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Icy's Guide to Classes, Traits, and Builds

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Icy:
Malicious Blades

If you have a blade in the prepared slot, you get 50% bullet, shrapnel, and fire resistance, and 75% melee resistance. If you have a blade in both weapon slots, you attack with both simultaneously each at half the attack time. Note that there is only one accuracy check for the dual attack.

Requires: Finesse x1, Hellrunner x2, Brute x2, Dodgemaster x1, Level 7

Blocks: Tough as Nails, Eagle Eye, Berserker, Intuition, Badass

Malicious Blades, unlike other melee master traits, directly makes your attacks stronger and your defenses tougher, as opposed to special effects after each kill. It can be viewed somewhat like a pseudo-permanent Berserk effect. With the huge increase in power, killing enemies in far less hits helps reduce the hits you take back, and the hits you do generally take also reduce damage significantly, particular with melee damage. This helps enable a campy playstyle where if positioned well, you'll mostly be taking melee damage.

While you are limited to blades, which generally will be pairs of Chainswords, they are very easy to acquire and don't take many Mod Packs. If you're fortunate, you can also find Butcher's Cleaver, and even Dragonslayer which are both considered blades. While leveling and getting Chainswords, you can still use Chainsaw in the meantime as well. And although Malicious Blades blocks Berserker, you can still naturally find Berserk Packs to functionally quadruple the damage a normal Chainsword is doing, as well as enhancing the already high resistances and fast movement speed.

The big downside to Malicious Blades is that being restricted to blades, and melee having some inherent disadvantages, early games tend to be difficult to get through. Once Malicious Blades is unlocked however, the build starts to get incredibly powerful and all of the beneficial traits like Brute and Son of a Bitch are functionally double-applied as you'll be using two weapons. In the fortunate case you find Dragonslayer, permanent Berserk will allow you to one hit kill almost everything, you'll be incredibly fast at moving, and most of your resistances will be maxed out, reducing all damage to 1.

If you're feeling creative, you can also use a hybrid build and use Malicious Blades moreso for the resistances that are generally hard to acquire otherwise. Dualgunner is incompatible, and Eagle Eye blocked hurts most rapid-fires, but you can opt for a Shotgun build or try to find Laser Rifle.

Malicious Blades is relatively poor for short games, but excels in medium games and long games. You also don't need to be reliant on luck to get the build going, and can keep your inventory mostly filled with Med Packs. Shotguns in the early game while leveling can also help compensate the struggles of melee, especially without Berserker.

Overall, Malicious Blades is very good, but you have to play very well in the beginning where it starts off as a very weak build.

Suggested trait order:
1) Finesse 2) Hellrunner 3) Hellrunner 4) Dodgemaster 5) Brute
6) Brute 7) Malicious Blades 8) Brute 9) Whizkid 10) Whizkid
11) Finesse 12) Brute 13) Brute 14) Hellrunner 15) Son of a Bitch
16) Son of a Bitch 17) Son of a Bitch 18) Son of a Bitch 19) Son of a Bitch 20) Ironman
21) Ironman 22) Ironman 23) Ironman 24) Ironman 25) Juggler

You could start with Brute, but Finesse and the other traits with Shotgun will likely fare you better. Once you unlock Malicious Blades however, you should start switching to be more melee focused. Whizkid isn't too helpful early on, and you can just make another pair of Chainswords if you completed them before Whizkid x2. From there, it's just buffing up your damage and then defense. If you use Shotguns for longer periods into the game or are playing a hybrid build, you may want Juggler much earlier. For builds that are less focused on melee and using Malicious Blades for the resistances, put points into Brute later and focus on Son of a Bitch instead. With Juggler, you can instantly switch from having a rapid-fire or Shotgun to a blade in your inventory if enemies get close to you, so don't skip out on melee altogether.

Early game equipment will be Combat Knives, Shotgun (T), and Chainsaw. If you're fortunate, you'll be able to find Mod Packs to make Chainsword early on. Piercing Blade ignores armor, but does much less damage and is only marginally stronger for some bosses. You could make a Piercing Blade Chainsaw if you want some melee power in the early game, but it becomes worse than most pairs of blades once Malicious Blades is unlocked. For the middle game, you should try to get a pair of Chainswords, ideally with (P) later for big damage boosts, Red Armor (P), and Tactical Boots. While you'll have high resistances, you won't have much for flat damage reduction, so Red Armor (P) helps balance that out and heavily reduces most damage close to 1. If you are intending to play a hybrid build, you'll likely want Tactical Shotgun and Hyperblaster at this point.

For late game equipment, Chainsword (P) x2 are your main weapons unless you find Dragonslayer or Butcher's Cleaver. Subtle Knife is generally worse and not worth using. In the case you find Dragonslayer and become permanently Berserked, you become essentially immortal and have absurd power, becoming one of the best builds possible. Butcher's Cleaver as a secondary weapon in that case is still helpful for the few enemies that don't die in one hit, but the Blademaster effect won't trigger most of the time. Alongside your melee weapons, you can use Tactical Shotgun (P), Assault Shotgun (PPPTT), Hyperblaster (P), and Laser Rifle (PPPTT), but definitely don't skip Dragonslayer to keep them. For armors, Red Armor (AOP) is cheap and gives you lots of damage reduction, and Cerberus Armor (P) / (O) can bring many of your resistances to 95%. For boots, Cerberus Boots (A) are generally best for fluid immunity. Phaseshift Set is also great if you find them so that charging at enemies is safer and faster.

