What are your thoughts on my first build "magma rock sniper"

[Wizajn]

This is my first time compliting the game third time trying and I wanted your opinion on my metathermics tank sniper build
I didint know what I was doing at the begining and was frustrated how enemies just healed all the damage I dealt so I decided to finally visit the forum on what to do.
All I could see was "If you want to kill stuff fast make a sniper build with stealth" so I said to myself "stealth is stupid", decided to do the opposite and made this:

https://underrail.info/build/?HggDAwcKCAfCoGQAABgYAFh7AABoaENIaAAAwqAAUABGK1AvAT0mLgpfwr4zfktFwrzCuMK1bBrCnsKbwq7CpOKcmgTinbQC4qSOBOKlsgLip4IC4q-9Ad-_

The main idea is to only shoot once per enemy, stand still like a rock, and melt everything that is still standing with fire.
Depanding on the number and type of enemies you do diffrent strategies:

• one powerful enemy? Freeze him and shatter him
• group of skattered mid dmg enemies? Shoot them one by one with a help of shooting spree
• large group of tanky enemies? torch them with pyrokinesis or napalm then finish them off as they run in fear with some noscopes
• close and personal? exothermic aura or cryo-shield and even crawlers have no idea what to do
• huge number of low dmg enemies? no dmg taken

Why 8 strength? Coz fuck of the damn crippling strike and later I was rockin the super steel armor
Why throwing? Coz I have a stroke everytime I throw a flashbang and it hits me
No idea what I was doing with the crafting I just made granades and 1 set of armor, 1 pair of boots,1 shield and 1 sniper rifle, so most of the point where probably a waste
What do you think? I was playing it on normal and had fun but maybe someone with 10 int could help me optimize it for higher difficulties.

[RewRatt]

Main reason why Stealth for snipers - alpha strike. Plus, Snipe only works from Stealth. Problem is - you will lose almost all initiative rolls and enemies will crowd control you and then melt you 😅

• Enemies Stun
• Incapacitate with flashbangs and melee attacks (Cheap Shots)
• Root you with Throwing Nets
• Cripple you with Cripling Strike (at 8 STR you will lose AP, because armor becomes too heavy)

Enemies actually also step back behind cover to avoid your damage.
Some really dangerous Thought Controllers are Stealthed and will Mental Breakdown you and summon 2 Doppelgangers that will gang bang you 😅 (make sure to allocate some points to Thought Control just for that).

Metathermics worked quite well with snipers, before nerf to Thermodynamic Destabilization that capped damage to 100% of enemies health (problem with that is, enemies will evade part of the damage and will never wipe as they've used to). It can still be used to setup Aimed Shots on evasive enemies with Cryostasis. Other than that.. eh.. spending a feat to Shatter is pointless, as you can get enough crit damage to 1 shot anything anyway 😄

[Wizajn]

Thats why its a tank build
I dont care if they swarm me I'll survive, they wont, coz I have good crowd control
I dont have a snipe in this build so why would I care that it doesent work?
I always make the first move so having high initiative is pointles. Having high initiative is only if you dont plan ahead and need a plan B. You just need to attack first and open doors in attack mode. I mean you have a sniper rifle, range is no problem.
Enemies stun suck yes but is there a build where you go "fuck yea I got stunned". you just pop a head shot on guys who can stun you before the fight starts and there is no problem
Never had a problem with flashbang so cant comment and I wear a metal armor, knife attacks dont go through and animals do 25 dmg at best (Im talking ancient rathound and warrior burrower and also as I said before if you use exothermic aura the melee enemies have no idea what to do and just stand there waiting for the fire to burn out.
As I said I dont move so why would something like a throwing net harm me in any way?
past mid game there are not a lot of enemies that do cripling strike thats why I switched from leather to metal. I added 2 extra points to STR BECOUSE of cripling strike so that I can still use my sniper rifle and to get more carry weight and after the cripling nightmere was over I said "Hey why not get a super steel armor" so I put one more point to STR
Enemies step back only on the secound turn. The first thing they do is rush you to do all their best moves so in a way if you position yourself right they can help you pick them off
I've never seen stealthed Thought Controlers (?) so I've never had that problem and yea dopplegangers were the worst thing that could happen but again -shoot the mage first.
Never used Thermodynamic Destabilization so cant comment.
You'd be suprised how many times I had enemies surive a crit shot coz I rolled minimal dmg, I put points into shatter coz I got pissed and it worked

