#lancer builds

[vexwerewolf]

Is a Melee focused Monarch possible or just a waste of effort?

I mean, yeah, it's possible. It's not a terrible frame for melee; it's Size 2, it's fast and it has fairly decent survivability. But it's also a waste of effort because none of its traits synergize with non-ranged attacks, and its equipment package provides no support for melee whatsoever.

[draculancer-flow]

I'm moving lucrative. I'm moving voluptuous. I'm moving vindictive. I'm moving unrequited. I'm moving out. I'm moving forward.

DracuLancer Flow presents: I'm Moving Different

A LL6 build

This build straight gassing, cutting straight to the bricks.

The Fold Knife is a hell of a thing for a dip into a single licence level for Mourning Cloak. It doesn't display on the printed COMP/CON sheets, but the main gimmick of the otherwise low-damage weapon is that a critical hit causes you to teleport two spaces in any direction. It's some decent positioning, especially since it's an auxiliary weapon so you can have two per flex mount. However, it's inconsistent even with the accurate tag increasing your crit chance, and so usually used in tandem with some of Mourning Cloak's other systems for consistent overwatch denial and extra movement.

We don't want that. We want chaos, we want to turn the sitrep into a minefield without a single point in Iskander.

This is why we use Dusk Wing. Not only can the mech basically ignore difficult terrain owing to its hover ability, but its core power, DHIYED Articulation, lets us activate the Hall of Mirrors protocol, which makes us create a copy of ourselves every time we start a unique movement. These copies are not decoys, or duplicates, or helpers, or mirages; they're bombs. They were made at the bomb factory. They're bombs.

The key to this build is that every time you teleport, it counts as a new movement, letting you lay another one of these little bastards. Seven Fold Knives makes this very easy to do.

Let's break it down: The two core bonuses give us an additional three aux slots for fold knives that we can use, for a total of seven. This is would require an overcharge every time we wanted to use them all in one turn, so we're Not Going To Do That; instead, we're dipping three entire levels into Raleigh to use nothing but the UNCLE-Class Comp/Con, which lets us fire from an additional mount with some decreased accuracy (Note: I was unable to find out if UNCLE lets you fire both weapons on an aux/aux mount, but if it doesn't that's stupid so I will choose to disregard it).

Our systems barely matter but are worth noting. Flicker Field Projector makes us much harder to hit when we move (which we will always be doing, given that we're focusing on Hall of Mirrors), Neurospike lets us do some extra attacking just in case, and Armament Redundancy, Stable Structure, and Personalizations are here because there aren't really any other useful systems we can take and I wanted to spend the extra system points.

As for talents, Ace and Combined Arms make us a bit harder to hit, Tactician makes us marginally more accurate and can negate the effects of UNCLE, and Exemplar lets us give our allies a little bit of support, as a treat. Hunter is the real star of the show; it gives us better range with our Fold Knives and gives us an extra movement option.

In summary, in a standard turn, we will

Move (triggers Flicker Field and creates 1 copy)

Move again because of hunter (creating 1 copy)

Attack Seven Fucking Times (netting us up to 8 copies)

Still be able to overwatch and support our allies with Exemplar

All without overcharging

Giving us

Up to 24 kinetic damage just from the fold knives

Between 2 and 9 copies (up to 9d6 energy damage, save for half)

and that's still not counting reaction shenanigans or overcharging

In summary,

When you pilot this mech, you move different.

[wyrmoffthestr1ng]

I'm banging my pots and pans rn as I call upon the Lancer community.

I need help making the most evil e-attack/hacker build. I want it to be nothing short of diabolical. I want to hack everything I touch without even trying.

(My DM is not going easy on my lancer crew, so I've decided to become a nightmare/silly)

Here's what I have so far (we're on session 3):

• LL0 (about to get LL1)

• Hacker background

• Talents rn are Spotter 1, Hacker 1, and Infiltrator 1

I'm currently thinking of going for the Goblin? Idk.

