Best Weapon + Armor for SOLO MEELE character

[Maik]

All my attributes are in the 90s or maxed, material arts, meele def, meele attack almost maxed out, my weapon skills with heavy, blunt and sabres are also at 90-95.

I love to min/max as you can probably see... but even after all that hours i put into this game im still am not able to tell which armor set + weapon combo is the best for a solo character.

Everytime a thread like this comes up people are recommending full masterwork samurai armor with a meitou falling sun, without giving any reason.

I mean, yeah - the armor set is pretty strong. But with the meele attack malus and the 85% stomach coverage im not sure if full samurai is really optimal.

I wont argue that samurai boots and legplates are the best since they have almost no combat speed penalty if they are of masterwork quality (-2% on the legplates, i think), but the samurai helmet seems to be inferior to the crab helmet, since the crab helmet provides overall better resistances, weights around the same + has no meele attack malus.

The samurai armor (breastplate) could be switched with a white plate jacket, since it got 100% coverage all the way and the "Chance of hitting" on stomach is way higher.

A meitou falling sun sounds cool on paper and i acknowledge that the falling sun deals massive damage but... firstly: the weapon at its core hasnt the fastest attack animation and secondly: with 40kg ...is it really a viable option?

First you need min. 80 str to wield it properly....

...And if you are the type of guy that loves to loot, you get easily overencumbranced + the usual penalty on your attributes and voila: with the first full bag you realize that the penalty pushed your strenght below 80 which causes you to swing your meitou falling sun in slow motion

I think that hackers have significant shorter attack animations and that especially the meitou paladins cross - with an insane 30% armor penetration - could out-dps the falling sun while being way more reliable.

[Radiosity]

"First you need min. 80 str to wield it properly..."

That's why god gave us masterwork lifter arms.

Also, weapons are fairly situational. Falling Sun is godlike if you're fighting something like a beak thing or leviathan, and against groups of enemies (especially hivers) it will ruin their day because it's extremely sharp and has a wide attack, meaning you can lop off multiple limbs in a single swing. But it's not 'always' the best weapon, especially if you're fighting robots, where the Phoenix's meitou Paladin's Cross is a better idea.

[Morkonan]

For a solo-melee character in vanilla, the best bet is probably to build them as a Martial Artist.

For Armor/Weapons for a weaponized Melee character, I'd prefer Samurai overall with a Leather Turtleneck and a very good quality Paladin's cross. (All top quality, of course.)

A solo "Falling Sun" character is not going to keep their strength for very long, so will be likely fighting at lower efficiency, sooner. With a Paladin's Cross and Hacker experience, equipping a Short Cleaver maximizes returns in Indoor Environments. (Though, honestly, with top stats that shouldn't be a big issue and the toughest Indoor areas will have bots. Unequipping the Short Cleaver is advisable in those situations I think.)

As far as exotic armors are concerned, that's not really a sort of "base equipment suggestion." By the time you have access to Crab armors, you'll be able to make your own decisions there. The most important and glaring issue with helmets is total coverage.

Full coverage>ALL

Anything that provides full coverage for the head is "good." :) If it doesn't, it's not good...

Note: On Robotics - Yes! Absolutely, use Robotics for solo characters. I'd still be hesitant with arming even a robotically enabled "solo" character with a top-tier Falling Sun, though. That damage is still going to add up in big fights and there won't be anyone around to help. For normal melee specialists in groups, it's nowhere near as serious a potential issue when they're properly outfitted with prosthetics. (Lifter Arms for melee)

PS: On "all 90's stats" - If you've used an exp multiplier that increases the character's experience gain per use against enemies across the board, be advised you'll likely be facing "super-sized Town guards." They'll be effected by that sort of "exp multiplier" mod, too, and they fight all day, every day.... all the time, any time... They will wreck your face. :) (Note: If you used some sort of "trainer" object that just yielded more exp in some way, that's different and shouldn't effect them.)

[Maik]

I really dislike the idea of using robotics since i dont want the holy nation to be hostile towards me. And since im not using the falling sun as my primary weapon there is literally no need to cut my arms off. however: lifter arms look kinda cool, haha.

Also i play on vanilla and used the "bed method" on ancient great white gorillo to train my stats up to the 90s - took a long while. Boosting my skills and attributes with mods would feel like cheating.

[Radiosity]

To clarify, I'm a skelly player, so for me solo = single skeleton, often with a high tier Falling Sun + masterwork limbs. Damage from fights doesn't bother me so much because I can heal it off instantly. Getting ganged up on is a bigger issue there, along with the minuses of not being able to equip head armour. But eh, I like the challenge, and just prefer skellies in general.

[Dr.Killenstein]

Solo melee you will always be overwhelmed by superior numbers(especially with increased attack slots), so picking your battles is the key thing. Heavy weapons are the go-to in peoples minds because of the big swing it has. Robotic limbs are desirable for the same reason skeletons are: fast repair, faster recovery, back into the fight more quickly. Armor coverage matters a lot, but combat speed matters the most. So you have the right idea, balancing combat speed with protection will be important to help prevent you getting worn down in-between stops. Not getting hit at all by being faster than your opponent is better than having heavy armor.

