Are the grenades of any use? I guess Hawk's Talon is still the go to because of 100 base thoughness? Seekerknife for melee? How good is the Sunrifle to cover your approach, or retreat? I feel like even the Talon doesn't do enough damage and is to inaccurate on medium to long distance to get kills before the enemy retreats, and for closerange from behind I can use my knife anyway. Anyway, I am interested whats good right now, and what you can do with it. What are the go to builds and strategys?
Hunters Mark is your go to weapon for solo play. Sunrifle for guilds. Never pick up grenades, they are useless. Go Seeker knife if you have the points. When penetration is raised to 100, Lasblaster will be better than Hawks Talon. Generally you want 2 fuel. Pick up the fuel in 2nd slot, as 1st has +12 armour upgrade. Mod your gun as much as you can. I prefer accuracy mods. Gold armour is a godsend, but only for veterans.
I personally have: Primary: Hunter's Mark + Heavy Barrel + Angled Grip Anti-Gravity Supporter (Fuel in 1st Wargear slot) Wings of Grace (for the faster Regen, I don't need the additional fuel, since my tactics are mainly "swoop in, stab, swoop out" and the fuel has time to regen in the meantime.) Grenades (Haywire if in warparty, Hawksear if not): adds utility to the hawk, either anti vehicle or group disruptive. Secondary: Wraithcure Jewel Regular knife Trinkets: Chromatic Feather (Still about the regen) [can be ranked in the Primary] Infinity runes (major + minor) Wraithbone curiosity (for the 10LP remaining) My build is all about the regen and very short timed engagements. I swoop in, stab twice and whichever the enemy is alive or dead, I swoop out. I try to place myself to shoot down isolated targets and clear the place of Heavies. I'm acting as a scout on capture points that are the focus of my squad, a tank disabler for the Dragons to come and destroy transports, and Point harasser if we need to apply pressure on a capture point when focusing on another. I can also serve as a decoy in early game. The Hunter's Mark, like many Eldar weapons, highly rely on headshots to put down its damage. But unlike a weapon with Auto Firemod, you can't sweep 6 enemies with a few shots to catch their attention and then fly away. You need to take on one target after the other, and you need to take them down fast. That's why headshots are so important. As a semi auto rifle, I'd also recommend the Hunter's Mark only to Hawks with excellent aim and headtracking. If you miss a shot, that a big part of your DPS that you just lost. Regular Hawk Talons are more forgiving. I'd build this with Hawk's talon too, with the difference of a Stabilizing Grip. Not having a Master Crafted version enables you to get the Seeker knife as well.
Advanced Armor, Armor Wargear, Minor Curio and Ammo Pack are always a must. The remainder score is filled with either: Modded Hawk's Talon and Fuel Regen item. Modded Hunter's Mark and Armor Regen item. I do not ever need a second fuel, as I can usually hold off a melee attacker long enough to regen the one I get by default and only ever find myself in close range with the Hawk's Talon anyway.
Sunrifle. Good for suppression bonuses, good for being accurate and controllable, good for contributing something besides knifing. Notably I do not have the Hunter's Mark. In my experience the Talon is useful for doing something you don't want to do -stand there and shoot. It's also about 20% more lethal with 20% less RoF. Maybe bring it for Tyranid hunting. I don't spend the points for Masterwork; whatsis the named shop gun is terrible though pretty. Normally Advanced Armor, but given how pointless it's felt this is not as important as it was. Extra fuel. Extra armor. Hawksear Grenades are worthless, Haywire Grenades are depressing. Neither is a priority. In my experience if I can open with a backstab whether or not I'm using a Seeker Knife or a wraithbone shoehorn the difference is up to two additional quick swipes of the blade. It's really that inconsequential; positioning counts for far more. Wraithcure gem > Ammo pack. Trinkets are whatever. I'd rather have another mag of sunrifle ammunition than take a couple of milliseconds longer to kill.
I have my hawk with hunters mark, extra fuel and armor if I can. Extra fuel comes into play much more than armor though. Sometimes extra fuel can make you almost unkillable. I was playing fortress defense yesterday against MYST, I was playing LSM or orks. Anyway, when they took point a, we were in the fortress at B, there were Hawks everywhere. In places no one should be! They were on the chandelier, on the buttresses, they were in Windows Etc. All of our heavy support would spawn and be basically insta gibbed as soon as we walked outside the door from the spawn point, with 10 Hawks shootout you down, plus dark reapers with reaper launchers picking you off. Every time we shot at the Hawks, all they had to do was back away a little and wait for their armor regen to kick in. I copied the strategy and go on top of the towers on the walls on a fortress attack mission and caused chaos with 4 guys all trying to shoot you but none being able to kill you. While they were all looking at me, other guys ran in and killed them all I find playing a hawk I don't get much kills or points even at times, but man they can ruin someone's day pretty fast through sheer annoyance. I've been tempted to go to sunrifle to cause suppression, as I find with the hunters mark it takes a good 4-5 well placed hits to down someone, and they usually react and pull away before then. Unless you're pulling off head shots it's hard to down a guy quick.
@Razmirth I think that's one of the bigger benefits of playing with a War Party with voice chat (either in a guild or not, that's not important). It allows you to appreciate that your efforts are worthwhile even if they don't translate into a high score. A Scorpion who spends half the match sitting on a virtually empty point holding it against one or two enemies is doing a hugely important job, but they'll be lucky to hit 5k XP in the match. If you're on voice chat you can at least get an appreciation that your actions are benefiting your team elsewhere. Likewise with the Hawk and the Sunrifle. Hard to get a true appreciation of the benefit you're providing to your team unless you're chatting with them on VoIP.
Yesterday I saved a bunch of teamates (that were on voice chat with me) from impending doom, everytime by gunning down the melee guy that was about to slice them in half. They always appreciate it, and yeah even though I'm not the one capping points, I'm helping.
My next goal is to get a mic so I can use VoIP. Can't wait to actually feel Part of a squad and war party!! But I agree completely with you. Sometimes as a reaper I go guard duty on a point. Just set up and wait. Yeah I don't get great points but then again, the whole game can shift if someone caps a point, which I've prevented from happening who knows how many times. I've also spent a game hunting enemy heavy support who like to sit outside the deployment zone and fire into the windows with plasma guns and abbadons grace. Maybe I don't get lots of kills, but keeping them surpressed and ducking constantly let my team operate without getting insta gibbed by a plasma shot. That's the thing so many people just don't get. They look at the score board and assume the top point scorers are the only good players....I've played with Scorps who literally spent most of the battle cloaked observing the battle field, relaying info to the teams, and playing defense. They come middle of the charts, but you can be sure we wouldn't have won without their info. That being said, people who score a lot of points tend to be the ones who underatand how the game works and the overall strategy in general.
