New Level 13 Perks and Abilities

[XySe7eN]

Did very quick playthroughs using my old save files to grind the new level and perks/abilities for all jobs!
Here's the full list of their names and descriptions;

Mercenary

Spoiler

Abilities

• Blood Frenzy: You enter a Blood Frenzy for 3 turns, and then make a melee strike against every enemy. While in the Frenzy, each melee hit you land deals bonus damage and restores Health based on damage dealt.
• Tracer Rounds: Load tracer ammunition that lasts for three turns, then make a full ranged attack. Grants a large increase to accuracy and additional burning damage while active.

Perk

• Second Skin: When wearing power armor, +2 evasion and +1 resolve.

Smuggler

Spoiler

Abilities

• Assassinate: Make a melee attack with extra damage that increases the more injured the target is. May stun survivors.
• Called Shot: Take aim at a target's head for additional level-scaled damage (unresistable), intelligence-scaled critical chance, and a chance to blind the target.

Perk

• Silver Tongued Devil: Increases resolve and sexiness by 1.

Tech Specialist

Spoiler

Abilities

• Molten Shot: Massively overheat an energy weapon such that the shot deals large amounts of intelligence-scaled thermal damage and applies a damage over time effect.
• Static Strike: Electrically overload a melee weapon for a single strike, dealing intelligence-scaled electricity damage that splashes onto other enemies. Automatically stuns robotic and heavily augmented foes.

Perk

• Holofield Emitters: Grants +1 sexiness and +2 resolve while your shields are active.

Kineticist

Spoiler

Abilities

• Void Sight: Allows sight without sight. On activation remove any blinding effects, become immune to blind, and gain +10 accuracy for the remainder of the encounter.
• Invert Decay: Purges all internal poison and aphrodisiac effects with a scouring rush of physioactive psychic power. Increases resistance to poison and drug damage by 25% for the remainder of combat.

Perk

• Unearthly Confidence: Increases resolve and sexiness by 2 while energy is above 50%.

Created this thread so everyone can share their thoughts on the first release of the new Level 13 stuff.
Enjoy!

 

[Theron]

Mercenary

Spoiler

Blood Frenzy: Heals off Shields, unlike Vampiric, which is nice. You also get +10% damage. I'm not sure which is better, this or Rapid Fire/Sturm & Drang with a Vampiric weapon.

Tracer Rounds: Not sure how useful +20 Accuracy is. If you're up against a highly evasive enemy or are using highly inaccurate guns, maybe. 'Flurry' attacks force misses 45% of the time without Bonus Hit Rate. +5 Burning/shot is worth up to +25 with Rapid Fire & Second Shot/Second Striker. I don't know if it doubles on a Crit.

Second Skin: It's nice they added more reason to actually use Power Armor as a Merc. Is +2 enough? Probably not. Riposte does effectively negate up to -15% penalty.

Smuggler

Spoiler

Assassinate: Unlike most Smuggler abilities, you don't want to open with this. It's a great finisher, though. Might take some work figuring out how much you need to damage to finish with this on any given target. The Stun rider is 25% more likely to land than Stun Chance weapons. Every 10 points of difference between Steele's Physique and the target's increases the Stun by 1 round, max 3. Pro-Tip: First 25% damage doesn't count for the bonus.

Called Shot: 3 Flash Grenades of Energy, Blind lasts 2-5 Rounds (Int vs Phys). Booster Pack + Wing/Jetpack Flight is better if the enemy can't Fly. If it can, this is a decent way to enable Aimed Shot. If it can't be Blinded, I guess there's always Mag Binders.

Tech Specialist

Spoiler

Molten Shot: Burn is actually good now. Funny to use with a Freezing weapon.

Static Strike: Slightly more base damage, but no DoT. Can be used for extra damage vs Groups, but Tech's low Energy regen makes spamming it questionable.

Kineticist

Spoiler

Void Sight: Blind isn't as debilitating for Kineticists as it is for other classes. Most powers can't miss at all.

Invert Decay: Unless there's something in the next two dungeons that really leans on Drug or Poison, I don't see this as being very useful. Drug, especially, is resisted by Will, which you should have plenty of.