Honestly. The "best" way to go about a true solo would be to play as a Hiver prince and use a crossbow. Hivers move the fastest, and if no one can catch you, you can win any battle eventually. Even if you are committed to melee, a hiver with a long reaching weapon can get in and out of attack range faster, meaning with micro-management you can more easily out maneuver your enemies than you could as a Shek. More annoying, but hey: the best defense is not getting hit.

[angrytrex]

It's usually recommended to avoid martial arts for solo characters unless you have some mods for the dodge / attack animations. Hitting for huge numbers on soft targets is nice, but do you really need to kick a starving bandits left arm for 450 damage?

I'm not a falling sun fan because of the dual stats. I find I tend to lose Dexterity faster than strength when taking damage, so the awesomeness is short lived. It also restricts your armor choice somewhat to sets without dex penalties. Type 3 and Metiou sabres tend to work and have a quick attack and do good damage, and I usually end up using some version of longsword.

Crossbows are just a pain. You have to haul around ammo, kite everything, deal with the stupid aiming and whatnot. They work really well though if you want to put up with all of that logistics and micromanagement. I find they were fun at first but then got boring quickly. If you have stats in the 90 range, you wont need them anyway.

Basically heavy armor and some sort of high grade weapon that is a mix of slash and crush damage will do just fine. The key is to make sure all of the gear is masterwork.

[[L9] spartank]

Publicado originalmente por Radiosity:

"First you need min. 80 str to wield it properly..."

That's why god gave us masterwork lifter arms.

Also, weapons are fairly situational. Falling Sun is godlike if you're fighting something like a beak thing or leviathan, and against groups of enemies (especially hivers) it will ruin their day because it's extremely sharp and has a wide attack, meaning you can lop off multiple limbs in a single swing. But it's not 'always' the best weapon, especially if you're fighting robots, where the Phoenix's meitou Paladin's Cross is a better idea.

What this man said, also I prefer medium armor because I like my characters to be able to utilize dodging, when you wear full samurai you really handicap your dodge significantly. That is assuming you have a high dodge level to take advantage of, if not, wearing samurai armor would logically be the best choice.

[Morkonan]

Publicado originalmente por Dr.Killenstein:

...
Honestly. The "best" way to go about a true solo would be to play as a Hiver prince and use a crossbow. Hivers move the fastest, and if no one can catch you, you can win any battle eventually. Even if you are committed to melee, a hiver with a long reaching weapon can get in and out of attack range faster, meaning with micro-management you can more easily out maneuver your enemies than you could as a Shek. More annoying, but hey: the best defense is not getting hit.

I think this isn't a bad idea if one is fighting mostly organized, human-like, enemies. With some enemy groups, though, it could get pretty dangerous for a Hiver Crossbow Specialist. Robotic arms/legs might be a big help, there. (I'm thinking about Security Spiders, Spider groups, some other sorts of enemy group fights, etc. Outdoor fights and fights with lots of room to maneuver aren't the issue as much as getting into tight places where ranged combat is at a disadvantage against fast-movers.)

[Dr.Killenstein]

Publicado originalmente por Morkonan:

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I think this isn't a bad idea if one is fighting mostly organized, human-like, enemies. With some enemy groups, though, it could get pretty dangerous for a Hiver Crossbow Specialist. Robotic arms/legs might be a big help, there. (I'm thinking about Security Spiders, Spider groups, some other sorts of enemy group fights, etc. Outdoor fights and fights with lots of room to maneuver aren't the issue as much as getting into tight places where ranged combat is at a disadvantage against fast-movers.)

I cannot think of a situation that you would be *forced* to melee enclosed. Even on games where I can do so, I tend to lure spiders outside to nullify indoor penalties. Playing solo, I would stealth it. And really, robot spiders frustratingly tend to ignore a lot of the things that matter the most in other combat scenarios, drawing them out one by one and blasting them from range with springbats would probably be a safer strategy anyway. We are talking about Kenshi after all... What works best is relative, and maybe even subjective to HOW you want to do it... Like not wanting to use stealth just because. (Totally okay btw)

If we are talking about min-maxing with 90+ stats, crossbows hit the hardest at the furthest range, MA hits the hardest at close range with bonuses indoors. And unlike going heavy, with the lightweight gearset you can set yourself up to be able to do both of those things with lots of options for armor.

So like, if I wanted to go scoop up the Holy Lord Phoenix, the "best" way would be stealth assassination, and literally run right out at 50+ mph. If I didn't want to do it that way, I would run in, micromanage a flying knee combo to kill/maim him and a good chunk of his guards in one go, grab him and/or run out depending on if his head was exploded. If I wanted to lay siege to the city and kill ALL the paladins, I would use an army... of like, maybe five 90+ guys instead of just one. Trying to be the one-man-army that can take on hundreds at a time is more based on RNG than what youre wearing in my experience.