For Artificer, you mention that tectonic surge lets you jump out of the special early. All of her abilities let her do that though. If you use her primary while in flamethrower, it cancels it instantly.
@@MooseWrld as an arti main (dear god help me) i can confirm that chakram cancelling your flamethrowers is like, your entire gameplay loop, it doesnt make her any better mind you but at least you can run wall again and cheese most land enemies except overloading elites who arti has NOTHING in her kit to deal with outside of nanobombs
@@BitByte1003I know you’re not asking me. But I’d recommend the ice barrier. Just because it allows you to stack tons of damage in one place. Where as surge, you really can’t do much from above your enemies.
@@DangStank i think the main purpose of surge is to place a platform midair so you can focus the boss while avoiding lemurians, but i do agree that ice barrier is very good at dealing with crowds
Another thing to note about mercs parry. You can negate the damage dealt by shrines (and the golem drone) that cost health with an easily timed parry allowing you to use them for free.
I'd like to add, if you manage to land a parry while your shadow clone from After-image is active, you can effectively duplicate the attack dealing absurds amounts of damage; and if you add a Ancient Scepter to this, you can have one or two more shadow clones (I don't remember how many more you get from this upgrade, but it's busted) now you just gotta parry some idiot and completely annihilate
Great video. One thing to mention is that Pilots alt special does actually splash, and also seems to switch to a nearby enemy if it dies while under the effect. That said the default is probably still better but I use both.
It was pointed out to me I didn't mention how to wavedash on pilot. All you have to do is jump, then use pilots alt util while ONLY holding the down key. Tapping left or right with halt your momentum. Works better the closer you are to the ground when you use it. Cheers
Sniper's melee primary pairs well with the default secondary. You can melee while charging. This allows you to: 1) hold a charge by swinging repeatedly, 2) stun enemies that get too close, 3) change your facing direction, and most importantly, 4) MOVE while charging by jumping and melee attacking in midair. Also, backflipping can be done while charging and even lets you flip your facing direction. You can use the backflip in a similar way to pilot's wavedash. If you backflip and then start charging, you are super slippery and keep sliding from the backflip momentum. For miner, the alt secondary can send you flying in any direction, including up and down. You can steer it while in flight too!
Right as I thought I knew everything that Inprovise allowed you to do, I learn it even lets you move! It's wild how many little convenient things they stuffed into that one ability. Didn't know about that thing with Miner's alt dash, I'll try it out later but just from what you said it reminds me a little bit of Nemesis Miner's utility from ror1's Starstorm mod (the creator of it, Neik, is actually on the Returns team and a lot of inspiration was taken from it such as the drone scrappers, which look exactly like they did in the mod!)
Pilot's alternate special can hit multiple enemies, and also will spread to other enemies if the targeted enemy dies. The alternate is not explained well, but is great in massive mobs where it can chain easily. Also great for dot damage when avoiding danger.
7:55 FYI, there's a must-have accessibility toggle in the options yhat makes holding your primary act the same as frame-perfect mashing. It gives Loader and Bandit a huge buff and makes them so much easier to play.
@@MooseWrldhave you ever seen default controller? Good luck mashing your trigger. Also that option doesn't exactly work that well from what i've heard.
@@plantplayer303 I used an Xbox controller for a while, but swapped to keyboard because my controller is a little busted. I have movement bound to WASD, then abilities bound to arrow keys and stuff like that. So my primary is left arrow key and that's really easy to mash.
This is the best video explaining every survivor's kit within a short time frame! BTW in my opinion Artificer isn't weak she just requires a very disciplined playstyle , I also struggled at first but once I figured her out the damage she can do is insane, maybe the only buff she needs is primary range increase
@@Wespa64 you need to be really patient with her , Basically the ability rotation is move to one side of the enemy hoard, use the ice wall to block them off, charge your nova bomb and do good damage then use your primary or flamethrower to finish them off You need to use your flamethrower wisely as well , the wisps and parent enemies will damage you heavily if you just do a grounded flamethrower instead jump in the air once and then activate it you will avoid all their damage considering you have then behind ice wall But yeah if you try to engage the enemy without the ice wall active there's good chance you will be dead in an instant , she relies on it too much on that ability indeed and that does make her look weak at times
Sick list, one thing I wanna add is that bandit going whip plus alt special turns your primary into a functional two shot, imo better for looping since you can't get consistent setup with it against providence but the value is absurd once you have ~20-30 items
For Han-D, I'd say to use hammer on the explosive drones, and saw on the attack speed drones, because the explosive ones really benefit from a lot of enemies being grouped together, and the saw gets insane when you get an attack speed chain going and get a saw that does five times the damage
Oh my God, I just want to say how much I appreciate you launching into the content rather than having an overly long intro that basically just recaps the title of the video
Drifters cube can be used to distract enemies. Or clump them together for other survivors to use. You can also stand on top of the cube to prevent being hit by SOME attacks, and slide on top of the cube while doing so to continue doing damage.