For long games, it's much more reasonable to find Butcher's Cleaver, which should take over one of your Chainswords. The Blademaster effect only works if it gets the killing blow, so you'll want it in the primary slot for weak enemies, and in the prepared slot for stronger enemies, which gives an additional use of Juggler. It's also much more reasonable to find Dragonslayer when playing through Angel of 100 or Archangel of 666, but you still might not find it, so be prepared to play without it. For hybrid setups and secondary weapons, Nano-Shrapnel Super Shotgun (P) and Nanomanufacture Laser Rifle (F) are excellent. For armors, Cybernano Energy-Shielded Vest (A) with Dragonslayer gives you maxed resistances and enough damage reduction to bring everything down to 1, but you'll need to find Dragonslayer first since the armor is unremovable. Alternatively, Cerberus Gothic Armor (P) / (O) tends to be the best armor to cover the resistances that Malicious Blades doesn't, while maxing out the others. You could also use Phaseshift Set and Inquisitor Set if desired, but you'll be pretty weak to plasma and acid damage. For boots, Cerberus Boots (A) are generally the best, but if knockback is an issue, you may prefer Enviroboots at the cost of a bit of movement speed.

Sharpshooter

Pistols always do maximum damage.

Requires: Son of a Gun x3, Eagle Eye x3, Level 7

Blocks: Tough as Nails, Son of a Bitch, Dualgunner, Badass, Triggerhappy

Sharpshooter simply makes your Pistols always do maximum damage, which provides not only a powerful, ammo efficient attack, but it also provides reliability and consistency. Pistols generally aren't strong, and Dualgunner is blocked with Sharpshooter, but you will generally deal more damage per shot than the average of most other weapons. With Pistols taking bullets and without Dualgunner making Ammo Boxes otherwise awkward to make good use of, ammo with this build is one of the most efficient in the game and it should never be a concern.

With Pistols and a few levels into Son of a Gun, you'll be firing fast enough such that most enemies won't be able to retaliate with too many attacks, alongside also that they'll be getting killed quickly by the strong shots. Eagle Eye as a prerequisite also helps with accuracy never being an issue and being able to get Intuition without detouring the traits for your build.

The consistency is also very important in a game filled with luck. Knowing exactly how many times each enemy has to be hit gives you excellent planning skills and knowing when to adjust your strategy, as opposed to needing to calculate a lot more risks. Very astute players can also use the damage message when looking at particular enemies to know how many more hits they will take in the case they are partially damaged from explosions, crossfire, fluids, and other hits.

The main disadvantage with Sharpshooter is it's one of the worst early game builds as not only are you putting points into Pistol traits, but you don't have access to Dualgunner which makes them much more useful. Eagle Eye being the other prerequisite, while nice for some weapons, is useless for Shotguns which are generally the best early game weapon. Essentially, unless you're intending to play with a single Pistol until level 7, none of the traits are very helpful. This isn't too big of an issue on easier difficulties, but on Ultra-Violence and Nightmare, Sharpshooter struggles a lot to get going.

The other issue is that as powerful as max damage shots are, you are still forced to use a singular Pistol. Late game weapons can get quite powerful, or if you use a full auto Grammaton Cleric Beretta for some big damage, but other top weapons are generally much better, partially also because of being able to hit crowds better instead of singular targets.

Overall though, Sharpshooter is a pretty good master trait and does very well once it gets started.

Suggested trait order:
1) Eagle Eye 2) Eagle Eye 3) Eagle Eye 4) Son of a Gun 5) Son of a Gun
6) Son of a Gun 7) Sharpshooter 8) Whizkid 9) Whizkid 10) Intuition
11) Intuition 12) Son of a Gun 13) Son of a Gun 14) Hellrunner 15) Hellrunner
16) Dodgemaster 17) Hellrunner 18) Ironman 19) Ironman 20) Ironman
21) Ironman 22) Ironman 23) Eagle Eye 24) Eagle Eye 25) Reloader

While Son of a Gun is the critical trait for Pistols, lack of Dualgunner means you'll likely be better off using Shotguns or a Chaingun, so I would recommend Eagle Eye first. If you find the early game to be too difficult, you could invest some trait points into Finesse to help Shotgun speed, even if Son of a Gun will later make it irrelevant. Alternatively, you could also put a point into Reloader so that it's still helpful for Pistols. Once you get Sharpshooter, Whizkid is the primary way to make your Pistol much better, and then Intuition to help you aim at enemies optimally. After that is boosting power, speed, and then health. For filler skills, more levels of Eagle Eye can support shooting while running, or when attempting to shoot far across floors. Finesse and Juggler can be helpful if you choose to use other weapons along with your Pistol. Reloader can also be nice if you find and use Grammaton Cleric Beretta. Another alternative is intentionally not getting Son of a Gun x5 to reduce your damage for the purpose of not knocking back enemies. This can help with killing enemies in doorways, keeping good angles for multi-shot Pistols, and making it slightly easier to hit them. I recommend against this though as knockback is a great tool for spacing yourself from enemies, can be used to push them into fluids, and accuracy is usually good enough it's not an issue.

For the early game, I would suggest holding onto a Pistol or two for modding later, but otherwise using Shotgun (T), Chaingun, and Tactical Boots. You can even use Chainsaw with the levels of Eagle Eye supporting accuracy, even if damage is a bit weaker than it would be with Brute. For the middle game, your main weapon is a Pistol of some sort, and I would recommend Storm Bolter Pistol (P) for its power and double shots. Energy Pistol is decent too if you want two ammo sources and a better damage type. Alternatively, a simple non-assembly Pistol such as (PPPBB) can be very powerful. Red Armor (P) is standard and strong, and you'll likely still want Tactical Boots and save Mod Packs for your weapon. If you're lucky, Trigun and Anti-Freak Jackal are very powerful, and especially Grammaton Cleric Beretta which can fire large bursts, causing huge damage in a single attack.

