so if I were to rate classes by difficulty ..
- Thread starter crimsiden
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I wouldn't rate them in terms of difficulty, more along the lines of "having perk choices worth clicking the level up button to get". Yeah the game isn't all that difficult but it would still be nice to get the high that comes with leveling up in a game and getting to make your PC stronger.
I think most people I've seen has said that Techie or Merc is easy mode and Smuggler is garbage class.
So, are you referring more to: the perks are worth picking so it makes it easier, or it doesn't matter what you pick you'll still steamroll everything?
Is that how mercenary is? If you build a ranged merc and just melee everything, will you still be able to beat faces in?
I'm more referring to feeling like picking a perk made me feel like I actually achieved shit for having leveled up. Tech just feels like the weakest in that regard.
Techs got worst synergy of each new lvl-up perks with previous ones so it's harder to build good build. For Smuggs or Mercs it's much easier and even picking 1-2 wrong perks that not fi will not mess up PC as much as doing the same with Techs.
I've never played as anything other than Tech, so I've got nothing to compare it to. The Shield Booster perk is just too good for me to want to try anything else.
Ey that's rude Smuggler is not that much of a garbage class.
Supposedly most of the skills are useless, or at least Nerd and Jock get better skills and passives.
Smuggler is considerably better than Tech, with much better passives and actives. Even the worst Smuggler perk, Disarming Shot, is literally Weapon Hack but better.
Sometimes it feel ike Techs was prototype for perks that was perfected in Smugs or Mercs *insert akward laugh here*
Tech is much better late-game with the energy weapons on Myrellion and especially Uveto, there are no equivalent kenetic guns for the Merc to specialize in. The enhanced shields and shield-regenning perks give them much better staying power than any other class as well. Provided the enemy isn't especially resistant, damage should be roughly on par with other classes which coupled with the better survival means the tech would be the strongest. Problems arise when the enemy has resistance to Burning damage or when facing multiple enemies at once as the Tech has no AoE skills at all. IMO the level 5 tech perks SHOULD be multitarget, but are not.
For weapon damage, Smuggler gains a free attack on first round and a damage boost against blinded targets, but he must waste an entire round of damage every 3rd round to attempt to blind them, and of course Shot First never benefits from this. He has NO damage skills that are more effective than his basic attacks. Effectively in terms of damage he is by far the weakest of the three. He has no built-in means of healing.
The Merc can outdamage the Tech Specialist, especially if using Rapid Fire together with Concentrated Fire, in spite of specializing in the less damaging but more reliable Kinetic weapons. He does suffer from lower accuracy (tech gains additional int-based accuracy) which hurts his bonus attacks fairly significantly. The main drawback, as with the Smuggler, is that the Merc has no healing abilities. Neither the merc nor the smuggler are really any tougher than the Tech Specialist to begin with either, and that's before you count Shield Booster adding 64 points to max shields.
For weapon damage, Smuggler gains a free attack on first round and a damage boost against blinded targets, but he must waste an entire round of damage every 3rd round to attempt to blind them, and of course Shot First never benefits from this. He has NO damage skills that are more effective than his basic attacks. Effectively in terms of damage he is by far the weakest of the three. He has no built-in means of healing.
The Merc can outdamage the Tech Specialist, especially if using Rapid Fire together with Concentrated Fire, in spite of specializing in the less damaging but more reliable Kinetic weapons. He does suffer from lower accuracy (tech gains additional int-based accuracy) which hurts his bonus attacks fairly significantly. The main drawback, as with the Smuggler, is that the Merc has no healing abilities. Neither the merc nor the smuggler are really any tougher than the Tech Specialist to begin with either, and that's before you count Shield Booster adding 64 points to max shields.
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Second Wind is by far the best healing skill in the game, replenishing half the Merc's HP and EN at the same time for no cost. Smuggler's healing skills only replenish EN, while Tech spends precious EN to get back Shields, which it already has in abundance.
