Feats and items improvements

[Faeren]

Asking about the feat rather than suggesting improvements, but is entanglement/immobilization a common enough threat that Escape Artist is worth the perk point on a mobile character? So far the only sources I've seen are Mutant Dog's acid blobs and possibly Bear Traps, it seems like it would prevent a lot of savescumming on a character that relies on mobility but at the same time it seems a waste if you only encounter immobilization once in a blue moon.

[Quidam Craft]

Also, most crossbow bandits use nets as well, that usually lead to you being killed. And it can also be usefull if you use the XAL-001 (Which is a very good gun overall) to mitigate the drawback.

This may change your view about it, or maybe not ...

About Surestep, I think it is an underated feat. First, it give you protection against acidic pool, early in the game and will make the life way easier at Depot A, which is a tough part of the game. And by the time you manage to get your hand on Infused Mutated Dog Leather Boots ... Well, you certainly reached level 14 or 15 and you would have already made a huge profit out of Surestep. Plus, you can continue to use other boots, like tabi boots which are great.

Then, and mostly why I love this trait is that it protect you from caltrops, wich are underated as well. You can easily prepare the ground before a tough fight using lots of these cheap caltrops to gain the possibility to kite enemies while doing significant damage. And even if throwed during combat, with surestep you can throw it at your feet (Which is often a very valid target) for 100% accuracy without investing into throwing skill. And ... Trust me, crawler poison caltrops are SO GOOD. give you the possibility to stun an entire group for 2 turns if you use it well at a choke point.

One may say it's possible to use metal boots ... Very true, but caltrops and kiting really shine with a very mobile character with let's say Tabiboots and low armor penalty. Not a big and heavy tin can guy.

Plus you cannot wear both metal and acid proof boots, so yeah ...

You should not see Surestep as a passive defensive feat, but more as an active defensive feat with cool usage of caltrops and acid guns.

[Trashos]

Currently doing my first pistols run. I am not experienced with this build, so I may be wrong, but...

 I think Practical Physicist needs a buff. Generally, niche feats (like Practical Physicist) should be stronger than widely applicable feats (like Critical Power) within their niche. However, it looks like Critical power is better even for devoted energy pistol builds.

The best design imo would have been to have Critical Power be the stronger feat for an all pistols build, and Practical Physicist be the stronger feat for an energy pistol only build. 


PS. Chemical pistols look like they need some work to be worthwhile. They are an interesting concept in principle, so hopefully they get looked into.

[Tygrende]

I think Practical Physicist needs a buff.

I disagree. Practical Physicist is probably one of if not the best "crafted weapon" feats in the game, since its bonus (critical damage) is precisely what plasma pistols excel at. Especially now that DOMINATING exists, where you need all the damage you can get.

Generally, niche feats (like Practical Physicist) should be stronger than widely applicable feats (like Critical Power) within their niche. However, it looks like Critical power is better even for devoted energy pistol builds.

PS. Chemical pistols look like they need some work to be worthwhile. They are an interesting concept in principle, so hopefully they get looked into.

They already got looked into. They used to deal much less damage and didn't have the awesome Cooked Shot feat. I would say they are in a pretty good place now, Cooked Shot gives them really good AoE, acid pistols are great against melee enemies thanks to entanglement, incendiary has great DoT against single targets, etc. You can pull off some good stuff with them that you wouldn't be able to with other weapons, like defeating the bladeling waves on DOMINATING with no gas grenades/crawler caltrops.

There also might be some new stuff (and old stuff, but earlier) for them in the expansion, but you didn't hear that from me.

[Trashos]

Tygrende, I appreciate the feedback (all of it, btw). As I mentioned, I am not experienced with the build, and therefore  I am not confident in my opinions. You are much more likely to be correct in your assessments.

RE Chemical Weapons.
Alright, I will see if I can find a feat spot for Cooked Shot. Haven't picked it yet, and it was unclear from the description whether this feat would be worthwhile. Note that  I tried searching for info on cooked shot and did not come up with anything detailed, which to me indicates that  not many people are into chemical pistols. But maybe they have a marketing problem.

RE Practical Physicist vs Critical Power
Interesting. Of course one can pick both, but my main point is that of niche feat vs widely applicable feat. In principle, I believe that niche feats (eg, Practical Physicist) should be stronger than widely applicable feats (Critical Power), which is not the case for (amplified) plasma pistols either.

Anyway, if in your experience Practical Physicist is already strong enough, then I do not have an improvement to suggest, because I do not believe that Critical Power should be nerfed.

[TheAverageGortsby]

I believe that niche feats (eg, Practical Physicist)

Why would you consider it to be a niche feat?  It applies 100% of the time that you crit when using a crafted energy weapon - and if you're using energy weapons, one would assume you're making your own.  That seems the opposite of niche - if you're playing that kind of character, it applies every time you pull the trigger.  And since it's reliable, it stacks reliably with any other passive feats you have, like Critical Power; and since it's passive, it also stacks with active feats, like Execute.

[Trashos]

Why would you consider it to be a niche feat?

Practical Physicist applies only to energy pistols, while Critical Power applies to all pistols (and crossbows and melee weapons). That's why I call PPh a niche feat.

For example, I would like it better if a pistol build that used all pistols had to take CritP first, and a devoted energy pistol build had to take PPh first. More Choice&Consequence that way. The way things are now, all builds have to take CritP first, as it is more powerful in nearly all scenarios (even for energy weapons- when they are amplified).

[Quidam Craft]

Actually, critical power is very different from  practical physicist.

The first one only affect weapons with already higher than the 100% average crit damage bonus.
The second one adds a flat additive bonus.

If one would compare these kinds of feats, it would be better to compare Sharpshooter with practical physicist.

And things are pretty balance. One add 25% in every conditions while using energy gun, the other one add 30% while focused.

Critical power is only worth if you only have high critical bonus damages, otherwise it's pointless.
For instance, on a very similar situation if you like to use the monsoon crossbow with a 85% crit damage bonus, you would definitely prefer to take first bowyer (the crossbow counterpart of pratical physicist) and after take Critical power to Further empower criticals.

[Trashos]

@Quidam Craft,

I only left Sharpshooter out of the comparison because it requires focus (while pistol builds are generally mobile) and it also has a major requirement of Perception=10 (while pistol builds may choose to invest in Dexterity instead). However, Sharpshooter is still definitely relevant to the discussion.

Don't all energy pistols have a great Crit Dam bonus  (often more than 200%) when they are amplified? I doubt that any energy pistol build that respects itself will run without amplified pistols. And in the amplified case, which is the main case and probably the only case relevant to energy builds, the Critical Power bonus is always much greater than the Practical Physicist bonus. Unless I am missing something.

[Quidam Craft]

Yes, you are most certainly right, most energy pistol build will rely on having very high critical damage bonus. I'm trying to think of a build that would do otherwise, but it's not obvious. I'll look forward into it.

So, Yes it's this specific case you'll take critical power first (but you'll definitely take practical physicist as well) . But maybe not all critical strike oriented build will prioritize the same.

Critical power is a great feat anyway, and it will be a must have in every critical strike build. At least at some point in the build.


Edit : maybe a build made around using fast shooting smart laser pistol, with high dexterity will profit more from practical physicist than critical power. A build that wil use a lot of special attacks.
The "problem" with amplified energy gun is that it reduce the ammo capacity as well.
http://underrail.info.tm/build/?GAMOCAMHAwhkAAAAAAAAAAAAAABVAAAAAAAAAAAAASYpWVoewppbEUs
Something like this, you'll add some movement and defensive feat.