ATTEN-HUT! Welcome back to another build guide by yours truly. Ported over from my reddit post, here's all the juicy info for the Ubisoft Forum Community. I got a lot of interest in the Full-Tank Shield Build that I made (Here's a link in case you missed it) and wanted to continue to challenge the status-quo of "no build diversity" with some tried and tested builds that people say are not possible. In lieu of all the nay-sayers, I present to you THE FLANK COMMANDER!
"He’s learned a few tricks since his Tank days. He picked up an Assault Rifle and went to Special Forces school to learn the art of the Riot Foam. Leading the battlefield from the front, our Flank Commander now has the tools he needs to actively orchestrate the abilities of his squad to their full killing potential without sacrificing any of his own."
The Breakdown:
- Crusader Shield
1 cooldown reduction, 2 shield health mods to help give this half shield as much hp as we can- Sweet Dreams
We’re still using Sweet Dreams in the same fashion as before except now, we can bash enemies and get our bonus armor while still holding a shield. This is useful for when the shield is about to break or you take damage from the side.- Assault Rifle damage foundation
Unstoppable Force on Chest, Devastating on holster, Compensated on gloves- Riot Foam
I used +ammo and +radius, but mod it how you think you can be the most efficient
The tactic with this build isn’t to do anything out of the ordinary, but does give you extraordinary tools. With the Crusader Shield and an AR, you can still put out damage and retain substantial protection from using a shield. Use it how you see fit – kite heavies, protect squad from enemy fire / suicide vests, rush into a hail of bullets, etc. The Riot Foam enables us to give a death sentence to anyone we wish to take out sooner. Using it to protect from rushers, stop a medic from reviving at a distance, prevent an engineer from setting up / repairing a turret. It’s got lots of tactical uses, same as the shield really.
The Extras:
- Calculated
With this skill on the kneepads, we can get our shield and riot foam ammo back substantially faster- Protection From Elites
I've prioritized this Gear Mod to achieve the 2 Slot Bonus of Fenris without having to commit to 2 actual pieces- Optimized / Preservation
Optimized for more DPS, Preservation for more sustain- Skill Health
Still a big priority in this build
The Action:
2 Heavies, 1 Time (A Lesson In CC Management) - https://youtu.be/gHS3AZbXvmo
The Run N Gun (Heroic CP 4, Slightly Less Easy Is What We Call It Now) - https://youtu.be/ial0qy89Nv4
The Assault - https://youtu.be/JAa4-l9jJMk
Defending From The Front - https://youtu.be/9JTQpnfVXEY
The Gear:
We can pretty much just eyeball everything from here. So, the weapons, it's up to you how you roll. I've only found this G36 that suits my playstyle so far. The mask is where you want to get the most Damage to Elites and also Hazard Protection. This True Patriot mask has 47% DTE and 37% Hazard Protection, so it's our odd man out of the group.
I've got one piece of Fenris for the 10% Assault Rifle Damage.
Here is 3 pieces of Gila Guard. +Armor and +Hazard Protection is the main reason why I wanted at least two in the build. They also have the slots with Defensive System and Defensive Protocol on most of their gear. The third Gila Guard is not used for it's brand, but moreso because of the armor and slots that were available.
(Which, if you recall, we can throw +skill health and either +armor / +protection from elites. I've got a total of 9% Protection From Elites from the Gear Mods and 15% from the Survivalist Specialization. 24% all in all, not bad.)
Alps Summit is nice for 10% Cooldown Reduction for only 1 piece of investment.
You can find the Piece By Piece look at the gear here
The Numbers:
So the 14.2 weapon damage is the base damage and the 15% bonus from compensated isn't being accounted for on this page but you do get the bonus.
Final Thoughts:
While I don't think this build is inherently original, I had a lot of fun making it and using it. A lot of people will criticize Riot Foam, but as you can see, it's actually not bad even on heroic. I switched to it from the usual Reinforcer to try something different and it was so useful I kept it in. I really loathe drawn out faceoffs waiting for the enemy to peek their head up and this definitely sped things up. That's it for this time, Thanks for stopping by and Happy Hunting!
