Stealthy sledgehammer build.

[AN1ME5NIK]

Hi, recently I got an idea of a steathy sledgehameer build. So, the idea is that we coming out of stealth and annihilate our enemies in a first turn by cracking thier skulls. For everything that doesn't die instantly we've got utily granades and adrenaline shots, and we also have a pretty decent crit chance and oh baby when we hit critical we hit like a truck. Also this build is very thick cause we're using super-steel armor with a sturdy west for even more hp. Here is a link https://underrail.info/build/?HhAGBgYDAwYAUADCoADCoMKgWloARmRkMjJkAAAAAABGACgxUDktRAYDAEUSSyZgUsK2woPinY0K4qWKBd-_. What do you think guys? Maybe you have a better option or an improvement for a build?

[Koveras]

A stealth/sledge build should work fine, but it probably won't be as good as the standard heavy sledge. I've been playing a quirky sledge build lately, so I have a few things that come to mind.

- What armor penalty are you aiming for? Without extra plates the armor will be unimpressive, and if you go full plate your stealth will be too low. I doubt there's a satisfying sweet spot. To stay close to your idea I would go for infused sea wyrm leather armour, replacing Armor Sloping with Nimble. Sea wyrm armour have a very nice base mech resist, and its bonus makes you extremely resistant to melee mech damage when crafted with dense padding (almost immune at very high quality). And you can slap a black cloth on it to get a nice bonus to stealth.
- Trigger Happy, Guard, Super Slam, and Bone Breaker are not particularly good for this build. You should definitely consider Body Weight Training, Nimble, Heavyweight, Dirty Kick and Grenadier. I personally like Doctor too.
- By dropping one STR you can get to 7 DEX, opening Escape Artist (a blessing in the Black Sea) and Three Pointer.
- By dropping one STR you can also get to 7 INT, opening Power Management and freeing a bunch of skill points.

[AN1ME5NIK]

Well, you have a point there. I think I could replace steel armor with a sturdy vest overcoat and take nimble instead of armor sloping, maybe swap some other feats. But I don't feel like I need power management or heavyweight (why are you taking heavyweight with almost zero armor penalty?). Escape artist may also be good, but only if it's give the ability to come out of trowing nets (which I don't know about). And granade feats... Last time I took it it wasn't too impressive, cause most things die from 1 t4 granade even without three-pointer feat. But I think you are right in most cases. 18 str is a bit overkill and I could spend points in other attributes as well.

[l0cus77]

Imo sledge psychokinesis with with corporeal projection / 18 strength and Balors Hammer was strictly better than pure Sledge. Balors also hits so hard that you do not really need to spec into crit, so the nerfs don't affect you, and psi gives you much needed ranged stacks. 7 dex for scape artist is much recommended, and granades for AOE damage too.

It was a strong build, worked well on dominating, got bored around lvl 20 when I saw how well it worked.

[AN1ME5NIK]

Yeah? So you basically wearing a rathound regalia with a rathound barbeque food buff to gain 20 str? And you just running around one-shoting everything? Damn, that's sounds like fun.

[Koveras]

Regarding Heavyweight, of course it depends on what armour/helmet/boots you use. The armour I suggested has 55% penalty, down to 30% with the feats. 30% extra crit damage is good in my book, especially on weapons that does not come with great base crit damage.

Escape Artist works against any form of root, including nets. So, good against natives, Sea Wyrms, acid dogs...

Balor's is very strong indeed, but it has its flaws. Maintaining 20 STR is annoying, crippling strike screw you badly. The hammer is ridiculously heavy. It does not have an electroshock generator, which does about 100 damage and helps clearing swarms. Also, you only get 18 STR at level 26, before that you get a rather significant accuracy penalty.

[l0cus77]

Balors hammer has its drawbacks of course, but if you build around, it can became be the best hammer.

The earliest you can use it is with natives cocaine, If you stash enought of them (+4 str), underpie (+2) and using regalia for extra +1. Using it with 19 or 18 str can be possible, with reduced precision, not specially recommended but usable if target was previously disabled (i.e in a bear trap). Late game just with adrenaline you are fine.

Missing electroshock is bad for swarms, but of course you can bring a secondary hammer (or even spear + sweep, depending on build) for that. Single target damage is not affected, since add-on damage does not get multiplied by skill lvl (or other additive bonuses) and with that much STR and Balors basic damage, it is absurd. It is like critting every hit but without rng.

With that amount of STR I don't consider it's weight a hard problem, in fact, since you won't be using metal armor (psi caparace vest) it compensates total weight.

Cripple can be a problem, of course, but the idea is to not let that kind of enemy hit, opposite to juggger build. You have the psi and mobility for that, and if ends up happening, switch to secondary weapon.

And the most important thing, with corporeal projection you get strong ranged attacks. Proxy punch, implosion, and even elektrokinesis can be put to good use with this build, couple that with the typical granade and you change combat mode from melee destroyer to ranged killer.

Overall, I think it was quite fun and probably strongest hammer (and probably pseudo melee) build. With recent changes (crit nerfs) it got "buffed" in comparison, multi psi changes can be damaging to the concept but the build can adapt most likely (giving up themo D, Wich was in my initial version for AOE dame).

If you are interested I can post adapted version, for sure.


 

[AN1ME5NIK]

If you are interested I can post adapted version, for sure.

That's will be nice, thank you.