You can use the accesibility option "rapid fire" so you can have maximum attack speed from just holding the button instead of needing to mash it on Bandit, Loader, and Mercenary
thanks, newer player here, i finally won monsoon for the first time due to the fact that u told me to use the alt secondary on huntress, it deals so much more damage omg
one stun grenade makes it arguably top 5 abilities in the game. just being able to hold the enemy down while 6 atg mk1/2's go off or uke's is enough to clear huge hordes or a boss. even without the stun grenade you can jump when you use it to follow the monster with your momentum if they're big enough
Great vid! Though this is not useful for everyone, you can turn on Rapid Fire on the accessibility settings to not have to mash your primary with Loader,Merc,Drifter,Bandit etc. Hope this helps and remember to stretch regardless when playing
While I definitely disagree with some of these loadouts, this video was put together well. The reasoning you put behind using every skill also made me rethink some of my decisions. I'll try some of these builds in the future for sure. Well done.
I stan miniature sun as it carried me on my first monsoon run with artificer. Jumps dont make it move upwards, so you can run back and forth through a group of enemies while jumping to keep the sun centered and then it explodes for great damage.
I've been looking for advice for Arti since getting her unlocked...And it's not been very forthcoming, it seems like not a lot of people play her! I mostly agree with your picks here...The Spear isn't very good for most situations that the bomb is, the sun is too finicky compared to flamethrower, and surge is ok... She's ok when you have on-hit effects and cooldown reduction to chain flamethrower a bunch, but early fighting feels like a chore. I'm also hoping the developers do something to improve her more...Maybe something like her chakrams igniting or unfolding on contact with an enemy and maybe more burn damage? Her spear and sun alternates just need reworks....Spear kind of works but should do more damage on a successful pierce, but sun does not work with the kind of game Returns is =/
I am a huge Arti fan, I could not wait to see her in RORR. Boy was I disappointed, I thought surely alt skills will relieve my dismay...Sun is the most infuriating ability ever designed.
I think especially compared to ror2 the vast majority of alt skills feel like sidegrades to the main ones with no real "better" option, which leads to a lot more room for experimentation and each survivor having several different possible playstyles. Here's some of my thoughts (mostly disagreements) on your picks -I just don't like the shield dash. Not exactly sure why but it might have to do with it placing you close to the enemies at the end? I like the normal bash's ability to create space better -I prefer Han-d's saw when using speed drones since it hits more times depending on your attack speed, allowing it to do insane amounts of damage with enough stacks (and with scepter it burns on every hit!)... although at base attack speed it's weaker than hammer and doesn't knock up, so for heal and blast drone I don't like it -Maybe I just need to play with it more, but I think Sniper's diagonal shot feels awkward to use, both as a mobility tool and as an attack. I prefer backflip for the very fast movement and I frames even with Improvise -Scrap barrier is so powerful that I can't justify swapping it out for short circuit, might also be because I like the green pylon which encourages staying put in fights rather than moving large distances. Also you can turn on the autofire accessibility option to attack at max speed with Bandit, Merc, Loader, and Drifter just by holding the primary button. Doesn't work on melee Chef or Arti for some reason despite them also attacking faster by mashing -I prefer Pilot's parachute and clusterfire but I think all his skills are very fun so I swap between them very frequently. Aerial support actually does have an aoe hitbox, so I'd say it's not terrible. Wouldn't take it with parachute though because then you miss out on some flight time with the primary special -Suffocate's execute is wild, I have a hard time picking between it and the spin which gives better mobility and can make enemies drop scrap on hit. Salvage and recycle are both amazing, no preference there. I think either cleanup should cost less scrap or cube should cost more because clearly cleanup's shorter cooldown and natural chance to crit, bleed, or slow isn't enough to make up for the cube's crazy damage
All good points. Basically all of these abilities you pointed out were ones I was already a little torn on, or were on survivors I haven't played as much of. Although I will say, I also greatly prefer backflip on sniper
Note for the huntress, Blink definitely feels better in longer runs since warp dart becomes useless once you have high mobility and a hardlight afterburner. Warp Dart is extremely useful for short runs, as well as attempts to unlock stuff since it gives you crucial verticle movement for reaching secret areas.
I noticed that when I did a long run for the alt primary, but blink isn't very useful either once you start outpacing the arrow. So I'd rather have the utility for the first 6 stages
Warp still has the unique ability to be fired in the _opposite_ direction of where you're going. So if you have insane movement speed, you can fire it to the right, do something on the left, then get warped. Kinda niche, but still something Blink can't do. It also helps a ton if you haven't found any jetpacks/feathers and need vertical movement.
