Wasteland Wasteland 2 - Character Builds

[RedLabel]

Hi,

I was googling a bit and saw this forum, so I decided to share my build:

-------------------------------------------------------
C - 1
L - 1
A - 10
S - 1
S - 10
I - 4
C - 1

Extra attributes:
lvl 10 - Strength
lvl 20 - Coordination
lvl 30 - Coordination
lvl 40 - Coordination

Trinket (ordered by priority):
-Choice
-Pair of engagement rings or Unusual bow
-Inverted four-leaf clover
-White death

Skills:
-All four squad members should focus on Assault Rifles as their only combat skill.
-Squad should have two members with the Field Medic skill.
-All four squad members have the same CLASSIC build.

-------------------------------------------------------



Readme:

-This build abuses the combined power of: Assault Rifles, Combat Initiative and Combat Speed. This build is heavily combat focused.

-You will have the highest Combat Initiative in the game. You will have 2 turns for every turn of almost any opponent.

-You will also have the highest Combat Speed in the game which, coupled with the highest initiative, will allow for fast repositioning.

-You will be playing 4 riflemen. Weaponsmithing skill is a must.

-This build has been made with Supreme Jerk - four men squad in mind. If you try this build in lower difficulties you will find no challenge and you will grow tired of the game fast.



FAQ:
-Why isn't your (str + speed + int) % 4 = 0 ?
-- It will be at lvl 10 when you level up strength.

-Won't you need more AP?
-- With this build you will have 7 AP as soon as you hit lvl 20. This is enough AP to burst fire with any rifle (any good rifle). You will have so much Combat Initiative that you will be able to reposition or burst fire again before the enemy's turn.

-Will 2 points in Strength be enough?
-- Yes. This is a glass cannon build. Your damage and mobility will make up for the lack of strength.

-Why those trinkets?
-- This is all about maxing Combat Initiative, but there's an optional build path for those who like crits and red numbers: drop your Pair of engagement rings for a Unusual bow, get a Suppressor weapon modification and have fun. If you choose the crit path, all extra attributes except the ones at lvl 10 and 20 should go into Luck (Do NOT use Shaft of Prayer with this build, since it will leave you with 6AP and you won't be able to use the burst fire!).

-Why do I need two field medics in a squad of 4 rangers?
-- There will be fights that will require you to do so. Don't worry, you will be swimming in skill points later in the game. If you want to max survivability, use the Inverted four-leaf clover and do not crouch (you would receive a penalty to evade).

-Why are the lvl 30 and 40 extra attributes being spent in Coordination?
-- That would be your 8th AP. The core build is 1 point str and 1 point coord (character lvl 20), since they will give you 1AP each.

-I'm new, which rifle should I be using?
--G41 > AK-97 > AK-47 > M16 > FAMAS. Get the FAMAS as soon as you can (Ranger citadel), upgrade to M16 after Highpool or AG Center (Ranger Citadel, interior) and then just play.

Have fun!

 

[Hrco]

Hi guys,

I just wanted to ask a few questions. I played the game a little and it's awesome but I realized that I spread attributes on each character very wrong.
So, after reading lots of stuff in this thread I made a new ranger team. Can anybody please tell me is this okay attribute distribution and skill wise?
Basically, my questions are:

1. Did I distributed attributes wrong or I could rearrange them better?
2. Is this too much skills per character?
3. Should I go on heavy weapons with one character or should I take assault rifles or energy weapons instead? (How are your thoughts about heavy weapons?)
4. Is it okay for my tech engineer to go on sniper rifles and energy weapons simultaneously? I would like to have some energy rifle later against robots and armored targets but before that i wanted to use sniper rifle from afar to add a little more sniper support.
5. What skills should I take with Ralphy? Is it ok to make a brawler out of him or should I go with some range weapons instead?

Also, I'll pick up Ralphy as soon as I can. (I suppose I can get him before Highpool or Ag center?) And I'll take one or two more companions later.

