Welcome to Manaas’ Keeper guide, lifted from the old forums and updated for 2018.
Contents
- Breed
**Atrox
**Nanomage
**Opifex
**Solitus
- Skills and IP distribution
- Equipment
**Armour
**Back
**Shoulder
**Misc and Utilities
**Weapons
- Perks
- Nanos
- Lost Eden proc actions
1. BREED
Atrox: big fella
Advantages:
- Green Stam
- Green Strength
- More HP
- Others
STAMINA
-
Your 2he skill is 40% dependant on stamina, and having green stamina means you can increase your stamina with very minimal ips and your breed cap for stamina is higher. This means your 2he skill will be a be cheaper and higher than all the other breeds.
-
Also a lot of decent armour for keepers are stamina dependent so atroxes have an easier time equipping these armours.
-
body dev. which means you have cheaper and higher HP.
-
Brawling, a skill required for many of the best keeper weapons. It’s a great attack to have since it has a chance of stunning your opponent and does pretty decent damage as well.
-
Run speed, being faster is never bad eh
STRENGTH
-
Your 2he skill is 60% dependant on strength which means that you get cheaper and higher 2he skill. Armour again is strength dependant such as OFAB and combined mercs.
-
brawling again, for better brawls
-
runspeed again
-
sensory improvement is 20% dependent on strength, this can be useful for casting your self buffs for weapon skills, evades etc.
HP
How do you die? Your HP is reduced to 0, so having more HP means it takes longer for you to die, simple yet very effective way of extending your lifespan. Atroxes also get 4 HP for every body dev. point they raise so base HP will be a lot higher than the other breeds.
Others
Silken Legchopper gloves: 40 2he in glove slot, great for twinking on weapons earlier. Drops from Jack the Legchopper
Tiny Spider Band goes in your wrist slot where not many other items can add 2he here. Drops from Tiny in Adonis.
Disadvantages
- Intelligence
- Psychic
- Sense
Intelligence
-
Keepers now have melee energy as a supported weaponline and intelligence contributes to 50% to it. This means that an Atrox Keeper will have the second lowest base melee energy skill (above opifex).
-
All your nanoskills and also computer literacy are highly dependant on int (80-100%) having dark blue int means it is very expensive in ips to keep this ability up to date, you may find the nanos you’re able to cast are lower in quality compared to other keepers of different breeds at similar levels.
-
Computer literacy almost certainly will limit the quality of your ncu and therefore your ncu space as well.
-
Treatment and First Aid are also half dependant on int and this means the implants and symbiants will be slightly more difficult to equip.
Psychic
-
Keeper auras cost a lot of nanopoints and since nanopool is 70% depedant on psychic and it is dark blue for troxes then you may find you will have trouble casting your auras at the required levels without some sort of nanocost reducing buff or lend nano buff from traders and MAs.
-
Dimach is also psychic based which means you will get a lower heal out of it compared to other breeds
Sense
This will be a limiting factor in equipping symbiants as sense is required on quite a few of the support ones (brain especially)
Sense also affects a wide number of skills such as fastattack, evades, initiatives etc which are all useful to a keeper. Unfortunately as an Atrox these skills will be lower.
NANOMAGE: actually good now
Advantages
- Intelligence
- Psychic
- Nanopool
- Others
Intelligence
Green intelligence means you have a cheaper ip cost in raising your intelligence as well as having a higher breed cap. As a result you get some skills that are naturally higher such as:
Melee energy
Comp lit
nanoskills
treatment
Psychic
Main contributer to nanopool, will have an easier time getting enough max nano to cast those massive costing auras, also skills like dimach, initiatives, evades and nanoskills are dependent on this ability.
Nano
Nanomages get 4 points of max nano every nanopool point they raise which means you have to spend less ip on that dark blue skill to be able to cast your nanos. This also gives you an advantage should you decide to recast your auras while fighting to gain their effects faster.