At any rate, your assessment of early vs. late is backwards. Techs are at their strongest early in the game when those extra points of Shields matter. More specifically they're at their best up until Myrellion when the 60 and 80-point shield belts become available, a massive increase from the starting 10. These belts do increase the benefit of the Tech's two percentage-based recovery abilities, but they make a much bigger difference to the other classes than they do to the Tech because the increase as a percentage of the character's shield capacity is much greater. For a Mercenary, the 80-point shield is a +700% increase in their shield durability. For the Tech, it's only about +100%. Still a big bump, but the Merc and Smuggler have their relative performance increased by a greater factor.
It's true that the strongest available weapons at present are Energy Weapons, but the second-strongest melee weapon, the Monofilament Saber, is only weaker by one point, while the SecureMP has the enormous advantage of negating flurry penalties. This makes Rapid Fire obscenely powerful even with the poor attack stat.
From the way you have described the classes, it is likely that you haven't played mercenary or smuggler at all, or at least most of the way through.
For example, the mercenary has the second wind perk, earned at level five, that recovers half of the mercenary's health (somewhere over 200 from my vague recollection) and half of their max energy, an amount of restoration that the tech simply cannot match, with a skill that doesn't scale with leveling up, leaving it all but useless against level 8 enemies. Not to mention how the tech's shield restore skills don't recover energy, something incredibly important that they have no way to recover. Energy is critical to defeating everything other than trash mobs, something both smugglers and mercenaries have ways to recover, but techs do not.
You dismissed the smuggler's aimed shot as a mere "damage boost" but what you don't seem to know is that that damage boost allows you to destroy any boss faster than both other classes can, while at the same time taking next to no damage due to your foe's blindness stacked with your dodge rate, that is at the very minimum (it can be increased even more with accessories) 30% higher than the other classes.
If your foe isn't blinded and you don't feel like spending a turn doing so, you can just use the second shot ability, which so handily stacks with shoot first, to let you get three shots off per turn. Combine this with how smugglers have the option to be immune to stun locks and you have a class that floats over everything, not a class that is the weakest of the three.
For example, the mercenary has the second wind perk, earned at level five, that recovers half of the mercenary's health (somewhere over 200 from my vague recollection) and half of their max energy, an amount of restoration that the tech simply cannot match, with a skill that doesn't scale with leveling up, leaving it all but useless against level 8 enemies. Not to mention how the tech's shield restore skills don't recover energy, something incredibly important that they have no way to recover. Energy is critical to defeating everything other than trash mobs, something both smugglers and mercenaries have ways to recover, but techs do not.
You dismissed the smuggler's aimed shot as a mere "damage boost" but what you don't seem to know is that that damage boost allows you to destroy any boss faster than both other classes can, while at the same time taking next to no damage due to your foe's blindness stacked with your dodge rate, that is at the very minimum (it can be increased even more with accessories) 30% higher than the other classes.
If your foe isn't blinded and you don't feel like spending a turn doing so, you can just use the second shot ability, which so handily stacks with shoot first, to let you get three shots off per turn. Combine this with how smugglers have the option to be immune to stun locks and you have a class that floats over everything, not a class that is the weakest of the three.
I pity the fools that spend all the time until Myrellion with Decent JoyCo ShieldGen and don't get the Premium one. Granted, it's still not that hard to beat the enemies at that point, for both Techies and normal people. But not having those extra points of shield makes taking actual HP damage that much more likely in regular mob fights for Mercs and Smugglers, especially when you just smash Tease/Attack mindlessly.
But let me also hop into the current Techie build bashing wagon:
1. Those shield points become strictly worse than the equivalent number of HP in all aspects but one(and a half) at around the time you hit Myrellion.
Shields restore between fights, which is helpful against regular mobs; the most potent shield-restorative item provides 100 a pop (though only once per fight) as opposed to 50 HP as many times as you want for 20 Lust gain.
BUT
Shield points don't benefit from armor or any resistance accessories. And it's a huge difference in fights against foes that can really deal out some pain. Between Crystal Shards, Armor and resistances you can make most enemies that wield energy weapons do negligible damage.