For the late game, use a Combat Pistol if you find one, but otherwise keep using the same Pistols. If you want to get fancy, you could have an extra Pistol specifically modded with Sniper Packs as your gun to use when shooting into the darkness. Firestorm Packs can also be used to make a Demolition Ammo Pistol for a fire damage source if you don't find Anti-Freak Jackal. For armor, Cerberus Armor (P) is great to cover for resistances, and Cerberus Boots (A) for fluid immunity also helps. If you play carefully and isolate enemies, while also trying to hit them in the darkness when outside their vision, you may not even be in danger too often.

For long games, Combat Pistol (PPPBB) is very powerful, fast, and has a huge clip. If you want infinite ammo, Nanomanufacture Combat Pistol (P) is only slightly weaker, but you'll have a much nicer inventory and never have to reload. The expensive option instead is Combat Pistol (NNPPP) for infinite ammo and 6 extra damage, or alternatively, Combat Pistol (NNSSP) for being able to destroy enemies before they ever get anywhere near you. Grammaton Cleric Beretta can also be nice to keep around if you run into tough single targets that you need to burst against, such as Cyberdemons, Shamblers, or Lava Elementals. For boots and armor, Cerberus Boots (A) are great, Cerberus Gothic Armor (P) is good for covering all damage, or you can opt to use Inquisitor Set. Phaseshift Set is also nice so that you can continually reposition yourself while attacking very quickly and keeping enemies from approaching you with your knockback. Sharpshooter can be very powerful when fully maxed out.

Fireangel

You become immune to all blast radius damage when it's not a direct hit.

Requires: Hellrunner x2, Reloader x2, Dodgemaster, Shottyman, Level 7

Blocks: Son of a Bitch, Son of a Gun, Eagle Eye, Dualgunner, Intuition, Triggerhappy

Fireangel gives immunity to most of all explosions, except where you're taking a direct hit. This includes barrels, Cacodemon plasma balls, Baron of Hell acid balls, Cyberdemon rockets, and all of your own attacks that would otherwise damage you. As many enemies, especially towards the end of the game have explosive attacks, this is a very helpful immunity to have. More importantly with the design of the build, it allows you to use any explosive weapon without fear of damaging yourself since you can't directly hit yourself with a Rocket Launcher for example. This allows you to freely spam rockets, Tristar Blaster shots, Demolition Ammo assemblies, and others.

Fireangel also works as a general trait and doesn't necessarily need to be used alongside Shotguns and explosives, since it isn't directly boosting particular weapon types. Immunity for the most part to the Cyberdemon, Lava Elemental, and Archviles is helpful on its own. Mancubus spread shots that can otherwise be difficult to dodge become far less of a problem as well.

Fireangel sounds great in theory, but there are a lot of downsides to it. First, although you do have Dodgemaster, you have to be very precise with movement as any direct hit will still be doing full damage as normal, so a bad step can result in massive damage compared to zero, which can heavily distort your play. Finding a good timing where you can fire back can also be challenging, as you can't simply dodge forever. Revenants in particular can be difficult to avoid sometimes. Without Intuition, it's possible to accidentally walk towards the vision of an enemy and take a direct hit before you can correctly adjust. You are still taking full damage to any non-direct explosions.

The other big issue with Fireangel is it has horrible blocks. Son of a Gun and Eagle Eye blocked means you can't really be using anything but Shotguns and Rocket Launchers. Son of a Bitch really cements in not to use Pistols or rapid-fires if you were planning on attempting to, but also hurts Shotguns by a fair bit too. Melee also doesn't quite fit well with Fireangel since you likely won't be making as much use of explosive immunity if you're not long range. With this, your best choice is indeed Rocket Launchers, but they aren't really functional as a primary weapon due to low ammo availability and they can be pretty slow. Explosions that aren't a direct hit on enemies tends to not deal significant damage and scatters your targets. They also can potentially destroy useful items to you.

Fireangel is more helpful relatively speaking for medium and long Nightmare games where you can comfortably destroy corpses whenever you need with explosive weapons, and the ability to Rocket Jump without health being a concern is excellent for movement around open floors.

Overall, Fireangel is very specialized in offense, and a good support in defense. If you are smart with your movement and play, you can gain a lot out of the immunity, making it an okay master trait, but Fireangel really sucks offensively.

Suggested trait order:
1) Reloader 2) Reloader 3) Shottyman 4) Hellrunner 5) Hellrunner
6) Dodgemaster 7) Fireangel 8) Whizkid 9) Whizkid 10) Finesse
11) Finesse 12) Finesse 13) Hellrunner 14) Juggler 15) Tough as Nails
16) Tough as Nails 17) Tough as Nails 18) Badass 19) Badass 20) Ironman
21) Ironman 22) Ironman 23) Ironman 24) Ironman 25) Reloader

Since Shotguns will be the best primary weapon, speeding them up with Reloader is a helpful start. You can opt for Dodgemaster first if you are playing Nightmare and need the movement speed and survivability more. After Fireangel is generally Whizkid, then finishing speeding up, and then all of the defensive traits. Juggler is helpful for whenever you need to switch to Rocket Launchers for corpse disposal, Rocket Jumping, or even just scattering enemies for defensive purposes. If you're using Fireangel more passively, you may not need Juggler, and you could also get Fireangel much later than as soon as possible. If you want to use a bit of melee, a point or two in Brute can be useful too, but Fireangel may not be supporting you as well. The build tends to end up being fast, but weak.