All ideas are welcome, thank you!! >:)

[drunkenskunk]

Think I could get Big-Reds build specs? (Totally not asking so I can throw it in my campaign as a reference none of my players have any chance of getting.)

Sure thing boss!

(Art by @cozzymandiart)

-- GMS Everest @ LL6 -- [ LICENSES ] IPS-N Drake 3, HA Barbarossa 1, HA Genghis 2 [ CORE BONUSES ] Overpower Caliber, Reinforced Frame [ TALENTS ] Walking Armory 3, Brutal 3, Crack Shot 2, SPACEBORN 1 [ STATS ] HULL:6 AGI:0 SYS:0 ENGI:2 STRUCTURE:4 HP:32 ARMOR:0 STRESS:4 HEATCAP:8 REPAIR:8 TECH ATK:0 LIMITED:+1 SPD:4 EVA:8 EDEF:8 SENSE:10 SAVE:13 [ WEAPONS ] MAIN MOUNT: Assault Rifle FLEX MOUNT: SUPERHEAVY WEAPON BRACING HEAVY MOUNT: Leviathan Heavy Assault Cannon // Overpower Caliber [ SYSTEMS ] COMP/CON-Class Assistant Unit, Siege Stabilizers, Armament Redundancy, Portable Bunker x2, Auto-Cooler, Personalizations

[vexwerewolf]

Hey! I'm relatively new to Lancer so I'm not sure what you mean about never making LL12 builds as a matter of principle?

There are three major interconnected reasons:

You will not use this build. Unless a game specifically starts at LL12 or close to it, it is unlikely you will ever see LL12. The harsh truth of TTRPGs is that a lot of games will fizzle out, and even the ones that reach a satisfying conclusion might well not run all the way from LL0 to LL12. This also runs up against another problem:

Even if you did get to use it, how long would it last? So like, assume that we go through an entire LL0 to LL12 campaign. You get to use this chosen build for what, one mission? This leads to the concluding and biggest problem:

Builds should not take the entire campaign to come together. The default LL that Lancer builds are specced for is LL6. This is an easily-achievable LL that a lot of campaigns can make it to, it gives you 6 License Levels, 8 Mech Points, 9 Talent points and 2 Core Bonuses. This is a reasonable spread to allow for customisation while still being achievable. If your build's core identity can't come together by LL6, that's too long for most games.

[vexwerewolf]

-- SSC Death’s Head @ LL6 -- [ LICENSES ] SSC Death’s Head 3, IPS-N Tortuga 3 [ CORE BONUSES ] Reinforced Frame, Full Subjectivity Sync [ TALENTS ] Heavy Gunner 3, Vanguard 3, Grease Monkey 3 [ STATS ] HULL:4 AGI:2 SYS:0 ENGI:2 STRUCTURE:4 HP:26 ARMOR:0 STRESS:4 HEATCAP:8 REPAIR:4 TECH ATK:0 LIMITED:+1 SPD:6 EVA:14 EDEF:8 SENSE:20 SAVE:13 [ WEAPONS ] MAIN/AUX MOUNT: Deck-Sweeper Automatic Shotgun / Pistol HEAVY MOUNT: Railgun [ SYSTEMS ] Personalizations, HyperDense Armor, Kinetic Compensator, High-Stress Mag Clamps, Pattern-A Smoke Charges x4

I call this build "Tungsten Peashooter," the logical opposite of "Glass Cannon." It takes advantage of a very specific rules non-interaction: "half damage" effects don't stack.

HyperDense Armor gives you resistance to all damage from beyond of Range 3, in exchange your you dealing half damage to targets beyond Range 3. Heavy Gunner 3 allows you to mark two targets and attack them with your heavy mount when they move, at half damage. But these effects don't combine, so there's no additional penalty.

