I may be just a tad late with this one...... (whoops). Anyway, great to have you back! C: Correction I: Additional Information O: Opinion Impact Deflection (0:12) O: I think the RoF penalty needs to be removed or GSG need to give it at least 2 ricochets. It's a fun OC, but certainly not a meta pick. T4 A is certainly harder to use with this OC, as it requires tight spaces to work, it can be surprisingly effective (since the DoT is powerful enough to kill a grunt with 1 application) Conductive Thermals (1:20) i: One weird thing to note is that while the temp modifier status effect can only reach 30 stacks max, the damage bonus effect seems to have no cap. I: While this OC doesn't buff the direct damage of the gun (as its 50% kinetic & 50% disintegrate), it does benefit 1/2 of the damage done by T4 B Plasma Splash (50% disintegrate 50% fire). This combined with the above point (no cap on the damage status effect) means you can start dealing some serious damage vs bigger targets. i: Another thing to note is that this affects not only DoTs that deal electricity, fire or frost damage, but guns that deal that damage inherently (like CRSPR, CRYO). The standout here is BREACH, which deals 50% Fire & 50% Electricity. Play this with an engie & watch BREACH absolutely melt Dreads. O: My favorite thing to pair this with is BOLTSHARK using Fire Bolts & Taser Bolts. This gives you both effective crowd clear with the Fire Bolts & respectable Single Target with Taser Bolts (especially if you put 2+ into one enemy). Thermal Exhaust Feedback (3:30) I: One thing to note is that you don't start getting fire damage when you're 1/2 way to an overheat, you start getting the damage when your heat meter shows 1/2 heat. This seems like its the same thing, but it isn't. As LazyMaybe has shown (go watch his videos if you want the very technical info) the heat meter actually slows as you get closer to the end, meaning 1/2 heat shown is less than 1/2 way to an overheat. The minigun has the same mechanic. No idea why it's like this but the more you know. Shield Battery Booster (4:17) O: While it's annoying that the big bonuses (2x velocity & +5.5 damage) only work at full shields, arguably an ever better boost is the 3.5s reduction to Shield Regeneration Delay (the time between taking damage & your shield recharging). I'll say that again, a 3.5 second reduction! For contrast, the base time is 5.5s & the armor mod can reduce this to 4.5s. This works even when you're not holding the gun. This is massive for survivability & enabling the aforementioned bonuses. Imo, Thermal Exhaust Feedback is more of a skill reliant OC than this one. Overtuned Particle Accelerator (6:54) O: I originally hated this OC. However, if you want to get up in bugs face & blast them (rather than the usual Scout Gameplay of Run & Gun) it really shines. I recommend taking Armor Break in T4 to compensate for the terrible accuracy. You'll also want a secondary for clearing bugs on the roof/far in the distance. I personally like Zhukovs with Gas Recycling, especially for spitters. Rewiring Mod (07:24) I: I believe you can technically get a bit more ammo if you use manual heat dump *just* before you overheat, but its very hard to do consistently & the extra ammo probably isn't worth it. Bodkin Points (9:10) I: I have noticed that sometimes the bolt will get stuck on terrain as it tries to fly toward another enemy. This sometimes allows for retrieval even if it has hit an enemy. The Specialist (9:58) O: I do like the chem bolts for a long lasting DoT (especially with T5 A & the specialist, where the effect lasts 22.8 seconds). It can be great for tagging a Grabber or stalker, or hitting an important target on regenerative bugs. The specialist (assuming T5 A) actually adds just over 5 seconds of duration, which is quite nice. Trifork Volley (10:24) I: One thing to note is that Preatorians & Oppressors have resistance to piercing damage (30% & 50% respectively), so this won't deal as much damage as you may expect (still deals a lot though). This is an issue with the boltshark in general, not just this OC.
I used to think conductive thermals was a mid overclock until I realized how OP it becomes when paired with lightning arrows. If you shoot two lightning bolts into the same enemy then switch to the drak and shoot it with CT it will melt big enemies in seconds, even dreadnoughts.