In the early game, you should have Shotgun and Tactical Boots, and not much else is critically important to have. You may want to save the starting Technical Pack for a Combat Shotgun, but Shotgun (T) is fine too. Lack of power and accuracy hurts a lot for trying to use most other weapons, but Shotguns are still fine. In the middle game, you should have a better Shotgun of some kind, such as Tactical Shotgun, and ideally a Rocket Launcher as well. While Red Armor's fire resistance won't be as helpful, the protection is still nice, so I would still suggest using it if you don't find any nice exotics.

For the late game, Tactical Rocket Launcher can be handy to have, especially for Rocket Jumping. Missile Launcher is also okay if your primary usage is destroying things. Tactical Shotgun (P) is generally the best, but Elephant Gun (B) / (T) is also great if you are making use of Shottyman. Exotics for Shotguns can also be great if you find any. If ammo is running low, you can use Hyperblaster (P) and Plasma Shotgun (P). For armors, Cerberus Armor (P) / (O) helps cover your other resistances, as well still providing fire resistance for when you misstep. Cerberus Boots (A) are also ideal for fluids, but you might prefer something faster to make use of dodging better. If you're fortunate to find a Firestorm Pack, you can use it for Demolition Pistol for a cheap and ammo friendly source of corpse destruction. Alternatively, you could find Anti-Freak Jackal, which isn't too rare among the uniques.

For long games, if you want to commit to Rocket Launchers, Nanomanufacture Rocket Launcher (F) will allow you to continuously fire rockets without fear of damaging yourself. If you want to get expensive, you can also use a double Nano Pack to remove the recharge delay and gain two extra slots for Firestorm Packs with Rocket Launcher (NNFFF). If you're using it more for movement with Rocket Jumps, you might prefer Technical Packs. You can do the same for Napalm Launcher, but keep in mind that Firestorm Packs don't work for it, so you may also prefer Technical Packs for it too. Tristar Blaster can also be used, including with Nanomanufacture, but its blasts are very scattered and awkward to aim with. BFG10K is another weapon you can use without fear of hurting yourself, but it essentially needs a Nano Pack because of its huge ammo use. If you're leaning more towards Shotguns, Nano-Shrapnel Super Shotgun (P) is the best choice. Hyperblaster (F) is okay, but if you need something destructive, Biggest Fucking Gun is generally the only other good weapon. For armors, Inquisitor Set is a bit silly to use with Fireangel, although it still may be useful in a few situations such as a Lava Elemental cave. For more general use, Cerberus Gothic Armor (P) / (O) covers all the other resistances and gives you protection from direct hits. Cerberus Boots (A) are also nice for fluid immunity. Alternatively, Phaseshift Set will make you much faster for dodging attacks and being able to retalitate fast enough before another attack, and also strongly enhances Rocket Jump. Revenant's Launcher and Demolition Pistol can also be nice support weapons.

Entrenchment

While using Chain Fire, you receive +30% to all resistances.

Requires: Tough as Nails x2, Son of a Bitch x2, Badass x1, Triggerhappy x1, Level 7

Blocks: Finesse, Son of a Gun, Reloader, Juggler, Dualgunner, Shottyman

Before analyzing Entrenchment, let's first analyze Chain Fire, which is needed to be used in order to use the master trait. Chain Fire is only available on most rapid-fires, and its usage initially fires two thirds of the regular burst the weapon would, then the same amount, and then all following shots firing at three halves of the regular burst. Chain Fire only works when you have targets within your vision, when you have ammo in your weapon, and when you continue choosing to use it. If there are no enemies in your vision, your gun needs to reload, or you choose to do anything other than continuing to Chain Fire, including using anything in your inventory or even wanting to check your status screen, the effect ends. Furthermore, if you change direction as you Chain Fire, the turn is not instant and you will be spraying some bullets at some of the angles before reaching your new angle.

This is all a massive cost to gain the ability to shoot larger bursts, and it doesn't even necessarily help if you're overkilling enemies and wasting ammo. Unless you're surrounded by a large group, not too many enemies are going to survive three blasts of Chain Fire anyway, which is how many bursts it often takes just to break even compared to firing normal bursts.

In short, Chain Fire is awful to use. The only general viability out of it is actually using it to shoot less ammo with the initial burst when finishing off an enemy.

Now we consider Entrenchment which only works when this effect is active. The resistance boost is pretty nice and adds on to resistances that are normally hard to acquire. However, Chain Fire requires you to stay in place and be tanking hits, which are certainly at reduced damage, but simply camping in a safe spot reduces damage all the way to 0 if you're not getting hit in the first place. You could combine this with Entrenchment for tough enemies that you're waiting for, but firing less shots than normal and without Finesse might generally be worse than if you played a different build and fired normally.

Entrenchment also has horrible blocks with Finesse, and even to an extent, Reloader. If you can't even fire fast while putting yourself into dangerous positions, you'll be tanking many hits and the resistance boost will only help so much before you're taking more damage than had you played with better tactics instead. Once you run out of your clip and need to reload, assuming you're in a dangerous position, it takes doing so a fair bit of time, and you don't have Entrenchment's resistances at that moment since you are no longer using Chain Fire, making you a huge open target.

