Are Stun Batons viable now?

[Hexton]

From someone who has never used stun batons, I was wondering with the recent A19 changes, was there any improvements as a main melee weapon? ie through books skill etc?

[MagnusGrey]

Yes they are decent. Yes there are skill books (faster charge, etc).

[McDuderstein]

There's a new mod (Repulsor) that is supposed to knock enemies back, but it was busted in the previous build. Can't load up my old save, so can't test the fix.

Two new perk books (increased charge attack proc % and Repulsor mod schematic) made it alright. I had no points in stun or robotics, but high Int. Found a Level 6 stun baton, added a weighted head mod, and threw a drum magazine on a level 4 sentry turret. It's slower going, but dropping a turret down and stunning enemies helped reduce my gun usage to save up durability/ammo for Blood Moon nights (my server has them every 3 days with a 1 day variance).

[Brevan]

A friend of mine did very well with Baton last Horde (our setup is a hallway where the Z's are stopped at a block that you can melee over). He's got all the books (the new Baton-only mod for faster recharging of the Baton was important), but the main effect was the candy (1.2m Area Effect for Baton discharges). He was shock-freezing several Z's at a time, it looked glorious.

[FT]

I think they're still lower damage/dps than most melee. They have a chance to stun for a couple seconds, but most other weapons will either knock zeds down or kill them by then anyway. You can get a specific buff to chain-lighting stun multiple zeds when they're standing near each other, but you could also knock down multiple nearby zeds with a sledgehammer power-attack while doing much more damage.

The stun baton is better than the JunkSledgeTurret, but you're probably more likely going to kill a zombie by spitting on it than you are by using the JunkSledgeTurret.

JunkTurretGun is still fun and eventually the JunkDrone should be, but those are both late-game items now, so I feel like you're better off with different melee and ranged weapons even without points spend into them if you're going INT build.
I could be wrong though.

[Hexton]

Doesn't sound like baton could take the place of clubs or fist, but helps other melee attacks.
O well, I guess I'll go Int/Str for clubs then. Still want the turrets perk but as single player I was hoping to invest heavy in Int. Looking forward to Junk Drone....

[MagnusGrey]

You should really just try it rather than listen to random ppl. Even at 0 investment you can see how it works.

[Hexton]

Well that's true I could and will. Just wanted some incite.

[Eventide]

My friend and I have been playing, and even before A19 the batons were great. I end up being the intelligence one since I typically favor the crafting, building, etc. He's usually the strength type.
With A19 now, the baton is even better even with no points invested into it. I hope we get something else though for intelligence. I already enjoy that we're getting more Robotics.. I can't get over the new sledge. I love the way it works and the sound.

[FT]

Originally posted by MagnusGrey:

You should really just try it rather than listen to random ppl. Even at 0 investment you can see how it works.

Originally posted by Hexton:

Well that's true I could and will. Just wanted some incite.

If you're in a hurry, or have limited space for collecting things it might be a good idea to load up a creative/Cheats-ON game, "u" menu yourself some different weapons (and some healing stuff and the armor you're currently using), and then use the F7 or whatever key to spawn in a few zeds to test things on.

[CrazyOdd]

So far, so does the stun batton seem more like a backup weapon, then a main weapon.
Lvl 6 stun batton + lvl 8 int + lvl 6 str + lvl 3 Tyrannosaurus, still takes a lot of kill a single zed.
Granted, no mods on the stun batton, but when a level 4 iron sledgehammer, that I havent skilled in beyond strength, it better, it says something

[Eventide]

Originally posted by CrazyOdd:

So far, so does the stun batton seem more like a backup weapon, then a main weapon.
Lvl 6 stun batton + lvl 8 int + lvl 6 str + lvl 3 Tyrannosaurus, still takes a lot of kill a single zed.
Granted, no mods on the stun batton, but when a level 4 iron sledgehammer, that I havent skilled in beyond strength, it better, it says something

It takes me like 3-4 hits to kill a zombie with a tier 2 baton and no points in it, but level 7 intelligence. No points in strength or tyrannosaurus either. I don't even have any of the perk books. On day 10 with default settings for difficulty, so not sure if it just gets harder later, but I'm perfectly fine with the baton as my main melee. I keep a bow and a pistol or ak around for ranged options.

[CrazyOdd]

Originally posted by Eventide:

Originally posted by CrazyOdd:

So far, so does the stun batton seem more like a backup weapon, then a main weapon.
Lvl 6 stun batton + lvl 8 int + lvl 6 str + lvl 3 Tyrannosaurus, still takes a lot of kill a single zed.
Granted, no mods on the stun batton, but when a level 4 iron sledgehammer, that I havent skilled in beyond strength, it better, it says something

It takes me like 3-4 hits to kill a zombie with a tier 2 baton and no points in it, but level 7 intelligence. No points in strength or tyrannosaurus either. I don't even have any of the perk books. On day 10 with default settings for difficulty, so not sure if it just gets harder later, but I'm perfectly fine with the baton as my main melee. I keep a bow and a pistol or ak around for ranged options.

Maybe because the server I'm on, is on the hardest difficulty?

[Eventide]

Originally posted by CrazyOdd:

Originally posted by Eventide:

It takes me like 3-4 hits to kill a zombie with a tier 2 baton and no points in it, but level 7 intelligence. No points in strength or tyrannosaurus either. I don't even have any of the perk books. On day 10 with default settings for difficulty, so not sure if it just gets harder later, but I'm perfectly fine with the baton as my main melee. I keep a bow and a pistol or ak around for ranged options.

Maybe because the server I'm on, is on the hardest difficulty?

Well that would explain a few things. Higher difficulty means harder zombies from the start. Like I said, I'm on like day 10 or around there, so I don't really know how well the baton scales as difficulty gets higher. I assume it's fine as long as you start putting points into it.

[DeadMeat]

In A18, the shock damage wasn't applied correctly doing less than the listed damage. Also, armor fully blocks the DOT effect in A18. I hope that is different now. Need to test.

[Damnion]

They've always been viable.