beginner looking for builds

[whyamihere]

hey just found this game and it looks fun but i dont know what build i should play. can anyone help me?

 

[TheShepard256]

The level-up perks for each class generally follow a choice between two different playstyles:

• Mercenary: Ranged vs Melee. The ranged perks are generally considered to have greater synergy with each other than the melee perks.
• Smuggler: Evasion vs Crit. Note that the chance to evade an attack is capped at 50%, and that some of the Crit skills specifically require ranged weapons.
• Tech Specialist: Drones or even more Shields. They already get significantly stronger Shields than the other two classes in exchange for less HP.

Each class also has perks that are specific to either melee weapons or ranged weapons; with those, you want to pick one and stick to it. Generally speaking, the best builds are considered to be ranged Mercenary and melee Tech Specialist (the latter mainly because of the insanely OP even after getting nerfed Overcharge Charge Weapon).

You can also build up your ability to deal Lust damage: either pick Ice Cold at creation and keep your Libido low, or get your Libido high ASAP; either will mean most of your Tease attacks hit harder and more often. For more damage, equip high Sexiness equipment and get some pheromone perks if you can. This is completely independent of class choices, so there's really no downside to having both a physical build and a tease build (in fact, some enemies can't be defeated via lust, so you'll need physical damage anyways).

Stat-wise, you'll want to keep the stat associated with your preferred weapon type high - Physique for melee, Aim for ranged. Both stats increases the accuracy, damage and (if applicable) chance to apply status effects of their respective weapon's attacks. Each class also has a stat associated with it, that you generally want to keep high:

• • Mercenary: Physique, though that's really only because of two perks, and it has another perk option that's only really useful if you don't have high Physique. As such, this is the class you can get by with easiest without investing in its core stat.
  • Smuggler: Reflexes, as the Smuggler's preferred method of survival is through avoiding damage (they don't get as much HP as Mercenaries, or the bonuses to Shields + Shield regen that Techies do). As such, Bulky Belly can be a significant issue.
  • Tech Specialists rely heavily on Intelligence for their abilities. However, if you get the Fuck Sense perk, you can instead substitute Bimbo Intelligence (which increases with Libido but decreases with Intelligence, and can't go past Intelligence's normal cap) for regular Intelligence when it comes to combat abilities.

Keeping Willpower high is also a good idea, as it's your best method of resisting Lust damage (especially if you have a high Libido, as higher Libido = more passive Lust gain over time, making it more likely you'll enter battle at higher Lust and thus be easier to defeat through Lust damage).

 

[whyamihere]

The level-up perks for each class generally follow a choice between two different playstyles:

• Mercenary: Ranged vs Melee. The ranged perks are generally considered to have greater synergy with each other than the melee perks.
• Smuggler: Evasion vs Crit. Note that the chance to evade an attack is capped at 50%, and that some of the Crit skills specifically require ranged weapons.
• Tech Specialist: Drones or even more Shields. They already get significantly stronger Shields than the other two classes in exchange for less HP.

Each class also has perks that are specific to either melee weapons or ranged weapons; with those, you want to pick one and stick to it. Generally speaking, the best builds are considered to be ranged Mercenary and melee Tech Specialist (the latter mainly because of the insanely OP even after getting nerfed Overcharge).

You can also build up your ability to deal Lust damage: either pick Ice Cold at creation and keep your Libido low, or get your Libido high ASAP; either will mean most of your Tease attacks hit harder and more often. For more damage, equip high Sexiness equipment and get some pheromone perks if you can. This is completely independent of class choices, so there's really no downside to having both a physical build and a tease build (in fact, some enemies can't be defeated via lust, so you'll need physical damage anyways).