Others
You can equip Shades of lucubration for a nice meaty 30 int/psy and also the nanomage unique sleeves: De’Valos Sleeves which add 30 to all nanoskills and also 30 ncu each (poor mans arithmetic armour). Shades drop from Mick McMullet in Clondyke and the De’Valos sleeves are created from powdered viralbots dropped by alien generals in city raids.
The Expensive Kevlar Vest of Professor Jones is another great item should you need more nanoskills. Drops from Professor Van Horn in Tir County.
Nanomage alien tank is a solid back item.
For 201+ you get a handy absorb and solid HUD item with the Nanomage endurance booster. Drops from the Lost Eden Dreadloch bosses:
Tiny spider band goes in your head slot, while there are better items that buff 2he there, it’s still quite good. Drops from Tiny in Adonis.
Sockdolager - Drops from RK Dynas. Right hand only so you need something for offhand.
Disadvantages
- Strength
- Agility
- HP
Str
Will hold you back if you decide to go for the 2he route. Your 2he will be lower than other breeds.
Other skills affected will be things like Brawl and runspeed
Agility
Agility is present on a lot of symbiants as well as being one of the more common ability requirements for implants. Getting in those symbiants and implants will be a little harder because of this.
HP
Nanomages only get 2 points of hp per point of body dev. so will have the lowest base hp compared to other breeds.
OPIFEX: Skinny fella, evades more than he hits
Advantages
- Agility
- Sense
- Other
Agility
-
Core skill that pops up in various different parts of a Keeper’s toolset: evades and inits being 2 and also our fastattack is 60% dependant on agility so you will generally find that an Opi keeper will have higher fastattack than other breeds.
-
This ability also has another advantage, you can make a lot of custom implants that are dependant on agility and since agility is so easy to buff it means you can equip a lot higher quality implants
-
Treatment is also a bit higher due to high agility
Sense
Not such an important skill for a keeper but your evades, inits, fastattack and treatment are dependant on this ability partially.
Opifexes have a cheaper and higher agi/sense so it makes sense to equip armour that requires it. Armour such as apocalypse leather/omni steel-ribbed, predator and crawler/prowler armour which adds to evades and inits, helping the opifex keeper to survive.
Other
You get some pretty interesting opifex only items to play with:
Blackpack more inits and evades. Drops from underwater dynabosses in Adonis.
Supporting Carbonan Holster for some strength boosting. Drops from Jack
Yuan chi’s/Aurea’s boots. Lovely runspeed. Drops from their respective temples bosses in Elysium.
Disadvantages
Stamina
Stamina is such an important skill for keepers, as most armour later on the game will require it (especially OFAB) it also crops up in a lot of main keeper skills such as 2he and brawl.
Opifex also has the lowest melee energy skill due to average int and below average stamina.
SOLITUS: All-rounder
No advantages or disadvantages to speak of here, unless you count being equally good at everything as an advantage. Solitus do get a lot of nice stuff at higher levels though so don’t completely shelf this breed . For the first 100 levels however you will probably find you will be behind atrox (and maybe even opifex) a bit but not by much. At least you won’t have any troubles casting your nanos and you can put on any type of armour you wish with relative ease. IP consumption is also a little on the high side due to all abilities being blue. It’s worth it in the end though so keep slugging at it!
Interesting Solitus only items:
Tangleblade alternative to cookie cutter weapons. Drops from RK dynas
Average gloves buffs a multitude of things, averagely. Drops from Ian Warr
Plaster circuit excellent for twinking on higher weapons. Drops from Trash King
Modifed Aggression enhancer 6% reflect projectile not too shabby. Drops from the Iron Reet
Tiny spider band this goes on your head. Drops from the dyna boss Tiny in Adonis.
2. SKILLS AND IP DISTRIBUTION
Since the 16.3 Patch, FC have introduced an automatic ip distributer that works until level 20: don’t use it, it puts ips into places that you don’t necessarily need at such a low level, these are the skills you should mainly focus on:
Abilities
-
Agility: max this every level, important implants and some armour depend on this
-
Strength: for 2he Max it, its a core keeper ability
-
Stamina: for 2he Same as above, a few implants can be made to require stamina and it is the easier skill to buff at low levels
-
Intelligence: All nanoskills, melee energy and comp lit are dependent on this so unless you don’t want to cast any nanos or have no ncu (not recommended) then you should max this skill.