Thanks for your help guys

Here is my team:

SNIPER
—————
C L A S S I C
2 1 8 2 6 8 1
—————
8 AP, 16 CI
—————

MAIN SKILLS:
sniper rifles
demolitions
perception
weaponsmithing


TECH
———————
C L A S S I C
2 1 4 2 8 10 1
—————
9 AP, 13 CI
—————

MAIN SKILLS:
computer science
smart ass
safecracking
lock-picking
energy weapons
sniper rifles

SECONDARY SKILLS:
mechanical repair


MEDIC
——————
C L A S S I C
4 1 4 2 10 4 3
—————
9 AP, 14 CI
—————

MAIN SKILLS:
assault rifles
field medic
kiss ass
surgeon

SECONDARY SKILLS:
leadership


MELEE/PISTOLERO
—————
C L A S S I C
2 1 4 8 8 4 1
—————
9 AP, 13 CI
—————
MAIN SKILLS:
pistols
hard ass
blunt weapons

SECONDARY SKILLS:
brute force
alarm disarming
heavy weapons - maybe replace that with AR or EW (Don't know if HW weapons are good, they jam a lot)

 

[Commissar Draco]

Nobody Expected Spanish Russian Desert Inquisition:

Sister Sub our Sniper/Scout/Ass Kisser:

Brother Commissar our Hard Ass/Commander/Alarm specialist:

Brother HHR our Tech Marine:

Brother Ireneus our Apothecary:

Of course 100% WHITE:

Brother Scotchmo reformed and wielding Holy Shotgun and opening doors for our Noble Krusaseders:

Brother Thomas our Brother Librarian and keeper of the Holy Lore: (only one not modded so frack him play game yourself faggots and you will see him)

Sister Volture the wielder of Holy Plasma Gun of Antioch:

Chars are modded and added 5 points of Strenght to each so they can carry more loot hate such game time extending BS as having to return 3 times to location to carry on all spoils, they should add mules or car to the game but frack it I don't have 20 years anymore.



:russia:

 

[Grunker]

Herro guise. I am getting ready for my first ever-ever-ever Wasteland 2 run, which will be starting when I hand in my thesis. I may wait until this Balance Patch I'm hearing about, I haven't decided. I'll be going in fairly blind and I don't want to read a ton of strategy guides or completely min-max my party. I have read some of this thread though as well as Pope Amole II's excellent character creation guide (though as you can see, I haven't followed its advice to the letter). I'd like some feedback on this here party, but like I said: I'm not going for the Min/Max, I just want to avoid obvious traps that will plague my playthrough.

I'll be playing on Ranger mode unless someone has a compelling reason that I shouldn't. I am also planning on adding three NPCs to the party (that's the cap, right?).

Here's the current build:

Pierre "Great Gatsby" Bourdieu - Party Leader

Skills: Leadership, Alarm Disarm, Safecracking, Lockingpicking, Demolitions
CLASSIC: 2 - 1 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 10 - 10

Robert "The Bowler" Putnam - Party Weapons Ops

Skills: Hard Ass, Assault Rifles, Energy Weapons, Brute Force, Weaponsmithing
CLASSIC: 2 - 1 - 8 - 3 - 8 - 4 - 2

Richard "Equal Opportunist" Wilkinson - Party Sniper

Skills: Smart Ass, Computer Science, Field Medic, Sniper Rifle, Mechanical Repair
CLASSIC: 2 - 7 - 4 - 1 - 4 - 8 - 2

Kate "The Depriver" Pickett - Party Femme Fatale

Skills: Kiss Ass, Perception, Brawling, Shotguns, Outdoorsman
CLASSIC: 2 - 1 - 4 - 8 - 4 - 8 - 1

Here are screenshots of their current builds:

Party Leader


Party Weapons Ops


Party Sniper


Party Femme Fatale

 

[Pope Amole II]

That 3 strength on the weapons ops is kinda bad- if you swap 1 point from the coordination (or, better even, charisma, though I dunno - are you aiming for the specific NPCs?) you'll have the same amount of APs but +1 hp per level gain. And Assault + Energo is kinda bombo - assaults are so universal that they don't need anything secondary.

