Well, I've only been playing a little recently - mainly due to the lag issues.
What you notice as no reg shots are actually the fault of the lag. The Devs have said that the problem is that the latest patch, for whatever reason, makes the servers max out in terms of cpu usage and consequently aren't able to handle the game. Which makes us lag.
To summarise: server has bad fps, consequently we get lag
You can get around this by playing DMs since they're limited to 8 players. The lower player count means the servers aren't stuggling so much. With a 16player match most people's pings sit around 200ms. Go to a DM and they'll drop to 60ms or so. Also, playing containment (and to an extent vortex) will raise the pings, up the lag.
Aside from that, I've been running a 172hp build with a br built for damage and tight aim accuracy. I've stomped every room I've played in but that's mainly the other players to attribute this to. Since it only takes two well-aimed shots to down any player with br (one if you hit the head) and you can spray it silly, I only ever seem to take one hit before they die. Which means I sit at half hp for ages.
Can't wait for them to over-buff speed builds when trying to balance it out again but at the moment I'm only using it in mock protest - you are seriously disadvantaged by it. That said, I like the higher hp cap, it gives much more diversity with the builds. There is actually a difference in the number of hits you can take.
Adding damage back to gun parts is good too, though I don't understand what they were thinking with the long barrels. My Briar TDF is one of the most useless things you'll ever see now.
As for recommended builds? I have none, you should simply horde gp now until the rebalances start to normalise. If they don't do any major rebalances hereout then I'm not too sure I'll keep playing it. I imagine the armour pieces won't change much any more, relative to one another, other than the penultimate body armour when it gets unique stats again. I figure a good speed or tank build now will remain a good one later relative to others, though how they balance the speed to hp builds now will be interesting.
(Did you know the highest speed you can get with armour alone is 9.5 now? I assume they've worked it so that you have to use speed modded weapons to hit the 10 mark now)
/end incoherent ramblings