2. The temporary-nigh-invulnerability style defensive perks. Smugglers have their cloaking device and Mercs have Take Cover - which I imagine as PC gaining a borderline supernatural ability to find GoW-style chest high walls even in places that have no business having them. Techies, despite being a defense oriented class, have nothing, so even when the boss telegraphs a strong attack, they can only use a disruption ability and pray.
And yet Fen telling Techs epsecialy their drones are in perfect spot ^^
Lash is CC-immune one I think and maybe that puppy herm from KQ2. Not certan but Frost Wyrm is another one with CC-immunity and those 3 are I think current strongest bosses to battle.
Yeah well eventualy we may manage to move even him cuz thousands of thousands water drops will shatter even toughest rock
Lash is CC-immune one I think and maybe that puppy herm from KQ2. Not certan but Frost Wyrm is another one with CC-immunity and those 3 are I think current strongest bosses to battle.
Yeah well eventualy we may manage to move even him cuz thousands of thousands water drops will shatter even toughest rock
Eh, they'd still have enough suitability tools between energy recovery, free weapon swapping, immunity to knock downs, reduced blind time, evasion, stealth cloaking, and disarming shot.
You can take away their huge damage and/or CC and Space Ninjas will still be better than Space Nerds.
Who can still, with the use of just one ability, dodge range attacks better than 'the slippery class' . Just 'cause.
Well, I main a Techie, and the situation does seem funny at times. Granted, it's more of a sad chuckle kind of funny.
Was it changed recently? I swear he wasn't CC immune a couple public patches back. It's pretty much the only way to beat him for Techies: chain paralyzing awith blindness from Volley and chug Myr Honey.
Those drops are also used for driving people insane. Just saying .Yeah well eventualy we may manage to move even him cuz thousands of thousands water drops will shatter even toughest rock
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I think he get some resistance/immunity to CC around 30-40 builds ago (that incleds all public+backer ones). At least it was arounf time that tactic for him to try stun him wes rendered useless.
Those drops are also used for driving people insane. Just saying .
Some go insane and declarate: No preg or amazing vag scenes, while other may be molder/shaped with that and grow better. But otherwise sitting silent and make devs thing all the made is best ever things is bad solution too.
What's all this about shooting? REAL MEN™ smack enemies up close and personal!
- Smuggler either specializes in stun or blind. If your enemy is not resistant, ez mode, otherwise you're boned. Plus you get high evasion, and can raise it up to the 40s and soonish 50s with the right gear.
- Tech depends on the enemies offense and defense. For example, a enemy with shield penetrating attacks or mirrored can fuck you up easily. Tech's main advantage is that they get 80% of the top tier weapons, giving them higher dps before active skills than other classes. On the other hand, any boss worth fighting will have far higher elemental resists than kinetic resists. Techs get high shields as well, but this is sorta love/hate compared to Smuggler's Evasion and Merc's endurance as a lot more things will target or bypass shields.
- Mercs virtue is not suffering the Smuggler's and Tech's respective Achilles' Heel. Maybe something else but it dosn't matter much. It probably isn't important.
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Jumping on the 'Bash the Tech Class' bandwagon to say:
Why be a Techie at all? To play handyman? To fix a few sex toy here and there? I mean seriously. Just the core canon of the game so far seems to make the so-called Tech Specialist a joke class. My level 8 Merc with 40 str had a 'carry threshold' of not quite 4 tons. My level 8 smuggler can dodge bullets and lasers and sweet talk even the most cold hearted shop keeper out of a discount. But my level 8 Techie can't hack hardly anything. There is one skipable fight that you hack past and one you can alter, but not make any easier. Can't hack drones or droids or security-bots. Can't hack those doors open in Anno Quest. But a smuggler can pick the lock- on a starship. In the Canadia Station 'Tamahime Incest-Quest' all three classes can hack Kally's doors open... But if your a specialist you don't even get to do that. You 'remember the base code' 'from a repair job you did once'.
So that's how it goes for the Tech Specialist class.
Steele Jr. Merc: combat veteran who has seen exotic worlds.
