Class tips?

[Karsk]

I am specifically talking about Commando, Engineer, Ranger, Recon.

I don't need a detailed guide but just a general idea of how to play them. I understand their base kit but not necessarily how to best use it in combat. I'm kinda tired of Guardian and I wanna try something new but it's hard to go without the bubble.

For reference I haven't beaten the game I started it recently on hard and have only just been able to beat two bosses and died in the third area.

[Scipo0419]

Commando shines with explosive builds enhanced by Shorty. He CAN do a Rocket/Shorty build, but it's never been as good as just using Explosive weapons + Scanning Burst/Wild Burster.

Engineer is arguably the best class in the game with drones to take fire off of you. He's really good for Elemental builds (Cryo/Pyro) and Summon builds. I'm not a big fan of his kit personally.

Ranger shines with Crit Builds and a really fun Melee build centered around the Shovel. You can get insane levels of Auto-crit and with Simple Geometry you can just ricochet those crits around a room. I'm not particularly well-versed in Ranger as I tend to focus on Elemental/Explosive builds.

Recon is like an inverse of Ranger, shines with melee builds centered around Dagger (converted to Cutlass) but has really fun Crit and stealth builds. I tend to purely play Recon as melee focused though.

Elementalist shines with Elemental Gun builds but it's super specific on what perks you get. Easiest class to just get a run where you don't get a perk you want. He can do ability based builds (Like Commando), but it's max potential is about half that of a gun build (just less specific)

At least that's my experience with all the classes so far.

[Karsk]

Much appreciated! Glad to see my intuition about the engineer was on point lol. Do you have any specific perks that are advisable on recon and commando?

[Scipo0419]

Here's my "dream" specs for both, followed by some wiggle room picks.

Commando:

• Scanning Burst + Triple Bounce + Family Pack
  
• Shorty Prototype: Wild Burster + Surprise Blast + House Blend
  
• Baby Boom + Group Discount + Lucky Powder
  
• Either Hot Potato + Full Price + Tactical Pocket
  
• Or Mini-Missiles + Chromatic Firework(I like Pyro) + Firework Generator

For flex picks: Top Quality, Warning Rocket, Self Control + Critical Madness, and Repair o' Fury + Robzerker.
My playstyle revolves around fast firing explosive weapons like the Torpedo Rifle, Volcano Rifle, or my favorite the Gorilla Bolter. Scanning Burst + Wild Burster creates roomfuls of explosions that have a chance to repeat themselves due to Baby Boom, marking everything in the room for my follow-up shots (and Wild Burster has a 30% chance to refresh it's CD which can clear rooms on it's own.) Hot Potato lets you instantly reload while also doing a bit of damage if you're lucky and Mini-Missiles is just free damage that synergize with Baby Boom. Try to get items that synergize with crits and explosive damage. (Perfume Bottle, Strawberries, etc.)

Recon:

• Cutlass + Alacrity + Mighty Blow
  
• Sharp Wave + Tactical Slash + Signature Move
  
• Relentless Pursuit + Field Analysis (other secondary perk doesn't matter for melee)
  
• Either Favorite Weapon + Combo Dynamo (never picked the other perk so I assume it's gun related and doesn't matter)
  
• Or Improved Critical + Pressure Point + Good Fortune

For flex picks: Robo-Fuel, Close Combat, Chromatic Dash, Scanning Protocol, or Combat Decoy are all decent options.
My playstyle involves using the Grappling Hook (once you get it), and Blink to move around the room and melee everything with Cutlass while holding the upgraded Foxgun in my mainhand for free marking (until I get Relentless Pursuit/Scanning Protocol) and bonus Dagger Damage in my mainhand. With Sharp Wave's Signature Move + Favorite Weapon's Combo Dynamo you can Blink + Overslash very often, dealing great ranged damage as well as guaranteeing crits for Improved Critical. Try to get items that synergize with Crits and abilities. (French Fries, Strawberries, etc.)

Won't say these are the best possible builds, but they work for me up through Guardian 2 (I'm trying to improve my gameplay to get through guardian 3, my issue is I get hit too often, not that enemies die to slowly lol)

[Karsk]

Hey I just unlocked the elementalist and oh boi this is the most confusing class of all. Would you be able to give any tips? I've spent many hours with it but still don't really get what I should be doing.

[Scipo0419]

Originally posted by Karsk:

Hey I just unlocked the elementalist and oh boi this is the most confusing class of all. Would you be able to give any tips? I've spent many hours with it but still don't really get what I should be doing.

There are two main builds for Elementalist: Abilities and Guns. Abilities can be very good if you're lucky, but Guns is extremely powerful with the caveat of being hyper specific in the talent options.

Abilities focuses on Trinity Buffing Comet Buffing Trinity and the conditional resets of these abilities. There's a bunch of perks that synergize with this playstyle so it's kind of "choose your own adventure" and every run is different. I'm not keen on this playstyle as the damage potential IS there, but it's not nearly as consistent as Guns if you get the right perks.

Guns focuses on two primary perks: Chromatic Weapons (I think is the name) and Dynamic Mantra. Chromatic Weapons grants your guns the element that your Mantra is currently in (on top of whatever elements are naturally on the weapon) which includes the damage buff from Mantra and grants a free reload and infinite ammo for 1.5s after the mantra cycles. Dynamic Mantra lowers the cycle Cooldown by up to 60% (I think?) just don't get the perk that extends one of the elements. There's another perk that enhances the damage of your active mantra's element as well as a smaller buff for the other Mantras. The final perk is a bit more liberal, I prefer Sticky Bombs or Baby Boom (or both if I don't get the mantra buff). This creates a synergy of using your Abilities as extra damage rather than primary damage and your guns are buffed to the high heavens and you never have to reload.