-
Sense: If you are an opi then maybe you can afford this skill, but for any other breed you can easily survive without sense in the first 100 levels
-
Psychic: Nanomages may raise this if they REALLY want (since its green for them) but even then its probably one of the Keeper’s lowest priority skills in the first 100 levels.
Skills
-
Brawling: If you have a weapon with brawling, raise this just enough so you can equip it with buffs. Otherwise leave it alone until you have spare ips for more important skills
-
Dimach: Most keeper weapons have this special, now been changed to a 5minute cooldown (used to be one hour!) and heals you for an amount based on skill. 3000 heal at 1000 skill and 10500 at 2000. Raise only to equip weapons for the moment.
-
Riposte: only raise if the weapon requires it, afaik it still does nothing right now.
-
Melee energy: max if you’re using a melee energy weapon
-
2he: Max it if you’re using a 2he weapon.
-
Fastattack: Max this skill unless your current weapon does not support it. More of this skill means it will miss less and crit more.
-
Deflect: gives you a 0-10% chance to halve incoming damage based on skill. Not worth it at lower levels so just ip enough to equip weapons.
-
Melee init: I tend to max this as most of the weapons from 1-100 have relatively slow attack speeds, having high init also means you can start going defensive while doing the same damage. Plus it’s green and cheap so really no reason not to.
-
Nano init: Do not use IP
-
Dodge-rng: I would start putting IPs into this as you near level 100 (or if you start RK mission early then put it in earlier) because you will start to want to do tokens around then and RK mobs use ranged weapons.
-
Evade Clsc: I max this as it’s our cheapest evade skill and most mobs in SL that you will meet from level 1-100 check against this.
-
Duck exp: I leave this well alone, you have more important places to put IPs in. Get some later when you’ve got tons of spare ip.
-
Nano Resist: Leave this alone, unless you are making a pvp twink. Useful later one to resist mob nukes and hostile nanos
-
Run Speed: Being able to run fast is nice, but it isn’t essential, if you have spare ips or are willing to sacrifice something else then you can put a few ips into this.
-
Computer literacy: Raise enough to equip belts and NCUs. Your keeper shouldn’t be your selling toon.
-
Bio Met: used in all our auras, only raise when you have an aura you want to cast
-
Psy Mod: Same as above, but this skill is also used in our weapon buffs.
-
Sense imp: Look above
-
Time&space: Used in our procs for extra damage, again raise only when required.
-
First Aid: its a cheap skill and has saved me a few times when soloing. Raise enough to use the stims you use.
-
Treatment: Arguably the most important skill in game, raise enough to equip targted implants.
3. Equipment
Armour
Armour is quite simple when you first start out, use the Newcomer’s armour you get from Arete, it levels with you and has great stats.
Level based armour choices:
1+
Newcomer’s armour is great honestly, it’s got decent AC and adds ncu and first aid AND max health. Plus you can add patches to it to make them sided and look even cooler.
60+
Crawler Armour - made with items from crypt of home
Prowler Armour - crawler armour from crypt of home upgraded
Tier 1 - Elysium/Scheol catacombs
Apoc/Omni-steel - apoc recipe / omni steel recipe
Predator Armour - predator bosses in Elysium
OFAB non upgraded is now tradeable.
Strong-based Alien Armour Can be combined with enduring or supple armour to create combined alien armour for even better stats. Process of creation here.
150+
Clan knight’s/ Omni Knight’s - Inferno temple bosses. Cloak is NODROP
Reactive/Proactive - Swamp hags YESDROP NOW
Tier 2 - Adonis/Penumbra Catacombs
Living Dragonflesh - Tarasque
Goddess armour - Dark ruins team instance
200+
Bellum Badonis various Inferno Dyna bosses
Tier 3 omni/clan Glyphs drop in Pandemonium or parts can be found in the Inferno catacombs. I would not advise Inferno catacombs.
