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Event Build: The Ashmaker (FO4)

Tags: #Motty Build  #Character Build Power Armor  #Fallout 4 Build  #Character Build Big Guns  #Event: Arms & Artifacts 
  • Member
    February 16, 2018

    Backstory:
    Shortly after waking from Vault 111, Nate felt something was very, very different. Different and wrong. Was it the cryogenic freeze messing with his head or was the post-apocalyptic world simply colder? Having survived a few days shivering around Sanctuary and debating what to do, the cold kept gnawing at him. Chipping away at his sanity. How could he survive this freezing world? What’s left to do in this wasteland? But the cold…the cold is unrelenting. Can’t get warm…must start a fire. 

    Concept: The idea for this build started many years ago. Around my third playthrough, I wanted to experiment with an automatic weapon that had either explosive or incendiary effects. The Spray & Pray was certainly fun, but quickly became so overpowered I actually lost interest in it (though it makes an appearance here). 

    Once I stumbled upon The Ashmaker running the Big Dig quest in Goodneighbor, the build took shape. Nate’s gone mad and can’t get warm. So he lights everything he finds on fire. A Power Armor, mini-gun toting madman with little regard for life, his or others. A perfect concept for the Arms & Artifacts Event

    Open a window…it’s going to get hot in here!

    Class: Power Armor, Heavy Gunner, Pyromaniac 

    SPECIAL:

    10, 4*, 1 (2), 3, 6, 1 (2), 3

    * Sanctuary Book in PER. END & AGI bobbleheads are useful to reduce sprint AP cost and boost total AP respectively.

    Bonus Bobbleheads

    Big Guns: + 25% (Vault 95)
    Explosives: + 15% (Saugus Ironworks)
    Repair: Fusion Core last 10% longer (Corvega)

    Perks with Level Cap of 28:

    Armorer (Level 3 @ 25) & Science (Level 3 @ 28) are taken solely to improve and upgrade power armor.

    Heavy Gunner (Level 3 @ 21) to improve the somewhat underwhelming damage of the minigun and flamer.

    Basher (Level 4 @ 26) this perk is basically an excuse to bash people in the face and then light them on fire. But does help in CQC.

    Pain Train (Level 2 @ 24) given the focus on Power Armor, running people over felt like an easy call.

    Demolition Expert (Level 3 @ 22) boosting secondary damage from mollys

    Lone Wanderer (Level 2 @ 17) overall boost to resistance and damage as a solo character

    Scrounger (Level 3 @ 24) a little help keeping your 5mm clips full

    Bloody Mess (Level 2 @ 9) a little more gore for an already nasty guy

    Gun Nut (Level 2 @ 13) to mod the minigun shredder attachment and to build the Ammo Plant

    Character Customization:

    Male, burn scars, winter hat, bomber or warm jacket, welding goggles

    Gear:

    Weapons – The Ashmaker, Secondary – Flamer, Spray-n-Pray

    Power Armor (Best Available) – Painted Flames (Hot Rodder Magazine at Robotics Disposal Grounds)

    Getting Started:

    Grab some Power Armor and Fusion Cores (Concord or Near the Robotics Disposal Ground, and under Red Rocket), as you’ll spend the entire playthrough in PA. The mini-gun in Concord is a good start too until heading off to Goodneighbor to ‘help’ Bobbi-no-nose. Make sure to side with Fahrenheit (betray Bobbi) to get your reward – the Ashmaker from her. Scavenging upgraded power armor - there's a free set of T-51 on the Barge near the Old North Church and if you do join the BOS, T-61 can be had quite early. 

    Ammo notes: 5mm is hard to find early on and the mini-gun is hungry. Here are a few tips to make it work:

    1. 5mm Farming: Visit Sattelite Olivia and kill Ack-Ack but let his goons pick up the gun and then kill them. You'll double the ammo dropped. You can also use this method to farm 5mm, finding a small group of Raiders, dropping your mini-gun and letting them pick it up. The ammo always resets, usually 500 rounds at a time.

    2. Take the gun on top of the Museum in Concord. Between he previous point and this, at level 5 I had 1500 rounds.

    3. Get access to the Prydwen asap. Even though we're playing this as a loner, we simply need Proctor Teegan's 1000 rounds. This also means saving Nick. Not RP friendly, but hey. You can always use them and betray them after the fact. 

    4. Ammo Manufacturing / MODS - if you have the workshop DLC or MODs, you can make a 5mm ammo factory. I simply traded all the excess chems I found for fertilizer. 