I'm not impressed by the +Resolve & Sexiness passives. Resolve is useless if you maxed Will. The only reason not to is if you want to max Sexy Thinking, in which case you want minimum Will.
+Sexiness is always +Libido. If you don't use Tease much on a character and want minimum Libido (and/or took Ice Cold), that's annoying.

 

[Gabranth]

As a TechSpec player:
Molten Shot goes hard, and allows you to add yet another elemental damage to your fights.

The passive tho...
+1 sexiness and 2 focus (willpower really) when my shields are up.
Sexiness only matters if you use lusty combat, and to progress a stage in Eitan's quest in Uveto (sexiness must be 0 or higher).
The +2 WP makes no real difference if your WP is already maxed, as it SHOULD be by that point.

Maybe at lower levels the perk wouldn't be so bad. But at lvl 13... When you have really good combat gear, abilities AND other perks(also combat oriented) at your disposal? Nah

Idk, maybe make it increase your damage (by overclocking your energy weapons), or smt like that?

Edit:
Scratch that, not even at low levels makes sense, it's totally different from literally every other perk you get as a TS.

 

[Jn_Sinnombre]

Created this thread so everyone can share their thoughts on the first release of the new Level 13 stuff.
Enjoy!

Ight, so my thoughts:

Spoiler: Mercenary

Honestly both of these powers are pretty good! but I think Tracer shots take the cake.

Blood Frenzy: A "problem" with Melee Merc is that most of the times they make nowhere near the same ammount of time most of the time, however this does have the opportunity to do some crazy combo stuff and also acts as akin to the hirudo devourer power which gives health again on hits.

Tracer Shots: The biggest problem with Ranged Merc is that the shots sometimes don't hit because of low acc, however with this it's practically guaranteed that they do and gives loads of damage.

Passive feels pretty weak, there's hardly any reason to use the power armors in first place AND there isn't many of them, it's not worth to trigger the passsive imo.

Spoiler: Smuggler

Assasination seems the more viable pick by a long mile imo.
Assasination on the more buffy enemies seems to be "press x to win" and then stuns then for another free hit, it also raises a question does it also give lust damage? because Widow's Kiss might be even stronger with that.

The shot seems interesting but it's blindness rather than stun which has less uses imo, it's not really a free hit and there's the slim chance of you getting hurt/shot by the other guy anway

Passive is also kinda just there? wearing some skimpy undewear and a shirt would do the same effect.

Spoiler: Techie Spec

we are so back burn bros with Molten Shot.

the Strike one i am rather neutral, but I think it's a fun addition as well.

And now that's a interesting passive, if you are a Shield Techie this is pretty decent although not game changing but if you are a Drone techie (and why would you) this is uhh sucks lol.

Spoiler: Kineticist Jedi Fucker

I don't know how to feel about these ones, they feel weak?

Void Sight isn't notable because Blindness is a status that exists and like Theron said, you hardly can miss at all as kineticist in first place.

The poison is even worse because unless we have way more poison related enemies (which is very unlikely) then there's no real use for it.

Again, Passive is sexiness and resolve but there are a lot of other ways to get sexiness which are far more easier.

Overall, a lot of rather fun skills but horrible passives imo.

+1 sexiness and 2 focus (willpower really) when my shields are up.
Sexiness only matters if you use lusty combat, and to progress a stage in Eitan's quest in Uveto (sexiness must be 0 or higher).
The +2 WP makes no real difference if your WP is already maxed, as it SHOULD be by that point.

The problem with Sexiness is that if you think about it, the passive are rather useless, you can wear skimpy clothing or be nude to achieve the same effect on level 1, and doesn't the Myr Trenchcoat increase 3 sexiness for instance?

I think they are the weakest part of level 13 really.

 

[Jn_Sinnombre]

Idk, maybe make it increase your damage (by overclocking your energy weapons), or smt like that?

Another thing is that for me is that they FEEL like they are more aimed at Sexy-based builds.

The problem though is that not everyone plays sex based builds AND there are a MYRIAD of various ways of making a sex build because it's more or less achieaveable by all classes (Widow's Kiss, The Treatment, Pheromenones, Exhibitionism, Skimpy Clothing and so forth).

