How do you play late game bandit without desperado?

[Toats]

I really like bandit, hes very fun. But he only has 2 decent damage dealing abilities. And i feel desperado is the only way to play him.

The knife is great early game, but it quickly becomes unusable since the hemorrhage cant keep up with item damage. Even with multiple backup mags, id rather empty my mag into it and vanish than try to stack bleed even 3 times. Its only ever good on bosses but very rapidly looses the arms race to the timer. If it did % damage like acrid it would be way better.

Lights out is great early game, but is unforgiving if missed, and doesn't have an execute effect. Meaning that a 25% HP enemy can still survive unless i have good items. its basically never a good idea to do guess work and assume a shot will finish off anything bigger than a beetle. Also im pretty sure when it procs, the procs dont reset cooldowns even if they kill.

The primary attack is fantastic but his reload coupled with his other abilities hardly doing damage makes him feel like a worse artificer.


His smoke bomb ironically enough is a better damage dealing than both the dagger, and lights out. Decent proc chance with AOE that hits twice, and stuns letting you deal lots of damage to groups paired with the shotgun.


Even going out of my way to burst down people crazy smokebomb backstab shotgun combos, the down time is to much. Its also a dangerous playstyle that loader i think just straight up does better.

I could be wrong tho pls explain.

[Ninja Zyborg]

Originally posted by Rev:

And i feel desperado is the only way to play him.

primary attack though. kinda the best damage on most characters.

[Terotrous]

You're not really wrong. Bandit has incredible early game mobility and damage but struggles late game. The key is to play fast so you can finish the game before the time scaling becomes a huge problem. A good thief never lingers at the scene of the crime.

[Toats]

Originally posted by Ninja Zyborg:

Originally posted by Rev:

And i feel desperado is the only way to play him.

primary attack though. kinda the best damage on most characters.

I still use his entire kit, but i think that most people probably wouldn't play him without it.

[Ninja Zyborg]

Originally posted by Terotrous:

You're not really wrong. Bandit has incredible early game mobility and damage but struggles late game. The key is to play fast so you can finish the game before the time scaling becomes a huge problem.

or get items faster so you scale out of control

[45]

i never use the secondary except to triple jump

[Leviathan]

Originally posted by Terotrous:

You're not really wrong. Bandit has incredible early game mobility and damage but struggles late game. The key is to play fast so you can finish the game before the time scaling becomes a huge problem. A good thief never lingers at the scene of the crime.

Not really. The key is to get proc chains before scaling becomes a huge problem. After you get your proc chains you let them do the job on dps for you no matter your survivor. You focus on aiming decently enough so that you keep hitting enemies and keeping with the procs, and move around the map and grab items so you can keep scaling.

[Ben bitmişim]

Lights out does have the slayer attribute just like desperado. So no a %25 health enemy will probably die to lights out unless its a big enemy like a scavenger or a perfected chimera. Missing a lights out shot is less punishing than missing a desperado shot (unless you were low hp and you needed that reset to get away) since whiffing a shot with desperado means -1 stack.

Calling him a worse artificer is a blasphemy as he has one of the highest damage output in early game only rivaled by a vf in corrupted mode and a railgunner who can land her shots and active reloads. If you feel like you can't do any damage as bandit you're either not utilizing his passive enough or you don't know that he shoots as fast as you can click your m1.

He offers great mobility and a uniqe playstyle, when I'm playing as him I always go with default kit and after spawning teleporter boss I use lights out on small stuff like lemurians, beetles and wisps to get my reset go invisible dump my entire mag and my m2 on the back of the boss (which is really easy to reach thanks to the speed boost smoke bomb gives you) and repeat until hemmorhage kills the boss. By letting hemmorhage stacks deal with the boss I can focus on other enemies and not get overwhelmed.

[Toats]

Originally posted by Ben bitmişim:

Lights out does have the slayer attribute just like desperado. So no a %25 health enemy will probably die to lights out unless its a big enemy like a scavenger or a perfected chimera. Missing a lights out shot is less punishing than missing a desperado shot (unless you were low hp and you needed that reset to get away) since whiffing a shot with desperado means -1 stack.

Calling him a worse artificer is a blasphemy as he has one of the highest damage output in early game only rivaled by a vf in corrupted mode and a railgunner who can land her shots and active reloads. If you feel like you can't do any damage as bandit you're either not utilizing his passive enough or you don't know that he shoots as fast as you can click your m1.

He offers great mobility and a uniqe playstyle, when I'm playing as him I always go with default kit and after spawning teleporter boss I use lights out on small stuff like lemurians, beetles and wisps to get my reset go invisible dump my entire mag and my m2 on the back of the boss (which is really easy to reach thanks to the speed boost smoke bomb gives you) and repeat until hemmorhage kills the boss. By letting hemmorhage stacks deal with the boss I can focus on other enemies and not get overwhelmed.

I completely agree that bandit is fantastic for things like eclipse, but for doing loops or simulacrum he becomes completely reliant on items.
Unless you get constant backstabs captain just out dps's him with only a couple of syringes

[Ninja Zyborg]

Originally posted by Rev:

I completely agree that bandit is fantastic for things like eclipse, but for doing loops or simulacrum he becomes completely reliant on items.

like every other character

[TropicalLad]

Originally posted by Rev:

The knife is great early game, but it quickly becomes unusable since the hemorrhage cant keep up.

I find it's useful for the more tanky elites/bosses that don't get melted by emptying the primary into them. Useful for those situations and if your item rng is subpar. You should constantly be going for the enemy's backside as Bandit, no ifs and or buts about it. Empty the primary, fire off a secondary, reload. Far more bang for your buck than primary all day long.

Originally posted by Rev:

Lights out... Also im pretty sure when it procs, the procs dont reset cooldowns even if they kill.

Lights Out execution absolutely resets cooldowns. You either kill it with the band proc from it or your skills were already close to being usable again.

Originally posted by Rev:

The primary attack is fantastic but his reload coupled with his other abilities hardly doing damage makes him feel like a worse artificer.

Straight up blasphemy. If you give an Artificer the option to use all her abilities, but Bandit is only allowed to use his primary, he'd either tie or outright outdamage her.

Bandit's strength relies on how well you can stick to that backside. Primary is the main show, other abilities are that extra oomph. If you're behind an enemy for the backstab passive, there's no reason you should not be using your secondary. If you're not behind them, utilize the momentum of the utility, the stun of it, and the fact that you can reload your primary while in the cloaked state.

Lights Out vs Desperado? Personal preference, but in my opinion Lights Out is better early on. If you're not doing enough damage come stage 3-5, then you're just not doing enough damage. Desperado is going to help, but it won't save you if rng isn't kind. I find Lights Out to be better for me because sticky situations early on could be escaped from easily if I had my utility up in which that helps a lot.