Wasteland Wasteland 3 + Battle of Steeltown and Cult of the Holy Detonation Expansions Thread

[Infinitron]

The least you could do is post updates that actually contain information.

https://www.inxile-entertainment.com/post/wasteland-3-patch-1-4-1-scotchmo-s-breath-mint-now-live

Wasteland 3 Patch 1.4.1 "Scotchmo's Breath Mint" Now Live

Scotchmo is great, but we’re certain his breath isn’t. And just like the breath mint we imagine he chews from time to time, this update is a deceptively small but potent addition. Packing a minty-fresh wallop that’s sure to air out the place like wintergreen on the palette of a curmudgeonly alcoholic with a closet full of Snake Squeezins.

Please note, Scotchmo’s Breath Mint’s notes are separated into changes that impact Steeltown specifically, and those that impact base game content or systems that span the entire game.

Spoiler

The Battle of Steeltown

Balance

• The special Steeltown armor is now more affordable, and it drops more often. We want players to get into the new armor more easily, as it’s designed to withstand Steeltown’s elemental-heavy weapons. Also, it looks cool.
  
  
• Non-lethal playthroughs were more challenging than intended. We’ve made a number of changes to improve the reliability of Disruption weapons and slightly boost their effectiveness in response to player feedback.
  
  
• Disruption Baton hit chance increased to 85%.
  
  
• Disruption Pulser’s mag size increased to 10 and its hit chance to 80%.
  
  
• Disruption Web Launchers hit chance increased to 95%.
  
  
• Disruption Trap’s AP cost reduced to 4.
  
  
• Heavy Disruption Blaster had its AP cost reduced to 5 but its reload cost increased to 4.
  
  
• Disruption Sniper AP cost reduced to 6.
  
  
• Rioter punch damage reduced by 50% and powerfist impact damage increased by 10%.
  
  
• Mechanic sniper damage bonus reduced by 10%.
  
  
• Foundry Worker and Exo-Tech basic attack damage reduced by 50%. Their ability damage was unchanged.
  
  
• Maintenance Worker melee damage reduced by 10%.
  
  
• Construction Worker hit chance reduced by 10%.

Gameplay

• The Patriarch now properly acknowledges all possible Steeltown outcomes, which is good because dealing with the Patriarch is not an insignificant part of the game.
  
  
• Addressed an issue where loading a save during a cutscene could cause the game to display the cutscene bars for the remainder of that session. Imagine just waiting for that loooong cutscene to end. Something’s going to happen at any moment… Nope.
  
  
• Skipping the conversation with the Computation Engine could cause some weird bugs. Were they bugs though or did the Computation Engine just not appreciate being skipped?
  
  
• Resolved a softlock that could occur if a player (somehow) initiated combat with Guard-Bots after opening the Steeltown gate but before the Ghost Gang arrival.
  
  
• Resolved an issue where the Gift of the Magi mission was not being failed when a player sided with Crow to eliminate Markham.
  
  
• Blue now takes the correct amount of money during the Degausser negotiation.
  
  
• Resolved an issue where squad members would pop in and out of cover like deranged jack-in-the-boxes.
  
  
• Players will now no longer lose access to the Steeltown merchants after the raid, which is nice.
  
  
• All NPCs on the Admin Level will now properly react to Crow and Blue being in charge, *cough* ...if that’s at all how things play out for you. Not saying they need to, you do you.
  
  
• Hacked Guard-Bots in the Steeltown Spire will no longer block the path to the witches. I mean switches! lol I can’t believe I did that. I’m so random! xoxo
  
  
• Assistance by Steeltown’s Computation Engine was extremely infrequent. We made it less infrequent by a specific percentage which you can never know.
  
  
• Resolved an issue in the Steeltown Spire where the player was moved to a different spot than indicated when trying to interact with the Bot-Lift switch.
  