-Metal Phoenix
Great job. My build looks a lot like this. I have a few questions.
1) I assume you have a utility mod somewhere that let's you get over the last mods threshold? 2800 I think it was?
2) Have you ever played with someone that heals with the Healer Mine? I looks like it releases the same "puddle" the chem launcher does, so I would assume it heals the shield too. I know the Fixer Drone doesn't, but was wondering about this one.
Anyway, thanks for sharing.
I don't believe any skills heal the shield. Unfortunately, shield break way too fast, even with good mods. You literally have better protection standing in a chem launchers healing puddle. When holding the smaller shields, NPCs have perfect accuracy anyway and will still shoot at your exposed body. Their only real use is for catching people off guard with the extra protection in pvp.Originally Posted by Uhnomuhlee Go to original post
The Chem Launcher will give a substantial burst heal to shield health. The Healer Mine releases the same puddle, hence the question. The Fixer Drone does not appear to, but then again it will not begin to heal until armor is depleted, so maybe it will give some healing to the shield as well, but only if armor it drained and the fixer drone procs.Originally Posted by BadTrashCanMan Go to original post
1. Yes, I have utility mods in the chest and gloves.Originally Posted by Uhnomuhlee Go to original post
2. Heals? What is this heals you speak of? I can't recall if the mine does or not. I hate that thing. You don't have control over when it heals, where it heals, and you don't know how long it's going to take until it can heal again.
The reinforcer works and is my preferred method in the full tank build.
"What heals?" Haha, touche' lol.Originally Posted by MetaI_Phoenix Go to original post
And ya, it can be frustrating, but I've used the Healer Seeker and the Fixer Drone together on my healer build so I can spend more time sniping. When a teammate knows what it does it can be an okay replacement for the Chem Launcher.
Anway, thanks for these great topics. Works of art they are. They demonstrate great craftmanship, I can appreciate that.
Thank you, I'm trying to bring a different energy vibe here in General Discussion with some helpful discussions. It's turned into a free-for-all where 80% of the threads should be in Feedback & Suggestions. It's very easy to nitpick and point out every pixel and every line of code that wasn't tailored to specifically one individual's desires in a video game.
It's a little more difficult to actually explore the possibilities than to open up a YouTube page and have someone tell you what to think. Then we get words like "viable" being thrown around left and right by mostly individuals who have no idea what that even means, not the definition, but actually having experience with an outside-of-the-box build and proving its worth.
But thank you, I appreciate readers who have questions and comments of their own that add to the discussion and make more of these builds possible. Gives me all the motivation to continue to show the community just how "viable" some of these skills are that are stigmatized for no good reason other than they simply don't know how to use them effectively.
I liked having the stinger hive on a full hard wired build. Stinger and flame turret or whatever, stinger shocks them then shoots out fireworks of dps. Resets the cd of the turret. Pop turret out, has self preservation with the shock so if a heavy wants to come and play they get CCd and eat some nice damage as well.Originally Posted by RichardOshea Go to original post
I figured I'd quickly try Stinger/Shield with auto shotguns to test it out. While I'm currently built for other skills and have not prioritised Health or armour and my gun damage is only 400-600k, I was still able to face tank a heavy chaingunner and take a melee hit from them all while staying upright. Stinger really helped with that and throw in some thought on armour and health and weapon damage (I noted that getting OTR to proc isn't happening with this setup) I think it could really go a long way down the tank road.Originally Posted by MetaI_Phoenix Go to original post
I think your gear is probably three quaters of the way there already, so maybe give it a whirl and see if it plays better than riot foam?
I've not used the shield before so it'll take me a bit of time to learn how to play that build correctly. Still, I did run challenge and straight into the centre of the mobs and held my own for much longer than I would with my other builds.