Build Breakdown: Stunner Overclock (Engineer's Warthog, Modded Hazard 6x2)¶
| Post Info | |
|---|---|
| Author | u/YouthfulCarrot |
| Post Date | 2022-07-27 |
| Original Post Link | BUILD BREAKDOWN: Stunner (Engineer's Warthog Shotgun) [MODDED: Haz6x2] |
Engineer’s secondary is his primary swarm clearer, his means for deleting and controlling the Glyphid hordes, Mactera swarms, and skittering masses of swarmers and jellies. With Breach Cutter, his secondary is even anti-tank. This leaves his primary in an interesting place where it can handle multiple roles in a flexible fashion, be it sniping spitters, contributing secondary AOE, helping with burst damage on high-HP foes, and, of course, self-defense and skirmishing.
Stunner Warthog is a great pick for many of these roles and pairs well with the rest of the tools in the usual Engi’s kit. It’s a hidden powerhouse for both offense and defense.
TL;DR
Recommended build is 12321 with 11221 as another option.
Why Stunner?¶
Stunner seems like an odd pick to the uninitiated. At a first glance, it seems like both Magnetic Pellet Alignment (MPA) and Cycle Overload (CO) will be better for damage and/or accuracy.
- MPA is indisputably a powerhouse OC, providing a huge accuracy increase that synergizes with its +30% weakpoint bonus. This makes it great for distant foes and gives it an edge versus tanks. The issue is the fire rate penalty, which cuts into its DPS and self-defense. Miner Adjustments can compensate but that means sacrificing Turret Whip. Turret Whip is a very powerful mod, dealing 160 explosive damage with fear, stun, and armor break all-in-one for the low cost of 1 Warthog ammo and 5 turret ammo. It’s a huge reason to take Warthog in 6x2, and MPA forces you to either sacrifice Whip to make up for the fire rate or have a sluggish Warthog with Whip that is less capable of skirmishing and killing high-HP foes quickly.
- CO gives a sizable damage and fire rate boost, great for high DPS versus high-HP foes. However, the penalty to accuracy and the recoil from a high fire rate really limit its ability to damage foes at range. You’re either taking choke and sacrificing ammo and pellets or taking Recoil Dampener and limiting the damage available in your clip. Miner Adjustments unlocks CO’s highest DPS potential but again requires sacrificing the huge boon that is Turret Whip. CO’s power is limited by the build constraints created by its penalties and the value of Turret Whip.
Stunner makes none of these sacrifices. It’s able to take Whip without greatly impacting its fire rate/DPS, it doesn’t need to compensate for any penalties, and it still has an easily accessible 30% damage boost. In addition to all that, its ability to stun on any body part not only synergizes with its damage-vs-stunned but provides the Engi using it with greatly improve crowd control (CC) for both general control and self-defense/skirmishing. Damage, safety, and utility galore. Excels in both solo and in teams.
Tier 1¶
Taking Supercharged Feed Mechanism is great for Warthog general DPS. Nothing more to say really.
If you’re going to take a magazine mod, take it on Tier 3 instead of cutting into your fire rate for Overstuffed Magazine here.
Verdict
Take T1A Supercharged Feed Mechanism.
Tier 2¶
Preferential tier.
I personally take Loaded Shells. This adds 16 damage (assuming damage mod is taken Tier 4, otherwise 14) per shot before additional multipliers, which is already very nice, but it has additional synergy with Stunner. Stun chance on the Warthog is on a per pellet basis, so going from 8 pellets at base to 10 with Loaded Shells increases the chance for a stun from a shot by ~10% (56.95% to 65.13%) assuming all pellets hit.
Another popular pick is Expanded Ammo Bags. +42 ammo is a huge boon for long pushes where you might be using your Warthog a lot, and it can offset the ammo spent on Turret Whips. Consider this if taking Loaded Shells leaves you too ammo-tight for your taste.
Ignore Choke. The other two mods are too valuable to use it just for some accuracy. Warthog base accuracy is sufficient in most cases, and the stuns from Stunner on non-weakpoint hits + the bonus damage alleviate some of Warthog’s accuracy issues anyways.
Verdict
Take T2A Expanded Ammo Bags or T2B Loaded Shells.
Tier 3¶
Semi-preferential tier.
I consider High Capacity Magazine to be the best pick on this tier. Very slightly more ammo and more sustained fire to use to skirmish or DPS tanks. Since you’re taking fire rate over magazine size on Tier 1, it’s great to get here since you’re not sacrificing much of anything by skipping out on the other two mods.
Quickfire Ejector isn’t a bad choice, but I think the base reload speed is fine especially since reload cancelling exists. That and magazine size is just way more valuable.
Ignore Recoil Dampener. The other two mods are too valuable and base Warthog recoil without Miner Adjustments is easily compensated for manually.