So Entrenchment is awful in dangerous positions, it's awful in safe positions, it burns through ammo very inefficiently, firing itself is slow, and you're required to use certain weapons. In the early game, the +30% resistances from 0% is only reducing damage by marginal amounts, and in the late game where going from say 50% to 80% is a good gain proportionally for damage reduction, at that point relative to other builds, you could be performing much better.

You have to ask yourself if burning through your clips are a good idea to begin with. If hypothetically, the Chaingun fired all 40 shots at once, it would be amazing for single targets, but mostly a bad weapon to use regularly. On the other hand, a Chaingun that fired only 2 shot bursts is mostly pointless. Where the ideal line is drawn depends on the situation, but I would argue that Chain Fire is more towards the excessive side of things.

Entrenchment may be the only master trait where you are often better off not using it in the first place, or only sparingly in a few situations where it's marginally better to use it over something else. Overall, it's a terrible master trait and arguably the worst in the game.

Suggested trait order:
1) Son of a Bitch 2) Son of a Bitch 3) Triggerhappy 4) Tough as Nails 5) Tough as Nails
6) Badass 7) Entrenchment 8) Eagle Eye 9) Eagle Eye 10) Whizkid
11) Whizkid 12) Triggerhappy 13) Intuition 14) Intuition 15) Son of a Bitch
16) Son of a Bitch 17) Son of a Bitch 18) Tough as Nails 19) Badass 20) Hellrunner
21) Hellrunner 22) Dodgemaster 23) Ironman 24) Ironman 25) Ironman

Start off by building power with Son of a Bitch, then go through the rest to unlock Entrenchment. Eagle Eye is very helpful since most rapid-fires don't have great accuracy, but assuming you'll be only firing at what's within your vision, you likely won't need more levels in the trait. If you're anticipating finding a Laser Rifle, you could skip it and Intuition for more levels in Ironman later and putting points into other traits earlier. The rest is a suggested order on how to develop offense and then defense. Hellrunner isn't actually too helpful since you'll be standing in place most of the time. You could also opt for higher defense earlier on with the third point in Tough as Nails and second point in Badass after Whizkid. Likewise, you may want to be sure you get all five levels of Ironman and squeeze out a different trait. Depending on your ammo usage, you may also want to delay the second level in Triggerhappy, despite defeating the purpose of Entrenchment in the first place. For conqueror games, you'll need some earlier points in Hellrunner or some points for Brute as the Angel of Death can become a problem otherwise.

In the early game, Chaingun and Shotgun (T) are the main weapons and both benefit from Son of a Bitch. With the early points in Tough as Nails and a decent armor, you'll have some good early game damage reduction. In the middle game since you'll be taking lots of hits, you may want to get Nanofiber Red Armor (P) for cheap infinite durability. Chaingun should be upgraded to Plasma Rifle, but because of ammo costs, you'll likely need to be using both. Tactical Boots can be okay, but some simple Platsteel Boots (A) might serve you better for fluid damage reduction.

In the late game, Hyperblaster (T) is generally your best choice since it doesn't wipe out all your ammo and it fires fast. Normally when using it, it's half the speed for half the shots, but because Chain Fire takes three bursts to reach full power anyway, the faster firing is massively beneficial. Laser Rifle is also a good choice for its higher accuracy if you happen to find one. For armors, Cerberus Armor (P) / (O) in one of the good bases will bring all the resistances to 80% at least, making you actually quite tanky despite still getting pelted by hits constantly. For boots, Cerberus Boots (A) are generally the best choice.

For long games, you can actually make Entrenchment into something pretty decent. First, Nanomanufacture Laser Rifle (F) will resolve the issue of reloading, accuracy, and also be blasting tons of shots, especially once at full power with Chain Fire. Next, the rarely used Gothic Set is actually excellent for this build since you won't be moving anyway. Gothic Armor (O) with Cerberus assembly gives infinite durability and tons of resistances, and then with Gothic Boots gives 4 protection to reduce almost all damage to 1. Cerberus Boots (A) are generally the best boots to switch off to when not attacking, along with Inquisitor Set. Still, this is a very expensive and necessary setup in order to just be a decent build that other builds are still matching or outperforming anyway, but at least Entrenchment is playable.

Scavenger

Unloading an empty assembly ranged weapon gives a random basic Mod Pack with 1 in 4 chances each. Unloading an empty exotic ranged weapon gives a random basic Mod Pack or Sniper Pack or Firestorm Pack with 1 in 6 chances each. Unloading an empty unique ranged weapon give an exotic Mod Pack with 1 in 6 for Nano Pack and Onyx Pack each, and 1 in 3 for Sniper Pack and Firestorm Pack each. Scavenging BFG10K and Trigun always give a Nano Pack, and scavenging Railgun and Revanent's Launcher always gives a Sniper Pack.

Requires: Eagle Eye x2, Intuition x1, Whizkid x2, Level 6

Blocks: Berserker, Dualgunner, Triggerhappy

Scavenger essentially improves upon Whizkid usage by providing you with more Mod Packs and being able to scrap ranged weapons that you don't need. With Scavenger, early Whizkid, no basic trait blocks, and being available at level 6, Scavenger is very versatile and can be used for a wide range of items. The goal with using Scavenger to be viable is to very rapidly improve your equipment such that you'll have excellent items far earlier than normal.

While exotic and unique items will come along as they do, you can also purposely create many basic assemblies you don't need for a chance to recycle them into a different Mod Pack you need. Examples include Speedloader Pistol (A/T), Elephant Gun (P/P), Gatling Gun (B/B), Micro Launcher (T/T), and High Power Weapon (P/B). This is a great way to get many basic Mod Packs that you need.

