I haven't played on Dominating but, for Normal mode, I think I have the best Nimble Can Hammer using a priority to take advantage of a min-max for str/con/agi and prioritizing generic damage via Rate of Fire and allowing mixed electro/energy/mech to output a baseline with less damage feats. The base stats are 10 Str/Con,
4 intelligence, and 7 agility. We use both an energy spear(offhand) and shock tchrome sledge, the spear mostly/early to just mix-and-match better Hit and Run pliability- and target zig-zag. Later game we have future orientation LTIncrement on a huge array of cds including: 5-turn cd sprint via infused hopper tabis, 5 turn psycho-temp-contr, 3 3-turn cds: 0 ap Pummel, Super Slam and Impale(lvl ~22), as well as eventually a 6 turn cd, "4 turn duration", Last Stand. Obviously can also help abuse medications cds too. 9 Turn CD stasis exists but, probably only cd relevant when we do a full Last Stand Loop
after Stasis. We also only take Psi Empathy at level 14/15 to stall until we really want/ skill-point want, 55 TM for LTIncrement, Dilation/Contraction and Acceleration all around level 14-16 in a burst.
Now I want to touch on the INT 4. Well basically, regen vest super steel armor is exactly 50% armor penalty. Armor Sloping requires additional plates to still proc juggernaut and also will add a little bulk but typically will force us over 50%- and take a small hit to armor penalty %,
and cost an entire perk slot for it. Since we have agi 7(8 with tabis), tabis mp boost
and psi-contraction giving mp ratios effected by armor penalty, every 4% difference is nearly about 3 full movepoints lost on every turn. The more important difference is that it takes both an expensive perk slot and 2 points into intelligence. The only relevant psi abilities we typically cast that cost ap are LTIncrement and Stasis, 10 and 20 ap respectively after future orientation, making Premeditation
nearly also not worth a slot as well. We wouldn't hate these options but we'd have to lose agi, str or con by 2 which breaks the min-max and also kills/swaps some of our best perks. I'd rather go positive mp to either psi-ap or just a little extra bulk with the tank/
melee build, especially if it would cost
another perk slot to do so. There is also Expose Weakness, but since almost exactly ~60% of our damage is electric(or 75% energy sometimes), and killing a single target in-range is not an issue. I ignore it for perk-trade-off reasons as well as, again, we can keep hold of the stat min-max. I'd rather do damage from other perks than Expose Weakness since even with 5.5~ attacks per turn, we rarely take a different number of hits-to-kill due to any Expose Weakness proc(at least on NORMAL). Also, high threshold enemies aren't a problem for sure, only high resistance; of which both tend to be weak to electricity, or at least energy (
Impale value of 3-turn cd vs 5-turns) anyways.
https://underrail.info/build/?HhADBwoDAwQAegDCoCgAAAAAAADCoMKgeHHCoABGAEYAAGkIDjlQLVUkGWArwofCiB_ClBPCtnx74qGGBOKhhwTio5MF4quQAt-_We don't learn any psi schools other than TM until very lategame, skillpoint-wise. Specs are prio to 0-ap Pummel, then Last Stand Duration, then CD, then the damage on Super Slam.
Our go-to combat utilities are Taser Flashbang. Taser(10ap) enables hit-rates, and the flashbang(10ap) enables cheese(use energy spear for proper abuse) and both slot nearly perfectly into our ap processes. At level 20(0ap pummel) our ap is 90 in a burst round, melee is 16ap(tichrome w/ tabis) x 5 = 80 for a 10ap utility and a pummel. Many medications are also 10 ap which is nice. Because 2 (non-spear) melee attacks are 32 ap, we can also use 3 10-ap options instead of 1; with 3 generic attacks instead of 5- without forgoing any large ap chunk. If one is a flashbang we can cd/ap abuse with the extra turns. A tichrome spear perfectly enables this for 2/3 attacks as we save 2 ap; need 2 ap to make full spear ROF (costs 1 more ap than the sledge).
Armor is Regen Super Steel(no add-ons).
Hat is swap between extra slot/psi cost down TM headband(no armor penalty and standard equip option) and a electro-protection shaded tichrome metal helmet.
Boots are a swap between 3 of: Infused cave hopper tabis(5 turn cd sprint, +3/2 extra AGI mp and our standard-equip option), Infused siphoner tabis(slow immunity) and electro-protection tichrome striders.
We also carry around blast-electro riot armor to fully armor up and fully invalidate coil spiders entirely (they disable regen-energy so always bring an electro vest one). Bringing a super-heavy tac-vest with blast/regen is what a tend to do and not use too often. I also lob-around the chem-assault armor with gas mask and biohazard boots to hit 100% bio/acid which is a weirdly insane existing defensive option.
The fried siphoner tongue can be a good food option in
really long combats to stack up with Doctor and Fast metabolism too. It makes Regen Mixture w/ Vest even better.
