Air Alpha Striker: prototype build & doubts

Ever since i won Mach Knight Ace, its high Tec & Fly made me believe his bd was a good one, as it enabled me to, with the right parts, reach 34 fly & 28 tec without tuning or the loss of decent weapons.

So, i was thinking about making an alpha striker out of him. I've gathered the parts i could use to give him both a small size and a decent firepower, which all led to the build below:

Spoiler:

Just a quick note: i know Shaden's parts are the best for this kind of air builds (and others), but saddly i don't own her yet, so those were placed aside.

Now, my doubts:

1 - Accele Roll is a good off-side cartridge, but i don't know if Air Loop would be better for the fact of being able to fire while doing the actual loop (or so i saw). Is this Air Loop fact incorrect, or should i still stick to the former for its capabilities?

2 - I've chosen C.Veil due to having some sort of way to keep fighting while under enemy fire, despite all the air dodging. But i'm unsure if i should just turn it into more tgh & life points (if so, i'll be using Ex High Tough tunes on this part). Turning them into tec instead is a bit risky, as 30 tec is the last breakpoint in which all of my weapons increase in power, and points beyond would only increase the power of one weapon or two.

3 - A bit related to question 2: If i had Crimson Veil, how much difficult is it to break a PS in normal arenas with this alpha? And what about an Epoch PS?

4 - Is going for negative str in this kind of builds reccomended (more of a confirmation than a question, as i remember discussions about this but i'm still unsure).


So, what do you guys think on these issues?

1. For alpha-air setups, Air Loop is common for precisely that reason. It essentially gives you the same ability as a Short Boost+Quick Land+Moving Burst ground-based alpha, as far as keeping a steady momentum and prolonging your mobility while still unloading your full clip. Not that Accel Roll would hurt if you don't find yourself needing Air Loop, though, and it has its advantages.

2. What some people will probably first tell you is that while 30 is the last breakpoint for most of your armaments, this is only for raw power and doesn't take into account TGH reduction. Which, when you're firing 10 projectiles per salvo at a target, it kicks in pretty harshly. Topping off your TEC, even if the numbers don't bump up, will still improve your damage.

As for Crimson Veil, Crimson Veil will actually be of much better service to you than TGH tuning (provided you can get at least 2 tunes, one can be pretty sparse on triggering). This is mostly because of the greatest dangers that Airs face come from arts, whose majority weaponry are single hit and heavy hit. The damage reduction from higher TGH rarely kicks in to a significant effect, and the stun resistance won't even figure at all against weapons like Monica's Payload Rocket or an LL Bulk Blast. It's not to say that TGH is worthless on airs, but in comparison to the stun immunity offered by Crimson Veil, it's not quite as nice.

3. I personally have no idea, but my thought pattern is that this traditional kind of alpha is probably better off using its ammo on enemy bots, not on the PS. I don't know that it is especially ineffective versus effective, but ammo is a very common problem for this build and so while you might be able to take out a PS effectively, it'll leave you without a lot of ammo to take on your enemies in the mean time.

4. Negative strength if you don't plan on using Wonder Bits. You otherwise have no STR-based weaponry to speak of. The main choice, of course, is using Propeller Bits, since this lets you stay in the air for even longer while you dance about and shoot people. If you don't plan on using Propeller Bits (or some other type of bit that you'd like to stick around for a sizeable amount of time), then you should be fine to go negative in STR.

I'll add an extra bit that some people will suggest, which is to slightly dunk your FLY. They'd be saying "Dunk FLY for TEC" since your potency is in your sheer firepower and not simply your mobility, but my own personal thought is that you can probably dunk down simply to 34 FLY (still pretty fast, if you want to focus on that aspect) and also drop the 4 plain Tough Tunes, which lets you fit a second Crimson Veil after you shift your tune spaces around.

Crimson Veil is a must if you're going after Power Spots. You'll be attracting fire like nobody's business.

you'll be building for shotguns for breaking and normal alphag weapons for alphag. Which one are you taking?

If you're going for PS Breaking, I would recommend MMBG's (if you don't have those, Custom Shotties are probably the next best thing.

csg > mmbg all day.
You can stick four of 'em on

edit: also, zero charging time means you can shoot more rounds in the same time.

Thanks for all the awnsers so far. Most of Jade's insights do have a point, in which i'll try to compare and see for myself..

Quote :

csg > mmbg all day.
You can stick four of 'em on

edit: also, zero charging time means you can shoot more rounds in the same time.

That is true. Still, doesn't Adone AM have a small charging time that would delay the csg?

tehprognoob wrote:

csg > mmbg all day.
You can stick four of 'em on

Custom Shotgun and MMBG have the exact same cost: 70. So if you can fit 4 Custom Shotguns, you can fit 4 Multi Mega Beam Guns. It's also easier to fit, considering MMBG is +1 WLK while Custom Shotgun is -1 TEC. Custom Shotgun hits for less force, and Beam Guard barely helps the difference on the cases where it even comes into play. The MMBG also has decent range to be usable on the times when you don't have a comfortable target to hit with Moving Burst. Oh, and MMBG is M sized so any Air can hold it.

There are points where Custom Shotgun is better (ready availability, can be used by non-Airs types, shell type, no charge time), but it's by no means universally superior.

Charging time

Was wrong about the cost thing but in the time it takes for MMBGs to charge CSG would have 2, 3 rounds out, 4-5ish under HS