Too Human from Silicon Knights

Norse mythology meets futuristic cybernetic technology making it easily one of the oddest combinations in gaming today. The game itself comes under a love it or hate it mentality and due to the mechanics and genre it was doomed to come under this scrutiny before one even opens it. It's a directional based hack and slash with RPG elements. (Armor, Weapons, added effects, Runes, and Charms) Horrible camera angles at times can cause some frustration in that you either have to deal with it or change the camera, where changing the camera can cause it's on problems when it can circle around you the wrong way completely removing all enemies from the screen or even give you a nice picture of a wall which is due to an oversight in the polygon detection of the textured items. (it actually thinks the walls are thinner than they are at some point) With the aforementioned issues there is also an abysmal drop rate on the 'Elite Items' and it has a number of glitches that can leave you stuck in a wall or hung up on some sort of invisible floors. The drop rate on the elite items was an attempt to keep down a given class being essentially 'invincible', but the game treats all elites as equal, so it makes it very frustrating when you grind for hours and hours and you get a random rune for the equipment you already have and it turns out to be useless like 'Sentient Duration'. Another qualm that is widely brought up when discussing it is the length. The levels are decent size yes, but when you find out there are only 4 then you realize that the game is short, really short. The online and the single player are slightly different, but not enough to make it feel like it's longer when you're offered the option to replay it on the single player mode using the co-op variants of the levels. The level designs don't favor any one class as they all shift between open and closed spaces, but the Commando is pretty much overpowered in terms of offense and the Defender's special ability to not be knocked down means he can be OHKOed by the 'Assault Goblins' if he gets hit by a full barrage making his advertised defensive abilities come at a severe cost if you get cornered by a mass amount of mobs which is more likely to occur when you can be knocked down as in the other classes but it still can happen. Overall, it can be nice to go back to after awhile of not playing when you get bored with it that's assuming you liked it at one point though. It's a simple game and doesn't require much thought to be accessible, it's also sandbox in that dying only costs you a nominal amount of money in the form of having to repair your equipment as dying lowers its durability to the point that it can completely break and thus offer absolutely no effects. *You never lose the item, but broken equipment has no effect on your stats, it has been argued that weapons still have a reduced effect and this is not true. You have a base dmg for both melee and ballistics, the weapon applies the the material bonus is all it will apply when it is broken. (I.e. if you have a slug pistol, you still use a slug pistol so the fire rate is the same as is the range and the dual targeting system is still the one that is active. In terms of melee if you are using a one-handed sword, you will have the attack speed boost of using a sword and the chance to critical still.) If you like simple hack n' slash games (Like Dynasty Warriors or Samurai Warriors) then it might be worth looking into especially since it's like it or leave it status has kept the prices from rebounding back up which happens with incredibly bad, or widely liked games. (Bad games go up in price as time goes on due to collectors value, good games go up because they are no longer available and eventually things wear out if not treated properly and if you have ever been to an EB games then you know most gamers don't treat their games with the due care they should.)

Bio-Engineer Base Class
https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img340/9194/bioengineer.png

