TenTonHammer.com - Taking Tabula Rasa Gamers to the Next Level!

by: Taea

There’s something a little scary about a person that eats biological warfare for breakfast. Biotechnician is a Specialist class line that studies the biological sciences for power over life and death. The Biotech giveth to her friends, and taketh away from her enemies. They are great soloers for repair and healing abilities, and valued squad mates for the group regen and buff benefits. With an injection gun in hand, and repair tool at the hip, Biotechnicians are prepared for any battle.

How to become a Biotechnician: Biotechnicians begin as a basic recruit in boot camp. At the end of level 4 you need to train as a Specialist in Alia Das, and continue building up your levels. Just before level 15, you will be directed to your local trainers again, either at the Twin Pillars base in Wilderness, or Foreas Base in Divide. Choose to become a Biotechnician, and you will then receive the following abilities:

Cure: Cure is the ability to remove negative effects, such as damage over time and stuns, from your comrades. At pump 1, Cleansing offers a basic cure to a single target. Pump 2 Group Cleansing is the same ability, spread to your squad mates that are within a 15 meter radius.

Pump 3 Resuscitate is the basic level you should put your training points up to. You are able to raise a dead target from 60 meters away, with half the rez trauma they would normal suffer. This is great for squads who don’t want to wait for a revived member to run back from the nearest hospital.

Protection is the 4th pump. From up to 60 meters away, you can cure your single target of harmful effects and leave them with a 25 second resistance buff. Protection works well in giving yourself or a friend an extra boost in a tough fight against a Boss or multiple targets.

Group Resuscitation is the final pump 5. Within a 10 meter radius, all dead allies will be brought back to life, and debuffed squad mates will be cured. The short radius range makes pumping this tough to justify, since squads are rarely fighting in this close proximity. We advise leaving this final pump alone, and saving your training points for other skills. Cure requires the Logos: Enhance, Heal and Control.

Reconstruction: This is one of the strongest skills a Biotech has at their disposal. Reconstruction is a group heal that also damages any nearby enemies. For the small amount of power, the ability to heal this well for this many people makes Reconstruction a better alternative to using a Healing tool.

Pump 1 covers a 15 meter radius for the heal and the enemy damage. Pump 2 adds a Spirit buff to allies, and Spirit debuff to enemies. Pump 3 adds a 50% Health bonus and debuff that lasts 60 seconds. Train this skill up to Pump 3, as the added health bonus can save your butt both in soloing and grouping. More health is more time that you have to replenish armor, and helps against armor piercing attacks, such as Virulent Caretakers.

Pump 4 is an odd one. At this point your skill converts to heal and damage over time. Fights in Tabula Rasa don’t normally last long enough to justify needing a heal over time, versus a one shot large heal. Situationally this skill could work when traveling through an area or instance with constant damage coming in. We suggest skipping over this until you have enough points for Pump 5, which adds an Adrenaline boost to your squad, and an Adrenaline drain to enemies. Reconstruction requires Logos: Area, Give and Heal.

Bio Augmentation: Bio Augmentation is the basic buff skill for the Biotechnicians. At each pump level, this skill gives a 4 minute buff that increases different attributes at a cost of some power and Medical Grade Micromech, which can be purchased from any vendor. Pump 1 is a 50% Health increase. Pump 2 adds 50% Power pool. Pump 3 is added Body. Pump 4 is increased Mind. Pump 5 increases Spirit. Soloists and Grouped players alike should take this to at least pump 2 for both the health and power benefits. At little cost and quick cast time, there’s no reason why this ability shouldn’t be active in every major fight. Bio Augmentation requires Logos: Enhance, Friend and Power.

Bio Body Armor: Bio armor is low on body armor, but very high (25%) on the health regen rate. Unless you’re taking multiple high hits, you may find that the regen is fast enough to make up for lack of armor. Additionally, the Bio armor spreads the higher regen to nearby squad mates. Each piece of bio armor worn increases the regeneration bonus and the regen bonus radius. Pump 1 starts at +1% regen and 2 meter bonus radius, up to +5% per armor piece health regen and 32 meter bonus radius at Pump 5.

Injection Gun: Here is the reason why we love our Biotechs, and why we giggle when we fight. Injection guns are very powerful on single targets, and can work fast enough to take on groups of enemies with ease. It’s important to remember that the damage from injection guns “tics” over a few seconds, so you don’t want to continuously fire on a target, or you’re just going to waste ammo. Crouch, fire your shot, and watch the damage tic down. Fire again to keep the damage tic’ing on the target until they’re dead. In groups of enemies, you can fire on one target, move to another and fire, then switch back to the first to keep the damage moving efficiently.

There are 4 types of Injection Guns: Incendiary, Electric, Cryogenic and Virulent. Incendiary is usually the most powerful, provided your target isn’t immune; robots are especially vulnerable to fire. Electric works great on Kael and force fields, but won’t touch Technicians, Hunters and most robots. Cryogenic works well against Atta and other creatures, but is hard to find in a high damage version. Virulent is unique in that it skips armor altogether and goes right for the health. Try virulent against Technicians, and watch their confusion when their constant armor repairing does not help them at all.

Injectors have a range of 50 meters, so you may still use rifles from time to time for longer shots. Keep your shotguns handy for the times when you get a few too many up close and personal. In general, though, you’ll find your injection guns replacing most other guns on your weapons tray.

Pump 1 of Injection Gun training enables the Biotech to wield the gun. Pump 2 offers a 10% damage bonus. Pump 3 is where you’ll first get an armor penetration bonus, in addition to a 20% damage bonus. At a minimum you’ll want to take your training to Pump 3 for the armor penetration. Pumps 4 and 5 increase the damage and armor penetration, and will be incredibly useful as you earn extra training points.

Older skills you still use: Everyone plays differently, but these abilities from your Specialist days will stay with you as a Biotechnician.

Tools: Pump to at least 3 to allow you to use a direct healing disc to raise the dead, keep armor repaired, and help you use those cipher tools on the sneaky locked crates. A direct repair tool should stay on your weapon tray at all times, and will be your most used item, behind your weapons.

Hazmat Armor: This armor ability, gained at the Specialist tier, will still be used throughout your life as a Biotechnician. Hazmat is good for the higher body armor and damage type resistance. You may want to wear a mixture of both Hazmat and Bio armors to utilize all of the benefits. Pump Hazmat to at least 2 to make it more effective.

Have we missed anything, or do you want to give us some feedback? Please send us a note, then stop by our forums to join our Tabula Rasa discussions.