Jack-of-all-trades Build

(Jimmy James) #1

I have four max level characters each specializing in a single class and now I’m thinking about a build that can utilize all four classes equally well (though not as well as a character invested in a single class of course).

So my thoughts are, I want to go with a Light build and most of the generic abilities but for the class abilities I was thinking about only investing in ones that help with objectives (like Nerves of Steel) or that help with buffing teammates (Increase Supplies, Extra Magazine, etc.).

Not quite sure what to invest in for Operative though. Maybe Firewall or Comms Hack, something that benefits the whole team?

I was wondering what advice people had for this type of build.

Thanks,
JJ

(tangoliber) #2

My universal character looks something like this:

Universals:

Battle Hardened
Supply Max Increase
Combat Intuition
Sprinting Reload
Resupply Rate Increase
Silent Running

Soldier:
Flashbang Grenades
Extra Magazine

Medic:
Adrenaline Boost
Increase Supplies
Improved Increase Supplies
Improved Life Buff
Self-Resurrection

Engineer:
Light Turret
Medium Turret
Improved Weapon Buff
Extra Landmine

Operative:
Sticky Bomb
Caltrop Grenades
EMP Grenades

(Glyph) #3

I’m not going to repost my information so just read this thread: balanced character build.

(Jimmy James) #4

Cool, thanks for the link! Gives me some food for thought. I noticed a lot of people choosing the Light and Medium turret Abilities for the Engineer. Is it really that useful for a jack-of-all-trades build and, if so, why not max out the turret with the 3rd upgrade?

-JJ

(its al bout security) #5

i made the same thread and i believe you replied to it why would you do this??

(Shadowcat) #6

As far as universals go, these are indispensable:
Battle Hardened
Supply Max Increase
Combat Intuition
Sprinting Grenade
Sprinting Reload
Resupply Rate Increase

Downed Fire and Silent running are useful, but not indispensable.

Medic; Nessicary:
Increase Supplies
Improved Increase Supplies
Improved Life Buff

Self Rez and Laz Nade are very nice to have, especially if you are often medic, but again not indispensable.

Engineer; Nessicary:
Improved Weapon Buff
Extra Landmine
Nerves of Steel

Extra Kevlar and Turret 1,2,3 are nice to have, but putting that many points into engineer makes your jack of all trades a bit lopsided.

Operative is interesting, its basically the only class where there are two playstyles to choose from with skills. There is information gathering, and disrupting the enemy. For a jack of all trades, you are better off to choose one or the other based on your personal preference. I prefer ‘information’ because its more directly useful to the team.

Information Operative:
Homing Beacon
Comms Hack
EMP Grenades

Harrassment Operative:
Sticky Bomb
Caltrop Grenade
EMP Grenade

Hack Turret and Control Turret are interesting skills, and worth taking if you use them. I end up shaving them off for this build simply due to lack of skill points.

Soldier is another hard one to choose for. None of their skills apply to their objectives or teamplay, save Extra Magazine. As such, extra magazine is the only one I would call “Necessary”. To Greatly Increase the soldier usefulness though I would put 4 points into soldier.

Soldier:
Extra magazine
Grenade Mastery
Frag Blast
Grenade Damage

AP ammo, Kevlar vest, and Flashbang OR Satchel Charges (not both, only have 3 active ability slots, and Molotov uses one) are all nice, but not required.

There are 13 Skills in this list that I say are necessary. 16 if you count one of the operative builds. 19 if you take the soldiers three frag skills. For the last skill, i would probably take Self Rez, but I’m partial to playing medic.

If you drop one of the classes though, you are given a lot more leeway in choosing skill for the other three.

(StillBatusBrad) #7

[QUOTE=Jimmy James;338466]
Not quite sure what to invest in for Operative though. Maybe Firewall or Comms Hack, something that benefits the whole team?[/QUOTE]

Firewall is of little use, imho. Comms Hack benefits your team to a far greater extent - suddenly getting a flash as to where the baddies are is a huge help, particularly on ‘carry x to point y’ missions like Container City, Terminal and Refuel. It also helps you when your team is defending a location with multiple approaches.