[ShoggothWhisperer]

Thats why its a tank build
I dont care if they swarm me I'll survive, they wont, coz I have good crowd control
I dont have a snipe in this build so why would I care that it doesent work?
I always make the first move so having high initiative is pointles. Having high initiative is only if you dont plan ahead and need a plan B. You just need to attack first and open doors in attack mode. I mean you have a sniper rifle, range is no problem.
Enemies stun suck yes but is there a build where you go "fuck yea I got stunned". you just pop a head shot on guys who can stun you before the fight starts and there is no problem
Never had a problem with flashbang so cant comment and I wear a metal armor, knife attacks dont go through and animals do 25 dmg at best (Im talking ancient rathound and warrior burrower and also as I said before if you use exothermic aura the melee enemies have no idea what to do and just stand there waiting for the fire to burn out.
As I said I dont move so why would something like a throwing net harm me in any way?
past mid game there are not a lot of enemies that do cripling strike thats why I switched from leather to metal. I added 2 extra points to STR BECOUSE of cripling strike so that I can still use my sniper rifle and to get more carry weight and after the cripling nightmere was over I said "Hey why not get a super steel armor" so I put one more point to STR
Enemies step back only on the secound turn. The first thing they do is rush you to do all their best moves so in a way if you position yourself right they can help you pick them off
I've never seen stealthed Thought Controlers (?) so I've never had that problem and yea dopplegangers were the worst thing that could happen but again -shoot the mage first.
Never used Thermodynamic Destabilization so cant comment.
You'd be suprised how many times I had enemies surive a crit shot coz I rolled minimal dmg, I put points into shatter coz I got pissed and it worked

The stealthed thought controllers only appear on Dominating, along with a lot of other dangerous stealthed enemies. Enemies have a lot more health and damage on Dom and appear in far greater numbers, so your build likely wont be able to withstand the swarm. Against lunatics, 3-4 will have the ability to stun you on dominating, and you likely won't be able to kill them all before they get off a stun and slaughter you. Crippling strike enemies are also very common on dominating, and the metal armor won't completely protect you from their increased damage unless you have 60+ DT late game.

[RewRatt]

Thats why its a tank build

7CON doesn't make a Tank build, it makes a more durable build. It does depend on difficulty I guess, anything below Hard might count as such.

I dont have a snipe in this build so why would I care that it doesent work?

Because you then only have 1 ability to use as a sniper - Aimed Shot. And getting 2nd kill to make use of specced Shooting Spree is really difficult.

I always make the first move so having high initiative is pointles. Having high initiative is only if you dont plan ahead and need a plan B. You just need to attack first and open doors in attack mode. I mean you have a sniper rifle, range is no problem.

Not every area has doors or visible enemies (Lurkers saying hi, Death Stalkers too 😆).

Enemies stun suck yes but is there a build where you go "fuck yea I got stunned". you just pop a head shot on guys who can stun you before the fight starts and there is no problem

Again. Some enemies might not be visible, and most Crossbowers with Electroshock Bolts are in stealth. Some will be further away, or behind corners and pop out to pop you.

Never had a problem with flashbang so cant comment and I wear a metal armor, knife attacks dont go through and animals do 25 dmg at best (Im talking ancient rathound and warrior burrower and also as I said before if you use exothermic aura the melee enemies have no idea what to do and just stand there waiting for the fire to burn out.

From my experience with Exothermic Aura, is like all fire fields - some enemies just don't care (Mutants, Death Stalkers and other Crawlers, Ancient Rathounds, Burrowers and Warriors) and Human enemies get confused, but will come in to attack more often than not. Regular Rathounds will stay away.

As I said I dont move so why would something like a throwing net harm me in any way?

Visit Lunatic Mall or any other Lunatic area, then tell me 😆 Also - Natives.

past mid game there are not a lot of enemies that do cripling strike thats why I switched from leather to metal. I added 2 extra points to STR BECOUSE of cripling strike so that I can still use my sniper rifle

You have 8STR, so a single Crippling strike will net you a -10AP (or 15AP?) and -(something MP) debuff, because armor is too heavy. Only way out is Adrenaline - untill you get a 2nd one, then only Vitality Powder... and they all run out before Crippling Strike does. And they will go through - never seen them not to.

