Can't decide on a stat build.

[Scyris]

I am legit having issues deciding on a build. I tried agility before but found for melee that knives are pretty garbage, no knockdown, meh range, bleed effect from deep cuts perk that does not work properly in terms of stacking. Bleed does 1hp/s dmg, lv 3 deep cuts instantly stacks a 4 stacked bleed, but somehow this only equals 2 hp/s and not 4hp/s? Pistol was pretty good though.

 

Perception: I don't like the spears, nice range but their per hit damage is horribly low, and they can't bleed, or knockdown like clubs or knives can.

 

Stun baton seems pretty crap in general so not touching it.

 

Clubs are easly the best weapon all around for melee, good damage, knockdowns. Even without perks, with perks its extremly good. Sledge is prob great too, but i'd prefer clubs.

 

Fort: I find the weapons have really low damage, I play on warrior difficulty as adventurer/nomad is way to easy.

 

I'd most likely be a hybrid build, my last build before I died (played dead is dead) was 7 agi, 3 str, 3 fort. Speced into pistols and knives for weapons. I could see me maxing fort for heavy armor and healing factor later on.

 

My main problem is decided what gun/melee to use as I tend to use all 3 guns, since I often find ammo for them. Having an issue deciding on a melee weapon though. Tried knives and like I said, was not very impressed with it. It got better when I got a machete, but I think i'd rather the knockdown from clubs over the wonky bleeds.

[Ghostlight]

I'm afraid I am a predictable Str + Int mainly (to begin with at least), every time. Pummel Pete (Baseball Bat) + Gunslinger (Pistols + SMG)

 

Baseball Bat feels amazing.

[Viktoriusiii]

this will always be a thing in games that have certain classes.

While in multiplayer games different classes have different roles and therefor is fun to specialize.

"I am the tank and I feel proud of tanking, but not dealing much damage" and so on.

In a singleplayer game, it just feels bad when you have to basicially skip parts of the game, because you havent picked the right perks.

In REAL roleplaying games, like TFPs want this game to be where there is a story and interesting stories and npcs and quests, this works since you get better while exploring the game until you are good at everything.

 

In a sandbox survival, this is not the case.

You want to pick the best to survive, but you also want to have fun. So if I want to be a shotgun slinger who can also snipe, I will need multiple perktrees. If I then want to be able to get better trader rewards, I need a third.

So yeah... only thing you can do is start over or cheat to have your ideal build... or farm xp for hours until you can buy all the perks you want... not really my definition of fun, but I will get to that when I do my full feedback on A18. (will take at least 2 more weeks)

[Slingblade2040]

I went with a brawler tank build. don't have to worry about infection really and once you either craft or find iron armor you get little to no damage.

[Ramethzer0]

I was pretty unimpressed with knives too. I still think they are mainly geared towards PVP maybe.

 

That being said, perked Stun Batons are a hoot. I haven't knocked anyone down (don't think its meant for that) But at 3 I was locking down 3v1's no problemo.

 

With my t4 junk turret dropped down (they tend to stun) I went through a nice sized rando horde on open ground all on my own no problemo. Takes some effort to learn how to strategize the placement and movement since this combo plays nothing like regular melee.

But its a refreshing change for me.

[Ornias]

Loving my agility light armor build. Ditched the bow and went with a silenced 9mm. With 7 points in agility, 4 in sneak attack and pistol perk I am 1 shotting sleeping radiated zombs.

[Laz Man]

Just because you dont perk into something doesnt mean its completely worthless. Perk into the weapons that is most fun for you and continue to use other weapons to supplement your playstyle.

 

For example, I'm doing a peception/int build right now but use a sledge as a secondary for shock damage to supplement my spear. So far its been working for me.

 

I'm sure there will be more balancing over time so I wouldnt think too much into it and just play and report back your experience.

 

Tdlr: try to resist min/max ing too much as things will most likely change anyways. (I.e just like how the turret got nerfed).

[Scyris]

I was pretty unimpressed with knives too. I still think they are mainly geared towards PVP maybe.

 

That being said, perked Stun Batons are a hoot. I haven't knocked anyone down (don't think its meant for that) But at 3 I was locking down 3v1's no problemo.

 

With my t4 junk turret dropped down (they tend to stun) I went through a nice sized rando horde on open ground all on my own no problemo. Takes some effort to learn how to strategize the placement and movement since this combo plays nothing like regular melee.

But its a refreshing change for me.

 

Main problem is the bleed damage is not doing as much as it should, like deep cuts 3 I had, should stack 4 1hp/s bleeds on a zombie instantly, for 4 hp/s, yet from what I seen by turning life bars on, it was doing half of what it should be. Trying clubs/unknown ranged weapon for now. Club seems pretty strong even with 2 in the pummel pete perk, got a t3 iron club with 23 damage atm, which is almost more than a t3 hunting knife can do on a power attack. I kinda really like pistols now, good damage and plentiful ammo. SMG still kinda is crap though its damage is way to low imo. Don't give me the "its full auto" excuse either, you can slap a full auto mod into a pistol and still do way more damage than a smg.

