Best gear for each class?

[chaincat]

It's been 6 years since the gear thread and we have kineticist now, so I was wondering what the current state of the "meta" is. I put meta in quotations because, genuinely, the game isn't hard. You could probably do the whole game naked and unarmed with a lust build or kineticist (barring forced armor sections like the uveto lab ofc), but it's interesting to consider what's currently the best.

For what it's worth, my kineticist build, which primarily uses thermal abilities, tends to wear goo armor, use the psi-noise generator or the knitted scarf, and since the weapons are mostly just for vanity, I use the Plasma Blade/Katana and Teyaal's Plasma Caster, and the prototype pirate shield. There's not really a particular reason behind any of that, but it matches how I want my steele to look in my head

 

[Theron]

Spoiler: Kineticist

Melee
Sleet Shaft: Deep Freeze for Mind Crush/Gravity Crush/Acid Cloud.
Hookstaff: Trip Chance to set up Geothermal Spike.
Xukwood Staff: +15% Crit for Deep Impact.
Witchboy Totem: Haven't gotten far enough to really test this yet. Trip Chance +Psionic damage should let it Trip even if the target still has Shields/Armor left.
Knuckle Busters/Electrokinetic Knuckles: Stagger should make it easier to land your status effects.

Ranged
Hardlight Chakram: +10 Evasion is the best you can get in the Ranged slot.

Armor
Witch's Robe: The +10% Crit applies to Force Darts. Once you get a Deep Impact Stun, all Force Darts will hit. Since Deep Impact duration stacks, you can easily Stunlock the target.

Shield

Accessory
Reaper's Cloak: +5 Crit.
Ganger Jacket: If you took Psychogenic Vim, 75 HP is worth an effective 131.25.
Shoulder Grunch: Doesn't do much damage, but a 1-in-3 chance for a free Sunder to trigger Entropic Whip's Mini-Crits might be good.

Spoiler: Mercenary

Melee
Magma Crusher: Burn DoT is actually good now. Stun Chance is great, as always. Can detonate Deep Freeze from Grenade Launcher (Cryo).
Sleet Shaft: It's technically geared toward Kineticists, but Mercs get 2 attacks/round. If you can reliably inflict Deep Freeze with it, it's constant double damage, +15% Crit chance. 4x/5.4x/6x with Power Strike, 7x with Vaulting Strike.
Plasma Katana: Pairs well with the Grenade Launcher (Incendiary) Sturm & Drang. 4-5 attacks that can all inflict Burn (which stacks now).
Light Savicite Maul: Stuns through Shields, so long as the target is susceptible to Lust. Sturm and Drang with Heavy Slut Ray for more fun.

Ranged
Grenade Launcher: Variable damage type, can cause Deep Freeze & Burn. Can detonate Deep Freeze but you have to alternate between Cryo and Beanbag. +5 Evasion is always welcome.
Hirudo Devourer: You have self-healing, but this makes you even more durable. Especially if you take Sturm and Drang & use a Stun weapon in the Melee slot.
Heavy Slut Ray: Rapid Fire/Sturm and Drang can fire this 3-4 times/round, each with a chance to Stun.

Armor
Paragon Hazard: 125 Shields and Airtight. If/when they get around to adding more Irradiated tiles to Phaedra, Airtight makes you immune.

Shield
Prototype Pirate

Accessory:
Signet of Bravery: 5 Physique & Aim is +12.5% chance to and X Chance weapon flags.
Ganger Jacket: 75 HP is effectively 112.5 with Second Wind. +2 Evasion

Spoiler: Smuggler

Melee
Custom Shock Gear: Stun Chance to set up Sneak Attacks. Has +Evasion.
Magma Crusher: Likewise, but no bonus Evasion. Burn DoT for even more damage.
Light Savicite Maul: Stuns through Shields, so long as the target is susceptible to Lust. Especially useful since Sneak Attack is your primary source of damage.
Rouser/Trick Bracer: If you took Aimed Shot. Depends on if you want more Shields or Evasion. Remember, you cap at 60%.

