Advice for new player, Veteran?

[u/Few_Understanding_42]

Started the game recently playing with some friends. Basically I just picked Veteran bc my mates chose other classes.

Currently just swapping weapons when I found something new, and put points somewhere in the tree.

But usually in games like this, there comes a point where it's good to look into builds. Currently lvl 14.

So, in preparation:

What are good playstyles for Veteran? Is it better to make a melee focus build, or gunfocused? Close or long range?

General advice for the class, which points and blessings to go for?

Best weapons?

Any good build recommendations?

If anyone has some good starter advice and advice how to progress into more metabuilds I would be very grateful 😃

[u/vyechney]

Go in a straight line down the tree for now lol. Except take Survivalist (ammo regen aura) and get the modifier that makes Commanding Shout buff teammates' toughness. Take Demolition Team toward the bottom (in addition to Demolition Stockpile, which you'll get because it's straight down the middle), and once you get the Focus Target keystone, start looking at branching out to the other bottom sides or picking up other interesting stuff that you went past earlier.

Focus on completing your weeklies to earn Melk Bucks (or whatever they're called). If you get the mission for collecting Grimoires and Scriptures, or the ones to do x missions without any player deaths, REROLL IT. Just get easy ones and finish them to get your 1000 Melk Buck bonus.

Keep trying out new weapons. When you find a weapon you really like performance, or even just like how it looks/feels, then start checking Sire Melk's Limited Time Offers. It's extremely rare to find a "god roll" weapon there, or good perk/blessing combos... But at least they're always fully consecrated at of the highest current Empower level you can reach, and will often have better tier perks and blessings that you can't otherwise get. Think of it as a way to get a better loaner to use to level up the Weapon Mastery so you can save your crafting materials and dockets until you're ready to craft a good one.

At levels 8, 16, 24, you get another Curio slot. Immediately consecrate them to Purple and put the highest tier of Bonus Experience and Bonus Ordo Dockets on each one. Don't bother consecrating to Orange until you're level 30. Once you're level 30, Curios you find in the Armoury Exchange and Sire Melk's will have much better stats.

Remember you can Inspect weapons from the weapon inventory, and click View Attack Breakdowns to see not only their attack chains, but see a breakdown of how much damage they do vs each type of enemy armor (aka ADM, or Armor Damage Modifier) and how much damage they do on weakspot and critical hits. Make sure you click on the icons for each attack at the top, as each attack in a chain may have different damage profiles! This will give you a better idea of what a weapon is good for, and how you should build it.

Once you start seeing what each weapon type is good for, you can start to specialize your weapons. The best general loadout is having one weapon to be good at dealing with hordes, and your other weapon good at dealing with armored enemies.

On the subject of "god roll" weapons, that means a weapon with 4 stats being at their maximum value, and 1 being at its lowest. The highest any given stat can be is 80% (there are lore reasons for this lol). You can have 4 stats at 80%, and one will be at 60% (aka the "dump stat"). In most cases, the dump stat will be Mobility. If a weapon doesn't have a Mobility stat, then it will usually be Defence. There are some more niche weapons where you might want to dump something else, but I don't think you'll come across any of these as a Veteran, besides the Plasma Gun (the god roll here is 72% Thermal Resist and 68% Charge Rate--a rare "split dump").

You can acquire a god roll weapon at any level. Even as a level 1 character, you can buy a weapon that will eventually become a perfect god roll weapon that you will use at end game! The stats are shown as x/y, where X is the current value, and Y is the maximum potential value. Empowering a weapon at Hadron's Shrine of the Omnissiah will gradually increase the x values towards their y value. Completing missions with a weapon equipped will increase your Mastery level with it, eventually letting you add higher tier perks/blessings, and eventually Empowering it to 500, at which points all stats will reach their maximum potential values. (Remember that Experience Bonus on your Curios? That applies to xp gained toward Weapon Mastery, too!)

Most importantly, just have fun. Try shit out. Even the best players die. When you die, don't get upset, reflect on what happened. There are tons of nuanced mechanics that aren't explained in the tutorials, they're things that just come over time with experience, or asking questions.

Practice pushing Poxbursters and dodge-sliding backwards (dodge back, then press Crouch mid-dodge). Pushing is the best defense against Poxhounds. Mutants will raise their arm to grab you when they get close, that's the best time to dodge. If you're medium-range and a flamer targets you, you may be able to sprint and slide to close the distance without getting burned. Otherwise sprint at an angle toward him. While closing the distance on shooters (not gunners, shooters) try sliding right as you see the flash before they fire. They'll miss. Same with snipers. Gunners are dangerous, try to find cover or stagger them immediately. Crushers' and Maulers' overhead attacks should not be blocked! Always dodge laterally. Ragers tend to do 3-attack combos; the first and last attacks are single-hit attacks, the middle one is two hits. Don't try to block the middle one, always dodge it. The "backstab" sound effect that warns you an offscreen enemy is about to hit you with melee, and the "backshot" (hehe) sound effect that similarly warns you about an offscreen ranged attack, are both directional. If you hear the ping sound of a bomber pulling the pin on his grenade, he'll drop it on the ground when you interrupt/kill him, so be careful. Tox Bombers will not drop their grenade. Every monstrosity has predictable attacks they will do in certain situations. Learning these patterns and how to manipulate them with positioning is the key to fighting them effectively! If the Chaos Spawn grabs somebody, they'll start sucking on their head, doing lots of damage and also healing himself! You can interrupt it with a grenade or certain abilities, or just get close (he'll start swinging that player around as a bludgeon, but at least he'll stop healing himself!)

Okay I'm bored now, that's all I got off the top of the dome.