Gib's Turian Agent build - burn baby, burn
Jun 16, 2017 14:23:14 GMT
via mobile
Pounce de León, ProbeAway, and 4 more like this
Post by gib on Jun 16, 2017 14:23:14 GMT
Edit: build applies to 1.08 when platinum did not exist
Welcome to my first ever build guide.
It's a text only guide and a fairly long read (with a tl;dr), so you might want to get cosy with a hot beverage. Before we get started, I'd like to state that this build is, in my opinion, platinum ready. Whilst I do get chewed up every so often on gold, I can usually put this down to a mistake I personally made, rather than the kit underperforming to my needs.
Build play style
This particular build caters to a wide variety of play styles from running and gunning, power focus, to sniping and of course objective play. It's been said a thousand times that infiltrators are excellent objective classes (and the best dodge IMO, the aggro break is invaluable) and this particular build is no different, so I'll gloss over this particular point as I feel it's been covered enough in other threads. It uses all three powers, with a focus on cloak for damage bonus and utility (both objective and staying alive) and flamethrower for CC and area wide debuffs to burnable enemies. It's also a great class for priming enemies although that can work somewhat against you - I'll cover this later in the guide.
The kit really shines for almost anyone who likes the power set, and is particularly powerful when you use a mixture of all abilities and weapons in conjunction with the kits strengths. I play him as a hyper-aggressive hit and run type build with moments of defensive play during objectives and other gameplay scenarios (supporting the revival of team mates etc). We will get into specifics when we delve further into the class.
Weapons
I personally am using a shotgun (Dhan ii) and a sniper (Isharay x). Don't have either of those weapons? No problem, as you can equip almost anything you want - but I solidly recommended high damage low ROF weapons as opposed to the opposite. On this build we will be looking to take advantage of damage bonuses from cloak, so the higher per-bullet damage weapons are recommended highly.
On my build with the weapon ranks shown, I can equip both weapons with no cool-down penalty.
The build (see end for build summary)
Recon visor (rank 1)
Some of you saw rank one and lost interest already. "Not speccing into the agents unique skill is madness" is common to read here and elsewhere. And in a way, they are right, as it is an ability that you don't get on other kits. So why on earth would you pass it up?
Because it's a super-duper powerful 1pt wonder, and while ranking it up further to 6 was fun with some great utility, I found it gave me everything I needed at one. It still allows excellent penetration damage and the range extends far enough that I can plan my strategy as and when needed, or just Jenkins in there and know where the closest threats are (which does synergise well with the low range shotguns and flamethrower). While having more range is nice for planning, it just wasn't worth the points to get armour damage at 6 and an extended range that was outside the main focus of the class (which is CQC but with a sniper for long range threats). Especially when you consider you lose any bonuses the moment visor deactivates - major downside with that many points invested IMHO!
This class makes some of the best use of 1 point I've ever seen, as it's penetrate allows you to hit enemies through cover easily - especially effective with my chosen weapons. Whilst it does do a little less damage, the utility is still there and effective. Annoying raider camping in cover? Shoot him in the head as he sits there thinking he is immune from damage. Chances are, if he is in range with the Dhan then he's in range to be shot through cover with the visor active. Cloak first before your shot for additional damage! Speaking of.....
Cloak (rank 6): 4a, 5a, 6a
Escape artist over combat cloak. Yup, like, fo real, yo. It's another head scratching choice, as well as taking recharge over damage bonus. Thinking WTF? So did I when I saw how bloody fast my cloak regenerates - especially if you break it immediately. One thing I will say is that cloak rank 6 CAN be personal preference on this build and I'm not sure if there is a right or wrong way, just different advantages that I'll attempt to highlight. I digress...
Let me explain some synergy that's cool. For starters, I can target, cloak, fire my Isharay. Isharay has MASSIVE single shot dps, but only one round to fire... which as we don't take combat cloak, doesn't matter. By the time the Isharay has reloaded, I can already cloak again. It's absolutely possible to get the cloak bonus on EVERY SINGLE SHOT cycle as long as you fire as quickly as possible and don't take too long on your shot after cloaking. Get your aim dialled in then cloak then micro adjust if required then shoot.