Firewall adds a few seconds to a hack time, Comms Hack is genuinely useful.

:stroggtapir: = me, racing towards Point Y, hoping for a Comms Hack to show me where the baddies are!

(Jimmy James) #8

A few reasons:

  1. It was two days ago and I have the attention span of a chinchilla.

  2. It means I would have to use the search function and I’m a lazy, lazy man.

  3. I’m drunk.

  4. It was two days ago and I have the attention span of a chinchilla.

Also, what makes you think I replied to your thread? (Not that I didn’t find it useful when Glyph posted a link to it in this thread. As I said: “Cool, thanks for the link!”.)

-JJ

(StillBatusBrad) #9

^^^ This x 10,000! ^^^

This answer has been plucked directly from my brain! Hmmm…what else did you take, JJ…?

(Glyph) #10

As Shadowcat alluded to, you need to determine what function your build will fill in a team environment when making such a versatile character. The choice you make will determine if you are trying to focus on keeping your teammates alive and buffed, completing objectives or defending them, or only interested in yourself. Also consider the requirement of a given skill and how often this will be present during the match. In some cases a condition may be so rare that it simply is not warranted over another skill.

I guess it is also worth mentioning that your teammates keep any buffs you apply to them even if you change classes while self-applied buffs are lost. IIRC, AP Ammo is bugged and does carry over however. An example is that you would lose any landmines that were placed as an Engineer but any weapon and kevlar buffs that were applied to other players will continue to remain active.

(its al bout security) #11

[QUOTE=Jimmy James;338494]A few reasons:

  1. It was two days ago and I have the attention span of a chinchilla.

  2. It means I would have to use the search function and I’m a lazy, lazy man.

  3. I’m drunk.

  4. It was two days ago and I have the attention span of a chinchilla.

Also, what makes you think I replied to your thread? (Not that I didn’t find it useful when Glyph posted a link to it in this thread. As I said: “Cool, thanks for the link!”.)

-JJ[/QUOTE]

nevermind, it was yesterday and hrrmm… i couldnt even find it heh heh rep added for my tardlieness

(Jess Alon) #12

[QUOTE=tangoliber;338468]My universal character looks something like this:

Universals:

Battle Hardened
Supply Max Increase
Combat Intuition
Sprinting Reload
Resupply Rate Increase
Silent Running

Soldier:
Flashbang Grenades
Extra Magazine

Medic:
Adrenaline Boost
Increase Supplies
Improved Increase Supplies
Improved Life Buff
Self-Resurrection

Engineer:
Light Turret
Medium Turret
Improved Weapon Buff
Extra Landmine

Operative:
Sticky Bomb
Caltrop Grenades
EMP Grenades[/QUOTE]

Not bad but I would most likely forgo the improved supply (both of them) to get the gatling turret and hack turrets. Basically…

Universals:

Battle Hardened
Supply Max Increase
Combat Intuition
Sprinting Reload (A must for me)
Resupply Rate Increase
Silent Running (only really useful against bots that one shot you when you shot them anyway)

Soldier:
Flashbang Grenades (Good choice)
Extra Magazine

Medic:
Adrenaline Boost
Improved Life Buff
Self-Resurrection

Engineer:
Light Turret
Medium Turret
Gatling Turret (The benefit of the heavy turret is priceless)
Improved Weapon Buff
Extra Landmine

Operative:
Sticky Bomb (Good against humans, but bots take this out quick)
Caltrop Grenades
EMP Grenades
Hack Turrets

(Jimmy James) #13

[QUOTE=StillBatusBrad;338502]^^^ This x 10,000! ^^^

This answer has been plucked directly from my brain! Hmmm…what else did you take, JJ…?[/QUOTE]
None of your business! (but I do have a card from my doctor that says it’s legal.)

