47
« on: July 31, 2019, 10:54:11 pm »
After several sledge runs, i'd say you should build your sledge differentely.
First, you don't need Cheap Shots, that's a trap, you also should forget any crit feats. You regular sledge damage with 19 Str is enough to kill most enemies in one strike even on dominating (and makes Balor's Hammer less annoying to use), so occasional crit is not very useful and armored sledges don't have many options on raising that chance to the point where it becomes something you can rely on. So, 3 Dex actually is what you need (loosing grenadier and trigger happy is not great, but whatever).
Second, Super Slam is a waste, really. Unless you are playing on easy, the damage is very meh even with juggernaught and sturdy vest and as i said, you are putting most enemies with one strike anyway and with bosses something like taser is more than enough to get the time to deal all the damage you need.
Third, playing melee with no movement points is annoying. I can't put that into words how. I mean, a lot of fights will turn into a slow slugfest, some for dozens of turns. And some will become just unwinnable (at least without a lots of savescumming), since you can't get to the PSI enemy in time.
Fourth, this build will find fighting natives more than hard. Their tactics is simple, yet effective - they are throeing nets on you, while their warriors are striking you in melee and crossbows are poisoning you with heartbreaker poison. While you can deal with swordsman and hammemrers no problem (though swordsmen will occasionally still damage you with crippling shots, which is annoying), spearmen are completely different story - they have a range on you, meaning that they can strike you while you can't strike them, they will entagnle you indefinetely (even though each one net throw lasts one turn, they have those to keep you busy for dozens of turns) and also spears ignore a good portion of you damage resist. This is almost a perfect tactics against a tincan. There will be enough of them that even grenades with grenadier will not help you much.
So i would build sledge like this:
Str: 9-10 + 6 lvl + 2 veteran feat + 1 for being an alcoholic (but in Underrail it's a good thing)
Dex,Per,Will: 3
Int: 6
Agi: 6
Con: 9-10 (depending wherever you want Thick Skull or not. Bullhead is a good drug after all).
To be honest, you can pump Con instead of Str with veteran feat and take Bodybuilding, but that would make your best weapon in the game more annoying to use, with higher miss chance. But 16 Str with a high quality shock hammer would still put most enemies to sleep with one strike on Hard (i checked obviously). You can never has enough health and at some point increasing damage hits diminishing returns. So it is more of a matter of style.
Then you put all spec to Armor Sloping, take Nimble and Body Weight Trainig and craft yourself a full set of super steel armor with spring boots. That will make your mech resist arounf 90-95% and energy resist 85-90% depending on how much you want to grind that steel. On top of that, it will make you only 54% armor penalty (59% with heavier vests like regen), which is not that much and with spring boots you can move on the battlefield very well even without sprint. No reason not to take sprint of course, it's even a good idea to put 5 points of spec into it, making you VERY fast when you need to. The only downside compared to tungsten is lower damage threshold, meaning more attacks can actually scratch you, meaning that stuff like crippling strike and poison is much more annoying than on tungsten can (though latter is not immune to it either, i know from experience). Though it is solved by having a good biology - Irongut is great.
Pummel is a truly great feat, but it shines when you put 5 spec points into it to make 0 AP attack. I don't think i need to explain why.
But i have to put important note here - after playing expedition with build like that i understood that sledgehammers are inferior to spear. First - their feats are just better. Impale is a crit on demand, which is what actually can make stuff like critical power, cheap shots and heavyweight useful, since now you can control it. Sweep is just too great, even with decreased damage, high str build can mow many enemies with one attack like this. Second they have good base abilities - spear guard (+ spear guardian on higher levels) means that even with relatively low meach threshold you can say "fuck you" to all those crippling strike bastards and other spear users that would otherwise damage you through lowered mech resist, it is also good early on against several melee enemies, like rathounds. Lowered mech resist against organic target makes some enemies less annoying (beetles, tincans, burrowers and crabs). Range is also good at least to negate advantage of other spears. The only situation sledge is better imo is against robot like enemies and when they are not in a group. Being able to craft it with energy edge is also good. Overall damage is lower than with electroshock (when fighing against group), but it's nice that after dropping flashbang to incapacitate a group around you, you don't need to worry about waking them up after one electroshock attack. You also don't need to wear lifting belt to make a 20AP attack, meaning more items on quickslots + more useful belt, i would recommend doctor's pouch so that you can eat pills like candy.
Even without spear feats i noticed that i used spear more often on my sledge build. So, you know, putting it into the words of game revuewers, 10/10 there is something for everyone. Too much water.
Show Posts