Sniper is also bad - luck is a really, really bad combo there. If you want a luck based character, you should go for the heavy weapons build - the reward for it will come really, rally late but at least it's a helluva good reward. Alternatively, you can also aim for the shotguns - shotguns also combo somewhat nicely with luck, though not as strong as the heavy (but they're the better weapon school overall). But sniper rifles get pretty much nothing from the high luck. Also, high luck characters should have most freqently used skills (lockpicking & demolitions, mb safecracking) allocated to them as luck gives a bonus to success chance. Not huge, but still a bonus.

And I can't say I like hth characters without a maxed-out speed. Brawlers do a really good damage but they need they maneuvrability (as well as the shotgunners). Not to mention that, the way the brawling works, you really want to focus on getting it to 9 (and 10 from the book) ASAP.

 

[Grunker]

Thanks for the swift reply

That 3 strength on the weapons ops is kinda bad- if you swap 1 point from the coordination (or, better even, charisma, though I dunno - are you aiming for the specific NPCs?) you'll have the same amount of APs but +1 hp per level gain.

Hadn't noticed the AP gain from 4 strength, I'll do that most def. As for specific NPCs, I was just thinking I'd keep my options open? You know, have enough Charisma that some would be open, but not go all in on it at the cost of efficiency.

And Assault + Energo is kinda bombo - assaults are so universal that they don't need anything secondary

I wanted one character to have access to Energy Weapons for late game. Maybe I should switch them to my brawler and just say "fuck it" to shotguns? I guess that makes more sense now that I think about it.

Sniper is also bad - luck is a really, really bad combo there. If you want a luck based character, you should go for the heavy weapons build - the reward for it will come really, rally late but at least it's a helluva good reward. Alternatively, you can also aim for the shotguns - shotguns also combo somewhat nicely with luck, though not as strong as the heavy (but they're the better weapon school overall). But sniper rifles get pretty much nothing from the high luck. Also, high luck characters should have most freqently used skills (lockpicking & demolitions, mb safecracking) allocated to them as luck gives a bonus to success chance. Not huge, but still a bonus.

Thanks. I'll definetely make changes due to this. Though here's my issue: I'd like to follow your advice on giving my high Cha character the oft-used skills. But I can't max Cha, Int and Luck on the same character, and I'd like a Luck-based character. Maybe the solution is to move Charisma to someone else and just accept the loss of XP?

And I can't say I like hth characters without a maxed-out speed. Brawlers do a really good damage but they need they maneuvrability (as well as the shotgunners). Not to mention that, the way the brawling works, you really want to focus on getting it to 9 (and 10 from the book) ASAP.

Right, gotcha.

 

[SniperHF]

General quality of life tip for your first character in the list is to have perception.

You can always easily change to your cracker or dialog check character after the fact. But when your front character is a bit ahead of your others and slightly outside or on the edge of your perception radius you just stepped into a landmine or tripwire. Sure you could always select the #4 character and walk around with that one in front but I always find myself with the first one in the list in front. Especially after a transition or something you'll end up that way. Saves a few careless mistakes or reloads.

 

[Pope Amole II]

Hadn't noticed the AP gain from 4 strength, I'll do that most def. As for specific NPCs, I was just thinking I'd keep my options open? You know, have enough Charisma that some would be open, but not go all in on it at the cost of efficiency.

Theoretically, with your 10 Cha leader it should be all that it takes to recruit even the hardest to recruit NPCs. Not naturally (because they can require, IIRC, up to 26 Cha), but even with 3 Cha 1 folks that's already 13 and then you have spiked collars to pump it up to 16 and then you have hirelings who can also wear collars and have at least a measure of charisma. And you also have a unique consumable to boost this even further. Besides, apart from the initial two NPCs (which are mutually exclusive), most of them suck anyways (even the 26 cha one - she's better than others, but still bad) so it's not like it matters much.

