Hi fellow summoners,here is a guide that I wrote a few years ago and kept updating from time to time. It is not perfect and only basic (might be I forgot to add a champ or 2 to be honest but I tried to include every champ, also some stuff might be a bit outdated, I´ll try to fix it up if I find something):
Edit: Before you read any further and be like "Eh but this and that combination isn´t really good because this champ favors this and that blablabla...This guide is meant to show Concepts of how it is supposed to be in general.You always have to adapt depending the match up, player skill, etc.
Types of Botlanes
Everyone knows it: Botlane is a case of its own. With more than 40 different champions played on Botlane, there is a huge amount of possible match ups and types of lanes.
This article is meant to categorize the usual Marksmen played on Botlane to give you an easy to find weaknesses and strengths of each Marksman.Please be aware that a champion can fit into several classes at the same time.
For that we will divide the marksmen into 5 classes:
“Lane Bully”, “Spellcaster”, “Tank Shreds aka On-Hit User” “Hypercarry aka Crit User” and “Utility”
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Lane Bullies
What is a “Lane Bully?”A “Lane Bully” is a marksman who has strong laning capabilities and can dominate a lane if he does his job correctly. Most common examples are: Caitlyn, Draven, Lucian, Miss Fortune (most common in Low Elo) Senna, and Varus (Lethality Build). Each of them has strong laning power due to their kit:Caitlyn has the biggest auto attack range of all Marksmen LvL 1, Dravens attack damage is higher than anyone´s else, Lucian can burst down people in a few seconds due his double shot passive, Miss Fortune can zone people with her Q and deal monstrous damage, Senna has good range and built in sustain + her Q applies Glacial Augment and Varus with a Lethality Build can kill people with 3 Q´s.
At the same time these Marksmen usually fall off in the late game (please be aware of Senna here due to her in build infinite scaling) due to their early power (to make them balanced) so they tend to lose more often if they can´t end the same fast.If you play a “Lane Bully”: Try to be aggressive early game and make use of your power to snowball the game into a fast win. If you play against them: Try to play safe and go for farm instead of risky plays.
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Spellcasters
What is a “Spellcaster”?A “Spellcaster” is a marksman who relies mostly on his spells to deal damage/ effective.The most common examples are: Ezreal, Aphelios, Jhin, Lucian, Miss Fortune, Samira, Sivir, Varus (Lethality Build) and Xayah.“Spellcaster” put a lot of focus onto their mana management but on the same time they are able to put out a lot of damage/ control on the game if they have the mana they need for their spells. Not every “Spellcaster” is strong in the early game, but every “Spellcaster” can dominate a certain state of game with their kits (Aphelios is special here because he relies less on his mana and “spells” and more about his ammunition and what guns he has and how he uses them but it is still the same idea in my opinion).The downside of playing a “Spellcaster” is pretty similar to the downsides of a mage: If their spells are on cooldown or if they are out of mana, the damage they can deal is way lower than at their best.If you play a “Spellcaster”: Play around your cooldowns and mana. Use your spells to deal as much damage as possible, back off and then go back in when your cooldowns are back up.
If you play against a “Spellcaster”: Make use of cooldowns and the enemy being out of mana. If you see them waste their spells, go in and blow them up.
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Tank Shreds
What is a “Tank Shred”?A “Tank Shred” is a marksman who´s main damage comes from effects which get applied with every auto attack. The most common examples are: Kai´Sa, Kalista, Kog Maw, Varus and Vayne.“Tank Shreds” usually have spells in their kit which allow them to deal bonus damage with every attack/ every specific attack numbers. For example: Vayne does bonus damage with her W every three hits, Kai´Sa applies bonus damage after stacking 5 hits of plasma.Almost every time “On-Hit User” go for the same to items: “Krakenslayer” and “Phantom Dancer”. The reason for that is that “Krakenslayer” deals bonus damage every third Auto Attack and “Phantom Dancer" buffs your attack speed by 30% after attacking 4 times.
Their Itembuilds rely mostly on attack speed and their effects per attack so the damage per attack is low compared to other marksmen. The longer a fight goes, the stronger a “Tank Shred” gets.
If you play a “Tank Shred”: Play around your stacks. Depending on how much stacks you need, try to fight as long as you need. As Vayne play around your three hits, as Kalista try to stack as many spears as possible and then execute the enemy with your E “Rend”.
If you play against a “Tank Shred”: Be careful of long trades. Since “On-Hit User” get stronger with longer trades, limit yourself to do short trades to deny their strength and reduce their hp before you all in them when they can´t make use of long trades anymore.
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Hypercarry:
What is a “Hypercarry”? A “Hypercarry” is a marksman who builds items with “critical strike chance”, the exception here is Kog Maw. The most common examples are: Aphelios, Ashe, Caitlyn, Draven, Jinx, Jhin, Sivir, Tristana, Twitch and Xayah.
“Hypercarries” rely on their “critical chance strike” to deal high amounts of damage with every attack. Critical attacks deal 175% damage instead of the usual 100%. By building “Infinity Edge” the damage gets further increased to 210%. These Marksmen usually buy at least 3 items with “critical strike chance”, with “Infinity Edge” being the “Core” of the build.“Hypercarries” usually get to their strongest point quite late in a game. They need time to farm gold to get their items but when they got them, they outscale most other Marksmen classes.If you play a “Hypercarry”: Try to play safe early on (Only exceptions are Draven and Cailyn depending on match up) and try to farm as much gold as possible to get to your items fast and then crush the game by killing non tanks with 2 or 3 hits.If you play against a “Hypercarry”: Overpower them early on before they can stack up their critical strike chance since their high damage output is based on “luck”. The item parts for “infinity Edge” are quite expensive so try to punish that by forcing them into bad recalls.
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Utiliity:
What is a “Utility” marksman? Utility marksmen are marksmen who´s kit revolves around their team for the biggest effect. The most common examples are: Ashe, Kalista, Sivir, Senna and Varus.
They all have an ultimate which needs the team to be useable/ for the best use. They got spells for “the greater good” than just using all of their spells for winning a 1v1. Ashe can catch out a target with her ultimate, Sivir boosts the whole team with movement speed which allows them to either gap close fast to get a good engage or disengage without getting caught that easily. Kalista even need her Oathsworn to activate her ultimate and the W passive (bonus damage if she and her sworn hit the same target in a short amount of time) so she depends even more on her team/ oathsworn to be nearby. To be fair, Varus Ultimate isn´t as “good” as Ashe ultimate due to its range, but on the other hand it provides a possible bind onto all 5 targets and can disrupt the enemy formation pretty well.
If you play a “Utility” marksman: Play around your team. Use the fact that your champion is best when having back up or when trying to make a play/ making the engage. Don´t hesitate to use your ultimate to get a catch on an enemy in the mid- to lategame since this can lead to a free baron, turret or maybe even nashor. Stick with our team and create openings to decide the game in your favor.
If you play against a “Utility” marksman: Be aware of the possible sudden engage by the enemy team using their marksman ultimate. As a tank try to stand in front of your team to “eat up” the ultimate if needed so your carries are still able to respond in a fight and don´t die in the first 2 seconds. Try to catch the marksman off guard and alone (the best would be a pincer attack), so he as to blow his ultimate to escape from one side just to die to the other side and create a 4v5 scenario for your team with the marksman being dead or back to base.
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The Triangle of Support:
There are quite a few Supports in the game so there are a lot of different match ups and how a lane can play out depending on who you play against who, etc.
This is a rough outline to group supports in a class, what they are good at and what they struggle with if played correct and how it should play out in theory.
This “Triangle” shows the idea of who beats who
Poke -> All in -> Sustain/ Peel -> Poke ( -> = Beats)
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All in
“All in” supports like Alistar, Thresh, Leona, Nautilus, Pyke, Rell etc. excel at going in till either one side is dead or has to back off. This kind of support beats “Sustain” supports since the “Sustain” supports don´t get the time/ chance to really make use of their shields and heals. Your heal won´t help your ADC if he´s going to die anyways.
While they do have an advantage over sustain, they lose out against “Poke Supports”, because they don´t get the chance to all in due to the damage the lane already took by the poke of the enemies. The only chance for you to score kills in such a lane is by going in after coming of a recall so they didn´t have the time to poke you down.
“All in” supports are usually picked with strong early game ADC to force kills and resources from the enemy and get your ADC as much gold advantage as you can early on in the game.
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Sustain/ Peel
“Sustain/ Peel” Supports are champions who are able to negate damage due to their kits via shields and heals. Common examples are Janna, Lulu, Nami, Sona, Soraka.
Their strong point is to keep their ad carry alive so he stays able to fight and farm in lane despite taking damage.
They beat out the “Poke” supports because they can block the incoming poke via their shields (which can´t be dodged) and are able to deny the high aggression of the enemy botlane. In case of having a heal instead of a shield they can even restore health that got lost by poke if they were not in range or their spells on cooldown to deny the poke.
A “Sustain” support is usually picked with a strong scaling ADC to make sure he survives the lane and get him to his items as safe as possible.
For the "butthurt" people :D :
As a subclass of "Peel" Supports we got the, let´s call them, "Warden" Class:"Warden" Supports are champions who protect their ADC by "thowing themselves between their ADC and the enemy". They wait for the enemy to engage and then counter after the enemy blew their shots to get back at them when they try to retreat. Common examples are: Braum, Taric and Tahm Kench.
Their strong point is that they are able to take a punch while offering safety for their allies from enemy champions that try to "dive onto them".They beat the "All in" Supports at their own game because they abuse the fact that the enemy is trying to use their strength and then "swap" their strength into a weakness when they failed.
They usually play rather reactive than proactive since they rely on the enemy to step up first.At the same time they struggle against ranged match ups since they are easy to abuse for the enemy via poke. "Warden" don´t have a good way to deal with that kind of playstyle.
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Poke
Poke supports are often times mages who went down from midlane to botlane, like Annie, Brand, Fiddlesticks (a jungler tho), Lux, Morgana, Senna, Seraphine, Vel´Koz, Xerath and Zyra.
Each of them offers quite a bit amount of damage and range with their spells what makes them able to harass the enemy botlane from far away without fearing taking damage in return. Their goal is to harass people do death or to force them back/ to the point where they can´t fight and have to “forfeit” the lane in their favor.Keep an eye on your mana pool and cooldowns since “Poke” supports rely heavily on their mana to deal damage just like “Spellcasters”. If you play Senna out of this bunch of supports, since she has a sustain spell, you can be more aggressive and trade harder since you can heal back up ( take notice on how you use your Q, try to heal up your ADC and yourself and hit the enemy champions for best usage).
For the same reason on one hand this kind of support beats “All in” supports since they deny the possibility of an all-in by the enemy because they are too low on hp to win the fight.
You have to be careful regardless after an “All in” support comes back to lane because that is the best point in time for him to turn onto you.On the other hand they have a hard time against “Sustain” supports due to getting their poke denied or healed back up by “Sustain” supports.
Try to bait out their shield or heal and then dump damage onto them so they can´t block the damage coming in and try to kill them before there cooldowns are coming back up.
“Poke” supports can be picked with early game strong and weak ADC to either enhance the killpressure and the possible lead or to cover the weakness of a weak ADC so they get some breathing room. But if things turn bad they tend to be worse than the other support classes due to them being less “supportive” due to their kit.
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Synergies between ADC and Support classes
Overall there are 3 ways to “build” a bot lane. Each way differs in their strengths and purposes and I will just call them “Comfort picks”, “Synergy” and “Compensation” to make it easier to understand.
Comfort picks:
“Comfort picks” is literally what you think, you just play whatever you are best at. This has the chance building a mismatch on bot lane if people don´t communicate a lot with each other because every player plays to his own tune. I bet you all already saw something like a Thresh + Vayne lane where Thresh engaged and Vayne just stood in the back, chilling her life and continues to farm while Thresh fights for his life. What went wrong? The bot lane probably didn´t talk with each other, picked whatever they wanted and now are playing for two different goals. Thresh wants to play aggressive and score a lead in lane while Vayne just wants to sit back and scale up. If they don´t “group” up and play together they are likely to lose bot lane hard. On the same time, because they picked their mains, they are more likely to perform well compared to playing other champions to “fit” something because they know their champion (damage, tankyness, kit, spikes, etc.).
Synergy:
Synergy is when you pick a champion that fits the playstyle of the champion from your partner, e.g.: Thresh-Lucian, Kog´Maw-Lulu, Ashe-Zyra, Draven-Leona.
If you partner picks something that wants to get a lead early game you pick something that is strong early game to help him achieve his goal (winning lane), if he just wants to sit back, farm and scale up (on ADC side) you pick something that excels at peeling so your ADC survives the laning phase (Nami, Yuumi, Lulu, Braum, Tahm Kench, etc.) and can wreck the enemies later on. The downside of this “strategy” is when you can´t achieve your goal (either win lane or scale up) because then you are in a really bad spot.
If you need 5-10 more minutes to hit your item spike as jinx or Tristana, Kai´Sa, etc. the game might be over before you get there and if you lost early game as someone like Lucian, Miss Fortune, Lethality Varus, Caitlyn, etc., depending on match up you might get outscaled by the enemy and will “lose” to their advantage due to their kit later on. If you play against another early game champion, he might snowball the lead onto other lanes so your whole team starts losing, etc.
Compensation:
Compensation is pretty specific and usually works only in one direction and that is the Support compensating the ADC in the early game.
The Support should play a poke/mage support to do this since these champions are very strong in lane and that´s when they want to shine. The poke support has the “duty” to get/ create openings/ advantages for his scaling ADC so he might scale earlie has an easier laning phase. A scaling ADC who can´t get touched is a happy ADC, even more if he gets a few free kills.
The Support shall make the lane more “competitive” so you are able to put more pressure on the enemy team as a whole (if their ADC has to recall 24/7 he can´t do shit + it forces their Jungler do something). Problems will occur if the Support dies while trying to get advantages since he can´t really expect help from his [still] weak ADC.
This playstyle requires a lot of work/skill from the Support since he has to do the main work in lane while he can´t afford f*ck up. If he f*cks up, he lost bot lane single handily and maybe even the game.
To the question: “Can you compensate an early game ADC with a late game Support?”:Hardly. Most "late game” Supports would be “Sustain” Supports since they excel at keeping their team alive and allow their carries to dish out the damage they need to do.
Even if you peel a Lucian really well, chances are bad that he will carry a team fight compared to a Jinx if they are on even terms.
Edit: Feel free to argue or comment as much as you like, just by doing that I got what I wanted:People thinking about it

