Merc Class battle rig: Focused on heavy defense and suppressive fire
The brute force Rig, with several payloads and traits that grant a player an edge in durability. Merc is ideal for direct assault.
Payloads
Steel Dragon
Heavy beam-based weapon with multi-target tracking.
Firing a powerful energy beam, the Steel Dragon automatically locks on and fries any targets near the line of fire. If you catch them unaware, you can vaporize an entire team in seconds, with ease.
Don’t use the Steel Dragon out in the open, however. The beam is highly visible (attracting unwanted attention), and it has limited range.
The Steel Dragon’s beam is decent against enemy streaks, though not exceptionally powerful, and the need to keep a continuous stream of fire can be dangerous against some of the nastier streaks. Still, in a pinch, it can work to remove or heavily damage a key enemy stream.
Bull Charge
Charge forward leveling all enemies in your path.
Grants you a ballistic shield and allows you to smash anyone in your path as you lunge forward for several seconds.
Bull Charge can be effective (and it is highly satisfying to use), but choose when and where you use it carefully. Charging ahead into the open can very easily get you killed.
Ideally, you want to charge enemies in narrow hallways, where you can ignore incoming shots and smash your opponents with ease. Out in the open where enemies can simply jump away from you, it is less effective.
Bull Charge can also work to clear out an objective in some situations, either directly by ramming enemies, or by providing a very visible threat that draws fire so your teammates can deal with the enemies safely.
Reactive Armor
Electromagnetic shell that protects against all forms of damage.
Reactive armor essentially acts as a solid health boost, useful in mobility focused objective modes, or for aggressively breaking a lock on a defended position.
Incoming damage from weapons is briefly absorbed, granting you a bit more than double your normal effective health. This will not save you from sustained fire, but it can absolutely win you a one on one engagement with ease, and can provide you a few precious seconds to secure an objective.
Reactive Armor works well in any situation where you must expose yourself to enemy fire, and that means any offensive role in objective game modes.
Traits
Infusion
Regenerate Health faster.
Straightforward and effective, Infusion is most useful for very aggressive CQC builds. Infusion’s simplicity also means you don’t need to think about using it situationally. It simply helps you whenever you’re damaged, with no fuss.
When fighting near the enemy team, it isn’t unusual for you to be killed by a second nearby enemy because you were still damaged from your first.
In those situations, Infusion can save your life, giving you just enough time to regenerate to full before you are jumped by another enemy.
ICU can also be somewhat handy in peek and shoot firefights, where you are ducking behind cover to heal. ICU lets you recover faster than your opponent, giving you an edge in an otherwise even fight.
Man-At-Arms
Start with maximum ammo capacity and weapons no longer slow default movement.
A helpful perk for aggressive builds, Man-At-Arms bonus ammo lets you eliminate more targets without relying on Scavenger, and the mobility improvement is useful on any weapon type.
It is particularly useful for LMGs, which suffer from poor handling and mobility in comparison to other weapon types. Man-At-Arms lets you ignore the movement penalty.
Shockwave
Press right analog while in the air to perform a devastating ground slam.
A trait that grants you a new active ability, Shockwave is most useful if you are a player that favors constant thruster usage to jump and engage enemies from the air, and you fight in CQC constantly.
If you are, and you fight in close proximity to enemies frequently, Shockwave can give you another tool to help eliminate enemies in CQC fights. Jump over cover to surprise a waiting player and smash them from above.
Shockwave works best on unaware enemies, or enemies that are expecting you to jump and shoot, rather than jump directly over their heads and come straight down.
If you don’t jump frequently, or you forget to make use of Shockwave, you’re better served with a different trait choice.