  
• Bot-Lifts won’t draw quite as much aggro from followers and animal companions as they did before. Promise.
  
  
• Dr. Breeler should no longer go missing after the raid. Strong emphasis on ‘should.’ He’s a free spirit.
  
  
• Luis at Steeltown’s gates will no longer repeat the same conversation after the Factory’s situation has been resolved.
  
  
• Bro, the Helping Hand bonus will like totally no longer activate before Handcraft offers help. It was pretty sketch but we fixed it up so you can get back to shredding the gnar.
  
  
• Resolved a softlock that could occur in the Steeltown Spire during cutscenes there.
  
  
• Resolved an issue that was preventing combat from ending when more than one robot was hacked on the player's side before the last enemy was killed.
  
  
• Destroying the generator at the Scrapyard bridge will no longer break the Ghost Gang behavior during combat.
  
  
• [PS4] Resolved some visual issues with the Power Loader attacks.
  
  
• [Xbox] Resolved an issue that could cause framerate to drop while players engaged in the first combat with the Ghost Gang.

Multiplayer

• Resolved an issue where a co-op player would not get pulled into the conversation with Markham and Crow if they were too far from the scene. Yoink!
  
  
• Addressed an issue that was resulting in the Kodiak’s parked location being desynchronized between the players. Alas, the philosophical debate about where Schrödinger's Kodiak is has finally been resolved.
  
  
• Resolved an issue where only the guest could participate in the radio call from the Steeltown Refugee after the area was completed and the party was leaving Steeltown.
  
  
• Resolved an issue where a softlock could occur when a guest spoke with Dr. Breeler as the session host spoke to Luis during the Flushed mission.
  
  
• Resolved an issue where Beals would appear hostile for the guest after the party defeated the Ghost Gang using non-lethal weapons.
  
  
• Resolved an issue that was preventing the guest player from being pulled into the final conversation with the Computation Engine. Double-yoink.

UI & Display

• Resolved a strange visual issue that was going on with Blue’s hair.
  
  
• Assembling the warbot now has all the sparks and flashing lights warranted by the creation of a mobile death-machine.
  
  
• The Power Loader melee smash now gibs and ragdolls bodies so you can feel the full effect of really screwing up that fight.
  
  
• While hovering on the switch to shut down the Bot-Lift in the Steeltown Spire, the movement preview will no longer show a random nearby space.

Audio

• Added the Disruption Turbine’s sound effects which were missing for its ambient, idle, and overloading states. What good is a turbine if it doesn’t go vrmmmvrmm, chunkachunk, and BRRZZZRRRZZ?
  
  
• The all-important THUD! sound has been added for when a player falls off the treadmill within the Administration level.
  
  
• Pressing the big, red, candy-like button to end the simulation in the Steeltown Spire now has proper sound effects.

Misc

• You can stop holding it, the outhouse is now usable.
  
  
• We’ve tweaked some things under the hood during the Steeltown final battle so that framerate doesn’t tank.
  
  
• [Linux] Resolved an issue that could cause the game to crash if the camera was rotated while the screen was focused on the Steeltown gates.

Base Game



Balance

• We’ve employed a general fix for crit damage calculations, which should help with one-shot crits from enemies. Don’t worry, you won’t have to do the calculations, the game will do that for you. I mean, you could on paper, but you don’t have to.
  
  
• We found that enemies were calculating a higher crit damage value than intended. We’ve corrected the calculation. Player crit damage is unchanged.

Gameplay

• Resolved an issue where hit chance previews would not display for enemies who weren't in your line of sight. Sneaky bastards thought they were just gonna go under the radar.
  
  
• We addressed the freak of nature situation that was happening in Ironclad’s makeshift jail area where combat could become bugged-out to the extreme, preventing players from proceeding with the combat there.
  
  
• The reward from the "Buzzkill" quest can no longer be acquired infinitely if Marshall Kwon is present in the squad.
  