Stat-wise, you'll want to keep the stat associated with your preferred weapon type high - Physique for melee, Aim for ranged. Both stats increases the accuracy, damage and (if applicable) chance to apply status effects of their respective weapon's attacks. Each class also has a stat associated with it, that you generally want to keep high:

• Mercenary: Physique, though that's really only because of two perks, and it has another perk option that's only really useful if you don't have high Physique. As such, this is the class you can get by with easiest without investing in its core stat.
• Smuggler: Reflexes, as the Smuggler's preferred method of survival is through avoiding damage (they don't get as much HP as Mercenaries, or the bonuses to Shields + Shield regen that Techies do). As such, Bulky Belly can be a significant issue.
• Tech Specialists rely heavily on Intelligence for their abilities. However, if you get the Fuck Sense perk, you can instead substitute Bimbo Intelligence (which increases with Libido but decreases with Intelligence, and can't go past Intelligence's normal cap) for regular Intelligence when it comes to combat abilities.

Keeping Willpower high is also a good idea, as it's your best method of resisting Lust damage (especially if you have a high Libido, as higher Libido = more passive Lust gain over time, making it more likely you'll enter battle at higher Lust and thus be easier to defeat through Lust damage).are

are drones worth it?

 

[Theron]

Smuggler: Evasion vs Crit. Note that the chance to evade an attack is capped at 50%, and that some of the Crit skills specifically require ranged weapons.

Passive Evasion from items is capped at 50%. Stealth Field Generator increases the cap by 40% when active. Other Evasion granting Perks do not break the cap.
Lucky Breaks is an additional, separate miss chance on top of the normal one. It's not reflected in your Codex. Mercenary's Take Cover is, too, but only vs Ranged attacks.

Each class also has perks that are specific to either melee weapons or ranged weapons; with those, you want to pick one and stick to it.

If you go Melee, you probably want to either pick up Flight-Capable Wings or the Light Jetpack. Even if you're a Mercenary. Level 10 is a long time to wait for Lunge. Flying enemies aren't particularly common, but they're annoying. Flight also lets you escape battle more easily.

Also, consider your sidearm. Warden Shield is useful for Melee Primary. You might also consider a Hirudo Devourer or NaN Deconstructor for the Health regen.
There are a number of +Evasion or +Shields Melee weapons you can use as Ranged.

Generally speaking, the best builds are considered to be ranged Mercenary and melee Tech Specialist (the latter mainly because of the insanely OP even after getting nerfed Overcharge).

Part of Melee Tech's OP status is because of a bugged interaction with most Drones. This will be fixed in an upcoming overhaul that will make Drone Accessories be creatures in combat.

You can also build up your ability to deal Lust damage: either pick Ice Cold at creation and keep your Libido low, or get your Libido high ASAP; either will mean most of your Tease attacks hit harder and more often.

If you decide to go high Libido, I suggest getting Energizing Libido. While the description doesn't mention it, you never lose Energy from orgasms, whether you gained Energy or not. It's basically Amazonian Endurance+.

Mercenary: Physique, though that's really only because of two perks, and it has another perk option that's only really useful if you don't have high Physique. As such, this is the class you can get by with easiest without investing in its core stat.

Bigger Guns does prevent Power Armor weapons from becoming unusable if your Physique drops below 40 in combat. There are a few Physique draining effects.

Smuggler: Reflexes, as the Smuggler's preferred method of survival is through avoiding damage (they don't get as much HP as Mercenaries, or the bonuses to Shields + Shield regen that Techies do). As such, Bulky Belly can be a significant issue.

Smugglers do have an unlisted Class feature: They fully recover HP after 4 hours of Resting. Rest is only a partial heal for the other Classes.

Tech Specialists rely heavily on Intelligence for their abilities. However, if you get the Fuck Sense perk, you can instead substitute Bimbo Intelligence (which increases with Libido but decreases with Intelligence, and can't go past Intelligence's normal cap) for regular Intelligence when it comes to combat abilities.

Fuck Sense works for all Classes. It's just the most useful for Tech Specialists because they have the most abilities that run off of Intelligence.
Note that it only substitutes Libido for Class Abilities. There are other checks that remain Intelligence based.

Keeping Willpower high is also a good idea, as it's your best method of resisting Lust damage (especially if you have a high Libido, as higher Libido = more passive Lust gain over time, making it more likely you'll enter battle at higher Lust and thus be easier to defeat through Lust damage).

It also resists some status effects.

Keep in mind, you can max out all stats given enough time. Don't put your Affinity in a stat you plan to increase with Level Up points, because Affinity increases the effectiveness of training, which normally has diminishing returns. Leve Up points are always 1-to-1.

are drones worth it?

