Hybrid (heavily leaning toward melee) Blazed Baron?

First of all, this topic is about the plain ol' original shop Blazed Baron, none of his variants. Keep that in mind when you post.

I've been contemplating Blazed Baron the last couple days. I bought him a couple months ago with my first bit of RT, and messed around with him a bit, but haven't really felt like he was quite what I was looking for. Now, however, I'm looking at him again in a new light, and wonder if a semi-hybrid variant would work.

Specifically, the build I'm planning involves a Red Squealer AM/Reaper's Scythe melee combo and an Eight Vulcan. I'm still working out the build as far as parts and (very, VERY minimal) tuning, but that melee and gun combo is the major concept. I've been really wanting to try out the Reaper's Scythe and hear it does well with Red Squealer AM (among other weapons with good tracking), and Blazed Baron has the distinction of caring very little about the mobility stat decimation that Eight Vulcan comes with.

Really, I've got a few questions:

1. Is such a build even especially viable? It sounds good on paper, but I'm not exactly a pro player.

2. Given the parts I've got in mind right now and the fact that he probably won't have much tuning space left, is it better to go for stats or small size as far as parts go? I'm considering going the "bigger is better" route, since he's already a tad on the large size, and it'd likely just be easier for me to equip him such that his HP and TGH are good enough that I don't have to care as much about getting hit. Plus, it makes it easier to make him look good, which is something I'm trying real hard to do as well. But again, I'm not sure.

3. Can I dump his mobility stats completely, or should I keep WLK at a decent level? I'm not sure if blazing flight is reliable enough to keep him moving around for long, or if I should at least tune his WLK to 20.

4. For carts, I'm doing the standard, all five capacity carts, anti burning and quick boost, and the enhanced internals for more ammo = more time flying around on fire. I just need to pick out one more and I'm kind of unsure about which to go with. Looking at blast guard or sway. Which of those is the better choice? Is there one that's even better?

That ought to do it for right now...thanks in advance for any help! I've been really struggling trying to figure stuff out the last couple days, and I'd love some input.

i'd advise blast guard. sway changes your dashing to a very short "step". don't get sway unless you're 100% sure you want that.

1. Hybrids are completely viable; don't let people tell you otherwise. They're pretty complicated to build well though and I'm not sure if the Blazed Baron is the sort of bot you'd want to be dividing your tec/str between, especially when you're focusing on melee without the FF Sword.

2. Smaller is almost always better. If you're not trying to get 30+ tgh, I would not bother whatsoever with getting stat pro parts at the cost of size, it won't be worth it whatsoever.

3. Mobility > Everything. Mobility will ALWAYS be more important then your tec, str or tgh.

4. I don't think I'd get Internal Ups unless I'm missing something... Sway is terrible on anything that doesn't have high mobility, which it sounds like you're not planning for. It would be a horrible choice unless you had much, much more speed.

Using a melee plus a Eight Vulcan really is an absolutely terrible combo, you're using a gun that doesn't specialize against anything and is close range, matched with a melee that's specialized and close range with str on it's side. I'd say in most situations using the Eight Vulcan would be absolutely silly, so it would be best to ditch it period. A Rocket Launcher or Bazooka would be better. Red Squealer + Sycthe is a good combo, but I just don't know given you're using a L LND. Whatever the case, Eight Vulcan and melee do NOT get along, it's a waste of cost and lost stats with divided attention in the same exact areas... if that makes sense.

The biggest thing I can tell you is bigger is not better almost ever and you REALLY want to either slim down or tune a lot, lot more then you're planning. That and Mobility > Everything, these two things I cannot stress enough. The smaller and faster you are, the longer it takes to die. I don't care if you have 100 extra HP, you're 100x more likely to get hit by a TBG missile to give just one of a million examples and there goes that bonus HP you considered so hard for. Don't make yourself large on purpose and have mobility.