Since Nano Packs and Onyx Packs are very rare and are used for the best equipment in the game, having a way to gain more of them is helpful in quickly getting them. In particular, Trigun guarantees a Nano Pack and is fairly common among uniques.

All of this sounds great on paper, but there are a lot of drawbacks to this strategy. First, despite having access to the possibility of more Mod Packs, it's still always random what you get. Finding useful Mod Packs naturally is luck-based, and finding them through Scavenger is still luck-based. Given that Scavenger also only works on ranged weapons, less than half of the uniques can be scavenged anyway. The other big issue is that while basic traits are all available, Scavenger blocks three very key advanced traits for build specialization, severely hurting melee, Pistol, and rapid-fire setups, mostly leaving either Shotgun builds or hybrids that don't excel at any particular role. It also makes the points into Eagle Eye mostly useless for your late game build. Rapid-fires can still at least be decent without Triggerhappy.

You are also still required to find good bases for these Mod Packs. Even with an Onyx Pack and Nano Pack available in your inventory, you likely don't want to waste them on inferior bases unless you're desperate or near the end of the game.

Disadvantages aside, with some good luck with finding bases and with what you scavenge, you can get some very powerful weapons and armor early on. In particular, Scavenger build is the best at assembling Biggest Fucking Gun, which in many cases is the most powerful weapon in the game. On top since they can at best be semi-infinite with ammo, it is always beneficial to build more of them, so Scavenger doesn't run out of usage so long as you can keep finding BFGs. Firestorm Packs are also much easier to scavenge than Nano Packs, although regular BFGs once assembled are definitely best with a Nano Pack.

For short games, Scavenger can be widely varying in how effective it is as you won't be putting points into too many useful traits like Finesse, Hellrunner, or Son of a Bitch early on, and will be heavily dependent on fast, good luck. When it works, it's amazing, but a lot of the time, going into Whizkid too early doesn't accomplish much. Medium length games are where Scavenger is strongest as it offers a balance of enough time to make use of the trait, while not dragging on too long for where other builds would likely get to the same items anyway. Once you have all the weapons and armors you need, Scavenger loses almost all of its use. For long games, Scavenger fizzles out once you have everything you can imagine to have, but the one saving grace is being the best build for Biggest Fucking Guns. That said, if you're already using one, you're much more likely to accidentally be destroying additional BFGs with it anyway.

Overall, Scavenger can have high potential, but you are very dependent on your equipment over having directly useful traits, and this results in very high variance. Often, other builds are much more effective at reliably improving through traits earlier on and naturally finding Mod Packs anyway. When Scavenger does yield excellent luck though, it can get very powerful. The other setback is that while Scavenger can do most things other builds can and get there quickly, it generally is worse at doing so because of the blocks it has and the investment in other traits to unlock Scavenger. The average result for Scavenger is generally worse than many other builds and it often ends up being similar to a worse masterless build.

Suggested trait order:
1) Eagle Eye 2) Eagle Eye 3) Intuition 4) Whizkid 5) Whizkid
6) Scavenger 7) Intuition 8) Finesse 9) Juggler 10) Son of a Bitch
11) Son of a Bitch 12) Son of a Bitch 13) Son of a Bitch 14) Son of a Bitch 15) Finesse
16) Finesse 17) Hellrunner 18) Hellrunner 19) Dodgemaster 20) Hellrunner
21) Tough as Nails 22) Tough as Nails 23) Tough as Nails 24) Badass 25) Badass

In order to have some early offensive power, starting off with Eagle Eye is helpful followed by Intuition, especially when using Chaingun. Once you have Scavenger, following up with the offensive traits and then the defensive traits is generally the best way to build up your power, but the ordering of this is highly customizable and by no means needs to be done this particular way. Scavenger builds are flexible and can also simply add on traits based more on what the game happens to give you. Various hybrids can all benefit from Juggler, but if you're focusing on only using one weapon, you can skip it for other traits earlier. You could also use more points into Eagle Eye for rapid-fire accuracy, but two is usually enough.

This trait order is very generalized and intended to be a hybrid that can work with any weapons. Nano-Shrapnel, Nanomanufacture, and Biggest Fucking Gun all are effectively improved using these traits, so you can make as you like. For long games, I'd recommend using this trait set so that you make the most of BFGs as it's the key way for Scavenger to stand out compared to other builds. Otherwise, other builds will eventually catch up and get ahead once they find the same Mod Packs. You can also opt to get Scavenger much later than as early as possible for better early game offense. For conqueror games, you mostly just need a Piercing Blade Chainsaw for the Angel of Death since Eagle Eye helps with accuracy. You still may want a point or two into Brute for the damage, even if you can't get Berserker.

If you want to get really creative, you could also put a few points of Brute or Son of a Gun into your trait selection, despite lack of Berserker and Dualgunner. Quick builds of Ripper (B) / (T) and Pistol (PPPBB) are extremely powerful that can hold up for the duration of medium length games. If so, swap these traits in for Son of a Bitch and get the rest later.

For all of the early game, middle game, and late game, your equipment will highly vary based on how lucky you are, and it's quite difficult to suggest where you would be with them at any particular point. It's possible to have items like Ripper (B) / (T), Hyperblaster (P), Cerberus Boots (A), and Cerberus Armor (P) as early as Phobos Anomaly, or you might not have any of them part way through Deimos. There are no real set standards to be meeting, which in part is what makes Scavenger less viable on average.

