What's your favorite build?

[Zanmor]

I've spent most of my DRG play time now just trying to load out with more firepower to kill more bugs. But I've unlocked enough overclocks now that I'm wanting to use some of the more oddball things.

Anybody have some interesting and fun combos? Overclocks, modifications, and perks that work really well together, or even builds of two or more dwarves that are especially interesting?

[elire01]

I find optimization fun and many of my loadouts reflect that but I like to pick the fun options whenever I'm able to without sacrificing too much in terms of power.

Here's my suggestion on what overclock combinations you should try per class:

Scout with Active Stability System & Double Barrel. You get all the benefits for single targets while being a competent at dealing with groups and it's insanely fun to blast things away with a boomstick or line up shots at full speed with M1K.

Driller with Ice Spear & Heavy Hitter. Ice Spear covers drillers only weakness and it does it with style, nailing down a warden or menace is immensely satisfying. Heavy Hitter is just standard EPC but better and it combines well with cryo... and while on the topic you should absolutely build for melee damage drills + vampire perk here as it makes the class a damn near immortal.

Engineer with Turret EM Discharge & Hyper Propellant. Turret EM Discharge is just fun to pull off, kiting groups into electrified death zones and having essentially unlimited AOE option on a primary that requires little set up is very worth while. Hyper Propellant is neat as it covers both long range as well as burst damage departments, it's fun to use what is essentially a grenade railgun.

Gunner with Combat Mobility & Triple-Tech Chambers. Fast paced, accurate and somewhat deadly, this build really shines when going against overwhelming odds. I like to combine Coilgun's Necro-Thermal Catalyst with Incendiary Grenades for instant dopamine boosting fiery explosions. You're hardly held back by anything here so I run this quite often whenever I feel like playing gunner.

As per builds for co-op: Try Blistering Necrosis Driller with Supercooling Chamber Scout, it is insane how much damage you can squeeze out of this combo.



General perk fun: Berserk with vampire provides a sudo melee combat experience and is a fun way to kill things while saving ammo.

Scout with Sweet Tooth and any speed increasing weapon/tool upgrade for that ultra-fast experience.

RJ250 Compound with Dash perk is fun way of getting around, especially on point extraction missions. Always beats building platform stairs n bridges for mobility.

[Zanmor]

Awesome! That's exactly the sort of stuff I'm looking for. Thanks!

[Frisky]

I'm just gonna drop my answer from a similar discussion a bit ago

Originally posted by Frisky:

Gunner main

there is a ton of reasons why I main and love playing gunner, namely I love playing "heavy/gunner" classes in games (heavy in tf2 (before I quit tf2 lol), heavy bowgunner in monster hunter, heavy armor/big support weapons in HD2, and even commando in killing floor to an extent, and thats just a few examples)

the other big reason being I find gunner to be a very relaxed experience for pub play given your role is generally a lot simpler and you don't have to constantly work with traversal tools among the others (I used to main engineer but having to deal with scouts pinging nitra 2-inches above the ground and go "plats plz" was extremely annoying so I swapped, gunner I enjoy more anyways)

and speaking of traversal tools, the zipline gun is actually my favorite tool in the game

I don't have one specific "main" build for gunner, I enjoy all three of his weapons too much to pick favorites so I'm listing 1 of each primary build

1st build
2,2,3,2,1 compact feed mechanism minigun
2,3,2,2,2 hellfire coilgun
grenade: sticky

this build is simple, lots of ammo to freely shoot around like a maniac and a hellfire coilgun to abuse as your swarmer clear/crowd control because hellfire is still busted and fear is still really useful

sticky grenades are for praetorians both as burst damage and to turn them around for a bigger hitbox to shoot at

passive perks are: second wind, friendly, and resupplier

active perks are: shield link and heightened senses

second wind is a perk I really like and given gunner isn't much for mobility this helps him get around a bit quicker, in general I think it's a really nice convenience perk

friendly because pub play is totally random and god knows I'll get paired with some of the most splash damage heavy players imaginable who won't check for teammates before firing off their 3rd fat boy shot point blank

resupplier because I'm impatient, thats it

Shield link for supporting my team and to help add a hint of extra defense so long as I can keep close when it matters, it's a cool perk in what it does

heightened senses because I hate disabler enemies and have no faith in randoms to actually have their ears and free me in the rare case I do get grabbed


2nd build
1,1,3,1,3 composite drums autocannon
2,2,2,3,1 led spray BRT7
Grenade: ledbursters

this build is like a mini-big berta of sorts, getting good direct damage without the 50 billion downsides I don't enjoy as part of the actual big bertha OC, the dmg resist at max RoF is insane, giving you double effective health which can help you survive even the worst of attacks if you do happen to get in danger (plus the other 2 upgrades either don't really help this build or are way too small a bonus IMO)

ledbursters for deleting bulks and wiping out large groups of enemies when I need to

perks are the exact same except I trade second wind for elemental insulation to help add to the tank theme of the build


