Build Breakdown: Sticky Fuel (Driller's CRSPR, Modded Hazard 6x2)¶
| Post Info | |
|---|---|
| Author | u/Virryn__ |
| Post Date | 2022-05-29 |
| Intended Difficulty | Modded, e.g. 5x2, 6x2, 7x1.5 |
| Original Post Link | BUILD BREAKDOWN: Sticky Fuel (Driller's CRSPR) [MODDED: Haz6x2] |
Since no one else has posted anything here yet, I figured I'd break the ice with one of the most popular and powerful builds in modded difficulties. I'm new to Reddit so forgive any weird formatting issues. In the context of this post, "modded difficulties" mostly means difficulties with enemy count multipliers, such as 5x2, 6x2, 7x1.5, etc.
All numbers in this post were taken directly from the Equipment Terminal in-game.
A Breakdown of Sticky Fuel¶
Driller as a class is heavily focused on crowd control and trash clear. While he has some options for large burst damage (Ice Spear, Volatile Impact Mixture, Sludge Blast), he shines best when built for quick and easy deletion of large squishy crowds. Nothing in Driller's kit (and quite frankly, almost nothing in the entire game, bar maybe Neurotoxin Payload) does this more safely and efficiently than Sticky Fuel.
Tip
TL;DR: 23232 Sticky Fuel is optimal. Combine with TCF EPC and axes.
Why Sticky Fuel?¶
Fuel Stream Diffuser and Compact Feed Valves are both competitive builds for the sticky flames playstyle on Hazard 5. However, the increased enemy speed on Haz6 and Haz7 means that the extra sticky flame damage that Sticky Fuel provides becomes necessary to kill Grunts and their counterparts in as few lines of sticky as possible, before they walk through the sticky and another line becomes necessary. While this doesn't really impact your overall ammo usage, it becomes very apparent during swarm pressure; if you need to apply another line of sticky that's closer to you, that means bugs are gaining ground ever so slightly on you, and Sticky Fuel helps to alleviate this pressure. It's important to note that Grunt, Guard, and Slasher health does not increase in modded difficulties; in fact, Grunts in a 4-player Haz7 lobby have the exact same health as Grunts in a Haz4 solo mission. The extra sticky flame damage also does help to kill tankier enemies more quickly, such as Spitballers, Praetorians, Menaces, etc.
The extended sticky flame duration from Sticky Fuel also gives you a lot more attention economy. In a horde shooter such as Deep Rock, your attention is divided between aspects of the game such as trash enemies, special enemies, large enemies, and even at times the objective. The difference between an 8-second line of sticky with Fuel Stream Diffuser versus an 11- or 14-second line with Sticky Fuel may not seem large, but in the heat of the moment, 3 seconds is a long time; gaining 3 seconds of attention to use on moving to the opposite side of a room to place down another line of sticky can be the difference between a safe defensive position and being overrun.
Tier 1¶
On the first tier of the CRSPR we have two choices: High Capacity Tanks, an additional 25 ammo in the magazine, or High Pressure Ejector, an additional 5 meters of applicable range. While the obvious choice seems to be increased magazine size to counter the 25 mag reduction that comes with Sticky Fuel, the range increase is actually the optimal choice, for two reasons.
- Sticky Fuel is powerful enough that there are almost no situations where you need to quickly expend 50 ammo to keep yourself safe. Sticky Fuel is not worth using as an offensive burst tool; if you have time to place sticky flames safely, you should also have time to reload safely, otherwise, you should be drilling out of that situation or running towards a teammate or Gunner shield. A magazine of 25 is more than enough to place a line or two of sticky on both sides of a defense point.
- Range allows you to place sticky flames much further away from yourself (obviously). On modded difficulties, a sticky Driller is required to continually apply sticky to both sides of a defense point (salvage, black boxes, etc.). With the range upgrade, you need to move a lot less to cover the necessary points with sticky, and thus you end up with more time to split your attention elsewhere. (Range also helps in general usage, but its effect is more obvious with a static reference point.)
Verdict
Take option 2, T1B High Pressure Ejector.
