Table of Contents
Class
Weapons
Superiority
+12.5% Strength for 7 s on Elite and Specialist Kill. Stacks 3 times, deteriorating one at a time.
Opportunist
+25% Rending vs Staggered Enemies.
Run 'n' Gun
You can Hipfire with this weapon while Sprinting. 15% Close Damage while Sprinting. Also reduces weapon spread at all times by -30%.
Stripped Down
Gain Ranged Attack Immunity while sprinting with over 50% Stamina.
Curios
+1-3 Max Stamina
+13-17% Toughness
+13-17% Toughness
Talent Tree
Stimm Lab
Description
A mostly straight-forward front-liner melee build that can focus on either Elite-Fragging or Monstrosity Slaying as the Hive Scum that I've tested in Auric and Auric Maelstrom. I've yet to do any testing of this build in Havoc 20+. I will probably update it later once I do so.
The core philosophy of the build is to stay at high stamina levels to shred with Swift Endurance (on average ~20% Attack Speed!), maintain 40% or higher crit with Float Like a Butterfly and stay safe with Jittery and Slippery Customer .
This build can comfortably use most of the Melee weapons Hive Scum has. If you want to run it with a fast attacking weapon such as Claw Sword, Tac. Axe, Knife or Shivs, it will be a bit rough trying to utilize all the attack speed the build is providing.
The Crowbar shown is a fun idea I'm messing around with, but I probably would not bring into Havoc, but it does well enough in Auric to be effective and fun.
Needle Pistol is for mobility, repositioning and diving. The combination of Stripped Down and Run 'n' Gun allows it to run down regular gunners and shooters in Alt-Fire mode to kill & stagger for a melee cleanup. Handling and pushing a pack of 3+ Reapers however, will require the use of multiple parts of this kit.
The choice of Blitz is mostly preferential:
Blackout : Only used when combo'd with Pocket Toxin to handle dangerous packs (especially gunners) and revive situations. Allows Scum to not eat into the grenade economy
Boom Bringer : On demand long distance removal tool for anything that isn't a monstrosity. Probably the weakest of the three, but does it's job well enough.
Chem Grenade : Extremely strong area denial grenade whose only downside is it's detonation timer. Allows for easy revives, area holds, and ease up the demand for horde clear so the group can focus on key targets
When the difficulty spikes is when Rampage and Stimm comes in.
Cartel-Special Stimm: Any of the following Wildfire V, or Fury II, or Vultoprene II + Spur V. Used to help me hold the front after I run out of Rampage!. If you don't mind the loss of attack speed, Spur III + Kalma III instead of Spur V should shave off about 5 or so seconds from the cooldown meaning there's only 5 seconds where
Rampage!: Used when I need to handle a big and nasty pack or monstrosity(s). Boiling Blood and Pulverizing Strikes are my go to, as they help with uptime and horde shredding.
Curios:
1 Stamina plus any combination of Health and Toughness Curios. Minor Curio perks are 3 open slots, 2+ Gunner Resists, and 3 revive speed. If you aren't running 3 revive speed Marrow will be dissapointed in you. I run 3 Stamina Regen, 3 Gunner Resist and 3 Revive Speed because I live in fear of Gunner seeds where I round a corner and spot 5 reapers, 12 Shotgunners, and 9 Gunners in one area spread out enough to not be easily crowd-controlled.