Hi,
I started a new melee oriented character and I wanted to try a hammerer. I used the Hammer Wizard doc as my blueprint but it seems that I'm starting to hit a bit of a roadblock and it may be because of my tactics.
Main differences of my build: I decided to take Biology and Intimidation because I wanted to craft my own drugs instead of buying them and for the early YELL perk. Aside from that I'm also levelling both Hacking and Lockpicking, although I regret the latter.
Currently I'm level 7: perks that I took, corporeal spatio projection, expose weakness, dirty kick. Fast metabolism and Conditioning from the start. Psy Empathy from the start for the force punch.
Gear: I got an electric hammer from the GMS compound and Antithermic, Insulated, Antirifle Overcoat (65% encumberance). The latter is the one that is saving my life in nearly every encounter I do.
Right now I'm stuck in a few fights: GMS compound, the raiders in the bottom cave led by Gerhard Page. I'm overwhelmed by the damage, the best I can do is use molotov cocktails to keep the enemies separated but there are still too many and I die.
Burrowers in the GMS compound. I'm overwhelmed by the DPS, i can't kill 1 in 2 turns and I can't clear my poison fast enough.
3 Raiders north of Junktown: I can stun 2, focus on one but I don't deal enough damage, they heal in between stuns and between critical shot, shock bullets and poison I'm killed. Caltrops, flashbang and molotov are not enough to control their movement.
Syphoners north of Junktown: I can't do enough damage to burn through their healing and I don't have the movement points to run away.
My questions:
1) Do I need to start burning through my morphine and adrenaline drugs? I'm playing on hard but I wanted to hoard as much as I can for Depo A
2) I have 2 options to buy metal armor in Junktown: one is 65% encumberance the other is 98%. I have tried with both and I'm seeing little difference compared to my overcoat.
3) Is biology a good strat? If I'm using morphine, adrenaline and late game drugs in each fight it made sense to pick them up.
4) Do I need to craft my own metal armor? My tailoring is at 0 and I wanted to keep it at 0.
1) Yes, Strenght boosts Melee (Both Melee and bonus Sledgehammer damage), Telekinetic abilities and boosts Intimidation which in turns boosts your Yell and Brutality, rushing 50 effective biology to mass produce your first adrenaline shoots is a massive powerspike, when you can use your adrenaline all carefree, the only thing you need to do is merely collect everything from the animals you slain, and you have a lot of animals to slain with rathounds packs.
2) Neither, both looted and purchased gear in general is terrible, only bother crafting your own, for Depot A either use quad tungsten metal armor with reinforced tungsten boots and dense tungsten helmet, or use mutant dog dense padded leather armor and dense strider mutant dog boots, Id encourage the latter because it's easier and more affordable to get it, you will be very resistant to acid but mutants can still tear you appart, becareful, just because you're a tank doesnt mean you can afford to be careless
3) You should NEVER -NOT- priorize your main skills (in your case Melee, PK and Intimidation), you NEED to max out your relevant combat skills in order you get by, after that, I'd priorize Mechanics and Electronics, then biology, after that Mercantile/Persuasion then Hacking/Lockpicking, also tailoring
4) Yes, crafting your own armor is your goal, a good tin can with a Regenerative vest is your goal, having tailoring at 0 is a huge mistake you will later regret.