Ranged
Hirudo Devourer: Do you want to be immortal? This is how, especially if you took Booster Pack and have Wings or the Light Jetpack.
Grenade Launcher: Blind Chance is really powerful in the hands of a Smuggler with Alpha Strike + Shoot First. Blind (& Burn & Freeze) always apply on a Crit.
Hardlight Chakram: For Sneak Attackers who don't care about their Ranged damage.

Armor
Zaika Gown: 75 Shields, 15 Evasion
Tiger Print Jumpsuit: 15 Evasion, 10 Defense.
I have two loadouts I've been toying with.
One goes all-in on Shields. (Including Prototype Pirate). Ends up with 365 Shields and 45% Evasion (50% with Cloak & Dagger).
One goes all-in on Defense & Evasion. Tiger Jumpsuit, Hardlight Bracelets, Rouser, Hirudo, Jumper Shield. Ends up with 100 Shields, but 60% Evasion and 38 Defense (both higher than any other class can get). Hirudo + Aimed Shot does crazy damage, and you heal for 50%.

Shield
Jumper: Better Evasion, more Kinetic Resist.
Scout: 20 more Shields, broader Resistances. I'm not sure which is better.

Accessory
Light Jetpack: Still the best Evasion accessory in the game. Lets you Fly to activate Booster Pack Sneak Attack/Aimed Shot for free.
Hardlight Bracelets: If you want to beef up Defense, as above.
Zaika Purse/Shield Aug Bracers: If you want to focus on Shields. The Purse is better but might not fit your aesthetic.

Spoiler: Tech Specialist

Melee
Magma Crusher: If you went Melee.
Trick Bracer: If you went Ranged.

Ranged
XTR8-Peer: +15 Crit is pretty good.
Ice Lance: Deep Freeze can be detonated by Static Strike for (2x base Melee damage + 2x Intelligence). Kind of crazy. Having an extra damage type can be useful.
Heavy Slut Ray: Can be Overcharged.
NaN Deconstructor: Techs have no native healing and there are a few attacks that ignore Shields.
Hardlight Chakram: If you just want a good Stat-stick.

Armor
Chameleon: 100 Shields and 9 Evasion. Can switch between Resolve and Sexiness.
Paragon Hazard: 125 Shields, but a -6 Evasion penalty.
Zaika Gown: 75 Shields, 15 Evasion.

Shield
Prototype Pirate

Accessory
Tam-Wolf 2.0/Siegwulfe: If you went Attack Drone/Drone Control.
Zaika Purse/Shield Aug Bracers: If you didn't go Attack Drone/Drone Control.

Spoiler: General

Tika is really good early-mid game. Probably late game, too. 50% Heath & Shields 1/fight (each) is extremely useful. She heals out of combat, too, so she's likely worth keeping in the inventory, at least.
Light Jetpack: Good for anyone who relies on Melee attacks and can't otherwise Fly (Techs/Smugglers without Booster Pack). Its Flight doesn't take Energy and lasts all fight.
Arctic Nurse Rescue Outfit: Also lets you fly. Can automatically restore Health and reduce Lust if you'd lose the fight. Long cooldown, otherwise crappy stats.

 

[chaincat]

Interesting. A bit sad still that Nova technically falls off. Not that the game puts up enough resistance to stop you from using her. As a follow-up though, what class lends itself best to tease builds? I imagine Kineticist (blind immunity at level 13, higher sexiness and Smuggler (evasion tank bby) though, exactly how that pans out I'm not sure. Mercenary and Tech Spec seem to prefer getting lust damage out of the slut ray.

Also I probably should have realized how good deep impact is on kineticist. I usually take mind crush because it's a stun right now, but, I guess since my game plan is flux > spike spam, maybe it'd be better. Especially since it's passive.