Steele Jr. Smuggler: criminal type with knowledge of and connections to the galaxy's festering underbelly
Steele Jr. Tech Specialist: Handyman
No connections to anybody in your field, only a few skills that actually feel like they apply to just your class type and none that give you have an advantage against machine/ A.I. type enemies.
Level 1-Paralytic Shock: a taser, something anybody and everybody can get a hold of. Should be at least as good if not better than mercs Headbutt. It's not. Doesn't do damage, or even last longer with max intelligence. 25 energy is too high a price for current output. Also, should have a 100% hit rate against machines.
Level 2 -Attack Drone vs. Shield Booster: This one is at least class specific. Shield Booster wins hands down, especially since the 'accessory' drones 'replace' the attack drone and are way better anyway. 10 points of shield a level (8 from boost plus 2 from tweaks) is much better than nothing. I think the best way to fix this is to imply in character creation is that Tech Specialist start with a basic attack drone (which would explain how you P.Shock people), which can be replaced with better 'accessory' models.. The level up choice Attack Drone should be replaced with an alternate shield buff for better balance.
Something for Example: Deflector Upgrade. boosts shields 4 points per level and returns 50% damage to melee attackers
Level 3-Overcharge vs Volley: These seem good in theory, but fall way short in application. Overcharge makes P.Shock redundant. Volley should have as many shots as the Mercs rapid fire. Both of these would be good if tweaked for better synergy (like others have stated Tech sucks for synergy, I feel like it should be the synergy class.) I think Overcharge would be better with something like a chance for burn DoT or a chance to disarm. Volley is okay with the blinding effect, but feel it actually makes Volley too much the only choice. "Do I want an attack that might stun, which I can all ready do, or one that blinds? Volley it is." My opinion is instead of blinding which wears off too quick to stack with P.Shock really well, I think Volley should be tweaked to have a chance to lower enemy defense or increases your own crit chance, even if you miss. "Attempting to dodge your wild blasts leaves your foe off balance. Better take advantage quick!" Both of these tweaks work better with P.Shock than the current skills.
Level 4- Power Surge vs. Deflector Regeneration: Gonna admit, shield regen is nice, but the first time I got this, after having played a merc and smuggler in that order, I was very disappointed. The one class that uses more energy than either the other two, between high cost skills and Static Burst, tiny though it's cost is, has no way to re-energize. The one class that makes the most sense to have the ability to restore energy as an action, can't. Mercs can magically heal laser burns or bullet wounds just by breathing, but my tech can't use either of these abilities to quick-charge their reserves? Especially since Tech Specialist seem to rely on an actual energy source to power their tech based bonus stuff.
Level 5- Gravidic Disruptor vs. Thermal Disruptor : I have no problem with this level. Both these are perfect for the Tech Specialist feel.
Level 6 Gun Tweaks Vs. Weapon Tweaks: I'm not sure what to say about this. Why is Weapon Tweaks even an option? Nothing about this class, with the exception of the also passive Fight Smarter perk, is melee geared. This just feels like someone at Fenco. said "Well Mercs get this buff choice with normal physical weapons so Techs gotta get it with energy weapons cause thats their thing!"
Level 7- Weapon Hack vs Shield Hack: Finally we get to the good stuff! what makes the class earn the title of Specialist. No, wait. I was wrong. Doesn't it just suck how useless either hack skill is. Shield Hack only does shield damage for 25 energy. That's a big waste when either grenade skill will do around the same amount of damage for the cost, and with the bonus of splash damage against multiple enemies. Weapon Hack sounds better in theory, but as someone else has already pointed out, it's just a super bad version of the smuggler's Disarm Shot. I get not being able to 'hack' a kinetic gun, and that more humanoid enemies so far have used them than energy weapons. But my techie should be able to use 'Weapon Hack' against machine enemies to lock em down. That seems like it would be the entire point of the Tech Specialist is to have an advantage against the machines. Shield Hack does only superficial damage. This skill would be much better if it could do a large amount of physical shock damage when it managed to drop a shield. The game already talks about 'a concussive boom and tingling aftershock' when an attack breaks through a shield and hits the target on the other side. Call it a overloaded feedback loop, let it do real damage as it kills a shield.