Happy to see this! Some addendums: 2 of the OCs talked about here have some sneaky tech / tips that completely change the game on them. Particularly, Conductive Thermals and Shield Battery Booster. Conductive Thermals might as well be the most busted damage oc in this game. It can buff every Boomstick OC (as long as you take phosphorus shells mod), nearly all of the Boltshark's special uses, and helps with zhukov on cryo minelets (i guess). But it shines on two fronts: Explosive shots on Conductive thermals procs both effects twice. That is, instead of adding 1 to the max 30 stacks of thermal vulnerability, it adds two (except on armor). That means that, if you shoot an opressors weakpoint / naedocite breeder anywhere twice, they get instafrozen from one cryo nade. (4 stacks = 2 from each shot = instafreeze) This also applies to the 5% bonus thermal damage, which stacks infinitely but each stack only lasts 10 seconds i think. Which means there is an effective cap, but you can get it upwards of 600% easily. That boosts jumbo shells immensely, and even just special powder gets to double tap a praetorian in haz5 4 player scaling (the fire ends it off). But the star of the show is taser bolts. Any big foe melts under it. Shoot a taser bolt, then spam their weakpoint with conductive thermals until born ready procs a reload. Then shoot a second bolt, repeat. It can kill a Bulk in 2-3 bolts plus slows them severely and can anchor other nearby bolts. This melts dreadnoughts while still allowing your team to chime in. Most pubs you'll have at least someone running elemental damage - driller's whole schtick gets boosted except goo, gunner's burning hell + volatile goes to the moon and is pretty common, and engi's love the fire + electric boosts with stuff like stubby and beam. At last, shield battery booster has a trick- you have to swap the armor upgrade for the one that makes your shield take longer to start recharging, but does so faster. The multiplicative bonus shears off a good 3-4 seconds on getting to full shield, and a good scout should ALWAYS be kiting - grappling hook is a survivability tool. Stacking this with the active shield perk and you can boost teammates + get a boost on proximity, which allows ludicrous survivability AND immunity to chip damage AND a lot more damage. While not as straightforward as other builds, it can be a difference maker on higher hazards. Stack it with special powder to get as close to broken as you can get in this game without putting on NTP on auto cannon. (Just remember shield disruption!)
@@jimbo491 Definitely fair! Although I will say, i felt the same before testing both - and eventually set on longer delay because chip damage on haz5 / haz5++++ is so ludicrous that taking longer delay ALWAYS means it's faster. (from 12~ seconds to 7-8~ seconds or something crazy like that, which allows for you to get the 50% damage bonus back faster). The way the multiplicative bonus from the OC works is that it stacks with regen IIRC, so the delay really doesn't matter much - plus if you need to regen quick, being near a teammate for like 2 seconds with shield link makes it so the delay is almost back to normal. Highly recommend you give it a spin!
The Conductive Thermals is great when combined with the white phosphorus shells on the boomstick. Spray a tough one with the plasma, then zoom in to light them up. But what's more important about this combo is that you can combine it with the "bootcamp" armor paint and a full helmet cosmetic to create a solid Doomguy cosplay. Also, for the Bodkin Bolts the bolt can be retrieved if it strikes an enemy and the bolt hits a wall when pathing to the next. While this doesn't happen reliably (it might even have been patched out) it's a nice way to conserve ammo if you need it.
Plasma splash far outdoes the damage penalty on CT because half of its damage gains the ramping bonuses. It’s also just insanely powerful in any semi-coordinated teamplay. Dreadnoughts become a joke and many other big enemies too, especially with a driller.
Conductive thermals is best played with plasma splash for a 2-fold synergy on its own. Plasma splash also applies the debuff stacks so thats double the build up rate, and plasma splashes damage is partially fire like most plasma weaponry in the game so that debuff for extra element damage feeds back in to the DRAK against bigger enemies. Besides if you take conductive thermals you generally build for elemental damage anyways to capitalize on it (fire boomstick or cryo/fire bolt nishanka with taser bolts)
overclocks like OPA and SBB are slept on, to be honest. Scout overall has enough room for skill expression in movement to avoid those downsides when it matters most and feel really stylish while doing it. I use one of the two virtually all the time and switch between them based on if I'm playing close to my team or not (since SBB benefits from shield link when you can proc it)
I recommend for OCs that penalize overheats on the Drak, opt for no upgrade on T5. Especially /w SBB. This makes managing heat easier/safer. SBB requires high mobility play. Chip damage costs you the bonus but the shield recharges fast. Treat like a high RoF mid range sniping option.
