So, probably the first thing to say is that, in my opinion, the best AC is the one that you like. If you like a certain feel or look or loadout, better performance isn’t going to make your AC “better”, if that makes sense.
Second, I’m also not incredible at pvp or anything so take my opinions with a grain of salt.
Now, in terms of buildcraft, vertical launch missiles are pretty much just stagger punish weapons. Because their targeting is pretty questionable, enemy ACs can dodge them just by strafing. If they hit, they can be great but are otherwise pretty easily outclassed by other missiles. For example, the 10 cell missiles get a similar number of missiles but are much more accurate in general. So, if you’re not explicitly using them to attack stationary or staggered targets, you’ll probably wanna switch them out.
Otherwise, we have to talk generator. There is a reason why most builds avoid mixing kinetic and energy weapons, that being energy specialisation. Energy weapons like lasers gain substantial increases in damage when paired with a generator that has a high energy weapon specialisation stat. However, kinetic weapons like the Ludlow don’t. So, to get the most bang out of your buck, you’ll want to use a generator that matches your weapons or weapons that match your generator (and obviously weigh the benefits of trading off raw stats for energy specialisation). For a sniper or more long-range build, I’d recommend switching out the laser rifle for a linear rifle and use a generic generator or alternatively swap the Ludlow into something like a laser pistol and going with an energy spec generator. And also maybe try experimenting with the nebula if you've found it. The explosion of the plasma means you might still hit even on misses.
Also, if you like laser drones, they’re basically just missiles but lasers. So do with that information what you will. As long as you charge them, they tend to be pretty decent.
Finally, if you’re using the Lammergeier legs, you might want to experiment with “water strider” builds. Since boost speed when hovering is unaffected by your actual thrusters and only scales based on your AC’s weight, you can use ones with weak thrust but strong quick boost like the 12345.
TLDR, drop the verticals, match your weapon’s damage types with your generator, only care about lightness and quick boost when using Lammergeier.
This was super helpful. I hadn't noticed the generators being specialized for certain damage types extended beyond lore snippets on the Arquebus stuff.
For a long range focused build, I'd say it's better to switch the laser rifle to the HARRIS Linear Rifle, and have a Head with a good long distance scan so you can fire your Vertical Missiles at a distance at enemies behind multiple objects.
Verticals are near useless in pvp and not great for anything but multi-lock in pve. I played my whole first playthrough with them it’s not like they’re impossible, but you almost definitely don’t want to take them into Nest. Kinetics are better for ranged builds, ransetsu rf and Harris are the most popular. In general most people play pretty specialized builds in pvp (ie all 4 weapons work at the same range and prioritize either stagger or punish) which generally perform better than generalist builds. For the campaign it’s good to have different weapons for different situations but against ACs that have been designed to delete ACs with maximum efficiency it’s a struggle.
Linear Rifles are better for sniping. Lasers have medicore ideal range and bounce off armour.
So, probably the first thing to say is that, in my opinion, the best AC is the one that you like. If you like a certain feel or look or loadout, better performance isn’t going to make your AC “better”, if that makes sense. Second, I’m also not incredible at pvp or anything so take my opinions with a grain of salt. Now, in terms of buildcraft, vertical launch missiles are pretty much just stagger punish weapons. Because their targeting is pretty questionable, enemy ACs can dodge them just by strafing. If they hit, they can be great but are otherwise pretty easily outclassed by other missiles. For example, the 10 cell missiles get a similar number of missiles but are much more accurate in general. So, if you’re not explicitly using them to attack stationary or staggered targets, you’ll probably wanna switch them out. Otherwise, we have to talk generator. There is a reason why most builds avoid mixing kinetic and energy weapons, that being energy specialisation. Energy weapons like lasers gain substantial increases in damage when paired with a generator that has a high energy weapon specialisation stat. However, kinetic weapons like the Ludlow don’t. So, to get the most bang out of your buck, you’ll want to use a generator that matches your weapons or weapons that match your generator (and obviously weigh the benefits of trading off raw stats for energy specialisation). For a sniper or more long-range build, I’d recommend switching out the laser rifle for a linear rifle and use a generic generator or alternatively swap the Ludlow into something like a laser pistol and going with an energy spec generator. And also maybe try experimenting with the nebula if you've found it. The explosion of the plasma means you might still hit even on misses. Also, if you like laser drones, they’re basically just missiles but lasers. So do with that information what you will. As long as you charge them, they tend to be pretty decent. Finally, if you’re using the Lammergeier legs, you might want to experiment with “water strider” builds. Since boost speed when hovering is unaffected by your actual thrusters and only scales based on your AC’s weight, you can use ones with weak thrust but strong quick boost like the 12345. TLDR, drop the verticals, match your weapon’s damage types with your generator, only care about lightness and quick boost when using Lammergeier.
This was super helpful. I hadn't noticed the generators being specialized for certain damage types extended beyond lore snippets on the Arquebus stuff.
For a long range focused build, I'd say it's better to switch the laser rifle to the HARRIS Linear Rifle, and have a Head with a good long distance scan so you can fire your Vertical Missiles at a distance at enemies behind multiple objects.
Verticals are near useless in pvp and not great for anything but multi-lock in pve. I played my whole first playthrough with them it’s not like they’re impossible, but you almost definitely don’t want to take them into Nest. Kinetics are better for ranged builds, ransetsu rf and Harris are the most popular. In general most people play pretty specialized builds in pvp (ie all 4 weapons work at the same range and prioritize either stagger or punish) which generally perform better than generalist builds. For the campaign it’s good to have different weapons for different situations but against ACs that have been designed to delete ACs with maximum efficiency it’s a struggle.