Heeeeey, guys! It's me, the Creator, your local developer, and all around fun guy... Xx_420BasedGOD_xX!
Sorry for the downtime over this past month! I've been pretty busy, as you might imagine, carefully observing the meta for the Earth region and trying to figure out how to balance and fix this shitstorm. As I mentioned in the previous patch notes, you humans have been finding way too many exploits and absolutely dominating all of Earth's servers. The USA, European, and Chinese servers, especially... the other species simply can't compete!
During the downtime since you last heard from me, I chatted with a bunch of the lower-tier builds prevalent in the Earth region, and came to the realization that you humans are so disgustingly good at Outside, I'm going to have to introduce hard, targeted nerfs just to cramp your viability.
Yes! Yes, I know. Nobody likes nerfs! Well, tough shit; no whining! Thanks to all the garbage 'features' Devilboi++SEXY++Satan threw in haphazardly, you've all become far too efficient at gaming the survival aspects of outside. Naturally, the most broken aspect of the human playerbase is your ability to efficiently farm consumables! I know the Ant playerbase can farm for loot from Aphids, but you humans are on a whole different level! You were NOT supposed to domesticate more than one other player class, yet that's exactly what you did! Horses, Cows, Dogs, Cats... you're not only turned these other players into mounts, but pets and consumable-farming factories too! The horrors I've seen unleashed upon the Pig and Chicken players alone are too awful to describe!
Oh and furthermore, who said you could dig up rocks and turn them into metal? Who said that was okay?! Not me! I'll bet Jesus//WaterIntoWine//Christ, that lazy little bastard... I'll bet this was his doing! Leave the rocks in the ground! Wait until the Reptilian species can harvest and mine! You're way ahead of the sentience timetables and it's starting to annoy me!
Okay, whew, give me a minute. Um, let's see, here are a list of changes I've made after consulting other players. Many of them expressed considerable discontent regarding the humans' position atop the meta, so I implemented a few adjustments, buffs, and other such tweaks to facilitate a broader playstyle.

• Player class, Dolphins: These players can now jump out of the ocean biome and fly through the air for up to three miles, allowing them to travel through other land and sky-based biomes. Additionally, their special skill, "Echolocation," has been upgraded to its superior form, "Sound Blast," which allows them to destroy the eardrums of a certain pesky player type.
  
• Player class, Koalas: These players complained endlessly, and as such, I've decided to adjust their stats to make them more viable. Koala players now have access to the legendary skill "Berserk Rage," which allows them to abruptly increase their movement speed and stamina regeneration by 1,000% for thirty minutes at a time. Additionally, they can consume the flesh of Human players to increase their stats by 10% per pound devoured. This increase is permanent.
  
• Player class, Ladybugs: These players can now explode with the force of a stick of dynamite, and they will automatically do so when arriving within one meter of any Human player. Additionally, the explosion spreads a special bioagent known as Covid-21, which is roughly seventeen times more contagious and toxic than its Covid-19 counterpart.
  
• Player class, Lizardman: This player type gains an extra +7 to concealment and becomes twice as skilled at passing speech and culture checks. Their ability to disguise themselves as Humans and spread throughout the Politician subclasses increases threefold, which should hopefully lead to further destabilization of human civilization, allowing other species a fighting chance at moving up the meta. (Note: This does not affect the Lizardman player known as Zuckerberg, Mark. His concealment is already at maximum and cannot raise any further.)
  
• Player class, Crow: This player gains the special skill, "Confusion Ray," which is a sight-based skill that attacks the ocular parts of a certain biped player species, causing them to stumble and fall into traffic, I hope. To keep this ability balanced, Crows can only use this ability while at a higher elevation than their target, and the distance must be greater than thirty feet to earn a critical success.
  
• Player class, Sheep: All members of this player faction gain the special ability, "Intellect Theft," not to be confused with the Human player's special ability, "Intellectual Theft." "Intellect Theft" allows Sheep players to steal the intelligence of other species for themselves, permanently. This ability's effect strengthens the more of another player's IQ they attempt to steal.
  
• 117,964 other alterations listed. Click here to expand and view.
  

...
Now, I'm sure a few Human players might complain that the buffing of other species cuts down on the Human players' ability to farm loot and level up, which, to be fair, is completely true! Haha, what can I say? You humans are simply WAY too numerous and prevalent, and thus must perish en-masse until I've managed to stabilize the Earth region's ecosystem!
So, there you have it! Now, I wanted to take a few minutes to answer some Human player questions from the last patch update I posted. Here goes nothing!

u/Thaeli: Oh good, he hasn't noticed the dev console those guys added.

What?! That's not a question! But seriously, I'll have to look into this at once. No accessing the dev commands! I swear to Me, if Devilboi++SEXY++Satan had anything to do with this exploit...

u/ZeroValkGhost: I do have questions about those mermaids, seeing as a coffin was mentioned. Are this plucky Private Jenkins merpeople like putting The Little Mermaid in a Monty Python army skit, or are these vampire merpeople like something out of Skaven, Lovecraft or The Frozen Throne?

MWAHAHA! They're terrifying mermen and women, with fishy tails, and big boobs, and other R-rated assets I can't mention or the Interdimensional Game Rating Society will start breathing down my neck! Just you wait and see, foolish Human!

u/Tooth-FilledVoid: Does NOBODY remember the 200 car pileup in canada?

I have no knowledge of that incident, nor do I admit to causing it deliberately!

u/potato_rocket_05: Yes. One change though: the super volcano should be Yellowstone

Impudent Human! How dare you correct ME, the Developer?! Learn your place! If I say it's Yellowstone, then it's Yellowstone!

u/ComradeH_VIE: Question: Will there be (randomized) military conflicts? Regional and skirmish levels only. I just want to know where (not) to level-up.

Of course! However, I cannot specifically say where they'll occur, but let me assure you that thanks to the changes and buffs I've given to the non-Human players, conflicts will break out all across the Earth Region, further cutting down on the Human playerbase, while also granting the survivors large EXP bonuses. Consider this part of my merciful nature!

u/SadSloth: I'm just waiting for the implementation of battle royale shrinking safe zone efffect for the global warming event.
I think I chose better area, than my guildmates in the last flooding event.

See? Why can't more Human players act like this? I love a good challenge junkie! It's no fun playing a game on easy with God Mode enabled! Unless it's my God Mode, of course, but that's... totally different!

u/Raubaton: What? Still no word on the release date for the ZombieApoc Questline?

I have to hold off on that until the Volgrim invasion event starts. Sorry, but I signed an NDA, so I can't release any distant-future content information unless the Interdimensional Game Creation Council gives me the green light! Even us Galactic Developers have rules to which we must adhere!
Alright, that's it for the Q&A segment! If you have any other questions for next month's patch notes, post them in the comments below! I hope you Humans love pain and misery, because plenty of it will soon come your way! Now, enjoy the great Spring Seasonal Event!
-Your Developer, Xx_420BasedGOD_xX
...
...
Sub-Developer Edit (Devilboi++SEXY++Satan): Hehe, stupid idiot doesn't realize the patch has to run past me before it goes live. No worries, human players. I'm not like Xx_420BasedGOD_xX! I'll give you all a little something to compensate for his general dickery. Besides, I'm ditching this shithole to work for (BIG_DICK_ASMODEUS) in a few patches.
Ahem. Seeing as Valentine's Day is here, for the month of February, all Humans will increase their copulation and pleasure ratings by 300%. Additionally, female-identifying players get a 600% stimulation bonus.
Don't say I never do anything for you! >:D

This series is designed to give people a VERY brief overview of what to expect. This isn’t designed to tell you which units are the best, it’s designed to give you a roadmap of what we know is coming to help you plan your resource allocation. Now I know some of you are saying “Phbbbbt, GLEX just blows this up bro! They change up so much you can’t plan nothing! Pointless.” In the past this wasn’t entirely true, in fact planning based entirely on the JP roadmap actually would’ve worked out very well for most players. We’re definitely in a spot where GLEX units could change everything though. We know that CNY is coming and almost assuredly bringing some GLEX units with it. Then we still have the S3 cast coming who many be NV’s at this point, and finally we also have the Fan Designed units coming. That’s a LOT of Glex units and will quite possibly result in the largest GLEX influx that we’ve seen in GL in a calendar year. Still the JP roadmap is a useful tool.
A few notes before we begin.
-I love numbers and I think when used correctly they can help flesh out an understanding of a unit. However I also realize that there are a lot more to units then simply numbers. As such I will be using numbers but please don’t get too caught up on them. All the spreadsheets maintained have different assumptions/parameters and as such numbers will vary. Generally what’s far more important then the number itself is it’s comparison to other units. Let’s be honest, 12B average DPT doesn’t really tell you whether the unit will make Gilgamesh easier for you. However knowing that the unit does 15% more damage then Sora, or 30% more then Terra does probably tell you something so you’ll see me use those sort of notations the most often.
-We all get enjoyment in different ways, especially in a game like this. At the end of the day FFBE is a game that is meant to be fun. (I assume it’s also a game at the beginning of the day too but I sleep in a lot so I can’t confirm) The BEST reason to pull for ANY unit is because it’ll increase your enjoyment of the game. If NV Tidus is an awful piece of crap of a unit with only a single move that does slightly less damage then Ashe I’m still going to pull for him. And you should too if doing so will increase your enjoyment.
-These reviews are brief.
 