Human Path
If you choose to go the human route for the bio-engineer I recommend ignoring the set boosts and running down the right-most path, the reason being is that the skills in the left-most path make your character weaker and the support options are really only useful when partnering with a champion who would be very happy to have a partner using a hammer and the Ascent to Valhalla skill, while this skill tends to slow down every other class. The right-most path gives you increased DMG with 1-handed weapons albeit less than the boosts the other class tend to get with for their weapon of choice down their DMG path it still helps, also note that the elite armor gives you a 1% boost to crit for the 1-handed weapons so you manage some free bonus synergy in that respect. Your elite weapon is a fairly forgettable Plasma Rifle, while having an elite ranged weapon is nice as it gives you and option to hand pick you favorite melee weapon whereas picking a ballistics weapon usually comes down to which gun you think is shinier the plasma or the slug since generally speaking and equal laser will always fall short of the other two. You get a free boost to the radius and DMG as well as a chance for a Thermal Induction pulse, the last slot is a complete waste if you follow the recommendations since it's the left-tree's battle cry and the farthest you can go down a non-chosen path is the first skill. The armor gives a very slight incentive to use the hammer type weapon with a 5% boost to slide distance for hammers, which is negligible if you choose to ignore it, it won't make that much of a difference. I recommend that you don't however, being the human path you miss out on the increased defenses and the center path isn't quite as appealing for the human bio engineer so you miss out on that nice health boost as well so using a the defensive weapon can offset it a tad. *The hammer is defensive due to it's area of effect juggle giving you time to breath or get out of a bad situation.* If you're into the elite item bandwagon the Bludgeon-Iron of Vali is the only weapon that falls into the category of a one-handed elite weapon for the human path, but fret not it's one of the best weapons in the game. What it lacks in bonus effects that you can't add yourself from runes such as Necro or Graviton Pulse it makes up for with 3 empty rune slots a trademark of the highly customizable human items and one of the most sought after mastery runes for a people who like their guns that being the Human Skill Tree +1 rune. The hammers can also trigger another healing detonation from Gifts of Idunn if you slam your hammer on top of it.

Summary of the Human build
Gear: Armor of a Venerated Græõari with the Bludgeon-Iron of Vali as your melee weapon.

Basic skill tree path: Right-most of the Bio Engineer skill tree and the the left path of the alignment tree to help boost your Elite Armor Set's Plasma Rifle.

Empty Rune slots: Hybrid Radius, Hybrid Damage, Rifle Ballistics Range, and Rifle Damage are all good choices, you can also raise your Hamer Damage, Juggle Time, and 1-Handed Crit Chance, but it's worth noting that the Bio Engineer takes less of a loss on Ballistics than he does in Melee so you get more bang for your rune slots if you boost your Ballistics abilities. As with any class the Mastery runes are solid but I wouldn't waste a rune slot just to boost 1 skill when you can boost entire trees.

Charms: Flesh Leech, Graviton, Necro, Ablation, and Force of Two Hundred Hammers all make good choices. I wouldn't go below tier 3 as you get +1 to all skills when using tier 3 charms, but with them being hard to find a Fallen Minds charm is pretty good for a tier 2 charm as it works in synergy with Skuld's Embrace and the effect can be put on multiple people due to the AoE of the plasma ammo type.

Skills you should max:
Idunn's Touch - This skill is pretty much the only reason to be a Bio-E aside from the armor he gets which IMO is one of the most aesthetically pleasing.

Warrior of Tyr's Way - This skill essentially cancels out your negative class modifier when maxed and can add up to 10% on the positive when you overload it through runes or charms.

Idunn's Wish - An amazing battle cry which in itself makes it worth maxing IMO, but if you aren't sold at completely cancelling out all the negatives of being a Bio Engineer while giving yourself a boost to your formerly neutral ballistics resistance and a slight boost to your ballistic DMG due to the effects of the cry being larger than your negative modifier, clears any current status effect, and increases melee attack speed then you can also make note that it extends to your partner in co-op and that your elite armor set increases your efficiency by 20% (efficiency = a reduction of cost to using the battle cry) and your armor also provides a 5% DMG boost to your attacks while your battle cry is in effect meaning that now it not only cancels out all your negative modifiers it gives you a boost over top of that in your melee DMG and a further increase in your ballistics.

Skuld's Embrace - You get a boost for it from your armor and it's effect chance applies to both melee and ballistics, so maxing it will help you at any range, actually has some bastardized synergy with how weak you are since if you turn them on the first hit then you essentially '1-hit killed' an enemy congrats. *Does not work on level bosses or trolls and if you turn an assault goblin they still can hurt you. Assault goblins aim for the enemy when turned which is a good and a bad thing on one hand they deal good dmg especially to trolls if they manage a hit on one, but the bad thing that had to have been an oversight by Silicon Knights is that when you're in a mob they'll blow you to kingdom come with the rest of the mob and since turning them makes them highly resistant to your attacks you can't knock kill them before they kill you like you could if you hadn't turned them.*

Calm Under Fire - The plasma rifle elite should be you main means of destruction so maxing the skills that help ballistics will help you get even more out of it.