For Techs, yes. Especially if you go Melee.
For other Classes, not really. Not from a pure damage standpoint. Bimbo (-Domme) Siegwulfe can be useful if you're primarily using Tease. Shoulder Grunch can inflict Sunder, which is nice.
I don't know how good they'll be post-overhaul. but I plan on trying them out.

Ultimately, while some combos are easier than others, the game is beatable with any, so long as you keep your stats high.

 

[TheInfamousImmortal]

Tech Specialists rely heavily on Intelligence for their abilities. However, if you get the Fuck Sense perk, you can instead substitute Bimbo Intelligence (which increases with Libido but decreases with Intelligence, and can't go past Intelligence's normal cap) for regular Intelligence when it comes to combat abilities.

Fuck Sense works for all Classes. It's just the most useful for Tech Specialists because they have the most abilities that run off of Intelligence.
Note that it only substitutes Libido for Class Abilities. There are other checks that remain Intelligence based.

I've been wondering, how much does Fuck Sense affect the Tech abilites that run off of intelligence? I'm really tempted to get it but it almost feels like you're screwing yourself over when intelligence caps get higher. Need more info.

 

[Theron]

I've been wondering, how much does Fuck Sense affect the Tech abilites that run off of intelligence? I'm really tempted to get it but it almost feels like you're screwing yourself over when intelligence caps get higher. Need more info.

You use whichever is higher. Effective cap is the same. If your Intelligence cap is over 100, Libido might be worse, because it's capped at 100 without Corrupted.

 

[TheInfamousImmortal]

Libido replaces Intelligence, if Libido is higher. Libido counts up to the Intelligence cap.
Near as I can tell, it replaces Intelligence for all Class checks, not just Tech Specialist. However, it does not replace for non-Class Intelligence checks.

Would it be better for a Techie to go Fuck Sense or ignore it? Since like you said libido always counts to intel cap and with Corrupted you'll always be hitting the intel cap, right?

 

[Theron]

Would it be better for a Techie to go Fuck Sense or ignore it? Since like you said libido always counts to intel cap and with Corrupted you'll always be hitting the intel cap, right?

They seem about equal. Do you want to maximize Sexy Thinking? Do you want to avoid spending points in Intelligence? (Dumb4Cum can raise by more than it reduced.)

Spoiler: BimboIntelligence Code

//Inverse intelligence + libido - bimbo tech specs can minmax easier whynot~
var bimbInt:Number = (intelligenceMax() - intelligence() + 1);
bimbInt += libido()/10;
//Gotta cap it so it doesn't get FUCKED SILLY
if(bimbInt >= level * 5) bimbInt = level * 5;
//Compare actual intelligence (for exceptions like Dumb4Cum and extra smart bimbos)
return Math.max(bimbInt, amount);

This is from Flash, before they stopped updating it.

 

[TheShepard256]

Would it be better for a Techie to go Fuck Sense or ignore it? Since like you said libido always counts to intel cap and with Corrupted you'll always be hitting the intel cap, right?

You can ignore it if you don't want low Intelligence for some other reason (e.g. Sexy Thinking, which gives up to +3 Sexiness the lower your Intelligence is). Maxed Bimbo Intelligence will never be able to beat maxed regular Intelligence if the latter's cap is raised above the default value; as such, the optimal route would be to maximise Intelligence (getting Dumb4Cum beforehand, assuming that still raises max Intelligence) and equip the Cybernetic Subprocessor to get an extra 10 to both Intelligence and its max.

 

[VantagePoint]

For extra fun, Mercenaries have a reasonable claim to using Physique + Aim.
Aside from energy concerns, even after Strum and Drang gets fixed, there isn't much of a reason to use Rapid Fire. I guess one could claim Concentrate Fire, but by the time it begins to outdamage Strum, the enemy will typically be dead. Power Strike's Sunder, without any insight into how defense exactly impacts damage intake, seems more useful than Rapid Fire's stagger.

Because a (fixed) Strum can't properly stack Concentrate Fire, you can grab Cleave with Shock Gear for an AOE stun option. It's much better than Maxed Int Grenades, which are severely underpowered for requiring a stat that does nothing else for the class.

