Good Panther/Assault hybrid build (Very detailed post inside w/ some insight)

[SunEarthMewsic]

Note: This build uses a loud pistol and silent alternate to cover all options. You *could* use a loud alternate or silent pistol, but I built this build around a specific playstyle that I found effective and the below mentioned tools have a lot of synergy with this specific build.

After playing through the campaign and plenty of 4E side missions, I've found an optimal build through trial and error. If you do not care for obtaining maximum points, this might be a good read for you.

I want to emphasize that this is a build that focuses on "killing from the shadows," and when that one thing goes bad and you get exposed, you still get that far range lethality, swapping only to the pistol when an enemy somehow slips past your line of sight.

http://gyazo.com/fea8b890abae50b3eb97f286e9226bf4

There are too many suit variations to bother going over that in any detail. Pick whatever works for you in terms of main, alternate, special ammo and gadget count. Don't focus too much on stealth if you don't want to because it doesn't seem to have much of an effect in my experience.

I want to stress that you should always use Sonar Goggles - Integrated Optics. This specific upgrade highlights warm bodies, footprints, and more that help you strategically use the tools I list below far more effectively. If combined with the Sonar Minimap upgrade that you buy from Grim, which lets you see the direction enemies are facing, you'll never be caught off guard.

1) D50 Pistol - When all hope is lost and you cannot avoid detection, this has the raw firepower necessary to drop a group of soldiers in no time flat. Since you're going to be marked anyways if a guy spots you, you can conserve more ammo over a silenced weapon. Just remember to run away and hide again afterwards. In packed mobs, you'll learn that you'd much rather have a weapon with good stopping force over some silencer.

Red Dot Sight
Laser Sight
Armor Piercing
Accurized Barrel

Conclusion: Laser Sight helps with hip-fire accuracy while Red Dot Sight helps with iron sight accuracy. Armor Piercing for more damage and Accurized Barrel to make sure every shot hits as close to your original crosshair as possible.

2) SC-IS Sniper Rifle - Less ammo compared to the SR-25, but fires much more frequently which is very useful in picking off mobs. This is your primary 'damage dealer' so to speak.

Armor Piercing
Weight Balance
Match Grade Trigger
Tuned Recoil Buffer

Conclusion: Raw damage, precision, and control. I find it to be incredibly more accurate than the SR-25. It can even function as an Assault Rifle if your dextrous enough. Silently pick off enemies without having to engage them in a firefight if you are quiet and quick enough. Why not a shotgun, assault rifle, or sub-machine gun? Too loud and inaccurate at long range. Also makes utilizing some of the CC tools much more difficult.

3) Crossbow - Completely superior over the taser and tactical crossbow. The taser can only stun. The tactical crossbow has stun and sleeping darts. The crossbow has an additional noise-maker and EMP pulse over both and the best part is that all 4 tools can be equipped at once, so there's no reason not to choose it

Default: Sticky Shocker
Additional: Noisemaker, EMP Chaff, Sleeping Gas

4) Gadgets

A) Stick Camera - Plastic Explosive

Conclusion: Not only can it attract nearby enemies like Stick Noisemaker can, it also emits a flash bang, sleeping cloud, and with the Plastic Explosive mod, blows up any enemy within a decent range

B) Tri-Rotor - Tri Rotor Sonar

Conclusion: Control a mini-drone that can fly and shoots out a sticky shocker dart that's capable of incapacitating an enemy. I feel the Tri Rotor Sonar is superior over Offensive Measures because this thing can be destroyed if you unknowingly hover too close to an enemy that they hear the engine. With the sonar, you can at least avoid as many enemies as possible when hunting HVT's. Use it to incapacitate HVT's when using the crossbow invites too much risk in exposing yourself. It's still difficult using the Tri-Rotor if the HVT is deep behind enemy lines however. Best advice there would be to slip in between the largest gap in a patrol route.

C) Tear/Sleeping Gas

Conclusion: Incapacitates a group of enemies. Safe to use in mobs that contain HVTs. Makes bagging and tagging HVTs that are surrounded much easier.

D) Frag/Incendiary Grenade

Conclusion: Good for just blowing stuff up when things get too dense. I can't even begin to count the amount of times these have saved me or made my job easier.

E) Proximity Shocker

Conclusion: Claims to fire a dart, but don't be fooled. It actually fires off a shocking pulse to anyone that gets close, effectively serving as a powerful CC tool. Throwing it into a mob will alert them, but it usually goes off almost immediately, cutting off retreat as an option.

-----

Before I made this build, half of the 4E missions were quite impossible for me. I got caught too much in Grimm and Kobin missions, and I died far too frequently in Charlie missions. Utilizing the potential of this build, I was able to much more effecitively clear those missions. It also made the regular campaign missions much easier to clear. Areas that I once considered difficult are now a joke. This has nothing to do with broken AI however. The AI is very smart. Just, these tools and the minimap upgrade effectively allows you to manipulate the level to your pace.

If this build/guide helped you in anyway, glad to help. I feel like this build is very good, but if you somehow feel like you've got an even better Panther/Assault hybrid build and want to share, go for it.