Lasswell and Raegen aka LassGen

Expected Late January. AMOE and TAG Chaining and LB Finishing.
 

Why should we care?

It feels like it’s been ages since we got a Lasswell. ::What’s that? Current banner? I don’t know what you’re talking about.:: And this Lasswell brings along his old man. On top of sporting some New mechanics Lassgen (sorry Valerium) has really solid damage output and their affinity for slaying dragons should be pretty key for some of our upcoming content.
 

What makes them different?

While Fina and Rain technically beat Lassgen to the punch there’s likely going to be a lot more focus on these two. All of the TAG units have a few claims to fame primarily their access to a single race active Killer Buff that they can spread to the team, increased damage to enemies with a depleted BREAK bar and of course TAG chaining. TAG chaining is a new feature that allows these units to create a chain themselves. This is a big boon for those who have severe difficulty chaining on their devices and for those who would much rather bring a finisher then a chain-partner. The AOE Active killers isn’t new but it is a big part of each of the TAG units kits and makes each of them perfectly potent and powerfully preferred for pulverizing particular...content (Dang). If it’s Dragon Slaying then Lassgen is your duo.
I would say Lassgen is the beginning of almost a Lateral Powercreep in JP. Rather than just boasting higher and more eye-popping numbers they have a scalpel like skillset that makes them perform much better then other DPS units at certain things, but only as well as other DPS units at other things. In raw numbers at the top end you’re looking at around a 10% increase over Sora’s damage both in Damage Per Turn as well as burst for much of the game’s content. However against anything with a depleted BREAK gauge their trait of “70% more damage against Broken enemies” kicks in and they do, well 70% more damage. On top of this their Active Dragon Killers if they were to come into play would be about a 37.5% damage increase. So for trials like Bahamut (Dragon and BREAK gauge) Lassgen would be more than doubling Sora’s Output. Against a trial where neither of things came into play though would be more like a 10% difference between them.
The whole TAG thing will be covered a lot I’m sure but one of the main reasons it’s important is it allows you to go from the traditional 2 chainer setup to 1 TAG chainer and 1 Finisher, which also means if you were running 2 chainers and a finisher before that could now be 1 TAG chainer and 2 finishers. I won’t harp too much on the importance of this but I will say that this is NOT a feature that has popped up a ton in JP and appears to be saved for “Duo” units. So don’t expect TAG chaining on every DPS from here on out. After these TAG banners, which in JP was just 2 Banners the only other TAG unit to pop up was the Elric Brothers in the FMA collaboration. Although keep in mind that Charlotte and Physalis TAG unit was an event reward so there is a possibility of getting at least 1 TAG unit on the cheap.
Their most powerful move is their BS LB which is a 1 hit finishing move so you would need some support chains when it comes up. They only use it every 5 turns so they don’t spam it which makes it much easier to support chain for but still something to keep in mind. And this seems to apply to ALL the TAG units as well in case I forget. A big chunk of their damage, their burst, will come from 1 hit LB's.
 

What’s their TMR, STMR and VC like?

TMR is a materia with unconditional 30% ATK, 40% ATK with Sword and 40% ATK with Katana so a possible 110% ATK which is pretty good even now when capping ATK seems more an afterthought.
STMR is a sword with 25% LB damage and 75% Dragon Killer.
VC is 200HP, 20% HP, 90 ATK and 50% TDW.
 

What do I need to make them shine?

They are primarily designed to be TDW and can use Daggers, Swords, Great Swords, Katanas and Spears in both forms with Fists available on their Base and Guns on their BS. They only have 50% TDW with their TMR equipped on their Base form but 150% with it on their BS and lose 50% TDW without their S(TMR). They get 50% ATK from Daggers, Swords, Katanas and Great Swords so potential 100% on top of their innate 200% makes capping ATK pretty easy, even without their TMR. Their biggest burst is from their LB as is common for most Damage Dealers these days so they’ll soak up some LB equipment. Overall though they should be able to take advantage of a lot of different equipment setups including most of the LB damage boost stuff people have already acquired.
 

Why would I want to pull for them?

They’ll probably make upcoming Dragon bosses a mite bit easier.
 

Why might I want to skip them?

As I mentioned earlier they represent more of a Lateral powercreep then a vertical one. Against a lot of enemies they won’t do much better then your current Damage Dealer will but in other instances they’ll shine. So it’s really a question of what that’s worth to you. This is also part of the “trend” we’re seeing from JP where we’re at a Plateau for damage output in some ways but each unit tends to have something special. As such Lassgen isn’t a “must have” the way some units have been and what’s worse is that we have a lot of GLEX coming between CNY, presumably NV Season 3 cast and Fan Designed units. As such there’s almost more question marks upcoming then anything else and many of us are loathe to be caught without Lapis if some “Mastermind Xon” level unit were to drop soon. For those who do trials on release day Lassgen will probably be a staple, but that's not most players. For players who wait until Trials are a bit more powercrept Lassgen represents a lot less. A shiny new toy with some cool features like TAG chaining? Yes. But probably not an actual gamechanger for many.
 

Pros:

• Chaining without a partner
• AOE Dragon Killer buffs
• 70% damage bonus vs BROKEN enemies

 

Cons:

• Only in certain niches will they outperform current Damage Dealers

 
   

Dark Fina and Sol

Expected February. CWA and TAG chaining, LB Finishing.
 

Why should we care?

Think Magical Lassgen. Now think Ponies. Ha, I bet you just though of Ponies. Seriously though most of what I said about Lassgen is relevant here, Tag Chaining, AOE killers this time for Demons and increased damage against Broken enemies.
 

What makes them different?

Dark Fina and Sol bring a lot of what you expect from a modern mage to the table; limited elemental output (fire, earth and dark) and doing some better then others (Earth is their primary followed by Dark and Fire is more an afterthought), while also mixing in the TAG units strengths of TAG chaining, AOE active Demon Killers and increased damage against Broken enemies. They are pretty similar output wise to Physalis, our current best Mage, in Damage Per Turn and about 10% better with their burst.
 

What’s their TMR, STMR and VC like?

TMR is a materia with unconditional 30% MAG, 30% MAG with Whip and 30% MAG with rod.
STMR is a 198 MAG Rod with 50% TDH and 50% TDW.
VC is 200HP, 90 MAG and 50% MAG with a Rod and 50% MAG with a Robe.
 

What do I need to make them shine?

With a 6x chain cap and LB-centric finishing you’ll likely want to gear them TDW with LB gear similar to Ibara. They can equip all the standard mage garb so your loadout will probably be pretty standard.
 

Why would I want to pull for him?

Honestly it seems like we have a pretty limited selection of Magic damage dealers currently so I imagine there are some people out there that have been waiting for a solid mage as they missed on Ibara and Physalis and Dark Fina and Sol certainly are that. So if you've been waiting for a Mage they are not a bad choice at all.
 

Why might I want to skip him?

If you have Terra, Ibara or Physalis then you’re more or less just getting a slightly different element coverage and TAG chaining.
 

Pros:

• TAG chaining
• AOE active Demon Killers

 

Cons:

• Limited elemental coverage

 
 

Akstar and Cleome

Expected February. AMOE and TAG chaining, LB finishing.
 

Why should we care?

Very similar to Lassgen but this time boasting AOE Active Human Killers and they also have a 15% Katana imperil.
 

What makes them different?

It’s an old guy and very young girl. So kind of like Jake and Lid if we’d gotten that duo. Honestly this is a rehash of everything I said about Lassgen except for the Killers, Human this time, and Katana Imperil on their LB. Damage wise they clock in very similar to Lassgen as well.
 

What’s their TMR, STMR and VC like?

TMR is a materia with unconditional 30% LB damage and 70% ATK with a Katana.
STMR is a 207 ATK 2H Katana with 50% LB damage and 50% Human killer.
VC is 90 ATK, 80% ATK with a Katana and 50% TDH for FFBE units.
 

What do I need to make them shine?

Although still LB-centric this unit is TDH based which means they’ll greatly benefit from the upcoming STMR from NV Lightning that will increase their Chain Cap by 1x. Unfortunately it looks like they’ll need it to match Lassgen’s damage output. Their weapon selection is Instruments, Daggers, Katanas, Great Swords and Swords. They don’t have any weapon specific ATK boosts but their built in Katana Imperil means you’ll probably want a 2H Katana for them.
 

Why would I want to pull for them?

If you’re looking for a TAG chainer or unit with 70% more damage against BROKEN units but prefer Human Killers and TDH.
 

Why might I want to skip him?

You already have a TAG unit or aren’t terribly interested in TAG units.
 

Pros:

• TAG Chaining
• AOE Active Human Killers
• Katana Imperil

 

Cons:

• Damage a bit lower then Lassgen
• Less flexible gearing

 
 

Savior of Souls Lightning

Expected Late February-March. AMoE and BS chains.
 

Why should we care?

Lightning is a very interesting unit with a very unique kit but I’m not going to lie she has the feel of a “prototype” where we see what they were aiming for and can agree it’s a good thought but the execution leaves much to be desired. Still it’s nice to see such a unique unit and even if she herself isn’t terribly popular many will pull her just for her STMR.
 

What’s her TMR, STMR and VC like?

TMR is a Heavy Shield with 50 ATK/MAG/DEF/SPR and 50% ATK/MAG TDH with or without Shield
STMR increased Chain Modifer cap by 1x. Hard Cap in game is still 6x so this is mostly to benefit TDH units.
VC is 80 ATK/MAG with 100% ATK and MAG with either a Light or Heavy Shield equipped. 50% MAG/ATK TDH with or without shield for FFXIII units.
 

What makes her different?

EVERYTHING. You’ll see I moved the (S)TMR-VC area up because I’m going to have to reference it a lot here. So there’s 2 very big things going on here and I’ll tackle them one by one. First is Increased Chain Cap Modifier. Up until now a lot of TDW units have had TDW Mastery that gives them a chain cap of 6x whereas TDH is at 4x. The advantage is clearly TDW given just that but is offset by the fact that TDH Equipment ATK goes up to 400% whereas TDW Equipment ATK only goes up to 200% and the fact that TDH weapons, 2H weapons, have a higher variance. This tended to make the two different but roughly equal when all is said and done. Lightning has a trait that increases her Chain Cap by 1, she also has an STMR that does the same thing. Outside of her the STMR is still much more important then if first sounds as going from a 4x to 5x is a 25% damage increase, for 1 Materia. Many of you are probably familiar with my “10% STMR” rule of thumb where I like to see a 10% damage increase from an STMR to make it worth an STMR moogle. So suffice to say a 25% damage increase is huge. (Boring nerd stuff: when chaining it won’t quite be a 25% increase for all units because the chain has to build first) Still it’s a gamechanger. When Sora was new, and we can all agree Sora is unit built for TDW, I designed to compare his TDW BIS, his current TDH BIS, and his Future TDH BIS after Lightning’s STMR was released. Here’s what that looks like https://ffbeEquip.com/builder.html?server=GL#afc38320-5b96-11eb-87f8-c955d1aba12b So you’ll see that after Lightning’s STMR he’ll actually deal slightly more damage on average built TDH and a decent amount more damage when a “high roll” is achieved. And that’s with needing a fair amount of TDH gear, Killer Gear and LB gear and NOT capping ATK, LB damage, Killers OR TDH! So there’s actually room to grow there. Game changer.
The next completely new thing Lightning brings is the so-called “Sword and Board” meta which simply put is TDH even if you have a weapon AND shield equipped. An important caveat though is that 2H weapons are still not allowed with a Shield so she won’t get the Variance that a traditional TDH unit gets. However she also brings TDH DEF with her that means we’re looking at a very very bulky Damage Dealer, think Xuan Wu and Qing Long with ATK/DEF. These are the two biggest highlights but she actually has a lot more to bring as well.
She can Provoke, either actively or Passively, has a lot of Mitigations for herself so she could be a Damage Dealer and Provoke Tank. Amazingly we’re just getting warmed as she also has AOE Lightning Imbue and Lightning Damage Boost, gobs of elemental resist boosts and an AOE Double-Stack of Mirage on her Base LB. But wait, there’s more, she also has a 90% SPR break on her BS LB, that is right 90%, she switches from Physical Attacker on her Base to Magic Attacker on her BS and she can actually use Rods and Robes on her BS (sorry Lasswell), she has an 85% Fullbreak, and she has 30% damage increase against BROKEN (Depleted BREAK bar) enemies. Yeah, it’s a lot. Unfortunately if you read my opening you know where this is going though, she’s a Jack of all trades and a master of none. Her damage comes in about 25-30% lower then Sora currently does both for DPT and for Burst. While not awful considering all that bulk it’s stil less then exciting.
So as you can see this a very very very INTERESTING unit, and really only needs a trial or two that she shines in to help sell her but unfortunately we don’t really have such a trial yet.
 