3rd build
3,1,1,2,2 frag missiles hurricane
1,1,2,1,3 the mole coilgun
grenade: cluster

Max AoE hurricane focused on stun and hitting as many enemies as possible, I adore frag missiles and pairing it with the AoE upgrade in tier one gives you a huge area to spam splash damage with

the mole coilgun is also just really fun, plus hitting an oppressor for half his HP (or just oneshotting it) is extremely satisfying, the range is quite useful and after the coilgun buffs this thing is about as strong as it's ever been making it one of my favorite coilgun OCs

perks are the exact same as build #1, I don't change perks much


Gunner good 8)

[crab.king274]

Scout: Deepcore with accuracy upgrades and any clean OC + boltshark with cryo/fire bolts and chemical explosion + IFG.

It's the most comfortable and fun loadout to me even though it would make more sense to take a different special bolt

[eMercody]

For driller I like my 32211 Icestorm build, other options are safe choices like persistent plasma and axes. You can’t handle every target, but when it comes to trash, it’s almost like they’re not even there sort of disintegrating power.

My scout is similar to above with double barrel boomstick, I just rock the 13111 Electrifying Focus Shots. It’s just a build that will work perfectly anywhere that doesn’t have a boss. The electricity effect let’s me keep breakpoints while not taking damage mods, so you end up with a comfy M1000.

[Bookslayer10]

Overall I think I like Driller the most, and my favorite build is anything relying on sticky flames for the Crispr, and anything involving TCF on the EPC. I've changed my mod and overclock choices pretty often, but that hasn't ever changed my core focus.

[Sokaku]

Just about anything and everything.. I have 4 "great" situational loadouts for each class and try to reserve one loadout for experimentation. Some builds just use tame OCs where I just want a bit of a damage or ammo bump. Others use unstable OCs.

Funnest builds?
Driller: Tuned Cooler + Heavy Hitter Burning Hell EPC. It's the most fun to use, but honestly my least used build just because most missions I'll want status effects to slow more than raw damage. I'd say overall Driller is the least "fun" to play, more of a straight to the point class.

Gunner: I'd say a tie between Combat Mobility AC and Plasma Burster Missiles. For combat mobility I pair that with a Chain Hit Bulldog, and run it set up for AOE + the 50% damage reduction. PB Missiles I run with Nitro or Stun and a Micro Flechette Stun + Hollowpoint BRT7.

Scout: Gotta be the Drak /w Aggressive Venting + Hot Feet paired with Cryo Minelet Zuks and the Boomerang. It's just a hell of a fun, aggressive build.

Engineer: Toss up between EM Discharge Stubby + High Voltage Breadcutter, and Mini Shells Turret Whip Warthog + Plastcrete Catalyst Diffractor set up with non-repellent platforms + mines. Both run Gemini turrets and are great defensive builds.

[AyyDimitri]

Gunner with Bullet Hell & Triple Tech Chambers with Born Ready is my go to...

[SCamp]

Engineer Bidirectional Elemental Combo
1x111 Lok1
x1x11 Shard Diffractor

OCs selection on this build is pretty free:
- Seeker, Eraser, Neuro Lasso on Lok1.
- ET, OB, ABC or VIR for Shard Diffractor.

For Shard builds specifically T1, go with either direct damage or ammo. Volitile Impact Reactor may want T3A to make it easier to set single targets on-fire.

Gameplay wise, you find a beefy target and then use the weapon on hand to apply a status effect and then swap to your other weapon to finish the job.

Lok1 -> Shard: Shard has bonus weakpoint damage affects elemental damage from Hydrogen Rupturing.
Shard -> Lok1: Lok1 double dips into bonus damage with Electro-Chemical Rounds


Gunner "Holine Miami" Bulldog
x321x Bulldog with Six Shooter OC

This is your basic point and spam Bulldog Build. No thinking. Just spamming.

I prefer T1b for accuracy. For T5, you can take T5A for a more mobile accuracy, or T5B neurotoxin for slow/DOT utility.

Gunner CC-DOT Spam Coil Gun
22223 Coil Gun with Triple-Tech Chambers OC
32223 Coil Gun with Triple-Tech Chambers OC

T1 is just a choice between more ammo or longer trail duration. Personally, I like ammo for more spam.
T3 Fear is the most optimized choice, as electric slows will extend the duration of fear (bugs have to walk 10m before they exit fear status, so bugs being slowed extends the duration) and TTC allowing 3 shots makes fear almost guaranteed to proc on every fearable enemy. (Stun is also a choice, but it has a shorter duration and smaller CC radius.)

