First time playing dominating. Survival Instincts sword build. Feedback welcome.

[NumberTJ47]

Hey there, I'm relatively new, having only really made two characters and beaten the game once. I have played on hard before, but the game got too easy by the late game and I decided to try dominating. I decided to make a sword build because even if I'm terrible I can still crit flurry 6 times in a row and win anyway, even if I have to save scum like crazy.

I'm past junkyard and am level 11 now, but I've been struggling to figure out where to spend my skill points first.
The build I went for is a bit strange, and uses survival instincts with the sword's high crit damage.
I've also put some points into temporal and psychokinesis with psychostatic electricity for even more crit and damage vs robots.

The build has conditioning and stoicism in it so I can achieve -100% damage modification with aegis and morphine (Irongut and Mutie Stew also). The problem with that idea is that I'm pretty sure mechanical damage has a -95% damage mod cap, and I'll only be invincible for a few turns, so stuns are a serious issue. I'm debating whether I should take Iron Will or just kill any psionics before they stun me and use the extra feat for something else. I know that a lot of attacks need to damage a target to stun, but if there's any exceptions I'd like to know.

I knew this build would take a while to really go online, but it's been a struggle. I wanna get powerful enough to take Maclander's Claymore, but I just don't have the gear to take him on yet, so I've also been trying to find easy quests I can do to level up. I also want to finish phreak's quests for the Chainsword, but I don't know whether I can acquire the blueprint for aegis before finishing the oligarch questline.

Apparently, I can't post a link to my build on underrail info, so I've attached a picture of it instead.

[Kajmak]

https://underrail.info/build/?HgsHBwkDAwYAAF8AwqAowqDCoAROAABubgxMAAAtAEYAwqAAOWIxwowGEyvChxJLTibCgcKNPMK2RHvin4QB4qe-B-KyiAXisokC37w

I went for a nimbler setup rather than conditioning/stoicism, my approach was f9-heavy and I wouldn't recommend Survival Instincts(or any 3 CON) builds for learning dominating in either case.
Fancy footwork and Critical Power must be taken ASAP, Expose Weakness and Escape Artist for the midgame are essential. Future Orientation is neat but isn't mandatory as you cannot use Increment twice for the same 3 turn flurry cooldown, good synergy with grenadier in your case. Tailoring and more PK for psychostatic electricity were things I wish I could get but I overinvested into other skills, rathound regalia and bought tabis are good enough... right?
Flurry AP costs/cooldown are essential, EW duration, critical power spec is the best one for your remaining spec points, yielding the best results for all swords except super steel and black blade who theoretically perform better with a 3/4 split between it and cheap shots(7 and 16% crit damage respectively).
875% damage Red Dragon criticals are a sight to behold, decapitates are funny and can delete bosses but ultimately aren't worth the feat point in my experience.

[dddmemaybe]

I am baffled you got past the psi beetles with a sword but, maybe I just got annoyed by them too fast on a Sledgehammer run I did way back.

If mechanical damage stuns are an issue, you might be able to eek the flat damage with a "low-type" energy shield emitter, maybe even the low capacitance, better flat value version instead of total shield "hp" upgrade. I'm pretty sure the energy shield works stupidly and allows for your damage reduction sources to apply to the damage the shield takes before you do, but it could be only armor-based reductions and not medication, yet as much it's still worth testing it out and seeing if it solves it.

I'm guessing if you want to cycle cooldowns, you can push for stasis with 70 Temporal Manipulation to stall for cds again. Also I could be wrong but, I think you can use a 3-turn cd ability and then Limited Temporal Increment (LTI) after on the same turn and get the LTI on your third turn (1+[3-1=] 2 cd will be turn 3) because of Future Orientation to get the cd reset after on the same turn again. Future Orientation also will allow empower cycling Infused Cave Hopper Tabi's 5-turn sprint cd, Psycho-temporal Contraction and Adrenaline Shot(debuff cancel) a lot better. It also gives you 2-turn cd grenades here. Stasis can also cheat an additional turn of all buffs for you while also stalling cds.

Your Melee skill is very low so I'd definitely make sure to use Energy Edge (no shock aoe) and Flash Bang (emp vs robot instead) at every available opportunity. If there's one reason you'll get fucked, it's going to be Strength ~9(buffed ~10) until you hit level 26, which will force you to face hitrates of ~20% at times. Energy Damage + robots have shit Dodge if any, means this build is one of the best vs robots in the game almost, so I'd focus on tagging more anti-fleshbags options, plausibly even Dirty Kick (*shudders) in this situation.

Dex might also be better on this build over Strength potentially (sorry) as you have insane crit potential with a Will stat at 5 or above. With Dex 10/11 instead of Strength, you can take Ripper and basically oneshot if you crit two melee hits onto basically anything in the game barring weirdly energy resistant enemies. You could also have an easier time landing some throwing nets with dex, and then ignore the hitchance when it really hurts badly to have to roll (probably well below 40% chances on some glass cannon enemies).

