FM .... is it usable or useless now?

**Tefnut**

Has anyone had any type of success using FM with CR2? I haven't seen anything written about FM here anywhere. If there is please just point me to it... FM is ironically the only one I did not give away when I left.

Agricola_Zax

I haven't seen too many people using it by itself, but many people mix it with a guns or martial arts loadout.

phaydren

a good loadout is to mix a partial fm with um or physcian as some of the buffs cover up weaknesses in the other tree +fm has some good aoe heals and buffs.

the best combo is to go in as a full loaded howitzer and have someone buff you with improved hacking

i roll 1000+ with code nuke3.0 and codbomb2.0 aginst most npcs and a decent ammont of damage for a hacker agains a fullly loaded lv50 with resistances.

fm mixed with upgrade master is an excelent support tree that i am testing at the moment although there are some issiues im working out , like some fm upgrades deleting the better upgrade master ones

EG: the improved hacking buff (viral damage 78 , healing 3 SMILEY

overrides Upgrade master (too many to list off the top of my head - max buffer +250 max health +200 increased ct and viral damage i think )

That is not a good thing. hacker benifit more from the um buff than improved hacking yet it deletes the better um.

maube an error on the devs part or an intentional nerf ?

**Bayamos**

FM can be very good if done right.

**Tefnut**

I use a wide mix of all of the patcher branch with my FM loadout. It was pretty mean in the old system, but not very effective with the new system... I am still tweeking though. Thanks for the responses, y'all.

**Bayamos**

Here's a little hint:

Combat Aura 2.0

Message Edited by Bayamo on 06.18.2006 11:13 AM
Message edited by Bayamos on 06/18/2006 07:13:36.

Xcesss

You can no longer use FM to just sit in interlock untouched, nor survive multiple free firing baddies. I had fun with a proxy/healer combo. I sat in combat buffed and healing whilst the sim hacked the opponent to death. As most people try to kill the player first not the SIM it surprised a fair few folk. Take cheap shot and low blow.

But basically it will never again be possible to run in and laugh as the zerg tries to kill you, and misses.

Ah, the good ol days.

*wipes tear*

Interlocked, bulldogged, shot at, and still fast healing and heals keeps me alive whilst I outroll the MA constantly. And I was only level 47 against 50's! FM rocked my soxors

Fatmop

Last I tried using my FM tree, I had much beef with it. Here's mah problem:

Combat Auras unstackable. Combat Aura 2.0 would rarely affect anyone on my team because their own trees - gunner, martial arts, whatever - all had "higher versions" running. Whatever damage buffs they applied to themselves from the operative tree were getting in the way. To compound the problem, Combat Aura 1.0 overrode Combat Enhancement. If you don't want combat enhancement and Combat Aura to stack, make Combat Enhance override Combat Aura and not vice versa. These two hacks are supposed to be the primary use of this tree - to run into battle, constantly buffing your allies' damage and accuracies - and it isn't happening because they don't stack.

**Aquatium.**

As its always been intended its much more a team loadout now than a tank as it was in the old system. If used right, very effective in team work (just try the IS costs on some abilites that prove this)

Fatmop

But the IS costs on those abilities don't matter because the abilities don't do anything! They don't stack, they're completely useless! It's like saying, "Hey, look, I can waste only a NOMINAL amount of Inner Strength to walk around and get shot at!"

**Aquatium.**

Whats good?

Improved Hacking

Combat Aura 1.0
Combat Aura 2.0
Viral Deflect

All those can be run together, with a team on gunmen/ma it helps a lot, add heals and rez as well as recall abilites it can be quite useful.

Granted you need a certain type of team for it to work, but the right team can take advantage of FM with corpsmen.

Fatmop

Improved Hacking and Viral Deflect work, but then, if you want a good viral D buff, use the one on the Trauma tree, since that's generally what people run alongside FM. As I've stated before, Combat Auras do not work the way they should. Combat Aura 1.0 does not do anything more than a combat enhancement - and actually deletes it. Combat Aura 2, last I checked, didn't even stack with things like GM buffs - when using combat aura 2.0 on my team, EVERY SINGLE MEMBER had a 'higher version' running without any external buffs. Gunmen and martial artists can't get that buff.

I'll agree that viral deflect and improved hacking are good, but without the combat aura bonuses that seem so pitifully lacking these days, FM is not a cost-effective tree in terms of memory slots.

**Spadz**

Little input here for those who want to use it...

Partial FM and Trama Surgeon can be loaded together with a touch of Guardian patcher and you have a great team healer/supporter.

Problems: Abilities don't stack. Combat Auras should stack. Why would I run an ability that costs IS/time when I can simply use a similar ability one time for a fixed Is cost with a longer duration?

Viral Shielding should stack with Hyper Deflect. Why would I use Viral Shielding (high level ability) when I can use HyperDeflect? I know.. the memory costs, but really.. ?

Combat Auras should not delete CE 1.0 or the Corpsman upgrades.

Deflect Bullets is also screwed up.

That "higher version" stuff is true and it's just wrong IMO.

In fact.. I'm going to CCR this right now. SMILEY

Nicodemusx

I played with this load last night and liked it. Of course it has pro's and cons. But has anyone else noticed the weakness of most loads is the fact that you cannot load thrown and ballistic defense?

Well balanced so far, although I have found people using another killer load. And right now it's killer. It's the return of the H