This might not seem like a big deal, but you can (on gold) OHK almost any standard enemy in the game with a headshot. Through full shields. I have just tested, and this is still the case as of 1.08 - the shot is still powerful enough to bypass the shield gate completely despite its buff. This makes the single target damage huge, and makes the best use of the one shot you do have. It's also less punishing if you do miss (git good etc), as your cloak regens quicker allowing you to escape trouble sooner if you whiff your shot.
So in my mind, I can use the recharge speed buff over damage, as I can already kill most enemies in one shot. Without the recharge speed, you have to wait a bit to cloak again, so you would probably take a shot without the bonus just to output damage.... or waiting for your cloak before your next shot, lowering your overall damage over the course of the game. The build works with either choice, but this is my preference.
It's a similar scenario with combat cloak - the extra 2 seconds your cloak lasts does affect your recharge speed quite a bit because the shorter the cloak time, the quicker the recharge. I use the sniper mainly to take out annoying single targets. Example, Kett game on gold, wave 6 upload. Destined cloaks himself and anointed buddies, bullets flying everywhere. Not with this build - recon visor 1pt wonder wins again and highlights invisible enemies, aim, cloak, fire, dead - all enemies become visible and mop up. I usually use the sniper as a secondary weapon for those times where something just has to die as quickly as possible, or just to engage from a safe distance if shit hit the fan.
Cloak is good also at improving the overall performance of a shotgun, although less so, simply due to the damage difference per projectile, and that only the first will be boosted. Combat cloak does give more of a benefit in this area, for sure! Don't get me wrong, I still cloak just to get damage bonus and nothing else, simply because I can take advantage of it WAY more often AND without worrying about using my cloak for damage to sacrifice it for survival utility while it cools down. Only if it gets hairy do I take full advantage of my shields being able to recharge while cloaked, which will help in platinum most likely as I adjust to new damage values, but when you do need it, it's there and it's REALLY useful especially during amazing clutch situations. If however you are all about DAMAGE then feel free to adjust to taste but be advised that it does change the balance of the build.
Flamethrower (rank 6): 4b, 5b, 6b
Ah, here we go. I've bigged up some of the other aspects of the class, but here is where the class goes from being good to great. Generally speaking I'm not a huge fan of flamethrower on the KroMerc. The flames can sometimes annoy your team mates, it doesn't do great damage, and you still soak up some damage while applying. But on this class, it seems especially effective when teamed with the correct passive for the job.
I suppose I should be clear that this build really isn't about the highest DPS, although as I've explained he does have some pretty decent weapon output but nothing compared to a weapon spec class. So I figured that I would focus on the utility rather than the damage, as I have access to a high enough spike potential through the Isharay.
The flamethrowers job is a CC and debuff. Although fire can not burn through shields, a Dhan shot or maybe two solves that (or Isharay to the head, which will kill outright anyway...) so shielded enemies aren't really this class' biggest problems especially with visor and cloak... you can deal with shields pretty effectively out to any range. It's when you have several enemies all shooting you at the same time, in a group, or sometimes from multiple angles that you are in the most danger (possibly true of any class?). Not so for the Agent.
As I've mentioned, FT isn't great for damage. It's DOT doesn't seem to compare to flack despite the numbers and it doesn't do much direct damage. So we aren't going to improve something that it's not effective at; I'd rather make something good great, than something mediocre good. What flamethrower is great at is the CC and debuff I mentioned earlier and having that more often is hands down the winner for me. Setting enemies on fire with just a second or two of flame causes them to burn for something around 8 seconds with lingering burn. This might seem pointless, because surely a enemy that's dead is best, but allow me to explain.
Once an enemy is caught on fire, most red bars panic and flail around like a fish out of water. You have a few choices here; dependant on the situation you face. You can set a red bar alight and the dot WILL kill on gold with lingering burn+passives which I will explore in a moment. This is where blinding heat comes in, as enemies on fire do half the damage they would do normally - even more important after the recent damage buffs to enemies. In conjunction with another passive, enemies on fire will deal a LOT less damage, essentially making you tanky as hell while they squirt a water gun at you, all whilst burning to death.
