Elemental/ Combo/ Melee/ Ult Hybrid Interceptor

Max(imus) Mayhem loves chaos. He just can’t help it. While most of his fellow Interceptor pilots have a tendency to focus on their melee attacks and ultimates, he always liked to make things explode around him and cause chaos everywhere he goes since childhood days. He knows that he can’t cause as much damage with combos as other javelins can but that has certainly never stopped him from doing what he loves: using nasty Acid Bombs for debuffs, setting targets on fire with his rifle and turning enemies into electric bombs that cause devastating damage all around him when he detonates them. But of course he won’t neglect the strengths an Interceptor javelin can provide – so he also makes use of melee attacks and his ultimate attack surely isn't weak either.

‍

This particular Hybrid Interceptor is built around the general idea of being able to solo all content the game has to offer; including all Strongholds and their bosses. You could consider this build to be a jack of all trades, a true all-rounder, that can do a lot of things well – but is obviously outshined in some areas in terms of damage by more specialized builds in their respective area of expertise. The build combines good survivability with the ability to deal decent damage with melee and ultimate attacks as well as dealing elemental- and combo-damage. It is mainly using Universal Components and the preferred inscriptions on them are Melee Damage and Ultimate Damage.

‍

Weapons

Ralner’s Blaze

• Being the only weapon in the game that can fire-prime enemies after a 5-hit-streak this assault rifle is the best choice to deal significant damage to enemies by igniting them. In order to achieve high damage numbers with the Fire-DoT this weapon needs to roll with additional weapon damage, NOT physical damage. It is best used against armored targets due to a 25% damage bonus that fire deals to armor – but it also helps against stronger enemies in general which might require more damage to be killed. You can detonate the target for a combo while it still takes damage from the DoT and you will also get a Fire-Aura which is probably the most useful aura to have in terms of dealing damage. Fire will always detonate first, followed by electricity and finally acid; regardless of the order in which you applied them. As mentioned before, fire deals 25% extra damage to armor and with an acid debuff on armored targets you can get 25% more. If you throw Target Beacon on top of that and depending on the specific inscriptions on your Ralner’s Blaze (plus any additional javelin-wide and elemental damage you might have on some gear) you can ramp up the DoT pretty high.

Close Encounter

• The secondary weapon is mainly a stat stick and you can use another stat-stick here instead if you like even though I recommend using Close Encounter if you have a useful one. I recently switched to this one for two reasons: while I could do just fine with 100% additional armor before, I now have 165% additonal armor and it makes things a bit easier at times when soloing Strongholds. Close Encounter also has a pretty helpful perk: after dashing you get +125% increased weapon damage for 10 seconds and this also applies to the weapon in the first slot and the melee weapon. You have to manage weapon switches with this build but the increase in damage to the Fire-DoT is very nice against tougher enemies like Scar Enforcers. In the future I’d love to also have double gear recharge rolls on this weapon to make it even better as a stat stick.

‍

Melee Weapon

Blades of Warding

• Blades of Warding are your only detonator with this build. While you usually don’t want to detonate many targets as an Interceptor when playing with a team, you kinda need it when playing solo: first of all there is the combo damage itself. Additionally you get an aura and you also build your ultimate meter with combos. While Blades of Warding don’t deal nearly as much damage as Deathstalker Blades, they do come in very handy solo though because you get 10% Damage Reduction for 10 seconds when hitting an enemy and this can stack up to 5. This happens fast and because this perk can also be triggered by melee-based abilities (and this build is using one of them) you often benefit from 50% Damage Reduction. Because you want melee damage to also be part of the “damage mix from several sources” getting high double weapon damage inscriptions and maybe even an additional melee damage inscription in the lower left slot is preferred.

‍

Gear

Serpent’s Veil

• This ability is an effective acid-primer. Besides being very reliable and covering a small area it also has another hidden advantage: it is active on the ground for a short duration after being used. This means that you can, for example, throw it from midair on a shielded enemy, then drop down and remove their shields quickly and they still get primed with acid because the area they are standing in is still covered in it. The time window is small but usually you get a feeling for it quickly. Because the damage of the ability itself is minimal the best inscriptions are usually just javelin-wide damage and maybe an extra charge if you are using it a lot and your overall gear recharge rate is low.

Cariff’s Talon

• This is an amazing ability for several reasons: first of all it is a melee-based attack which means that it benefits from additional melee damage inscriptions and it can trigger Bloodlust as well as the damage reduction perk of the Blades of Warding. It is also doing electric damage and can strip shields very effectively, even from Valkyries and the likes in midair. Additionally it primes the target with electricity and if you kill the enemy quickly enough it causes a big electric explosion that damages surrounding enemies. On top of that you can restore 50% of your health/armor if you kill an enemy directly with this ability; making this a very helpful tool for survival as well. The downside is that the cooldown is pretty long and you really need good inscriptions on it. In my opinion it is best to have 200% Charges in the upper left slot and 150-175% Gear Damage in the lower right slot. If you use it a lot you probably still want some global gear recharge on other items as well.

‍

Support Item

Slayer’s Furor

• This item marks enemies in a small radius and basically debuffs them to take an additional 33% damage. After the initially debuffed enemy is killed this ability will also hop over to other nearby enemies.  I like mine to have Gear Recharge in the upper left slot and 100% Charges in the lower right as well as some Repair Drop Rate in the two other slots.