 

[Theron]

Aside from energy concerns, even after Strum and Drang gets fixed, there isn't much of a reason to use Rapid Fire. I guess one could claim Concentrate Fire, but by the time it begins to outdamage Strum, the enemy will typically be dead. Power Strike's Sunder, without any insight into how defense exactly impacts damage intake, seems more useful than Rapid Fire's stagger.

1. Rapid Fire is at Level 3, Sturm & Drang is at Level 11.
2. The better comparison is Armor Piercing, which applies to all Ranged attacks for free.
3. Sturn & Drang applies Stagger if you have Rending Strikes. (Vaulting Strike applies Sunder.) Stagger doesn't increase the damage you do, but (should) make the target do less damage to you (20% less Aim/Physique) & more vulnerable to Status Effects like Stuns.
4 It's a bit specific, but the Zaika Rioters can have 'Counters Melee', including special attacks.

Because a (fixed) Strum can't properly stack Concentrate Fire, you can grab Cleave with Shock Gear for an AOE stun option. It's much better than Maxed Int Grenades, which are severely underpowered for requiring a stat that does nothing else for the class.

Cleave is useful when it applies, but it's fairly rare. Single target is always applicable. And each individual attack can Crit (but most Ranged Bonus Hit Rate weapons also have Can't Crit).

I have been thinking that to maximize damage with S&D:

Spoiler

1. Get a Stun Chance melee weapon & max out Physique. Because it's a Physique vs Physique check, you have a pretty good chance of landing it.
2. Attacks vs a Stunned target always hit, which bypasses Flurry Attack Accuracy penalty.
3 Max Crit Chance bonuses (5 base + 10 Critical Blows + 15 XTR-8 Peer + 10 Witch's Robe + 5 Reaper Cloak). +25 from S&G = 70% Crit.
Yes, XTR-8 Peer is an Energy Weapon, but Heavy Weapons only applies to base damage.
Steroidal Muscle Augment would increase the chance of Stun. Muscular Stabilization System increases the follow up damage, but decreases initial Stun chance.

 

[VantagePoint]

1. Rapid Fire is at Level 3, Sturm & Drang is at Level 11.
2. The better comparison is Armor Piercing, which applies to all Ranged attacks for free.
3. Sturn & Drang applies Stagger if you have Rending Strikes. (Vaulting Strike applies Sunder.) Stagger doesn't increase the damage you do, but (should) make the target do less damage to you (20% less Aim/Physique) & more vulnerable to Status Effects like Stuns.
4 It's a bit specific, but the Zaika Rioters can have 'Counters Melee', including special attacks.

Cleave is useful when it applies, but it's fairly rare. Single target is always applicable. And each individual attack can Crit (but most Ranged Bonus Hit Rate weapons also have Can't Crit).

I have been thinking that to maximize damage with S&D:

Spoiler

1. Get a Stun Chance melee weapon & max out Physique. Because it's a Physique vs Physique check, you have a pretty good chance of landing it.
2. Attacks vs a Stunned target always hit, which bypasses Flurry Attack Accuracy penalty.
3 Max Crit Chance bonuses (5 base + 10 Critical Blows + 15 XTR-8 Peer + 10 Witch's Robe + 5 Reaper Cloak). +25 from S&G = 70% Crit.
Yes, XTR-8 Peer is an Energy Weapon, but Heavy Weapons only applies to base damage.
Steroidal Muscle Augment would increase the chance of Stun. Muscular Stabilization System increases the follow up damage, but decreases initial Stun chance.

1. True, but if you're opting for a hybrid stat setup to begin with, Power Strike can hold it's weight until Strum if you opt for Second Attack. It's rougher in the earlygame (But that's entirely because Melee Mercenary is weak compared to Ranged Mercenary), but I do think it's worth considering in the longrun. At it's peak, your melee aspects do fairly respectable damage, which is nice for enemies that disable ranged weapons or have evasion that only applies to ranged (I think there's only one enemy that does this?)

2. You can grab Armor Piercing without really losing much, because Bloodthirsty is quite frankly pretty mediocre. Fights just don't last enough for you to really regularly being Regular attacking.