216+
Enhanced dustbrigade drops from the dustbrigade instances “Inside the Machine” and “The Outpost”
(Awakened) Beast Armour Base armour drops from The Beast, items to upgrade drop in Pyramid of Home
Dustbrigade operative from “dust it off” daily given by the Arbiter
Reinforced Bau Cyber Armour - Drops from the Subway raid instance. It’s very solid defensive armour and is great for filling spots where you don’t have the best pieces quite yet.
Survivalist’s Leather Armor Legwear - Drops from the Queen of the Slums in the Subway raid. Very strong defensive pants.
Mark of the Bloodless - Drops from the Primal Bloodcreeper in the Subway Raid. Defensive arm armour.
Back armour
A little low in choice for the first 100 levels but here are a few options:
Vagabond Cloak: Adds 35 aad and -35 concealment, easy drop from vagabonds in subway
Exarch Robe Drops off any “Exarch” mob in totw
Guardian Tank Armour: Very rare drop from “Guardian of Tomorrow” in ToTW. Get it if you want but far from essential, exarch robe is better in many ways.
Alien Tank Armour: Parts to make this are obtained in sector 10. If you are a nanomage you should make the nanomage enhanced version.
Large Sparkle Plate any accessories shop in a Fair Trade
Neleb’s Nano-Master Robe bit unconventional but actually has solid ACs and can also let you cast your buffs earlier. Drops from Neleb in the Steps of Madness
Infantry chest cover sided monsters in Shadowlands. Named mobs will drop it more often.
100+
Cloak of the reanimated XXX fantastic bits of armour though you’ll need some help farming the parts. The gladiator and Jester ones being the most interesting for us keepers. Find out how to get these here
Ancient container old school newbie back armour, not great but not bad
Modified Notucomm tradeskill process here. Great bit of evades
Robust Backpack Tarasque drop, very expensive.
Dustbrigade air filtration system bought with freelancer points from the Arbiter’s office
200+
Notum tank armour from the Mercenaries, little bit outdated but still decent.
OFAB Solid bit of gear bought for 30k Victory points or from another player
Dustbrigade operative covering from the “dust it off” daily given by the Arbiter
(Awakened) Burden of competence Base armour drops from The Beast, items to upgrade drop in Pyramid of Home
SSC Bastion Obtained via the Gauntlet
Gartua’s Second Coat - Not amazing once you’re able to obtain this but it’s definitely not awful. From the ToTW raid instance
Fetid Vagabond Cloak - Mediocre given other options but serviceable. Drops from the Subway raid instance
Vergil’s Black Trenchcoat - Mediocre given other options but serviceable. Drops from the Subway raid instance
Condemned Bulwark - Interesting if you’re going for healing efficiency, but not for general use. Drops from the Subway raid instance
Shoulderpads
1+
Newbie shoulderpads these can be bought in Arete and they are side locked. Neutrals can wear both. Right clicking them cycles them between +5 aao, aad or -1% nanocost
Withered Flesh drops off multiple named mobs in ToTW.
Barrow strength drops off multiple named mobs in ToTW.
Nball Extremely nice if you’re going down the melee energy route, drops from Torrith the Ancient from qls 80-150 and also during some special events up to ql 200
Whistle-box only useful qls drop during halloween from uncle pumpkinheads
50+
Sided shoulderpads short quest to get some pretty decent shoulders
Virral Triumvirate Egg guide on how to make here
125+
(Imbued) Globe of clarity drops from Tarasque the the uprade from Administrator De Valos
Globe of sufferance another less popular drop from Tarasque
MotR big brother to Barrow Strength, drops from bosses on the third floor of Inner Sanctum
Corrupted Flesh Same deal but for withered flesh. Available from the Inner Sanctum
Intelligent Titan plasteel often overlooked but some ACs and melee init isn’t bad. RK Dyna drops
150+
Vanya/Cama pearl of right brain drops from Vanya/Cama in Penumbra temples - left shoulder only
185+
Icy shoulderpads line base parts obtainable from Alapaa, upgrade to superior drops from DB1 instance into the machine. Full guide here
201+
SSC Bastion right/SSC Bastion left (Gauntlet)
OFAB - Bought with victory points
Strength of the Immortal - From the ToTW raid. There are better items for damage like the globe of clarity but it’s definitely not bad.