I do tease builds but this is "too little to late" to actually matter or be viable.

On a unrelated addendum I would have rather Tech Passive to had been a drone related one instead of a Tease one, they literally 0 related passives.

 

[Theron]

1. Bonus Sexiness stacks with everything else.
2. Higher-level enemies have more automatic passive resistance. The bonus is probably meant to counteract that. Is one or two enough?

You're not going to get a Drone related auto-passive, because Drones are optional. Attack Drone and Drone Control don't even affect Deployable Turret.

Spoiler: Mercenary

Blood Frenzy: It does give 10% extra damage. The heal is only useful when you're already injured. It gives more sustain vs Groups.

Tracer Rounds: +20 Accuracy probably will almost guarantee your normal shots hit, but it isn't going to do much for the 2 extra Rapid Fire shots, unless you have Bonus Hit Rate. No, Specialized Combatant doesn't convert those to normal attacks.

Spoiler: Smuggler

Called Shot: Blind lasts 2-5 rounds. Blind chance is Aim vs Reflexes. Duration is Int vs Phys. Int also increases the chance of Called Shot to Critically hit and adds to Aimed Shot/Sneak Attack damage, so you're incentivized to max it. Blind also interferes with Lock On. A good chunk of your damage is going to be from Aimed Shot on the Blinded target.

Assassinate: Stun lasts 1-3 rounds. Chance and duration are Phys vs Phys. If you have a high enough Physique difference to get 3 rounds, you have a 75% to Stun on every attack with a Stun Chance weapon. While it has a 1.75 multiplier on your base melee damage, the bonus damage isn't reliant on Physique, so it might be worth taking on a Ranged build.
Benchmarks: +250 at 50% health, +500 at 25%.

Called Shot is an opener. Assassinate is a closer.

 

[Jn_Sinnombre]

1. Bonus Sexiness stacks with everything else.

Yeah but there's 2 problems with that:
1) Not everyone is going to do a tease focus build or even really use tease so the perk is useless if you don't do that.

2) And by that point you will probrably have already a lot of sexiness to the point it may not even matter since 1+ sexiness is just lunch money.

2. Higher-level enemies have more automatic passive resistance. The bonus is probably meant to counteract that. Is one or two enough?

Absolutely not lol, if it was meant to help tease builds it's really is too little too late because again there are many other alternatives and some of the piercings and weapons help, +2 sexiness max is absolutely lunch money and easily replaceable with going commando.

You're not going to get a Drone related auto-passive, because Drones are optional. Attack Drone and Drone Control don't even affect Deployable Turret.

By that logic, the Sexiness Passive shouldn't be available at all either because tease build is optional on classes and not really the main focus on any of them.

Attack and Control Drone were mentioned because liking it or not they do belong more on the "Drone" path rather than the "Kill everything and go nuts with shield" path, it doesn't help that the possibility of having little drone things was alluded on the intro text for techie when you barely have any focus on that path in the game proper.


I hardly play Drone Techie but I would have rather to give a little thing to them for the 7 drone players to chew on instead giving a largely useless passive if you aren't doing a tease build, the poor Drone techie players have like only 4 fun toys for them to mess around with lol.

 

[Theron]

I play Drone. Specifically because common wisdom said it sucked and I wanted to see how bad. With Combat Tail, you can get 4 attacks/round, 2 of which always hit. I rarely, if ever, run out of Shields, especially at later levels. Drones are fine. A little more variety with the Accessory Drones would be nice, maybe?

Techs's biggest weakness is Energy regen. Perpetual Energy isn't nearly enough.

The description also specifically mentions Aim, but Melee weapons are entirely viable for Techs. Overcharge kind of sucks, actually.

 

[Jn_Sinnombre]

I play Drone. Specifically because common wisdom said it sucked and I wanted to see how bad. With Combat Tail, you can get 4 attacks/round, 2 of which always hit. I rarely, if ever, run out of Shields, especially at later levels. Drones are fine.

It's not that they suck, it's that it's underwhelming imo, sure they can mostly survive but the other options are just generally more viable and can help delete stuff in practically 2 turns since most of the tree is basically offensive ability while drone is just there with no passives.