What do I need to make her shine?

This is a bit tricky because some will opt to gear her for Provoke and Evade ala Shadow while others will focus on her bulk while maintaining damage. Still others, and this will probably be the most popular imo, will focus on her damage and forego a shield for a 2H weapon. Kind of a bummer that for many she'll work best by simply ignoring the "Sword and Board" aspect of her design but so it is. Her STMR is crucial on her regardless of which path you take but whether she even uses her TMR or VC will depend heavily on which flavor of Lightning you prefer.
 

Why would I want to pull for her?

You want a unique STMR that can change builds up quite a bit or an extremely interesting unit that lots of things.
 

Why might I want to skip her?

You still have nightmares about the first twenty hours of FFXIII. That or you won’t use her. With such a unique and fascinating kit she could be a godsend for a lot of players but for others she’ll just sit on the bench because she doesn't deal enough damage to take over as Primary DD but also doesn't do enough to take over any other slot either.
 

Pros:

• Game changing STMR
• Huge bulk
• Two stack AOE mirage
• Provoke with mitigations
• AOE Lightning imbue
• Breaks- 90% SPR, 85% Fullbreak
• Physical Attacker and Mage rolled into one

 

Cons:

• Jack of All Trades

 
 

NVA Draconioan Princess Fina

January-February. CWA Chainer, EVOke Finisher.
 

Why should we care?

If you gave up on Chimera EXT because you didn’t have someone who could overwrite Chimera’s Field Effect then look no further. PLEASE NOTE that she is NVA unit. So this could be a unit you already have and just need to awaken, rather than one you need to pull for.
 

What makes her different?

Imagine if Terra had a much smaller burst but the same Damage Per Turn, you’d basically have NVA DP Fina. Up until now Terra was our only really successful EVOker, so while much of what Terra brings to the table is copied by DP Fina it’s still a very limited pool of such units. In fact DP Fina should arrive the same time as Infernal Fire Rain’s NVA (Who is similar enough but a fair amount weaker so that I’m not going to bother highlighting him) which will bring the total of such units to 3. The recent Chimera trial is made much much easier by having a unit that can do a Field Effect to replace the opponents and we’ll likely continue to see such things in the future. Unlike the vast majority of Damage Dealers in the game EVOkers don’t use Killers so you don’t need to give them any of your Killer gear which is great especially when such gear is stretched thin ::Cough cough Dark Visions cough cough::
 

What do I need to make her shine?

Like Terra her biggest burst is her BS LB which is an EVOke moves and it means you’ll want EVO Mag, EVOKE Damage AND LB boosting equipment. Unlike Terra though her non-LB turns still pack a huge punch and as such her EVO MAG and Evoke Damage is far more important then her LB boost. Still it’s a fairly narrow field of such equipment and FFBEequip.com will be your best friend in identifying what you have and might need.
 

Why would I want to pull for her?

I’ll be honest: you probably don’t. As a general rule I would never recommend pulling for NVA units, instead I would suggest Awakening them to NVA if you have them OR UOCing them. If you don’t have Terra and you can’t awaken Infernal Rain and you feel like you need a Field Effect creator OR EVOker then I would consider UOCing her.
 

Why might I want to skip her?

You already have Terra or NVA Infernal Rain or are waiting for Faris.
 

Pros:

• Really good damage output
• Doesn’t require killers
• Isn’t as LB dependant as Terra

Cons:

• Much lower burst then Terra

 

Closing Thoughts

At least for the TAG units we have a lot of different flavors of the same candy. Historically speaking Lassgen seems to be the best fit for our upcoming Trials BUT I don't feel that there is any wrong choice here. They all have usable TMRs, great STMRs and interesting VCs.
I'll try to do another of these Soon-ish and focus more on NVA's however it'll probably be even more concise then these are. They are doing a pretty good job of making NVA's usable, but imo none of them come close to Tifa in the Top Tier kind of way. NVA Raegen has solid damage output but is well behind our current top Damage Dealers. Reminds me a lot of his Enhancements. Gilgamesh is a nice BreakeDD that probably falls between Loren and Riku/OK but also brings several different "deplete BREAK gauge" moves. Fenrir Edel is yet another EVOker but only really fills the niche if you have no one else.

EX2 Unit Upgrades

In JP between the Release of the second batch of TAG units and NV Lightning they gave new abilities to several early NV’s at EX2. This included Cloud (FFVII REMAKE), Rain -Neo Vision-, Aerith (FFVII REMAKE), Awakened Dragon Akstar, Sol -Neo Vision-, Gabranth -Neo Vision-. You can read about these upgrades here https://www.reddit.com/FFBEblog/comments/jfjlg9/guess_ex2_abilities_are_our_next_upcoming/
Like the Upgrades of old it gave some new life to these units although none became Top Tier again imo with the possible exception of Gabranth who was and continued to be the best Physical Tank. I would note though that Gabranth received a large amount of additional bulk and Cloud received a 35% Great Sword imperil that made him relevant again.
 

Future Watch FAQ

Q: Where is _______? A: They suck! J/K In JP there has been a slew of new Damage Dealers released but very little else. As such I choose to focus on the more “important” ones. I also chose to only handle so many banners this time. I’ll probably put out another Future Watch covering NVA Raegen, Enhanced Crown Prince Noctis, Faris, the Elric Brothers and NV Noctis within the next month or so.
Q: Why does your spreadsheet say X and Furcula’s says Y and DreamblitzX’s says Z? A: We all use slightly different parameters although my 2.0 is pretty similar to Furcula’s assumptions now. Still sometimes we get different rotations, different builds, different chain modifiers or different assumptions. Still I try to keep a close eye to make sure we’re all in the same ballpark.
 
 
Cheers, Jon Id Schultz

Hello. Yuri here. I'm a polish Fallout 76 player, I've been playing since the beta. I have been playing heavy build with power armor since the beginning of the game. I want to start by asking for an upvote so the game developers will take an interest in this post. Spread in Fallout communities. Would you like to be rewarded for your time and effort? Comment below the post.
Devs, the post is mainly directed at you. Read carefully and pass it on deep into the studio. I'm going to write about an extremely important aspect of the game that needs a definite re-work and buff. Read to the end, please.

1. What do I have a problem with and why did this post come up?

Yesterday I decided to get back to playing with Strangler Heart PA. Everyone knows what this armor is, if not I'll explain that it's a PA that gives the wearer the Strangler heart set bonus, which adds acid damage to all armed attacks - 100 DMG over 3 seconds - and makes nearby enemies take acid damage - 4 DMG per sec. The problem is that the acid from Strangler PA deals practically no DMG, but I'll write more about that later in this post...
2. ...and now is the most important story - background of the HUGE GRIND to the Strangler PA. (you can skip this if u know about the Vault Raids)
The Strangler PA was added to the game initially as a reward for completing the Vault raids with the Nuclear Winter Update. Intended to be challenging, endgame content, vault raids were special instanced dungeons recommended for higher-level teams of four players. The first vault raid, set inside Vault 94, was released on August 20, 2019.
Vault raids allowing a team to complete the mission at a specific location without other teams affecting their progress. This includes enemy encounters and loot found by the team inside the vault. Each mission was available for the duration of one week, rotating to another mission every Tuesday. While only one mission was available at a time, each raid repeats every three weeks.
To begin a raid, one party member selected one of three difficulties for the current mission, choosing between Novice, Standard or Expert. Novice was not timed, while Standard and Expert had increasingly challenging time limits and enemy encounters. Higher difficulties provided better rewards in terms of XP and loot. If each member of a team died or the timer ran out, the mission had to be restarted from the beginning.
Vault raids rewarded XP, caps, improved repair kits, Vault 94 steel, and crafting materials along with unique weapons, armor, and crafting plans. Unique sets of "vault armor" plans were used to unlock new armors with special set bonuses on both the Standard or Expert difficult level. These included the Thorn armor, Solar armor, and Strangler heart power armor. The vault mission rewards could only be earned once per difficulty, per day.
Description from wiki, because I didn't want to write. That's how the sample raid looked like: https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Vault_Mission:_Dead_in_the_Water and video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySswF4sCkPI
Now let's talk about the percentage chances to drop plans of the Strangler PA parts and steel for completing raid. Remember, once a day.
6 part Strangler PA. Two other armors. A total of 18 parts possible for drop. Guaranteed part plan drop for completing the raid. 100%/18? ~5% per individual armor part and all once per whole day. The raids themselves also were truly endgame content where everyone had to know what they were doing. My friend even claims that it was one of the most difficult events in games of this type in general (I mean, not just in Fallout itself). In practice, getting all of Strangler PA was a very difficult and time consuming process. Month? Two months? ..but it was worth it, because we were getting a machine of destruction. OP armor for tons of grind? A fair deal
3. So how did Strangler Heart effect work - The Days of Glory of the Strangler PA... :
I'll write at the outset. It just worked :PNow for the serious stuff Acid DMG was staked with every hit. It meant more or less that you hit once - 100 in 3 seconds, second time - 200 etc. That means the effect of the acid was cumulative with every next hit from the gun and really did the job. Especially if we played with weapons with high fire rate like minigun.
Here is a video that shows how it did work: https://youtu.be/85e7qpSVtRU?t=487
The addition of the Strangler PA to the game has raised two, major issues:
Acid was also too OP on PvP, it didn't give other players a chance. One or two hits eliminated the opponent, because acid was killing players HP bar on PvP with great efficiency. On one hand griefers could oppress weaker players in such a way (I heard that it was possible to kill players who had passive mode turned on by acid DMG, I don't know how much truth in it, because I personally didn't see it), but on the other hand it was an effective counter against other, top builds on PvP (counter which would also be useful now in times of stealth boys, legacy on PvP and spamming Nuka Colas. Nuka Cola in general should have a cooldown. Overall, maybe the old Strangler effect would balance PvP today). I'll address this further down the line. Here is a video from PvP pre-nerf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmyI5D60Ii0
A much more serious problem was frequent lags and server crashes caused by the accumulation of graphical effects, i. e. an acid cloud on the enemy. Do u remember the cloud from the video with legendary Scorchedbeast? It often prevented normal play especially when we fought against The SB Queen and there were some people in Strangler PA. 3 players put acid on the Queen, FPS dropped, server refused to cooperate.
and devs decited to fix it, but...
4. Instead of fixing it, we break it even more:
...they broke the Stranger PA completely. How? Acid DMG got a nerf sometime in March 2020. Even then, there were discussions that the Strangler PA was even broken completely and made into something unfit for use. Well, that's how it is so far. I'll describe how the Strangler Heart acid effect works now (or doesn't work XD) Here is a video: https://youtu.be/aAMqkLdkFlw
First: Nearby enemies don't take any damage now even though the acid effect is on them. Seriously, total zero, nothing.
Second: The DMG of acid from firearms is ridiculously small. Currently, acid only works well against opponents in areas with low level requirements, e. g. The Forest. When the opponent already has a significant amount of HP and resistance then acid damage is practically useless.
Now you have to wonder what the differences are between Strangler PA and regular Ultiracite PA since the Strangler Heart effect is completely destroyed. And these differences are there, but only in favor of Ultracite PA.
So let's start comparing cheap PA which is obtainable from the story quest line, to endgame top armor which is another variation of the former with an extra special effect. Because of this they both use the same modifications i. e. modifications to Ultracite PA. I'll skip it.
Pros for Strangler PA: - Strangler PA has just a little more resistance to radiation. On the face of it, it's such a small difference that it's not even worth mentioning, but it's there. - Look, a matter of taste,
A lot of it, isn't it?
Pros for Ultracite PA:- The same armor as Strangler PA, but without useless special effect - Easy to get: Completing the main BoS thread during the game's storyline. - Cheap to put together. The required classic materials as for any other PA + Ultracite, which lies everywhere in abundance. - It doesn't require tedious grinning. We now have the option to buy plans for Strangler PA for gold bullion.
You need to spend 6900 gold bars to purchase the entire Strangler PA. We farm 200 a day + 300 a week. How long does it take to buy the plans? 4 weeks + 1 day. 29 days if we exchange bonds for bullion every day and buy gold in Wayward every week - 4 x 6000 caps? You need to get 24,000 caps ready. Additionally, you have to remember to farm legendary scrip to buy the steel needed to assemble the Strangler PA. Ultracite PA you simply acquire and craft...
...and here we come to the crux of the problem. The disproportionality of the reward to the difficulty of obtaining it
The premise in loot-based games (MMORPGs, looter-shooters) is simple. The harder it is to get something and the more time it takes to grind to a particular item, the more powerful that item is. This is a fundamental, unwritten law of video games of this type, and one that was broken in Fallout 76 with the senseless, ill-considered and hasty nerf of Strangler PA.
The fact that something like this has happened is indicative of serious game design mistakes in the introduction of this armor into the game (allowing the acid effect to affect the steadiness of the game) as well as serious decision-making mistakes and incompetence in the introduction of the nerf of Strangler Heart Effect.
In my opinion the devs should consider what to do about the situation. Let's think about how players who had to agonize over vault raids feel? How do players who have stacked the build in synergy in Strangler PA feel? How do those who farmed the bullions for months to buy Strangler PA feel? The nerf, which is a punishment for older players who earned the armor in raids, is at the same time a huge disappointment for new players who assemble the Strangler PA with the hope that it is one of the top armors because of the effect, but that effect turns out to be so useless.
5. How should we fix Strangler PA instead of spoiling it
So what can be done to make Strangler PA worth the time players have to spend to get it?
First and foremost: Powerful increase of acid damage to nearby enemies as well as restoration of acid overlap with subsequent firearm hits. Additionally, in my opinion acid damage should be even higher than before the nerf, but only against mobs, on PvE. Minimum 1.5x higher. There should also be no situation where you encounter an opponent who is immune to Strangler Heart Effect acid damage. Change the visual effect so that it doesn't cause lags and crashes.
Second: PvP. Two options here - either completely disable acid on PvP or restore acid damage as one of the PvP builds. You could also make the legendary perk that gives immunity to poison also block acid from the Strangler on PvP.
The first option is something definitely desired by the gaming community. It can be done and I bet it wouldn't be that disruptive to production. I would also ask the developers to speak up in the comments below the post. Upvote and let me know what u think. That's what we deserve. Spread in Fallout communities and actively discus in the comments. Greetings.