  
• Resolved an issue that was preventing Benjie Braddock from giving the ventilation system password to the player after he’s been “assisted.”
  
  
• Resolved an issue that would sometimes prevent players from being able to click on the Kodiak to repair it during combat.
  
  
• Resolved a softlock that could occur after interacting with computers in Aspen when their connected turrets had been destroyed.
  
  
• [Xbox] We’ve employed stability fixes for a cutscene with Angela Deth at Hoon Homestead.
  
  
• [Steam] Resolved an issue where enemies would not attack the party when concurrent movement had been disabled.

UI & Display

• Resolved an issue where quickslot items could disappear after map transitions or save loads.
  
  
• Resolved an issue that could prevent a player from accessing their character’s abilities while that character was aiming.
  
  
• Resolved an issue where dialog barks would linger after combat ended. Do you have to, do you have to let it linger? Good luck not singing that for the rest of the day now.
  
  
• The “highlight all” button will now no longer make non-interactive corpses show an outline because who needs that nonsense?
  
  
• [Microsoft Store] We’ve attempted to fix an issue introduced with 1.4.0 that was causing the game to launch with the brightness defaulted to the lowest setting. If you continue to encounter this please report it through the inXile support site.
  
  
• [Controller] Resolved an issue that could prevent a player from selecting status effects in the inventory with a controller.

 

[Roguey]

Received this email today.

What

The Xbox Research Team is inviting fans of Wasteland 3 to participate in an upcoming remote playtest.

When

You’ll be able to participate at your own pace between Tuesday, July 13th and Tuesday, July 20th.

How to Participate

Please click on the link below, or copy and paste it into your favorite browser to complete the pre-qualifying questionnaire. Unless you have questions, there is no need to reply to this email. If the study looks like a fit for you, we will reach out to get you confirmed for the session.

Thank You

For participating in this study session and helping the Xbox Research Team, you will receive up to $300 via a digital gift card. We look forward to working with you!

Too bad I can't be bothered to spare the bandwidth for this. Wonder what exactly they're playtesting?

 

[Saduj]

Probably the 2nd DLC.

 

[0wca]

Finished vanilla and the only thing that pissed me off was the retarded combat balance. I think I played on Ranger.

The health of some enemies was fucking ridiculous even on that difficulty I remember having to

Spoiler

Unload my whole ammo supply into Angela during the last fight.

Also rocket launchers were pathetic. I remember it dealing less damage than a shotgun blast.

Is the combat more balanced now?

 

[jackofshadows]

I don't know what they did with the balance since release but knowing these devs, probably not much. On release this game was too easy at supreme jerk level so it just your min-maxing skills that suck. Which doesn't negate retardation of their systems, mind you.

 

[Haplo]

Finished vanilla and the only thing that pissed me off was the retarded combat balance. I think I played on Ranger.

The health of some enemies was fucking ridiculous even on that difficulty I remember having to

Spoiler

Unload my whole ammo supply into Angela during the last fight.

Also rocket launchers were pathetic. I remember it dealing less damage than a shotgun blast.

Is the combat more balanced now?

Rocket launchers are good on a specialized build. Auto-crit on primary target. +300% aoe damage from stealth. Draw! perk to only pay AP cost once to reload & fire.

Health figures might seem ridiculous, but you can still 1HKO most enemies.

 

[0wca]

Finished vanilla and the only thing that pissed me off was the retarded combat balance. I think I played on Ranger.

The health of some enemies was fucking ridiculous even on that difficulty I remember having to

Spoiler

Unload my whole ammo supply into Angela during the last fight.

Also rocket launchers were pathetic. I remember it dealing less damage than a shotgun blast.

Is the combat more balanced now?

Rocket launchers are good on a specialized build. Auto-crit on primary target. +300% aoe damage from stealth. Draw! perk to only pay AP cost once to reload & fire.

Health figures might seem ridiculous, but you can still 1HKO most enemies.

