Tools of the Trade #1 - Sinister Scepter & Sudden Support

Tools of the Trade is released every Friday, and features in depth discussion of equipment for your agent.  It features two items:  One that may or may not always be available, usually a limited edition, special operation, pvp or other premium item, and then one item that is either always farmable, or researchable.

Premium Item - Sinister Scepter

How to obtain it:  Special Operation 4, Season 9 PVP Roulette

Damage Type:  Magic

Effects:  Customized damage (moderate), Inflicts Bane, grants Astral Form

Sinister Scepter is currently unique, it is the only item that grants the Phased status, similar to Shadowcat or Vision.  While Phased, your Agent will avoid a huge variety of attacks, the only exceptions being Psychic attacks.  One way to maximize the defensive capacity of the Phased status is to equip Techno-Organic Endoskeleton to your agent, making them immune to bleeds, poisons, and most importantly, Psychic attacks.  This can turn your agent into a literally unassailable monster.  Combine with a Protect effect of some kind and you've got yourself an Agent that will be a huge problem for opposing teams.

The other way you can abuse this item is with things that make you skip turns for powerful effects, like Shepherd's Staff or Arc Reactor Charge.  Both together with this and perhaps Sudden Support (featured below) will allow your agent to hit incredibly hard, then be immune to follow up damage.

The last feature of Sinister Scepter is that it applies Bane.  This is a neat feature, although limited, as only four Heroes deal magic damage on their own, and a few more have effects that inflict Soulfire.  This is primarily useful when paired with Custom Possessed Pistol, as it already hits incredibly hard, and so that 50% increased damage can result in massive damage from the Agent.  This can also be supported with the previously mentioned Arc Reactor Charge and Sudden Support to do massive damage to single targets, and it conveniently protects you during the setup time.

Everyday Item - Sudden Support

How to obtain it:  Buy for 58,840 silver and 15 Shield Points from store (after researching it at level 63)
Research tree:  Flexibility 1 > Sensory Perception > Advanced Targeting > Kinetic Stabilizers > Force Manipulators > Stasis Fields > Quantum Overdrive

Effects:  Quick Action, grants Sudden Support buff which gives increased stats on the immediate follow up turn.

Sudden Support is a very neat gem in the researchable items:  It's a quick action which is always appreciated, and it has a powerful impact on your pvp game by allowing your agent to have explosive bursts of damage.  When combined with hard hitting items like Custom Possessed Pistol, Golden Screaming Eagle or Custom Bolt-Action 4 Bore you can absolutely wreck people.

It's worth noting that if you have other quick actions that increase damage, like Arc Reactor Charge or the like, you need to use them before you use this item, because the stat boost for this item wears off after the turn it grants, unlike some of the others which grant a damage increase to your next attack.

As one of the easiest to obtain quick action support items, I can't recommend it enough.  Get this item!  You'll definitely want the ability to build a damage-surge heavy agent for use on offense.