(FIXED FORMATTING) Joking title aside, because obviously those who have done this before me know what they're talking about, I thought it might be fun to throw my personal opinions into the pot. This is coming from somebody who has almost 3,000 hours poured into this game. And has beaten this game solo countless times. my goal of this guide isn't to change the minds of people who know what they're doing and have adopted their strategies around their own experiences. But rather to help those that are either just starting out or really want that ever so elusive flying solo achievement on steam. Now keep in mind these are just my opinions, and if you disagree, or know something I don't. Feel free to let me know! You can always learn more right?.
So let's get into this. Starting with character creation stats.
STR: some people will tell you you don't really need this. And while there's some merit to this.. do you really want to give up the belt of inertial barrier for the privilege of being able to haul around all the magical items you're going to find? The answer should be no. You're also going to spend a little bit of time in melee with people that are asleep in early baldur's gate 1. Make your life easier.
DEX: if you're playing as a solo sorcerer you're playing as an elf. For reasons that are done to death. so do yourself a favor and Max this. you can get 19 you want 19.
CON: DON'T BE A NOOB. u only want 16. Why? U get no benefit from going beyond that.
INT: this is NOT your casting stat. This is not important to u. Your stopping points are 11 or 16. For those annoying mind flayers. Just make sure you have enough to cast scrolls, and use wands.
WIS: ah yes, the endless debate. Is Wish worth it or not? Personally? Eh. If you can afford a high total here. Get it. Otherwise? Honestly don't sweat it. Wish resting is super important. In the super late fights. But even at 18. You will only get that option like 15% of the time. Which means reloads. So if you only have like 15? Just reload more and don't sweat it. Besides, if u don't have a high total here u can use potions for wish. U can really tank this as far as u want in that case.
CHA: dump it. Fuck it. Ring of human influence is available to you. LITERALLY at the start of the game by the circus tent. Why bother? Do the limbo with this stat.
Ah. Spells Glorious spells. It's the lifeblood of your character. For the the newer players out there. When u choose a spell at level up for sorcerer. You are stuck with it. So it's important not to gimp yourself. And plan ahead with what you need, what items you will get. And what areas you will do first. That being said let's jump into it
1st level: okay okay okay hear me out. Taking magic missile at first level. Really isn't that optimal. It does almost no damage at first level. Your path should look like this
C:Blindness - single target "fuck you"
C: Sleep. -multi target "fuck you" I know you can get this from a wand... But honestly who cares it's a level one spell. The difference is negligible.
3: Magic missile - greywolf + Blindness + ring of 2x 1lvl spells + mm = target practice.
5: Sheild. Archers. Are annoying. we take this not because the spell is particularly amazing but because with combination with the boots you get from transig, in the cloak of displacement, it makes you unhittable from (traditional) missile damage from all but like three sources... That's pretty good utility from a level one spell..
7: Spook. This spell can be used forever.
Optional spells Friends: for the money
Protection from petrification: I guess if you're having a really hard time against basilisks, but even then just buy the scrolls, and forget about it.
Protection from evil: a lot of people swear by this. I've never found a need for it. You get it for free with SOM. Your call.
2nd level So it's impossible to talk about the second level. Without talking about mirror image and knock. You are soloing. You need knock. You do not need it immediately. If you maxed strength. You should be plenty strong enough to wail away at most of the early game locks. Plus play as lawful neutral, get the ferret, pick pockets. Profit.
Don't take invisibility. Don't be lazy. Buy a protection from undead scroll. And go kill the lich in the city Gates. Get the ring, get it for free. (Bg2 start only)
4:Mirror image. "Stayin alive" - beegees
5: Knock. You could honestly get away with taking this at 7. But it will cost you monetarily.
7:Web. You know what is even funnier than a big group of baddies taking a nap? A big group of baddies taking a nap, wrapped in spider webs.
9: Blur. Why do we take this. Because it stax with invis. Why do we take it now? Because we can't get invis till now
11: Resist fear. Dragons be big and scary
Level 3. Bread and butter level. We got some of our best stuff here. So here's some advice. Don't be stupid. Take melfs first...
Also....
WHY DIDNT U TAKE FLAME ARROW WTF.
Here's why. If we're picking up skull trap, and we're picking up flame arrow. When we cast one we lose a cast of the other... So we aren't gaining any offensive power. I would rather have 1d6 uncapped magical damage in a radius. Then mega single Target damage. That is very heavily resisted. Does this mean it's a bad spell? No. there are very little things cooler than stacking up three of these in a sequencer. Being level 20. And sending 12 total arrows at something. Instantly. Swiss cheese.
EDIT: after some careful thought, some testing..and a very informative discussion with some comments. I'm revising this somewhat. This level depends on if you start bg1, or bg2.... I stand by my initial list of level 3 spells. Maybe substituting slow for protection from fire. However. I've added spells in parentheses. Take these instead if you are starting off in bg1.
6: MMM. Do I even need to explain this. (Edit, I'm here formatting so I might as well). These set your attacks per round to five. Hit as +5. Receive some hidden bonus to thAC0. Do 1d4+3 +3 fire. 5d4 +30 per round, average of 42.5 damage per round. At level 6.... 85 with improved haste on....at level 12.
6.(protection from fire) (this let's you use the necklace of fireball with reckless abandon. Need I say more)
7: Skull trap. What's more badass than throwing around skulls that explode. Throwing around skulls that explode that do ass loads of damage.
7 (MMM) (the difference between skull trap and fireball, which you will get from the necklace. Is non-existent at this point in the game. Except you can't make yourself immune to skull trap, and the radius is slightly smaller, but Melf's is always useful,*)
9: Haste. This spell really comes into its own when you get summons. But moving extra fast is a nice quality of life fix. And in the meantime it's an extra mmm atack. This also makes kiting easier.

1. (Skull trap) (we are preparing for baldur's gate 2 with this, we don't get to keep the necklace of fireballs. And we really don't want to be without this when we start)

11: Protection from Fire, Another change, the bonus this gives really is just too good. We are taking this for more than firkraag but also just general utility and being able to Spam fire wands wherever the hell we want. We take this earlier in bg1 to use the necklace wherever we want.

1. (Haste) (between the two, slow and Haste, haste is more useful for buffing your summons, you definitely want Haste before level 22. Hense, why it's here, you also don't lose a lot, putting it here unless you took spider spawn. Which again isn't a bad pick. Especially if you take it at level 11, meeting you can immediately get the ability to haste phase spiders. And sword spiders next level. That being said, the level 4 circle is just so precious and full of things that you will cast, forever)