Loader is probably my favorite survivor. I would encourage players to at least try his alternate special. The tesla coils don't do enough damage per target (unless using glass) to justify the setup, in my opinion. The conduit, though, is amazing. It does damage to anything inside, and massively increases your attack speed and any imps or drones tagging along. It just embarrasses magma worms. It's great for procing on hit abilities, and it's broken if using equipment such as the unstable watch, shield generator, shattered mirror, back up, and even a drone repair kit.
after getting back into returns and actually learning how to not suck, I think I can confidently say huntress's cyclone glaive is one of, if not the best skill in the entire game. It has possibly the most busted scaling of any attack, as backup mags allow you to stack them. Get enough of them, and you have a hyperdense behemoth of a hitbox that instantly shreds anything unfortunate enough to get in its way. Also synergizes nicely in late game with the boxing gloves, allowing you to push enemies into the hitbox (some enemies can move faster than the glaives, making it difficult to get hits in) I also managed to lag the game for the first time using it. Not just a little either, actual seconds per frame. It was glorious.
Worth noting two things: -Cheff's cook has a secret 10% execute which isnt mentioned in the description -Any skill can cancel Artificers flamethrower, not just tectonic surge
I figured there was some executage going on, but I still just don't think it's worth taking that ability. And someone else pointed that out about artificer. I don't know how I didn't realize that lol
for artificer, you can use her platforms similarly to her ice wall in the way of blocking enemies. its a little jank though. If the enemy can jump (i.e. lemurians, clay men, etc.) then they can hop over it but if you put it too high it wont block them. the surge feels like necessity for runs where you might run negative stats for eclipse like difficulty becauss the movement is invaluable compared to the ice wall which can easily get outscaled health-wise leading to it popping like a balloon with barely any value
Change your sound mixing abit (hard to hear you over music sometimes) and you got yourself a good ass video, cant wait to see more definitely drop an item tier list, havent seen one yet so it should get you out there, best of luck 🤞
It feels like you only focus on how the ability looks on paper and not the actual practice of them. Commando’s knife is nice, but in a dangerous situation, a knife shotgun is gonna get you killed. His default is much better for crowd control and consistent damage in a high stress situation. Huntresses dart has more distance, but a much longer cooldown. Blink, like in ror2 is good to make a quick getaway out of a bad situation with almost 0 delay, and also helps you jump around cyclone easier. Bandit full alt is probably the best and easiest build in the game. Flash bang groups up and incapacitates enemies, allowing you to whip them safely, which damages all of them, making it much easier to stack standoff, which further increases damage of everything else, and it snowballs extremely quickly. Blast’s damage is just really bad, and the pierce is more valuable. Light’s out is really fun to use but if we’re going for optimal builds standoff has the advantage. For sniper, there is one simple solution. The backflip bunnyhop. You can charge the snipe while backflipping, and apparently charging it reduces friction, allowing you to go flying away while charging the full thing. For acrid, while bubble has its uses, i find spit better for quick damage and actually process things. Poison ticks don’t trigger items, so bile spit is great for this reason, and a quick get off me tool. Poison falls off eventually, and that backup damage is gonna help. For merc, i think the utility is like the special. Both are useful, and usually blinding assault is better with clones, providing i frames that clones doesn’t, and also multiple dashes back and forth stun locks enemies while skyward is better for the burst damage. Tip for loader: turn on hold to attack to save yourself from arthritis. Also default secondary paired with the buff pylon is really good to melt anything or to just escape since it increases speed and gives i-frames. Pilot’s alt special does actually hit groups around the targeted enemy. Also any kind of passive damage is always really good to have. With artificer, ice wall is pretty necessary for her to actually do damage. Early stages can be made easy with ice wall + chakrams, and you can use flamethrower in the air to float, hitting enemies below. This combined with ice wall makes for incredible safety and burst damage, just watch out for flying enemies. Nano bomb is good but kinda hard to make effective bc of the charge. Spear is a little better for a quick crowd burst. Just throw it and mash right click a couple times as you run away, it should work well enough. For drifter, while the execute is incredible, but you should still talk about her alt. Incredible movement, and more damage than any movement tool out there. Both are really good. I just think for a vid like this, it’s better to mention the other abilities instead of just the ones you prefer more often.
Hi, thanks for the feedback! I playtested all of these builds along with multiple other builds to make sure every ability got tested, and that ability pairings I thought might be potent would get tested too. I tried to mention when I thought two abilities were close in power enough that it really came down to preference, but I don't think it always came out in the video. I'm a big fan of commando's FMJ, I just think by the time its starts to get dangerous to use the knife, you're likely to have enough items to cover the lack of big aoe in your kit that fmj would provide. For bandit, yes, blast's damage is pretty low, but that's why I paired it with standoff. I use the dynamite for the pierce and fire away with blast's really high base attack speed. It ends up working out pretty well with a few standoff stacks. I won't go into every ability here, but I will say there was maybe more thought going into most of these selections than you might guess (with a few exceptions. I didn't play artificer that much, which I think is evident in how I needed to be corrected a few times in the comments.) But, again, thanks for the comment. I encourage testing different things, I just wanted to offer tested builds that I know at least work well enough and that i prefer.
