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This build was created in a previous patch and may not perform similarly in the current patch.
by PadreDa on 08/02/2022

DRAK-25 Plasma Carbine
Zhukov NUK17
Loadout Guide
There are plenty of variations of this build, but I have yet to see this one. The idea of this build is to freeze and temp shock enemies to instantly kill them (given that they're grunts, slashers, etc.)
DRAK-25 T1.A - Faster RoF generates heat faster. You'll need this in order to activate Manual Heat Dump. T2.A - Each upgrade is acceptable, I'll take ammo in order to get more vents. Even though it goes from +250 to +200, I believe that you'll get more value with more ammo. You'll rely on vents anyway. T3.C - This is for the fun factor. Dumping heat is your friend for this build, and a 2+ sec speed boost is nice to have. T4.A - This is the only upgrade that will provide some use. Do not run Plasma Splash because Area Damage does not get the x3 damage bonus from frozen enemies. Armor Break isn't as useful because enemies will be frozen, and armor will be ignored. T5.A - Dump heat to manually vent. I'll explain this more in depth down below. (go check that out)
Zhukov NUK17 T1.A - You don't want to focus on damage for this Zhukov build. More freezizng is the way to go. T2.C - I personally like the reload speed, but anything in this tier will work. Take what you prefer. T3.B - I always run accuracy, it allows me to miss a lot less. Additionally, this isn't a damage build, so just don't take damage. T4.A - This is a tricky pick. I would say penetration has the slight advantage over ammo, and I will explain this down below. If you insist on ammo, go for it. T5.B - The electric damage bonus seems tempting, but speed seems more useful. Once again, if you insist on the elec. damage bonus, go for it.
Manual Heat Dump (MHD) and Aggressive Venting There was a small discussion within the community regarding T5.A or T5.B. Both are good options, but they alter your playstyle significantly.
MHD allows you to vent almost whenever you want. (We want this) You only need 50% heat to vent, and that will set off a little bit of heat as well as fear. The tiny amount of heat allows you to temp shock frozen enemies. This deals 200 damage. That is more than enough to kill grunts, slashers, or any small enemy. A large chunk of a praetorian's health will be taken away, and the setup is very easy to do. Start with the Zhukov's and freeze everything. Then get close with the Drak and overheat. Congratulations, you've executed them all.
Faster RoF allows you to maximize the value with each vent. This is an altered loadout that is useful, but not in this case. With every vent, the amount of heat released will scale based off of the weapon's heat. This means that MHD makes it harder to ignite grunts since you'll need a full overheat. If you want to rely off of the burn effect, run the Faster RoF. However, we don't need to burn our enemies because temp shock will do the heavy lifting. This is why MHD provides more synergy in this build, a little bit of heat is good enough.
Zhukov Tier 4 This was hard to decide between, but after running Cryo Minelets for a while, I think I'm going to stick with the penetration. There are certain scenarios where you need to hit an enemy and place a minelet on the ground, and penetration will obviously allow that. However, losing 150 is a hefty tradeoff. If you want to maximize efficiency, ammo is better without a doubt. You aren't going to "save" 150 shots due to penetration (unless you're Karl himself). However, the Zhukovs already have plenty of ammo, so the penetration allows the weapon to take out a grunt that's too close (while placing the minelet) or a spitter that's far away (and freezing it). You could also hit a Praetorian and freeze it at the same time, that's cool too. Just run what you want.
Zhukov Tier 5 Honestly, both options are perfectly fine since the Drak can proc the electric status effect. I would argue against this because the Zhukovs are not built for damage. You could argue that a 30% damage increase is significant enough, regardless of the -1 penalty from Cryo Minelets, but speed seems slightly better (and way more fun).
I think that's about it. This is probably my first "meta" build. I'm personally not as big of a fan when making these because I enjoy the game a lot more with funny "off-meta" builds that still work. (Shameless plug...check out my other builds). However, the Drak is so much fun and I have yet to see this combo used to its fullest potential. If you've read this far, thanks, and enjoy executing literally everything.
-PadreDa Rock & Stone!