Misc and Utilities
NCU is such an important part of a keeper, your auras will require lots of ncu and at the moment, self-buffing myself at level 220 requires almost 600 ncu.
Utilities are just the little extras that can make all the difference. For the first 100 levels there are only a few that are worth mentioning.
<126
Flurry of Blows - great little item, found in shops and RK missions at all qls up to 200.
Adrenaline Factory ql 1-300 drops from alien generals in city raids
The melee fighter manuals that drop off SL mobs adds 1-4 2he/me/brawl/fastattack/dimach depending on which guide you get, you aren’t going to get anything better at this level so you might as well use them.
For hud1, a garden or sanctuary key should sit in there for the majority of the time (sanct preferably) as they add treatment and in the case of sanct keys: ncu and inits, very important.
For hud 2 you can grab a Sided earring: Clan or omni
If you are neut you can wear both but I recommend you use only one and use a sanct key in hud 1 and a either a Lost Eden HUD:
LE HUD3 - These can be levelled up by right clicking once you reach level 150 and 200 as well so are very good value items.
or crit increaser in hud 3 such as:
Viral targeting subunit drops from alien generals from city raids
Targeting scope-Vision Enhancer rare RK mission chest loot
Experimental Optic Enhancer - Less init debuff but 5% crit only. Found in the Reck from the Entvined mobs.
or for a more defensive approach:
Eremite Macro Sensor as it has a 1 crit decrease which means mobs/players have 1 less % chance of critting you. This sounds pathetic but it is surprisingly effective in pvm.
126-200
Sector 10 introduced a bunch of great HUD/utilities: Sector 10 Tradeskills Guide • AO-Universe
Here are the ones I’d suggest for general use:
Alien Beacon
Alien Reflex Modifier
Alien Augmentation Device - Defensive
Alien Augmentation Device - Combat
Yatamutchy Movement Predictor -Xl1 - This may seem like an odd suggestion but this does work on melee weapons, increasing range by up to 50% means kiting is more effective for some harder encounters. Note it won’t increase the range of your perks however.
Extreme Low Light Targeting Scope - 15% crit and -300 initiatives. Requires some tradeskills to equip. Extremely rare, only drops from holiday events or the collector.
Bigot’s Earring of Sacrifice - drops from any “Bigot” dynaboss in Inferno. Good flexible defensive item.
201+
Mystery of Pisces - Drops from Pisces in Pandamonium. Nice defensive utility.
Cross Dimensional Gyro of Gemini - Drops from Gemini in Pandamonium. Mystery of Pisces but worse.
Aquarius’s Multitask Calculator/ObiTom’s Nano calculator - Drops from Aquarius and ObiTom’s is made by using a Notum Amplification Coil from Sector 28 Alien playfields. 2% Crit in a slot where it’s very hard to find.
(Infused) Ancient Defender - Very nice defensive item. Dropped in Albtraum, infuser is from DB2 instance “Into the machine”
(Infused) Ancient Vision Preservation Unit - Less good defensive utility. Dropped in Albtraum, infuser is from DB2 instance “Into the machine”
Dreadloch Endurance Booster - NM edition - Nanomage only, very good defensive item. Drops from Dreadloch Lost Eden bosses.
Dreadloch Sniper’s Friend - Ignore the other stats, we only care about the 5% crit it provides. Drops from Dreadloch Lost Eden bosses.
Dreadloch Stab Guidance System - Decent buff to melee init, can really be good to counteract init debuffing weapons like the Blade of Khione and Frost-Bound Reaper.