You'd be suprised how many times I had enemies surive a crit shot coz I rolled minimal dmg, I put points into shatter coz I got pissed and it worked

Investing into Crit feats would fix that - if crits are a problem. Otherwise, Shatter would be useful to kill an enemy you didn't crit, if enough damage was dealt - could be a use case.

[KnifegaF]

Rew nails it. The only thing I’ll contend with is his thoughts on induction. Has great synergy with sniper especially since you get two chances between snipe and Aimshot. 399/400
 to one shot just about every opponent are odds that I like. Even in that crazy offchance that it does happen you can either wait out the CD timer if you managed to stack enough chill to extend its effects or restealth. You basically can’t lose a 1v1 assuming you the survive long enough to cast cryostasis

[RewRatt]

Rew nails it. The only thing I’ll contend with is his thoughts on induction. Has great synergy with sniper especially since you get two chances between snipe and Aimshot. 399/400
 to one shot just about every opponent are odds that I like. Even in that crazy offchance that it does happen you can either wait out the CD timer if you managed to stack enough chill to extend its effects or restealth. You basically can’t lose a 1v1 assuming you the survive long enough to cast cryostasis

I already sort of agreed that Cryogenic Induction or its Shatter effect could be useful.. 😆😅😅 But yeah - any boss on DOMINATING that can be placed in Cryostasis can be 1 Aimed-Shot with 12.7 Smart AA Harbinger and some Feats to support it quite early on. Man.. 1 tapping Carnifex is something I want to do now.. 😆😆 ..for that 15sec Carni fight video 😆🤣

Btw, did you mean 5% miss chance? 😆

Even in that crazy offchance that it does happen you can either wait out the CD timer if you managed to stack enough chill to extend its effects

[KnifegaF]

Rew nails it. The only thing I’ll contend with is his thoughts on induction. Has great synergy with sniper especially since you get two chances between snipe and Aimshot. 399/400
 to one shot just about every opponent are odds that I like. Even in that crazy offchance that it does happen you can either wait out the CD timer if you managed to stack enough chill to extend its effects or restealth. You basically can’t lose a 1v1 assuming you the survive long enough to cast cryostasis

I already sort of agreed that Cryogenic Induction or its Shatter effect could be useful.. 😆😅😅 But yeah - any boss on DOMINATING that can be placed in Cryostasis can be 1 Aimed-Shot with 12.7 Smart AA Harbinger and some Feats to support it quite early on. Man.. 1 tapping Carnifex is something I want to do now.. 😆😆 ..for that 15sec Carni fight video 😆🤣

Btw, did you mean 5% miss chance? 😆

Even in that crazy offchance that it does happen you can either wait out the CD timer if you managed to stack enough chill to extend its effects

Much lower than 5% since you get two 95% shots for it to land so in actuality your miss chance is .25%
Missing snipe you’ll have aimshot as your backup

[RewRatt]

Much lower than 5% since you get two 95% shots for it to land so in actuality your miss chance is .25%
Missing snipe you’ll have aimshot as your backup

Casting it, takes you out of Stealth, so no Snipe 😅
Not without some Vanishing Powder Grenade shenanigans. But then Snipe would be second.

[KnifegaF]

Much lower than 5% since you get two 95% shots for it to land so in actuality your miss chance is .25%
Missing snipe you’ll have aimshot as your backup

Casting it, takes you out of Stealth, so no Snipe 😅
Not without some Vanishing Powder Grenade shenanigans. But then Snipe would be second.

Cast cryostasis, stealth, end turn, snipe, “but misses”, aimshot

[RewRatt]

Much lower than 5% since you get two 95% shots for it to land so in actuality your miss chance is .25%
Missing snipe you’ll have aimshot as your backup

Casting it, takes you out of Stealth, so no Snipe 😅
Not without some Vanishing Powder Grenade shenanigans. But then Snipe would be second.

Cast cryostasis, stealth, end turn, snipe, “but misses”, aimshot

Isn't stealth on 2 turn CD? 😅 I am assuming you engage target from Stealth ofc. 😄
Edit: Should go to sleep, but got me thinking... Get out of Stealth, cast Cryostasis, cast LTI, end turn, Stealth, end turn and if Snipe cast time is 5secs, with twitch reflexes maybe you can land it in the last turn of Cryostasis? 😅
Or.. have Cryokinesis innervated (for some reason), cast that, then Cryostasis, eat a PSI booster, then LTI, then end turn, Stealth, end turn, Snipe (got 2 turns remaining).. Ja? 😆
Convoluted, but damn, possible.