 

[Theron]

Interesting. A bit sad still that Nova technically falls off. Not that the game puts up enough resistance to stop you from using her.

I don't use Nova, so I don't know how she fares. If you look at the stats of newer armors and think she falls behind, fair enough. But since nobody else seems interested in replying, you're stuck with my suggestions.

As a follow-up though, what class lends itself best to tease builds? I imagine Kineticist (blind immunity at level 13, higher sexiness and Smuggler (evasion tank bby) though, exactly how that pans out I'm not sure. Mercenary and Tech Spec seem to prefer getting lust damage out of the slut ray.

High Exhibitionism mitigates Blind, so immunity isn't as important as you might think.

I found Smuggler with the Royal Shard Bow and Shoot First very effective vs anything that didn't significantly resist Drug. This was back when Lust weapons
couldn't Crit, too. Being invisible doesn't seem to reduce Tease effectiveness, either. Probably an oversight, but hilarious.

Tease is more effective vs Paralyzed & Tripped targets. Tech Specialists can Paralyze. Witchboy Totem Trips, does Psionic damage and gives +1 Sexiness, though it might be better in the hands of a class with 2 attacks.

Mostly, we're talking marginal gains, Teasing is pretty class-agnostic. It also has a (soft?) cap of about 30. The reason weapons are often preferred is you can get around the cap with multiple attacks. And you'll want to have something you can do against the occasional enemy that can't be defeated via Lust.

Also I probably should have realized how good deep impact is on kineticist. I usually take mind crush because it's a stun right now, but, I guess since my game plan is flux > spike spam, maybe it'd be better. Especially since it's passive.

As far as I can tell, Deep Impact doesn't work on guaranteed Crits.

 

[chaincat]

Nova at endgame has 3 sexiness, 8 defense, 2 resolve, 50 shields, 25 kinetic and burning resistance, and 10 psionic drug pheromone and tease weakness. She also has Body Conforming, Heat Generator, and Mirrored, and can trade out defense for more sexiness and exposure or to gain air-tight, capping out at 6 sexiness and 0 defense (though there's no reason to go to 0 defense ever I think). She also heals you and treats sstds outside of battle, and can boost tease damage. She definitely has the most effects going on of any armor but she gets outpaced pretty badly I would think. Though, again, the game doesn't exactly put up enough resistance as to stop you from using her anyways.

I've seen tease go as high as 52 or so with really high libido, and innocent allure turns tease into a pretty nice debuff, but I'm also not playing a fully dedicated tease build. And yeah, lust doesn't work on everything.

That's unfortunate it doesn't work that way but I suppose it makes sense.

 

[Theron]

Had a couple of Kineticist thoughts.

Now that Entropic Whip Mini-Crits Sundered targets, Shoulder Grunch might not be a bad choice.
Knuckle Busters/Electrokinetic Knuckles: Stagger should make it easier to land your Status attacks.

 

[A1teros]

Oh I hadn't considered Airtight making you immune to Irradiated. No wonder I wasn't taking any environmental damage on Dhaal.

 

[Theron]

Oh I hadn't considered Airtight making you immune to Irradiated. No wonder I wasn't taking any environmental damage on Dhaal.

You mean Phaedra? Dhaal isn't Irradiated.
Most of Phaedra isn't either. IIRC, the only parts that are is a quest area.

 

[A1teros]

Yeah I meant Phaedra

 

[Fullgames]

Nova is still good at the later parts of the game if you get all of her relevant upgrades. The best thing about her is that she has a lot of convenient features. Now about the main topic, I haven't really played smuggler nor kinetcist, I have a melee tech and ranged merc Steele. For Tech, is either Custom shock gear or magma crusher, SleetShaft can be quite strong aswell when combined with either charged weapon or overclock. For the Merc Grenade Launcher is really good since it's basically multiple weapons in one and even if you aren't focusing on melee you can still use it along with magma crusher to Shatter the enemies when using the freezing rounds.