Dust Brigade Grunt Module - Good all around skills buffer. From the DB3 Instance “The Facility”
Dust Brigade Escape Module - Good chunk of evades and 2HE/ME skill. From the DB3 Instance “The Facility”
Dust Brigade Protector Module - Probably the best module for Keepers, 1.5k HP and weapon skill as well as deflect and 2000 ACs. From the DB3 Instance “The Facility”
Star of Faith - Drops from the beast or for completing the “guarding the source” questline.
Stellar Keeper Nanodeck - Combination of items from the Legacy of the Xan instances and the Star of Faith. Required to cast certain nanoprograms, good stats.
Ancient Aggressive Webbing - Mediocre for keeper but no init debuff compared to the viral targeting subunit. Drops in the “Dark Pyramid Below” Instance
Ancient Protective Drone - Extremely potent defensive item. Drops in the “Dark Pyramid Below” Instance
Ancient restorative Fungus - Niche item, provides more healing via auras and also useful if you’re spamming ward to mitigate damage. Drops in the “Dark Pyramid Below” Instance
Alien Combat Directive Controller - The coveted ACDC, arguably the most powerful utility slot item in the game. Dropped in Sector 42 Alien Playfield.
Patchwork Defensive Drone - Drops from the Subway raid. Sister to the Ancient protective drone, extremely strong defensive item.
Belt and Deck items
<100
AOU has a very good guide for RK (froob) belts and NCU chips which will be the majority of the ones you’ll be using before level 100:
One of particular note is the Standard Juggernaut Module which adds 5 melee energy.
101-200
AOU once again has collated all the Shadowlands and Alien invation NCU and belt items, these will be relevant throught these levels:
201+
The old RK NCU items can be infused with an NCU infuser dropped in the Gauntlet. The one particularly useful one is the morphing memory for more nano resist.
Xan NCUs - These are very good especially the NCU memory, 192 max NCU in one slot with no slot restrictions makes it a very easy pickup.
Dense Nanite Aegis - Drops from the Dark Pyramid Below instance. Since Keepers don’t really need the nano init, 120 nano resist is an easy pickup here.
Sluggish Notum Lens - Drops from the Dark Pyramid Below instance. Since Keepers don’t really need the nano init, the heal efficiency can be useful and the nano damage actually applies to your perks and procs.
Memory of Future Events - Drops from the ToTW raid instance. 200 max NCU but locked to slot 1 and 6.
Mnemonic Shard - Drops from the ToTW raid instance. Good defensive stats but only 5 max NCU.
Lucid Nightmares - Drops from the ToTW raid instance. Good chunk of nano resist but with a decent max NCU stat as well.
Weapons
Not many choices for melee energy in the early levels unfortunately unless you’re a nanomage. Fair Trade shops however now sell the -000 weapons which do include the following:
These can be found at qls from 1-300 so this can work until you get some of the better ME weapons.
You MAY also find Kyr energy hammers or Energy Swords while running your alien dailies as well. These are slightly better than the E-blades but not significantly.
This also applies to 2HE but there are far better options below:
1+
Kyr Sword drops from aliens in various content up to ql 300.
Kyr Energy Sword drops from aliens in various content up to ql 300.
Kyr’ozch Energy Hammer - drops from aliens in various content up to ql 300. Only comes in the 112 variant, even though the damage isn’t stellar it’s still the only way to get brawl while dual wielding with a lightsaber so it’s still regularly used.
Subway wolf drop from various mobs in the subway
Guard of the Gentleman available in shops in SL and drops from sided SL mobs. Great until about ql 40
Sword of Sir Tristram same method to obtain as above, average speed and damage throughout all qls
25+
Energy Scythe drops off various named mobs in ToTW
Frost Scythe drops from legionnaires in ToTW
Stygian Desolator drop from Aztur in ToTW
Zweihander dyna drop, mixed weapon skills between 2he and ME
Sockdolagar dyna drop NANOMAGE ONLY
Odum blade drops from alien generals from city raids up to ql 300. Mixed weapon skills but good damage.
Force-effect Vibro Blade - Drops from Techleader Praetor in the Cyborg Barracks. The damage isn’t great but the great thing about this weapon is that the fastattack cap is lower than most weapons so it ends up being better than most things you can find for Melee energy at this level.