Yeah that's what I mean. The game relies way too much on crit damage which goes to insane numbers in some cases.

 

[Ocelot570]

Finished vanilla and the only thing that pissed me off was the retarded combat balance. I think I played on Ranger.

The health of some enemies was fucking ridiculous even on that difficulty I remember having to

Spoiler

Unload my whole ammo supply into Angela during the last fight.

Also rocket launchers were pathetic. I remember it dealing less damage than a shotgun blast.

Is the combat more balanced now?

Ya I agree. I'm currently in the middle of my first playthrough and nothing has been specifically all that tough. Playing on normal even though i played wasteland 2 on normal. Game is pretty easy, but the biggest surprise to me is how short the areas are. Like the Bizarre is just one quest to kill the clowns in the warrens and then the bizarre is safe. You could also stage a coup later on, but feels pretty short for a big area. I'm sure there are other things to be done in different ways, but the 'main quest' there is pretty shallow and short imo. Still having fun with it though

 

[Luckmann]

Anyone that has the latest patch for the GOG version? I'm on 1.4.0.285987, and I need the 1.4.1.291245 update file(s) to see if it fixes anything. Just PM a link or whatever to me if you feel so inclined.

 

[Grunker]

Obsidian's fucking awful about making tacked on side-areas as well

DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK ABOUT SIEGE OF CRAGHOLDT THAT WAY IT WAS AWESOME

ehem

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Obsidian's fucking awful about making tacked on side-areas as well

DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK ABOUT SIEGE OF CRAGHOLDT THAT WAY IT WAS AWESOME

ehem

YOU'VE GOT GHOST CANCER, NOW'S NOT THE TIME TO BE GOING ON A MAGICAL CHRISTMAS ADVENTURE! IT'S NOT REGULAR SIDEQUEST LEVELS OF DISRUPTION, YOU'RE TRAVELING OUT INTO BUMFUCK NOWHERE BECAUSE YOU GOT A LETTER!

White March is some of the best of PoE, but it still fits into PoE itself like absolute shit. To the point where once you finish it and return to the main campaign they give you a popup saying "Well it looks like you played the White March, thanks but you just fucked up the regular campaign 'cause we can't be bothered to account for that. Turn on level scaling?". It's about the same with Deadfire and FNV's DLC too. And Tyranny's, though it's arguably even worse there since if you're playing a loyalist it's over in 5 minutes.

 

[Grunker]

Obsidian's fucking awful about making tacked on side-areas as well

DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK ABOUT SIEGE OF CRAGHOLDT THAT WAY IT WAS AWESOME

ehem

YOU'VE GOT GHOST CANCER, NOW'S NOT THE TIME TO BE GOING ON A MAGICAL CHRISTMAS ADVENTURE! IT'S NOT REGULAR SIDEQUEST LEVELS OF DISRUPTION, YOU'RE TRAVELING OUT INTO BUMFUCK NOWHERE BECAUSE YOU GOT A LETTER!

White March is some of the best of PoE, but it still fits into PoE itself like absolute shit. To the point where once you finish it and return to the main campaign they give you a popup saying "Well it looks like you played the White March, thanks but you just fucked up the regular campaign 'cause we can't be bothered to account for that. Turn on level scaling?". It's about the same with Deadfire and FNV's DLC too. And Tyranny's, though it's arguably even worse there since if you're playing a loyalist it's over in 5 minutes.

Who cares about the shitty plot of the main game when the expansion is that awesome

 

[Grunker]

Planning to start a run of this soon on Supreme Jerk. Haven't read anything on the game, just clicked around in the character creation-thingy and I'm thinking whether something like these 5 builds could work - obviously need to settle on a 6th as well. It's a bit unclear to me how many skills you'll be able to keep maxed.

Also as I understand it you can respec the story companions, correct?