It's not a quick death mind you, but you CAN dodge into a room of red bars, flame them all, then dodge out and go looking for other targets, they will all drop one by one in the kill feed - you just have to be a little patient. For those of you wanting that kill sooner, there is nothing stopping you accelerating their death with your weapon....
Flamethrower is also good against armour but not because of its direct damage but because it allows you to tank any damage they throw at you. Make Hydras almost harmless by setting it on fire before it fires its rockets at you. I can take a full rocket barrage to my face and still be standing proudly, showing it my mid digit while blasting away and laughing maniacally. Piss off beserkers by flaming him while mid air. He'll flack you of course, but you're immune to stagger while in air aim and it'll almost do two thirds of three fifths of fuck all damage.
Apply the debuff to a whole group of enemies and watch as they become shadows of their former selves, flailing around like idiots while jabbing you with pea shooters as you cloak toward your next target. Jumping like a rabbit while flaming looks stupid but is also REALLY effective allowing you to cover a lot of ground in a single spray, catching even more enemies.
Do be cautious though - with enough fire aimed at you, you CAN still go down. It might be you flamed the 3 in front of you but you are being flanked by one mook to the left who is still dealing full damage... and getting complacent or relaxing because of how easy it becomes when you get your gameplay loop established. Either way, you aren't invincible but when you get to grips with him.... he is nigh on unkillable on gold.
Apex Training (rank 6): 4a, 5a, 6b
This one isn't so straight forward as the rest and can be down to personal preference, but I'll go through my choices and explain the synergies where present. As the turian doesn't have as many weapon bonuses as other classes, I tend to do what I can to make sure I can kill a red bar mook raider or chosen in no more than two shots with the Dhan. So I built the passives around the thought that two shots is fine and three sucks.
I'll explain: mooks are dangerous in groups, or even alone if you really get caught off guard. Two mooks can take you down very quickly, so it's important that you get the best bang for your buck when taking them out with your weapons. My human shotgun infiltrator has more shotgun damage and kills red bars in TWO shots with the Dhan. The first shot takes like 3/4 and the second shot overkills the target. On my Agent, one shot halves health the other shot just finishes them off, matching the TTK for mooks of a class with much higher damage (dogs are still 3 shot though due to a slightly higher health pool, but flame or melee as they run up to you solves this, whereas raiders tend to keep distance to prevent an easy finish). Sure, this makes a difference on high health or armour (and the human also has a clip size advantage) and you'll be beat out on DPS in the long run, but as i said this class isn't about dps, despite it matching ttk on single mooks, and having the Isharay for spike.
In apex training, it was possible achieve the two shot by going 4a only instead of 4a AND 6a however please consider this may differ for you depending on what weapon you are using. I took 4a (8%) over 20% melee (meh for this build) and 20% power (flamethrower) damage. The melee isn't really useful and as I said during the flamethrower section buffing it's damage wasn't as useful. This meant I could take 6b (power specialist) over more weapon damage - at the end of the day, even going both 4a & 6a damage STILL both kill mooks in two shots, so I'd rather take another advantage towards my powers. It provides 20% damage making up for what I passed in 4b and although it's not useful like I said it is nice for killing a little quicker, it's just not required. What IS nice is the 20% tech duration for lingering burn (as explained means death for mooks, and more damage to everything else, as well as more time for team mates to trigger fire combos (more on this in a moment)), and the 20% weapon weight capacity to allow us a sniper for the afore mentioned shenanigans - this was preferable to me than the option of going 4b and 6a.
Support systems: (rank 6) 4a, 5a, 6b
These are more straightforward and rank 6 is almost essential to make the best use of the flamethrower. Let's get to it. 4a tech duration further enhances lingering burn vs melee damage - a no brainer IMO.
Next up is tactical evasion which benefits 20% health and shields (always nice to offset any squish) and a nice 15% movement speed.
It might not sound like much, but it's useful for evading damage, getting around to objectives and team mates, and into cover. It's more useful than I thought it would be and further highlights how slow the fucking krogan are. KroMerc with fortify and FT covers hardly any ground vs Turian. The pro tip here is to jump to overcome this disadvantage, and is great to use on both classes for mobility while flaming.
