What are your unexpectedly awesome builds?

[Hariman]

Tonight I stumbled on a build that does surprisingly well against almost all bots:

Punisher.
Grenade Pistol.
Anti Materiel Rifle.
Supply Pack.
Stun Grenades.

Your choice of armor.

And I typically run with Eagle Airstrike and Railcannon strike on top of that.

What makes it surprisingly effective is the combination of the AMR for sniping almost everything from afar, and the Punisher for ripping bots to shreds while they're stunned/flinching up close.

It's even reasonably reliable against Berserkers, because the Punisher causes them to flinch.


So what are your unexpectedly awesome builds?

[橘光]

Haven't been fighting bots lately. but for bugs I've been running this for the past few days

Tenderizer: everything below medium
Grenade Pistol: bug holes
MG43: medium&bug breaches
Stun Grenades + Orbital Precision Strike: delete chargers
Eagle Airstrike: bug holes and help with heavy
Orbital Airburst: bug breaches

I run the 129 fortified armor so I die less, very satisfying, lots of kills. Only struggle with titans, but team have me covered.

[Marwan [KTHD]]

my loadout varies but most of the time I run a Gas strike + EMS orbital combo for bugs which deals with bug breaches very effectively.

couple that with sentries and you basically become a one-man army against breaches.

earlier, I was running a percision orbital + EMS until they fixed DOT for non-host players. That one is also good.

flamethrower against chargers' legs is easy kill.


for bots I run spear, recoilless or autocannon.

ACs can destroy hulk's legs, 5 rounds per leg. If you can't aim for the eyes or are too far away, destroying both legs is guaranteed death for the hulks. a hulk with one destroyed leg is VERY VERY slow which makes it easy for the picking.


for armor I run the lightest armor for bugs, and medium armor with extra armor padding for bots. I'm liking the new light viper commando outfit. However the melee damage buff is not good.

EDIT: Crossbow got a nice buff recently, allowing it to destroy bug holes as well as fabs now. I'm running it atm.

[Hydro]

for bugs i use

sickle (defender on an intense heat planet)
grenade pistol
supply pack
HMG

it does amazingly against bugs, but make sure to bring either E.A.T's or a railcannon strike on the side for chargers and heavies, but you can harm a normal charger with the HMG if you shoot abit under its mouth area and with some practice kill them reliably

You can also keep your teammates supplied which is a really nice bonus!

and for shutting down bug breaches i use the napalm eagle strike, either outright kills the ones that spawn or weakens them significantly before they can reach you

[DeusEstMachina]

I usually run the following vs bugs:

Orbital Airburst - deletes patrols of warriors and bile spewers and good for bug breaches.
Orbital Railcannon - when a titan shows up and occasionally throw it at a charger that's causing chaos
Orbital Laser - when ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan and the team is getting overwhelmed, or we need to run away and I need to slow down the horde chasing us.
Eagle Airstrike - helps with bug holes, bug breaches, clumps of spewers, whenever there's a high concentration of bugs

Primary: Sickle - good for long range support. Got the sustained fire rate needed to chase down hunters dodging. Also good for ambushing a patrol of hunters and mowing them down before they go on the attack.
Secondary: Redeemer - this is my backup piece when I'm swarmed by hunters or when I need to run away and I have to deal with bugs chasing me. Also good to magdump a stalker when it gets into my face.
Grenade: Impact - I mainly use it to deal with groups of bile spewers. When there is a charger that noone is handling, I wait for them to pass me and throw two of these behind them to blow up their butt. Occasionally throw it at a bile titan when it has a wound on its back from an orbital railcannon. One grenade to the wound is enough to finish it off if you hit it from the side.
Armor: light armor with servo assisted for the extra throw distance.

As you must have noticed, I don't have support weapons or backpacks. This isn't a good build for solo play, but it's very effective if you have a team to play off of.
I usually pick up whatever support weapon I find lying around the map, or if someone calls down a spare for me, but most of the times I don't need them.
My playstyle involved staying on the flanks and providing long range support with my primary and my stratagems. Usually I'm the first one to throw a stratagem at a breach or a patrol that is a threat to us, or at an objective. This usually thins the herd enough to allow the rest of them team to mop up the rest without difficulty.
I also focus on hunters trying to flank us or chasing other players.

When all my strats are on cooldown I shoot down whatever I can with my sickle and handle terminals and other objectives. One challenge of this build is knowing when to use a strat for the greatest impact on the game state and when using them would be a waste.

I mainly play of diff8 but this worked well on diff9 if I have a well rounded team. I regularly net the most kills on my team and often have the lowest number of deaths.

[Hariman]

Originally posted by Marwan KTHD:

my loadout varies but most of the time I run a Gas strike + EMS orbital combo for bugs which deals with bug breaches very effectively.

couple that with sentries and you basically become a one-man army against breaches.

earlier, I was running a percision orbital + EMS until they fixed DOT for non-host players. That one is also good.

flamethrower against chargers' legs is easy kill.


for bots I run spear, recoilless or autocannon.

ACs can destroy hulk's legs, 5 rounds per leg. If you can't aim for the eyes or are too far away, destroying both legs is guaranteed death for the hulks. a hulk with one destroyed leg is VERY VERY slow which makes it easy for the picking.


for armor I run the lightest armor for bugs, and medium armor with extra armor padding for bots. I'm liking the new light viper commando outfit. However the melee damage buff is not good.

EDIT: Crossbow got a nice buff recently, allowing it to destroy bug holes as well as fabs now. I'm running it atm.

Hmm. Now that's a thought:

Crossbow.
A pistol that's good again Berserkers/close enemies.
Stun grenades.
AMR.
Supply Pack.

*Bot ready array of attack/defense stratagems.*

Originally posted by DeusEstMachina:

*Snip.*

As you must have noticed, I don't have support weapons or backpacks. This isn't a good build for solo play, but it's very effective if you have a team to play off of.
I usually pick up whatever support weapon I find lying around the map, or if someone calls down a spare for me, but most of the times I don't need them.
My playstyle involved staying on the flanks and providing long range support with my primary and my stratagems. Usually I'm the first one to throw a stratagem at a breach or a patrol that is a threat to us, or at an objective. This usually thins the herd enough to allow the rest of them team to mop up the rest without difficulty.
I also focus on hunters trying to flank us or chasing other players.

When all my strats are on cooldown I shoot down whatever I can with my sickle and handle terminals and other objectives. One challenge of this build is knowing when to use a strat for the greatest impact on the game state and when using them would be a waste.

I mainly play of diff8 but this worked well on diff9 if I have a well rounded team. I regularly net the most kills on my team and often have the lowest number of deaths.

You know... I've noticed that there's usually a decent number of support weapons just lying around, and often it's REALLY useful if you died in a swarm and can't get back, or forgot to switch weapons.

That's actually how I discovered the Punisher/AMR combo.

But yeah, I've noticed some of the fast cooldown stratagems can really pull extra weight if used properly, especially if the team coordinates.


Actually, one friend I played with used a Machine Gun based built, while I used a Plasma Purifier and Spear build, which combined his accuracy against devastators and my ability to paste heavies quickly made the mission almost a cakewalk, even with only two of us.