The Ascent Best Builds: Whirlwind Warrior Build (Pure Melee)
Aug. 24, 2022The Ascent Best Builds: Whirlwind Warrior Build (Pure Melee)
The Ascent Best Builds: Whirlwind Warrior Build (Pure Melee)– In this The Ascent Build Guide, I’m going to show you myWhirlwind Warrior Build, which uses two melee weapons to slice and crush enemies into shreds. I’ll share the Skills and Attributes you should focus on, the Augmentations you’ll pair with these, and the Tactical Gear, Weapons, and Armor that work well for thisBuild. If you’ve been looking for a way to utilize new melee weapons from the Cyber Heist DLC while swiftly darting in and out of combat to obliterate enemies with ease, then this guide is for you.
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The Whirlwind Warrior Build (Pure Melee) is extremely adept in efficiently eliminating targets while dealing great damage at point-blank range. This is due to your excellent melee weapons and high critical hit rate. Surviving these encounters won’t be an issue either since you can easily evade attacks thanks to your notable agility.
With theLife Transfer Augmentation, your HP will never go down below 75% because every time you damage marked targets, you heal yourself in the process. Additionally, withOverclock, you increase the regeneration rate of Energy and Tactical Charge, thereby allowing you to trigger the special attack of your melee weapon and Augmentations more often. You can also deploy turrets frequently as a result.
Every time you level up, you gain 3 Skill Points, which you can then use to allocate to one or severalSkillsof your choice. Take note that you can also gain additional Skill points through exploration. Furthermore, each Skill influences Attributes that determine the effectiveness of yourAugmentationsor special abilities. For this Build, you’ll want to focus onTactical Sense,Critical Hit Rate,Evasion,Vital Signs, andBody Battery. It follows nearly the same schematics as theRumbling RavagerBuildexcept that you’ll have to maximize all of these Skills to substantially boost your damage potential and resilience inCombat.
At earlier levels, you’ll have to manage the points you’ll be investing in each of these Skills as it differs every now and then based on the weapons you equip. So if you have not yet finished theMain Missionsof the base game, you’ll need to stick with 2 ranged weapons in the meantime. Since you’re going for an agile Build, I recommend equipping theEBR Enforcer Burst Rifle, which would serve as your primary source when dealing Energy Damage, and then you can choose your second weapon.
All ranged weapons benefit from theWeapon Handling Skillas this enhances reload and weapon swap abilities by a significant margin so remember to invest a total of 20 points into it for the time being. When you gain access to theCyber Heist DLCyou’ll be able to loot all of the melee weapons available in the game. You’ll then have to respec your Skills to reduce the points you’ve initially placed into Weapon Handling from 20 to 10 since reloading will no longer benefit you. 10 points should be sufficient to quickly swap between melee weapons.
To succeed with this Build, you’re going to want to fully allocate points into Tactical Sense and Critical Hit Rate first. Tactical Sense amplifies Tactical Charge, which is then used to activate your chosen Tactical Gear. Boosting its respective recharge rate allows you to trigger theTactical Gearfrequently to aid you in combat. Next is Critical Hit Rate to improve your chances of landing critical hits and dealing massive damage against enemies, allowing you to efficiently clear encounters.
Alongside these Skills, you’ll be reliant on Evasion to dodge attacks, followed by Vital Signs to raise your max HP. Being aggressive in the point-blank range leaves you susceptible to taking huge amounts of damage so you’ll need to beef up your health as much as possible. Last but not least is Body Battery, which raises your Energy capacity. With ranged weapons, Energy is only used for Augmentations, but now, you’re going to have to manage this resource when you trigger the special attacks of your melee weapons.
For spare points, you may wish to invest about 10-15 points into Balance to improve your resistance against getting stuns, knockbacks, and staggers. In total,CyberneticsandBiometricswill be your highest Attributes, followed byFrameand thenMotorics.
When it comes to special abilities, you’ll want to focus on Augmentations that utilize your Cybernetics and Biometrics Attributes to the fullest, while taking your Build’s critical damage and close-range playstyles into account. As such, it’s best to obtain the Life Transfer and Overclock Augmentations.
With Life Transfer, you mark enemies to essentially take advantage of them. The higher the damage you deal against these specific targets, the greater the amount of HP you restore for yourself. Given how densely-packed the world is after the release of the Cyber Heist DLC, this Augmentation is relevant now more than ever. Since your Cybernetics is high, you increase the range of Life Transfer, thereby affecting more enemies so it’s not possible to die even when you’re exposed to taking a ton of damage.
Additionally, remember to trigger this when you’re up against large mechs and tanky creatures because it will take a couple of seconds to kill them so you’re going to need to constantly recover your HP to remain durable in these types of encounters.
The next Augmentation you ought to focus on is Overclock, which improves Energy and Tactical Charge regeneration. The more resources you have, the more frequent you’ll be able to trigger your melee weapons’ special attacks as well as Tactical Gear. Plus, Overclock doesn’t cost much to activate, at only 60 Energy per use.
Unlike Augmentations,Modulesare meant to enhance your passive abilities. For this Whirlwind Warrior Build since you’re going to deal with enemies at point-blank range, you’ll want to equip theVitasigns BoosterandJavelin Dash Modssimilar to the Rumbling Ravager.