Sword of Greek Hero drops from catacomb bosses as well as Lord of the Void. ql 1-300. Not great
60+
Panther recently and rightfully had keeper added to the tag. Fantastic weapon all the way into your late tl4
Corpse Cutter dyna drop
Tangleblade dyna drop CLAN SOLITUS ONLY
Sword of the Illuminated Drops from Mooching Dryad in Adonis. Very rare
Sword staff\ Naginata sided weapons that drop from opposing sided mobs. Slow but with good damage. Sword staff is especially interesting as it’s one of the only melee weapons with a 5m range. These can be further upgraded (sword staff loses it’s range when you do) with specials and eventually turn spirits
Duplex sword/ Maiden Naginata turn spirit upgrades for the above weapons.
Bio-energy shield made with a Viral weapon upgrade and an Energy shield rolled from RK mission.
125+
Frost-Bound Reaper drops from third floor bosses in Inner Sanctum. This one sure brings back memories :')
Abyssal Desecrator Drops from Hezak in Inner Sanctum
Permafrost another drop from Hezak, arguably better than the Abyssal Desecrator
Excalibur drops from Tuq’usk in Inferno -upgradable to ql 300
Edge of Tarasque drops from Tarasque -upgradable to ql 300
Sword of lord X not sure where these drop. Rumours say from RK team bosses.
130+
Blade of Khione Penumbra Xan quest. Note that you will need to do the progression quest if you’re not level 160 to get to Penumbra.
151+
Special Edition Kyr Sword drops in sec7
Special Edition Kyr Energy Rapier drops in sec7
200+
Blade of Khione’s Will - upgraded using the souls from the escaped prisoners in Milky Way. Removes the init debuff and improves the damage. Very solid weapon.
Ofab Wolf - Bought using victory points and uses type 18 biomaterial to upgrade.
Pride of the Xan - either the lady or lord of pride from the beast or a corrupted lord/lady of pride from the Dark Pyramid Below combined with a Xan Weapon Upgrade.
Dawn/Dusk (of the Xan) - Made via the notum/novictum seeds dropped by The Night Heart and the hilts from The Beast. Upgraded via the Xan weapon upgrade, this is the penultimate melee energy weapon for Keepers.
Corrupted Edge - Drops from Binyacht the Faithful in the ToTW raid instance.
Obsidian Desecrator - Drops from Aztur in the ToTW raid instance. The best weapon for pure damage currently available.
Lost Blade of Elder Tsunayoshi - Drops from Vergil in the Subway Raid.
Perks
https://aoitems.com/perk/prof/keeper/
Aura of Revival: Utterly broken at lower levels, makes the keeper essentially immortal when fighting monsters of the same level. Falls off at about level 50ish but still good well into the 100s. Rank 10 gives a pulsing heal for 792 points per 7 seconds.
Blessing: Passive max hp and some defensive perks. Would ignore until later levels when devotional armour and curing touch become more useful. Can skip this line entirely if you’re making more of a damage focused build.
Crusade: Very good alien perkline, should be considered default unless you’re using a build with breed perklines and champion of heavy infantry/nano combat. Passive health, melee init and fastattack with a very good active perk Insight which increases your team’s attack rating and evade-clsc while healing them. Purify is an AoE stun and taunt and Force Opponent a mediocre DoT.
Cybernetic Samurai: The melee energy perkline, geared towards a lot of damage. Passive damage increases as well as melee energy and fastattack skill. Keep in mind you do not specifically need a melee energy weapon to use the perks so if using 2hand edge you can still use this perkline for more damage.
Holy Mark: Defensive perkline with some ok stats. Mainly adds some evades, ACs and max health. The active perks themselves are focused on debuffing the targets evade-clsc and add all def. Can be skipped if not going for a fully defensive build or pvp.
Bio Shielding: Bread and butter defensive perkline, would say it’s a default pick for most situations. Gives 3% reflect from the last 2 perks as well as a lot of passive shield damage. Active perks that are very useful are Bio Cocoon and Bio Regrowth, extremely potent defensive tools.