How to use this: Chage to first pip and fire 3 shots in a spread direction of your targets. You are killing things with a DOT. If you need a full charge to kill something, go ahead. There isn't anything stopping you.

The ammo efficiency of this coil gun build allows you to bring a hammier primary weapon and makes defending objectives less of a hassle.

Scout Specialist Boltshark
33111 Boltshark with The Specialist OC

This is a generalist build. Electric Bolts have a wide amount of utility and are very efficient against large targets, allowing you to forget about them. You can also use electric bolts like normal bolts: Maxing out special ammo with electric bolts is 1 less total ammo than picking the normal ammo mod, but you have more electric bolts to apply slows for flexibility.

T5A allows you to get the most out of Electric Bolts' DOT, either individually or in pairs.

[Zanmor]

Awesome, thanks for all the input. Definitely some fun things to try out here.

[scram]

I've got a few for every class, so here are a couple from each. Some I've been using as my go-to, others are me trying to experiment as I tried unlocking skins for everything.

Gunner:
Hurricane - 31221 + Minelayer System
Coil Gun - 22211 + Triple-Tech Chambers
Somewhat like the BH minigun/VB revolver combo, just a bit more involved and frankly not as OP. Minelayer rockets demand more forethought, but you can prefire them at incoming waves, and your secondary can deal with both trash mobs and bigger targets.

Thunderhead - 33221 + Carpet Bomber
BRT - 23231 + Micro Flechettes
I run CB largely because I got sick of running fear NTP. CB doubles down on weapon's strengths in AoE, and makes its abysmal accuracy (esp. at longer ranges) less punishing as a consequence. I personally main the revolver and dislike the BRT, but this build works well enough for me as an alternative. Being able to stunlock certain annoying enemies is pretty satisfying.

Engineer:
Stubby - 22222 + Light-Weight Rounds
Shard Diffractor - 31211 + Overdrive Booster
Comfiest Stubby to use in my opinion. Ammo for days and is just overall really easy to use. Electrify bulkier targets and vaporize them with your shard's overdrive. You can also opt to use Volatile Impact Reactor for even more waveclear if desired.

Warthog - 12221 + Magnetic Pellet Alignment
Breach Cutter - 11122 + Light-Weight Cases
This shotgun is certainly not my favorite engie primary, but MPA turns it into a weirdly satisfying weapon to snipe with. The build overall isn't gimmicky, it just has plenty of damage in a fairly straightforward package. You can afford to have this slightly single target-focused setup as you've got turrets (and maybe SSGs) for trash mobs anyways.

Driller:
Sludge Pump - 22211 + Goo Bomber Special
Subata - 11113 + Automatic Fire
I rarely see people run GBS but it has a lot of potential if utilized correctly. It's easiest to use in escort missions, and you still have your normal shot in single mob or tight space situations. Bonus points if you have teammates that can ignite your goo trails. Subata's mod with corrosive damage is an easy choice and I find it's quite effective.

CRSPR - 22331 + Fuel Stream Diffuser
Colette - 23223 + Mega Power Supply
Non-sticky flame builds for the flamethrower are slept on, and flamethrower itself seems to get overlooked a lot now, but I find this quite usable. The fire reaches surprisingly far, and it feels more responsive for me to directly set a tanky bug on fire and then swap to my secondary for the temp shock rather than wait for sticky flames to do its job.

Scout:
Drak - 21222 + Impact Deflection
Boomstick - 12213 + Shaped Shells
Drak in this configuration is one of the easiest to use waveclear options that the scout has. It's certainly my go-to, anyways. Boomstick, on the other hand, I usually run with Double Barrel as some people have mentioned here. However, SS is not a bad choice at all if you already have a primary that can deal with groups of mobs, like the aforementioned Drak.

M1K - 21121 + Supercooling Chamber
Zhukov - 13232 + Gas Recycling
Comedic levels of damage with your primary, and an addictive quasi-minigun experience in your secondary. Not the most ammo-efficient thing in the world, but certainly fun to run. Don't be afraid to use your normal shot on the primary if necessary.

[beez-one]

Gunner battlefield control machine:
Hurricane 21112 Plasma Burster Missiles
Stun machine with weak point focus. Great ammo conservation. Lacks in mobility for obvious reasons.
Coupled with:
Coil gun 32223 UM Coils
100% fear for a fraction of ammo because of charge level control and injured grunts dying from electric trail. Creates lines of "no swarmer zone", boosts damage by electrifying.