3. This is unironically a stronger case for Power Strike/Strum set up. You get access to stagger chance and sunder rather than one or the other.

4. True. Honestly, it does perplex me that we have enemies that will totally hard counter melee or range, and the game seems to go out of it's way to discourage hybrid core stats. Then you have weird things like Sturm existing at all, or Second Striker. I'm just not sure what the design philosophy is. Feels fairly disjointed, like different people offering different ideas based on different design philosophies.

To be frank, some rather dangerous encounters in this game are multi mob. Cleave is just the best way for Mercenaries to deal with them, with Grenades being tied to a stat you aren't even "supposed" to invest in, and just being woefully underpowered due to powercreep by the increasing level caps. When you get Sturm, your ranged dps is... "slightly" weaker (by not having Concentrate Fire, but only slightly due to it breaking the bonus damage with the melee attack) for having a much easier time dealing with multi mob enemies aside from dumping a bunch of Energy and trying to get rid of them as fast as possible.

Instead, with Max Physique, Second Attack/Cleave, you get 2 chances to stun who you target and 1 to stun everyone else. And if they're single target, you Power Strike to Sunder them, then Sturm them for Damage and Stagger. Or reverse the order depending on how much shield the enemy has.

Strum may be lategame locked, but it is basically just a more expensive and stronger rapid fire. Energy Economy and avoiding counters are basically the arguments for Rapid Fire.

Vaulting is just... entirely too weak to be the melee line, which already struggles in comparison to ranged Mercenary since Power Strike is comparatively even weaker with specialized combat. Beyond being weak, Vaulting flat out doesn't even work, since enemies get up immediately after being tripped. Either vaulting needs to grant bonus damage on Staggered enemies, or enemies shouldn't stand up immediately on trip. Probably the former, because otherwise, it would be to easy to stunlock enemies with trip and you have a balancing issue ala freeze. If it became based on Stagger, it would be a rather interesting setup with Rapid Fire Stagger. Due to having a turn cooldown and conditional damage increase, it should have higher damage than Strum. Would also help balance out the level 3 skills being Ranged favored if the 11 skill was Melee favored. If they don't want that, then Vaulting shouldn't have a Cooldown.

This is basically what I did:

2 Armor Piercing
3 Power Strike
4 Riposte/Take Cover (Due to the Strum bug, I don't think Riposte works with it since it uses the ranged weapon for the "melee" hit, I'd probably go for Riposte post fix)
6 Low Tech Solutions
7 Cleave/Concentrate Fire (Honestly it depends. Is trading 28 damage per strum on this setup worth AOE attacks + stun with weapons like Custom Shock Gear? I personally think so.)
8 Second Attack (You're still mostly Melee with Power Strike here. Second Attack increases Power Strike Damage)
9 Rending Attacks
10 Lunge (No point in Bigger guns)
11 Sturm and Drang (Weaker at this point than a pure Ranged Mercenary)
12 Second Striker (Where you get the extra shot for Strum from.)

Definitely doesn't invalidate anything, rougher progression than pure Ranged, effectively performs like a Melee Mercenary until Sturm and Second Striker, both marking a pretty big power boost that puts it ahead of Melee Mercenary and arguably competitive with Ranged Mercenary.

 

[Theron]

2. You can grab Armor Piercing without really losing much, because Bloodthirsty is quite frankly pretty mediocre.

I keep wishing Bloodthirsty scaled with attacks. It wasn't totally worthless before Level 5 was in, but afterward became a complete joke. Especially since Second Wind scales, but Bloodthirsty doesn't.

4. True. Honestly, it does perplex me that we have enemies that will totally hard counter melee or range, and the game seems to go out of it's way to discourage hybrid core stats. Then you have weird things like Sturm existing at all, or Second Striker. I'm just not sure what the design philosophy is. Feels fairly disjointed, like different people offering different ideas based on different design philosophies.

People do like to spread their stats out. It backfires pretty badly, if they don't take advantage of Stat Training.
I kind of feel like Low-Tech Solutions & Heavy Weapons are traps. The +20% only applies to base damage, but the most important thing about weapons is Flags. In particular Stun Chance/Bonus Hit Rate. But a lot of the best weapons are Energy, so Mercs are discouraged from using them, even though the Flags would be of greater value.