Rank 6 shield reset is actually pretty damn good on this class. It was sweet to cloak and regain shields immediately or flame and regain shields, but tech sabotage wins due to its synergy with flamethrower's blinding heat, giving a further 30% reduction to enemy weapons against you when on fire. That's a massive amount of damage reduction, and I chose it over shield reset for that reason (that and shield resets disadvantage of one bullet hitting you stopping the reset).
Equipment
I use the engineering kit to make sure the dot kills a mook within the time it's active. Without it it takes much longer and might not secure the kill at all without changing passives that then mess up weapon damage. Until better equipment is released this is what I use, but you can tweak to taste.
Boosters
Your choice. Ammo boosters are not effective on this build due to the low rof / small magazine weapons due to % to proc. If you're wondering why I don't just use a power recharge boost to mitigate the cooldown disadvantage, or the weapon damage; it's because I don't like builds that rely on being effective with boosters as they tend to... kinda suck without them. This build is powerful with zero boosters attached and as such you can equip anything you want. You could further extend your recharge advantage over combat cloak with a booster - albeit with diminishing returns, but whatever you choose, you can tailor it to your liking.
Colour (RGB)
1: 613, 585, 521 (tan)
2: 1000, 649, 1 (orange)
3: (black)
Pattern 1 (0 being default)
Pattern colour: (black)
Light colour: 1000, 689, 0
TL;DR -----------------------------------------
BUILD
1,6,6,6,6
Visor 1
Cloak 4a 5a 6a
Flame 4b 5b 6b
Apex 4a 5a 6b
Support 4a 5a 6b
Shoot to remove shield, flame, kill. Recon as and when enemies are cowards behind cover and against destined etc. Burn as much as you can. Shoot as much as you can. Jump a lot while spraying flames to dot kill mooks. OHK ability on sniper. Massive CC, Massive debuff from FT. Makes hard hitters throw powder punch instead. Cloak for damage boost and take advantage frequently. Escape if needed for shields / clutch.
Note!
If you're playing hit and run to a group of mooks be aware that combo detonations will remove burn on your enemies giving them back full damage to you. If the combo that your team mate set off didn't kill the enemy, then this is something to be aware of. For example debuff hydra to fire nerf rockets and teammate detonates, bye bye burn, bye bye blinding heat and tech sabotage and hello death.
Comments and questions welcome and I hope you enjoy the build.
Welcome to my first ever build guide.
It's a text only guide and a fairly long read (with a tl;dr), so you might want to get cosy with a hot beverage. Before we get started, I'd like to state that this build is, in my opinion, platinum ready. Whilst I do get chewed up every so often on gold, I can usually put this down to a mistake I personally made, rather than the kit underperforming to my needs.
Build play style
This particular build caters to a wide variety of play styles from running and gunning, power focus, to sniping and of course objective play. It's been said a thousand times that infiltrators are excellent objective classes (and the best dodge IMO, the aggro break is invaluable) and this particular build is no different, so I'll gloss over this particular point as I feel it's been covered enough in other threads. It uses all three powers, with a focus on cloak for damage bonus and utility (both objective and staying alive) and flamethrower for CC and area wide debuffs to burnable enemies. It's also a great class for priming enemies although that can work somewhat against you - I'll cover this later in the guide.
The kit really shines for almost anyone who likes the power set, and is particularly powerful when you use a mixture of all abilities and weapons in conjunction with the kits strengths. I play him as a hyper-aggressive hit and run type build with moments of defensive play during objectives and other gameplay scenarios (supporting the revival of team mates etc). We will get into specifics when we delve further into the class.
Weapons
I personally am using a shotgun (Dhan ii) and a sniper (Isharay x). Don't have either of those weapons? No problem, as you can equip almost anything you want - but I solidly recommended high damage low ROF weapons as opposed to the opposite. On this build we will be looking to take advantage of damage bonuses from cloak, so the higher per-bullet damage weapons are recommended highly.
On my build with the weapon ranks shown, I can equip both weapons with no cool-down penalty.
The build (see end for build summary)
Recon visor (rank 1)
Some of you saw rank one and lost interest already. "Not speccing into the agents unique skill is madness" is common to read here and elsewhere. And in a way, they are right, as it is an ability that you don't get on other kits. So why on earth would you pass it up?
