knife focused build advice

[rdx]

Hi, after almost a year of not playing I found out the game was patched 'few' times and seems like it hit my my ~12 lvl character quite hard (dex nerf, taste for blood...) so I figured I'll try something new (besides, its been so long that I dont mind restarting). My goal is somewhat stealthy (I'd rather try to kill everything than sneak away) crit knife combatant, here is what i come up with (just theorycraft) . Does this have any apparent flaws? Any insight is appreciated.

[hilf]

Cheap Shots, Expose Weakness, Fancy Footwork - you'll do fine.


Why 7 INT? Weaponsmith needs 6. You could take Skinner, if you're going for leather armor, to justify this INT. Or just put this point into DEX.

[rdx]

I figured 16 dex doesn't lower attack ap cost for knives its either 15 or 17 (17 is out of reach), might as well take skinner but what do I drop? Maybe paranoia as I'm not sure it will be enough to make any difference with such low perception?

[hilf]

I'd drop either Paranoia or Interloper.

Paranoia:
- your detection is low and paranoia increases by % so it won't help that much
- initiative is totally unnecessary for you
- i think 3 PER + detection googles + your very good stealth will allow you to detect enemies before they detect you. But you'd better wait for someone more experienced, like epeli or Wildan, to confirm this
- crit chance reduction only works when you get hit and you have pretty good evasion/dodge

Interloper:
- Fancy Footwork will give you MP to move after you kill your first enemy

[destroyor]

I would do it like this.

You can reach 17 dex (16 base +1 from eel sandwich for 20 min) and get 6 AP knife attack by wearing tabi. I dropped Paranoia + Interloper (hilf already stated very good reasons for dropping them) and replaced them w/ taste for blood + quick tinkering (instant bear trap is just too damn good vs. melee enemies).

If you use junkyard surprise for INT+2 along with crafting bench you can reach:
105 electronic for EMP grenade MKIII
50 biology for godly focus stim, with jumping beans as the cherry on top

I'm not too sure if fatal throw is viable late game with 169 effective throwing - if you missed you'll waste 11AP.

[Wildan]

Playing an assassin is not as easy as it was before the nerf. With Taste of Blood and total of 14 DEX it was possible to get the AP cost down to 4 for steel knifes. In case of TiChrome even 12 DEX was enough for that, making builds possible that would have 4 AP per hit, Blitz, Fatal Throw, Ripper AND Survival Instinct - which in case of knifes is really worth it.

Now fastest possible is 6 AP @ 17 DEX for steel knives, and 15 DEX for Tichrome. I haven't played it enough to say for sure but I rate knives to be weakest weapons for now and hope there will get some favor again in the future.

I'm not a fan of melee glass-cannons. They have a naturally higher risk of dying but if you want to play one it's probably best to max DEX (incl food buff) and add both grenade-specific feats.
S 3
D 10 -> 16
A 10
C 3
P 3
W 5
I 5

Recklessness
Sprint
Nimble
Quick Tinkering
Cheap Shot
Fatal Throw
Ripper
Taste for Blood
Critical Power
Three-Pointer
Expose Weakness
Blitz
Grenadier
Weaponsmith

An alternative would be a CON based build: 14 DEX (+1 from the eel), serrated TiChrome blade and tabbis you'd still get down to 6 AP per hit.

S 3
D 10 -> 14
A 6
C 8 -> 9 (at level 20)
P 3
W 5
I 5 -> 6 (at level 24)

Recklessness
Sprint
Nimble
Quick Tinkering
Cheap Shot
Fatal Throw
Ripper
Taste for Blood
Critical Power
Expose Weakness
Cut Throat
Survival Instinct
Opportunist or a grenade feat
Weaponsmith

Unfortunately Thick Skull is one CON point out of reach but you could drop INT to 5 and replace Weaponsmith for it. The usefulness of this is questionable as you won't be able to take it before level 24, unless you prioritize CON over DEX or WILL, which would postpone Ripper or 6 AP attacks to level 24. Another problem here is the lack of skill points for throwing so I'd stick with the 6 INT variant.

In any case Quck Tinkering is too good to be left out.