Artificer is still one of my favourite classes and in my opinion is one of the best classes against most bosses and enemies (that do not release missiles) Although she does have some blatant weaknesses to balance out the insane dps output
A few interesting notes I've come across for moves you decided against that might be labworthy Artificer's speed reduction while using nano bomb doesn't affect small sun, letting you do a bit more for remote controlling it Drifter's back pack spin resets her fall timer, scales with attack and movement speed, and can be jumped during for higher jumps, imo, it's probably the best movement ability in the game that isn't on pilot, especially in lategame.
I’d say the beam turret becomes better in multiplayer. It doesn’t need any items to come online like the default turrets, so less items doesn’t hurt much. And the bouncing mines are great at keeping it safe.
for commando, if you're going for deep late game runs full metal jacket might be better. I remember getting some runs in the original game where i had 0 cooldown on the skill and it basically became my primary
Honestly, Commandos piercing is slightly better than knife in my opinion simply because of the item that gives enemies a scaling debuff if you touch them. Seeing as touching most enemies in this gane doesnt equate to damage, its way better to just run through a crowd to debuff them and then use your piercing for more damage.
You didn't mention what you think of Loader's super plasma tower. I like it and the tesla towers very much so deciding between them is difficult for me.
The attack speed boost is kind of insane, I just prefer the aoe on the default special. I think the plasma is probably better for shorter or more focused runs where you can squeeze more out of it, but the teslas are better for looping runs or runs where you don't really want to think about it. There is, of course, always something to be said about easier to use abilities letting you concentrate on other things like dodging.
Is the loadout guide for pre or post 1.0.3? The miner kit you recommended got nerfed pretty hard in it. I personally use the alt secondary, mainly because you can bhop with it and it's all around a great movement ability
Also, there is a bug with miners default shift, if you hold down the primary attack button while using the shift, you retain your normal move speed while in the air, which means you can attack with pretty much full movement speed
As powerful as the wavedash on pilots alt utility is i think the instant vertical mobility and air time the default provides is still incredibly difficult to match 90% of the games enemies are either incapable or have extreme difficulty hitting you if youre in the air so having a way to stay airborne while continuing to do damage and move around is genuinely too powerful for me to pass up
To be fair, you can still use his alt special to climb up walls as intended. But point taken. It's honestly a really hard choice between the two and I frequently swap
For Artificer, you mention that tectonic surge lets you jump out of the special early. All of her abilities let her do that though. If you use her primary while in flamethrower, it cancels it instantly.
Oh I had no idea. Thanks for the tip
@@MooseWrld as an arti main (dear god help me) i can confirm that chakram cancelling your flamethrowers is like, your entire gameplay loop, it doesnt make her any better mind you but at least you can run wall again and cheese most land enemies except overloading elites who arti has NOTHING in her kit to deal with outside of nanobombs
with this knowledge would you still pick surge over ice barrier?
@@BitByte1003I know you’re not asking me. But I’d recommend the ice barrier. Just because it allows you to stack tons of damage in one place. Where as surge, you really can’t do much from above your enemies.
@@DangStank i think the main purpose of surge is to place a platform midair so you can focus the boss while avoiding lemurians, but i do agree that ice barrier is very good at dealing with crowds
Another thing to note about mercs parry. You can negate the damage dealt by shrines (and the golem drone) that cost health with an easily timed parry allowing you to use them for free.
I'd like to add, if you manage to land a parry while your shadow clone from After-image is active, you can effectively duplicate the attack dealing absurds amounts of damage; and if you add a Ancient Scepter to this, you can have one or two more shadow clones (I don't remember how many more you get from this upgrade, but it's busted) now you just gotta parry some idiot and completely annihilate
To add even more: he can parry the lost doll’s damage, which can lead to even more absurd damage and on-demand full parries.
@@codster76 omg that's so busted
@@Cherryboi79 Sure is. Using that combo is some of the most fun I’ve had in risk of rain as a whole.
Great video. One thing to mention is that Pilots alt special does actually splash, and also seems to switch to a nearby enemy if it dies while under the effect. That said the default is probably still better but I use both.