I wanted one character to have access to Energy Weapons for late game. Maybe I should switch them to my brawler and just say "fuck it" to shotguns? I guess that makes more sense now that I think about it.

Generally, when it comes to the two-weapon combos, energy are the best for the low armor-piercing weapons - handguns, shotguns, submachineguns. I guess brawling can work too here. As for the shotguns - you may just take a shotgunner instead of a sniper. Dunno, I kinda like shotguns in W2 - they are more fun to use than other weapons as they require at least a semblance of tactics. They make combat less stale.

Thanks. I'll definetely make changes due to this. Though here's my issue: I'd like to follow your advice on giving my high Cha character the oft-used skills. But I can't max Cha, Int and Luck on the same character, and I'd like a Luck-based character. Maybe the solution is to move Charisma to someone else and just accept the loss of XP?

Well, apart from the lockpicking & demolitions, there's still a lot of XP grinding skills to put on your CHA guy. First aid & weaponsmithing can easily replace lockpicks & demo on your cha guy.

 

[Grunker]

@Cha: alright, thanks. That's precisely the sort of thing I'd like to know.

@Shots vs. snipers: Will think about it.

Well, apart from the lockpicking & demolitions, there's still a lot of XP grinding skills to put on your CHA guy. First aid & weaponsmithing can easily replace lockpicks & demo on your cha guy.

But currently my Cha guy and my Int guy are the same. Aren't we talking about taking Luck and high Int on the same character, and then maybe make one the Int 8 characters get high Cha instead of luck, as it is now? Or?

Or did you suggest keeping as is (high int and high cha), and then giving the luck character more frequent-use skills?

 

[Athelas]

Out of curiosity, why is your combat initiative so low?

 

[Pope Amole II]

Yeah, I'm talking about keeping it as is. If you want a luck based guy then their only strength is giving criticals to some critical deprived weapons (and heavy is the best as the very-very late game one has a 15x critical modifier - that's not a typo, fifteen times the damage). I'd even go for the int 4 on the luck guy, simply so he has more luck & combat stats to negate luck's weakness in other departments.

 

[SniperHF]

Out of curiosity, why is your combat initiative so low?

I see one high, two middle, one WAY low. I don't think going crazy with getting high initiative is all that necessary below Supreme Jerk.

 

[Grunker]

Out of curiosity, why is your combat initiative so low?

Is it low? I dunno. I thought I was struggling pretty hard to keep it up while still being able to spread the points just a bit. Basically:

Out of curiosity, why is your combat initiative so low?

I see one high, two middle, one WAY low. I don't think going crazy with getting high initiative is all that necessary below Supreme Jerk.

This was what I was aiming at. I thought I'd build one combat-focused character, two who were more than adequate, and one "well, I guess he can be a human shield" who would just pump skills galore.

Yeah, I'm talking about keeping it as is. If you want a luck based guy then their only strength is giving criticals to some critical deprived weapons (and heavy is the best as the very-very late game one has a 15x critical modifier - that's not a typo, fifteen times the damage). I'd even go for the int 4 on the luck guy, simply so he has more luck & combat stats to negate luck's weakness in other departments.

Interesting, will ponder.

 

[Grunker]

How about this, then:

Leader/Skill monkey
Skills: Leadership, Field Medic, Alarm Disarm, Weaponsmithing, Perception
CLASSIC: 2 - 1 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 10 - 10
AP: 7
CI: 7
Questions:
1) Should he invest in a weapon skill?
2) Should I have Alarm Disarm on the same character that has Lockpicking/Safecracking/Demolitions, so as to avoid obnoxious char-switching (I can switch with Computer Science from Shotgunner).

Weapons
Skills: Hard Ass, Assault Rifles, Brute Force, Mechanical Repair
CLASSIC: 2 - 1 - 8 - 4 - 8 - 4 - 1
AP: 8
CI: 17
Question: Is four skills too many for this character to handle?

Shotgunner
Skills: Computer Science, Shotguns, Safecracking, Lockingpicking, Demolitions
CLASSIC: 2 - 7 - 4 - 2 - 4 - 8 - 1
AP: 7
CI: 11
Question: Is five skills too many for this character to handle?