I'm at work so I can't pull up the exact names and details as I did in my previous comment. Elementalist is my favorite class followed by Guardian due to their potential of multiple elements.


Edit:

Elementalist - Abilities:

Good Perks:

• Inner Fire
  
• Robo-Wizard
  
• Attunement
  
• Meteor
  
• Warning Blast
  
• Power Infusion
  
• Critical Burst
  
• Dynamic Mantra

Not really in any particular order, all of these perks are good for Ability based builds in one way or another.

Elementalist - Guns

• Infused Weapons + Battle Mantra + Erratic Bolts *Required
  
• Dynamic Mantra + Quick Loop *Required
  
• Either Elemental Resonance and Warning Blast
  
• Or Baby Boom and Sticky Bombs

Those "Either/Or" picks are the (in my opinion) best combos for the final two perk slots, but they can theoretically be mix and matched as well, just don't get Baby Boom if you're not using an explosive weapon. Honorable Mentions are Elemental Mastery, Power Infusion, and Unstable Armor

Notice that Guns don't really have many viable perks, so you're really restricted, but the damage potential vastly outstrips the Ability based builds in my experience.

Edit 2: Ironically, I finally beat Guardian 3 with the "Baby Boom + Sticky Bombs" gun build.

[Karsk]

Originally posted by Scipo0419:

Originally posted by Karsk:

Hey I just unlocked the elementalist and oh boi this is the most confusing class of all. Would you be able to give any tips? I've spent many hours with it but still don't really get what I should be doing.

There are two main builds for Elementalist: Abilities and Guns. Abilities can be very good if you're lucky, but Guns is extremely powerful with the caveat of being hyper specific in the talent options.

Abilities focuses on Trinity Buffing Comet Buffing Trinity and the conditional resets of these abilities. There's a bunch of perks that synergize with this playstyle so it's kind of "choose your own adventure" and every run is different. I'm not keen on this playstyle as the damage potential IS there, but it's not nearly as consistent as Guns if you get the right perks.

Guns focuses on two primary perks: Chromatic Weapons (I think is the name) and Dynamic Mantra. Chromatic Weapons grants your guns the element that your Mantra is currently in (on top of whatever elements are naturally on the weapon) which includes the damage buff from Mantra and grants a free reload and infinite ammo for 1.5s after the mantra cycles. Dynamic Mantra lowers the cycle Cooldown by up to 60% (I think?) just don't get the perk that extends one of the elements. There's another perk that enhances the damage of your active mantra's element as well as a smaller buff for the other Mantras. The final perk is a bit more liberal, I prefer Sticky Bombs or Baby Boom (or both if I don't get the mantra buff). This creates a synergy of using your Abilities as extra damage rather than primary damage and your guns are buffed to the high heavens and you never have to reload.

I'm at work so I can't pull up the exact names and details as I did in my previous comment. Elementalist is my favorite class followed by Guardian due to their potential of multiple elements.


Edit:

Elementalist - Abilities:

Good Perks:

• Inner Fire
  
• Robo-Wizard
  
• Attunement
  
• Meteor
  
• Warning Blast
  
• Power Infusion
  
• Critical Burst
  
• Dynamic Mantra

Not really in any particular order, all of these perks are good for Ability based builds in one way or another.

Elementalist - Guns

• Infused Weapons + Battle Mantra + Erratic Bolts *Required
  
• Dynamic Mantra + Quick Loop *Required
  
• Either Elemental Resonance and Warning Blast
  
• Or Baby Boom and Sticky Bombs

Those "Either/Or" picks are the (in my opinion) best combos for the final two perk slots, but they can theoretically be mix and matched as well, just don't get Baby Boom if you're not using an explosive weapon. Honorable Mentions are Elemental Mastery, Power Infusion, and Unstable Armor

Notice that Guns don't really have many viable perks, so you're really restricted, but the damage potential vastly outstrips the Ability based builds in my experience.

Edit 2: Ironically, I finally beat Guardian 3 with the "Baby Boom + Sticky Bombs" gun build.

Very much appreciated! I don't exactly get why wanting the elements to cycle faster is good and how it can give infinite ammo but I shall just take the upgrades anyway!

[Scipo0419]

Originally posted by Karsk:

Very much appreciated! I don't exactly get why wanting the elements to cycle faster is good and how it can give infinite ammo but I shall just take the upgrades anyway!

Infused Weapons' secondary perk "Battle Mantra" will instantly reload your weapon and provide 1.5s of infinite ammo after your mantra cycles. Dynamic Mantra and it's secondary perk "Quick Loop" reduce the mantra cycle by 60%. I think it's 10s down to 4s, don't quote me on that, but if we use the 4s - 1.5s of infinite ammo (since the mantra is still cycling during that time-frame), as long as you can fire your weapon for 2.5s w/o reloading you can hold down right click and never stop firing. This is exceptionally great on weapons with "Warm-Up" or weapons with longer reload animations. It's not helpful at all on single shot weapons like the Firework, nor is it helpful on weapons like the Elephant Gun that fire relatively quickly but only have 3-4 shots.

It works even better if you have "on-reload" items like the Thimble that give you 20% increased fire rate on reload since Battle Mantra is considered a reload.

Edit: Wanted to emphasize that my 2.5s calculation is a rough guess since I don't know exactly how long it takes for mantra to cycle, but it's really fast with Quick Loop