Love your videos, small note about conducting thermals though, it allows the application of elemental weaknesses against enemies that are normally highly resistant, as such when i combine it with white phosphorous shells on the shotty it blasts through enything including bosses... P.s. i don't know if you knew but plasma splash makes the debuff aply twice to allows not only stacking way faster but also higher as one part of the stack has a time limit not a stack limit even though it makes the base damage literally 1....
When those 2 weapons came around i didnt like any of them. Now after some time (and i decided to play with them for weapon maintenance thingy) i can see how plasma can be fun. I used to only run it with overheat OC, because that's fun, but particle accelerator took me by surprise with how good it is. You have roughly 17 damage and 800ish ammo. Gunners minigun has 10 damage and 1500 effective ammo. They're quite close on total damage, and it is felt. Im not more open to trying out the other ones. The crossbow tho. I still can't see the reason for it to exist. Tripleshot is kinda bad on higher hazards, fire/cold are good, but clunky and unless you're playing solo you'll have to make the whole team play around them OR feel useless af since ppl tend to just shoot bugs lol. The ricochet one is just kinda bad. You have to take damage mod to oneshot grunts, and you have like 20 total ammo. The gun can kill 60! grunts before having to resupply. And that sucks. That's also assuming you always hit 3 grunts and only grunts since swarmers would be wastful and anything else just doesnt die off 1 shot. All the other OCs dont change the gun that much, and OCless crossbow is just confused, dealing too much damage and not enough AOE to shoot smaller enemies, too little damage to shoot bigger enemies and having an arced projectile prevents it from being a tool to deal with important enemies from afar. It just has no niche. And it also doesnt reload in the pocket, which i know is normal for DRG, but for some reason it still bugs me.
I may be just a tad late with this one...... (whoops). Anyway, great to have you back!
C: Correction
I: Additional Information
O: Opinion
Impact Deflection (0:12)
O: I think the RoF penalty needs to be removed or GSG need to give it at least 2 ricochets. It's a fun OC, but certainly not a meta pick. T4 A is certainly harder to use with this OC, as it requires tight spaces to work, it can be surprisingly effective (since the DoT is powerful enough to kill a grunt with 1 application)
Conductive Thermals (1:20)
i: One weird thing to note is that while the temp modifier status effect can only reach 30 stacks max, the damage bonus effect seems to have no cap.
I: While this OC doesn't buff the direct damage of the gun (as its 50% kinetic & 50% disintegrate), it does benefit 1/2 of the damage done by T4 B Plasma Splash (50% disintegrate 50% fire). This combined with the above point (no cap on the damage status effect) means you can start dealing some serious damage vs bigger targets.
i: Another thing to note is that this affects not only DoTs that deal electricity, fire or frost damage, but guns that deal that damage inherently (like CRSPR, CRYO). The standout here is BREACH, which deals 50% Fire & 50% Electricity. Play this with an engie & watch BREACH absolutely melt Dreads.
O: My favorite thing to pair this with is BOLTSHARK using Fire Bolts & Taser Bolts. This gives you both effective crowd clear with the Fire Bolts & respectable Single Target with Taser Bolts (especially if you put 2+ into one enemy).
Thermal Exhaust Feedback (3:30)
I: One thing to note is that you don't start getting fire damage when you're 1/2 way to an overheat, you start getting the damage when your heat meter shows 1/2 heat. This seems like its the same thing, but it isn't. As LazyMaybe has shown (go watch his videos if you want the very technical info) the heat meter actually slows as you get closer to the end, meaning 1/2 heat shown is less than 1/2 way to an overheat.
The minigun has the same mechanic. No idea why it's like this but the more you know.
Shield Battery Booster (4:17)
O: While it's annoying that the big bonuses (2x velocity & +5.5 damage) only work at full shields, arguably an ever better boost is the 3.5s reduction to Shield Regeneration Delay (the time between taking damage & your shield recharging). I'll say that again, a 3.5 second reduction!
For contrast, the base time is 5.5s & the armor mod can reduce this to 4.5s. This works even when you're not holding the gun. This is massive for survivability & enabling the aforementioned bonuses. Imo, Thermal Exhaust Feedback is more of a skill reliant OC than this one.