Because it's a super-duper powerful 1pt wonder, and while ranking it up further to 6 was fun with some great utility, I found it gave me everything I needed at one. It still allows excellent penetration damage and the range extends far enough that I can plan my strategy as and when needed, or just Jenkins in there and know where the closest threats are (which does synergise well with the low range shotguns and flamethrower). While having more range is nice for planning, it just wasn't worth the points to get armour damage at 6 and an extended range that was outside the main focus of the class (which is CQC but with a sniper for long range threats). Especially when you consider you lose any bonuses the moment visor deactivates - major downside with that many points invested IMHO!
This class makes some of the best use of 1 point I've ever seen, as it's penetrate allows you to hit enemies through cover easily - especially effective with my chosen weapons. Whilst it does do a little less damage, the utility is still there and effective. Annoying raider camping in cover? Shoot him in the head as he sits there thinking he is immune from damage. Chances are, if he is in range with the Dhan then he's in range to be shot through cover with the visor active. Cloak first before your shot for additional damage! Speaking of.....
Cloak (rank 6): 4a, 5a, 6a
Escape artist over combat cloak. Yup, like, fo real, yo. It's another head scratching choice, as well as taking recharge over damage bonus. Thinking WTF? So did I when I saw how bloody fast my cloak regenerates - especially if you break it immediately. One thing I will say is that cloak rank 6 CAN be personal preference on this build and I'm not sure if there is a right or wrong way, just different advantages that I'll attempt to highlight. I digress...
Let me explain some synergy that's cool. For starters, I can target, cloak, fire my Isharay. Isharay has MASSIVE single shot dps, but only one round to fire... which as we don't take combat cloak, doesn't matter. By the time the Isharay has reloaded, I can already cloak again. It's absolutely possible to get the cloak bonus on EVERY SINGLE SHOT cycle as long as you fire as quickly as possible and don't take too long on your shot after cloaking. Get your aim dialled in then cloak then micro adjust if required then shoot.
This might not seem like a big deal, but you can (on gold) OHK almost any standard enemy in the game with a headshot. Through full shields. I have just tested, and this is still the case as of 1.08 - the shot is still powerful enough to bypass the shield gate completely despite its buff. This makes the single target damage huge, and makes the best use of the one shot you do have. It's also less punishing if you do miss (git good etc), as your cloak regens quicker allowing you to escape trouble sooner if you whiff your shot.
So in my mind, I can use the recharge speed buff over damage, as I can already kill most enemies in one shot. Without the recharge speed, you have to wait a bit to cloak again, so you would probably take a shot without the bonus just to output damage.... or waiting for your cloak before your next shot, lowering your overall damage over the course of the game. The build works with either choice, but this is my preference.
It's a similar scenario with combat cloak - the extra 2 seconds your cloak lasts does affect your recharge speed quite a bit because the shorter the cloak time, the quicker the recharge. I use the sniper mainly to take out annoying single targets. Example, Kett game on gold, wave 6 upload. Destined cloaks himself and anointed buddies, bullets flying everywhere. Not with this build - recon visor 1pt wonder wins again and highlights invisible enemies, aim, cloak, fire, dead - all enemies become visible and mop up. I usually use the sniper as a secondary weapon for those times where something just has to die as quickly as possible, or just to engage from a safe distance if shit hit the fan.
Cloak is good also at improving the overall performance of a shotgun, although less so, simply due to the damage difference per projectile, and that only the first will be boosted. Combat cloak does give more of a benefit in this area, for sure! Don't get me wrong, I still cloak just to get damage bonus and nothing else, simply because I can take advantage of it WAY more often AND without worrying about using my cloak for damage to sacrifice it for survival utility while it cools down. Only if it gets hairy do I take full advantage of my shields being able to recharge while cloaked, which will help in platinum most likely as I adjust to new damage values, but when you do need it, it's there and it's REALLY useful especially during amazing clutch situations. If however you are all about DAMAGE then feel free to adjust to taste but be advised that it does change the balance of the build.
Flamethrower (rank 6): 4b, 5b, 6b
Ah, here we go. I've bigged up some of the other aspects of the class, but here is where the class goes from being good to great. Generally speaking I'm not a huge fan of flamethrower on the KroMerc. The flames can sometimes annoy your team mates, it doesn't do great damage, and you still soak up some damage while applying. But on this class, it seems especially effective when teamed with the correct passive for the job.
