I've finally had time to run up through end of depot A with a few builds - SMG build, shotgun build, and a hammer wizard (among a few I tried myself that didn't get very far).
I kind of like aspects of all of them, but wasn't sure I fully meshed with any of them either.
I just don't like stealth mechanics in this game, so it feels like high dex stealth builds aren't ideal - the SMG build was fun, but did seem to demand a lot of stealth play.
The hammer wizard was fun, but I felt like I wasn't doing as much damage, and lacked enough mobility to close. Even in heavy armor with good bullet reduction I felt like I was getting peppered before I could engage. Plus I really didn't like the idea of missing out on the perception checks in the game. It's not much, be finding those small doors/rooms/passages was fun on the other builds. What I really liked here was it felt like everything added something to the build - lots of stuns to manipulate enemies (if I could get close), as opposed to 'move, burst, move' like the SMG/shotgun builds.
The shotgun build just felt clunky. Not super high mobility, high cost of shots per turn, kind of melee but not, I don't know. Once I started swapping ammo to meet the target I had a lot more success, but it still felt like it was kind of too much of not enough of anything.
I really enjoyed psi from the hammer wizard as well. And I really like throwing grenades, it's really fun. And, similar to the perception thing, I really like having access to lock and hack at reasonable levels.
So can anyone suggest a build that might click all my notches? I'm scratching my head. High perception to pass skill checks, bit of magic, bit of crafting for grenade toss means mid dex, medium or light armor, still would like to use a gun mostly. I'd like magic to be a useful part of the build, rather than just 'TM for a free adrenaline shot'.
I'd also like to hit most of the reasonable persuade checks (like SGS to help the junkyard). Maybe it's asking too much, but I'm playing on normal, so maybe I don't need to fully spike damage like dominating builds. Would that free up feats or stats?
Maybe a psi primary build with a pistol?