Overtuned Particle Accelerator (6:54)
O: I originally hated this OC. However, if you want to get up in bugs face & blast them (rather than the usual Scout Gameplay of Run & Gun) it really shines. I recommend taking Armor Break in T4 to compensate for the terrible accuracy. You'll also want a secondary for clearing bugs on the roof/far in the distance. I personally like Zhukovs with Gas Recycling, especially for spitters.
Rewiring Mod (07:24)
I: I believe you can technically get a bit more ammo if you use manual heat dump *just* before you overheat, but its very hard to do consistently & the extra ammo probably isn't worth it.
Bodkin Points (9:10)
I: I have noticed that sometimes the bolt will get stuck on terrain as it tries to fly toward another enemy. This sometimes allows for retrieval even if it has hit an enemy.
The Specialist (9:58)
O: I do like the chem bolts for a long lasting DoT (especially with T5 A & the specialist, where the effect lasts 22.8 seconds). It can be great for tagging a Grabber or stalker, or hitting an important target on regenerative bugs. The specialist (assuming T5 A) actually adds just over 5 seconds of duration, which is quite nice.
Trifork Volley (10:24)
I: One thing to note is that Preatorians & Oppressors have resistance to piercing damage (30% & 50% respectively), so this won't deal as much damage as you may expect (still deals a lot though). This is an issue with the boltshark in general, not just this OC.
>You'll also want a secondary for clearing bugs on the roof/far in the distance.
>I personally like Zhukovs with Gas Recycling
What?
I used to think conductive thermals was a mid overclock until I realized how OP it becomes when paired with lightning arrows. If you shoot two lightning bolts into the same enemy then switch to the drak and shoot it with CT it will melt big enemies in seconds, even dreadnoughts.
Happy to see this! Some addendums:
2 of the OCs talked about here have some sneaky tech / tips that completely change the game on them. Particularly, Conductive Thermals and Shield Battery Booster.
Conductive Thermals might as well be the most busted damage oc in this game. It can buff every Boomstick OC (as long as you take phosphorus shells mod), nearly all of the Boltshark's special uses, and helps with zhukov on cryo minelets (i guess). But it shines on two fronts:
Explosive shots on Conductive thermals procs both effects twice. That is, instead of adding 1 to the max 30 stacks of thermal vulnerability, it adds two (except on armor). That means that, if you shoot an opressors weakpoint / naedocite breeder anywhere twice, they get instafrozen from one cryo nade. (4 stacks = 2 from each shot = instafreeze)
This also applies to the 5% bonus thermal damage, which stacks infinitely but each stack only lasts 10 seconds i think. Which means there is an effective cap, but you can get it upwards of 600% easily. That boosts jumbo shells immensely, and even just special powder gets to double tap a praetorian in haz5 4 player scaling (the fire ends it off). But the star of the show is taser bolts.
Any big foe melts under it. Shoot a taser bolt, then spam their weakpoint with conductive thermals until born ready procs a reload. Then shoot a second bolt, repeat. It can kill a Bulk in 2-3 bolts plus slows them severely and can anchor other nearby bolts. This melts dreadnoughts while still allowing your team to chime in.
Most pubs you'll have at least someone running elemental damage - driller's whole schtick gets boosted except goo, gunner's burning hell + volatile goes to the moon and is pretty common, and engi's love the fire + electric boosts with stuff like stubby and beam.
At last, shield battery booster has a trick- you have to swap the armor upgrade for the one that makes your shield take longer to start recharging, but does so faster. The multiplicative bonus shears off a good 3-4 seconds on getting to full shield, and a good scout should ALWAYS be kiting - grappling hook is a survivability tool. Stacking this with the active shield perk and you can boost teammates + get a boost on proximity, which allows ludicrous survivability AND immunity to chip damage AND a lot more damage. While not as straightforward as other builds, it can be a difference maker on higher hazards. Stack it with special powder to get as close to broken as you can get in this game without putting on NTP on auto cannon. (Just remember shield disruption!)
I prefer faster shield recharge delay. SBB’s biggest weakness is chip damage and 1 second recharge delay feels sooooo good
@@jimbo491 Definitely fair! Although I will say, i felt the same before testing both - and eventually set on longer delay because chip damage on haz5 / haz5++++ is so ludicrous that taking longer delay ALWAYS means it's faster. (from 12~ seconds to 7-8~ seconds or something crazy like that, which allows for you to get the 50% damage bonus back faster).
