Build Breakdown: Burning Hell (Gunner's Lead Storm Overclock, Modded Hazard 6x2)¶
| Post Info | |
|---|---|
| Author | u/Virryn__ |
| Post Date | 2022-05-29 |
| Original Post Link | BUILD BREAKDOWN: Burning Hell (Gunner's Lead Storm) [MODDED: Haz6x2] |
Gunner is a fairly straightforward class compared to the others, but he still has quite a few versatile and flexible builds in his arsenal. Arguably his most powerful weapon is the Lead Storm minigun, which can be built for simultaneous massive single target DPS and swarm clear with the confusingly named Lead Storm overclock. This post, however, will focus on a more aggressive playstyle: Burning Hell.
All numbers in this post are taken from the Equipment Terminal in-game.
TL;DR
12223 or 32221 with Burning Hell are mostly your best options. Pair with Volatile Bullets (Bulldog OC) for immense weakpoint damage and cluster grenades for a large on-demand area stun.
Weapon Heat Crosshair Mod
I highly recommend the Weapon Heat Crosshair mod for any minigun build.
Why Burning Hell?¶
While Lead Storm (or LSLS) is a very powerful overclock, it requires exceptional positioning skill, decent aim, and is very unforgiving. Burning Hell is a much safer option, and if you can hit your Volatile Bullets shots, you don't lose out on much damage against chunky targets. Burning Hell also has arguably more swarm clear potential than LSLS due to its ability to ignite swarms much quicker and more easily, which allows fire spread to take effect faster.
Tier 1¶
Our options on this tier are:
- Magnetic Refrigeration, which doubles the minigun's base cooling rate when not firing and reduces the cooling delay after the gun stops firing;
- Improved Motor, which increases fire rate by 4, to a total of 34 bullets per second (though the minigun's stats notoriously lie and the real firerate would only be 17); and
- Improved Platform Stability, which reduces the gun's base spread from 100% to 25%.
A faster cooling rate makes maintaining Hot Bullets output much easier, as you need to wait for a much shorter time before being able to tap-firing again without overheating.
Sadly, the increase in fire rate does not increase the heat produced by the minigun, which means you unfortunately cannot take advantage of either Hot Bullets or Aggressive Venting faster.
Increased accuracy is very valuable on any fully automatic weapon.
Verdict
- Take option 1 T1A MAgnetic Refrigeration if you're choosing Hot Bullets on Tier 5.
- Take option 3 T1C Improved Platform Stability if you're choosing Aggressive Venting on Tier 5.
Tier 2¶
A somewhat boring tier, Oversized Drum adds 600 ammo to our pool, bumping us up to 3000, while High Velocity Rounds increases our damage per bullet by 2, for a total of 12. This is a personal choice, but it's important to note that Hot Bullets is affected by the damage upgrade; a fraction of your total damage is ADDED as heat damage (not converted), and thus you will heat enemies faster if you take the damage mod.
Verdict
Take either option. T1B High Velocity Rounds is recommended especially if you take Hot Bullets.
Tier 3¶
Now we're getting to the good stuff. Hardened Rounds gives us 200% extra armor break, for a total of 300%. Improved Stun gives us 20% extra Stun chance, for a total of 40%. Blowthrough Rounds gives us one blowthrough penetration per bullet.
Armor break on a fully automatic weapon can be very useful, specifically against Shellbacks and Brundles. However, since Burning Hell has low base damage and relies largely on its fire sources to deal its full damage potential, this is not a great pick.
Stun helps make an already safe build even safer. It allows you to more reliably get up close to bugs when needed, and also helps ensure that you hit Volatile Bullets shots on targets with small weakpoints, such as Menaces or Wardens.
Blowthrough is good on a direct damage build, but again Burning Hell relies on its fire capabilities to do its damage. When playing close to the bugs, you will also typically not be at an angle to make full use of blowthrough.
Verdict
While this is a personal choice, I strongly recommend option 2 T3B Improved Stun.
Tier 4¶
Another interesting pick. Variable Chamber Pressure gives us a 15% damage boost when the gun is fully stabilized (in other words, when you have reached max fire rate). Lighter Barrel Assembly decreases the spinup time of the minigun from 0.7 to 0.3 seconds, and its opposite, Magnetic Bearings, increases the time the minigun stays spun up by 1 second.
A 15% damage boost is nice for optimal damage on a direct damage build, but as mentioned previously, Burning Hell gets much more use out of its fire and heat outputs. You will also almost never be taking advantage of this mod while using your fire cone, as you need to be tap-firing to avoid overheating.