In terms of late game and long games, some of the items you should start gathering include all of the best ones like Nano-Shrapnel Super Shotgun (P), Nanomanufacture Laser Rifle (F), Cerberus Gothic Armor (P), and Biggest Fucking Gun either in regular BFG (N) or Nuclear BFG (F). Inquisitor Set is also always nice to find but Scavenger has no impact on finding it. You can also go with Phaseshift Armor (AOP) and Antigrav Phaseshift Boots (A) if you're looking for speed. Once you already have everything, the only thing else Scavenger does is helping make more Biggest Fucking Guns. If you want to get really expensive, you can create more infinite firing weapons by using double Nano Packs such as Napalm Launcher (NNPPP), Rocket Launcher (NNFFF), and Combat Pistol (NNPPP).

Icy:
Masterless Builds

Masterless builds have the main advantage of total flexibility with both which traits you select and the order in doing so. As the master traits above have all been covered, they can be compared more to having the full arsenal of basic and advanced traits, and in my opinion, masterless builds do tend to be quite strong. For short games where you might not gain the experience to select a master trait in the first place, you can freely pick exactly what you need without worry of what you'll be blocking in doing so. For longer games, you can gain all the benefits of Tough as Nails, Son of a Bitch, Hellrunner, Finesse, Intuition, and all others that are really useful without needing to sacrifice any for a master trait. Because the collection of basic and advanced traits are designed to be balanced, being able to use all of them also keeps your character balanced.

Many of the master traits not only block useful traits, but require using some of the traits you may not need, such as Reloader and Eagle Eye. By skipping these, masterless builds can play with more effective and useful points instead, including the point that goes into the master trait itself. For example, if you are anticipating finding Nano-Shrapnel Super Shotgun and are comfortable enough with its firing speed, masterless is gaining 4 extra trait points over Shottyhead, while also not being blocked of Son of a Bitch or Tough as Nails.

If master traits were designed to be exceedingly powerful, the viability of builds could shift more in favor of master builds, but I strongly believe masterless builds tend to be some of the best in the game. There are only a few master traits that are truly powerful to be worth choosing without disrupting the rest of your trait selection or severely handicapping you at the beginning of the game prior to getting the master traits.

Onto the actual masterless builds, there's no need to go into thorough depth for all three classes because the only differences between them when playing masterless is their class bonuses and their early advanced traits. To narrow it more into the aspects that are most relevant, Marines have 10 extra health, get 20 extra actions for Berserk Packs and Invulnerabilty, and have early access to Badass. Scouts are 10% faster in every aspect, have stair sense, and have early access to Intuition. Technicians take 1 turn to use items and have early access to Whizkid.

Comparing these differences, Scout is arguably much stronger than the other two classes. Being faster in literally everything in a game where speed is incredibly important to staying alive, it inherently makes you much better at staying alive. Stair sense is incredibly powerful for short games, stair-diving, and various challenges. Intuition early gives one of the most powerful traits to you immediately, greatly improving early games and consistency, but also lets you skip the weakest of the skippable traits as many builds don't need Eagle Eye, even rapid-fire builds if they find Laser Rifle.

Marine and Technician are fairly comparable in terms of viability, but I would slightly lean towards Technicians being a bit better. 1 turn item use is incredibly powerful as a safety net for Large Med Packs and Phase Devices. Whizkid early is certainly not worth skipping Finesse for unless you're using a Pistol build, but more correctly is it's Whizkid immediately accessible that is powerful. Instead of attempting to time when you get Whizkid based on finding Mod Packs and putting points into Finesse, you can invest into it whenever needed. Marines having immediate access to Badass isn't too helpful since offensive traits tend to be stronger in the early game, and Tough as Nails is generally not worth skipping. The main benefit from it is you can opt to get Badass before Tough as Nails if you happen to get some very strong armor. The class bonuses aren't all that great either as Ironman dilutes the advantage of extra health, and effect bonuses, while nice, aren't a massive difference with impacting how you play. They make the early game a bit easier however.

All this said, because the three masterless builds have basically the same traits available, they're not significantly different relative to how different the master traits are from each other.

Below will be some suggested build orders, but being masterless, there are tons of different ways to play and orders to select traits and I'll only cover some very general ones. Likewise, certain build variants are definitely outclassed by their corresponding master traits, such as a melee Marine without Vampyre.

Masterless Marine

Suggested trait order:
1) Son of a Bitch 2) Son of a Bitch 3) Son of a Bitch 4) Finesse 5) Finesse
6) Whizkid 7) Whizkid 8) Hellrunner 9) Hellrunner 10) Dodgemaster
11) Badass 12) Son of a Bitch 13) Son of a Bitch 14) Badass 15) Finesse
16) Hellrunner 17) Tough as Nails 18) Tough as Nails 19) Tough as Nails 20) Ironman
21) Ironman 22) Ironman 23) Ironman 24) Ironman 25) Juggler

Although lacking some of the fancy advantages of the other classes, a masterless Marine can be designed as a very generic and well-rounded build. The extra 10 health isn't a huge amount, but as builds don't tend to get Ironman until much later, that 20% advantage holds its weight for quite awhile in the early game, and letting you be more aggressive with offense with a slightly better natural safety net. Immediately putting points into Son of a Bitch, then Finesse, and then Whizkid, you can hit very hard in the early game. Dodgemaster is generally helpful for the Cyberdemon, but if you don't feel the need for it, it can be delayed until later for Badass or Tough as Nails earlier instead. This build is highly flexible with any weapons, and you can lean more towards using Eagle Eye, Intuition, and Triggerhappy if desired or you find weapons that would benefit from them. Overall, it's a solid build that can do most of everything, even if it feels like the most bland gameplay possible in the game.

