Energy/chem pistol build: Synergistic Glass Cannon of All Trades (with videos!)

[hilf]

PM?

Power Management.

[ironicman]

What do you think of going with 8 perception instead and maxing out intelligence over dex to abuse the bonus damage from high point technicalities? With 8 int you get a total of 24% bonus damage from energy pistols, but with 16 you end up getting a total of 88% bonus damage from them. I think with this you can end up getting more damage out of electroshock and laser pistols. but you'd only be able to use your plasma pistol once per turn.

[hilf]

What do you think of going with 8 perception instead and maxing out intelligence over dex to abuse the bonus damage from high point technicalities? With 8 int you get a total of 24% bonus damage from energy pistols, but with 16 you end up getting a total of 88% bonus damage from them. I think with this you can end up getting more damage out of electroshock and laser pistols. but you'd only be able to use your plasma pistol once per turn.

It could work.
With INT so high you would save a lot of skill points on INT related skills. Those point would go to DEX skills and there would be some left.

You can go with 10 DEX. With +1 from food and adv. catalyzing belt chem pistols will cost 16 AP.
Another option is to drop chemical pistols since they don't benefit from High Technicalities and are really good with max DEX. This also means 2 feats are freed.
Remember there are crit immune enemies (also on critical path) - chem pistols work better against them than energo.

Surprisingly, damage difference between PER and INT is not that big. Nerd Commando did comparison on RPG Codex:

The math is simple - 10-16 is 242.1% of base damage X 1.88 technicalities modifier =455.14 in total. 13-13 is 266.6 base damage x 1.64 technicalities = 437.224. That's 4% difference. As long as there's, like, 4% accuracy difference between these two setups, perception is in the win.

Surprisingly, THC from PER is not too big either. I did some tests:

6 perception, 125(146) guns = 78% chance to hit
11 perception, 125(199) guns = 79% chance to hit
My target was Plasma Sentry. I did another test, same setup but with flare and result was again 1% point.

I'd rather keep 10 PER and Sharpshooter. On Hard difficulty i do not complain about damage from my laser/electro. Crit damage, because it's what matters for those pistols. New plasma might be able to kill with non-critical special attacks, but i didn't test it.

Shooting plasma twice isn't too important for my build, it's just a bonus you get for maxing DEX.


Nerd Commando should know more about high INT/PER build, he even made a video, i linked it here:
http://underrail.com/forums/index.php?topic=1490.msg17986#msg17986
Sadly this video does not show true power of his build because it lacks a number of things, fo example energy emitter and night vision googles.

[MirddinEmris]

I see high technicalities more as a way to somewhat compensate me for investing 7 points in Int for those crafting feats, not as something i would create a build around. And as that, it's a pretty decent feat.

Maybe when specializations will be introduced and there will be one for increasing damage further, it would be somewhat worthwhile.

[Fenix]

I see high technicalities more as a way to somewhat compensate me for investing 7 points in Int for those crafting feats, not as something i would create a build around. And as that, it's a pretty decent feat.

Maybe when specializations will be introduced and there will be one for increasing damage further, it would be somewhat worthwhile.

Completely agree.

[destroyor]

Surprisingly, damage difference between PER and INT is not that big. Nerd Commando did comparison on RPG Codex:

The math is simple - 10-16 is 242.1% of base damage X 1.88 technicalities modifier =455.14 in total. 13-13 is 266.6 base damage x 1.64 technicalities = 437.224. That's 4% difference. As long as there's, like, 4% accuracy difference between these two setups, perception is in the win.

Surprisingly, THC from PER is not too big either. I did some tests:

6 perception, 125(146) guns = 78% chance to hit
11 perception, 125(199) guns = 79% chance to hit
My target was Plasma Sentry. I did another test, same setup but with flare and result was again 1% point.

I'd rather keep 10 PER and Sharpshooter. On Hard difficulty i do not complain about damage from my laser/electro. Crit damage, because it's what matters for those pistols. New plasma might be able to kill with non-critical special attacks, but i didn't test it.