Faster spinup helps this build immensely. First, you have a much more immediate reaction to danger and can stun it very quickly if you need to. Second, a faster spinup allows you to keep continually bringing up your fire cone more quickly, increasing your damage output at close range.
Honestly, I really don't know why Magnetic Bearings exists. You can manually tap your fire button while not firing to keep the weapon spun up, and the other two options on this tier blow it out of the water.
Verdict
Take option 1 T4A Variable Chamber Pressure if you think you'll make good use of it, but I recommend taking option 2 T4B Lighter Barrel Assembly.
Tier 5¶
The most drastic playstyle changes found on the minigun are in this tier. Aggressive Venting makes the gun explode when you overheat, producing large amounts of heat damage and Fear in a decent radius around you, while also reducing the recovery time from an overheat in half, to 5 seconds from 10. Cold as the Grave cools the minigun slightly whenever it kills an enemy. Hot Bullets adds 50% of your total damage to the weapon as heat damage.
Aggressive Venting is incredibly powerful in solo. Having an on-demand massive Fear bomb that also burns enemies and thus produces fire spread is an extremely safe playstyle. Combined with the quicker ignite that Burning Hell has, you can proc this incredibly quickly and quite often. However, this playstyle isn't as effective in a team, as enemies that are targeting a teammate instead of you will likely not get hit by the vent, and most classes will usually bring a better swarm clear option to the team, rendering AV redundant.
Cold as the Grave is a popular choice, but Burning Hell benefits very little from it, and loses out on a lot. I also don't believe that this mod procs when an enemy is killed from Burning Hell's fire cone, which is the largest portion of your damage.
Hot Bullets is optimal for team play. It provides quick long range ignition on enemies, which is powerful against Grunt packs because of fire spread, and is useful against tankier HVTS such as Wardens and Menaces that you can finish off with a Volatile Bullets shot or two.
Verdict
Take option 1 Aggressive Venting if you're running solo or in a team that can ignite far targets for you. Take option 3 Hot Bullets if you're in a team that you trust to deal with trash mobs so that you can focus on igniting targets for Volatile Bullets.
Secondary and Grenades¶
As mentioned many times before, Volatile Bullets Bulldog synergizes exceptionally well with this build. It provides massive single target damage that you can easily take advantage of with Hot Bullets. If you're using Aggressive Venting while solo, I would recommend Elephant Rounds instead, as you won't be able to ignite far off targets easily (barring incendiary grenades).
Cluster grenades and incendiary grenades are both competitive choices. Sticky grenades, IMO, don't do enough swarm clear on their own for them to be worth it, even with their Fear potential. Clusters can be used to wipe large groups of trash or as an on-demand large area stun button for Mactera. Incendiaries have similar swarm clear to clusters, but they trade the stun potential for an instant ignition source, which can be useful with Volatile Bullets.
Playstyle and Tips¶
A Burning Hell Gunner needs to be on the ball with his Volatile Bullets shots. You need to be paying attention to what you and your teammates have ignited, are going to ignite, and which heavy hitting enemies are currently on the playing field. Proper shield placement has a high skill ceiling, but can be highly rewarding.
- Play close, but not too close. Corral the swarm; don't jump into the middle of it.
- If you have trash clearing teammates, such as a Sticky Fuel driller, save your ammo and use your fire cone for self defense against Naedocytes, rogue Swarmers, and small Grunt packs. Save the larger clumps for classes who can deal with them more efficiently.
- Make use of both the cone and Hot Bullets, if you have it. You can b-hop and "dance" around slightly in front of a swarm to allow yourself to heat them with the cone while not getting bitten yourself. Pepper each enemy with a couple of shots and let the fire damage do the rest, rather than trying to kill them one by one.
- If a large Mactera cloud appears, don't focus them down individually until they're dead. Attempt to stun them instead, and keep rotating shots between them. Focus on stunning Trijaws first, as Spawn and Brundles can be kited more easily.
- Don't feel bad about wasting ammo on Grunts or walls while trying to get to Hot Bullets. The fire status effect and Volatile Bullets will usually make up for the lost damage.
- This goes for any Gunner playstyle, but try to use shields proactively, rather than reactively. A team of 4 living dwarves can take advantage of a shield much more effectively than 3 dwarves trying to revive someone who died because there wasn't a shield down. Shield before you're overrun, rather than after.