Brawler
Skills: Kiss Ass, Smart Ass, Brawling, Energy Weapons, Outdoorsman
CLASSIC: 1 - 1 - 2 - 6 - 9 - 8 - 1
AP: 7
CI: 11
Questions:
1) Is five skills too many for this character to handle?
2) I tried to max out the speed while keeping the same intelligence. Did that screw that entire concept? Do I need to accept less Int here?

General questions:
Do I have enough Strength for purposes of hauling shit? 2 + 4 + 2 + 6?

Is it really sufficient to have 13 Cha if you want to keep your options open with NPCs? Most guides I can find are outdated.

Are my CI/AP ratios somewhat sufficient? 7AP on three characters seems p. low.

Also I am dumping Coordination on all characters... is that wise?

Pope Amole II, SniperHF, Mystary!

 

[SniperHF]

Yeah you will want a weapon skill for your leader. You could always give him tons of TNT/Grenades. I'd go with Pistols or Assault rifles. Pistols for several low AP attacks or Assault rifles just cause they are awesome. And it wont impact any other assault rifle characters in the party regarding ammo since your sequence is so awful you wont be shooting much. I wouldn't worry about Alarm disarm, there aren't enough of them. Put it wherever you want.

Far as the skills per character questions, I think you are okay there. I find even a 2 SP per level character can handle 4 skills okay. Little tough early but workable. 3SP per and higher can handle 5-6. Unless you are angling to max certain skills. I generally find the last more expensive 8SP for the highest level not worth it. There are a few exceptions like lockpicking and Safecracking.

I would probably take less INT on the brawler. Load up on action points. Will have the side benefit of improving your initiative depending on what you raise.

 

[hiver]

What a giant waste of time and overblown complications... The system only looks as if it needs such complicated considerations but it actually doesnt and its very straightforward. I would tell you a few things but i guess its better if you figure out the mistakes yourself and how pointless many skills and attributes are.

 

[DeepOcean]

Assault rifles: Use on anything with 6 armor or less and still very useful at 7 armor and above but not as much as energy weapons.You only need 8AP for assault rifles.

Energy Weapons: Useful on a few cases on Arizona but only start shining when 7 armor or more enemies start appearing on California. 10 Ap for two shots with Neutron projector highly recomended.

SMGs: Kinda crappy but still useful. The only use I had for them was to cut on assault rifle ammo consumption at the start of California as 7.62 is expensive as fuck but you won't have many options to waste your money anyway so I don't know if the cheap ammo is worthy the crappy damage, range and armor penetration. Need, at least, 9 AP to do some decent damage.

Shotgun: Kinda crappy but still useful. Has its uses, bunch of enemies are close together and have low armor, not all that common... it can do some decent AOE damage. It is completely useless against high armor enemies, the small range is a problem too. 9 AP for the Jackhammer or ideal is 10 AP for some mobility.

Handguns: Complete crap.

Heavy weapons: Complete crap.

Sniper: Won't say it is complete crap but there is no reason to use them unless larping as Assault rifles fire three times a turn for 7AP and do the same damage with the same range while sniper rifles can fire two times a turn at best and high end sniper rifles use the same ammunition of assault rifles anyway. They imporve when you get the high end rifles but at that point but end energy weapons and assault rifles do more damage anyway.

Any melee weapon: Complete crap. Place some long barrel, underbarrel flashlight and aviator glasses on your assault rifle guys and you won't need them. Moving to attack the enemies mean wasting AP moving and less damage, the game doesn't compensate melee weapon damage for this without mentioning that melee specialists suffer alot on Supreme Jerk! as many enemies can cut your life by half on one turn and armor won't save you as energy weapon enemies can murder your ass if you use them. Brawling has awful armor penetration and even doing critical damage on all hits still do less damage than a close range assault rifle burst. Bladed weapons are useless and blunt weapons can do really good damage but only on critical hits that only happen 20% of the time with luck helping very little.

