Critical Strike vs. Evasion/Armor

[REhorror]

I'm been restoring my run for a while, just wonder, is it worth it to invest in Critical Strike early instead of Evasion/Armor?

I tag Faythe with Critical Strike but for the other members, I go with Armor.

[Shizmoo]

My guy has 62 evasion and it doesnt seem like he dodges alot. Offense > defense in this game

[REhorror]

Originally posted by Shizmoo:

My guy has 62 evasion and it doesnt seem like he dodges alot. Offense > defense in this game

Yep, gonna have to restart yet again then.

I'm not done with Ch1, yes, and I think I'm gonna have my main guy with the shotguns. Shotguns are everywhere in this game.

[Mechalibur]

Evasion is better for solo builds in my experience. It's hard to get enough LP for it to be very relevant in the long-term for a full party, whereas a tag in armor makes a pretty immediate difference.

Critical Strike depends on your build - each point is 2% chance to crit and a negligible increase in crit damage (.01). Unless you're going to take Critical Thinker you can skip it. And keep in mind burst attacks have pretty much no crit chance, so it's safe to ignore crit if you're going for a burst build.

[REhorror]

The double shot (shotguns) and fanning (revolver), are they also burst attacks?

[Arday]

Depends on your build and party strategies.

Unless all in, evasion is only good with enemies accuracy debuff, and getting even better with enough armor and regen. Vice versa with armor.

Just like critical only good with enough accuracy and getting even better with reaction and penetration.

Safest bet for first timer is just make balance build/party.

[REhorror]

So Critical strike is basically good for Perception 8 or above character.
My character Per is a 6, with one implant to be 7. Technically I can go to 8 or even 10 but it's going to take awhile, so maybe Armor is actually good?

Meanwhile Evans is a hecking 9, with 1 implant into 10, yeah, I think he's the guy to build Critical Strike.

EDIT: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Jed has Critical thinker, but his perception is low, maybe it should be upgraded via implant?

EDIT 2: I spoil myself a bit and basically Jed's unique feat will bring him Recoil Control, this means I'm gonna ignore critical and just go full burst shotgun build for him.

[Mechalibur]

Originally posted by REhorror:

The double shot (shotguns) and fanning (revolver), are they also burst attacks?

Fanning is identical to short bursts, I believe (-40 crit chance). Double shots are -10, which is still reasonable for a late-game crit build. In fact, since doubleshots roll the same value for all attacks, a crit on a double shot can be devastating.

[REhorror]

Originally posted by Mechalibur:

Originally posted by REhorror:

The double shot (shotguns) and fanning (revolver), are they also burst attacks?

Fanning is identical to short bursts, I believe (-40 crit chance). Double shots are -10, which is still reasonable for a late-game crit build. In fact, since doubleshots roll the same value for all attacks, a crit on a double shot can be devastating.

Thanks.

But armor handling is crucial early game so I'm gonna still take armor, maybe I can tag critical strike later with educated.

[Sardonac]

It depends. Evasion is much more useful when you can stack absurd amounts of it. This is most commonly useful on solo runs. In parties I generally focus on enough armor handling to minimize penalties to reaction/initiative while stacking as much damage reduction as I can.

Critical strike is almost always useful, although you can skip it on SMG burst builds and the like if you want to. Its a snowball type skill - if you're going to focus it, do so early and push abilities that give crit bonuses like aimed shots and the like. Its most useful on pistols and rifles due to the bullseye attack. Double-shot shotguns too since the doubleshot attack only has -10 crit, this can be a very AP efficient attack if you crit often.

[REhorror]

Look like armor investment is still correct after all, no need for build restart, this time.

[Bill, the Galactic Hero]

Armor is the most useful of the three, especially if you go for high initiative (which you should, because acting before everyone else is very valuable).

[Myth Alric]

If you go super high evasion, the enemy will spend most of it's time just shooting everyone else instead.

[REhorror]

Originally posted by Myth Alric:

If you go super high evasion, the enemy will spend most of it's time just shooting everyone else instead.

Now I'm trying to make Faythe into the bullet taker.
Bless her for that role.

[Neyreyan_Youtube]

Originally posted by REhorror:

I'm been restoring my run for a while, just wonder, is it worth it to invest in Critical Strike early instead of Evasion/Armor?

I tag Faythe with Critical Strike but for the other members, I go with Armor.

in the context of the curent game armor is useless since you get a lot of penalties anyway and eliminating the penalties requires you to take off the armor wich means geting shot.

Go for critical strike and evasion instead.
Armor was never balanced and last night i noticed that even wear some basic armor gives penalties to reaction fire and other things so what's the point of having armor handling then?
You also will throw grenades at enemies and do aimed attacks to lower their accuracy so armor is the most useless thing you can invest since it doesn't actually improve armor, it just gives a little more evasion, initiative and reaction wich is silly because you could simply improve those stats for a much better gain.

btw, for newer players: dodging doesn't work as you think it works for the purpose of combat.
The more dodge you have, the less targeted the character but it also means that if the targeted character has more dodge the enemies will use normal or aimed attacks.
So if a character has a lot of armor handling but not enough evasion, it will get targeted by snap and normal attacks wich means it will die anyway.
So a lot of baseline evasion is needed just to survive the first 2 rounds of combat

[1ttffsse]

I like crit strike early...especially if you start stacking crit on party members through Sarge (Jed) / squad leader implant on main etc...if you invest into decent crit % early on your units they can get more of it at a decent clip throughout the game. That said I also find it is pretty tightly balanced as in you can't just do it on all your units because someone has to focus on science and or stealth skills.

As for evasion...it is very powerful, but you have to do more than just tag it on a dodge tank build. You have to have a foundation for it with something like fast runner (10 starting dex) and also support it further with feats that highten evasion even further. So you can keep ahead of enemy accuracy.

Like on a solo fighter run you can somewhat keep it up better if you are drawing all the aggro than in party play.

As for armor it's nice to have but even in best armor enemies will damage you quite consistently.