Tier 2¶
Tier 2 gives us three options. Unfiltered Fuel gives us 4 extra damage on the direct flame only. Triple Filtered Fuel adds 10 heat applied per damage tick, for a total of 20, and Sticky Flame Duration adds 3 more seconds of sticky.
- Extra direct damage on a sticky-focused build is useless.
- Extra heat, while slightly useful for igniting targets for a Volatile Bullets Gunner, is still overshadowed by longer sticky flames. However, Triple Filtered Fuel is a good choice when facing Rival enemies.
- 3 seconds of sticky, combined with Sticky Fuel itself, gives us 11 seconds of sticky per application so far. This is a fairly obvious choice for a sticky-based playstyle.
Verdict
Take option 2, T2B Triple Filtered Fuel, for Rival Presence missions or Industrial sabotage.
Take option 3, T2C Sticky Flame Duration for anything else, or Rival missions where your teammates are also building for fire and can handle bots easily.
Tier 3¶
Another three-option row, we're given the choice between:
- Oversized Valves: a 30% increase in flow rate;
- Sticky Flame Slowdown, which slows enemies that travel through sticky flames; and
- More Fuel, an extra 75 max ammo.
Here, we again have an opportunity to counter one of Sticky Fuel's downsides, this time being the 75 ammo loss. However, slowing enemies that travel through your flames is essential to this build, and the next tier lets us make up for that ammo penalty anyways.
Verdict
Take option 2, T3B Sticky Flame Slowdown.
Tier 4¶
Again a triple row, but this one is more interesting than the previous. It Burns! gives us 20% Fear factor on direct damage ticks, Sticky Flame Duration gives us another 3 seconds of sticky, and More Fuel gives us 75 more ammo.
- I won't get into Fear calculations in this post, but I'm not sure why you would want to take It Burns! even in a direct damage build, let alone a sticky build. The chance seems pretty tiny, it forces the enemy to run away from your damage (as opposed to something like the Thunderhead's Fear, where the Thunderhead is a long range hitscan weapon), and most direct damage CRSPR builds are focused on taking advantage of Heat Radiance, which relies on enemies being close to you. Don't use this mod in a sticky build.
- 3 more seconds of sticky is a nice bonus, but with Sticky Fuel and Sticky Flame Duration on Tier 2, we're already at 11 seconds of sticky duration. That's more than enough to bounce between two lines of sticky if needed, but some players do prefer to take this mod over the ammo increase.
- A 75 ammo increase is incredibly valuable. This bumps your max ammo up to 300 (+25 mag), which can take you FAR in a mission. If you play this build well, on Haz5 you'll likely have more than half your sticky left when your pub teammates are chewing through their second resupply.
Verdict
Take option 2 T4B Sticky Flame Duration or 3 T4C More Fuel; 3 has more overall sticky duration, while 2 can give you more immediate attention economy. 2 is also a good option if you want to force yourself to learn to be more efficient in your sticky play.
Tier 5¶
This will likely be the most controversial tier. Heat Radiance heats enemies in an area around you while you are firing the CRSPR, while Targets Explode gives you a 50% chance when killing an enemy with direct fire for the target to explode.
This may come as a surprise, but the optimal choice is actually Targets Explode. Why?
- Heat Radiance, with a 25 magazine size and a sticky-based playstyle, does almost nothing for you. If you're playing Heat Radiance offensively, you should build for it with something like Compact Feed Valves. If you're playing it defensively, 25 ammo in your mag isn't going to save you. If you're playing Sticky Fuel and are in range of the bugs, you should be drilling away rather than trying to kill things with Heat Radiance.
- Targets Explode does not proc on sticky flame kills. HOWEVER, this is not the purpose of Targets Explode. Targets Explode is used almost EXCLUSIVELY on clouds of Naedocytes and the river of Swarmers that erupts when a Brood Nexus is popped. These enemies are admittedly not substantial threats on Haz 5. However, on modded difficulties with increased enemy multipliers, these can get out of hand very quickly. A breeder or two left alive in a salvage room for long enough can produce hundreds of jellies, so it helps to have a method to deal with them as Driller. Similarly, Shocker clouds spawning on top of players can be a death sentence if not dealt with immediately, and Targets Explode can wipe out quite a few of them if it manages to proc. Sadly Targets Explode is not very effective against Shredders, as they have a slightly larger health pool.