[QUOTE=Glyph;338504]As Shadowcat alluded to, you need to determine what function your build will fill in a team environment when making such a versatile character. The choice you make will determine if you are trying to focus on keeping your teammates alive and buffed, completing objectives or defending them, or only interested in yourself. Also consider the requirement of a given skill and how often this will be present during the match. In some cases a condition may be so rare that it simply is not warranted over another skill.

I guess it is also worth mentioning that your teammates keep any buffs you apply to them even if you change classes while self-applied buffs are lost. IIRC, AP Ammo is bugged and does carry over however. An example is that you would lose any landmines that were placed as an Engineer but any weapon and kevlar buffs that were applied to other players will continue to remain active.[/QUOTE]
This is some very good information. My wife and I are both working on Jack-of-all-trade builds right now and we’ve been discussing the pros and cons of our preferred play style. Interesting that non-self buffs carry over, good to know!

Thanks,
JJ

(Super-Pangolin) #14

Yay, copy/paste from Glyph’s link. Basically, I wanted to focus on Medic, but realised that with some compromises I could get some basic buffs for Engi and Soldier, just incase I ever needed to swap. If you’re willing to forget Op, then:

[QUOTE=Super-Pangolin;336598]
Universal: Battle Hardened, Supply Max Increase, Combat Intuition, Sprinting Reload, Sense of Perspective, Resupply Rate Increase, Silent Running, Downed Fire
Soldier: Flashbang Grenades, Kevlar Vest, Extra Magazine
Medic: Increase Supplies, Improved Increase Supplies, Improved Life Buff, Self-Resurrection, Lazarus Grenade
Engineer: Gear Head, Command Post Upgrade, Improved Weapon Buff, Extra Landmine[/QUOTE]

(wolfnemesis75) #15

i am currently building my Universal. He is level 10. As soon as I get to 20, I will let you know what I chose.

(tangoliber) #16

AP ammo, and Kevlar vests do not take active ability slots, unless I completely failed to notice.
My soldier runs Molotov, Flashbangs and Satchel Charges all together.

(St NickelStew) #17

This is a topic near and dear to my heart, as I have started discussions of my own on both this and the Bethesda forums.

For Medic, I take the following (in this order):
Increased Supplies
Improved Increased Supplies
Self Revive
Improved Life Buff
With just these four abilities I have had a 19,000 point game. It sold me.

For Engineer,

Engineer:
Light Turret
Medium Turret
Improved Weapon Buff
Extra Landmine
Gatling Turret (I take this one last)

Operative:
Sticky Grenade
Caltrop Grenade
Homing Beacon
I like HB here because it is the only thing one can do while disguised, or while hacking. If one is changing classes based on the the objective being pursued, I am just trying to get the hack done. More than once I have found myself disguised by the objective waiting for friends to arrive before starting to hack, and with this ability I can say “please kill these guys on your way in”. I will take EMP grenades if I have an additional ability slot, but would probably take gatling turret or an additional Soldier ability first.

Soldier:
I find this class hardest to choose. Don’t forget sprinting grenade and grenade shooting as choices here.

(wolfnemesis75) #18

jack of all trades will sure benefit from the new level of 24. I put a tattoo on his face because he’s so crazy and versatile. Universal Warrior.

(Shadowcat) #19

[QUOTE=tangoliber;338707]AP ammo, and Kevlar vests do not take active ability slots, unless I completely failed to notice.
My soldier runs Molotov, Flashbangs and Satchel Charges all together.[/QUOTE]

wow
(Edit: @ myself)

No, youre right. And i can tell you exactly what happened. I was thinking of Grenades as an active ability.

Though you ARE going to have to make a choice once napalm grenades come out.

(Jimmy James) #20

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

New question: What is everyone’s “Preferred Class” for the Jack-of-all-trades build?

I set it to Operative because many maps have an early hacking objective (primary or otherwise) but if the buffs I give to my team persist after I change class it may be better to start with a class that buffs teammates at the start of the match then changes to Operative at the spawn Command Post if that class is needed.

-JJ