 

[hiver]

I wouldn't agree that handguns are complete crap at all.

Its a good secondary side-weapon thats very useful for finishing enemy melee fighters and general moping up since it doesnt have penalty for enemy being close and you can shoot a lot of times in a turn, with high precision.
Same as melee weapons. High damage and very useful versus enemies like badgers and those frogs. Both blades and blunt.
SMGS are basically assault weapons that dont have close range penalty.

And since the game is filled with enemies that just run straight at you it is very useful. Good damage versus robots too.

Snipers are very useful for taking out enemies at long range, of course. Which works great combined with your melee units. Having two snipers in the team is overkill.
Pistols and melee are best for moping up whats left after you unload your assault and energy weapons or softening them up with sniper long range fire.

Shotguns are completely useless due to low damage versus anything with armor and short range.


So you basically come down to it all reduced to:

1. Close range weapons - pistols, SMGs and melee -

2. Ranged weapons. - assault, energy, snipers

Then you just combine the two to mop up. Long range weapons soften them up as enemies run straight at you, close range weapons mop up. Its as complicated as tetris.




there are of course more skills that are completely useless in the game but im not telling you.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Snipers and assault rifle specialists were my most consistent post apocalyptic wasteland murderers throughout the game, I only started using one laser weapon towards the end of California for the armor penetration.

Pistols, smgs, shotguns, melee, we're pretty much flavor builds for me, there for style and not substance.

 

[hiver]

3 assaults and 3 snipers should kill everything without any problem. + seventh member whatever.
and its easy to give them all a secondary weapons skill later when you need energy weapons.

Lack of ammo could force you to loot everything so you could sell it and buy ammo but that would be the only problem.
Which is mostly why i used SMGs and pistols too. And for style and superficial rp.

Its nice to have something extra to spend all the gazillions of SP though.

 

[Pope Amole II]

Actually, since the damage output for the weapons have been long calculated, it's all pretty simple:

AR burst & headshot burst has the consistently highest damage output in the game against the majority of enemies. There are times & spaces where something like energo or submachine can outshine it, but on the distance AR are the best & most universal.

Energo is good because, once you encounter high-armor enemies, it deals more damage than the AR to them.

Shotguns deal very good damage once you target 2+ enemies. Their low AP is actually not that low - just 1 less then the AR eventually and that's just 10-20% damage - and their potential damage output can be colossal.

Handguns do shit damage and are useless.

Submachines are insanely good early on. Later they somewhat fade out (outside of one unique gun, iirc), but their early game advantage can be worth it. Once again, they're more of a sidearm.

Snipers have only the range going for them. Their damage is crap (well, not crap but about 20% lower than the AR, that's with the armor piercing advantage accounted for), but they can initiate combat from the highest distance possible (if you mod them appropriately). So they also should be dualed.

In terms of hth, brawling is really potent because its damage output is actually 25% higher than the Assault output. Yeah, being melee has its consequenses, but 1 brawler can be useful. The trick is to rush brawling 10 asap - that way it also gains a very strong early game.

 

[hiver]

Shutguns do shit damage throughout the game. Doesnt matter that you hit more enemies if you hit them for 10-20% of other weapons average. Which is what they do most of the time.

Snipers do excellent damage. Helps if the character build is properly made. Which is very simple.

The trick is to rush brawling 10 asap - that way it also gains a very strong early game.

what? not necessary at all.

Handguns do shit damage and are useless.

I just explained why this is not the case.

 

[flushfire]

I don't understand why additional skill points from Int is at 1,4,8,10. That makes 5-7 int totally worthless, and 8 int less optimal than just 10. Since 1 is the minimum anyway, 1,4,7,10 makes more sense - additional skill points per level every 3 points invested.

 

[SniperHF]

I don't think 8 is less optimal than 10 because you are still drowning in skill points at 8 and really don't need even that many. Might as well boost other things.

 

[hiver]

because they wanted you to spend more attribute points on Int since it brings such an enormous advantage in the game that already has too many skill points.