A Need to Survive - This skill is really cool for both plasma and slug ballistics increasing the rate their fire rate, but the laser yet again falls short and gets no benefit what-so-ever from it. *The effect is much greater on slug ammo since it's a percent of their normal fire rate and the slug ammo type specializes in fire rate.*

Daring Shot - Plasma a slug bullets ricochet off walls if you miss giving a chance to get lucky on the rebound and thus a chance to increase your ballistics efficiency. The laser reportedly has a chance to pierce a single enemy, but since you hold a laser on a target and doing so counts as 1 shot it's not worth the fuss

Skills to avoid like the plague:
Fenrir's Bite - I don't know what Silicon Knights were thinking when they made the cool down on this skill, but makes the skill pretty much useless, You should invest 1 skill point and only 1 skill point in it so you can fire it off in the first mob of a level essentially letting you start with a full combo gauge. It's usefull on the level bosses but using it at the end of a level means you won't have it for the beginning of the next level so it's not worth it unless you're in alot of trouble. If you max this skill it's really useful. . . . once or twice a level depending on how fast you go through a level, so all in all it's a good skill that's ruined by a massive cool down, but then again if it didn't have a massive cool down you wouldn't have to do much since it can usually clear a room of normal mobs faster than you can run to the exit.

Warrior of Battle-Oar - The recommended weapon is a one-handed weapon, and that 1% crit boost seems useless due to how little it is at first glance, but it's actually worth the argument to use 1-handed over 2-handed if your stuck with it anyway since the level bosses can absorb a Bio-E's attacks and are immune to the special effects that 2-handed weapons help buff. The Bludgeon-Iron of Vali's 3 customizable slots plus the rune that is inserted being good for a range based character means that it's the other half of the argument to use 1-handed weapons while under the human alignment. *Avoiding this skill means that you miss out on extended vitality, arguably the best spider in the game and a decent battle cry that can help your longevity through a delayed large healing effect, but Idunn's Wish is better IMO so don't be heartbroken over the loss of the healing battle cry.

Valkyrie's Blessing - You're going to be primarily ranged and your combo-meter is better spent on Idunn's Wish. I spend 2 points in this skill after a series of tests on how a mob actually circle's you. If you only spend 1 point you won't hit the majority of the outer ring, and if you spend 3 points you only hit 1 or 2 more mobs anything more than 3 you're lucky if you hit a single additional enemy. Being a weak class you're liable to get surrounded so that's my argument for 2 points rather than just 1 point, but if you go the human alignment route you should never leave this skill with 0 points invested.

Wrack of Lightning Mine - It's mine, so you either have to be in the middle of a crowd or you have to have time to set it up which, is only possible in long corridors which doesn't happen very often and when it does it's easier to do a backpedaling while shooting until you run out of room. *Avoiding this skill means the rest of the path is unavailable, but it's also comforting to know that the Battlecry is lack luster since unless you're playing with a super frail Commando or Beserker (They're under-leveled, didn't keep up with their armor, or they don't know how to avoid getting surrounded) you'll have time to use Idunn's Favor if you're looking for a healing battle cry which heals more in the end and has a less chance for the health regain to be wasted trying to over-heal a character which general ends up being yourself since you'll have more longevity than about any other class other than the defender and Ascent to Valhalla is only helpful for a champion partner or can help with defense.)

The Everburning Heart - You have to put 2 points in this skill to reach the next level of the alignment skill tree, but it's not all that useful for a class that is going to favor Ballistics since your combo meter won't be getting high enough to the gain the benefits.

Desire to Overcome - Ballistics are better for the human Bio-E so the fierce attack goes way down in terms of usefullness *Avoiding this makes the rest of that skill tree unavailable*

Reserved for runes, charms, and elites, because the wiki is unreliable in terms of the epic weapons/armor, and isn't very accessible on the effects of charms and runes with all the links they make you jump through.