Even if enemies knock about Shrike Armor, it's a nice thing to combine with HyperDense Armor. Puts the enemy in a bit of a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation with regards to getting close to attack you. Also, about halfway through now so I don't know if you mention it later, but it's important to consider that shred isn't *just* conditional armor piercing, it also works against resistance, which could otherwise put a significant dent in your damage output when it comes up.
There's two vulnerabilities to the Vlad - one being the hard and the other the soft counter: The soft counter is tech. The Vlad has a -2 Tech attack and 5 sensors. NPCS like Aces that are hard to pin down and hit without hacking are a Vlad's nightmare - they can neither keep up nor slow them down if the Ace stays out of range. The hard counter is artillery. The Vlad is average speed and has essentially no long range options - it has a decent amount of bulk but it has no survival tools in an open engagement. Especially if the artillery are intelligent enough to waddle away when the Vlad comes sprinting towards them, it'll have a hard time closing the gap before getting pummeled. This being said, the Vlad is still one of the most individually formidable and all round powerhouses in the game. All of its other stats are either average or above average. Its frame traits are some of the best in the game, its systems and especially weapons are all incredible and useful on essentially any build with a compatible hardpoint or system point to spare. Objectively the highest damage weapon in the game, actually theoretically infinite damage (I mean you'll turn into a supernova but still infinite). The Drill can one-shot your big bad evil Ultra Gurren Lagann style and I've seen it happen. And of course the mentioned weaknesses are easily remedied by having competent teammates that look out for their stabby buddy and set him up.
Even if enemies knock about Shrike Armor, it's a nice thing to combine with HyperDense Armor. Puts the enemy in a bit of a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation with regards to getting close to attack you.
Also, about halfway through now so I don't know if you mention it later, but it's important to consider that shred isn't *just* conditional armor piercing, it also works against resistance, which could otherwise put a significant dent in your damage output when it comes up.
There's two vulnerabilities to the Vlad - one being the hard and the other the soft counter:
The soft counter is tech. The Vlad has a -2 Tech attack and 5 sensors. NPCS like Aces that are hard to pin down and hit without hacking are a Vlad's nightmare - they can neither keep up nor slow them down if the Ace stays out of range.
The hard counter is artillery. The Vlad is average speed and has essentially no long range options - it has a decent amount of bulk but it has no survival tools in an open engagement.
Especially if the artillery are intelligent enough to waddle away when the Vlad comes sprinting towards them, it'll have a hard time closing the gap before getting pummeled.
This being said, the Vlad is still one of the most individually formidable and all round powerhouses in the game. All of its other stats are either average or above average. Its frame traits are some of the best in the game, its systems and especially weapons are all incredible and useful on essentially any build with a compatible hardpoint or system point to spare.
Objectively the highest damage weapon in the game, actually theoretically infinite damage (I mean you'll turn into a supernova but still infinite).
The Drill can one-shot your big bad evil Ultra Gurren Lagann style and I've seen it happen.
And of course the mentioned weaknesses are easily remedied by having competent teammates that look out for their stabby buddy and set him up.
Vlad is a nasty mech. I love the drill.