It was pointed out to me I didn't mention how to wavedash on pilot. All you have to do is jump, then use pilots alt util while ONLY holding the down key. Tapping left or right with halt your momentum. Works better the closer you are to the ground when you use it. Cheers
Thank you. Pilot was already my favorite character. I can't wait to try this out
if you put autojump on you can hold space to bhop and conserve momentum
Btw it’s recommended you turn on auto jump to keep it up when you hit the ground
Sniper's melee primary pairs well with the default secondary. You can melee while charging. This allows you to: 1) hold a charge by swinging repeatedly, 2) stun enemies that get too close, 3) change your facing direction, and most importantly, 4) MOVE while charging by jumping and melee attacking in midair. Also, backflipping can be done while charging and even lets you flip your facing direction. You can use the backflip in a similar way to pilot's wavedash. If you backflip and then start charging, you are super slippery and keep sliding from the backflip momentum.
For miner, the alt secondary can send you flying in any direction, including up and down. You can steer it while in flight too!
Right as I thought I knew everything that Inprovise allowed you to do, I learn it even lets you move! It's wild how many little convenient things they stuffed into that one ability. Didn't know about that thing with Miner's alt dash, I'll try it out later but just from what you said it reminds me a little bit of Nemesis Miner's utility from ror1's Starstorm mod (the creator of it, Neik, is actually on the Returns team and a lot of inspiration was taken from it such as the drone scrappers, which look exactly like they did in the mod!)
About miners alt util, I figured I had to be missing something. I'll have to try it with that in mind, but I'm still a big sucker for the first one.
What do you mean by the Miner secondary thing? Do you have a video?
Pilot's alternate special can hit multiple enemies, and also will spread to other enemies if the targeted enemy dies. The alternate is not explained well, but is great in massive mobs where it can chain easily. Also great for dot damage when avoiding danger.
7:55 FYI, there's a must-have accessibility toggle in the options yhat makes holding your primary act the same as frame-perfect mashing. It gives Loader and Bandit a huge buff and makes them so much easier to play.
I'll probably turn that on, but with the binds I have set, spamming isn't a strain at all. I can imagine it's annoying if you're using your mouse
@@MooseWrldhave you ever seen default controller? Good luck mashing your trigger. Also that option doesn't exactly work that well from what i've heard.
@@plantplayer303 I used an Xbox controller for a while, but swapped to keyboard because my controller is a little busted. I have movement bound to WASD, then abilities bound to arrow keys and stuff like that. So my primary is left arrow key and that's really easy to mash.
This is the best video explaining every survivor's kit within a short time frame!
BTW in my opinion Artificer isn't weak she just requires a very disciplined playstyle , I also struggled at first but once I figured her out the damage she can do is insane, maybe the only buff she needs is primary range increase
Tell me how you play her because she feels like a glass canon without the canon part to me
@@Wespa64 you need to be really patient with her ,
Basically the ability rotation is move to one side of the enemy hoard, use the ice wall to block them off, charge your nova bomb and do good damage then use your primary or flamethrower to finish them off
You need to use your flamethrower wisely as well , the wisps and parent enemies will damage you heavily if you just do a grounded flamethrower instead jump in the air once and then activate it you will avoid all their damage considering you have then behind ice wall
But yeah if you try to engage the enemy without the ice wall active there's good chance you will be dead in an instant , she relies on it too much on that ability indeed and that does make her look weak at times
Sick list, one thing I wanna add is that bandit going whip plus alt special turns your primary into a functional two shot, imo better for looping since you can't get consistent setup with it against providence but the value is absurd once you have ~20-30 items
"Welcome to moose world"
*guitar kicks in
I was wheezing
For Han-D, I'd say to use hammer on the explosive drones, and saw on the attack speed drones, because the explosive ones really benefit from a lot of enemies being grouped together, and the saw gets insane when you get an attack speed chain going and get a saw that does five times the damage
you can stack the drones infinitely and have your saw 1 hit bosses, its pretty insane
Great video - helpful insight - funny jetpacks. Enjoyed this very much.
Thanks, hope you learned something useful
Oh my God, I just want to say how much I appreciate you launching into the content rather than having an overly long intro that basically just recaps the title of the video
Drifters cube can be used to distract enemies. Or clump them together for other survivors to use.
You can also stand on top of the cube to prevent being hit by SOME attacks, and slide on top of the cube while doing so to continue doing damage.
You can use the accesibility option "rapid fire" so you can have maximum attack speed from just holding the button instead of needing to mash it on Bandit, Loader, and Mercenary
this is amazing I've been waiting for this type of content to come out of risk or rain returns
i really liked how the characters synced to the music that was playing, really nice detail
Straight to the point, love to see a growing channel like yours.
