Metal Armor + Sledgehammer build

[Ruigi]

This post is for people who are struggling with a heavy armor sledgehammer build. This is my character build and so far has been a success, as of now I am level 18.

STR 9 (Raise STR every 4 levels)
DEX 3
AGI 6
CON 10
PER 3
WIL 3
INT 6

Skills
Melee
Hacking
Lockpicking
Engineering
Electronics
Tailoring
Biology
Psychokinesis

Important FEATS
Thick Skull
Sprint
Pummel
Dirty Kick
Armor Sloping
Nimble
Ballistics
Weaponsmith
Conditioning
Juggernaut
Super Slam
Heavyweight
Critical Power

Essential gear:
Metal Armor :Best defense
Lifting Belt :Allow 2 sledgehammer attacks + pummel
Sledgehammer :You will 1-2 hit kill most things with this
Tabi Boots :Essential Mobility

Thick Skull, Sprint, Pummel, and Dirty kick are very important, please don't skip these feats!

The early game and the gauntlet are the hardest parts of the game because of the reliance on metal armor. You want to wear enough armor to be protected, but you want to maintain 50 action points per turn. This is very important to balance encumbrance with protection.
Psychokinesis is very important as a utility skill because of the stun effect and the bonus damage you can squeeze out of an unarmed fist attack with force emission. Psychokinesis will allow you to engage enemies at a distance if you get rooted and can be used to stun enemies that you are having trouble hitting accurately. You can also use it to finish off weakened enemies. Electrokinesis is good for groups of small weak enemies like burrower spawn. Despite having no will stat, you can get a lot of use from the skill if you invest in it fully every level.

I haven't worked out the best ratio, but you may want to consider dropping some skill points from biology to add to the throwing skill. Flashbangs are the most useful since they can be used to delay ranged attackers.

Biggest problems are ranged attackers that bypass armor, like psionic enemies. Crippling strike is also a pain to deal with.
Use line of sight to your advantage to draw ranged attackers towards you, if you are engaging multiple enemies be wary of this as you can get shot down very quick.

[Wildan]

Honestly, that build is not terrible but could be way better.

[Ruigi]

Any suggestions? I would love to hear them.

[Grombolar]

Am currently lvl 18 as well & on my first playthrough 

Similar stats, but picked Throwing/Dodge/Evasion/Persuasion/Mercantile, as I'm a scrub & wanted to save crafting for my later playthroughs...

Throwing REALLY helps when it comes to +10 lunatic or mutant/dog mobs, normal firearms can hardly scratch you but energy weapons are another matter as I cannot craft anything lol, but I've only died before I got my hands on my first metal armour. I usually switch to Metal Boots for harder fights, as tabis don't really give any movement points at -95% armour penalty xD

Dodge/Evasion are at 16 currently even with a metal armour, not really sure if it helps a lot but I'll keep on pumping points into them.

Guard feat is quite handy blocking hits as well, been tanking through everything pretty much, but Gauntlet sounds too scary without any protection or stealth D:

Recklessness/Heavyweight/Bonebreaker/Survival Instincts really help with damage dealing when normal damage isn't enough with Dirty Kick & Super Slam. Ouch.

[Ruigi]

Crafting is so essential to this build I don't see a way to play without it.

with crafting, it's possible to create a set of metal armor that offers nearly max kinetic and energy protection for less than 60% armor penalty.

You can also craft nice infused siphoner leather striders or tabis that offer immunity to immobilization.

Furthermore, you can craft a weak, high capacity shield that will absorb some damage from enemy attacks while allowing your armor to absorb the rest, granting a further layer of damage reduction that uses your natural damage resistance to its full advantage. It's nice to have a 900+ damage capacity shield that blocks the first 24 points of damage and lets your 95%/30 metal armor block the rest. Hold on to as many low frequency shield modulators and you can get your hands on in the beginning of the game. the lower quality the better in this case.

[Grombolar]

Am still a newbie when it comes to shield emitters; why save low frequency ones if you want to craft a high frequency one, to use Disassemble for parts or...?

Sprint would definitely be smoothing things due to little to no movement points. Just got Critical Power & boy, does it make sledgy better (along with Heavyweight)! +400% critical damage is pure madness with ~110-200 normal damage, then add Bonebreaker etc to the mix... I mean, seriously: http://i.imgur.com/Ho7KpuS.jpg

The only time I've had REAL trouble has been at Gauntlet due to no metal, fighting Carnifex *yawn* & the Faceless invading Tchort Institute.

PS. Raising Dodge/Evasion didn't seem to do anything when wearing a metal armour 



*EDIT* Did 1755 crit against one of Balor's (went back to sidequests as I couldn't beat the Faceless invasion)... Wonder how high it can go with 10+5 strength + all critical perks. I can go toe-to-toe with 9 lvl 10-20 loonies after lvl 21 *chuckles* Could even do it versus Vanga's troops head on around lvl 13-15 I think, lower & upper level both having 11 lunatics.

I actually chose this play-style only to know the basics & making a map of most areas lol, working very well so far! 

[Ruigi]

Am still a newbie when it comes to shield emitters; why save low frequency ones if you want to craft a high frequency one, to use Disassemble for parts or...?

The frequency of the shield emitter determines that types of attacks they will be effective at guarding against.

Low frequency emitters absorb more damage from slow attacks with melee and crossbows, while high frequency emitters block more damage from high speed attacks like rifles and energy weapons. Each time a shield absorbs damage it drains from your shield energy. This means that if you have high damage absorption stats on your shield, your shield will sustain fewer hits because it is absorbing all the energy of your enemies attacks.

Sometimes you want your shield to do absorb as much damage as possible because you have no natural resistance. Light armor builds with dodge benefit from a high frequency shield because leather armor does not protect well against energy weapons and you want the shield to absorb all the damage because you don't get hit as often and have no natural resistance.

However, with metal armor, you get hit more often and you have more natural resistance. a low threshold shield with a large energy pool will be able to sustain many hits because the damage reduction will max out at a small number, the damage that gets through will be reduced and easily managed by your metal armor threshold/resistance. Metal armor users benefit the most from high capacity low threshold shields because they don't care about the damage that gets through the shield, but benefit immensely from the slight damage reduction and the ability to sustain more hits.

So the best shield for a metal armor user is a high quality core, an high quality efficiency upgrade, and a low quality low frequency modulator.

[Grombolar]

A very throughout explanation, thanks much! The Shield Emitter wiki page was Hebrew to me

[UnLimiTeD]

Honestly, a medium frequency does the job as well.
It just needs to be piss poor.