Do "burst fire" archetypes get any better?

[Megaforce]

They seemed ok at first, but the further into the game I get I feel like I am better off with just melee and psykers. Abe just cuts a swath through everything, and takes a beating to boot. Meanwhile, anytime I use burst fire, bullets just spray everywhere but on target. And they don't do much damage either. I'm about ready to go full claymore/hammer with everyone.

[Zehm]

I've wondered why everyone says that Argenta is OP all the time. She just seems... fine. I've heard it said often that giving her a heavy bolter is the way to go, but I found it underwhelming as the damage per round is so low that if you encounter an enemy with deflection it becomes useless. She's currently a mainstay of my party, but I've been running her with bolter and flamer, and recently switched up to melta and I get a lot more mileage out of the heat weapons. That said, the bolter does provide her with good utility as it can take down trash with burst, single shot at range, and it's great against 4 square large enemies as you can't miss with burst.

I've also been running my RT as a soldier/tactician with either a laser or solid burst rifle, but it always feels like a secondary option to his deadshot rifle as I don't think the stability is as good as with bolters and the shots tend to fly everywhere.

ED: and yeah I agree Vanguard is actually OP. Abe is the MVP of every fight. I think I've only had him drop in combat once.

[Fistimus Maximus]

She is op, pick all the items that increase rate of fire and she becomes a god, had a issue during late act2 where her accuracy was letting her down but short time later boom, act 3 she was a beast. Act 4 her cassia and Yrliet are god, even Jae is half decent with the pistol items and that exploding pistol and every kill reloads/reload for free and crits give extra shot.

[jonoliveira12]

Burst Fire Heavy Bolter or Heavy Stub Gun, are both end game viable.

In fact, it is the second strongest type of attack in the whole game, only behind Held in My Gaze, and only Cassia can get that one.

Even the very strong Plasma Blast will drop off very quickly, while Burst Fire builds can kill some endgame bosses in a single round.

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

Originally posted by jonoliveira12:

snip

Caveat: For clearing trash

For single target damage, a pea shooter with Killing Edge will outdo any other option. You can consistently break the 1000 damage mark before the end of chapter 2, and the numbers only get bigger from there.

There really is no substitute for seeing a boss and being free to decide that you don't want to see it anymore.

OT:
Burst builds are quite viable, but depend on weapons and itemization. Argenta will languish in mediocrity until you pick up a better bolter and several damage bonuses from arch-militant talents. Argenta also relies on operatives to penetrate defenses and reliably provide additional damage boosts by way of arch-militant talents.

Jae will do respectable damage - at best - solely due to Jae having much more important things to spend AP on than attacking.

If any build type needs help, it's melee. Even melee psykers are a bit lackluster.

[Heart of Storm]

Burst fire is OP, as others have said, items and skills that boost shots per round, proc "revel in slaughter" every chance you get, get the cloak that gives you bonus crit chance for every kill.

Burst damage stacks to silly levels very quickly every fight, early game it is a little underwhelming but heavy bolter argenta trivialised the late game for me.

[Balekai]

Keep in mind that Officer's Take Aim! ability is priceless for Burst fire attacks throughout the game. Being able to ignore dodge + a good portion of any damage reduction for any reason makes any shots with any weapon that much better. You can easily get to 60%-70%+ in this ignore mechanic.

TAKE AIM!
The target's next attack will ignore cover and will have double the effective distance.

If the target is under the effect of Voice of Command, this attack will ignore enemy dodge and the damage from this attack can't be reduced below (30 + 3 × FEL bonus)% for any reason.

Essentially a perfect ability for anything with low damage per shot, but tons of rate of fire like Heavy Bolter or the most extreme, Heavy Stubber. Argenta with Heavy Bolter destroys just as much as Yrliet with Sniper and without relying on my Officer's Finest Hour! heroic acts.

[Jámez Bondo]

It's quite good once you get the right items. Recoil gloves/heavy lifters, gunslinger helmet, tactical backpack / tempestus carapace backpack. This plus arch militant versatility derived skills will blast through most fights.