Been meaning to ask you about the PER accuracy test - what weapon did you use and at what range? The reason I ask is because I always thought PER greatly increase your accuracy when not at your weapons' optimal range.

I also like to note a non-crit plasma shot is nothing special; it certainly won't help you against crit immune enemies.

[Hazard]

I'd like to know that as well, since a 53-point difference in effective skill level should be pretty significant.

[hilf]

I don't remember but most likely it was a chemical pistols fired from outside of its optimal range.
Same difference when range is optimal.
With laser it's still 1% point difference, regardless of range.


BTW i changed values of Persuasion and Mercantile in my build. Getting 106 Merc to unlock extra items in Hanna's shop wasn't really worth it.
There are great quality collectors in Fort Apology's shop and you don't even need Mercantile to buy them.

[Fenix]

Btw, you have better chance-to-hit when you are in stealth and target doesn't ee you right?
Or it is something I imagined?

[hilf]

Btw, you have better chance-to-hit when you are in stealth and target doesn't ee you right?
Or it is something I imagined?

Stealthed melee ignore target's dodge.


I did some tests with Electroshock pistol. In this scenario:

Y__E_E_E
(Y - You, E - enemy)

You can safely shoot first enemy. Projectile will jump to either 2nd or 3rd enemy.
Looks like projectile will not jump back if there are 2 tiles between targets. It can however jump forward at this distance.

It seems that projectile prefers to jump forward rather than backward.

[sonemere]

im using this for the most versatility. allows just about every perk that worth taking. maximum benefit to base vrs skills. no stealth, no dodge, or evasion(although might try later on another run).  add 1 per 5 dex later. currently i start combat with a molotov/net the burner.  then aimed smart electroshock. wearing bladed boots, taking kneecap, vile weaponry, dirty kick, 3 pointer, grenadier. aimed shot, critical power ofc. with this base can do about anything.
early i use smart crafted electroshock and a 9mm neo luger or 9mm hammerer (xm ls)

with nets, taser, kneecap, electroshock, crit grenades/smart energy/electroshock pistol. opportunist becomes ridiculous.

seeing smart electroshock bounce--while they are burning, bleeding, and infected is truly satisfying ^^

steadfast aim is a must for high ap pistols otherwise u will be left wanting.

5 str
8 dex
7 agi
3 con
7 per
3 will
7 int

[!melf]

Sorry for the necro but wanted to say I just cleared a DOMINATING run with energy/chem pistols and because I've never used energy pistols before I looked at your build heavily for inspiration, so thank you for this thread.

This was my final build: http://underrail.info.tm/build/?GQMQAwMKAwjChx4AAADCh8KHWgAANzJlXFhaAAAAAABPGmwxJAEwJhZWwpECM0tawppZ

It starts off very reliant on chem pistol and their sweet, sweet CC options but once your crafting skills are decent and the crit feats are in place (as well as having access to all tiers of Coretech's amazing electronic shop) energy pistols become an absolute monster, two shotting boss characters even with their bloated health pool.

With the feats revealed on the build creator yesterday I can only fantasize about how insane an Expedition energy pistol character would be with Increased Perception + Scrutinous + specialization points for further crit damage bonus.

[hilf]

You're welcome !melf.

I've updated this build for Expedition. I kept expansion spoilers low.

[bydlaq]

First thanks for the build. From all i seen this one looks the most fun for first run on hard.
I was just curious if it's possible to throw +3 STR  for better armor usage and some extra carry weight removing 2 points from PER maybe and that one (semi useless?) from INT.
I hate carry weight limitations in games  and i don't like to be to limited in armor usages. So would this work? Is there a special perk or reason for 10 PER beside more precision with pistol?

Also no Gunslinger with pistol build?

STR 6
DEX 10 (+6)
AGI 3
CON 3
PER 8
WIL 3
INT 7

[Ploluap]

Gunslinger is for firearms only (not chemical/energy).

6 strength seems overkill, 5 strength will allow for steadfast aim feat and riot shield if you want, so it's not a complete waste.

Or just pick the pack rathound feat (+50 carry capacity), which is very nice for this build.