1- Hybrid works, but it has it's own quirks in play-style. Since you're not dedicated to melee, don't feel pressured to take swipes at people if it's gonna be hard to tag them. If it's better to shoot, shoot. If you got the chance to melee and it's safe to do so, smash face. You don't have to split tec/str either, with the right weapon (like a bazooka), your gun damage will still be formidable with lowish tec.

2-Try to go small, since it will help improve your survivability. Barron has alot of hp, make it work for you buy being hard to hit.

3-Keep walk at a good level, drop fly, but don't let fly hit 0. You can use your core to up your fly for superman antics.

4-blast guard, most damage in the game has some explosive component.

asdfghjkl;' computer crashed after I typed about three paragraphs of help

1. Varies based on the bot and weapon choice. For Baron it should work, but...I find the gun choice questionable. Eight Vulcan's effective range is practically the same as your melee, but at the same time I'd feel generic if I said "take a bazooka or rocket launcher for anti-air", so...idk. I'd probably pick a different gun for a hybrid build though.

2. This is where it gets a little tricky. Alpha/Beta str/tec tunes will nerf the other offensive stat. With burning, 20 wlk is nice to have but fly and wlk are otherwise not really relevant. As a hybrid build you don't really have any reason to be diving into crowds, which lowers the necessity for high tgh/HP. It's really all up to what you feel you need.

3. I'd recommend 20+ wlk so you can actually move when you aren't burning.

4. On a Baron, I wouldn't bother with Sway. Pick Blast Guard.

Suguri wrote:

asdfghjkl;' computer crashed after I typed about three paragraphs of help

1. Varies based on the bot and weapon choice. For Baron it should work, but...I find the gun choice questionable. Eight Vulcan's effective range is practically the same as your melee, but at the same time I'd feel generic if I said "take a bazooka or rocket launcher for anti-air", so...idk. I'd probably pick a different gun for a hybrid build though.

Pumpgun, it's got good damage, easy to obtain, gets better with str (larger projectile).

Whoa...thanks for the really insightful replies, guys! I'm starting to get a better idea of what I wanna do with this guy!

On the subject of using the Eight Vulcan, I had always been really wanting to use it because I hear a bot with one of these can take down a PS very fast (though I guess those places I'd been hearing that had been talking about a pair of them...but half of "very fast" is still "pretty fast," lol.) I figured if ever there was a bot for that, it would be one that could stand to take a few hits and didn't mind the mobility crippling. But if it's not such a good idea, then I'll look for something else.

I'll mess around a little more and come back when I've got a more complete build. Then you guys'll have something solid to tear apart! ;D

EDIT: I've worked out a build that I figure is a little better. It actually ends up sacrificing a little more TEC, but the weapon (now a bazooka) will still hit pretty hard, and I'm able to hit 20 WLK and respectable STR and TGH with a single High Run Beta. Plus, it's...kind of small-ish, and still looks decent enough.

Spoiler:

I'd like to keep TEC exactly where it is. I don't want to have to worry about tuning it any higher, but likewise, I don't want to drop it even one more point since I'm right on a TEC breakpoint for the bazooka. I'm also considering trying out that pump gun if I ever get my hands on one, and I just so happen to be at a TEC breakpoint for that as well. c:

Other than that, I can't (read: don't want to) tune too much further. I have this thing where I'm only willing to tune parts I can just buy from the UC shop, since those are easily replaced if I break their slot. In this particular scenario, I'll make an exception on the Red Squealer AM because I have a metric crapton of those lying around.

So with that in mind...how should I do the little bit of tuning I'll do? Should I get his STR as high as possible for the best melee damage? TEC to give his bazooka some more power, with the added bonus of stronger + longer-lasting WB? TGH to get to that magical 21 breakpoint that I'm hearing is the last solid one for TGH? I'm considering a High Gladiator on the Red Squealer AM to reach farther and faster with my melee, but other than that...

Suggestions?

Should I have put the build and stuff in a new post instead of just editing it into my last one? Even after reading the forum rules, I'm a little unsure on the rules about bumping/double posting. :s