Grey's waveclear DRAK with Impact Deflection and ED/Custom Casings Zhukovs [Archived]

Build premise: outkilling your teammates has never been so easy as Scout. Makes the class capable of decent swarmclear as long as you have IFGs to throw at the chokepoint. ED Zhukovs compensate for your lack of killing power against large targets by letting you murder them indiscriminately; the outlined Custom Casings alternative build is a quick dirty adaptation in case you lack ED or want something different.

DRAK Build
T1: RoF bonus is now preferred in T1 given that U36 has changed Impact Deflection into a Balanced OC with RoF penalty or the DPS loss will be too much.
T2: Larger Battery, as Impact Deflection is already a damage bonus by itself.
T3: Both GEN 2 Cooling System and Custom Coil Alignment are fine in this build, I prefer the cooling myself.
T4: Impact Deflection can make great use of Plasma Splash with the splash damage hitting twice if shot underneath a bug’s feet. The synergy with Overcharged PCF is great with Custom Casings Zhukovs anti-HVT build. Armor Breaking is wasted on a weapon with high RoF and comparatively weak damage per shot, it doesn’t hit any armour breaking breakpoints either (it might not even work against light armour if the experiments Wiki team makes are any indication).
T5: Thermal Feedback Loop increases your DPS if you can juggle heat properly. Manual Heat Dump… sometimes increases sustained DPS by reducing time you spend in overheat which the T3 cooling mod prevents in the first place? Easy pick I suppose…

OC: Impact Deflection. The plasma bounce tries to hit nearest enemies, making it an excellent swarmclear choice. Throw an IFG on a chokepoint and watch the sparks fly. Kiting enemies into the IFG field is an integral part of this build’s gameplay.

Zhukovs Build
T1: Expanded Ammo Bags is a no-brainer, more ammo = more detonators and Custom Casings shots.
T2: Quickfire Ejector compliments the T5 selection nicely and increases your sustained DPS; if you’re good at reload cancelling base Zhuks however, you can make use out of all 3 mods.
T3: x0.4 spread on a weapon with large Horizontal Spread vs +1 damage. No contest and a really easy win for accuracy in Embedded Detonators’ case. Custom Casings build is flexible here, and after reviewing the breakpoint calculation with IFG applied, you don’t have to use +1 damage to hit the Haz 5 4 player Praetorian 1-clip breakpoint. Accurate Zhuks are reliable Zhuks in a clutch situation.
T4: The choice is between Expanded Ammo Bags and Hollow-Point Bullets. While more ammo equals more Embedded Detonators, Custom Casings would rather have the weakspot damage bonus due to specifics of the build.
T5: Get In, Get Out is the best option for Embedded Detonators. Conductive Bullets, however, is the pick for Custom Casings build as it alows you to stack up the damage bonuses to ridiculousness. You can one-clip a Haz 5 4p Praetorian with Custom Casings under IFG and with the recommended build. Failing that, you can always give the Praetorian a good whack with your Pickaxe Power Attack specced into damage and that should be enough. The DRAK electrocution also allows you to proc Conductive Bullets’ bonus.

OC: Embedded Detonators / Custom Casings. ED is THE OC to destroy HVT enemies. It adds so much guaranteed damage it’s not even funny. If you lack that, you can adapt with Custom Casings OC and the outlined build changes. In either case, the playstyle is to find the target’s weakspot, start shooting (ED) or shoot it with DRAK until Electrocution procs (Custom Casings) then go to town. IFG adds even more damage to your burst DPS.