Smuggler (Afterlife)

## **Overview**

Specialization in the covert creation, transportation, and distribution of less than legal goods is one of the key characteristics for a smuggler in the Star Wars universe. Add to that an expertise in "special" modifications, a penchant for smooth talking, and a trusty sidearm and you've got the makings of a bona fide scoundrel. Branching from the Brawler (Unarmed) and Marksman (Pistols), Smuggler is a unique hybrid class with interesting benefits.

### **Skill Trees**

*Underworld*

The Underworld tree is unique in that it doesn't seem to provide tangible bonuses that are visible on your stat sheet, but once you've progressed through the tree, it enables you to purchase faction points directly from your faction's recruiters as well as receive discounts on faction gear. It (unconfirmed) also allows you to comprehend languages.

*Dirty Tricks*

 This is the pistol combat portion of smuggler and, while it is limited, it does have some pretty useful abilities.

**Feign Death** enables you to play opossum and hope that the enemy truly believes you're dead and leaves you alone**.**

**Panic Shot** acts like a cone area-of-effect version of Brawler's Warcry, delaying the next action of all enemies in a 45 degree cone in front of the player by 10 seconds.

**Low Blow** is a ranged knockdown ability

**Last Ditch** is a high damage attack that does six times your normal attack damage but is very slow to recharge.

###### \*\* It's important to note that unless you're planning on spending some of your skill points in Pistoleer or perhaps the Bounty Hunter's Pistol Specialization line, you won't have much in the way of Pistol Speed or Accuracy to help supplement the attacks in this tree, so your combat effectiveness will be limited. I think the initial idea behind these attacks were for them to be more of a "he who fights and runs away" sort of toolkit for the smuggler. However, when paired other pistol trees, they can be a solid addition to your toolkit.

*Spices*

This is a crafting tree for Smugglers in that they're able to produce consumable buff items, similar to food, that provide boosts to primary and secondary stats. While some of the higher tier spices can provide pretty significant increases to stats, that increase comes with a penalty in the form of a debuff to those same stat pools once the buff expires. Resource stats do not matter when crafting spices, so you can get a lot of mileage out of less desirable, low-quality materials.

*Slicing*

One of the more unique aspects of the smuggler, Slicing enables you "slice" one of four things for different benefits. As you progress through the slicing tree, you'll gain the ability to slice the following:

Containers **-** Slicing lets you open locked containers (looted items specifically called "Locked Containers" and static magseal containers found in the world.) The looted containers can be opened, sometimes contain useful items (even other locked containers lol) and can be saved and used as containers and/or for decoration.

Terminals **-** Slicing mission terminals allows you to get an increased payout from the first page of missions. If you refresh the page or close the window, the payouts return to normal. Slicing a terminal starts a 2 minute cooldown during which you cannot slice another terminal.

Weapons **-** Slicing weapons increases the maximum and minimum damage of the weapon by a flat percentage betwen 10 and 20%.

Armor **-** Slicing armor increases the base effectiveness of the armor by a flat percentage between 15 and 33% (Note - this does NOT effect any Special protection on the armor. For instance, RIS Armor has Kinetic in the special protection slot, so slicing the armor would affect everything except Kinetic.

The process is generally the same for anything you're slicing and in order to be successful, you'll need a few tools.

Precision Laser Knife - This is a 10-charge item that is required no matter what you're slicing. Each successful slice consumes 2 charges.

Flow Analyzer Node - This is a craftable item that increases your chances of a successful slice by steering you in the direction of the correct wire to cut.

Molecular Clamp - Similar to the Flow Analyzer Node, this item increases your chances of a successful slice to 100% by telling you which wire to cut first. Even if you can't craft Molecular clamps, I would urge you to seek out someone who can and see if you can purchase some or check the vendor search and try and find some for sale someplace. These will make your life as a smuggler as easy as can be.

Weapon/Armor Upgrade Kit - These aren't crafted by smugglers, but by their respective crafting professions (Weaponsmith/Armorsmith) and are needed for slicing weapons and armor. Each slice takes 1 kit.

When you radial an item and select the option to slice it, you'll be faced with a window. This window will present you with four options. If you've got the molecular clamps mentioned above, you can choose to "Shunt the power node with a molecular clamp." After you've done this, read the text above very carefully. It will tell you that the light turns a specific color. Blue is positive, red is negative. Whichever you see in the text above, that's the wire you cut first. After that, the box will pop up again. This time, you cut the wire you did NOT cut the first time. And you're done. Successful slice.

If you don't have the clamps above, you'll have a bit more of a dice game on your hands, but at this stage of the game, you should be able to get some clamps from another player. Just give a shout in Galaxy chat!.