Shotgunner

Max stats: Coordination, Charisma

Off-stats: Intelligence, Awareness, Strength

Small Arms MAX

Leadership MAX

First Aid REST

Background: Goat Killer

Quirk: Waste Roamer


Sniper

Max stats: Coordination, Intelligence, Awareness

Sniper Rifles MAX

Sneaky Shit MAX

First Aid 1

Hard Ass REST

Background: Goat Killer

Quirk: Sadomasochist


Flamethrower/LMG

Max Stats: Coordination, Intelligence, Awareness

Big Guns MAX

Toaster Repair MAX

First Aid 1

Kiss Ass REST

Background: Disciple of the Metal

Quirk: Pyromaniac


Energy Weapons

Max Stats: Coordination, Intelligence, Awareness

Automatic Weapons MAX

Weird Science MAX

First Aid 1

Nerd Stuff REST

Background: Vicious Avenger

Quirk: Serial Killer


Sledgehammer Tank (Ironclad Companion Dude)

Max Stats: Coordination, Strength, Speed

Melee Combat MAX

Armor Modding MAX

First Aid 1

Lockpicking REST

Background: Warlord

Quirk: N/A

 

[vorvek]

I've gone through most of the DLC and somehow it manages to make the somewhat puerile writing of the game much worse. I quite liked the base game; I don't think the story is that interesting, but the set pieces themselves are nice and the choices you make often have this feeling that "the right thing to do" is not often the one with the biggest reward, which I liked. It's not super complex, but it offers reasonable options that very few times made me think "none of this things are what I want to do here".

The DLC, however, is completely retarded, particularly if you sided with Crow against Ludlow, and you come back from Blue with the demagnetizer. There's simply no option to say "Crow, I now have a tool that will change Steeltown forever", you either fight Markham from there, or you have to fight Crow. It doesn't matter that I chose to help Crow before, since now it's either "I'm willing to kill Markham, or I'm against her", which is retarded. If I fight Markham, why would I need the demagnetizer? Not only that, but the design of that combat is completely bullshit. My characters are close to level 30, and the first time I just had four people down before I could even get my first turn, which felt like the game pissing in the wound it had just inflicted in my brain. In my second attempt, Di got hit by a random bullet from my heavy gunner, and while I was still fighting Crow, I auto-failed Markham's mission and Di turned hostile. Pure shit.

It's even worse when you consider that exactly one conversation before, Blue was enumerating everything I had done in the game, pretty much. "Oh, you sided with the commie robots, don't ask how I know, I guess you are trusty enough to get my demagnetizer". Well, what about having that sort of reactivity in the place where it actually mattered?

The elemental shields are annoying, and simply make the combat last two turns longer. The very little amount of steel you get through the whole factory allows you to make an armor and a half, and most of the weapons you get are worse than the common stuff from the endgame.

Overall, the only thing this DLC improves from the base game, is allowing you to craft ammo.

 

[Smerlus]

Received this email today.

What

The Xbox Research Team is inviting fans of Wasteland 3 to participate in an upcoming remote playtest.

When

You’ll be able to participate at your own pace between Tuesday, July 13th and Tuesday, July 20th.

How to Participate

Please click on the link below, or copy and paste it into your favorite browser to complete the pre-qualifying questionnaire. Unless you have questions, there is no need to reply to this email. If the study looks like a fit for you, we will reach out to get you confirmed for the session.

Thank You

For participating in this study session and helping the Xbox Research Team, you will receive up to $300 via a digital gift card. We look forward to working with you!

Too bad I can't be bothered to spare the bandwidth for this. Wonder what exactly they're playtesting?

I signed up for it but haven't heard anything back from it. ‍

 

[jackofshadows]

It's a bit unclear to me how many skills you'll be able to keep maxed

2-2.5 (in some cases 3) skills per char. But I've heared they cut quite a few skill books so slightly less now I guess. You can also abuse "mule rangers" if you want (station dudes who have barter/crafting and have nothing else to do).

