Friday, October 22, 2021

Back 4 Blood - Hoffman Support Deck Build

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Hoffman Support Deck build By Sev Intro The previous Doc build was heavily focused on healing and boosting team survivability, and as many of you correctly pointed out in the comments section, the deck was missing quite a few additional Support/Utility cards which are pretty much necessary for ensuring a long and successful Campaign run. I was always planning on building a separate deck for either Hoffman or Mom to address the missing Support Cards, and I’ve chosen Hoffman for this guide, mainly because I’ve been playing with him a bit more lately and I got the chance to test out a few more card/deck combinations. The following build is a bit more flexible than the Doc one, as it allows Hoffman to take on multiple roles, based on what the team needs the most at that stage. A final word before we begin, similar to the previous guide, this deck is also adjusted to my own play style, and you may or may not like or find the card order as useful as I have. I’m sure that some of you have already found much better builds, and if you have a different build and/or card arrangement that you found useful, then please leave it down in the comments section and let’s find the best possible combinations that we can. Now let us begin. First 2 cards Copper Scavenger is a must-have card right from the very first mission, and often best played on a Support player rather than a Melee or DPS. The card will ensure that your team will get more Copper in the long run, which in turn will greatly help you with purchasing additional items, weapons or even using the occasional healing station. I have been told that Copper Scavenger does stack if multiple players choose it (spawning even more Copper piles), but I haven’t gotten the chance to test this yet, and personally I believe that only playing once is more than enough. Money Grubbers is easily one of the most underrated (and probably overpowered) cards from the entire set. Playing it early on, especially if coupled with Copper Scavenger will ensure that your team makes much more Copper in the long run, which can again greatly increase your chances of success. To give you an example, on a random Nightmare run, in the first mission my team and I tested out these 2 cards, and while I left the Safe Room with 0 Copper, by the end of the 1st mission I had almost 2,6k Copper (excluding the bonus objectives), which placed us in a powerful position for the following missions. 3rd - 4th Card For the 3rd card I tend to vary my choice between Offensive Scavenger and Double Grenade Pouch, depending on whether my team is already stacked up on throwables, or whether we need more. If the team is already fully stacked up, then I will normally choose Double Grenade Pouch as by this stage I will be able to stack up to 4 grenades/pipes etc (by default, Hoffman has 2 Offensive slots) which will greatly help the team during many missions. The 4th choice will usually be the card I didn’t pick in the previous mission as I believe that the 2 cards synergize very well together, and in the case of Offensive Scavenger, the card should be played as early on as possible in order to ensure that your team will constantly have throwables that they can use. 5th - 8th Card Since I wanted this build to be a bit more flexible than the previous, I’ve included the following cards which I tend to choose from during the next missions, again depending on what my team is missing the most at that stage. Obviously the card order isn’t set in stone and you can choose many more besides these 4, including any of the cards that you’ll see later on into the build. I would choose Bomb Squad if I was already stacked up on grenades, and if we were dealing with a Hag, a Tallboy horde, or an insane amount of specials that need to be quickly dealt with. Having multiple high damage grenades on you can always help no matter what you’re fighting. Mandatory PT can be useful during the 4th mission (bridge run) as your team will greatly benefit from the extra Stamina while running across the bridge, and later on while rushing to plant the explosives and get back in time. Marked For Death is a very valuable card in my opinion, as it can greatly help with spotting and keeping track of Specials, especially during missions with Mist, where lack of visibility is a serious issue. The extra 10% increased damage can also quickly help neutralize specials as long as you’re constantly pinging them for your team. Surplus Pouches is probably the most situational card from the available 4, and I would normally choose it only if my team really needed additional Offensive Slots (which doesn’t occur that often since by the 3rd-4th mission there’s a good chance that you already found and bought the Team Offensive Slot upgrade, which is a much better choice than the card itself). During the runs where we didn’t find and get the Team Offensive Slot upgrade, the card proved very useful as it ensured that we could stack up at least 2 throwables/player (while Hoffman would be able to stack 3-4)
