M1000 Classic
Jury-Rigged Boomstick
Loadout Guide
Introduction
This is one of my three M1000 builds for Hazard 5 levels (Focus Hipster, Hipfire Hipster, Hoverclock), and is currently my main loadout. This build utilizes the Hoverclock OC. The loadout guide for this build is less about the build itself, but rather more about how to play Hoverclock. The majority of people just think of Hoverclock as a meme OC or just another mobility option. However, Hoverclock is a high-skill ceiling OC and it actually does provide a combat advantage if you use it properly.
Note: Hoverclock behaves quite differently when playing it as a Host/Solo vs playing it as a client (when you join someone else's game). Basically, it is much better to play it as a client than as a host/solo as it gives some beneficial hidden mechanics. This guide assumes that you are playing Hoverclock as a client.
I have also made a tutorial series about Hoverclock: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4 I highly recommend watching the videos first (each episode is less than 1 minute anyway) to get a visual of what I'm trying to say plus I put some more things in the videos that I'm too lazy to type in this guide, and then read "How to use Hoverclock" section of this guide after.
Build
If you were already using either Active Stability System or Minimal Clips OC then you can use the same exact builds you have for those OC in your Hoverclock build. This build is just what I personally use for Hoverclock. For T3, having extended clips allows you to shoot more without reloading (especially while hovering). For T4, despite the fact that you might be hovering at times, I still highly recommend Blowthrough rounds in Haz5 as they can still stack up on each other while you're hovering especially if they were already aggro'd to you in the first place; plus you're not gonna be hovering all the time anyway. But the weakpoint mod is a good alternative too if that is your preference. For T5, focused stun shots help with follow-up shots and keeping a target still. With or without Hoverclock OC, this is my preferred T5 mod anyway.
If you're curious how well my particular build works, here are some screenshots I've saved of past games: https://imgur.com/a/5h7XGDB With my build and playstyle, I have no problem at all with either damage or ammo. I can consistently get kills on par or not too far behind the rest of the team, or straight up more kills than them. This is while still having high minerals mined count and doing Scout's general role duties.
Grappling Hook - If you want to utilize Hoverclock to its fullest potential, you should take both mods that decrease grappling hook cooldown. If not, you should at the very least have one of the cooldown mods. You'll see in the next section how this affects things.
How to use Hoverclock (Playstyle/Gameplay)
If you didn't already know, you start hovering whenever you use focus mode midair. Your character then starts to gradually slow down; this hovering lasts for a short period and can be refreshed by killing enemies or touching the ground. For medium to long distances, you can play normally as you would with any Scout build. It is in close range where Hoverclock really starts to shine. Think of Scout as a God of Death constantly hovering over the battle; your spacebar and grappling hook are your best friends here. There are three main ways to take advantage of Hoverclock OC mechanics: jumping, gliding, and the grappling hook.
Jumping
The Jumping way is simple: you jump then start hovering (or glide which I'll talk about in the following subsections) and shooting. The main purpose of this is to give you a better line of sight as you're now slightly up in the air. A common scenario that I find myself using Hoverclock in is taking shots at the enemy backline. Often times you want to shoot at a target at a distance that you want to stun or maybe they're killing your teammate at the back but you have your own swarm of mobs coming at you that is in the way. You do this method (or the next two methods that will be discussed) to give you a better line of sight to shoot at the enemies at the back. This allows you to not have to grapple and reposition yourself completely and can return to dealing with your swarm once you take your potshots at the back enemies.
Grappling Hook
Of course, just the jumping method won't give you enough height distance that ground enemies are still able to touch you. This is where you utilize your grappling hook to gain height distance. You quickly flick up and grapple to the ceiling, quickly release your hook, then just hover (or glide--which I'll talk about in the next subsection) and start shooting. You don't have to go that far up with the grappling, just enough that ground enemies can't touch you. Assuming you have the T4 mod that shoots the hook out at a faster speed, the action of grappling up and releasing should be almost instantaneous with only a slight delay between. Once your hover runs out, either grapple back in or just land normally if it's safe to do so. This is where having the double cooldown mods for the grappling hook is important as it gives you more flexibility in doing this grappling hook strategy and overall fewer situations where you take fall damage. You can also abuse this strategy easier if you have a cliff nearby. Simply jump off the cliff, hover, and start shooting. Then grapple back onto the cliff and repeat the process.
