primary skill and as such you really only have to have your Matt Met 3/4 of that of Bio Met. T&S should be maxxed with Bio Met because they are partner skills when it comes to your HoT's. Trust me there is a method behind the madness. Read on.

Evades:

Evades evades evades. I cannot stress enough on how important these skills are. However COMPLETELY ignore your Duck skll. Why? Because Trader mobs are a rarity, comparitively speaking, to other mobs you are going to encounter. So why even bother? No other mob utilizes a weapon which takes advantage of that evade. There's your odd mob here and there, but your arguing semantics if your complaining about this. So just keep your shorts on. However you need to keep your Evade Cl/Cs and Dodge Rng as high as you can. The reason? The higher your evades the less chance of a Critical hit on you. And we all know how much Critial Hits can put a damper in your day. So keep these two skills maxxed. Next is your Nano C Init. This skill modifies how fast you can get a nano off. This is a good thing. The faster you can get a healing nano off the better. That means you can cast more heals in less time thus increasing the efficiency and survivability of your group. Keep this skill maxxed at all times. Next to your nano skills this is your most important skill.

Misc. Skills:

On to Misc skills. Map Navigation is kind of important. Work on this skill from the get go. As soon as you make your character try to max this skill untill you can get it to 80. The reason is to get your map upgrades. This is kind of important because a Doc has to stay away from possible adds as much as possible. So knowing where they are is a must. The one thing that can hamper a Doc from doing his job more then anything is getting an add to aggro on him. Big no no. Now you've just doubled your healing load and eliminated the possibility of rechargint your nano pool and thus lowering your groups survivablity. Also with the map upgrades you know where all your team mates are as long as they stay within range. This is also a must with Doc's for obvious reasons. Once you get this skill up to 80, which should be as soon as possible, you can then add to it as you see fit. The next upgrade is the monster upgrade which is a nice one to have also and that is at skill 130. After that Map Nav is fairly obsolete other then to just gain maps. Work on it at your leisure. Next would be Computer Literature. A VERY important skill for one reason only. Nano Recompiler. This lil baby will make you the doc of the year. Fairly easy to obtain, the Nano Recompiler modifies your Nano C Init expanentially. However you need to have a Comp Lit of about 350 to equip the 6 slot belt that is required to wear the Recompiler (Recompilers are slot 6 only items). GET THIS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. It will make your nano's cast instantly. No casting time anymore. You have just tripled your efficiency and made whatever group you're with very lucky indeed.

Trade Skills:

So what about trade skills? If you wanted to do trade skills you picked the wrong class. The only Trade Skill worth investing in, and that's if you REALLY want to, would be Pharma Tech and Chemistry. Doctors are decent Weapon Smiths. But I ask you... why bother? For more information on Trade Skills look up a guide involving those skills. But that is a pure luxury in the most extreme sense. With the abundance of trade skill fanatics out there it's not very hard to get what you need made taken care of. But PT is a nice thing to have handy.

Run Speed:

Run Speed. I recommend that you completely ignore it till about level 100. But that is up to you. Run buffs are extremely easy to get, as fixers are numerous, so getting from point A to B without incident isn't a problem. Some argue that Run Speed is nice to have to get out of tight spots. I do agree but I wouldn't put an emphasis on this skill. If you're a Vet with the ability to buy a yalm for your character this skill is really obsolete for you. The true reason behind Run Speed, as any Vet will tell you, is blitzing (running through a mission and avoiding mobs solely for the purpose of attaining the reward). So don't worry about this skill till about 100. That's your choice though.

First Aid:

First Aid. Now this skill is arguable. It has obvious benefits. Helping you out in those particular times of need. A First Aid kit can save your life in those tight spots. However the other side of the coin is that because of your profession those tight spots are few and far in between. Especially with HoT's to back you up. This skill is totally up to you. I personally don't recommend it. Sure it's nice to have those FA's just in case but I really didn't see the point with this profession. Any other profession, rock on. But not with a Doc. Besides chances are your team mates, if they're smart, have a healthy supply in this skill anyway making your FA redundant. But again this is up to you.

Treatment:

And finally we have Treatment. Max this skill if possible. It is important for two reasons. 1.) Implants. The higher your Treatment the better Implants you can install. Hence adding to your efficiency. 2.) Nano Rechargers. Your best friend. They renew your nano pool so you can keep your heals flowing. Always keep a VERY healthy supply of Rechargers handy. T&S is the partner skill of Treatment when it comes to rechargers. So make sure your T&S is up to par. But it should be maxxed anyway if your paying attention to what I'm telling you. ; ) Treatment kits are nice also, but not really needed. You are a Doc after all ; ). But it's nice to have a small supply handy for bosses. Dropping down and quickly restoring you HP as soon as possible so you can get back up there and heal your team mates.