[KnifegaF]

There’s a few options. Don’t have to use cryostasis the same turn as you break stealth. One advantage snipers have is there range so usually you can start from an area where you can either LoS or kite out of the enemies attack range so by the time the get to you you can stealth. There’s also Lti. There’s also stacking chill on the enemy to extend cryostasis all the way to 6 full turns which is easy to do with cryo orb and premed.

[RewRatt]

There’s a few options. Don’t have to use cryostasis the same turn as you break stealth. One advantage snipers have is there range so usually you can start from an area where you can either LoS or kite out of the enemies attack range so by the time the get to you you can stealth. There’s also Lti. There’s also stacking chill on the enemy to extend cryostasis all the way to 6 full turns which is easy to do with cryo orb and premed.

So scenario is - it is a solo enemy that doesn't have pals in shout range or if you fire to pull - Sniper Rifle shot sound range 😆. You pull him from range. Make sure he is within 6 tiles to cast Cryostasis. Use LTI if needed to get back into Stealth. Then cast Snipe while out of combat and before 12 seconds pass. Follow up with Aimed Shot if a miss. - so this is doable, just very circumstantial.
Btw, I did mention LTI and Cryokinesis. Also, Cryo-orb is even more unreliable - it has at max Metathermics a 10% chance to explode on you or anywhere else but the target, so 😅

[KnifegaF]

It’s really not circumstantial, man. Everything I mentioned are ways you can make it work. It doesn’t need to all fall in line. The guy doesn’t have to be solo, you can kill all his buddies first. You have 6 full turns to get back to him with cryoorb. I don’t get this 12 seconds thing, you stay in turnbased mode still. Cryoorb much like nades can only miss within 3 tiles so as long as you target the tile the enemy is on he will still get some shards. I’ve executed this more than plenty of times. It’s honestly not complicated. Cryostasis lasts up to 6 turns and stealth only has a 2 turn CD.  Even without lti or any chills you delay the enemy for one single turn post breaking stealth and you can do this.

Edit: I recorded this really fast. Pretend the first 2 kills are from far away with aimshot and snipe while taser acts like the spacing you use to delay the enemy on the first turn. I used impale because it can be directly substituted for snipe for the comparison since they have the same CD. This works even with multiple enemies but my initial statement was "You basically can’t lose a 1v1 assuming you the survive long enough to cast cryostasis".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6Kwv2wRm0U&feature=youtu.be

[RewRatt]

It’s really not circumstantial, man. Everything I mentioned are ways you can make it work. It doesn’t need to all fall in line. The guy doesn’t have to be solo, you can kill all his buddies first. You have 6 full turns to get back to him with cryoorb. I don’t get this 12 seconds thing, you stay in turnbased mode still. Cryoorb much like nades can only miss within 3 tiles so as long as you target the tile the enemy is on he will still get some shards. I’ve executed this more than plenty of times. It’s honestly not complicated. Cryostasis lasts up to 6 turns and stealth only has a 2 turn CD.  Even without lti or any chills you delay the enemy for one single turn post breaking stealth and you can do this.

Edit: I recorded this really fast. Pretend the first 2 kills are from far away with aimshot and snipe while taser acts like the spacing you use to delay the enemy on the first turn. I used impale because it can be directly substituted for snipe for the comparison since they have the same CD. This works even with multiple enemies but my initial statement was "You basically can’t lose a 1v1 assuming you the survive long enough to cast cryostasis".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6Kwv2wRm0U&feature=youtu.be

Hey, thanks for doing that man! 😄
I really thought, that Incapping someone alone in combat with you and stealthing would take you out of combat right after ending that turn. Thats why I kept mentioning 12sec (2 turns of the 3 turns of basic Induction Cryostasis) to cast Aimed Shot.
Btw, 3 tiles is a LOT 😆 my old Metathermics build was a pain to run, just because I KNEW that when I needed Pyroblast or Cryo-Orb to work in tighter space, it will blast on me instead (never further than targeted, always closer 😆). And my point about using Cryokinesis is simply that its 100% reliable 😄
But otherwise yeah - Shattering allows to effectively double a single physical strike if it could kill someone. And snipers are highest single shot damage if I am not mistakes (except for maybe max range Spear Throw) 😁
This is really strong for arena and assasinations of DOM bosses (that can be frozen).