What is the general plan with the build? You have recklessness, survival instincts and cheap shot early so it seems like you want to focus on making a crit spear, but you save critical power till level 24? I guess the high CON is there so when you get low to proc your survival instincts, you won't be too squishy? But you also said you're considering swapping out survival instincts with last stand, so no crit?
Now that you mentioned it, I don't really have any 'general plan'. I just want to play a Spear-n'-Shield Spartan. But if I'm to say what I want, I want to hit hard and hit fast, but still able tank a bit. So yeah, crits are probably what I want. The reason why I took Critical Power at lvl 24 is because I want to focus more on more non-crit capabilities at earlier levels, especially since I want to take Iron Grip at level 16 to immediately begin speccing into it AND Shield Arm after, but I probably should take it earlier. Maybe I won't replace Survival Instinct with Last Stand, after all. But it won't be useful without Armor Sloping to reduce armor penalty if I want to hit fast.
Assuming you're just going for a general spear build, not too tanky or too mobile, I feel like 9 CON is overkill, especially since you only really need it for Survival Instincts, which doesn't really synergize too well with Spears imo. I'd switch to Conditioning over Survival Instincts as I think the general damage reduction will serve you better than the increased crit chance. I knocked my CON down to 7 in my build which would be a difference of around 100 health and 2% less damage reduction from Conditioning. I put those points into AGI and INT but it's up to you and how you want to play your Spear dude. I placed a heavier focus on having a ton of movement points and being able to run around a lot, versus focusing more on tankiness. I also don't know why you decided to go into Evasion? I don't really like dodge and/or evasion builds, especially if you're not going to benefit from the Nimble buff when you're at 0% armor penalty. The Energy shields you craft at around level 15 and up will be more than enough to deal with powerful ranged opponents, especially as you don't really run into any until after Junkyard. Once I got my main energy shield at level 20 or so, somewhere around 1700-2000 capacity, I could literally waltz through the Arke Power Station and handle everything with ease (taking some care to avoid getting too surrounded).
Aye. 9 CON is not only overkill, it also won't synergize well without using heavier armors to capitalize on tanking. And yet I won't be able to take Armor Sloping with 6 INT without sacrificing STR. I'll knock CON down to 7 and distribute its points somewhere. Probably AGI to get more MP and maybe to pass some environmental AGI check. Conditioning is preferable as well, I probably would have it replace Boarding Up since this feat only works for multiple hits like with swords and daggers. But I still want to take Armor Sloping so I can reduce armor penalty to help with mobility... guess not after all.
I put points into Evasion because even though it's not too useful against regular ranged attacks, at least it helps in reducing AoE damage. And because I'm not sure where to put those points because I'm thinking of playing zero subterfuge. Maybe I'll put those free points from CON to AGI to also helps with Evasion, on top of mobility?
You also left Spear Throw to level 14? Which I'd say is a definite no go, as it's a big source of damage early on and otherwise you'll be maxing throwing for just Grenades. You also specialized really heavily in Shield Arm and left out Spear Guardian, which is a mistake I think. Spear Guardian by itself with two specialization points increases your black chance to 100%. Add in Fend with some specialization points to lower the action point cost, and you have a 100% block chance at super low cost. At max specialization it's only 9 or 10 AP to get Fend with 100% chance to block. It blocks something around 80-100 damage, and you can get that much higher if you put Spec points into it. Looking at my shield build, I took Shield Arm, but I don't remember whether or not melee damage that is higher than the amount you can get blocked bypasses your spear block, or if the extra damage rolls over and has a chance of being blocked by your shield. If it rolls or bypasses your spear block, it would be worth it to get Shield Arm, but if let's say the 150 damage melee attack just gets 80 of it blocked and the rest hits with no chance of being picked up by the shield, than drop the feat, as you'll already be at 100% block chance without it.
Yeah, you're right. Now that I'm dropping Survival Instinct and get CON 7 instead, I've put Spear Throw at level 2.
The reason why I max spec into Shield Arm because I really want to capitalize on shield play, but yeah I replaced Survival Instinct with Spear Guardian instead. And since "
Block chance from different sources does not stack. Each block chance is rolled separately against blockable attacks." and "
Multiple different blocks can trigger against a single attack, in which case their amount blocked stacks additively." might as well not speccing into Shield Arm but still take it and re-allocate those points into Spear Guardian and (I guess) Spear Throw. Or Fend as you suggested it.
Other than that it comes down to personal preference. You don't have Grenadier which is fine, but I thought it was invaluable, especially in the early game, as the build doesn't really ramp up all the way until level 18-20, and dealing with large swarms of enemies early might be rough. Here is a rough outline of my build below.
http://underrail.info.tm/build/?Hgw...KmfMKeGsKtwp1twqDCn2zis4UF4rOOAuKzogPit6YF378
It's rather flexible though, and you can change up certain feats depending on how you want them. If you wanted to optimize it you'd probably drop Strider and the AGI at levels 26 and 28, and just go into Strength, but I enjoyed the high movement speed and didn't have any problems in regards to dealing damage playing on Hard. Let me know if you have any questions or need info.
Hey man, thanks a lot for your feedback. Looking at your build it's an all-rounder focused on mobility with 10 AGI + Strider, hence why it needs 7 INT for Power Management. I guess I'll go with this
http://underrail.info.tm/build/?Hg8...Cr8KCBkvCqsK2fHjis44C4rOiA-KzpAPit4kC4remBd-_
Hit hard and hit fast, while still able to tank a bit. I switched Cheap Shot with Expose Weakness because the latter is more valuable early game, Critical Power at lvl 22 because I want to focus more on non-crit capabilities during earlier levels. And since I'm not going to take Armor Sloping, INT 5 instead and that one point either into STR for more damage or AGI for a bit more mobility and helps with effective Evasion.
The only thing that sticks like a sore thumb here is Shield Bash. I *REALLY* want to play Spear-n'-Shield Spartan like in 300.... maybe I'll re-allocate the spec points from Spear Throw (range) into Shield Bash (Action Points)?
As you can see, need a psi headband with TD neuroscope and muffler to increase TD damage and reduce TM psi cost to effectively pull it off.