To be frank, some rather dangerous encounters in this game are multi mob. Cleave is just the best way for Mercenaries to deal with them, with Grenades being tied to a stat you aren't even "supposed" to invest in, and just being woefully underpowered due to powercreep by the increasing level caps.

Have you tried Grenades vs the Gangers*? I know the Rat's Raiders specifically take something like -80% damage, just because. But yes, Damage + Stun is much better than Damage, especially since it doesn't cost Energy.
*I haven't. I'm playing Melee, specifically because I wanted to see how much it sucked compared to Ranged.

Spoiler: Carpet Grenade Formula

10 + (attacker.level * 2.5) + (attacker.bimboIntelligence() / 1.5)

When you get Sturm, your ranged dps is... "slightly" weaker (by not having Concentrate Fire, but only slightly due to it breaking the bonus damage with the melee attack) for having a much easier time dealing with multi mob enemies aside from dumping a bunch of Energy and trying to get rid of them as fast as possible.

Are you sure Melee breaks Concentrated Fire? My testing indicated while Melee can't initiate, it can maintain it. The big issue is the bonus Rapid Fire attacks don't benefit from Specialized Combatant.

Vaulting is just... entirely too weak to be the melee line, which already struggles in comparison to ranged Mercenary since Power Strike is comparatively even weaker with specialized combat. Beyond being weak, Vaulting flat out doesn't even work, since enemies get up immediately after beng tripped.

It's possible for Trip to be applied during Vaulting Strike, but the bonus damage doesn't happen.
I know that Power Strike goes from 2x to 2.7x if you have Second Attack. One of the big things is Rapid Fire's extra attacks can Crit (and Mercs have +10 Crit Chance). PS can't, so far as I know. It's just 1 Crit in a can.

Either vaulting needs to grant bonus damage on Staggered enemies, or enemies shouldn't stand up immediately on trip. Probably the former, because otherwise, it would be to easy to stunlock enemies with trip and you have a balancing issue ala freeze. If it became based on Stagger, it would be a rather interesting setup with Rapid Fire Stagger.

I suggested that. Gedan flagged it for Fenoxo, but I don't think he pays attention to pings. I'm considering bringing it up in a Blog comment.
Also, it would synergize with Lunge.

Due to having a turn cooldown and conditional damage increase, it should have higher damage than Strum. Would also help balance out the level 3 skills being Ranged favored if the 11 skill was Melee favored. If they don't want that, then Vaulting shouldn't have a Cooldown.

Vaulting is weird for a number of reasons.
1. Until Level 10, you need Flight-Capable Wings or the Light Jetpack (locked behind an optional planet) to hit Flying enemies with normal Melee (Power Strike can still hit). If you don't have them, Flying is almost a complete shutdown. If you do have them, it's a complete non-issue. In fact, at least two enemies (Storm Lancer/Gel Zon, Milk Thief) react to a Melee attack by Flying, but it takes their turn. Which becomes a free round.
2. At 10, you can pick up Lunge. If you already have Wings, the only thing you're getting out of it is the Stagger Chance. Bigger Guns is useless for Melee Mercs because they have high Physique, and worthless for Ranged that also increased Physique/are wearing Power Armor.
3. At 11, you get a special attack that does extra damage to Flying (and applies Sunder with Rending Strikes). But you don't really need it, because Lunge.
It should probably just be an upgrade to Power Strike.

 

[VantagePoint]

I keep wishing Bloodthirsty scaled with attacks. It wasn't totally worthless before Level 5 was in, but afterward became a complete joke. Especially since Second Wind scales, but Bloodthirsty doesn't.

People do like to spread their stats out. It backfires pretty badly, if they don't take advantage of Stat Training.
I kind of feel like Low-Tech Solutions & Heavy Weapons are traps. The +20% only applies to base damage, but the most important thing about weapons is Flags. In particular Stun Chance/Bonus Hit Rate. But a lot of the best weapons are Energy, so Mercs are discouraged from using them, even though the Flags would be of greater value.