[Psycohitman]

heavy bolter heroic act my sister can fire 12 shoots with 100% because of one item over 15-20 tiles and every shoot wil have higher damage. the last boss took my 2 rounds and i only had five people in my group

[John Key's Mistress]

Agenta can solo the game

[jonoliveira12]

Originally posted by Balekai:

Keep in mind that Officer's Take Aim! ability is priceless for Burst fire attacks throughout the game. Being able to ignore dodge + a good portion of any damage reduction for any reason makes any shots with any weapon that much better. You can easily get to 60%-70%+ in this ignore mechanic.

TAKE AIM!
The target's next attack will ignore cover and will have double the effective distance.

If the target is under the effect of Voice of Command, this attack will ignore enemy dodge and the damage from this attack can't be reduced below (30 + 3 × FEL bonus)% for any reason.

Essentially a perfect ability for anything with low damage per shot, but tons of rate of fire like Heavy Bolter or the most extreme, Heavy Stubber. Argenta with Heavy Bolter destroys just as much as Yrliet with Sniper and without relying on my Officer's Finest Hour! heroic acts.

Heavy Bolter Argenta literally made the last fight last the mandatory 3 Turns for me (because the boss teleports, and forces end of turn).
It is not just mindlessly OP, either. You have to work for it through levelling, and it correctly tranlates what a Lore accurate Bolter weapon would be like. Anything it shoots at is reduced to shreds.

[Megaforce]

okie dokie, I'll take everyone's word for it and keep on trucking with my couple burst characters.

[Lywelyn]

yeah, na.
i'm on unfair, she just keep missing all her targets with burst, meanwhile idira is zaping anything in sight, cassia is makin everyone insane just by wining staring contest and abelard is grinding heretics into fresh meat for the lower deck food cantina with a primitive 2H sword... and my RT is standing behind a barrel like " ye , get hem boys, for the empra !

[Ziel]

Burst fire and Argenta are not op by themselve. What makes Argenta strong is that you recruit her at lvl 4 and can pick up all the good talents from soldier archetype while for instance Ulfar get a lot of bad pick and cant have the same equipment. But a soldier/ arch merc can be as op as Argenta, she has nothing special in the first place.

Then to make a burst fire as good as a rocket launcher, there are many synergies to apply like active and passive buffs from officers, bring it down which invrase versatility stacks, long story short, Argenta is gonna play a turn with more than 300 BS, 150 perception, 300 agility and 20 versatiliy stacks and it's like a burst fire is as accurate as a lazer beam, hit like a truck and have a ton of bullet ( often 20 to 30).
As her will is over buffed she can use her heroic action with 20 or 30 free attacks which auto crit from 200 to 600 in single shot and have a ton of moves ( sprint, run and gun, rush) to catch the targets, cause nothing will survive.

And if something still survive she will have another turn through an officer/ master tactician. But you can perform this without Argenta, basicaly you jut need a soldier/ arch and offciers.

[jonoliveira12]

Originally posted by Ziel:

Burst fire and Argenta are not op by themselve. What makes Argenta strong is that you recruit her at lvl 4 and can pick up all the good talents from soldier archetype while for instance Ulfar get a lot of bad pick and cant have the same equipment. But a soldier/ arch merc can be as op as Argenta, she has nothing special in the first place.

Then to make a burst fire as good as a rocket launcher, there are many synergies to apply like active and passive buffs from officers, bring it down which invrase versatility stacks, long story short, Argenta is gonna play a turn with more than 300 BS, 150 perception, 300 agility and 20 versatiliy stacks and it's like a burst fire is as accurate as a lazer beam, hit like a truck and have a ton of bullet ( often 20 to 30).
As her will is over buffed she can use her heroic action with 20 or 30 free attacks which auto crit from 200 to 600 in single shot and have a ton of moves ( sprint, run and gun, rush) to catch the targets, cause nothing will survive.

And if something still survive she will have another turn through an officer/ master tactician. But you can perform this without Argenta, basicaly you jut need a soldier/ arch and offciers.

Argenta has a 0AP, Momentum generating, Daemon damaging prayer, she can use every combat, that helps get to your first Heroic faster.

Just with that, Argenta is already superior to any merc.

[Megaforce]

So I made some tweaks and did a little respecing and yes.....Burst Fire is pretty disgusting lol. My main toon went from pretty decent to just deleting everything. He almost shoots too many bullets now lol, half of them go off into the nether long after the enemy is dead.