Mountaineer: Not very useful.
Reaver: The 2hand edge perkline, though technically you do not need to perk this when using 2hand edge. Provides some strong damage dealing perks and passive boosts to 2hand edge skill.
Spatial Displacement: Primarily used for pvp, I do not know of any pvm applications for this. Essentially makes you immune to snares and roots.
Nanos
https://aoitems.com/nano/prof/keeper/
Auras provide bonuses to your entire team, making the keeper an extremely desirable prof for all content.
2hand Edged buff: Also buffs melee energy now so one you’ll always want to have active.
Punisher of the Wicked: 30 aao, not essential but can contribute to a little damage. Can cancel to save ncu for other things if required.
Fast attack buff: increases chance to hit and crit with fast attack so try and have space to buff this.
Wards: essential defensive aura, does not conflict with any other auras so you should always buff this.
Barriers: conflicts with the immininence line, however you would want to buff this when the extra aao/aad won’t make a difference as the reflect does stack with other professions reflect buffs.
Imminence: Buffs your add all off and add all def. Very simple, good for most situations.
Vengeance: conflicts with the enervate line. You’ll normally run this as default though as it just adds a large amount of damage.
Enervate: provides root/snare resistance and a pulsing root/snare duration reduction. Mostly used in PvP.
Adaptive Ambient xxx: Reworked to use 3 tiers of nanos instead of the old style where you’d have a different aura for every level of it. Pulsing heal aura that conflicts with the nano regeneration version.
Adaptive Tone of xxx: Same thing as heal aura but for nanopoints instead.
Deflect/Riposte: Primarily used for the multi melee and maybe if you have a weapon that has deflect/riposte requirements
Evade: self explanatory, large evade-clsc buff with smaller buffs to dodge/duck
Fear immunity: Small add all def buff but provides your whole team immunity to fears for one charge. You need to refresh this manually if the monster fears more than once. Especially required in the 12-man instance and subway raid.
Sanctifier: damage proc on auto-attacks. Scales with add damage and add nano damage %
Reaper: lesser damage proc with a heal component. Scales with add damage and add nano damage %. Note that the heal scales with the damage done. Also comes with a small taunt
Stam/str buff: Stacks with essence of behemoth so it’s just free stats.
Sneak attack buffs: mainly useful for pvp and using sneak attack enabled weapons like the Dusk/Dawn and upgraded excalibur
Wrath/Fury: Essentially adds another perk action, small damage and wrath has a lifesteal effect if omni (25%) or neutral (50%)
Rebirth: removes resurrection sickness on a target.
Clarion Call: PvP only, drags a target towards you while stunning them
Release me now: Removes roots/snares. 5min cooldown.
Blow their cover: pvp only, reduces an agent’s rifle skill by 1250.
Lost Eden proc actions
Procs come in two flavours, yellow (type 1) and blue (type 2). You can only have one of each action active at a time. Some can even buff your entire team and will be denoted by the (team) tag.
Damage boost:
- Righteous Strike +20 (yellow/type 1)
- Pure Strike +65 (yellow/type 1)
- Virtuous Reaper +90 (team) (yellow/type 1)
- Righteous Smite +200 (team) (yellow/type 1)
Evade buff:
- Eschew the Faithless +50/14/14 (yellow/type 1)
- Ignore the Unrepentant +110/30/30 (yellow/type 1)
- Symbiotic Bypass +140/40/40 (team) (yellow/type 1)
aao/aad buff:
- Subjugation +20/45 (team) (blue/type 2)
- Honour Restored +50/120 (team) (blue/type 2)
Team heal (heal efficiency and reactivity applies):
- Faithful Reconstruction 42-53 (team) (blue/type 2)
- Ambient Purification 481-948 (team) (blue/type 2)
Reflect (stacks with everything):
- Benevolent Barrier 4% (team) (blue/type 2)
I would say for soloing the best combination would be the damage boost and aao/aad buff. In a team situation damage and reflect.
. I love keepers too. 5 keepers on 2 paid acc’s 