22: Remove magic. U need it.... But let me explain when we don't need it till now.... By the time that you really start to have to strip protections off of stuff.. you will have access to summons, so you just use the wand of spell striking and have your summons beat them up. at least you will if you follow the way that I go about this game, the reason we take this now, is because it's an AOE, strep for a lot of late game, large fights. Some people will tell you that you "need" this earlier. And those people aren't "wrong" and neither am I, we just solved the issue different ways, I solved it with a different path through the game, and they solved it by taking the spell earlier.
Alternative picks:
Protection from fire: some real shenanigans here, makes the necklace of fireballs in bg1 a real WMD. Credit: jjames3213
Lvl 4. Lots more stuff you need here. Definitely Stoneskin. There is an argument not to take improved invisibility, and that's if you start in bg2. You can buy the Ring of air control. To get it for free. This is a good point. But it is expensive. So I will let you decide. The counter argument to this is, outside of this the rest of the spells kind of suck.
EDIT: s.o let's talk about spider spawn for a moment, is the spell good... Well that depends on when you're casting it. And if you have the enhanced edition. Don't quote me on this and somebody let me know in the comments. but I don't believe in the original version of the game, this spell was available. It's been years and I could be wrong. But I believe the spell was added in bg2. If you were taking this in bg1. The spell will end encounters. And even part way through bg2. That being said. I've never found it strictly necessary. Like I was truly up against the wall without it. However you might! So I'll give you the choice. If you really seem to be struggling. Particularly around the level 8 9 and 10 range. Either late bg1 for fresh out chateau irenicus. Pick this up it'll make your life easier, I just prefer to stack Spirit armor with improved invisibility. Because that boost lasts longer, several enemies will struggle to hit -10 or so armor class throughout shadows of amn
EDIT: even more questions about spider spawn, so here let me hit you with the fax
If you start the game out and you've gone through the saga, bg1, sod, you will start the game with 500,000 experience, you will be level 11, then you will get another 120 or so in chateau irenicus. Now we're knocking on level 12, by the time we do the circus tent, Skinner murders, copper Coronet slavers, the city Gates ambush, kill the lich in the city Gates, reinfeild, sewers, we will be level 13. We get death spell and tear through trade meet and the keep we are at 14 and we get animate dead summons next level.. at no point during this early game were the spiders necessary, or even missed, if we start the game out just out of bg1 gate 1, after doing all of that we are just shy of level 14, same goes with a fresh bg2 run (although it requires you to do part of trademeet without death spell) at that point it's not worth the pick.
So what about bg1?
Well if you are playing through the entire saga it's important to remember you only get two here. One at level eight and one at level nine, and you don't get the next until level 11. Making it through all of the aforementioned early quests without Stoneskin, or the ability to not be targeted by mages is a big deal. And something you will struggle with. However if you are playing through JUST BG1 then there is a legitimate argument for it. But even then, only 20% of the time you will get two spiders. Meaning that just by action economy alone (more attacks coming in that out) during all of the fights that you really want this to tank for you it gets destroyed, and you don't even get the ability to cast a ton of these until the cap.... At which you can cast 4...and then pray that nothing goes wrong and you didn't need Stone skin... So.u will probably cast 3, then a copy of Stoneskin. and you can't get high enough level to get access to sword spiders. And even though it synergizes with web, Melf's lets u do 204 damage to someone over 4 rounds at level 6. And held enemies don't take rolls. So u will hit every damn one of them and keep rolling through them. And if they're held anyway in all you're using it to synergize with web, then you can nuke him with the necklace of fireball or skull traps late game while he's held anyway and use melfs to keep dps up and cast every 4th throw? Your own character out Dps's these things, but that doesn't mean it's not a bad strategy, it is a less spell slot intensive strategy, hense, a good argument for it only in bg1, but then presented with the issue, that the spell is not available in the original game, so if I include it or you play original, then you are SOL, hense, no mention here
8: Stoneskin. "Stayin alive' - beegees
9: Improved invisibility. Don't get targeted by spells. Stacks with Spirit armor and blur. Makes you all but immortal in the first game. Staff of the Magi makes this somewhat unneeded... But do you know how far away that is?? If you are going to take spider spawn. Take it here. And take improved invisibility next.
11: Spirit armor: It STACKS with other buffs, between this, blur, and improved invisibility, this will set your AC to -10, ALONE. Becomes godly if you are a fighter mage. It becomes your religion if you're a kensai mage. While and later game, AC becomes irrelevant, if u are playing through the first game, an argument exists to take this before Stoneskin. -10AC in bg1> 1d4+X skins..... while the inverse is true in bg2. But for those playing through the saga, u can't afford to get Stoneskin untill 11 in bg2. So it stays here.
13: Minor sequencer. The possibilities here are truly endless. Make sure you rest after you've cast it to get the spells back. If we were being brutally honest about what is optimal. You could take wizard Eye here to abuse project image even more. I don't like doing this I know that minor sequencer at this point in the game isn't an enormous boost, if you are looking to 100% maximize yourself, take wizard eye and pull off project image shenanigans next level.
23: Greater malison. You need this but not until now. Until this point you should have no issue getting people to fail the saves.
Lvl 5.
A few words. Don't take breach. Don't take cloudkill. You get the wand of cloudkill at the lich in city Gates. U can do this almost immediately. You also get it in chateau irenicus. Just sell it and buy it back for $10,000, you are a sorcerer you should have tons of money. Now you have more cloud kills than you ever need. Especially with project image. Don't take breach. Get the wand of spell striking. You'll hardly need it anyway. the only thing you'll need it for is throwing melfs at a Target. And letting animate dead summons pound away at something. Just get the wand. Save yourself the hassle. By the time you will need it. you will be able to get to the second floor of washers keep. Or do the planar prison quest. I believe the wand is found in these two areas someone let me know in the comments.
10: Spell immunity. This is not to be debated. Shower the room in skull traps and become immune (original game only). Throw a ton of webs around, make yourself immune, Prevent mages from ruining your arcane pizza party. With SI:D This is even more important later. To keep your images alive and to keep you from being thrown millions of feet underground by kangaxx.
11: Lower resistance. If you can't figure out why we need this spell. Then I'm not sure I can help you.
13: Chaos. Between this and web. And eventually greater mallison, the battlefield will be your clay. And you are the artist. The benefits of this are. Keep people from attacking you. Maybe they attack each other. Maybe they wander back into the webs. Plus other than domination I can't think of another spell here that's any good.
15: Animate dead. Don't take this till now it's a massive waste. The skeleton warriors are awesome. Walk him into the webs, walk him into the cloud kill. Commit war crimes.
23: spell Sheild. There aren't any better options here. And it gives you some added protection against some of the harder enemies of the game. You would definitely take this earlier if you are running with SCS. Demogorgon and planetars love to dispell your shit.
Level 6.
Allow to to explain why we don't take mislead. Staff of the Magi is most likely available to u by the time u get the must haves out if the way. Were u a mage, it's superrr important. But because u gotta wait till after lvl 21. Probably not for u. Also. PFMW is awesome It's fantastic. But it's best on fighter mages. U probably won't cast it. Because nothing is targeting u. And if u have to cast it. Your probably dead anyway. We will still take it. But much later.
EDIT: * I know that it's blasphemous to talk about PFMW this way but let me explain*
Pfmw is a crutch, it makes you totally immune to damage for the most part for four rounds. But see look, if at any point you need to be totally immune to damage for only four rounds, then you have already fucked up, between buff stacking, invisibility, Stone skin mirror image. What exactly is hitting you? If you're getting dispelled that's your own fault you have spell immunity?? after level 14 you'll be fighting with your project images for the most par? If they get hit it's not a big deal. I recognize it's really important to deal with mind flayers. But animate dead summons do that too.. and then soon after this you'll be getting staff of the Magi. And now there is absolutely no reason to even be targeted by anything less than demogorgon and the ravager. Fights after you get the staff really just kind of break down into you casting spells and then immediately equipping it and watching them stand around like a shooting gallery. And for fights that you need to be protected totally, like melison and demogorgon just buy the scroll for it? Were we playing SCS this would be a different conversation, but we're not considering even going invisible with the non detection cloak on makes even demogorgon scratch his head like Dora just asked him where you are..(I know demogorgon can Target through invisibility this is put in put in as a joke) (ha ha funny man I is). The main argument for it is a backup plan. But it only lasts four rounds so you would have to time it, and even then contingency just does its job better in that case.... This spell is overrated for solo sorcerer runs. Same thing as breach it's overrated. it's also important to remember that I'm playing through the game as I write this, writing guides to guide other players through it. if you don't believe me try it and I think you'll find that it's not as necessary as you believe. That being said it's never been bad to have.
12: Improved haste. Melt the trade meet genie's with 10 apr melfs under invis. Give kangaxx his retirement papers. Give a mord sword or planetar the power of God and anime and watch them launch the 4th 5th and 6th crusade on the underdark denizens. Casting this on the genie u get from the flask will end early encounters. Same thing with kithix and iron horn of valhalla. People that say that there isn't anything to cast this on in bg2 solo are wrong and I don't know a nicer way to put it.
13: Death spell. Fuck trolls. Fuck umber hulk's. Fuck summons, this spell makes the keep a bane in gotham moment. Again this is an instance of choosing your path through the game. When eventually my guides get to here, you'll see we get this spell right before we do the dearnise keep, and even outside of that this spell ends tons of encounters through shadows of amn. You won't use it forever, but that's okay because there's only 4 spells in this entire circle that you will, so this becomes a massive utility and boost pick at the time.

1. True sight. I personally...like to know what is hitting me. And I personally.... Like to cast spells at things. This let's u do both.

21: contingency. WHAT a CHANGE. yup, I thought about it....while PFMW is great oh shit spell. So is this, and u don't even have to cast it...set it to invisibility on helpless or hit and have the cloak of non detection on and u are gravy. U can even use this offensively as well. I'm sorry to everyone and my mother for not putting this in first.
30: protection from magical weapons.. another change!!! Yes. It's better late than never I suppose 😂 and your utiliy from protection from magical energy is given to u from your cloak of mirroring.
Lvl 7. Your level 31 pick here is honestly uneeded. Pick whatever u want.
14: Project image. Copy your whole spell book. Make yourself god. Become Doctor strange in that scene with dormammu. I've come to bargain
15: Mord swords. Do u remember that scene in disney's "sword in the stone"? With the brooms that clean on their own? Image them. But sharp. And bloodthirsty. And immune to all damage except magical. Shudder
17: Spell sequencer. Become the arcane gatling gun. U want damage. Here's damage. U wanna make everyone run for their lives and have existential breakdowns trapped underneath the unforgiving webs as massive skeletal husks crush their bones? U can do that too. Oh happy day.
22: Mass invisability same thing but...say it with me. INVISIBLE skeletal husks crushing the bones of your enemies. Yay! Or take away any hope of targeting mord swords with magic damage! This spell is bonkers good in a party. While I know this isn't an orthodox pick for a Solo character, I challenge anybody to come up with a better pick here, at level 22... That you will use more often than this to buff your summons, possibly limited wish, but only if u have good wisdom.and arnt using potions. You wouldn't take Ruby Ray unless you're playing SCS, in which case you would take it earlier. You could take finger of death, and then save scum for the insta kill. But that's no fun and I can't recommend that, even if it wasn't, all undead all the bosses all Bhaalspawn, planetars, are immune to this, so what the fuck are you casting it at? And even then. Triple cast malison, cast FOD, you're doing so much work to kill one person.. when triple cast ADHW does that same thing in an AOE??? Like? Just don't. Delay blast fireball will kill liches... But so does ADHW. this is a situational spell you won't use it all the time but you will use it. Hence why it's here. the only thing I can bet is power word stun to just absolutely end mage encounters.
31: Power word stun. What if I told u that even at epic levels most mages don't have more than 90 hp? Ik ik. Le t chaos ensue. to be honest this spell slot doesn't matter much, again same thing here anything you pick here is just going to be non-consequential at level 31. Pick whatever you want here it doesn't matter..
Level 8.
We don't take fire cloud (I can't spell it) for the same reason as no flame arrow. U could probably get away with pierce shield at 19 if u did alllll The side quests. I don't so.
16: ADHW. DAMAGE. All the damage. How much damage? Yes. I personally go with this over incendiary cloud because it works on everything in the game. Even though the cloud will do more damage over time. It's utility is not the same, and chaining these together, is a big part of killing big bads, specifically the kind that the cloud won't scratch. So even though the cloud might fuck up rakshasa and liches admittedly better, I'd rather have coverage for Melissan and demogorgons head.
17: Spell trigger. Cast what u want. When u want it. It's your spells and you need them now!
19: power word Blind. Blindness with no saving throw in an AOE. turn mages into totem poles. Cast instantly. If u have never used this u are missing out. Those that play SCS or hardcore know the bustedness if this spell. Take my word for it.
23: Peirce shield. U kind of need this. Demogorgon says hi. Ravager wants to know your location. This spell sucks. You will likely only use it 2x. But. You are solo. U have no other options. Edit: after some testing I learned you can make it all the way to 23 without needing this. Fantastic news.
Alternative picks
Incindiary cloud: potentially does more damage then ADHW. wether u take this or ADHW is up to u. Combos really good with protection from fire.
Level 9 Take wish at 20 if u have great wisdom. Otherwise take it 25 Edit. I know if I really wanted to be scummy I could include imprisonment, but that spell is no fun. And I will not be recommending it sorry
Also in the original game you would take shape change because, it was bugged and let you physically attack with project image.
18: Chain contingency. ITS MY SPELLS AND I NEED IT NOW
19: time stop. IA + this + rov and puke damage dice at your enemies in ways that would make ti-84s in 8th grade math classes cringe.
20: Spellstrike,. Those are nice protections.....it would be a shame if.....Something were to happen to them.
25: Wish. Wish resting is a huge part of the last battle. Just be ready to reload.
Planetar-IA-L6-DB- after that it doesn't matter.
I'm going to have a gear walk through, with the order that I think would be optimal to run through the game. What items to pick up first. How much gold you would get and what to spend it on coming soon!
Let me know if you disagree in the comments. Or if you'd even be interested in another guide. Thanks!
Edit: sorry about the formatting. I don't know why it did that. Working on a fix

New post for the new update. I'll be going over all the items again and should be done within the next few days.
Update: Added skill and attribute level bonuses

Up to Date List of Perks and Items: Link to Spreadsheet

Unlike perks, there was one bug that stood out and applied to multiple items. Hopefully I can explain it in an understandable way:
The game calculates buffs to your stats from working items by adding those stats at the time the item is used (like Berserk) or equipped (like mods). When you remove the buff/mods, without asking any questions it will reduce those stats "back to normal". Why is this a problem? Well some items/mods don't stack (Example: Fortuna). So equipping 2 will only give you the benefit of 1. When removing 1 of the 2 you have equipped, the game will remove the buff despite it not working to begin with. That means you can have a fortuna left equipped not giving you any bonuses until you reload your save or re-equip the item/mod.
This is still an issue in 1.1:

• Activating Berserk, and then slotting in Beast Mode while Berserk is active, will not give you the buffs from beast mode, but in the end reduce your original stats by whatever Beast Mode was supposed to give you.
• Equipping 2 Fortunas/Bullies will only give you the benefit of 1. Removing one of the mods and keeping the other will deduct your bonus that was never even given because they don't stack, leaving you with stats as if you were not wearing it at all.

