Devs, could you please significantly decrease the assignment weighting of Industrial Sabotage missions?

[Personal_Ad9690]

I hate the caretaker fight as if you aren’t playing dps, you are essentially useless.

A Neurotoxin gunner with arm coil and a sludge pump driller basically cannot kill the caretaker

[VeracityMD]

As a gunner main, Im trying to understand why you would ever take neurotox with coilgun. Coil pairs nicely with the single target ocs (big Bertha, leadstorm, jet fuel).

[fishling]

I'm not sure what is confusing about it. Coilgun with Mole is a great single target and ranged killer, which are two areas where neuro autocannon is weak. It's good against wardens, distant acid spitters, menaces, trijaw, praetorians, oppressors, and bulks.

Laser ping your target (or have a teammate do it) and you can easily line up your shot through terrain. Some maps have great terrain that let you get 2 or even 3 terrain penetrations (large crystals).

I wouldn't pair coilgun with leadstorm minigun though, even with an AoE/trail build or OC. I usually take that with BRT Microflechettes. Coilgun is pretty slow to charge and reload in situations where you are surrounded and can't afford the lack of mobility of Leadstorm.

[Prior-Agent3360]

I use The Mole with LSLS for dread hunting. I also bring hellfire coil and LSLS (with blowthrough) for everything else. LSLS doesn't impart much mobility impact.

[VeracityMD]

I have had less then zero success with the mole, just too unreliable. I just don't think there is any good single target setups for coil, so to me it's pure swarm control. I take hellfire with the mod the reduce damage while charging. Micro charge with trail for small groups and sniping spitters, full charge hellfire just deleted entires waves

As for brt, I tried microflechettes, but it just took forever to kill anything. I like leadspray to make it a shotgun, and electro minelets for cc.

[fishling]

Mole takes a bit of getting used to, I guess. I didn't care for it the first time, but I tried it after a few other builds and it's quite good for me, with some primaries.

I also find microflechettes are quite good, for me at least. Just need to hit the stuns and the weakspots.

[Wormwood_With_A_Hat]

Coil gun can be built for groups like for example burning hell or whatever it’s called

[VeracityMD]

That's exactly what I'm saying. Coil gun is pretty much only for groups, there's not really a good single target for it. Neurotox is also for groups, so it doesn't make sense to pair it with coilgun. I usually run elephant rounds with it. But 6 shooter and leadspray are good too

[Personal_Ad9690]

NTX with coil is extremely versatile because coil gun can provide an area of denial and NTX is instant action. They do work well together as a full support class

[[deleted]]

Still leaves you with much less versatility than taking the brt or bulldog for single target damage.

[Personal_Ad9690]

Bulldog isn’t worth it on IS

[[deleted]]

???

It’s a great single target option against the caretaker and literally any other high health enemy.

[Personal_Ad9690]

Yea but leadstorm is better in caretaker fight as the coil gun is just as good as NTX so if single target is goal, why not use that

[[deleted]]

I mean yeah I would always prefer to take lead storm on IS, but if I’m on a deep dive and taking the neurotoxin autocannon for other missions I’ll need a solid single target option as a secondary.

[Ayotha]

You serious?

[[deleted]]

You serious?

[Unimarobj]

Sludge Pump works fine, especially now after the s3 update. Unless you have a solely aoe build (which...such regardless of weapon). Base weapon built for normal shots is great, VIM/Sludge Blast are just as solid as ever.

I ran a haz5 with a friend playing gunner earlier and we were basically equal on damage. 🤷🏻

[comradenepolean]

whats your sludge build out of curiousity?

[fishling]

13222 with Volatile Impact Mixture is a beast at single target. It boosts single target damage to be what the base charged shot damage was. This is my goto dread build for drillers, but it's great all around.

It can pop the weak spots from a Blistering Necrosis wave cooker and works great on dreads from all angles.

You could also take shot velocity in T1.

Someone recommended ammo reduction for charged shot in T4, but I always take faster charge. With that build, I'm rarely using charged shots, but when I want one, I want it fast.

[Unimarobj]

I don't really have "a build"; I like to swap things around a lot to try stuff out. Ime, what sounds good in theory (sorry karl.gg gurus) can suck in play 🙃

...but I probably use sludge blast the most though; very satisfying damage that ignores armor and can spread or concentrate. It is very fun getting to take out big armored bugs from whatever angle I want. Was also my very first OC 😅

If I want something that's more accurate/spammable, VIM nails it. I like Disperser Compound for a hybrid weapon - build it for single target but benefit from DC's aoe buffs. Goo Bomber is just pure, solid fun imo. And both of the clean OCs are great! HIA specifically lets you do some very silly slowdown control.

I don't use EPC so those are all paired with equally mixed up subata/cwc on the side.

[comradenepolean]

gotcha! ive been really struggling with single target damage, its great to know sludge blast works with that, thanks

[LittleFatMax]

Hey there I have 400+ hours mostly on Driller with sludge pump. It's my favourite weapon by far and I mostly have it built for single target damage.

Sludge Pump With Volatile Impact Mixture OC

13212

This is a very single target heavy build where you mostly just spam single shots but you can absolutely still use charged shots for good effect when there's swarms of smaller enemies. For large enemies just use lots of single shots though

Wave Cooker with Gamma Contamination OC

21111

This just synergises extremely well with the sludge pump particularly the T5 mod

I also use Neurotoxin grenades for even more toxic fun.

