PvP Guide (3.0 Alcatraz)

This is simply a guide meant to help new and old players understand perk, weapon, Nano effect, shield, and cyber rig choices that some of the top PvPers use as of the Alcatraz update.

Perks

Non DLC

                Fortitude – 15% base hp, this perk works out to roughly 3.5k hp at 6k ego.

                Thick Skin – 4 armor plate on shield break for 3 seconds, each armor plate is 10% dmg resist.

                Blast Shield – 45% explosion radius reduction, good for grenades and big boomers/rockets.

                Cellular Armor – 6% dmg reduction, this applies all the time unlike Rear Guard, Fortified Stance, and In the trenches, keep in mind these perks do not stack, it uses the highest amount of dmg resist that is applicable to the situation (ex. Cellular armor + Rear Guard if you get shot in the back u will only receive 15% dmg reduction from Rear Guard not a combine 21%).

DLC (arktech revolution)

                Lead Lined/immunized – 15% dmg reduction from the specified Nano type, these perks will stack with any overall dmg resist perk.

                Gamma Rays – 25% Armor plate penetration, with this perk radiation Nano dmg will bypass up to 5 armor plate.

                Radiation Burns – 15% more radiation dmg, this is a great perk for boosting your radiation dmg or for canceling out the Lead Lined perk other players are using.

- Perk that increase dmg such as Height Advantage and Cheap Shot also do not stack and work exactly the same as the dmg resist perk with the exception of the dlc perks.

Weapons

                The best weapons for pvp are the ones you are most comfortable with, having said that a few weapons types do stand out.

Blast Rifles – excellent all round weapon good fire rate good damage high mag cap, slow reload, can be used for hip fire with a stabilization sight, or aim fire with an assault scope or similar.

Pulsers/Tachmags – Also a great pvp weapon pulsers have a higher dmg but lower fire rate than the tachmag both can suffer from falloff dmg at medium to long range, fast reloads.

SS-2 Ranger – Boasting decent to high dmg depending on the model and 2 shot per trigger pull, note with enough recoil reduction both shot will hit the exact same spot without having to compensate for the recoil.

Particle Repeater – these gun are capable of one shots on most players at full charge depending on the Nano type and rolls of the weapon.

Surge Bolter – just like the particle repeater except they fire multiple pellets like a shotgun while charged but take longer to charge than a particle repeater.

- There are many more weapons that can be very effective in pvp such as shotguns, grenade and rocket launchers, even some pistols, I myself am not as familiar or comfortable with these weapon types.

Nano Types

For pvp there are two Nano types that stand out.

Radiation – Bypasses 2.5 armor plate without the perk and can proc a dmg over time dot that increase dmg taken by 25%

Biological – Deals high amounts of dmg to armor plates and can proc a dmg over time dot that decrease dmg done by 25% and slows the targets movement, note that armor plate dmg is applied before dmg to the players shield or hp (ex. A target has 5 armor plates = 50% dmg reduction, if a biological shot destroys an armor plate the dmg will be calculated with the 4 remaining armor plates instead of the 5 original).

Shields

High capacity is king.

Ironclad – Highest capacity, 6 second recharge delay, 10% recharge rate.

Rhino – Highest capacity, 9.6 second recharge delay, 40% recharge rate.

Some EXL shields are also good choices

Ark level shields will have the highest capacity possible while Ex will be slightly lower.

-Note Ark level shields cannot have a Nano resist on them with the exception of the Guardian Angel.

-Nano resist of either biological or radiation is preferable and will provide up to 20% dmg reduction from the specified Nano type.

As far as bonuses go it is personal preference.

Cyber Rigs

                Cyber Rigs were introduced with Defiance 3.0 Alcatraz patch and have turned pvp on its head to some extent. There are 3 types of cyber rigs each with a different focus.

Prime Evolver – Balanced

Omni Instigator – Offensive

Lucent Guardian – Defensive

Slot types:

                Hexagon – Offensive (dmg, fire rate, crit)

                Oval – Defensive (hp, shield cap, dmg resist)

                Square – Regen (ammo regen, hp regen, shield regen rate, mag size, reload)

                Diamond – Other (accuracy, recoil, velocity, Nano chance)

- Note on a 3000 purple rig (10 slots) the most of one type of slot appears to be 6

Good passive for pvp

Avenger Shield – Increase crit on shield break for 5 seconds

Berserker – increase dmg and fire rate for any dmg instance taken (doesn’t appear to work on self dmg) while below 50% hp stackable lasts 15s

Mimic – Chance to Trigger Decoy on shield Break 60s cooldown

Rampager – Chance to Trigger Overcharge on Shield Break 60s cooldown

Reload Shield – reload a % of your clip on shield break

Reserve Feed – ammo regen/10 seconds

Spiker Shield – increase dmg on shield break

- Note vampire shield seems good on paper for pvp but it only restores hp and doesn’t seem to be very effective when used.

-Some passive are only available on certain rig types.