IceQ - Nimble Cryo Tank (psi version)
https://underrail.info/build/?HgMDBgkDDwcAAwAAwqDCoABPYAAAHMKgLERaAADCoAAAwqBIKwhiKSQqLGUcRA9fH8K-UMK3wrxmw5bDmd-_Like most tanks, this is a suboptimal build. Don't expect to drop 5 bodies per turn. Being a metathermics build, it will aslo have troubles with robots up to a certain point.
Starting base abilities:
3 STR
3 DEX
6 AGI
9 CON
3 PER
9 WILL
7 INT
Starting skills:
3(2 effective) in throwing, 15 in evasion, electronics, metathermics, intimidation and mercantile. The rest is up to you. I played on oddity XP so I invested another 15 in lockpicking.
Essential feats:
Conditioning
Survival Instincts
Power Management
Nimble
Premeditation
Psychosis
Psionic Mania
Hypothermia
Yell
Evasive Maneuvers
Stoicism
Last Stand
Optional feats 1:
Expanded Psi Capacitance
Psycho-Neural Optimisation
Increased Will
Neural Overclocking
Paranoia
Beyond Cold
Optional feats 2:
Doctor
Fast Metabolism
Cryogenic Induction
Psi abilities:
Cryokinesis
Cryostasis
Cryokinetic Orb
Cryo-Shield
Exothermic Aura / Plasma beam.
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Dealing damage
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The build is mainly focused around Cryokinesis spam, so we have two options to improve it with feats. Cryogenic Induction goes well with the cryomage theme, but I think it's rather weak, because of enormously long cooldown of Cryostasis, and it's not very effective without Tranquility. However, you can swap any optional feat (after Last Stand) with CI if you want. Hypothermia seems like a better choice to me. Definetely not a killer feat, but it shines when fighting bosses and other tanky living enemies. At level 13-16, five non-critical Cryokinesis casts can deal 500+ damage to Carnifex, and shave another ~1000 HP with Hypothermia. Pick it at level 8 or 12.
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Defences
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Calling this build a tank is actually a bold claim, because it uses leather as main armor suit, and despite having good damage reduction it's not able to survive literal tons of mechanical damage like a tungsten armor can. Instead of relying on just the armor suit, the build is a "jack of all trades" type of tank. While it doesn't excel at any single type of protection, the combination of evasion, shield, leather armor, damage reduction, huge health pool and mobility together form a surprisingly solid defence.
Power Management is important for both shield and Cloaking Device capacity. Nimble gives 30% effective boost to dodge and evasion when wearing armor with 15% penalty. Evasion Maneuvers or/and Yell works wonders against SMGs and ARs bursts, and against ranged enemies in general. Jumping Bean and Adrenaline further boost evasion.
Keep in mind that evasion is not going to protect you from every shot, just some of them. Evasion helps a lot with AoE damage, 400 effective evasion will decrease all AoE damage by 85%. Also you're unlikely to evade sniper shots even with Evasive Maneuvers, especially if they rolled a rifle with bipod; break LoS or force them to move, or use Yell on them. The build can tank one or maybe two sniper crits, but you still should avoid being in a sniper sightline.
Effectiveness of damage reduction (indirectly) scales with your maximum health, so Infused Pig Leather is a perfect candidate for our main armor set. It also works well with Nimble, as it only has 15% armor penalty. The best pig leather can be looted from Fatso. To get to him, you need to visit Rathound King and then return to Camp Hathor and buy jetsky from Tappy. You can craft your first weaker set of leather armor before you get good super steel plates, I think q60+ pig leather plus q100+ super steel should be enough for a comfortable midgame.
Conditioning and Stoicism provide 14% mechanical damage reduction at 100% health and 38% reduction at 4%. Stoicism, morphine and Aegis also decrease all kinds of damage, including damage from Psionic Mania. Damage of morhine debilitation is reduced by mechanical damage reduction. Try to get Aegis blueprint early. Fixer sells it after Core City questline, and aslo it sometimes spawns as loot and in merchant inventories.
Lifting Belt, (Infused) Ancient Rathound Tabis, and Canned Meat provide another 15% mech damage reduction.
