This week’s Friday Feature is courtesy of player Jacobus with contributions by Kelta. Thank you for the excellent breakdown of EiF’s profession choices!
For those of you familiar with the rise and fall of Star Wars Galaxies during live, you’ll remember several professions to choose from during the Pre-CU and CU eras. NGE shrunk that number to nine linear professions. There was good and bad to be found in both systems and the developers of Empire in Flames have combined all of the good into one brand-new system!
The developers here put it best:
“Think of the professions as what you do and the skill trees as how you do it.”
With Empire in Flames you build your template by investing skill points into branches across several skill trees ranging from rifleman to pistoleer, artisan to armorsmith, or musician to image designer. All of that, I’m sure, sounds familiar. However now there are eight trees which have been set aside as “professions.” These professions allow you to play with builds you enjoy while also finding a unique niche in the galaxy!
Professions
Bounty Hunter
Bounty Hunters have a whole slew of special abilities which can be used with any weapon from sword to pistol, rifle to pike, in order to apply states, bleeds, fire, or just unadulterated levels of damage. Bounty Hunters also make use of the Bounty Hunter Mission Terminals to get access to NPC bounties which have some rather profitable payouts in addition to a chance to drop some decent loot.
Unique Skills & Abilities
- Droid Track: The ability to use droids to track NPC bounties across the galaxy.
- Rich Movepool: Bounty Hunters have access to more specials (and therefore more states and debuffs) than any other profession making them a powerhouse when it comes to DPS.
Commando
The commando has access to heavy weapons and blast damage allowing them to deal serious damage against turrets and walkers in GCW events, as well as anything else with those specific vulnerabilities. As Masters of heavy weapons, they can use:
- plasma flame throwers and their specials to inflict action burns
- acid launchers to do the same to the mind pool
- launcher pistol with blast damage and access to all of the pistol specials one may learn as a pistoleer.
Unique Skills & Abilities
- Rocket Launchers & Grenades: With these weapons, commandos can do massive amounts of damage in one volley.
Doctor
Doctors are some of the best healers in the galaxy. What gives the Doctor their edge is in their abilities to heal states, heal from a distance, and heal over an area. Those skills make them a much better healer for groups or large-scale engagements than the pocket/single-target healer that is the typical medic. Additionally, they are able to buff players beyond their normal levels to bolster the numbers found floating in their health and action pools for an added edge in combat. Also, a doctor with a good understanding of crafting can produce some very good medicines for themselves or those in the market.
Unique Skills & Abilities
- Area Heal: In large engagements where many players are taking damage, this is a welcome reprieve.
- Ranged Heals: Able to heal from a range, a doctor is able to keep themselves further from danger and therefore healing longer.
- Heal States: Be it something like blind, dizzy, or stun or something more pressing like bleeds and fire, the doctor is able to cure the state and remove the disadvantage.
- Buffs: Though not necessary like they once were given the redistribution of HAM stats in Empire in Flames, buffs are still a necessary bonus when every point matters.
Entertainer
Entertainer is a great complement for the other professions that were a part of its line on live. They are able to earn a new fame stat which increases the payout for entertainer missions and they get access to more flourishes and instruments than one otherwise would as just a dancer or musician.
Unique Skills & Abilities
- Fame: Money tight? Well for anyone famous enough, the NPCs on the mission terminals will be more than happy to pay larger sums for someone worth the notoriety.
Merchant
Merchants are able to run a business like no other. They set up vendors and have some interesting ways to cut costs when it comes to things like overhead, maximizing their profits or the profits of those utilizing their unique service. As a Merchant, crafters can make some serious money by getting their product out there rather than just waiting for referrals or requests. With the server’s reliance on merchants over the bazaar terminal, their services are invaluable!
Unique Skills & Abilities
- Lower Maintenance Costs: This helps cut down overhead on your place of business for better profit margins.
- Hire & Dress Vendors: This will allow for branding as well as organization of your goods for your shoppers.
Ranger
Rangers are the explorers and frontiersmen of the galaxy, having better terrain negotiation and burst run duration than any of the other professions, an ability to track players, NPCs, and animals, as well as added defenses against wild creatures they may encounter. Additionally, they can craft and throw traps in order to apply all sorts of debuffs and snares to both creatures and players. All of that coupled with a unique ability to harvest organic resources from felled animals makes them unrivaled hunters. Lastly, when all is said and done, rangers can also craft and set camps in the wild in order to provide the benefits otherwise found back in cities.
Unique Skills & Abilities
- Harvest: Rangers are the only profession able to harvest animal resources for crafters, giving them a rare niche in the galactic economy.
- Traps: Throw these can help prevent animals or players from escaping and can complement your build with debuffs you may not otherwise have access to.
Smuggler
Right now this profession is waiting for the Underworld Release which will come after the Jedi Release on the current development road map. However that does not make them useless by any means, as they have access to some specials that are unique and damaging and (just as is the case with bounty hunter) weapon agnostic. Smugglers also have the ability to purchase faction points, effectively buying their way into the good graces of either the New Republic or the Empire. Skilled slicers, Smugglers can also assist crafters by slicing weapons and armor for better results and they are able to slice mission terminals for bigger paydays.
Unique Skills & Abilities
- Slicing: Be it a terminal for a larger payout or improving weapons and armor, this is how a smuggler will make their money.
Squad Leader
As the name implies, this is a profession designed to lead groups into battles and other content. Squad Leaders possess abilities which can increase the damage output of their group, increase the group’s speed and mobility, help with wounds, utilize system messages for better communication, etc. They are a valuable asset in the increasingly tough instanced dungeons being released and an absolute necessity in the large-scale PvP offered by the Galactic Civil War events.
Unique Skills & Abilities
- Retreat: This temporarily allows for better movement speed and terrain negotiation for everyone in the group.
- Volley Fire: Makes the attacks of those in the group more effective as a whole.
Jedi
Sandarie
Community Manager