Finally managed to play my first Defiance game! Here is how each character worked: - Jaan Staar: My character, good surviability and so many wounds that I didn't worry about going inconscious. Could tank enemies thanks to huge HP pool and rerolls. Also hits hard on Close Combat, and the Symbiobomb proved usefult to directly kill a Nox. - Quiang Gao: Very tanky, as expected, but also good at dishing damage. During a couple of turns the enemy hackers hit him vey hard and we were worried, but against the rest of the enemies he was very good. - John Hawkwood: He turned out to be our "hacker", thanks to the extra die provided by the Focused state. Good support character as we could always see which enemy unit activated next. The player is getting a bodyguard for the next mission to do the shooting while he relaxes and activates consoles XDDD - Lucien Sforza: Turned out to be the weakest character of the team, as the lackluster Rifle wasn't very effective even against Targgeted enemies. The player complained a lot because of this, we'll see how the character progresses through the Campaign, I hope he becomes more useful.
We started a new round with John Hawkwood : sapper blasted the door in mission 2, so we could ignore the consoles. Knowing the order for enemy activation is really handy Cassandra Kusanagi : displace for everyone is really nice and can help a lot with range (especially for CC), her escorts are nice Jaan Staar : Really tanky and hard hitting, works really well with Raouls passive for one extra in CC, Symbiobomb is nice to kill off tough enemies (Gwailo in Misson 2, Charontid in Phase 2 in Mission 3) Raoul Spector : felt lame at the beginning, but was hardest hitting character in mission 3. With taunt and Endoskeleton with nanopulsar he nearly killed the Charontid on his own, twice
Agreed on Raoul, he scales quite suddenly defensively so you want to build him reactively. I'm trying to figure out how to shore up his hacking weakness. Either Martial Arts Armour with a Defensive Hacking Device (and maybe Deflector?) or Superior Tactical Armour and the same.
Hacking device or Superior Tactical Armor were also my ideas. Last mission we had the Revenrend Custodier Escort, who mostly was the focus for the hackers, if positioned good.
Defensive Device looks great on paper but it kind of feels like a waste of a slot? Like? he's not actually going to be proactively using programs so it feels like sinking resources where you don't want to. It's also potentially another gun.
We ended up changing quite a bit and ended up with: Jaar Cho Jazz Raoul Cho was interesting, the extra Escort was really nice as was using some of her abilities, it feels like she needs a few more missions to get going though.
I tried him with DHD. Put it into the Head-Slot. For Programms i used Picklock and Inspiration Geist (synergizes really well with Nanopulsar and Hacking). He is not really good offensively, but he murders the entire Taigha Population reactively . The from DHD also helps really well against Hacking attacks.
Great shout. I'd forgotten the device is helm equippqble. I'm not near my game or cards at the moment - what does it add for Hacking Defence Rolls?
We finished Mission 6 today. Upgraded Raoul with the [Medium Armor], which lets you change to . Not quite sure if this is 100% rule compliant, but gives really nice control over damage mitigation in nanopulsar range ^^. Jaan seems to be falling behind in terms of damage, but he still can take quite a beating. Kusanagi is OP as always. Her highest dicepool while attacking was : (weapon) (ODD) (focused) (assault Helmet) (first Rifle skill) (2nd warrior monk skill). She still needs better weapon/ammunition to use all those . John himself is nice with K1 precision Rifle. But the TAG Escort was really awesome. Great range and really high damage (14in one roll) Has anyone a good idea what to do/skill with Trisha. I can't seem to find a way to make her playable .
Did you go any further into Kusanagi's Specialty for Rifles? or just happy with her Lv.1 for Versatile? Seems kinda bonkers regardless!
How are you finding things without a hacker? I'm thinking of trying a solo Outcast campaign but consoles are my one worry.
We had either Escort Hacker (Reverend Custodier) or Raoul as a Hacker. Both are good enough to active the consoles, but Raoul is a bit more reliable with Picklock. I think Cho would also work, either with Command Center I/II or with Specialist Escort (Hacker). only Rifles level 1
Glad to hear it. Seems you can definitely sub a hacker for Cho and maybe pick up a DHD if you're really struggling. Food for thought. :)