The 'Heroic' Level 8- Second Attack vs. Second Shot: For Techs this level sucks, which makes sense since it's not a class specific level at all. You get Heroic Reserves to up your energy pool, but still no skill to recharge it, and a choice between a second melee attack or a second ranged attack. This level is so much better for Merc and Smuggler who both get to take full advantage of the larger energy pool and the all the perks they get that work well with either extra attack. For the Techie though, this level does very little. With all the high skill cost and no way to restore energy besides items, Heroic Reserves is one extra skill use. That's it. With no melee bonuses, Second Attack is pointless. Second Shot is slightly better if you take Volley and Gun tweaks, but it's still subpar compared to how useful the same 'extra' is for the other two classes.
All in all this turned into a much much larger wall of text than I meant it to. It also made me kinda sad, because up until now even though Tech Specialist is broken it was kinda a personal favorite flavor. Now that I've stopped to think about how cheated it is though, I'm not sure I still like it as much...
Why be a Techie at all? To play handyman? To fix a few sex toy here and there? I mean seriously. Just the core canon of the game so far seems to make the so-called Tech Specialist a joke class. My level 8 Merc with 40 str had a 'carry threshold' of not quite 4 tons. My level 8 smuggler can dodge bullets and lasers and sweet talk even the most cold hearted shop keeper out of a discount. But my level 8 Techie can't hack hardly anything. There is one skipable fight that you hack past and one you can alter, but not make any easier. Can't hack drones or droids or security-bots. Can't hack those doors open in Anno Quest. But a smuggler can pick the lock- on a starship. In the Canadia Station 'Tamahime Incest-Quest' all three classes can hack Kally's doors open... But if your a specialist you don't even get to do that. You 'remember the base code' 'from a repair job you did once'.
So that's how it goes for the Tech Specialist class.
Steele Jr. Merc: combat veteran who has seen exotic worlds.
Steele Jr. Smuggler: criminal type with knowledge of and connections to the galaxy's festering underbelly
Steele Jr. Tech Specialist: Handyman
No connections to anybody in your field, only a few skills that actually feel like they apply to just your class type and none that give you have an advantage against machine/ A.I. type enemies.
Level 1-Paralytic Shock: a taser, something anybody and everybody can get a hold of. Should be at least as good if not better than mercs Headbutt. It's not. Doesn't do damage, or even last longer with max intelligence. 25 energy is too high a price for current output. Also, should have a 100% hit rate against machines.
Level 2 -Attack Drone vs. Shield Booster: This one is at least class specific. Shield Booster wins hands down, especially since the 'accessory' drones 'replace' the attack drone and are way better anyway. 10 points of shield a level (8 from boost plus 2 from tweaks) is much better than nothing. I think the best way to fix this is to imply in character creation is that Tech Specialist start with a basic attack drone (which would explain how you P.Shock people), which can be replaced with better 'accessory' models.. The level up choice Attack Drone should be replaced with an alternate shield buff for better balance.
Something for Example: Deflector Upgrade. boosts shields 4 points per level and returns 50% damage to melee attackers
Level 3-Overcharge vs Volley: These seem good in theory, but fall way short in application. Overcharge makes P.Shock redundant. Volley should have as many shots as the Mercs rapid fire. Both of these would be good if tweaked for better synergy (like others have stated Tech sucks for synergy, I feel like it should be the synergy class.) I think Overcharge would be better with something like a chance for burn DoT or a chance to disarm. Volley is okay with the blinding effect, but feel it actually makes Volley too much the only choice. "Do I want an attack that might stun, which I can all ready do, or one that blinds? Volley it is." My opinion is instead of blinding which wears off too quick to stack with P.Shock really well, I think Volley should be tweaked to have a chance to lower enemy defense or increases your own crit chance, even if you miss. "Attempting to dodge your wild blasts leaves your foe off balance. Better take advantage quick!" Both of these tweaks work better with P.Shock than the current skills.