[NumberTJ47]

I went for a nimbler setup rather than conditioning/stoicism, my approach was f9-heavy and I wouldn't recommend Survival Instincts(or any 3 CON) builds for learning dominating in either case.
Fancy footwork and Critical Power must be taken ASAP, Expose Weakness and Escape Artist for the midgame are essential. Future Orientation is neat but isn't mandatory as you cannot use Increment twice for the same 3 turn flurry cooldown, good synergy with grenadier in your case. Tailoring and more PK for psychostatic electricity were things I wish I could get but I overinvested into other skills, rathound regalia and bought tabis are good enough... right?
Flurry AP costs/cooldown are essential, EW duration, critical power spec is the best one for your remaining spec points, yielding the best results for all swords except super steel and black blade who theoretically perform better with a 3/4 split between it and cheap shots(7 and 16% crit damage respectively).
875% damage Red Dragon criticals are a sight to behold, decapitates are funny and can delete bosses but ultimately aren't worth the feat point in my experience.

Thanks for the reply!
Unfortunately there's only so much I can do to change my build now this far in, but I do have a few questions about a few things.

Swords can't bleed, so why taste for blood?
Opportunist is a great level 1 feat, but I've never thought about taking it after the first few levels.
I'm curious whether fancy footwork works well with swords. I don't personally feel like I need more movement points.

Why so much stealth? I've found that having good crafting negates the need for putting points into stealth because I can just make a second set of armor that uses black cloth, then make a cloaking device. Then again, crafting is pretty boring and expensive sometimes.

I'd never thought about yell before, but it seems like a great option for a non-psi sword build. Reducing the enemy's dodge, taking them out of stealth, and reducing their chance to hit all seem pretty insane. I'd definitely drop survival insticts for more agi or strength and make a build that's quite different than the one I currently have though. Yell would also make guns more usable, so I'd use versatility to use heavy guns. Having a ranged option is always nice.
Now that I think about it, yell might actually make more sense for a sword build than a sledge build. An 85% chance to hit is inconvenient for a sledge build, but crippling for a sword build.
I'd still use 3 CON though, I've always put it at either 3 or more than 7, never between.

[Kajmak]

Swords can't bleed, so why taste for blood?

Use a nail bomb, ripper's glove, or put on bladed metal armor in some fights that don't require mobility.

I'd definitely drop survival insticts for more agi or strength and make a build that's quite different than the one I currently have though.

Those 6 points invested in CON for survival instincts give more total damage rather than if you had invested them into STR, but with the consequences of less melee skill and dying from a stiff breeze. Evasive Maneuvers sounds good in it's place, or Blitz.
Here are some calculations with the claymore, level 25, 11 base STR, rathound regalia, recklessness, focus stim, 7 dex and the base from the sword itself gives me 60% crit with SI, 375% bonus(2 critical power specs) so the total damage if it's a crit is 475%.

45-135 base damage, 90 average on non-crits, 90*4.75=427.5 on crits. (90*0.4+427.5*0.6)=292.5 average damage per hit
Now i'll edit my stats to have 16 base STR but do the same calculation without +30% SI crit
56-169 base, 112.5 avg non-crits, 534.375 crits. (112.5*0.7+534.375*0.3)=239.0625 average damage per hit

That is a 22% damage boost(18% on straight super steel) which might vary depending on your level or other factors(probably more on other high-crit uniques, i don't want to pollute the thread even more with mathematics).
Fighting normally and getting hit just enough to reach the threshold without dying is annoying, better to start 99% of fights while under 30% without getting hit in the first place.

[NumberTJ47]

I am baffled you got past the psi beetles with a sword but, maybe I just got annoyed by them too fast on a Sledgehammer run I did way back.

If mechanical damage stuns are an issue, you might be able to eek the flat damage with a "low-type" energy shield emitter, maybe even the low capacitance, better flat value version instead of total shield "hp" upgrade.

Dex might also be better on this build over Strength potentially.

Not sure which psi beetles you mean, but the large groups of goliathus beetles in the upper caves are pretty annoying for me, though their low detection makes it easy to sneak around them.

I've always increased the capacity for my shields, but with this build on this difficulty I'd say that you're probably right about increasing the shielding instead. Gonna give it a shot for my next shield generator.

As for strength vs dexterity, I have mixed feelings about which one is better. I'm the kind of player that takes a lot of equipment with me, so I really like the extra carry weight. Plus strength lets me use the claymore and chainsword, boosts my damage a bit, and adrenaline shots will temporarily raise str by 2, increasing my accuracy and slightly balancing out my build's low strength.
I've done a dexterity based sword build before though, and I know how convenient it is to have a knife as a secondary weapon. Dexterity also boosts more skills than strength, so along with ripper and escape artist it's quite possible that dexterity would've been better, but I had to choose one or the other at the start of the game, and I wanted to try strength.