[Ramethzer0]

Don't give me the "its full auto" excuse either, you can slap a full auto mod into a pistol and still do way more damage than a smg.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one that ventured the question. I actually giggled like a madman when i slapped the full auto trigger into one of my pistols back in a17. I told my buddy about it, and he seemed to enjoy it a little too much as well.

[Aldranon]

First, just build your own baseline of essential perks that have nothing to do with specific weapons.

 

My baseline is:

- 3 perk points each on the last 4 perks of fortitude and 3 points in T-rex from strength, raising perks equally.

 

- then INT until I can build forges and mixers and a Mini-bike

 

Done with baseline.

---------------------------------------

 

THEN, for me, the two "must have" weapons are the M60 line and the shotgun line.

 

M60 is best overall.

But a fully modded shotgun is best close up as the damage scales faster (damage bonus is PER SHOT x 5). But in A18 plastic/paper is harder to get than brass.

 

Melee weapons are not important, you can easily kill normal zombies with a tier 1 wooden club.

[Ramethzer0]

But in A18 plastic/paper is harder to get than brass.[/Quote]

 

Not even remotely. There are rolls of paper in the mills you can be swimming in it.

 

I routinely rip up window blinds for polymers too. Easy peasy.

[andrough]

It's not the most effective setup, but I'm having fun with DoT. I'm perked into agility, but for melee I like to use a stun baton with a flaming shaft, then put some bleeding onto them after they're shocked.

[Aldranon]

Not even remotely. There are rolls of paper in the mills you can be swimming in it.

 

I routinely rip up window blinds for polymers too. Easy peasy.

 

IF you can find a paper mill then your OK for a good while while for paper, but polymers for the REAL nasty shotgun shells are more rare than what? 5 radiators for some houses?

 

I would be fine making the high end shotgun shells from brass now. Once maxed out, its truly the most deadly weapon at melee ranges.

[Shelgeyr]

First, just build your own baseline of essential perks that have nothing to do with specific weapons.

 

My baseline is:

- 3 perk points each on the last 4 perks of fortitude and 3 points in T-rex from strength, raising perks equally.

 

- then INT until I can build forges and mixers and a Mini-bike

Thanks for that. I had a similar "first, get a baseline" strategy a while back but had forgotten about it during my hiatus.

In my current game, I'm using a pretty long string of perks for my baseline but it seems to be working out for me.

My non-combat perk set consists of:

Perception

• Lock Picking
  
  
• Lucky Looter
  
  
• Salvage Operations

Strength

• Sexual Tyrannosaurus
  
  
• Pack Mule
  
  
• Master Chef
  
  
• Miner 69'er
  
  
• Mother Lode

Fortitude

• Living off the Land
  
  
• Pain Tolerance
  
  
• Healing Factor
  
  
• Rule 1: Cardio

Intellect

• Advanced Engineering
  
  
• Grease Monkey

 

My first few points went into Lucky Looter, Pack Mule, Sexual Tyrannosaurus, Pain Tolerance, Healing Factor, and Rule 1: Cardio

After I had bought 1 rank each of everything on the list, I upped my Strength to 3 and bought more ranks in those 5 perks because they're just so useful and can be gotten so cheaply that they're too good to pass up.

 

By the time I'd done all that, I'd decided to go Intellect - see if turrets & batons could be fun.

So far, it is

[RipClaw]

My first few points went into Lucky Looter, Pack Mule, Sexual Tyrannosaurus, Pain Tolerance, Healing Factor, and Rule 1: Cardio

After I had bought 1 rank each of everything on the list, I upped my Strength to 3 and bought more ranks in those 5 perks because they're just so useful and can be gotten so cheaply that they're too good to pass up.

 

By the time I'd done all that, I'd decided to go Intellect - see if turrets & batons could be fun.

So far, it is

 

Pack Mule is not really necessary. You can directly craft 3 pocket mods for the clothing that unlocks one pocket space each. Over time you can add Triple Pocket Mods to your armor and with the Cargo Pockets Mods you can finally unlock all the slots without spending a single point to Pack Mule.

[ShadesOfKnight]

IMLTHO, the best build is not heavily specialized. I usually am forced to specialize in Int because I'm a solo player and you have to in order to get the crafting skills, but my builds are usually a point or two in non-Int attributes just to get the bottom couple rungs of specific skills: Cardio, Iron Gut, Healing Factor, Tyrannosaur, Looter, and Barter especially.

 

Weapons? I typically don't waste time with anything more advanced than one point in archery and one point in spears. So far, the RNG has favored me by providing Crossbows often, and an Iron spear has reach and sufficient stagger to let me do crowd control in tight spaces.

 

Never saw the point in Pack Mule because with Tyranno and Cardio plus a set of running shoes the speed penalty for encumbrance is manageable.

 

Now that I know turrets can be ganged, Int is even more valuable for me as a solo player - maybe not "forced" to specialize in it anymore.