The description also specifically mentions Aim, but Melee weapons are entirely viable for Techs. Overcharge kind of sucks, actually.

That's more of a issue with Techie as a whole imo, if anything you should actually focus on Melee so you can keep stunning people and simply never allow them to have a turn, and a lot of the tree is already based on making you a shield beast if not outright encouraging you to keep taking the hits and finish them off with bimboleum or salamander defense system.

 

[Theron]

Fenoxo has said his main character is a Drone Tech. If they're not getting anything, it's because he thinks they're fine. Or is trying too hard to avoid favoritism?

The Defense Systems only go off when your Shield is depleted*. Techs don't have much health. How are you handling the HP damage that gets through? (Actually curious. Tika makes this a lot easier, but she was only added recently.)
*There was a bug for a while that made them activate early.

Spoiler: Damage

Vs Hyrax Bike Raider
Custom Shock Gear: 45-49
Tam-Wolf 2.0: 36-39
Combat Tail: 31-36
Lv 12, 60 Physique/Intelligence

Notes:
Tam-Wolf and Combat Tail can Crit for double damage. I don't know what the rate is. Probably the base 5%.
They continue to do damage if I have to stand up or escape a grapple or activate another ability.
Considering that Energy is such a concern for Techs, having consistent, Energyless damage is really nice.
In group fights, if your full attack would do significant overkill, you can switch targets while your Drone(s) finish the wounded one.

To bring it back in line the with the actual thread topic:
The new abilities are 30 Energy. With 33-40 Energy regen, Techs only get one use before you have a net loss and will have to recover in another fight.
How much Energy does Perpetual Energy restore in a fight? I really wish it scaled with damage taken.

 

[XySe7eN]

Tracer Rounds: +20 Accuracy probably will almost guarantee your normal shots hit, but it isn't going to do much for the 2 extra Rapid Fire shots, unless you have Bonus Hit Rate. No, Specialized Combatant doesn't convert those to normal attacks.

Huh, I never knew that Specialized Combatant doesn't also guarantee Rapid Fire accuracy, but the wiki does mention it even:

"Specialized Combatant only applies to Second Attack and Second Shot."

Guess I never noticed that when playing before, was just a placebo that made me think that it also upgrades Rapid Fire.

 

[Gabranth]

How much Energy does Perpetual Energy restore in a fight? I really wish it scaled with damage taken.

1. Restores... 1 energy...
A perk that takes care of that would've been a much better option than sex+wp...

Again:
Lvl 13 perks are weird. I don't understand the thought process behind them.

 

[Anonymous Bat]

My preferred class is Tech Specialist, so Static Strike and Molten Shot are the only active abilities I've tested thus far.

Static Strike is... okay; it doesn't stack with Charge Weapon, and a regular attack with Second Attack and Charge Weapon active deals equivalent single-target damage for zero energy cost, so the only value of Static Strike to me is relatively minor AoE damage and as a situational upgrade to Paralyzing Shock. Probably a lot more useful to someone who doesn't use Second Attack and Charge Weapon.

Molten Shot is much more relevant to my melee build, ironically, since I don't otherwise have any buffs to my ranged attacks. I probably won't use it much, but it's a better fallback option than Thermal Disruptor vs. electricity-immune enemies, and could possibly see use if an opponent is out of melee range and I can't reach them via flying for some reason.

The mandatory sexiness increase on everyone but Mercenary annoys me since I don't use tease, ever, and always try to keep Libido as close to zero as possible.


Re: Drone Tech; that's what I play, and it works great for me. I like to play "lazy" with 99% of my combat actions being just spamming the attack button (or using Charge Weapon and then spamming the attack button, for more difficult fights), so all the passive bonus damage from a drone + combat tail really helps out. I might take one or two turns extra compared to someone actively using abilities, but those turns take me about 500 milliseconds each to click through and my shield never gets depleted regardless, so...

 

[Theron]

1. Restores... 1 energy...

1 point/hit. Multi-attacks restore more Energy. Group fights restore more Energy. The question was 'over the course of a fight'. Is it enough for another Paralyzing Shock? Overcharge? I don't generally use a lot of Energy, and haven't done any explicit testing, so I don't actually know the answer.

