QuoteNot everyone has a few billion ec to build a decent ground build. I know I don't. So i've done some testing to see what is available that works.
Risa kit frame with all kperf mods. worth grinding those lolnuts. just make sure you reengineer BEFORE upgrading.
Mudds time device. Disco rep item. works great. 30 seconds if you die, you reset farther back. this is great for traits that trigger if you die. Free so no reason NOT to use it. Also, if you don't die, 15 seconds off all other used kit modules and it resets itself. This is a staple in most ground builds I noticed. Lots of benefits, no draw backs. should be a first slot item.
Ball lightning Summer event item. Nice aoe with damage output of a death star. downside is you have to plant it. doesn't move much so against adds, you have to run into them, or a boss. Damage output worth the exercise.
Now for tactical i recommend battle strategies. Gives a bonus damage of 22.5% for 18 seconds and with the kit buffs, this will be longer and higher.
A lot of builds, and I do me a lot, on here, youtube, and google recommend ambush for the insane damage output. I get that its nuts. But its a single shot. This might be great against lets say a boss at the end of a run, but in the chaos of all the little crap running around, would be way too easy to waste it on something with 500hp over something that has 10k. this is a personal opinion. You want to run ambush, by all means. I just think it's a waste of space when it's going to be useful maybe 3 or 4 times in a run, where battle strats will be useful all the time in all situations.
Ok time for some interesting choices.
ba'ul ob's are a great choice, pain to set up but damage from them is great. multistage ground runs, these are perfect, but at 50-75m a bit expensive. If you have the extra, get them. worth it. If you don't, well there are alternatives.
gravity containment unit another disco item. Disco, hate it or love it, did bring out some awesome ground items in sto. This is a great budget item if you can't afford the agony field gen or gravity junction. being its a rep item, can't get much better than free right? and it has some real damage output. Downside, it doesn't drag bosses.
Explosive sung drones This isa great budget friendly kit module. Damage output is decent. clears adds, and unlike minefields, these suckers seek out targets to destroy. Combined with the mudds device, these are nice to have if you don't want to spend a lot. 1.5 - 3m on exchange. 418 base damage each plus bonus from kit performance and a 50% shield pen. that's 1200 damage aoe. enough to kill most adds easy enough. fire and forget weapon.
Hurricane wave device I saw how cheap this was (500k - 2m) and was like wth, lets test it. OMG this thing is fun to use and I think HIGHLY underrated. So it's stats are misleading. so first its 35 kin damage. sounds unimpressive. then it knocks back 15 meters (aoe cone) per second for 2 seconds. THIS WORKS ON BOSSES TOO. I laugh my ass off when I send bosses from tfo's and episodes flying across the map. then its 332 damage base physical (all shield pen) per second for 2 seconds. Now i get that doesn't sound like a lot but it gets better. -75 all damage resistance while this is happening for 5 seconds. I've had 15k damage results when they land and it will instant kill whole GROUPS of enemies. ON top of that, wile they are in the air, you can clay pigeon them. YES for those 2 seconds they are air born, with -75 damage resist debuff, you can shoot them. best 500k I ever spent. I have this on all characters because its a cone of "get out of my way"
Debilitating shockwave was interesting, but the damage resistance debuff was to melee only, and being it sends them flying away...I can see why this was a 20k kit module. using it then having to run down your target to swing at it with a sword isn't worth it. Funny to watch adds fly away though.
Blade Beetle mines. Now these were interesting. Like the explosive sung drones, they seek out and detonate, but they also attack the target along the way. So it's a targeted kit modual unlike the other, but the damage was impressive for something that's under 50k. the fact there are 5 at once and explode for 400 kin damge makes the ma good, very cheap, kit module of personal destruction.
Death spinner throw. 180 degree does 1100 ish physical damage within 8 meters of you. for under 100k, its ok. that 50% shield pen is great against borg and most enemies that aren't bugs. With the damage bonuses, this is pretty neat if you want to be really cheap.
resistance is futile. It's a massive debuff / hold and does 25 damage per second for 20 seconds with a 19 second (not counting for muds and kit performance) cool down. Very nice to use against a boss. very single target orientated. it's nice, but I don't see it being useful for most runs. stuff dies to fast and since this would only be useful against a boss, very limited application. PVP on the other hand. . . cheap at 90-200k if that's your thing
Gravitational Junction. at 5m it's cheap, and useful. Pulls people together but NOT towards you. debuffs run and resistance and damage. Very nice overall kit modal. can see why its recommended.
Parasitic Ice. IF you're like me and love the Breen winter event set, this is AWESOME. otherwise, its meh. The Breen set giving bonuses for cold makes this very useful for doing cold damage and it spreads, so great to pair with Grav Junction. at 5m, it's a cool (ha see what i did there) theme build kit module.
Watcher robots. Very interesting kit module for under 10m. summons 3 drones that each do 192 antiproton and another 53 electric that imparts a hold. If you want to be the person who just summons hoards, this is perfect with explosive drones and the beetle mines. Rename yourself the mechanist and just throw wave after wave of drones. (kind of a interesting theme engineer build)
Echo papa 607. More drones. do decent damage for under 10m. perfect for the summoner engineer lol
Armor selections.
hands down best base armor is the disco CQC armor and envirosuit. For everyday ground use, best freebee stuff hands down. pain to grind unless you saved up the marks from reclaiming at the temporal agent.
that being said, with all the borg stuff, the MACO armor set for doing borgy tfo's and the new episodes is great. being able to change frequencies in an instant is worth the trade off. Omega set is also good and has a really great autocarbine.
traits.
traits are expensive but there are some good ones that are decently cheap that are mentions universally.
upgraded gear 6-10m. + kit performance.
Dulce Et 8-10m +10% bonus damage, as long as you don't die. (muds time device useful hear.)
Serenity 7-12m +kit and health regen. very useful and relatively cheap.
Technophile FREE +100kit performance for 8 seconds (has a lock out but still) when using a kit module. so more damage and faster cool downs. worth getting to 15 on r&d
Creative free. basic trait. +30 to kit.
field tech +50 kit
fill in rest where you want.
YES there are other traits, some really good ones. Adrenaline rush (20-30m) Shadow of black mountain (50+M) that go perfect in every build, but budget wise, those are expensive anything over 10m I think is expensive because i know what it's like to be a new player or returning one and not have EC to burn. The idea behind this is cheap, cool, and useful items that will make your ground game way easier. Starting a new character, dump 20-30m into them at the start so the episode missions go by fast. yes some stuff is XII but a few start low like vii or even II if you look around.