Verdict
Take option 2, T5B Targets Explode.
Secondary and Grenades¶
While the Wave Cooker has some interesting temperature shock synergy with sticky flames, it unfortunately doesn't stand up to Thin Containment Field in terms of versatility. Similarly, the precision the Subata gives doesn't make up for its pitiful damage output. The best secondary choice for Driller is the EPC built for TCF; this allows you to easily handle clouds of Mactera, chunk some damage off of Praetorians and similarly tanky enemies, quickly mine objectives and minerals, and delete large amounts of terrain quickly when required. Persistent Plasma is also quite powerful, and provides an impressive amount of wave clear when applied right.
Neurotoxin and HE grenades are mostly redundant on a class such as Driller. He already has plenty of primary and secondary setups for crowd clearing; therefore, a grenade that gives him some chunky single target damage is invaluable. Axes are the way to go.
Playstyle and Tips¶
A Sticky Fuel Driller becomes the cornerstone of their team. You are the primary protection against Grunts and Swarmers, and you provide a quick and constant ignition source for a Volatile Bullets Gunner, who acts as your heavy hitter against larger targets. For the most part, you become the team leader; you make the decisions, and the rest of the team either follows or more than likely gets overwhelmed. Taking Sticky Fuel allows the rest of the team to spec more heavily into special- and tank-clearing roles.
- Ideal sticky placement is a few distinct lines of sticky flames on a bug path. If you place sticky multiple times on a single line, you're only getting one line worth of sticky damage; they do not stack. You only need two or three lines to deal with most Grunt packs.
- Putting down a sticky circle around a resupply or downed teammate can allow you to take ammo or revive without being interrupted and damaged by Grunts; however, if a Praetorian or Oppressor is on a teammate, sticky flames are likely not going to cut it.
- Small puffs of sticky under tanky targets like Praetorians helps to keep them on fire and taking damage. While minimal, you'll end up with less of them walking around with a sliver of health. The slowdown also helps to keep them in place for precision classes to hit them more easily, and prevents them from sneaking up on you and spitting at you quite as easily.
- While you should try to stay with your team and keep them alive, if a situation becomes unwinnable, don't hesitate to drill away and lay a circle of sticky on the sides of your tunnel. Sticky drilling is one of the safest setups in the game when played right, and you are a lot more valuable alive alone than dead with your teammates.
- Don't use a direct stream of flame against anything except targets you are trying to kill with Targets Explode. Always make an attempt to lay sticky beneath what you're shooting at instead, then swap to your secondary or use your axes to do the majority of the damage. For Mactera, the damage they take even with their innate weakness to Fire doesn't kill them very quickly, and you're better off TCF-ing or axing them.
- Even without Barbed Drills, your drills have a high chance to both Fear and Stun enemies. When you're about to hit by a Slasher or a Mactera, try to get in the habit of quickly switching to your drills and going for a stun to get them to stop attacking. This works on Praetorians as well.
- This loadout shines most when in voice comms with teammates, where you can dictate how you're going to move through the mission, which positions you're going to hold in, etc. Teammates that run away from a sticky Driller will usually not end up surviving for long on modded difficulties.
Why Not Sludge?¶
Besides some enemies in the game having a weakness to Fire and a resistance to Corrosive (because GSG hates the Sludge Pump I guess), sludge doesn't have the ease of placement that sticky flames does. You can place a sticky line immediately if you need to; if you want to put down sludge, you either have to settle for the tiny, dinky little single puddles that you can't place very fast, or you need to spend valuable time charging a shot that won't even stick to ceilings or walls very well. Ignited sludge can produce similar damage and slow to sticky, but requires more setup time and an ignite source, both of which are less than ideal. The unfortunate reality is that sludge is nowhere near as powerful as sticky is on modded difficulties.