On the other hand, Techs have a lot of Shields, but they're not infinite. You don't want to be getting hit too much. And single, powerful attacks only restore 1. You also have Rapid Recharge, which restores Shields when you're not hit.
Is the optimal play carefully calibrating Evasion to usually but not always avoid getting hit?
Bloodthirsty is way better. It's entirely under your control. And Bloodthirsty is terrible in context of the Mercenary.

Static Strike is... okay;

It's currently bugged to use your base Ranged damage. Hotfix is out.
It inherits Crushing, so it detonates Deep Freeze for at least 4x base Melee damage (*2*2). I'm 99% sure it also doubles the bonus Electric damage. Personally, I took Second Striker so I could use the Ice Lance to set up Deep Freeze or Hirudo Devourer to heal.

I probably won't use it much, but it's a better fallback option than Thermal Disruptor vs. electricity-immune enemies, and could possibly see use if an opponent is out of melee range and I can't reach them via flying for some reason.

Thermal Disruptor + Boosted Charges Burning didn't get the glow-up Burn Chance did. I filed a report. It's a balance concern, so Jacques00 didn't feel comfortable changing it, but forwarded it to Fenoxo. I hope it does get buffed. You spend 25 Energy and a Perk on it.
Now burns for a decent amount, though using it on a Burning target doesn't increase the damage or reset the duration.

Hilariously, Molten Shot can be used with a Freezing weapon.

Re: Drone Tech; that's what I play, and it works great for me. I like to play "lazy" with 99% of my combat actions being just spamming the attack button (or using Charge Weapon and then spamming the attack button, for more difficult fights), so all the passive bonus damage from a drone + combat tail really helps out.

Techs have some cool things they can do, but not enough Energy to do them very often.
It can be fun using 'Wait' and letting the Drones deal with things when you outlevel the area.

 

[Gabranth]

1 point/hit. Multi-attacks restore more Energy. Group fights restore more Energy. The question was 'over the course of a fight'. Is it enough for another Paralyzing Shock? Overcharge? I don't generally use a lot of Energy, and haven't done any explicit testing, so I don't actually know the answer.

On the other hand, Techs have a lot of Shields, but they're not infinite. You don't want to be getting hit too much. And single, powerful attacks only restore 1. You also have Rapid Recharge, which restores Shields when you're not hit.
Is the optimal play carefully calibrating Evasion to usually but not always avoid getting hit?

Shield spec'd TechSpecs have a lot of shields, true.
But they nerfed it by adding more shield bypassing attacks. To top it off, they nerfed the turret, still standing at a 40 energy cost.

Evasion also doesn't work like you'd expect, I tested it by maxing it (50%), and got hit way too often for it to be a 50/50 chance. Sure, I avoided some hits, but the ones I took were too damaging for me to shrug off and justify the (always less than 5) energy recovery. (We're also cursed to have the lowest max HP of all classes)

Our energy situation can be improved with the Deflector Regeneration ability, now that I remember.
If only I ACTUALLY remembered to use it.

Edit: Deflector regains 10 energy x 4 turns. I don't think the energy recovery scales with Int, maybe just the shield recovery does.

 

[Fullgames]

Static Strike is super bugged it doesn't even deal the AoE damage it's supposed to do.

 

[Theron]

But they nerfed it by adding more shield bypassing attacks.

That's annoying.

Evasion also doesn't work like you'd expect, I tested it by maxing it (50%), and got hit way too often for it to be a 50/50 chance. Sure, I avoided some hits, but the ones I took were too damaging for me to shrug off and justify the (always less than 5) energy recovery. (We're also cursed to have the lowest max HP of all classes)

What are your Reflexes? And there's a reason I decided to carry a Hirudo Devourer.

Static Strike is super bugged it doesn't even deal the AoE damage it's supposed to do.

Hotfix just went out that fixes this and a bunch of other bugs.

 

[Gabranth]

What are your Reflexes? And there's a reason I decided to carry a Hirudo Devourer.

65, not even sure Reflexes matter for combat evasion purposes, at least not more than gear.