Gliding
This is the most important hidden mechanic of Hoverclock that really allows you to make some crazy plays. For a video demo of gliding, see the video I linked above in the introduction (timestamp 5:03). Basically, while you're in midair, you fire an uncharged shot to carry whatever momentum you had into the air. This is not exactly the same as the normal hovering mechanic that you get from doing focus mode mid-air. Gliding allows you to move a lot more freely while in the air, whereas in normal hovering (the one you activate with focus mode) you're pretty much stuck in the same place where you started hovering (except gradually falling down obviously). The primary purpose of this is during combat--just jump (while in place, walking, or sprinting) and then shoot an uncharged shot at least once (preferably at an enemy since you're already fighting so you don't waste ammo). This gives you momentum mid-air that you can utilize to move freely mid-air even with the smallest momentum compared to just normal hovering.
Tips & Tricks
- Assuming you took both lower cooldown mods on your grapple, the duration of one hover is enough time to stall for your grapple to reload again. This allows you to stay in the air forever with no ammo cost (Episode 1).
- If you properly chain both your grappling hooks and gliding, you can stay up in the air for quite a long time while still shooting. A combo that I like to do is quickly grapple up, release, and then start gliding by firing an uncharged shot and start killing enemies with either hipfire shots or focus shots.
- Pulling out your pickaxe, laser pointer, or switching weapons completely cancels your hover. Reloading (either full or not full mag) does not cancel your hover and you will ride out the remaining of your hover (Episode 3).
- You can abuse this reloading mechanic even more by just quickly tapping and holding focus for like a millisecond and then reload quickly. This basically lets you hover without having to fire an uncharged shot or suffer the air immobility of holding a focus shot.
- Kills while focus hovering or gliding reset your hover duration AND hover activation. This means that you can grapple up and activate the glide mechanic (which uses up your one time hover activation) kill one enemy which allows you to re-activate hovering again without touching the ground or grappling to reset (Episode 4).
- Firing focus shots consumes 2 rounds of your magazine capacity, not your max ammo. This means even if you have 1 round left in your magazine, you can still fire a focus shot that applies the full focus damage and it does not deduct an extra round from your max ammo. This allows you to shoot (assuming you use +mag size for T3 mod) one extra hipfire shot while still being able to fire 7 focus shots with the same total ammo consumption, rather than just 7 focus shots.
Embed Det Zhukov Explanation
As explained in my Focus Hipster and Hipfire Hipster builds, since Hoverclock has fall negation I don't need Special Powder Boomstick anymore. I was mainly using Special Powder as a fall negation tool rather than a mobility tool. However, you can still go for Special Powder Boomstick or Boomstick in general as a secondary for the Hoverclock if that is your preference. The reason why I choose Embed Det Zhukov for secondary is that it has insane DPS on bigger targets like Oppressors, Praetorians, and Wardens. This combo setup also allows you to make use of your Hoverclock M1k on trash mobs more (and you can still use it for larger enemies) and use Embed Det Zhukovs to completely annihilate large enemies. Usually, Scout has trouble either doing both or being able to do only one decent, but this setup makes it so Scout can do both jobs very well. I also never have problems with ammo with this setup even with my very aggressive playstyle.
Utility
Perks are completely up to you, I personally use Born Ready, Deep Pockets, Thorns, Field Medic, and Iron Will. Cryo Grenades - Super versatile; allows clutch revives; makes the killing of breeder, brood nexus, and spitballers easier; freezes enemies which one-shots swarmers and mactera. Pickaxe - less cooldown mod to make mining faster and getting up to those veins Flare Gun - Combo of ammo/longer duration is up to preference. A higher fire rate allows you to shoot 2+ flares quickly at once; mainly useful during combat. But if you want the slight ammo edge, then go for higher magazines.