Have you tried Grenades vs the Gangers*? I know the Rat's Raiders specifically take something like -80% damage, just because. But yes, Damage + Stun is much better than Damage, especially since it doesn't cost Energy.
*I haven't. I'm playing Melee, specifically because I wanted to see how much it sucked compared to Ranged.

Spoiler: Carpet Grenade Formula

10 + (attacker.level * 2.5) + (attacker.bimboIntelligence() / 1.5)

Are you sure Melee breaks Concentrated Fire? My testing indicated while Melee can't initiate, it can maintain it. The big issue is the bonus Rapid Fire attacks don't benefit from Specialized Combatant.

It's possible for Trip to be applied during Vaulting Strike, but the bonus damage doesn't happen.
I know that Power Strike goes from 2x to 2.7x if you have Second Attack. One of the big things is Rapid Fire's extra attacks can Crit (and Mercs have +10 Crit Chance). PS can't, so far as I know. It's just 1 Crit in a can.

I suggested that. Gedan flagged it for Fenoxo, but I don't think he pays attention to pings. I'm considering bringing it up in a Blog comment.
Also, it would synergize with Lunge.

Vaulting is weird for a number of reasons.
1. Until Level 10, you need Flight-Capable Wings or the Light Jetpack (locked behind an optional planet) to hit Flying enemies with normal Melee (Power Strike can still hit). If you don't have them, Flying is almost a complete shutdown. If you do have them, it's a complete non-issue. In fact, at least two enemies (Storm Lancer/Gel Zon, Milk Thief) react to a Melee attack by Flying, but it takes their turn. Which becomes a free round.
2. At 10, you can pick up Lunge. If you already have Wings, the only thing you're getting out of it is the Stagger Chance. Bigger Guns is useless for Melee Mercs because they have high Physique, and worthless for Ranged that also increased Physique/are wearing Power Armor.
3. At 11, you get a special attack that does extra damage to Flying (and applies Sunder with Rending Strikes). But you don't really need it, because Lunge.
It should probably just be an upgrade to Power Strike.

Fights in this game just don't last long enough for bloodthirsty to be relevant. Inbetween mobs, you are second winding to maintain energy rather than normal attacking. Boss fights don't tend to last long enough to go through 150 Energy + 75 (Second Wind), and get enough energy from Bloodthirsty to use an extra skill. Even though it wasn't great back then, it's really is just comically useless these days.

I have to assume the balancing in this game is done without an expectation to raise stats through sources other than levels. With that in mind, a strict Physique or Aim dichotomy that the game seems to lurge the player in is just confusing, since the player is expected to have 2-3 Aim or Physique, enemies that can just yoink your main weapon for the entirety of combat totally neuter you. I don't think the 20% damage boosts are necessarily traps, if there were physical weapons that were on par with their energy counterparts, they'd be better to use, which I think is the point rather than being particularly strong. In practice of course, Energy Weapons kind of just totally outclass Physical Weapons in terms of effects and stats.

That's roughly 80 damage per carpet grenade at 12. My 54 Int Mercenary does 54 to 62 damage to Gabilani Cyborg. She "should" do 76, so I'm assuming it's resisted by... something (Defense?)

You're actually right, based on description, Concentrate Fire only resets on miss. It maintains on Melee unless you miss, and stack on ranged.
From it's description, any miss, not just ranged, should "reset" the stacking. I'm not sure if consecutive "stacks" the bonus damage or just provides Level bonus damage per strike after the first. If it's the Former, that tilts things in Concentrate's Favor. The latter would tilt things in Cleave's favor.

Yeah Power Strike/Rapid Fire definitely don't seem like they were balanced with bonus hit rate in mind and even if you want to grant that future optimal weapons won't have bonus hit rate flags, Specialized Attacker just always makees Power Strike worse.

EDIT: Fixed Strum and Draum applies effects from the melee weapon as well. If you use Custom Shock Gear, the melee portion of that attack will stun the enemy.