Masterless Scout

Suggested trait order:
1) Intuition 2) Intuition 3) Finesse 4) Finesse 5) Whizkid
6) Whizkid 7) Hellrunner 8) Hellrunner 9) Dodgemaster 10) Son of a Bitch
11) Son of a Bitch 12) Son of a Bitch 13) Son of a Bitch 14) Son of a Bitch 15) Triggerhappy
16) Triggerhappy 17) Finesse 18) Hellrunner 19) Tough as Nails 20) Tough as Nails
21) Tough as Nails 22) Badass 23) Badass 24) Juggler 25) Ironman

Start with Intuition for all of its amazing benefits, then work towards Whizkid. Son of a Bitch could be picked earlier since its damage increase is what helps you save your ammo for longer games. Triggerhappy can also be obtained much later since it can be wasteful and is only helpful for rapid-fires. Finally, Juggler can be picked much earlier if you're heavily focused on multiple weapons, or skipped completely for an extra point in Ironman if you're generally sticking with one weapon throughout. This build can skip Eagle Eye, and it's only helpful for rapid-fires in the early and middle game. That said, if you aren't expecting to find Laser Rifle, it's definitely worth putting at least one point into Eagle Eye since Plasma Rifle is very helpful around the middle game and greatly benefits from the accuracy bonus.

This build is extremely versatile and there isn't much it can't do. Early games are strong, middle games see significant development of the build, late games have a strong build put together, and long games see it reach full power. Angel of Death can be countered simply with Hellrunner and no need for Brute, and the Cyberdemon with Dodgemaster. With the Scout's speed, Intuition's information, and all the power and speed boosting traits available as you need them, masterless Scout is strong at every point and for essentially any challenge. In my opinion, masterless Scout is the best build in DoomRL.

Masterless Technician

Suggested trait order (rapid-fire/hybrid):
1) Son of a Bitch 2) Son of a Bitch 3) Triggerhappy 4) Triggerhappy 5) Whizkid
6) Whizkid 7) Son of a Bitch 8) Finesse 9) Finesse 10) Hellrunner
11) Hellrunner 12) Dodgemaster 13) Son of a Bitch 14) Son of a Bitch 15) Finesse
16) Hellrunner 17) Tough as Nails 18) Tough as Nails 19) Tough as Nails 20) Badass
21) Badass 22) Ironman 23) Ironman 24) Ironman 25) Ironman

With early Whizkid and no restrictions on going for early Triggerhappy, this masterless Technican build can get very powerful rapid-fires early on. Dodgemaster can be obtained in the middle game if needed for the Cyberdemon, but otherwise, there's heavy focus on the offensive traits, followed by the defensive traits if you're playing a long game. You can opt out of Eagle Eye if you aren't having accuracy issues and don't want to invest towards Intuition, but you may need a point or two if you aren't getting Hyperblaster or Laser Rifle. If you prefer better ammo control, you can also skip Triggerhappy and only get it much later when you have semi-infinite or infinite firing.

Suggested trait order (Pistol):
1) Son of a Gun 2) Son of a Gun 3) Dualgunner 4) Whizkid 5) Whizkid
6) Hellrunner 7) Hellrunner 8) Dodgemaster 9) Son of a Gun 10) Son of a Bitch
11) Son of a Bitch 12) Son of a Gun 13) Son of a Gun 14) Son of a Bitch 15) Son of a Bitch
16) Son of a Bitch 17) Tough as Nails 18) Tough as Nails 19) Tough as Nails 20) Badass
21) Badass 22) Hellrunner 23) Ironman 24) Ironman 25) Ironman

With a Pistol-focused masterless Technician, you're able to fully skip both Finesse and Eagle Eye without significant consequences except lack of Intuition and a bit of accuracy. With Dualgunner and early Whizkid, you can get your Pistols to decent power very early, and unlike Sharpshooter, you can fully power them up with Son of a Bitch. If you aren't concerned about the Cyberdemon, you can also skip early Dodgemaster to have more early power instead. Overall, it's still a Pistol build and will lack Intuition, but you can power up significantly faster than other Pistol builds and have much more space for other traits as desired, as well as excellent inventory management. Like other masterless builds, this template is highly customizable. If you do decide to still use Eagle Eye, you should also still use Intuition.

Icy's Build Tier List

Across the 18 different potential builds, there are naturally some differences in how viable each one is. As mentioned, DoomRL is a very rich and deep game and has a wide variety of challenges, so different builds will perform better in some situations than others. Nonetheless, I thought I would share my opinion and perspective on all the builds with the tier list below. Tiering is based on overall viability, effectiveness, and consistency across a wide range of games such as standard games, conqueror games, Angel of 100 games, badges and medals challenges, and more. Builds are not ranked within each tier.

S: Scout - Masterless
A: Marine - Masterless, Marine - Vampyre, Marine - Ammochain, Scout - Cateye, Technician - Masterless
B: Scout - Blademaster, Technician - Malicious Blades, Technician - Sharpshooter
C: Marine - Survivalist, Scout - Gun Kata, Scout - Shottyhead, Technician - Fireangel, Technician - Scavenger
D: Marine - Bullet Dance, Marine - Army of the Dead, Scout - Gunrunner
F: Technician - Entrenchment

Icy:
(Reserved post if ever needed in the future.)

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