Keep up the good work!
thanks, newer player here, i finally won monsoon for the first time due to the fact that u told me to use the alt secondary on huntress, it deals so much more damage omg
Han D Saw is insane with any on hit proc items.. You need a way to stun to get it going but imo it shines more than the hammer mid-late game
one stun grenade makes it arguably top 5 abilities in the game. just being able to hold the enemy down while 6 atg mk1/2's go off or uke's is enough to clear huge hordes or a boss. even without the stun grenade you can jump when you use it to follow the monster with your momentum if they're big enough
Great vid! Though this is not useful for everyone, you can turn on Rapid Fire on the accessibility settings to not have to mash your primary with Loader,Merc,Drifter,Bandit etc.
Hope this helps and remember to stretch regardless when playing
This was a fun video. Surprised about a few of them but glad to see variety in content for the game
For Miner, I think you should mention the alt secondary can be used in different directions besides left and right, it’s a very useful movement tool.
While I definitely disagree with some of these loadouts, this video was put together well. The reasoning you put behind using every skill also made me rethink some of my decisions. I'll try some of these builds in the future for sure. Well done.
I stan miniature sun as it carried me on my first monsoon run with artificer.
Jumps dont make it move upwards, so you can run back and forth through a group of enemies while jumping to keep the sun centered and then it explodes for great damage.
I've been looking for advice for Arti since getting her unlocked...And it's not been very forthcoming, it seems like not a lot of people play her! I mostly agree with your picks here...The Spear isn't very good for most situations that the bomb is, the sun is too finicky compared to flamethrower, and surge is ok...
She's ok when you have on-hit effects and cooldown reduction to chain flamethrower a bunch, but early fighting feels like a chore. I'm also hoping the developers do something to improve her more...Maybe something like her chakrams igniting or unfolding on contact with an enemy and maybe more burn damage? Her spear and sun alternates just need reworks....Spear kind of works but should do more damage on a successful pierce, but sun does not work with the kind of game Returns is =/
I am a huge Arti fan, I could not wait to see her in RORR. Boy was I disappointed, I thought surely alt skills will relieve my dismay...Sun is the most infuriating ability ever designed.
I think especially compared to ror2 the vast majority of alt skills feel like sidegrades to the main ones with no real "better" option, which leads to a lot more room for experimentation and each survivor having several different possible playstyles. Here's some of my thoughts (mostly disagreements) on your picks
-I just don't like the shield dash. Not exactly sure why but it might have to do with it placing you close to the enemies at the end? I like the normal bash's ability to create space better
-I prefer Han-d's saw when using speed drones since it hits more times depending on your attack speed, allowing it to do insane amounts of damage with enough stacks (and with scepter it burns on every hit!)... although at base attack speed it's weaker than hammer and doesn't knock up, so for heal and blast drone I don't like it
-Maybe I just need to play with it more, but I think Sniper's diagonal shot feels awkward to use, both as a mobility tool and as an attack. I prefer backflip for the very fast movement and I frames even with Improvise
-Scrap barrier is so powerful that I can't justify swapping it out for short circuit, might also be because I like the green pylon which encourages staying put in fights rather than moving large distances. Also you can turn on the autofire accessibility option to attack at max speed with Bandit, Merc, Loader, and Drifter just by holding the primary button. Doesn't work on melee Chef or Arti for some reason despite them also attacking faster by mashing
-I prefer Pilot's parachute and clusterfire but I think all his skills are very fun so I swap between them very frequently. Aerial support actually does have an aoe hitbox, so I'd say it's not terrible. Wouldn't take it with parachute though because then you miss out on some flight time with the primary special
-Suffocate's execute is wild, I have a hard time picking between it and the spin which gives better mobility and can make enemies drop scrap on hit. Salvage and recycle are both amazing, no preference there. I think either cleanup should cost less scrap or cube should cost more because clearly cleanup's shorter cooldown and natural chance to crit, bleed, or slow isn't enough to make up for the cube's crazy damage
All good points. Basically all of these abilities you pointed out were ones I was already a little torn on, or were on survivors I haven't played as much of. Although I will say, I also greatly prefer backflip on sniper
The enforcers alternate primary is really good at proccing on hit effects. Because each one hits 3 times.
Note for the huntress, Blink definitely feels better in longer runs since warp dart becomes useless once you have high mobility and a hardlight afterburner. Warp Dart is extremely useful for short runs, as well as attempts to unlock stuff since it gives you crucial verticle movement for reaching secret areas.
I noticed that when I did a long run for the alt primary, but blink isn't very useful either once you start outpacing the arrow. So I'd rather have the utility for the first 6 stages
Warp still has the unique ability to be fired in the _opposite_ direction of where you're going. So if you have insane movement speed, you can fire it to the right, do something on the left, then get warped. Kinda niche, but still something Blink can't do. It also helps a ton if you haven't found any jetpacks/feathers and need vertical movement.
