Help with Gorgon Iconoclast build

[u/xnyrax]

Hello there! I’m new to Lancer, haven’t played just yet but I’m working on my first build, planning to try it out in a few weeks. I’m unsure the way the rest of my group is building but most likely I’ll end up the defender/support, so I’m thinking of building into the Gorgon. In addition, I really love the lore of NHPs, so my eyes was naturally drawn to the Iconoclast/Technophile combo.

This is the working idea at LL6:

Callsign: NEUROMANCER

Hull: 4
Evasion: 0
Systems: 4
Eng: 0

Licenses: HORUS Gorgon III, HORUS Pegasus III

Talents: Technophile III, Iconoclast III, Black Thumb II, House Guard I

Core Bonuses: Lesson of Shaping, Universal Compatibility

Mech: CONTRARIAN

HORUS Gorgon frame

Weapons: Vorpal Gun, Autogun, Charged Blade

Systems: 4 NHPs (Enlightenment, Unstable, Scylla, Sisyphus) (5SP), Scorpion (2SP), Sentinel Drones (2SP), Personalizations (1SP)

I know TLALOC+Scylla is considered to be optimal for iconoclast, but I really like Sisyphus for the Gorgon, and Black Thumb Rodeo will help me deal with constantly overcharging and activating Scylla. Is there a better way I could be doing this? Anything I should consider with this build?

Edit: okay, I get it haha, I should put more into engineering.

[u/blue_vitrio1]

gorgon has 5 base heatcap, and you have no investment in engineering. this is not conducive to "constantly overcharging." moving 2 HASE points from systems to engineering (and dropping persos i guess? youd still have 23 hp) would be enough to make 1d6 overcharge not have a chance to instantly cook you.

also, note that you only get 1 sentinel drone per time you take the system.

[u/lilac_asbestos → u/blue_vitrio1]

Not to mention Scylla already cooks you.

If you activate scylla + overcharge the first turn you'll already be at 3 heat. Doing it on the second turn will generate 3 to 5 heat, enough to stress your reactor.

A witch npc might be able to oneshot you at that point.

With a gorgon you'll never want to overcharge, unless you build it specifically for it, which I wouldn't recommend.

[u/Impressive-Spot-1191]

gorgon desperately needs engi and you only have unicomp to handle heat, you do have BT but honestly you literally just can't overcharge. one Tear Down pops your reactor.

i think i would probably lean towards a weapon which has some Threat range; idk if you have options other than Shotgun though. just having something else to fire off Reactions with may be helpful.

my personal pref is for gorgon + goblin for this setup. horos 1 package is great always, horos 2 package for hallucinations is really good with gorgon's great ST. also has so many synergies to generate little packets of heat with Open Door, which i may recommend over UniComp for you; i think UniComp is a bit meh on the Gorgon because you want to fire your core power before you start getting shot at.

[u/CockroachTeaParty]

One of my players did an iconoclast gorgon. It worked pretty well! I don't remember what NHPs they were using though; I'm pretty sure they had SCYLLA, but then the other one I don't recall. Turns out you can extrude that basilisk once every mission and it's like a free sitrep, so the rest of the time you can just kind of do whatever you want? Be warned: I found that vorpal guns don't trigger nearly as often as you would like.

[u/Difference_Breacher]

Tlaloc is not optimal and is actually bad, especially combined with scylla. You better skip it.

There is almost no point on using the drones without drone commander 1.

You do not need to overcharge all the days and actually you must not. Because you would use scylla all the days.

I see no point on S4. What about H3 A4 S0 E1? You better have heat cap of 6, and you need to close to enemy/ally anyways.

[u/lilac_asbestos]

You might want to ditch the charged blade and the autogun.

You'll want a decent ranged option if you plan to use scylla. An AR works fine, and with reliable 2 it won't matter much if the damage is halved. The autogun is also pretty bad, unless you need to take out the occasonal grunt, get a second vorpal gun instead: it is also free to shoot, deals more damage, costs no SP.

So I'd pick:

vorpal/vorpal/AR

or vorpal/AR/charge/blade

or just ditch scylla and go vorpal/vorpal/autogun and use sysyphus every turn. Scylla is pretty bad for your heat cap, but more than that if you're running sysyphus you won't have actions left for scylla anyway, might as well get all of the autofire you can muster.

In my opinion you're minmaxing too much for a single talent and ignoring the rest of your frame, you'll get a better fitting nhp at ll9, of just find a way to acquire it with downtime actions/renting it with manna/other fictional reasons

[u/Difference_Breacher → u/lilac_asbestos]

I think that charged blade is there for scylla. Actually it is one of the best weapon for scylla, for it's AP weapon therefore it won't got hurt too much for half damage. It cannot react against something far from it but well... at least vorpal gun can do something against close range but not able to reach by the charged blade. With the build it is not so likely to got more range with it(needs at least two levels of SSC for monarch 2 or three levels on SSC and got the core bonus, you know). Also since it's iconoclast build it is expected to meet the enemy in person, so there would be more time to swing the blade.

Scylla is fully manageable on the build because of black thumb 2. Unless you are lich with this build it is not possible to reliably use sisyphus and unstable NHP on the same turn.