Lvl 5 Novatech Slimcase-10 deck is superior to the lvl 7 Fairlight Excalibur?

[Unchangeling]

So I guess this is something I wish I'd noticed earlier.

The in-store description shows that the Novatech has IDENTICAL stats to the Excalibur, excepting a much lower IP (which shouldn't matter most of the time). However - something the stats don't show, but the description hints at - it has a superior basic attack program to (AFAIK) every other available deck:

The gold-plated Excalibur comes with "Basic Blaster 2.0", which does 75 damage.

The Novatech's basic attack, though, is "Erosion Blaster 2.0", which does 75 damage PLUS another 25 damage per round, for 2 rounds.

It's only a small edge, really, although it suits my playstyle. And the lower IP is a genuine drawback without some combinantion of good use of cover, Medic/Shield, and/or ESP distractions... but this deck is obtainable earlier than the Excalibur, costs 1000 less nuyen, and needs a smaller Karma investment (I'd still go up to intelligence/decking 6 anyway).

I can't see any real reason to prefer the Fairlight over the Novatech.

[Lord Of Dorkness]

Well, there is that tankyness. If you've got the stats, it is supperior thanks to that. (If you've got the programs, of course.)

And it is something of the past, but the Slimcase-10 used to be super buggy, and downright only work about half the time when the game was new.

But on most characters? Yeah, an extremly good deck, and can easily last you the whole game.

[Unchangeling]

Don't get me wrong, that 25% lower IP is definitely noticeable - if you're very unlucky you can wind up dumped when you enter one of those rooms that has multiple active IC during the initial mass attack. Odds are that won't happen, but you'll need to keep Medic on hand (maybe Shield? I never use that personally).

You'll probably still end up raising INT to 7 just for the extra defense (or to raise Rigging)... but you can maybe save at least 7 karma on Decking.

I think the extra damage the deck does, plus the karma savings, plus the lower cost, outweigh the slight fragility - decking is mostly about taking out IC as quickly as possible to prevent the alarm building up, at least the way I play. If you don't mind setting off the alert and doing the extra fighting, then maybe the Fairlight would be a safer bet after all.

[Sam]

Well that deck is for hit and run. Buff your acc, hit once, move to cover/away from the gateway > run away. Or hit once + AoE to kill the IC before it can react.

If you feel ok playing a bit slower/more careful in the matrix then it's definitely enough for the whole game. Confirmed with my 2 melee brutes.

[Unchangeling]

That's not really how I do decking. I drop Suppression in (usually) the first or second turn depending on alert level, types of IC - then I try to kill of the IC as quickly as possible using Killer or the basic attack. If an engagement goes for more than 3 turns - 4 at most, providing the last turn is only one +5 alert IC - I'm doing something wrong. If the post-engagement alert level is >= 50, I didn't manage the timing of Suppression correctly.

I rarely, if ever, use anything but Suppression, Killer, Erosion Blaster (the basic attack for this deck), and occassionally Medic. Sometimes the AOE attack, but that's situational.

After every fight, I jack out and back in, to reset all the cooldowns (especially on Suppression).
Ideally, this means the alert level never goes above 20 except briefly - which lets me carefully remove all the IC between me and anything I might need to get to in a hurry later (this preemptive approach makes e.g. the Ares run, where you have to get to the vent controls quickly, a breeze).

If done right, the *active* IC you encounter is actually an advantage, since each of those only adds +5 alert per round (as opposed to the +20 of watcher IC); if I go into a fight against active IC with an alert level of 20, I usually come out of it with an alert level of 5 or 10.

I'm also careful about never engagting more than one watcher IC at a time, since that adds to the alert level the fastest.

[Sam]

Err... yeah that works, just kinda an overkill. The game really doesnt need that much of your concentration.

4 turns with the slim case, an AoE and 1 - 2 aa is enough for most single ICs. Sniffer is for hard mode and because my builds often have less than 7 int. If you make use of covers then running away is not always necessary, just to be a tidbit safe.

Imo, the alert bar is also a resource. If you can complete the mission without too much trouble then it can go up to 70% or more. As for the story-driven feeling, well, in my case there'd be corpses flying in the meat world, so a messed up network is fine.

And I lack the time for playing sometimes so forcing a block or two helps

[Unchangeling]

Oh it's defintiely overkill; I had to learn to deck defensively like that because I was way underprepared on the first run where you have some serious decking to do.

Still, it's a useful technique where the maximum alert level is really low - in some places it can only hit 60 or 70 before tripping. It's also useful if this is your first playthrough and you're exploring ever part of the system to make sure you haven't missed anything. It's also good for saving up alert level if you want to force the blocker IC.

Lastly, I still recommend Killer over the AOE attack (Blaster) unless you happen to have two IC next to each other. Killer 3.0 does 125 damage - if you luck out and get a 2x Critical, that's 250 damage in a single hit, which is bad news for anything.