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Classes, builds & difficulty?

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Alpro:
From what i read here and on the wiki, there seem to be 5 build categories: melee, pistol, shotgun, rapid fire and survival. I suspect some archetypes work better for some classes than others, is this correct? Also, are all archetypes viable for all classes on all difficulty levels? And one more thing, are hybrid builds viable?

So far i won with a survival marine on ITYTD, a shotgun scout on HNTR and a rapid fire scout on HMP.

I'm ready to move on to something else now, maybe UV, though i really like HMP, where the luck factor has a smaller impact. What i have no idea about is how can a melee build survive past the first few levels? And even if that is possible, how do you approach Arachnotrons later on? Or am i supposed to still use a gun as a backup weapon? What about pistol builds, they look weak on paper compared to shotguns and rapid fire. I'd like to make a dual knife or dual pistol build, do i absolutely have to use Whizkid? This is something i haven't tried yet...

Uranium:
In the early game, melee is probably the hardest way to play because of sergeants and their knockback, because you've got no way to consistently deal with them, I usually just make a run for the stairs until I get a chainsaw. After a melee player has the chainsaw, the idea is to remain in the berserk state for as long as is humanly possible. Berserk provides the best armour in the game, 60% to all resistances and increased movespeed, nothing else really comes close. Coupled with double melee damage and Brute 3, at level four/five, a melee player is probably going to be doing (4d6+9)x2. After he's got the Longinus Spear, he'll be doing (8d8+9)x2. Survival to a standard player is not being hurt. Survival to a melee player is killing everything so fast that there's nothing left to hurt you.

Master-trait wise, Marines have Vampyre, which is probably my favourite trait because it turns Pain Elementals into walking health and berserk machines. Leave a Pain Elemental until last, and you can enter the next level with 200% health and a zerk pack's worth of berserk.
Blademaster was favoured for Nightmare! melee runs because it allows you to kill enemies without giving anything else time to act, and it emphasises killing power rather than survival.
Malicious Blades blocks Berserker, which is why I don't use it, but if you're berserked (from a pack or skull) and wielding two chainswords that are B-modded, you're doing ((9d2+9)x2)x2, which really can add up. Couple this with MMB's resistances, and you realise why melee late-games are often already a foregone conclusion in humanity's favour.

edit: fixed typo, it's unlikely demons will want to 'heart' you, rather they want to hurt

spacedust:
I played lots of games recently in aiming for the malicious knives cross, so here's some quick tips on surviving the first few levels.

1) Giftdropping! This is probably the greatest tip for surviving the first few levels when you are a fledgling young one and likely to be dispatched by any old sergeant.

2) Run! Running lets you go toe to toe with slightly tougher enemies and not die.

3) If you're not opposed to a mixed build, ie saving melee only for late game and using something to survive the early game, try shotguns. Shotguns are reasonably effective on earlier levels even without the associated traits, and you can probably use a vanilla shotty until the Phobos Anomoly if you have one level of Reloader mixed in with your other melee traits

ZicherCZ:
If you want to go to UV, you may want to give a shot at Angel of Max Carnage. It is hard, but it will certainly hone your injury-avoiding skills. Recommended build from me: Scout going Cateye, Int2 ASAP. After you reach MCe, you are basically unstoppable, save for a very bad random spawn at the beginning of a level.

ih8regin:
By the way people, do P mods over a chainsword make it 8d3? If so, it's better amping a chainsword with P instead of B once you're past WK2.

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