On to Abilities. Ah yes. This is a controversial area here. Nano Pool obviously has to be maxxed until higher levels where you can calm down on your IP expenditure in this Ability. Body Development should also be Maxxed until later levels. At which time you should be spending points at your leisure into this Ability. Hit Points are a big factor in survivablity. Make sure you have plenty. Intelligence should be maxxed constantly. This Ability is a huge factor in your Nano Skills. So keep the IP's flowing. Psychic and Agility are secondary factors with your nano skills. I recommend maxxing them nonetheless because Agility is the major Ability for your Evades and also affects your Nano C Init. Which we disscussed the importance of them earlier. Psychic, when paired with your maxxed Intelligence comprise the two abilities needed for Bio Mech armor. Argueably the best armor suited for Doctors. Psychic also plays a secondary role in your Nano Skills. Stamina is the primary Ability for Body Dev and is also going to be one of your main requisites for Implants. Sense will also be a main requisite for most of your implants. So it benefits to keep that high also. Sense aids in other areas as well. Strength. In my opinion the most useless Ability for Doctors. The only serious reason you should even consider putting a single ip in this Ability is for Armor. If you want the fancy Albrecht Tank Armor that is the rage nowadays, then yes feel free to expend the ip's. However your limiting yourself in other areas. Especially when there's plenty of armor out there which doesn't require the Strength Ability. But this is an argueable point and I won't debate on it further.

Now after looking through this guide I know the Vets out there are raising some eyebrows. "Your telling me that there is only 9 skills I have to worry about other then Abilities?" Yes that is exactly what I'm telling you. But only until level 150. Here's how it works boys and gals. As we all know the higher in level that you get the tighter ip expenditure gets relative to title level. If you follow these steps your are going to have one HEALTHY supply of ip's stashed away for those days when ip's get tight. Doctors are reaaaal easy when it comes to ip. Weapons are positively idiotic for a doctor prior to level 130. Your role is the Primary Healer. You should never touch a weapon. Damage is for the other classes. Keeping them alive is your role. If your spending time in combat your taking away from time needed for healing. Especially for those levels prior to your acquisition of a Nano Recompiler. You need every second you have to keep your party alive.

Now once you hit level 150ish the role of a Doctor becomes fairly obsolete. It's still nice to have one around but not neccesary unless going on a raid. Doctor's are beginning to be replaced with Martial Artist's and Adventurers at this stage of the game. So it's at this point that you should be investing ip's into a weapon. I prefer to begin weapon focus around level 130. At this point you should have quite a bit of ip's to be playing with and all your nano skills will be title capped. You should also have your ql 200 implants in by now as well. At level 150+ a Doctor with a weapon is much more desireable then one without. Because now parties are looking for a Doc that can deal damage as well as keep the party at max health. Why? Because at this level of the game damage taken by tanking classes and such are negligible. An MA or Adventurer can easily keep up with the healing required.

As far as weapon choice? Well since you haven't touched any of these skills you shouldn't have random ip's scattered throughout the board. And you should have a healthy supply of ip's (hopefully) to make whatever choice you want. A doctor is equally horrible with any choice of weapon. The only weapon skill that is even remotely easy for a Doc to progress in is Pistol. I would avoid it if I were you. Do some research into what kind of weapon you want to use and go for it. However do not choose a weapon that requires more then 3 skills tops. After all you don't have THAT many ip's to play with. I would recommend Shotguns. Vektor's to start out with, Waltzing Queens as your eventual upgrade and finally ending it with an Ithaca Snakemaster. This is ip conservative as well as getting a pretty good bang for your buck. But this is completely up to the taste of the player.

Once you hit level 150, or even before hand, you should dump ip's like crazy into Matter Creation (Mat Cret) and Psychological Modifications (Psy Mod). Because now that you are shifting your playing style from that of a solely healing to combat orientation those really nasty DoT's and Init Debuffs that Doc's are renowned for can finally come into play. Wrack and Ruin will positively ruin someone's day.

As of now I have 2 Doctors one of which attained level 130 within 4 Days 10 Hours game time. A fairly decent time frame. All of the skills talked about above are titled maxxed. She is currently equipped with full biomech (ql 170ish) and a Krutt Ithica Snakemaster (ql 199) non OE'd in all areas. My next 20 levels of ip's are free to play with. However the next 6 levels will more then likely be dumped into Psy Mod and Mat Cret to title max those skills. So basically she's 20 levels ahead of the power curve. I'm not telling you this to try to brag at all. This is only an example of what a Doctor, using this method, will look like at lvl 130. At level 40 and 80 this character was title maxxed with ip's to spare if this gives you any idea at all of the amount of ip's you will have to play with.

Well I hope this helps any of you who choose to take this route of Doctorhood. I wish everyone the best of luck with whatever class you choose. But for those of you who decide to stick with Doctor, more power to you and, I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I have. Feel free to contact me if you're ever on Rubi Ka 1. Stokely would be more then happy to answer any of your questions that you might have. GL and HH.

This guide was submitted by Stokely of Atlantean.