The way the multiplicative bonus from the OC works is that it stacks with regen IIRC, so the delay really doesn't matter much - plus if you need to regen quick, being near a teammate for like 2 seconds with shield link makes it so the delay is almost back to normal. Highly recommend you give it a spin!
The Conductive Thermals is great when combined with the white phosphorus shells on the boomstick. Spray a tough one with the plasma, then zoom in to light them up. But what's more important about this combo is that you can combine it with the "bootcamp" armor paint and a full helmet cosmetic to create a solid Doomguy cosplay.
Also, for the Bodkin Bolts the bolt can be retrieved if it strikes an enemy and the bolt hits a wall when pathing to the next. While this doesn't happen reliably (it might even have been patched out) it's a nice way to conserve ammo if you need it.
Plasma splash far outdoes the damage penalty on CT because half of its damage gains the ramping bonuses. It’s also just insanely powerful in any semi-coordinated teamplay. Dreadnoughts become a joke and many other big enemies too, especially with a driller.
Conductive thermals is best played with plasma splash for a 2-fold synergy on its own. Plasma splash also applies the debuff stacks so thats double the build up rate, and plasma splashes damage is partially fire like most plasma weaponry in the game so that debuff for extra element damage feeds back in to the DRAK against bigger enemies. Besides if you take conductive thermals you generally build for elemental damage anyways to capitalize on it (fire boomstick or cryo/fire bolt nishanka with taser bolts)
I like the shield battery booster simply because it makes Scout the tankiest character in the game, outside of the % mitigation Gunner build
overclocks like OPA and SBB are slept on, to be honest. Scout overall has enough room for skill expression in movement to avoid those downsides when it matters most and feel really stylish while doing it. I use one of the two virtually all the time and switch between them based on if I'm playing close to my team or not (since SBB benefits from shield link when you can proc it)
SBB is definitely a bit underrated. The main issue, though, is that TEF is right there and gives more benefit for less cost
thanks for macking these videos i found it helping and interesting
ROCK AND STONE⛏️
Conductive Thermals is slept on
I recommend for OCs that penalize overheats on the Drak, opt for no upgrade on T5. Especially /w SBB. This makes managing heat easier/safer. SBB requires high mobility play. Chip damage costs you the bonus but the shield recharges fast. Treat like a high RoF mid range sniping option.
Yayyyy new derpy kat5 OC video!!!
Love your videos, small note about conducting thermals though, it allows the application of elemental weaknesses against enemies that are normally highly resistant, as such when i combine it with white phosphorous shells on the shotty it blasts through enything including bosses...
P.s. i don't know if you knew but plasma splash makes the debuff aply twice to allows not only stacking way faster but also higher as one part of the stack has a time limit not a stack limit even though it makes the base damage literally 1....
When those 2 weapons came around i didnt like any of them. Now after some time (and i decided to play with them for weapon maintenance thingy) i can see how plasma can be fun. I used to only run it with overheat OC, because that's fun, but particle accelerator took me by surprise with how good it is. You have roughly 17 damage and 800ish ammo. Gunners minigun has 10 damage and 1500 effective ammo. They're quite close on total damage, and it is felt. Im not more open to trying out the other ones.
The crossbow tho. I still can't see the reason for it to exist. Tripleshot is kinda bad on higher hazards, fire/cold are good, but clunky and unless you're playing solo you'll have to make the whole team play around them OR feel useless af since ppl tend to just shoot bugs lol. The ricochet one is just kinda bad. You have to take damage mod to oneshot grunts, and you have like 20 total ammo. The gun can kill 60! grunts before having to resupply. And that sucks. That's also assuming you always hit 3 grunts and only grunts since swarmers would be wastful and anything else just doesnt die off 1 shot. All the other OCs dont change the gun that much, and OCless crossbow is just confused, dealing too much damage and not enough AOE to shoot smaller enemies, too little damage to shoot bigger enemies and having an arced projectile prevents it from being a tool to deal with important enemies from afar. It just has no niche. And it also doesnt reload in the pocket, which i know is normal for DRG, but for some reason it still bugs me.
glad i got here early