Beyond Cold is reasonably strong defensive feat which you can activate manually by ending your turn in cryogas. It gives 3 turns of +15% of mechanical damage reduction and a minor bonus to damage and resolve. I got it at level 20, but you can get it way earlier, I would say it's very possible at level 12 if you craft armor set with decent fire resist and good low/low shield (50+ low shielding) for a bossfight, optionally add insulated padding to your armor for a little bit of cold damage treshhold. Get an Exothermic Aura and jackhammer from Foundry to climb the tower. Dealing with ice at the last floor with just jackhammer is rather annoying, so I recommend crafting a pyrokinetic psiband, so pyrokinesis + magnesium grenade combo will destroy a few tiles of ice at once. It's impossible target ice tiles themselves, so pyrokinetic stream won't work on them. Bring a lot of batteries, recharge your shield often, spam mollies, have your exothermic aura always on cooldown and you should be good.
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Tips
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Always try to throw a cryogas grenade somewhere near your position before starting combat, so you can activate Freezing Memories buff when you need it.
Enemies under the effects of Chilled and Hypothermia can be randomly freezed when they end their turn in cryogas, use it to your advantage.
NPCs try to disarm gas grenades out of combat, so they can be used gather groups for a Cryokinetic Orb cast. Enemies will stand in cryogas much more willingly than in fire and toxic gas.
Non-critical Cryokinesis is not very strong, but it has almost a sniper range, so keep your distance, try to stay in the shadow to maximise the chance to evade shots.
Throw Cryokinetic Orbs when you have Premeditation and/or Psionic Mania available.
Manage your shield capacity, disable it when breaking line of sight and when you use a lot of defensive buffs. Use Exothermic Aura for area denial.
Sometimes it's better to activate Evasive Maneuvers than to break line of sight, as it might keep enemies from closing the distance. The further they are from you, the less their chance to hit is.
When enemies manage to get close, exploit AI by using freezed and stunned enemies as cover to prevent others from using bursts and grenades, intimidate them with Yell to decrease their hit chance and damage.
Morphine can increase damage reduction up to a maximum of 90%. If you need to use morphine at low health, remember to activate Last Stand before morhine effects expires.
Some enemies in leather armor are immune to freezing.
Be aware of Warmed Up buff, which negates Chilled, Frozen and Hypothermia, and reduces all cold damage on top of that.
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Things to get early
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1.Cryokinetic Orb mentor, Bullhead, Trance and Focus Stim blueprints in Core City.
2.Exothermic Aura mentor, Psi Reinvigorator and Jumping Bean bluerints in Foundry.
3.Boxing gloves to reduce chance to get critically hit, and Power Fist to increase carry capacity in a lab near Foundry.
4.Good quality pig leather and decent Super Steel Plates, aslo good quality Ancient Rathound Leather. You can farm leathers in caves near SGS and Camp Hathor.
5.Cryo-Shield mentor in Dolos Center. It can help before you start investing in dodge for Expedition.
6.Super Health Hypo Blueprint in Panacea Lab.
7.Access to Metaworm Gizzards in Messer's shop after the Beast quest.
8.Butcher's Knife to increase intimidation for Yell.
9.AKX to boost resolve.
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Specialization
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Yell, Premeditation cooldown, Last Stand duration and Psionic Mania cooldown, optionally Hypothermia max stacks, Psychosis critical chance and Expanded Psi Capacitance.
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Coretech, JKK or Praetorian Security?
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All of them have their pros and cons for this build, however the only upside of JKK is easiest warehouse mission and therefore faster Core City quest completion, faster guaranteed Aegis and Plasma Beam. But instead of joining JKK, you can either cheese CT/PS warehouse mission or do Phreak questline instead. Coil spiders in his hideout are not going to be easy though. You can choose Coretech for more psionic components, guaranteed plasma grenade blueprint and their hacking utility. Praetorians have their neat grenades, which are useful agaisnt living ranged/melee users in general.
Currently I'm at level 21, already cleared Lurkers, Free Drones questline, Arena, Dude's quest. No stealth, all combat, no cheese (except for the Beast quest). 400+ HP, confidently tanking two 500+ mech damage crits in a row at full HP, with active shield and without aegis/morhpine.
Update1: Balor, first try, 30+ turns. It took 4 separate screenshots to capture an aftermath of a single instance of combat.