I'd suggest death wish for sniper + maybe for someone else (if not for the entire squad). Again, maybe they've changed really much since release but armor was simply not worth it. Not as ridiculously as it was in WL2 but still. Picking a melee guy at SJ is also a bad idea imo. Sneaky shit is far better on someone else with explosives, game breakingly better even. Crit chance is everything in this game so you'd want raise it to most guys, not necessary first of all but still. Leadership is better for heavy/energy guy I'd say, shotgunner could use all benefit from it himself.

 

[Grunker]

You can also abuse "mule rangers" if you want (station dudes who have barter/crafting and have nothing else to do).

Think I won't do this unless I decide to go with just the 4 base rangers if combat is too easy like I've been hearing. With the full 6 I'll try to steer clear of abuse like that.

I'd suggest death wish for sniper + maybe for someone else (if not for the entire squad). Again, maybe they've changed really much since release but armor was simply not worth it. Not as ridiculously as it was in WL2 but still.

Yeah it was between that or sadomaso and tbh Death Wish just looked overpowered

Picking a melee guy at SJ is also a bad idea imo.

"at SJ"? Not sure what you mean

Sneaky shit is far better on someone else with explosives, game breakingly better even.

As you can see I'm not currently running someone with explosives. Maybe that could be the 6th guy but again I'm a little leery of making the game too easy?

Crit chance is everything in this game so you'd want raise it to most guys, not necessary first of all but still. Leadership is better for heavy/energy guy I'd say, shotgunner could use all benefit from it himself.

Aight, thx!

 

[jackofshadows]

Death Wish just looked overpowered

It is.

"at SJ"? Not sure what you mean

Supreme Jerk. Combat even if easy in a sense "easy to win" is still very lethal there and the importance of the first turn is hard to overstate so a dude who wastes half his turn just to get somewhere and then dies next turn anyway seem useless.

As you can see I'm not currently running someone with explosives. Maybe that could be the 6th guy but again I'm a little leery of making the game too easy?

If you will be able to enjoy the game normally - great (I got bored really fast even this sneaky boom gimmick aside) so what explosives/sneaky (or at least just very high crit chance) guy does really well - he speeds things up.

 

[Grunker]

If you will be able to enjoy the game normally - great (I got bored really fast even this sneaky boom gimmick aside) so what explosives/sneaky (or at least just very high crit chance) guy does really well - he speeds things up.

not exactly glowing praise of the game that you'll want to find builds that help you skip it more quickly

Thanks all the same, mate

 

[jackofshadows]

Yep, wasn't tried to praise this game even a little bit. It's a bad specimen imo but I was in a minority here.

My pleasure, I was thinking at least maybe it'll help someone else enjoy this.

 

[Smerlus]

I've gone through most of the DLC and somehow it manages to make the somewhat puerile writing of the game much worse. I quite liked the base game; I don't think the story is that interesting, but the set pieces themselves are nice and the choices you make often have this feeling that "the right thing to do" is not often the one with the biggest reward, which I liked. It's not super complex, but it offers reasonable options that very few times made me think "none of this things are what I want to do here".

The DLC, however, is completely retarded, particularly if you sided with Crow against Ludlow, and you come back from Blue with the demagnetizer. There's simply no option to say "Crow, I now have a tool that will change Steeltown forever", you either fight Markham from there, or you have to fight Crow. It doesn't matter that I chose to help Crow before, since now it's either "I'm willing to kill Markham, or I'm against her", which is retarded. If I fight Markham, why would I need the demagnetizer? Not only that, but the design of that combat is completely bullshit. My characters are close to level 30, and the first time I just had four people down before I could even get my first turn, which felt like the game pissing in the wound it had just inflicted in my brain. In my second attempt, Di got hit by a random bullet from my heavy gunner, and while I was still fighting Crow, I auto-failed Markham's mission and Di turned hostile. Pure shit.