Verdict
Take T3C High Capacity Magazine.
Tier 4¶
Bigger Pellets every time. 80 damage a shot versus 70 is big, and the armor-breaking of Tungsten Coated Buckshot is not very valuable on the Warthog, especially with the armor-breaking abilities of Breach Cutter*, Turret Whip, and your turrets available (not to mention your team!).
Verdict
Take T4B Bigger Pellets.
Tier 5¶
Turret Whip is obviously my pick for this tier if you’ve been paying attention. Great secondary AOE, shears armor off shellbacks and praets, chunks grunt and mactera clusters, and stuns or fears anything that lives.
Miner Adjustments is great for a “DPS Stunner” since it can capitalize more on stun windows for more damage. This is a valuable build in vanilla, but in 6x2, Turret Whip is so damn good that it’s better to not pick it.
Verdict
Take T5A Turret Whip.
Secondary and Grenades¶
Breach Cutter is Engi’s best secondary in general but also his best primary for Stunner synergy. The stun mod on Breach Cutter is entirely dominant since its only competition is an unnecessary and potentially buggy armor break mod. 3 seconds of easy stun on a praet or a goo bomber sets them up to be easily finished off with Stunner’s bonus damage.
PGL’s stun mod is also 3 seconds and I recommend using it if you’re doing PGL with Stunner, but it does far less damage to tanks and the radial damage hurts goo bomber sacks without getting the weakpoint bonus so it is less optimal.
For grenades, anything works really, but mines and LUREs are typically better than plasma bursters. Proxy mines cover flanks and walls/ceilings really well and help round out Engi’s highly defensive kit. LUREs work extremely well for keeping the team and Engi safe, and they work very with Turret Whip if you can place them in the turret sightlines. Whip will keep the LURE clean with killing and with fear, letting you maximize its value and its duration.
Playstyle and Tips¶
Stunner works well when you’re always keeping its functionality in mind to maximize that utility. Knowing how/when to stun or not to stun is very important to making it feel the best and getting the most offense and defense.
- When skirmishing, use thoughtful target switching to maximize defense. If you’ve stunned a grunt and another one is closing in, it can be a good idea to swap to the closer one. Warthog stun is 3 seconds, which gives you plenty of time to target-swap to control what’s chasing you.
- When skirmishing, focus slashers first! This is usually a good idea in general, but doubly so with Stunner. Even if you don’t kill them, it’s very likely to stun them and keep them from hitting you and dragging you into the swarm.
- Be aware of your stun durations! If you’re going for a Stunner kill, be aware of what is going to give you the most stun value. The choicest stuns are the 3 second stuns. There are 3 second stuns on Warthog and the Breach Cutter and PGL with their stun mods, plus they exist for Minigun with stun mod, Hurricane with stun mod, and M1000 with stun mod. Do NOT rely on the stuns from Turret Whip or your turrets with the stun mod to provide you with bonus damage. They last 1.5 seconds long and aren’t enough to capitalize on it unless they’re a grunt, which will probably just die to the turret/shotgun blast anyways.
- VS Guards: Try to hit a guard in the body to break their guarding stance for easy weakpoint follow-ups.
- VS Praetorians: 1 Breach Cutter shot + 1 8-shot Stunner mag into praet weakpoint + power attack = dead praet (Haz 6 with 4-player scaling). If you use Inferno, you can skip the power attack and let the burn do it if you like.
- VS Goo Bombers: The Goo Bomber Technique: When a goo bomber is within range, hit a goo bomber in the body for the stun, then swap to the weakpoints to capitalize on the bonus damage. It’ll be helpless and not shooting or gooing the whole time, and you can put it down in 8 shots + a power attack or 10-11 shots depending on pellet spread with just the Warthog. (Breakpoints based on Hazard 6 4-player scaling) You can also use a Breach Cutter shot to the body to save Warthog ammo and speed up the kill.
- VS Wardens: Even if you aren’t going to be shooting it long-term with your shotgun, stunning wardens is a great idea. It locks them down to easily be killed by the rest of the team, and it disengages them from their buffed entourage, who will then lose the buff after enough distance. Up close, Stunner destroys wardens by stopping their wiggle for easy bulb shots.
- VS Menaces: If a menace is being a huge nuisance and no one can take care of it, use Stunner to repel it easily. Just make sure you don’t assume this and anger your team.
- Obviously, Turret Whip is good versus clusters of grunts and mactera, but you can also Whip to kill lone Mactera instantly (especially nice for Trijaws), to break guard stances or shear their armor, to damage and delay a praet, etc.
- At close range, Turret Whip can be used to kill grunt clusters by kiting them into the mouth of your turret. You can also setup turrets in chokes made by the cave or your repellent plats and let the funnel force them to take the Whip at close range.
- Resist the overwhelming urge to Whip random lone grunts, if you're strong enough...