why do bits/funnels/dragoon feel so weak now?

[lam.singsing]

i recall in GB3, you could snap on a bajillion funnel option parts on a suit to cheese the stages... good times...

[Riptor]

Same reason that most beams are now EX skills instead of equipment options and why we dont have any really cool EX abilities anymore....

Man i miss my Atom bazooka barrage spam...

[Kerrack]

They balanced them so that 100% of the builds on the bounty board wouldn’t have Kshatriya’s arms, Strike Freedom’s backpack, and the atomic bazooka.
With the right ability setup you can arguably make them better than they were in GB3, but you have to actually base your build around it now instead of just throwing those parts on and instantly vaporizing everything.

[jakinbandw]

Originally posted by Kerrack:

They balanced them so that 100% of the builds on the bounty board wouldn’t have Kshatriya’s arms, Strike Freedom’s backpack, and the atomic bazooka.
With the right ability setup you can arguably make them better than they were in GB3, but you have to actually base your build around it now instead of just throwing those parts on and instantly vaporizing everything.

Any advice for a new player on how to make them good?

Right now I'm running 6 of the extra parts that give me bits, and using them as a way to keep my combo up, but I'd really like to make the Strike Freedom Pack actually useful.

[Vadenveil]

Originally posted by jakinbandw:

Originally posted by Kerrack:

They balanced them so that 100% of the builds on the bounty board wouldn’t have Kshatriya’s arms, Strike Freedom’s backpack, and the atomic bazooka.
With the right ability setup you can arguably make them better than they were in GB3, but you have to actually base your build around it now instead of just throwing those parts on and instantly vaporizing everything.

Any advice for a new player on how to make them good?

Right now I'm running 6 of the extra parts that give me bits, and using them as a way to keep my combo up, but I'd really like to make the Strike Freedom Pack actually useful.

They do pair well with a high EX generating weapon like claws, which itself generally lets you spam out EX often, add a pair of gatlings for extra gen and you basically have everything you need to keep a basically 100% uptime on you bits all the time. Only issue is that claws are really good as chase based melees so you'll probably be doing more damage with them than the bits, but that perfect uptime paired with a booster like Trans Am or NT-D will mean they're just gonna be ticking up a ton of damage all over the place and preventing you from ever dropping combo

[Donoghu]

To make the funnel/bits/dragoon powerful enough, you need to raise the Attack Power: *something* EX on your weapons. It's one of the hardest abilities to raise because of it's actually one of the "rare" abilities.

For a funnel/bits/dragoon build, you NEED to use dual weld melee and ranges so gain as much bonus from abilities as possible. Shield have fewer "bonus" available for EX skills and 2 handed makes you loose a whole weapon's worth of abilities slots. (In exchange, 2-handed weapon have higher attack power.)

On top of that, you can have semi-unlimited Bit/Funnel/Dragoon by having an high value to both of those abilities:

Ex Gauge Increase: On Defeated Enemies
Ex Gauge Increase: When Parts Lost
Ex Gauge Increase: When Enemy is Defeated by EX Skill

If you put 3-4 bits/funnels/dragoon abilities (from separate parts) in your EX Skills slots, you basically become summoner: kill 1-2 enemies and you'll be able to cast your first bit/funnel/dragon, then just wait and cast them as they become available. Slash away and/or shoot to raise your combo/break meter for better drops.

[Tenshu]

Originally posted by Donoghu:

To make the funnel/bits/dragoon powerful enough, you need to raise the Attack Power: *something* EX on your weapons. It's one of the hardest abilities to raise because of it's actually one of the "rare" abilities.

For a funnel/bits/dragoon build, you NEED to use dual weld melee and ranges so gain as much bonus from abilities as possible. Shield have fewer "bonus" available for EX skills and 2 handed makes you loose a whole weapon's worth of abilities slots. (In exchange, 2-handed weapon have higher attack power.)

On top of that, you can have semi-unlimited Bit/Funnel/Dragoon by having an high value to both of those abilities:

Ex Gauge Increase: On Defeated Enemies
Ex Gauge Increase: When Parts Lost
Ex Gauge Increase: When Enemy is Defeated by EX Skill

If you put 3-4 bits/funnels/dragoon abilities (from separate parts) in your EX Skills slots, you basically become summoner: kill 1-2 enemies and you'll be able to cast your first bit/funnel/dragon, then just wait and cast them as they become available. Slash away and/or shoot to raise your combo/break meter for better drops.

Attack Power: Funnel EX and I believe it's only available on long range weapons and not even an ability that can show up on a cartridge

[D-Lusional]

Funnel DPS are based on Attack Power: Funnel EX, the level of your ranged weapons and they attack more if you aim in Shooting Mode.

[Rhiawhyn Zerinth]

Originally posted by jakinbandw:

Originally posted by Kerrack:

They balanced them so that 100% of the builds on the bounty board wouldn’t have Kshatriya’s arms, Strike Freedom’s backpack, and the atomic bazooka.
With the right ability setup you can arguably make them better than they were in GB3, but you have to actually base your build around it now instead of just throwing those parts on and instantly vaporizing everything.

Any advice for a new player on how to make them good?

Right now I'm running 6 of the extra parts that give me bits, and using them as a way to keep my combo up, but I'd really like to make the Strike Freedom Pack actually useful.

You don't. Even if you had infinite EX meter in mission somehow, you'd do 10x better with literally every other EX and that's with you focusing hard on funnels. Only use them if you have an extra EX slot if you can't think of anything better to put in there. If you are using build parts to have extra funnels, don't. Slap a missile launcher on your suit instead. Even with focus on funnels being a primary thing for me, I barely manage to make them do more than 80-90k damage a cycle which is... bad.

One missile salvo does about 270k for 0 meter. One meter based beam cannon blast does 300k if it hits one target, and nearly a million if you hit 4-5 targets which funnels can't really do anyway. You can also get skills which refresh OP power cooldown so having an 80 second missile launcher cooldown means nothing when you get half of that cooldown back on breaking parts off of one or two suits. Split the launcher spam between two and you can endlessly cycle between two missile pods and just... stand around nuking entire waves and laughing. By the time someone using funnel spam has even built enough meter to deploy them, you've already killed the wave and you won't even need to press wasd or your move stick.

It's a shame, I was hoping funnels would be good but not completely game breaking. Oh well.

[Tenshu]

AAAAAND there's a mod now that makes them have GB3-esque speed.