Loader is probably my favorite survivor. I would encourage players to at least try his alternate special. The tesla coils don't do enough damage per target (unless using glass) to justify the setup, in my opinion. The conduit, though, is amazing. It does damage to anything inside, and massively increases your attack speed and any imps or drones tagging along. It just embarrasses magma worms. It's great for procing on hit abilities, and it's broken if using equipment such as the unstable watch, shield generator, shattered mirror, back up, and even a drone repair kit.
after getting back into returns and actually learning how to not suck, I think I can confidently say huntress's cyclone glaive is one of, if not the best skill in the entire game. It has possibly the most busted scaling of any attack, as backup mags allow you to stack them. Get enough of them, and you have a hyperdense behemoth of a hitbox that instantly shreds anything unfortunate enough to get in its way. Also synergizes nicely in late game with the boxing gloves, allowing you to push enemies into the hitbox (some enemies can move faster than the glaives, making it difficult to get hits in)
I also managed to lag the game for the first time using it. Not just a little either, actual seconds per frame. It was glorious.
You forgot about the best survivor robomando
Sshhh don't tell anyone it's a secret
Worth noting two things:
-Cheff's cook has a secret 10% execute which isnt mentioned in the description
-Any skill can cancel Artificers flamethrower, not just tectonic surge
I figured there was some executage going on, but I still just don't think it's worth taking that ability.
And someone else pointed that out about artificer. I don't know how I didn't realize that lol
for artificer, you can use her platforms similarly to her ice wall in the way of blocking enemies. its a little jank though. If the enemy can jump (i.e. lemurians, clay men, etc.) then they can hop over it but if you put it too high it wont block them. the surge feels like necessity for runs where you might run negative stats for eclipse like difficulty becauss the movement is invaluable compared to the ice wall which can easily get outscaled health-wise leading to it popping like a balloon with barely any value
Change your sound mixing abit (hard to hear you over music sometimes) and you got yourself a good ass video, cant wait to see more
definitely drop an item tier list, havent seen one yet so it should get you out there, best of luck 🤞
I have an item tier list, you should check it out
@@MooseWrld Saw it immediately afterwards xD
Pilot and Loader are so fun to play, probably because they have crazy mobility
Good video, thanks for the insight
It feels like you only focus on how the ability looks on paper and not the actual practice of them. Commando’s knife is nice, but in a dangerous situation, a knife shotgun is gonna get you killed. His default is much better for crowd control and consistent damage in a high stress situation. Huntresses dart has more distance, but a much longer cooldown. Blink, like in ror2 is good to make a quick getaway out of a bad situation with almost 0 delay, and also helps you jump around cyclone easier. Bandit full alt is probably the best and easiest build in the game. Flash bang groups up and incapacitates enemies, allowing you to whip them safely, which damages all of them, making it much easier to stack standoff, which further increases damage of everything else, and it snowballs extremely quickly. Blast’s damage is just really bad, and the pierce is more valuable. Light’s out is really fun to use but if we’re going for optimal builds standoff has the advantage. For sniper, there is one simple solution. The backflip bunnyhop. You can charge the snipe while backflipping, and apparently charging it reduces friction, allowing you to go flying away while charging the full thing. For acrid, while bubble has its uses, i find spit better for quick damage and actually process things. Poison ticks don’t trigger items, so bile spit is great for this reason, and a quick get off me tool. Poison falls off eventually, and that backup damage is gonna help. For merc, i think the utility is like the special. Both are useful, and usually blinding assault is better with clones, providing i frames that clones doesn’t, and also multiple dashes back and forth stun locks enemies while skyward is better for the burst damage. Tip for loader: turn on hold to attack to save yourself from arthritis. Also default secondary paired with the buff pylon is really good to melt anything or to just escape since it increases speed and gives i-frames. Pilot’s alt special does actually hit groups around the targeted enemy. Also any kind of passive damage is always really good to have. With artificer, ice wall is pretty necessary for her to actually do damage. Early stages can be made easy with ice wall + chakrams, and you can use flamethrower in the air to float, hitting enemies below. This combined with ice wall makes for incredible safety and burst damage, just watch out for flying enemies. Nano bomb is good but kinda hard to make effective bc of the charge. Spear is a little better for a quick crowd burst. Just throw it and mash right click a couple times as you run away, it should work well enough. For drifter, while the execute is incredible, but you should still talk about her alt. Incredible movement, and more damage than any movement tool out there. Both are really good. I just think for a vid like this, it’s better to mention the other abilities instead of just the ones you prefer more often.
Hi, thanks for the feedback! I playtested all of these builds along with multiple other builds to make sure every ability got tested, and that ability pairings I thought might be potent would get tested too. I tried to mention when I thought two abilities were close in power enough that it really came down to preference, but I don't think it always came out in the video. I'm a big fan of commando's FMJ, I just think by the time its starts to get dangerous to use the knife, you're likely to have enough items to cover the lack of big aoe in your kit that fmj would provide. For bandit, yes, blast's damage is pretty low, but that's why I paired it with standoff. I use the dynamite for the pierce and fire away with blast's really high base attack speed. It ends up working out pretty well with a few standoff stacks.