‍

Components

Way of Integration

• This is the only javelin-specific component in this build. While the main thing it does is a bit useless the additional perk is what makes this component shine for this build: after a 2-hit-streak with your gear you will get 30% additional damage for 10 seconds. While this won’t feel like much this damage increase works for all damage types – so it increase combo and ultimate as well. The beauty of it is also that it triggers constantly because getting 2 hits done with gear is very easy, especially with the abilities this build is using. And Target Beacon counts as well.

Emergency Power

• This components adds 30% ultimate damage. Additionally it can completely refill the ultimate meter every 120 seconds if you are critically hit which is helpful if you’ve gotten into trouble or at times when you deliberately want to trigger it (in a boss battle for example).

Symbiotic Surge

• This component provides some additional armor but more important is its perk which grants a 50% damage boost when picking up a repair kit. Just like Way of Integration the damage boost this component grants applies to all damage including combo and ultimate damage. Being in the middle of the fight and having some Repair Drop Rate will keep this damage buff up a lot.

Softened Blows

• This component provides some additional shields but more importantly grants 75% damage reduction for 10 seconds if your shields break, making it the best defensive component in the game and pretty much a must-have for Interceptor, Ranger and Storm – especially when playing GM3 solo. You might not have your shields up very often as an Interceptor when you are playing aggressively – but I can guarantee that you will notice the difference of having this equipped or not.

Feedback Loop

• Since this build uses Ralner’s Blaze a lot and is mainly crafted with solo-play in mind, this component can be useful every now and then. It adds 30% weapon damage for assault rifles; although this won’t increase the damage of the Fire-DoT unfortunately. The perk provides 50% Damage Reduction for 10 seconds after firing the last shot in a magazine, making this an excellent alternative when you are mainly fighting from a distance and don’t have the Blades of Warding effect active – boss battles probably being the most prominent occasion.

Bloodlust

• This component adds 30% melee damage. It further increases melee damage by 75% for 10 seconds if you kill an enemy by using melee. In the case of this build it can also be triggered with Cariff’s Talon which is classified as a melee-based attack. And just like Symbiotic Surge this one will often be active because melee attacks are used quite often and you kill enemies with melee attack regularly.

‍

Overview

The Upsides

The upsides of this build are that you are a solid all-rounder and can pretty much deal with any situation the game has to offer on your own without much trouble. You can strip shields easily with an electric attack; bring down Valkyries by setting them on fire; debuff enemies with acid and Target Beacon, triple-prime and triple-detonate them; clear crowds of trash mobs with your aura and a powerful AoE attack; face tougher enemies with your ultimate attack; and have good survivability due to damage reduction mechanics and an ability that can refill the health meter by 50%. It is also a lot of fun to play. In a team you can also just switch the melee weapon for Deathstalker Blades and deal more melee damage with them at the price of not being as sturdy and not having an active aura because you lack a detonator – but on the other hand you won’t be stealing combos from teammates.

‍

The Downsides

While I consider this build to be the most well-rounded to play solo there are obviously other builds that deal more damage in their respective areas. A more melee-focused build can ramp up the damage numbers much higher because Deathstalker Blades benefit from the perk of Serpent’s Veil and also deal more damage to enemies below 50% health. A more ultimate-focused build can usually recharge the ultimate meter faster and can deal more damage with the ultimate attack. The biggest downside (which could also be considered an upside) to this particular build is probably that you might have to think a bit more about how you play. You should plan ahead and know which enemies you take down how. You should know for which enemies you are using Cariff’s Talon depending on what you want to achieve with it for example; for which enemies do you save your ultimate attack; which ones are worth the time to triple-prime with fire, electricity and acid as well as being hit with Target Beacon because all that takes some time to set up – and you might even want to leave some enemies alive if they still have some health left and let the Fire-DoT finish them off or return to them again later after taking care of some other enemies first. And obviously having the proper gear and inscriptions for this build is another downside because otherwise it might suck. That’s true for a lot of builds but maybe even more so for a hybrid like this that heavily relies on a few certain inscriptions to really shine.

‍

Optimization

To further optimize the loadout I eventually want around 350% Melee Damage (+75% when Bloodlust procs) from the components as well as around 300% Ultimate Damage from inscriptions on Universal Components. I also want to increase my overall gear recharge rate a bit more and upgrade to a Ralner’s Blaze with more damage and maybe additional magazine size. I can see some better rolled equipment drop but ultimately I need to be able to switch inscriptions (or re-roll them) on certain items to change some slight details about the build and have it exactly the way I want it.

‍

Sigils

In most cases I recommend using an Epic and a Rare Combo Sigil plus an Epic Ultimate Sigil. Another option would be to use an Epic and a Rare Ultimate Sigil plus an Epic Combo Sigil. Using Fire Sigils might also be an option to further increase the Fire-DoT. Stacking more melee damage to increase the damage you do with the blade attacks as well as with Cariff’s Talon is also an option. Or you could use some additional gear recharge. It all depends a bit on your specific inscriptions and playstyle with this build but generally I suggest one of the first two sigil loadouts.

‍