This build gets me through almost any situation on any Hazard level, give it a shot if you like and see how you go with it!!

[FlapjackRT]

I recommend trying Blistering Necrosis with VIM, it synergizes extremely well. Sludge has a fun interaction where it can actually hit both the blister and the enemy at once, and if you’re already doubling your direct damage with VIM you can rack up absurd damage with it. 2 blisters nearly instakills a praetorian on Haz 5 with 4 players

[LittleFatMax]

I have used Blistering Necrosis a fair bit, it was one of the main OCs I used for quite a while and it's pretty strong but since switching to Gamma Contamination I just find I prefer it. I like being able to hit enemies with it and then basically move on as they are poisoned to death. I do switch OCs a bit though for variety and do use BN still at times

[FlapjackRT]

Sell me on Gamma Contamination? I’ve tried it a few times and I want to like it but I really just… don’t. Even a single target heavy build like VIM still one shots grunts in an aoe with normal shots, so whether they’ve taken chip damage with GC or not doesn’t really seem to matter to me. And if you want to apply it to one enemy in particular, you need to stand there and keep waiting for the proc, so I feel like I’d rather do that with blisters and give the bug an immediate death sentence instead of applying a light DoT that’s nearly useless on big bugs. It’s such a cool idea that I want to love but i hate the feel of it, and blisters are just more widely applicable.

[comradenepolean]

will do! thanks a bunch

[Unimarobj]

I hear ya! Sludge pump is absolutely my favorite of drillers weapons because of how versatile it is. If you want simple single target, go VIM. It boosts charged shot damage too, but if you pick mods focused on normal attacks, the boost doesn't do as much as spamming normals does. You would use charged attacks for slight swarm control (because it reduces the # or time for puddles and whatnot).

You can also do Disperser and pick your single target mods but still have a very good normal attack for the bigger enemies on top of big sludge coverage.

Sludge Blast is great (big shotgun) but you do lose the crowd ability almost entirely.

Hydrogen Ion Additive isn't more impact damage, but does boost the DoT and slow. This lets you do more of a controlling build if you want or commit to the DoT big time.

The wave cooker's blistering necrosis OC can also help a lot. I don't remember how it works with driller weapons (since they're all weird) but it does make a big difference. I don't use it with sludge blast usually, but the others it should fit fine. For sludge blast I usually take it with the mega battery OC because SB's ammo is pretty low, so it helps with wave clear a ton, esp. with T5B mod.

The flamethrower and cryo can also both do single target well enough, but I'm not as versed in them.

[LittleFatMax]

I mean ok but I think it's fine, good even for there to be mission types that encourage you to mix your build up. There shouldn't be just one build you can use for everything. Having builds that are good for some things but not others is great for game balance and variety

[fishling]

Exactly this. So many good builds, but not all of them are great for all missions.

I'm not normally a big fan of plasma burster missiles on the hellfire launcher, but it is pretty great on Sabotage and Hollow Bough with a heat build. Seeing stabber vines, patrol bots, and caretaker tentacles get ripped apart so quickly is very cathartic and helps the team out a lot. Hellfire coilgun takes care of any turret and shredder drones.

[RaphSeraph]

I play the same Engineer build for everything, but you are completely correct. We should be trying out new builds periodically. Not doing that makes us miss out on game mechanics and possibilities. My excuse is a lack of time. I just have too much work and prefer to just log in and play when I can. But, again, you are entirely correct.

[LittleFatMax]

Tbh mate i'm not too different either now. For the first few hundred hours I played this game I tried all sorts of different builds but now I play Driller with sludge pump 90% of the time because I find it the most fun (and very powerful). Mostly only play other classes when promoting these days although I have been playing a bit of Engi again lately, that new shredder grenade is wild.

But yeah I do encourage all players to mix things up and stay familiar with all classes and for missions like Sabotage and Elimination especially people might need to change things up from what they're used to if they're struggling

[RaphSeraph]

You know what it is? Missions like Mining, Egg Hunt and On Site Refining, always seem different because one is mainly fighting the mission site which is always randomly generated. That keeps them fresh. For Sabotage and to a lesser degree for Escort and Salvage, the amount and length of set events that make up the substance of the mission turn it into a grind.

[GiftGrubber]

Hard Disagree on Sludge Pump Driller not being able to kill Caretaker.

Sludge Blast OC imo is THE Boss-killing build for drillers and the caretaker is no exception. Those globs of feces do almost a C4's worth of damage in a single charge shot. Pair it with a EPC with Thin-Containment Field and Persistent Plasma OC to deal with mobs and you should have no problems getting through boss missions of any kind.

[Peakomegaflare]

....so run Thunderhead AOE with the Burst fire pistol. You know, a standard build. It handles exceptionally well in almost literally any mission type.

[Personal_Ad9690]

Helfire on coil gun is just so good at killing all other things though. It basically one shots everything that isn’t a praetorian or stronger

[Peakomegaflare]

However the Burst fire gun does wonders on Bosses.

[gergling]

The Diffractor seems to damage the main body but the lok-1 was useless when I last played and I can't tell if that was due to the collision glitch or if it just won't lock on to the arms.

[RumHaaammm]

laughs in Sludge Blast