I won't go into every ability here, but I will say there was maybe more thought going into most of these selections than you might guess (with a few exceptions. I didn't play artificer that much, which I think is evident in how I needed to be corrected a few times in the comments.)
But, again, thanks for the comment. I encourage testing different things, I just wanted to offer tested builds that I know at least work well enough and that i prefer.
Oh yeah, time to risk the rain
Artificer is still one of my favourite classes and in my opinion is one of the best classes against most bosses and enemies (that do not release missiles)
Although she does have some blatant weaknesses to balance out the insane dps output
A few interesting notes I've come across for moves you decided against that might be labworthy
Artificer's speed reduction while using nano bomb doesn't affect small sun, letting you do a bit more for remote controlling it
Drifter's back pack spin resets her fall timer, scales with attack and movement speed, and can be jumped during for higher jumps, imo, it's probably the best movement ability in the game that isn't on pilot, especially in lategame.
I’d say the beam turret becomes better in multiplayer. It doesn’t need any items to come online like the default turrets, so less items doesn’t hurt much. And the bouncing mines are great at keeping it safe.
Blinding assault eye frames 🔛🔝
Honestly, I think every move that mercenary has is interchangeable, they're all good
You look like a pro risk of rainer
for commando, if you're going for deep late game runs full metal jacket might be better. I remember getting some runs in the original game where i had 0 cooldown on the skill and it basically became my primary
I agree, this is mostly tailored for 6 stage monsoon runs. And honestly, I don't even think fmj is that much worse than taking combat knife anyway
Honestly, Commandos piercing is slightly better than knife in my opinion simply because of the item that gives enemies a scaling debuff if you touch them. Seeing as touching most enemies in this gane doesnt equate to damage, its way better to just run through a crowd to debuff them and then use your piercing for more damage.
Great vid. You interested in doing guides for the final providence trial with all the characters? It feels genuinely impossible for some of them
I've still got some to get through lol. I took a lil holiday break, but I'll be back making content in the next few days
You didn't mention what you think of Loader's super plasma tower. I like it and the tesla towers very much so deciding between them is difficult for me.
The attack speed boost is kind of insane, I just prefer the aoe on the default special. I think the plasma is probably better for shorter or more focused runs where you can squeeze more out of it, but the teslas are better for looping runs or runs where you don't really want to think about it. There is, of course, always something to be said about easier to use abilities letting you concentrate on other things like dodging.
Only thing you forgot was the final secret survivor!
They don't have alternate abilities
Oh yeah duh, sorry!!
Artificer. Ice wall. Mini sun. Primary attack. Big fat damage stack.
I cannot recommend the mini sun
you guys are sleeping on artificer pulse spear and localized sun, her full alt loadout (while hard to use) works really well for me
Is the loadout guide for pre or post 1.0.3? The miner kit you recommended got nerfed pretty hard in it. I personally use the alt secondary, mainly because you can bhop with it and it's all around a great movement ability
Also, there is a bug with miners default shift, if you hold down the primary attack button while using the shift, you retain your normal move speed while in the air, which means you can attack with pretty much full movement speed
As powerful as the wavedash on pilots alt utility is i think the instant vertical mobility and air time the default provides is still incredibly difficult to match
90% of the games enemies are either incapable or have extreme difficulty hitting you if youre in the air so having a way to stay airborne while continuing to do damage and move around is genuinely too powerful for me to pass up
To be fair, you can still use his alt special to climb up walls as intended. But point taken. It's honestly a really hard choice between the two and I frequently swap
Missed robomando smh my head
Come on man…i needed to know the best build for robomando, i just cant decide 12:07
Could you make a video about what to prioritize for healing? I know what’s good for damage but healing is so confusing for me
You forgot to do a loadout of Robomamdo 😕😕
Im an enforcer main and while i agree with your loadout im a big fan of grenade launcher and shield slam
Im interested to see for those who have played ror2 and rorr, which is harder? Personally ive had it much more difficult on returns.
you forgor robomando
Have you people not heard of infinite suns?
no
@@MooseWrld crit ring
I see@@AqworldsMew11
Your screen is so huge!
why did your voice get higher?
ALTERNATIVE ENFORCER SECOUNDARY MAKES YOUR SHIELD COMPLETLY USELESS
🥺
I really would like to know what were they thinking with artis alt special, it is hot garbage
do more ror
Ok
why would you *ever* not run green pylon /invincibility shield?
you can no-item up to stage 4 with that loader setup.
To be honest, just because it's boring. I had a run going with that build and I just quit out, I was about to fall asleep.