    5. Use a secondary weapon - I ended up popping some grape mentats and buying Spray-n-Pray from Cricket. Perking Demo expert will make this a great secondary to spare ammo till levels in the early 20s when vendors carry more 5mm.

    6. Scrounger - doesn't kick in till level 20+, but still useful.

    7. Bash / Shred / Pain Train- make use of your high strength and basher perk with a minigun shredder. Run out of ammo? No problem...spin away. Keep enemies at bay with the stagger effect of pain train. It all works quite well (see video). 

    Combat Notes:

    The Ashmaker as a weapon is honestly more aesthetic than overpowered. The +15 points of fire damage distributes as 5 points of damage over 3 seconds, and multiple bullets don’t stack, rather the timer restarts. Despite the lackluster damage effect, there’s a nice balance of madness that comes from unloading a huge clip of flaming orange-traced bullets into an opponent. And you won’t mow them down in mere seconds like other more overpowered weapons. This makes for exhilarating and rewarding combat. Because you can’t move very fast hauling a mini-gun around, the protection of Power Armor becomes a must. Plus, I’ve always felt you really shouldn’t be able to wield a mini-gun without Power Armor.

    But I Digress…

    The main idea for combat is to light things on fire. Molotovs, Flamers and even the special Spray n Pray are a nice backup to save 5mm until you have the factory built. But ultimately the combat is centered around the Ashmaker. You’ve become obsessed with fire and as such, melting foes with a rain of fiery 5mm is essential. If you find yourself short on ammo, adding a shredder to the minigun can actually be quite effective. The bleed damage stacks with basher and bloody mess perks (hat tip to Mason’s Invictus). If you want to add the shredder (as opposed to finding one) you’ll need Gun Nut 2. If you take the build past the suggested level 28, I’d also add the Rooted Perk and perk Pain Train fully. 

    Roleplay:

    Roleplay is all about delving into the mind of a man who’s losing his. The cryogenic procedure ruined your life. The Institute killed your wife. Vault-tec is complicit. Humans and their greed and hate have ruined the world. Now what? Burn. Let it burn. This build is suited to either seek and destroy the Institute, most likely with the BOS. Or go completely rogue, helping no-one and burning everything in site. Your call. You’re a loner, so no companions. Other than that, there are no rules.

    Final Notes: 

    Check out all of my Fallout 4 builds here. I really thought this became a perfect mini-build due to the limitations of the Minigun. If you have a short attention span, you can load this guy up and trash the wasteland in style, running over people and lighting everything on fire. It's a good time, if not the longest-lasting play style. Thanks for reading!

  • February 16, 2018

    Hehe, burn baby burn, disco inferno!

    A fun build that lets you let off some steam. I like it. 

    Two more guaranteed locations for miniguns and ammo. A random super mutant in trinity church will carry one and Fist from trinity tower has one too. I know this cause Machete kills. :D

  • Member
    February 16, 2018

    I didn't know about the Trinity Church locaiton. There are def lots of others, but I wasn't sure on the level spawns. There's a few other ones like the supermutants at Wilson Automotoys (Big Mack). I checked for the radroach guy Regi Blattari next to Corvega, but he hadn't spawed yet (level 25). 

    Yes - blow off steam build is the right way to classify it. 

  • Member
    February 16, 2018

    Like Lissette, my exact words reading this was also "Burn, Baby, Burn" (except no disco, disco is dead, killed in atomic fire!) only mine ran through my head in the voice of a firebat from Starcraft.....which this build reminds me of SOOOOO much with the weapon and armor. I would expect nothing less from Mr. Mottyskills but another fantastic build entry for the event and the character building archives as a whole.

  • Member
    February 16, 2018
    Cool videos, Motty :D But seriously, on the few occassions I have played, it has been similar to this. I guess I have a short attention span xD
  • Member
    March 2, 2018

    Paws said: Cool videos, Motty :D But seriously, on the few occassions I have played, it has been similar to this. I guess I have a short attention span xD
    this is the ultimate short attention span build lol. light some shit up and move on

  • April 6, 2018

    Okay... that last build video is BOSS!

    The Ashmaker is currently being featured on the TV Twitter and Facebook pages--funny, I never read through the comments till just now, but the last I wrote for the feature was "Burn, baby, burn!" xD

  • Member
    April 6, 2018

    ShinJin said:

    Okay... that last build video is BOSS!

    The Ashmaker is currently being featured on the TV Twitter and Facebook pages--funny, I never read through the comments till just now, but the last I wrote for the feature was "Burn, baby, burn!" xD

    haha thanks Shin!!!