[vexwerewolf]

-- HA Sunzi @ LL6 -- [ LICENSES ] HA Sunzi 2, IPS-N Blackbeard 1, IPS-N Vlad 2, SSC Mourning Cloak 1 [ CORE BONUSES ] Titanomachy Mesh, Improved Armament [ TALENTS ] Duelist 3, Vanguard 3, Combined Arms 2, Brawler 1 [ STATS ] HULL:4 AGI:2 SYS:0 ENGI:2 STRUCTURE:4 HP:20 ARMOR:1 STRESS:4 HEATCAP:9 REPAIR:5 TECH ATK:+1 LIMITED:+1 SPD:5 EVA:9 EDEF:8 SENSE:15 SAVE:14 [ WEAPONS ] FLEX MOUNT: Impaler Nailgun MAIN/AUX MOUNT: Chain Axe / Fold Knife [ SYSTEMS ] Synthetic Muscle Netting, Personalizations, Blink Charges x4, Accelerate, Blinkspace Tunneler

I call this one "These Four Arms Ain't For Nothing!"

This build exploits a very funny side-effect of the fact that the Sunzi can freely redirect its own teleportation at no cost.

Even when you control a Grapple, Grappling disables two important things: your ability to take reactions and Boost. Conveniently, however, the Sunzi's Blink Anchor is specifically stated to not be a reaction, and the Sunzi's Slip trait is not a Boost. This means that you can place your blink anchor down, run across the battlefield, grapple an enemy, and use Slip to redirect the teleport to the blink anchor. The end result is that both you and the enemy you grappled end up next to your Blink Anchor, circumventing the usual cost to redirect the teleportation of any enemy target.

Congratulations: you are now wanted by the DoJ/HR for abduction.

Our build largely just works to support this strategy. We have Synthetic Muscle Netting to make sure we're always controlling grapples, we have both Titanomachy Mesh and Duelist 3 to give us free Grapple attempts, Brawler 1 to make our melee attacks against grappled targets more accurate, a Fold Knife to potentially proc a free teleport, and an Impaler Nailgun to keep enemies immobilized in the spot we abduct them to.

[vexwerewolf]

Can you build the one punchiban?

It's 5:40 AM but here you go.

-- IPS-N CALIBAN @ LL6 -- [ LICENSES ] IPS-N ZHENG 3, IPS-N CALIBAN 2, SSC Black Witch 1 [ CORE BONUSES ] Superheavy Mounting, Overpower Caliber [ TALENTS ] Executioner 3, Nuclear Cavalier 3, PANKRATI 2, Vanguard 1 [ STATS ] HULL:4 AGI:2 SYS:0 ENGI:2 STRUCTURE:4 HP:19 ARMOR:2 STRESS:4 HEATCAP:7 REPAIR:7 TECH ATK:-2 LIMITED:+1 SPD:4 EVA:10 EDEF:8 SENSE:3 SAVE:14 [ WEAPONS ] Integrated: HHS-075 “Flayer” Shotgun SUPERHEAVY MOUNT: D/D 288 (SUPERMASSIVE MOD) // Overpower Caliber HEAVY MOUNT: SUPERHEAVY WEAPON BRACING [ SYSTEMS ] Personalizations, Armament Redundancy, Ferrous Lash, SPIKE CHARGES x3, TOTAL STRENGTH SUITE I

I call this one That Doesn't Seem Physically Possible.

So fun fact: Ferrous Lash doesn't require that your target be in sensors. It has a flat range. That flat range happens to be 8, and you can punch someone 9 spaces away with a charged D/D 288 because we put Supermassive on it.

What this means is that you can prime your D/D 288 and use your other action to Ferrous Lash an enemy straight into your mech, where they will fall prone. The next turn, you can punch them so hard they see the face of god, knock them 9 spaces in the direction you punched them, all of which you travel with them due to the Caliban's Pursue Prey trait.

Your charged D/D 288 does a minimum of 13 damage (14 if you're in the Danger Zone) with a potential maximum of 38 damage (44 if you're in the Danger Zone), but I think that might actually be the least interesting thing about this build.