It's even worse when you consider that exactly one conversation before, Blue was enumerating everything I had done in the game, pretty much. "Oh, you sided with the commie robots, don't ask how I know, I guess you are trusty enough to get my demagnetizer". Well, what about having that sort of reactivity in the place where it actually mattered?

The elemental shields are annoying, and simply make the combat last two turns longer. The very little amount of steel you get through the whole factory allows you to make an armor and a half, and most of the weapons you get are worse than the common stuff from the endgame.

Overall, the only thing this DLC improves from the base game, is allowing you to craft ammo.

The game mentions numerous times that Crow isn't fit for the job and she's being extremely unreasonable but I was also shocked that there wasn't some sort of persuade option in that case you were talking about.

The demagnitizer thingy gives you a few options at the end that can make things easier or bring on more combat so it makes sense you would still need it unless you were planning on just murdering everything.

I was able to fool Markham and the Synths into thinking I was going to do everything for them but since I was killing synths the entire game up to that point, decided to double cross them all with the synths even helping me in the final battles.

The combat was ridiculous throughout most of the final fights with the factory workers. I tried to do the pacifist/disable run but the Crow fight and the one immediately after that was the final straw.

The first time I tried the fight against Crow, her people KOd 4 of my characters and 3 of the npcs defending the factory. After a few tries which involved positioning my characters prior to the fight beginning, I went on to the next fight only to get wiped out about 7 times of trying to be nice.

On the 8th time I just switched back to lethal weapons and started murdering factory workers. Fuck them.

 

[Haplo]

Not a great fan of Death Wish personally. Armor has some nice mods (up to +15% crit chance for example) and makes you slightly more survivable.
Sadomasochist has more impact IMO.
Could be nice on a heavy, who needs the extra AP to fire twice... then again, a heavy seems like a natural heavy armor user.

For elemental guys, Pyromaniac + Explodomaniac / Disciple of Metal are neat too.

For optimized builds, you might want to take advantage of elemental mods (and supporting weird science/explosives skills). They make the best weapons extra strong. Bypass the armor/pen mechanics. And some of the best weapons even come in elemental variants. A guaranteed great SMG is explosive (basically tied for best SMG). Best sniper rifle is energy (but you'd want the Small Guns Draw! perk with to use it - since it has 1 mag capacity and otherwise costs 7 AP to fire). Also you can get a neat energy sniper rifle early for free. One of the better assault rifles is explosive (can be gotten early, needs a focused build - explosives & very high accuracy - to shine with its Risky Shot; later you can get a better energy one.. and possibly fire).
A minigun with a fire or HE mod would rock too.

I think the devs nerfed sniper rifle Strike buildup a bit. Before a high Charisma sniper was fun - guaranteed STRIKE (100% hit and huge bonuses) every 2nd shot. Using Mark target and other offensive skills also builds Strike...

 

[jackofshadows]

Death Wish is far stronger in the early game, which is the hardest part. Especially for sniper: 2 shots instead of one - not even close. And it stays relevant the whole game no matter the gear.

Ultra-useful mods are rare ot at least were rare so unless you really have full squad with Death Wish you will utilize them anyway.

 

[Haplo]

You can shoot twice with a sniper without Death Wish. Maybe not in the beginning, but once you steal MegaScope at Bizzare (4 AP to fire! fires a penetrating shot in a narrow cone!) its easy. Plus using Mark Target is useful too (and fills Strike meter!).

If you go for Ray Tracer rifle, you can eventually fire 2-3 times on round 1 (with Draw!) and then 4 times (with Advanced Material mag) on round 2 and onwards.

 

[jackofshadows]

That... does not contradict taking death wish in any way. If we're talking DW vs sado again however then I'd add that flat damage bonus is weak anyway since it all comes to crit damage eventually. And speadking of "draw" - thanks for the little reminder why WL3's build system is pants on head retarded.