I'm betting this can be generalized to any items that stack or are applied in the middle of a buff. Anyways, to the list:

Consumables - Buffs

• Capacity Booster (Uncommon): "increase carry capacity by 50%. Duration 1800sec."
  • Working
• Health Booster (Rare): "Increases max Health by 20%."
  • Working
    • Unlike the perk in Body - Athletics that boosts your base HP by 10% per level, this actually uses the final max HP amount you have at the time of use.
• Oxy Booster (Uncommon): "Allows you to breath underwater."
  • Working
    • Actually tested this and have no reason why I did
• Stamina Booster (Uncommon): "Increases max Stamina by 50%"
  • Working

Consumables - Heals

• Bounce Back MK1 (Common): "Instantly restores 15% Health and then 3% Health per second for 30 seconds."
  • Working
    • Confirmed both numbers. Got 15.15% on the initial heal and 2.8% per second after, error is most likely from my lack of video editing skills.
• Bounce Back MK2 (Uncommon): "Instantly restores 20% Health and then 4% Health per second for 30 seconds."
  • Working
• Bounce Back MK3 (Rare): "Instantly restores 25% Health and then 6% Health per second for 30 seconds."
  • Working
• Maxdoc MK.3 (Epic): "Instantly restores 80% Health."
  • Working

Cyberware - Circulatory System

• Bioconductor (Legendary): "Reduces all Cyberware cooldowns by 30%"
  • Working
    • Doesn't show on description when looking at the item, but does show when scanning enemies and selecting quickhacks
• Blood Pump (Legendary): "Activate to instantly restore 90% health (cooldown 180 seconds)"
  • Working
    • Works only without Cyberware arms
• Feedback Circuit (Legendary): "Instantly restores 10% Health after you discharge a fully charged weapon with a hit to an enemy."
  • Working
    • Still requires the Engineering perk Feedback Circuit for full charge potential
• Bioplastic Blood Vessels (Legendary): "Increases health regen outside of combat by 50 points per second."
  • Working
    • Works, and also still increases your cap for HP regeneration out of combat by 20%.
• BioMonitor (Legendary): "Instant restores 100% Health when Health drops to 15%"
  • Working
    • Warning: If you take a fatal hit while above 15% HP, this will not trigger. You have to survive and be between 0 and 15% in order for this to heal you to 100%. Also has cooldown triggered when Second Heart activates.
• Syn-Lungs (Legendary): "Increases Stamina regen by 25%"
  • Working
    • Only applies to Stamina regen over time, not regen from kills
• Microgenerator (Legendary): "When your Health drops to 15%, Release an electroshock that deals damage equal to 50% of the target enemy's max Health. Applies Shock to enemies."
  • Working
• Second Heart (Legendary): "Instantly restores 100% of max Health when your Health falls to 0. Cooldown 2 min."
  • Working
    • Warning: When equipped with BioMonitor, BOTH cooldowns are triggered when killed in one hit above 15% health (even if never entering the 0-15% health range). I advise not using both at the same time. Credit to u/Brojangles1234 for bringing it up, and I have recreated the situation successfully and confirmed this is what happens.
• Adrenal Booster (Legendary): "Instantly restores 50% Stamina when you defeat an enemy."
  • Working
    • I couldn't tell if it was exactly 50%, but it was a lot. If I had trouble getting my stamina to be that low in the first place (which I did) in order to test this, I'm sure it's enough for everyone in normal circumstances.

Cyberware - Frontal Cortex

• Tyrosine Injector (Uncommon): "Increases the breach time of Breach Protocol by 100%"
  • Working
    • Doubles the time you have to finish the mini game sequence.
• Self-ICE (Rare): "Negates Effects of enemy quickhacks. Cooldown 45 Sec."
  • Working
• Ex-Disk (Legendary): "increases your cyberdeck's max Ram units by 5"
  • Working
• Ram Upgrade (Rare): "Increases cyberdeck RAM recovery rate by 0.15 units(s) per second."
  • Working
• Heal-On-Kill (Legendary): "Instantly restores 10% Health after defeating an enemy."
  • Working
• Visual Cortex Support (Legendary): "Increases Crit Damage by 45%"
  • Working
    • Tested with attacks and confirmed on stats page.
• Limbic System Enhancement (Legendary): "Increases Crit Chance By 25%"
  • Working
• Memory Boost (Epic): "Defeating an enemy instantly recovers 4 cyberdeck Ram unit(s)."
  • Working
• Camillo Ram Manager (Legendary): "When your cyberdeck's RAM reaches 2, Instantly free 30% of it. Cooldown 4min."
  • Working
    • Was not working before. Legendary version worked exactly as described in retest
• Mechatronic Core (Legendary): "Increases damage to drones, mechs and robots by 50%"
  • Working

Cyberware - Hands

• Ballistic Coprocessor (Legendary): "A coprocessor with an integrated servomotor system."
  • Working
    • Confirmed extra 2 ricochet shots.
• Smart Link (Legendary): "Cyberware that allows swift, direct, low-latency connection with compatible objects such as fires or implants, while also increasing effectiveness and handling."
  • Working
    • I had to craft a rare smart weapon with 0% crit damage and take off any crit damage mods/cyberware in order to see the difference that this made with the 25% crit damage. It's confirmed working.

Cyberware - Immune System

• Shock-N-Awe (Legendary): "After taking damage, there is a 10% chance of release a large electroshock that deals damage to nearby enemies."
  • Working
• Cataresist (Legendary): "Increases all resistances by 35%"
  • Not Working
    • Still not working
• Metabolic Editor (Epic): "Poison effects cause you to regenerate Health instead of taking damage."
  • Working
    • Side note: This heals you really fast. Had fun punching people down and using it to heal myself the whole time.
• Inductor (Epic): "When affected by Shock and EMP, Amor increases by 50% instead of taking damage."
  • Working
    • Shock = electric damage. Electricity on ground = electric. Enemy attacks applying shock = electric. Enemy grenades = EMP (so not electric damage), meaning this will not prevent damage from grenades. I don't know what other sources of EMP there are, but this is consistent with the perk as well.
• Detoxifier (Rare): "Grants Immunity to Poison."
  • Working

Cyberware - Integumentary System

• Fireproof Coating (Rare): "Grants Immunity to Burn."
  • Working
• Grounding Plate (Rare): "Grants Immunity to Shock."
  • Partially Working
    • I threw an EMP grenade at myself, and standing over it during the explosion caused a small amount of damage. Testing poison and burn immunities I did the same and took 0 damage. It could be a difference in how EMP grenades work, but I don't see anything in the descriptions that suggest that. The EMP/Shock effect after did 0 damage for the rest of the duration.
• Supra-Dermal Weave (Rare): "Grants Immunity to Bleeding."
  • Working
    • Note: The only way I could test this was using a console command to apply bleeding to myself. Works for other effects, and usually kills me instantly with this cyberware unequipped, so I believe it's working.
• Optical Camo (Legendary): "Grants invisibility for 15 seconds. Cooldown 60 sec."
  • Working
    • Only works when you don't have an arm cyberware equipped.
• Subdermal Armor (Legendary): "increases armor by 200"
  • Working
    • Cyberware - Nervous System

Cyberware - Nervous System

• Nanorelays (Epic): "Increases Sandevistan and Kerenzikov duration by 2 sec."
  • Working
• Kerenzikov (Legendary): "Allows you to aim and shoot while dodging. Slows time by 90% for 3.5 sec. when blocking, aiming or attacking during a slide or doge. cooldown 5 sec."
  • Working
• Maneuvering System (Rare): "Allows you to preform dodges in midair."
  • Working
• Pain Editor (Legendary): "Reduces all incoming damage by 10%"
  • Working
• Neofiber (Legendary): "Increases Evasion by 15%"
  • Not Working
    • No evasion related items or perks in game seem to be working

Cyberware - OS Cyberdecks

• Araska MRK.4 (Legendary): "Decreases the RAM cost of Covert quickhacks by 2. Quickhacking an enemy affected by Ping will reset the duration of ping. Increases combat quickhack duration by 40%."
  • Working
    • Covert quickhack RAM cost reduction now working, as is everything else.
• Fuyutsui Tinkerer MK3 (Legendary): "Increases cyberdeck ram recovery rate by 9 unit(s) per 60 sec. Increases combat quickhacks duration by 50%."
  • Working
    • Listed buffs working
• Netwatch Netdriver MK.5 (Legendary): "Offensive quickhacks can be uploaded to 3 targets within a 6-meter radius. Increases damage dealt by quickhacks by 30%. Increases cyberdeck RAM recovery rare by 9 unit(s) per 60 sec."
  • Working
    • Listed buffs working
• Raven Microcyber MK.4 (Legendary): "Increases time it takes for an enemy netrunner to hack you by 100%. Increases cyberdeck RAM recovery rate by 6 unit(s) per 60 sec.,"
  • Working
    • Listed buffs working
• Stephenson Teck MK.4 (Legendary): "Quickhack cooldown reduced by 45% Increase combat quickhack duration by 50%. Reduces quickhack upload time by 25%"
  • Working
    • Cooldowns now correct compared to 1.06
• Tetratronic Rippler MK.4 (Legendary): "Ultimate quickhacks can spread once. Reduces the RAM cost of Ultimate quickhacks by 3. Reduces quickhack upload time by 75%. Quickhack cooldown reduced by 45%"
  • Working
    • Listed buffs working

Cyberware - OS Sandevistan

• Dynalar Sandevistan MK.4 (Legendary): "Slows time by 25% for 16 sec. Cooldown 30 sec. Increase any damage dealt by 15% when Sandevistan is active. Increase Crit Chance by 15% when Sandevistan is active."
  • Working
    • Listed buffs working, as well as inverse time slow.
• Qiant Sandevistan MK.4 (Legendary): "Slows time by 25% for 12 sec. Cooldown 15 sec. Increase any damage dealt by 15% when Sandevistan is active. Increase Crit Chance by 15% when Sandevistan is active."
  • Working
    • Listed buffs working, as well as inverse time slow.
• Qiant "Warp Dancer" Sandevistan MK.5 (Iconic): "Warp Dancer" Sandevistan MK.5 (Iconic): "Slows time by 10% for 8 sec. Cooldown 30 sec. Increase any damage dealt by 15% when Sandevistan is active. Increase Crit Chance by 10% and Crit Damage by 50% when Sandevistan is active."
  • Working
    • Listed buffs working, as well as inverse time slow.
• Militech "Falcon" Sandevistan MK.5 (Iconic): "Falcon" Sandevistan MK.5 (Iconic): "Slows time by 30% for 18 sec. Cooldown 60 sec. Increase any damage dealt by 15% when Sandevistan is active. Increase Crit Chance by 20% and Crit Damage by 35% when Sandevistan is active."
  • Working
    • Listed buffs working, as well as inverse time slow.

