DPS Mobility Skirmisher

UPDATED for Season 3

Summary :

The perfect, all-round skirmisher. It's a build for high mobility AND high damage versus swarms or big boys like praetorians.

Accuracy is not prioritized, however, so engage close range (which is why slow-from-electric and hot feet mods are really useful here for CC and mobility).

This build is meant for shooting off volleys of plasma until overheat occurs or is triggered manually, and then alternating with the high-damage modded Zhuks if needed. Meanwhile you get to take advantage of the overheat speed boost, the overheat ammo regeneration on the carbine, and your Zhuks do bonus damage to targets that were electrified by the plasma volley.

Alternate plasma volley until overheat, switch to zhuks and unload one or two clips, switch back to plasma and overheat it again, then repeat.

You can reserve your grappling hook charge as a GTFO option since you'll have a speed boost for most of a battle.

Tested on several dozen Haz 5 missions with success (it's one of my main builds). Also tested on EDD, however, depending on the nitra scarcity in this weeks EDD, you may want to grab the ammo mod in tier 2.

Important Overclock Note:

The carbine regains ammo when overheating with the Rewiring Mod OC. You will have tons of ammo if you ensure you always overheat.

Overheating to maximum is ideal as you regenerate more ammo. However, it's fine to "waste" plasma shots in order to reach the manual overheat threshold if you're engaging some small fries. You get more ammo back anyway.

For example, if you're engaging a single (or a few) grunts, shoot until they're dead and then keep shooting the terrain while hitting "R" (reload) a few times. Eventually you'll trigger manual overheat which pauses firing. This actually wastes less ammo overall.

Learning the timing is rewarding but spamming R/reload when you're ready to stop firing works too. Always overheat.

Damage / Tactical Synergy Notes :

There are several synergies between the two weapon builds.

The plasma has a chance to proc electrical DoT on anything you hit with it. This applies DoT (as noted) and slows the enemy, making your mobility even more advantageous. You also get to do bonus damage to electrified enemies with your Zhuks.

When subject to an overheat cooldown period, you get a speed boost due to the hot feet mod on the carbine. It's a substantial boost to running speed, and it lasts for the entire duration of the overheat which is about 3-4 seconds. This lets you quickly gain distance from the swarm, or rapidly change position to flank with the Zhuks.

The Zhuks Gas Recycling OC gives a huge damage boost which is even more obscene vs. electrified targets, however, this OC slows you down when firing. The slow down from this OC is not as much of a concern thanks to the speed boost from the plasma carbine (when overheated). Additionally, you can fire bursts from the Zhuks if you'd like to change position quickly at full speed.

Zhuks are given the faster reload mod so you can perhaps fire off two clips within one "hot foot" speed window. Generally your overheat window expires sometime in the middle of the second clip. There may be room for optimization of the overheat window + electrical damage bonus synergy here by testing different tier 2 Zhuk mods. However, faster reload is good for skirmishers using their Zhuks by themselves without the combo attack anyway.

UPDATE for Season 3, Gas Recycling now does +1 damage from before, and the devs added amazing armor breaking, which synergizes with your Drak combo-attack by "opening up" enemies you hit with a Zhuk barrage, making the subsequent Drak volley more effective.

Further Notes :

The build for your flares, grappling hook, and armor is up to you.

I usually recommend cryo nades as they're excellent vs. macteras, breeders and other hazards, however, IFGs are also an option if you want to use them to gain bonus damage and do some blowthrough with your Zhuks to anything caught up in the IFG field chokepoint.