 

[Theron]

65, not even sure Reflexes matter for combat evasion purposes, at least not more than gear.

They do. Reflexes/2.5 vs (Aim OR Physique)/2.5.

Are you in the Train Dungeon? It's possible the enemies/boss have a huge Accuracy bonus, just to fuck with Smugglers.
My testing was vs the random encounters in the Phaedra wilderness.

 

[XySe7eN]

I thought that Reflexes, for evasion purposes, only matter for moves that are specifically stat checks vs Reflexes.

While 'normal' attacks go against your Evasion stat instead.

Did they change it recently?

 

[Gabranth]

They do. Ref/2.5 vs (Aim OR Physique)/2.5.

That's even worse...

Evasion in games is always either:
Broken, or useless. No middle ground.

Still, my 50% evasion didn't save me from half of the attacks done against my char.
More like 25/75.

Our best bet to deal with damage (for now) seems to be to stack on Shield Defense and Defense (Armor).

 

[Theron]

That was the simplified version.

(Aim OR Physique)/2.5 + Accuracy vs Reflexes/2.5 + Evasion.

If you're in the Train Dungeon, my guess is they have something to screw over all classes.
Or they should, if they've got Shield bypassing attacks for Techs.

 

[XySe7eN]

Evasion in games is always either:
Broken, or useless. No middle ground.

Heh you right. Dodgetanks live or die by this fact in a lot of games.

 

[Hanzo]

Those level 13 kineticist abilities look conditional and underwhelming. Was it so good this was needed?

 

[Jn_Sinnombre]

are you handling the HP damage that gets through?

We can have a dm convo later!, but more or less it practically never hits HP because stun galore and by the time they break shield they die one way or another, very hard to die really outside of the bypassing shield moments.

Lvl 13 perks are weird. I don't understand the thought process behind them.

The thought process seems to had been to tease builds but think I have already discussed why I think that's bad.

Spoiler: Bloodthirsthy Question

Does the damage stack with tease as well? because this would make Widow's Kiss as pretty stupid good since it attacks both health/shield AND lust so you are damaging everything at same time.

Are you in the Train Dungeon? It's possible the enemies/boss have a huge Accuracy bonus, just to fuck with Smugglers.

Speaking of it, I wonder if some of the new powers were "tailored" with it in mind, because if it would do that would expalin Kineticist situation but make it uhhh worse because it's more or less "1 useful use only"

 

[Theron]

Called Shot can be an Aimed Shot itself, for more damage.

Assassinate can be a Sneak Attack. It's less useful vs Shielded targets because you have to actually start doing Health damage to get the bonus.

Static Strike can do some crazy damage with Deep Freeze. 800+ on Ancient Warbot. Deep Freeze on Shaman's lower body > S. Strike will do enough to KO.
Using Magma Crusher & Ice Lance. I think I've seen it Crit, too. But it seems to be rare. Haven't managed a Deep Freeze Crit.

Blood Frenzy heals off of any Melee damage. Including Power Strike, Vaulting Strike and the melee component of Sturm and Drang.

Spoiler: Bloodthirsthy Question

Does the damage stack with tease as well? because this would make Widow's Kiss as pretty stupid good since it attacks both health/shield AND lust so you are damaging everything at same time.

Spoiler: Blood Frenzy Answer

Yes. But Power Strike can give you 2x, 2.7x or 3x damage.

Speaking of it, I wonder if some of the new powers were "tailored" with it in mind, because if it would do that would expalin Kineticist situation but make it uhhh worse because it's more or less "1 useful use only"

That's a common hazard for late-arriving abilities in games. You get your bread-and-butter abilities early and the later ones are more specific. In this case, there are 3 classes that don't get immunity to Blind or a large resistance to Poison/Drug, (and Kineticist can only pick one) so you can't design encounters that would be too difficult without them.

They do feel like they'd be useful as lower-level abilities. There are a lot of Blinds & Poison/Drug effects, but we've already passed most of them. What level would you place them? Assuming you'd bump everything after that up one level.

If there are a bunch of Poison/Drug attacks in the Train Dungeon, they might be trying to make a use case for External Toxin Pump, too.