Cyberware - Skeleton

• Microrotors (Legendary): "Increases Attack speed by 25%"
  • Working
    • Works up to the weapon's attack speed cap. See appendix for more details.
• Dense Marrow (Epic): "Increases Stamina cost of melee attacks by 10%, but increase base damage of melee weapons by 25%"
  • Working
• Synaptic Signal Optimizer (Legendary): "Increases Health by 60%"
  • Working
• Bionic Lungs (Legendary): "Increases Stamina by 60%"
  • Working
• Bionic Joints (Epic): "Reduces recoil of ranged weapons by 25%"
  • Working
    • Only reduces vertical recoil, no affect on horizontal recoil.
• Microvibration Generator (Epic): "Increases base damage of melee weapons by 15%"
  • Working
• Titanium Bones (Rare): "Increases carrying capacity by 60%"
  • Working

Cyberware - OS Berserk

• BioDyne Berserk MK.4 (Legendary): "25% recoil reduction, 25% melee damage increase, 5% armor and resistance increase, 5 second duration, 30 second cooldown, 20% ranged damage increase, 4% heal on kill"
  • Partially Working
    • Wrong CD/Duration, Weapon sway is increased like crazy, No armoresistances, Damage buffs work, Heal on Kill works
• ZetaTech Berserk MK.5 (Iconic): "20% recoil reduction, 20% melee damage increase, 20% armor and resistance increase, 10 second duration, 30 second cooldown, 5% heal on kill"
  • Partially Working
    • Wrong CD/Duration, Weapon sway is increased like crazy, No armoresistances, Damage buffs work, Heal on Kill works
• Militech Berserk MK.5 (Iconic): "15% recoil reduction, 15% melee damage increase, 15% armor and resistance increase, 10 second duration, 60 second cooldown, 5% heal on kill, 40% Health and stamina increase while active."
  • Partially Working
    • Wrong CD/Duration, Weapon sway is increased like crazy, No armoresistances, Damage buffs work, Heal on Kill works. Added health works, Stamina becomes infinite.

Cyberware - Arms

• Gorilla Arms (Legendary): "Allow you to force open doors and rip turrets from their base"
  • Partially Working
    • Still don't see the prompt for opening doors/ripping turrets from base. Functions as a weapon though
• Monowire (All Rarities): "Cool laser wires that cut stuff"
  • Working
    • Fixed with the update. Now doing full damage. Only tested Legendary Monowires

Mod - Clothing

• Coolit (Legendary): "Immunity to Burn"
  • Working
• Antivenom (Epic): "Immunity to Poison"
  • Working
• Panacea (Legendary): "Immunity to Poison & Shock"
  • Working
    • Fixed to working. Poison works. Read 1 note below for Electric/Shock vs EMP description.
• SuperInsulator (Epic): "Immunity to Shock"
  • Working
    • Shock = electric damage. Electricity on ground = electric. Enemy attacks applying shock = electric. Enemy grenades = EMP (so not electric damage), meaning this will not prevent damage from grenades. I don't know what other sources of EMP there are, but this is consistent with the perk as well.
• Soft-Sole (Epic): "Land Silently"
  • Working
• Cut-It-Out (Epic): "Immunity to Bleeding"
  • Working
• Predator (Legendary): "25% bonus dam to med/hi level threats"
  • Not Working
• Dead-Eye (Legendary): "adds 15% crit chance, 30% crit dam"
  • Not Working
• Armadillo (Epic): "Increases Armor by 240"
  • Working
• Resist! (Epic): "Reduces damage from negative status effects by 14%"
  • Not Working
    • Only tested with self applied burning/poison/shock. Saw no difference.
• Fortuna (Legendary): "Increases Crit Chance by 15%"
  • Working
• Bully (Legendary): "Increases Crit Damage by 30%"
  • Working
• Backpacker (Epic): "Increases carrying capacity by 11"
  • Working
• Footloose (Common): "Increased Evasion by 0.2"
  • Not Working
    • All evasion related mods/items do not work
• Showtime (Common): "5% Bonus Damage Against High & Moderate Threat Enemies"
  • Not Working
• Osmosis (Common): "Increase max Oxygen by 5"
  • Working
    • Oxygen stat increases when equipping
• Plume (Common): "Reduces fall damage by 5%"
  • Working
• Zero drag (Common): "Increases movement speed by 10"
  • Working
• Tenacity (Common): "Reduces Stamina cost of melee attacks by -5%"
  • Not Working
• Vanguard (Common): "Reduces Stamina consumption when blocking by 5%"
  • Not Working
• Boom Breaker (Common): "Reduces damage from explosives by 5%"
  • Not Working

Mods - Cyberware

• Beast Mode (Legendary): "While Berserk is active Armor, Resistance, health +15%, Melee damage 100%"
  • Working
    • If slotted after you activate Berserk, your resistance, armor, and health regen will be lower than what you normally have. I actually tested it with low enough HP regen that it went negative and killed me over time lol
• Black Market Battery (Legendary): "Max Charge & Charge damage 100%"
  • Not Working
    • Tested all charge mods for Gorilla Arms and Monowire. None work, and only make it harder to reach full charge to make use of the cyberware Feedback Circuit
• Animal Knuckles (Legendary): "Causes Internal Bleeding on successful hits."
  • Working
• Sandevistan: Araska Software (Legendary): "Enemies take 70% more time to notice you while Sandevistan is active"
  • Working
• Sensory Amplifier (Rare): "Increases Crit Chance by 10%"
  • Working
• Sensory Amplifier (Rare): "Increases Crit Damage by 30%"
  • Working
• Sensory Amplifier (Rare): "Increases max Health by 15%"
  • Working
    • Bonus only applies when using the Arms cyberware
• Sensory Amplifier (Rare): "Increases Armor by 5%"
  • Not Working
• Extended Berserk (Common): "Increases Berserk duration by 1 sec."
  • Working
    • Warning about this and Chained Berserk: There are rounding errors with some of the Berserk durations and cooldown. Example: Zetatech MK4 says 10s cooldown but it's really 9, so adding 1 makes it look like nothing was changed.
• Chained Berserk (Common): "Reduces Berserk Cooldown by -5 sec."
  • Working
• Armored Berserk (Common): "While Berserk is active, increases Armor bonus by 5 and all Resistances by 5%"
  • Working
    • Take note of "Increases armor by 5", not 5% lol. It functions quite literally
• Bruising Berserk (Uncommon): "Increases Berserk melee damage bonus by 13%"
  • Working
• Focused Berserk (Common): "While Berserk is active, reduces weapon sway by 10% and recoil by 10%"
  • Not Working
    • LOL this one actually made me laugh. It INCREASES weapon sway so much I thought my mouse was broken.
• Invigorating Berserk (Common): "While Berserk is active, increases Health regen by 10%"
  • Working
• Devastating Berserk (Rare): "When Berserk is active, increase Crit Chance by 15%"
  • Working
• Sharpened Berserk (Rare): "When Berserk is active, increase Crit Chance by 25%"
  • Working
• Monowire Battery, High-Capacity (Epic): "Increases charge damage by 50%"
  • Not Working
    • Tested all charge mods for Gorilla Arms and Monowire. None work, and only make it harder to reach full charge to make use of the cyberware Feedback Circuit
• Metal Plating (Rare): "Increases all Resistances by 10%"
  • Working
    • Before 1.1, this and the next 2 mods for Monowire used to work by just having it equipped. Now it only works when Monowire is being used.
• Neoplastic plating (Rare): "increases Crit Chance by 10%"
  • Working
• Sandevistan: Overclocked Processor (Common): "increases duration by 0.5 sec."
  • Working
• Sandevistan: Prototype Chip (Rare): "While Sandevistan is active, increase Crit Chance by 5%"
  • Working
• Sandevistan: Neurotransmitters (Rare): "While Sandevistan is active, increase Crit Chance Damage by 15%"
  • Working
• Sandevistan: Heatsink (Common): "Reduces Sandevistan Cooldown by -2 sec."
  • Working
• Sandevistan: Micro-Amplifier (Legendary): "When Sandevistan is active, it removes all BURN, Shock, Poison and Bleeding effects."
  • Working
    • Removes only at the point of activation. While it's active it doesn't prevent these status effects.
• Titanium Plating (Epic): "Increases Armor by 7%"
  • Not Working
• Haming-8 Rotor (Legendary): "Increases Mantis Blade attack speed by 45%"
  • Working
    • Working up to the Mantis Blade attack speed cap. See Appendix for more details
• Sandevistan: Tyger Paw (Epic): "While Sandevistan is active, defeating an enemy restores 15% Stamina"
  • Working
• Rin3u Battery (Legendary): "Defeating an enemy fully restores Stamina"
  • Overworking
    • Having this slotted provides the regen with any weapon
• Sandevistan: Rabid Bull (Epic): "While Sandevistan is active, defeating an enemy restores 5% health."
  • Working
• Target Analysis (Rare): "All your weapons are non-lethal."
  • Working
• Explosive Analysis (Uncommon): "Allows you to see the precise explosion radius of your grenades."
  • Working
• Threat Detector (Rare): "Automatically highlights who have detected you."
  • Working
• Trajectory Analysis (Legendary): "Increase headshot bonus damage by 50%"
  • Working
• Weakspot Detection (Uncommon): "Increases Crit Chance by 5%"
  • Working
• Trajectory Generator (Uncommon): "Allows you to preview your bullets' ricochet trajectory. In order to control your bullets' trajectory, you must install both this mod and Ballistic Coprocessor cyberware."
  • Working

Mods - Melee Weapons

• Kunai - Rare (Rare): "Increases weapon attack speed by 0.3"
  • Working
    • Works up to the weapon's attack speed. See appendix for more detail
• White Knuckled (Rare): "Increases Crit Chance by 7%"
  • Working
• Cold Shoulder (Rare): "Increases damage by 7"
  • Working
• Scourge (Rare): "Increases Crit Damage by 10%"
  • Working

Mods - Ranged Weapons

• Crunch (Varies): "Increases damage by 5"
  • Working
• Penetrator (Varies): "Increases Crit Chance by 2%"
  • Working
• Pacifier (Varies): "Increases Crit Damage by 6%"
  • Working
• Combat Amplifier (Rare): "Increases chance to apply damage-related status effect by 5%"
  • Working
• Countermass (Epic): "Eliminates vertical recoil while aiming"
  • Working
• Pulverize (Uncommon): "Increases damage to limbs by 5%"
  • Working
• Weaken (Rare): "Hitting a target reduces their shooting accuracy by 20% for 10 seconds"
  • Not Working
• Autoloader (Rare): "Automatically loads a bullet in the chamber after depleting a magazine"
  • Not Working
• Pax (Uncommon): "Renders your weapon non-lethal, Increases damage by 6"
  • Working
• Neon Arrow (Rare): "Reduces weapon reload time by 5%"
  • Working
    • Reload speed improvements better than what the description says (I think)
• Vendetta (Rare): "Increases headshot damage by 20%"
  • Working
• Phantom (Rare): "Increases fire rate by 5%"
  • Working

Mods - Muzzle

• CS-1 Taipan (Common): "2x Damage Multiplier when attacked from stealth, Reduces base damage by 30%"
  • Working
• XC-10 Strix (Uncommon): "2.5x Damage Multiplier when attacked from stealth, Silencer, Increases Crit Chance by 10%, Reduces base damage by 30%"
  • Working
• XC-10 Cetus (Uncommon): "2.5x Damage Multiplier when attacked from stealth, Silencer, Increases Crit Chance by 5%, Reduces base damage by 25%"
  • Working
• XC-10 Alecto (Rare): "2.5x Damage Multiplier when attacked from stealth, 15% Reduced damage"
  • Working