9th - 12th Card By this stage you’ve already passed the first few missions and you have a much better understanding of your team’s strengths and weaknesses. Again, depending on what the team needs the most at this stage, I tend to choose in between the following: Avenge the Fallen can be a very useful card if your teammates are getting incapacitated often, as it can ensure a very solid defence while trying to revive them. Avenge The Fallen also works very well with Inspirational Sacrifice (which would normally be played by Doc/Mom by this stage), guaranteeing that whenever any of you goes down, you’ll have extra Damage, Reload Speed, Unlimited Ammo and a steady Health tick for 10 seconds. Ammo Scavenger can greatly help your team stack up on ammo and ensure that you will not end up having to run to one another during horde fights in order to drop or share some ammo. I found this card to be one of the most efficient ones, as running out of ammo can be fatal during many missions. I would normally choose Ammo Mule only if my team was fairly good on health, but constantly running out of ammo. I didn’t find the lack of Support Accessories to be nearly as much of a problem on Hoffman as it was during the many fights where the team would have to scramble for ammo or use their secondary (and less efficient) weapon. Ammo Mule also works well with Ammo Scavenger as it can ensure that you will stack up on plenty of ammo to share with your team whenever required. Weapon Scavenger is more of a situational card rather than a constantly played one, as it can help if your team still requires better weapons, but the card itself can be very redundant if your teammates already have good weapons that they’ll hold on to (with the occasional attachment upgrade). 12th - 15th Card By this stage you already have a fairly powerful build that can ensure additional spawns for Copper, Offensive Accessories, Ammo, Weapons, while also giving you additional inventory space to store throwables and ammo for your team. You bring extra Stamina to the team, and extra damage whenever you ping Specials. You can also choose a more “Demolitions Expert” type of approach and stack up on additional cards that give you extra damage when using Offensive Accessories. Coupled with a strong Doc/Mom player that has a separate deck than yours, together you can play the vast majority of team cards while also ensuring that you don’t unnecessarily double up on them. The only thing that I feel is missing at this stage, is some extra Use Speed that can make a substantial difference during the Act 1 Finale where you have to load, fire, and unload the Howitzer multiple times while in the middle of an increasingly more difficult horde fight. The final 3 cards are meant to address this gap and make you the perfect choice for manning the Howitzer. Screwdriver can be played much earlier on as the additional 10% Stamina can also prove very useful. The 50% Use Speed can also greatly help during the boat mission where you have to plant explosives, even though personally I tend to play it a bit later on into the Act. Multitool can be a great addition in terms of extra Use Speed, and it can even substitute Screwdriver as long as you don’t mind the -5% Damage Resistance, but is often best played together with Screwdriver and Headband Magnifier, ensuring that you have the highest Use Speed from all of your teammates. I left Headband Magnifier as my last choice since I normally don’t want to play it until the Act 1 Finale. On several occasions I found the blind % chance to almost completely screw over my game, especially when I found myself in the middle of a horde. The 125% extra Use Speed can make a substantial difference during the Howitzer mission, but I would normally avoid choosing it otherwise. Honorable mentions Because the build isn’t set in stone, I wanted to dedicate a small final section to some additional cards that didn’t make it in this deck, but they still have enough value that it's worth at least mentioning them for the sake of variety. I'll also be further testing these cards and include them in the deck if/once I find enough value for them.
The most common approach for using this card is to have all of your teammates drop their Copper before closing the Safe Room door so you can pick it up and take full advantage of that additional 10% Copper. Unfortunately that may not always be the case as in some missions you will have a horde hot on your heels and you may not have the time to drop or pick up the Copper, which will make the card much less valuable. The card offers a buff in Accessory Damage at the cost of -25% Swap Speed. I view this card as one of the most situational ones, and I would probably play it if I really wanted to go with the “Demolitions Expert” path. I haven’t actually played with this card yet but it does seem appealing, even more so once you’re stacked up on Offensive Accessories. I’m thinking that it could probably be very useful during several missions, but more testing is required. Very interesting concept with showing the damage values and enemy health, and the extra Weakspot Damage is always nice to have no matter what. Probably not the most useful card if your team is already “melting” Specials. If I really wanted to focus on stacking up Molotovs then I would most likely play this card, but I just generally prefer having Pipe Bombs or Grenades, as I find many more opportunities to use them rather than a Molotov. I used to play this card a lot during the Open Beta, especially while supporting my team. Over the past few weeks I actually removed it from the majority of my decks because I’m simply not finding that much value for it anymore. Defibs can also be spawned with Support Scavenger, while Tool Kits and Ammo Pouches can and will usually be found on the go. Again a fairly interesting card, but my take is that this card should be played much earlier on so you can take full advantage of the Trauma and Ammo recovery. I haven’t found a place in the deck for this card yet, but I have seen some players use it and I thought that it would be worth mentioning at the very least.

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