Level 4- Power Surge vs. Deflector Regeneration: Gonna admit, shield regen is nice, but the first time I got this, after having played a merc and smuggler in that order, I was very disappointed. The one class that uses more energy than either the other two, between high cost skills and Static Burst, tiny though it's cost is, has no way to re-energize. The one class that makes the most sense to have the ability to restore energy as an action, can't. Mercs can magically heal laser burns or bullet wounds just by breathing, but my tech can't use either of these abilities to quick-charge their reserves? Especially since Tech Specialist seem to rely on an actual energy source to power their tech based bonus stuff.
Level 5- Gravidic Disruptor vs. Thermal Disruptor : I have no problem with this level. Both these are perfect for the Tech Specialist feel.
Level 6 Gun Tweaks Vs. Weapon Tweaks: I'm not sure what to say about this. Why is Weapon Tweaks even an option? Nothing about this class, with the exception of the also passive Fight Smarter perk, is melee geared. This just feels like someone at Fenco. said "Well Mercs get this buff choice with normal physical weapons so Techs gotta get it with energy weapons cause thats their thing!"
Level 7- Weapon Hack vs Shield Hack: Finally we get to the good stuff! what makes the class earn the title of Specialist. No, wait. I was wrong. Doesn't it just suck how useless either hack skill is. Shield Hack only does shield damage for 25 energy. That's a big waste when either grenade skill will do around the same amount of damage for the cost, and with the bonus of splash damage against multiple enemies. Weapon Hack sounds better in theory, but as someone else has already pointed out, it's just a super bad version of the smuggler's Disarm Shot. I get not being able to 'hack' a kinetic gun, and that more humanoid enemies so far have used them than energy weapons. But my techie should be able to use 'Weapon Hack' against machine enemies to lock em down. That seems like it would be the entire point of the Tech Specialist is to have an advantage against the machines. Shield Hack does only superficial damage. This skill would be much better if it could do a large amount of physical shock damage when it managed to drop a shield. The game already talks about 'a concussive boom and tingling aftershock' when an attack breaks through a shield and hits the target on the other side. Call it a overloaded feedback loop, let it do real damage as it kills a shield.
The 'Heroic' Level 8- Second Attack vs. Second Shot: For Techs this level sucks, which makes sense since it's not a class specific level at all. You get Heroic Reserves to up your energy pool, but still no skill to recharge it, and a choice between a second melee attack or a second ranged attack. This level is so much better for Merc and Smuggler who both get to take full advantage of the larger energy pool and the all the perks they get that work well with either extra attack. For the Techie though, this level does very little. With all the high skill cost and no way to restore energy besides items, Heroic Reserves is one extra skill use. That's it. With no melee bonuses, Second Attack is pointless. Second Shot is slightly better if you take Volley and Gun tweaks, but it's still subpar compared to how useful the same 'extra' is for the other two classes.
All in all this turned into a much much larger wall of text than I meant it to. It also made me kinda sad, because up until now even though Tech Specialist is broken it was kinda a personal favorite flavor. Now that I've stopped to think about how cheated it is though, I'm not sure I still like it as much...
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IKR? My 'Nuki Ninja turned Cat-Snek-Dragon is by far the most enjoyable character when it comes to imagining the reenactment of her battles.
I still hope against all hopes that, one day, she will be able to engage in the most honorable traditional melee discipline, passed down from her ancestors.
What I'll need to get to some day is creating a proper Beef Cake BFS wielder. He'll probably suck compared to the Dakka Merc, but w.e., I need my Spess Gatsu.
Well, as of the latest stun and blind doesn't work, but paralysis works just as well as before.
Also, the health/shield/resist increase Lash got is pure BS that doesn't serve any purpose other than giving PC more opportunities to get fucked by RNG.
Roleplay, it's the only reason I can't choose the other classes on my main characters.
A pampered, effeminate, submissive, little goody two-shoes trap doesn't really fit the image of a hardened criminal or a combat vet.