I suppose I should be clear that this build really isn't about the highest DPS, although as I've explained he does have some pretty decent weapon output but nothing compared to a weapon spec class. So I figured that I would focus on the utility rather than the damage, as I have access to a high enough spike potential through the Isharay.
The flamethrowers job is a CC and debuff. Although fire can not burn through shields, a Dhan shot or maybe two solves that (or Isharay to the head, which will kill outright anyway...) so shielded enemies aren't really this class' biggest problems especially with visor and cloak... you can deal with shields pretty effectively out to any range. It's when you have several enemies all shooting you at the same time, in a group, or sometimes from multiple angles that you are in the most danger (possibly true of any class?). Not so for the Agent.
As I've mentioned, FT isn't great for damage. It's DOT doesn't seem to compare to flack despite the numbers and it doesn't do much direct damage. So we aren't going to improve something that it's not effective at; I'd rather make something good great, than something mediocre good. What flamethrower is great at is the CC and debuff I mentioned earlier and having that more often is hands down the winner for me. Setting enemies on fire with just a second or two of flame causes them to burn for something around 8 seconds with lingering burn. This might seem pointless, because surely a enemy that's dead is best, but allow me to explain.
Once an enemy is caught on fire, most red bars panic and flail around like a fish out of water. You have a few choices here; dependant on the situation you face. You can set a red bar alight and the dot WILL kill on gold with lingering burn+passives which I will explore in a moment. This is where blinding heat comes in, as enemies on fire do half the damage they would do normally - even more important after the recent damage buffs to enemies. In conjunction with another passive, enemies on fire will deal a LOT less damage, essentially making you tanky as hell while they squirt a water gun at you, all whilst burning to death.
It's not a quick death mind you, but you CAN dodge into a room of red bars, flame them all, then dodge out and go looking for other targets, they will all drop one by one in the kill feed - you just have to be a little patient. For those of you wanting that kill sooner, there is nothing stopping you accelerating their death with your weapon....
Flamethrower is also good against armour but not because of its direct damage but because it allows you to tank any damage they throw at you. Make Hydras almost harmless by setting it on fire before it fires its rockets at you. I can take a full rocket barrage to my face and still be standing proudly, showing it my mid digit while blasting away and laughing maniacally. Piss off beserkers by flaming him while mid air. He'll flack you of course, but you're immune to stagger while in air aim and it'll almost do two thirds of three fifths of fuck all damage.
Apply the debuff to a whole group of enemies and watch as they become shadows of their former selves, flailing around like idiots while jabbing you with pea shooters as you cloak toward your next target. Jumping like a rabbit while flaming looks stupid but is also REALLY effective allowing you to cover a lot of ground in a single spray, catching even more enemies.
Do be cautious though - with enough fire aimed at you, you CAN still go down. It might be you flamed the 3 in front of you but you are being flanked by one mook to the left who is still dealing full damage... and getting complacent or relaxing because of how easy it becomes when you get your gameplay loop established. Either way, you aren't invincible but when you get to grips with him.... he is nigh on unkillable on gold.
Apex Training (rank 6): 4a, 5a, 6b
This one isn't so straight forward as the rest and can be down to personal preference, but I'll go through my choices and explain the synergies where present. As the turian doesn't have as many weapon bonuses as other classes, I tend to do what I can to make sure I can kill a red bar mook raider or chosen in no more than two shots with the Dhan. So I built the passives around the thought that two shots is fine and three sucks.
I'll explain: mooks are dangerous in groups, or even alone if you really get caught off guard. Two mooks can take you down very quickly, so it's important that you get the best bang for your buck when taking them out with your weapons. My human shotgun infiltrator has more shotgun damage and kills red bars in TWO shots with the Dhan. The first shot takes like 3/4 and the second shot overkills the target. On my Agent, one shot halves health the other shot just finishes them off, matching the TTK for mooks of a class with much higher damage (dogs are still 3 shot though due to a slightly higher health pool, but flame or melee as they run up to you solves this, whereas raiders tend to keep distance to prevent an easy finish). Sure, this makes a difference on high health or armour (and the human also has a clip size advantage) and you'll be beat out on DPS in the long run, but as i said this class isn't about dps, despite it matching ttk on single mooks, and having the Isharay for spike.