 

[Theron]

Fights in this game just don't last long enough for bloodthirsty to be relevant. Inbetween mobs, you are second winding to maintain energy rather than normal attacking. Boss fights don't tend to last long enough to go through 150 Energy + 75 (Second Wind), and get enough energy from Bloodthirsty to use an extra skill.

It does let you mindlessly attack through filler fights and not have to spend a turn regenerating Energy. It's also decent for getting back Energy from the occasional post-battle sex or masturbation, I guess.

Perpetual Energy is even worse. Do they really think it's going to solve Tech Specialist's Energy issues? Make it 10% damage absorbed or something.

I have to assume the balancing in this game is done without an expectation to raise stats through sources other than levels.

I'm pretty sure this is true. They give you enough points to max 2 stats and keep one high, but having all stats maxed makes the game really easy.

With that in mind, a strict Physique or Aim dichotomy that the game seems to lurge the player in is just confusing, since the player is expected to have 2-3 Aim or Physique, enemies that can just yoink your main weapon for the entirety of combat totally neuter you.

Pro Tip: You can unequip/equip a weapon from your inventory to clear Disarmed, rather than waiting for it to time out. Not very intuitive, I know. You can do it in one round, if you already have a spare weapon. It doesn't even have to be the slot you usually use.

I don't think the 20% damage boosts are necessarily traps, if there were physical weapons that were on par with their energy counterparts, they'd be better to use, which I think is the point rather than being particularly strong.

Trap may not be the right way to put it. I just mean it encourages players to disregard viable (or better) alternatives, making things harder than they could be.

That's roughly 80 damage per carpet grenade at 12. My 54 Int Mercenary does 54 to 62 damage to Gabilani Cyborg. She "should" do 76, so I'm assuming it's resisted by... something (Defense?)

Grenades are Burning damage and the Cyborg has 35% Resistance.

I'm not sure if consecutive "stacks" the bonus damage or just provides Level bonus damage per strike after the first.

Caps at +Level.

Yeah Power Strike/Rapid Fire definitely don't seem like they were balanced with bonus hit rate in mind and even if you want to grant that future optimal weapons won't have bonus hit rate flags, Specialized Attacker just always makees Power Strike worse.

You might notice a lot of the Ranged weapons with Bonus Hit Rate also have Can't Crit. There are also a lot more Stun Chance Melee weapons. I think Rapid Fire actually constrains Ranged weapon design. My Ranged Smuggler was using the Shock Bow up until Zheng Shi.

EDIT: Fixed Strum and Draum applies effects from the melee weapon as well. If you use Custom Shock Gear, the melee portion of that attack will stun the enemy.

Spoiler: Sturm & Drang

I've noticed the Stun only happens if the target doesn't have active Shields (or equivalent). Since you're only doing 1 Melee hit, you're not going to burn through the Shields in one blow, but it's still pretty good.
What to pair with it, though?
1. XTR-8 Peer for the best Crit Chance (15)?
2. Ice Cappers, 10 Crit, but Bonus Hit Rate? And 30 Accuracy. And they're not Energy, so Heavy Weapons applies.
3. Hirudo Devourer/NaN Deconstructor? 4 hits of Vampiric means large Health returns.

On the other hand, Stun is so powerful that you don't need to use special attacks. Especially since it's a Aim/Physique vs Physique check (Ranged/Melee). If you have equal, it's 50/50, and it just gets better from there.

Did some testing, found some interesting results:

Spoiler: Test Results

vs Milk Thief, 70 Physique, Custom Shock Gear recorded vs Augs (25% Electric Resist).
1. Power Strike does seem to benefit from Specialized Combatant.
2. Power Strike & Vaulting Strike can Crit. I didn't use PS much, and I'd never seen it Crit before. Seems to use your Crit rating, so +Crit gear is useful.
3. PS & VS can apply Stun & Trip Chance if doing HP damage.
4. Vaulting Strike doesn't seem to benefit from Specialized Combatant.
5. Power Strike also seems to get a slightly smaller boost from Second Striker, if you don't have Second Attack.

(Non-Crits)
Basic Attack: 51-54
PS + SA: 140-147 (x2.7)
PS + SA + SC: 150-162 (x3?)
PS + SS: 134-141 (x2.?)
Vaulting Strike: 187-197 (x4?)