Vitasigns Booster increases max HP to enhance your defenses. This is important because you’ll always be situated next to enemies rather than hiding behind covers if you had ranged weapons equipped. Meanwhile, Javelin Dash boosts your agility, allowing you to charge toward targets instead of rolling on the ground.
Because of your loadout, you can choose two types of weapons to swap in between combat. For both your Primary and Secondary Weapons, selecting those that deal an incredible amount of Physical and Energy Damage should be sufficient in destroying enemies.
Once you’ve switched to equipping 2 melee weapons, you’d want to wield the Voidcutter, which you can get from a chest in the Nutrition Lab. This is an amazing weapon because you’re able to transform into a whirlwind to slash your way to victory. Its special attack is similar to the Guillotine’s except that the Voidcutter deals Energy rather than Physical Damage. So you’ll be dashing toward multiple targets and then executing the deadly whirlwind attacks. Note that Energy Damage is effective against any enemy type such as theLightandHeavy Monobotsas well as theTurbo KeeshandTurbo Thugs.
Because triggering a special attack consumes Energy, you’ll want to switch to your Secondary Weapon when this resource is completely depleted. The Rock Crusher will serve as the next option to kill targets quickly. More often than not, smashing this Metal Hammer against an enemy once crushes them into smithereens thanks to your max Critical Hit Rate. As such, your normal attacks would result in about 2,000 – 3,000 damage dealt per foe.
Because of Javelin Dash, you also won’t need to activate the shockwave special attack of this weapon to attack them from a distance. If you’re fighting big mech bosses, remember to activate Life Transfer before hitting them with the Rock Crusher to survive these types of encounters.
Similar to Augmentations, Tactical Gear provides you with a special ability, which can be in the form of grenades, robots, or turrets, that aid you in fights. Since Tactical Sense is maximized, you’ll want to select the best Tactical Gear available regardless of its charge rate. Due to the melee weapon we’re wielding for this Build, theAT4 Auto Turretworks very well with it.
Even if the AT4 Auto Turret has a resource cost of 1,000 Tactical Charge, it helps you obliterate enemies at close and mid-range distances, preventing you from getting overwhelmed. Moreover, you can summon 2-3 of these turrets at a given time, especially if the area is densely-packed since you’re able to recharge this Tactical Gear quickly upon dealing damage.
When it comes toArmor, you’ll be focusing on acquiring the best head, torso, and legsEquipmentthat’ll defend you from Physical, Energy, Digital, and Fire Damage. At earlier levels, you’ll mostly encounter enemies like humans,Ferals, and Turbo Thugs that deal Physical Damage but as you continue to explore the sections of each tier, you’ll have to protect yourself from stronger creatures as well. Additionally, the following gear provides you with Skill and Attribute boosts to further enhance your Augmentations.
For your headgear, you’ll want to pick the Elite Commander because it provides the best resistance spread across all damage types. Additionally, you also receive considerable boosts to your Critical Hit Rate and Tactical Sense, which are extremely beneficial in improving the chances of dealing more crit damage and amplifying the recharge rate of your Tactical Gear, respectively.
For the torso, further enhancing the defenses of your character significantly helps with survivability since you’ll be vulnerable to numerous attacks from any angle while you’re in the melee range. As such, you’ll definitely want to equip the Brimstone Project. And finally, for the legs, you should wear the Trackstomper Rush because you gain bonuses for Balance and Evasion. The latter is essential as it reduces the cooldown period by which you dodge attacks, making it more difficult for enemies to hit you.
Note that you’ll continue to find better Armor as you complete more and moreMissions. The purple ones, followed by gold gear, are the rarest and most powerful types of Armor you can equip. With this Build, you’ll want to constantly improve Cybernetics, Biometrics, and Frame. Cybernetics takes into account your damage potential whereas Biometrics and Frame allow you to survive longer in combat.
Unlike Armor, Weapons require Basic, Advanced, and Superior Components to improve overall damage. These components are obtained from chasing afterBountiesand chests, the locations of which are found on the map. Be sure to visit theGunsmithto upgrade your ranged and melee weapons to make them more effective in combat.
When you have 2 ranged weapons equipped at the start, your points should be spread out across the following Skills – Weapon Handling, Critical Hit Rate, and Tactical Sense followed by Evasion. If you have spare points, consider investing at least 5 of those into Vital Signs for added HP, otherwise, you can continue going in and out of cover to protect yourself from taking damage.
An alternative to the Overclock Augmentation isSpiderbotswhere you deploy mechanical bots that would essentially swarm enemies within the vicinity. Once they’re beside these targets, the spider bots will detonate causing multiple explosions. It’s a good option if you’re not running into Energy capacity issues since you’ll have the assistance of a large number of these critters thanks to your high Cybernetics.
That’s it for ourBuild Guidesfor the Cyber Heist DLC. Be sure to check out ourThe Ascent Wikiif you have questions about the game! What did you think of this Whirlwind Warrior Build Guide? What Builds are you enjoying so far? Let us know in the comments below! You can also check out our thoughts on theCyber Heist DLCas well as our previous Build Guides –Rumbling Ravager,Shotgun Slammer,Critical Commando Rifle, andTerminator Tank Builds.
Reiku
Writer at Fextralife. I enjoy playing RPGs, narrative-driven games, and platformers. Outside of gaming, I like watching meaningful movies and reading sci-fi and dystopian books.