In apex training, it was possible achieve the two shot by going 4a only instead of 4a AND 6a however please consider this may differ for you depending on what weapon you are using. I took 4a (8%) over 20% melee (meh for this build) and 20% power (flamethrower) damage. The melee isn't really useful and as I said during the flamethrower section buffing it's damage wasn't as useful. This meant I could take 6b (power specialist) over more weapon damage - at the end of the day, even going both 4a & 6a damage STILL both kill mooks in two shots, so I'd rather take another advantage towards my powers. It provides 20% damage making up for what I passed in 4b and although it's not useful like I said it is nice for killing a little quicker, it's just not required. What IS nice is the 20% tech duration for lingering burn (as explained means death for mooks, and more damage to everything else, as well as more time for team mates to trigger fire combos (more on this in a moment)), and the 20% weapon weight capacity to allow us a sniper for the afore mentioned shenanigans - this was preferable to me than the option of going 4b and 6a.
Support systems: (rank 6) 4a, 5a, 6b
These are more straightforward and rank 6 is almost essential to make the best use of the flamethrower. Let's get to it. 4a tech duration further enhances lingering burn vs melee damage - a no brainer IMO.
Next up is tactical evasion which benefits 20% health and shields (always nice to offset any squish) and a nice 15% movement speed.
It might not sound like much, but it's useful for evading damage, getting around to objectives and team mates, and into cover. It's more useful than I thought it would be and further highlights how slow the fucking krogan are. KroMerc with fortify and FT covers hardly any ground vs Turian. The pro tip here is to jump to overcome this disadvantage, and is great to use on both classes for mobility while flaming.
Rank 6 shield reset is actually pretty damn good on this class. It was sweet to cloak and regain shields immediately or flame and regain shields, but tech sabotage wins due to its synergy with flamethrower's blinding heat, giving a further 30% reduction to enemy weapons against you when on fire. That's a massive amount of damage reduction, and I chose it over shield reset for that reason (that and shield resets disadvantage of one bullet hitting you stopping the reset).
Equipment
I use the engineering kit to make sure the dot kills a mook within the time it's active. Without it it takes much longer and might not secure the kill at all without changing passives that then mess up weapon damage. Until better equipment is released this is what I use, but you can tweak to taste.
Boosters
Your choice. Ammo boosters are not effective on this build due to the low rof / small magazine weapons due to % to proc. If you're wondering why I don't just use a power recharge boost to mitigate the cooldown disadvantage, or the weapon damage; it's because I don't like builds that rely on being effective with boosters as they tend to... kinda suck without them. This build is powerful with zero boosters attached and as such you can equip anything you want. You could further extend your recharge advantage over combat cloak with a booster - albeit with diminishing returns, but whatever you choose, you can tailor it to your liking.
Colour (RGB)
1: 613, 585, 521 (tan)
2: 1000, 649, 1 (orange)
3: (black)
Pattern 1 (0 being default)
Pattern colour: (black)
Light colour: 1000, 689, 0
TL;DR -----------------------------------------
BUILD
1,6,6,6,6
Visor 1
Cloak 4a 5a 6a
Flame 4b 5b 6b
Apex 4a 5a 6b
Support 4a 5a 6b
Shoot to remove shield, flame, kill. Recon as and when enemies are cowards behind cover and against destined etc. Burn as much as you can. Shoot as much as you can. Jump a lot while spraying flames to dot kill mooks. OHK ability on sniper. Massive CC, Massive debuff from FT. Makes hard hitters throw powder punch instead. Cloak for damage boost and take advantage frequently. Escape if needed for shields / clutch.
Note!
If you're playing hit and run to a group of mooks be aware that combo detonations will remove burn on your enemies giving them back full damage to you. If the combo that your team mate set off didn't kill the enemy, then this is something to be aware of. For example debuff hydra to fire nerf rockets and teammate detonates, bye bye burn, bye bye blinding heat and tech sabotage and hello death.
Comments and questions welcome and I hope you enjoy the build.