09-26-2018, 10:12 AM
Between Weapon Focus and Get 'Em/Improved Get E'm, you can keep your absolute attack bonus on par with a soldier's, and Clever Attack lets you make the target flat-footed pretty reliably, so accuracy is pretty good and you still provide bonuses to the rest of the party (although the soldier in your own party will still be more accurate than you are, since they get the same buffs). I don't think that unwieldy weapons are so much more damaging that they will out-perform a full attack with a more wieldy weapon, but they are pretty respectable and definitely make an impact while still buffing the party.
I'd recommend throwing the Called fusion on your weapons if you plan on being a switch-hitter, so you can start with a ranged weapon and just drop it when you want to switch to melee, and vice versa. I've been playing a Strength-based Envoy through Dead Suns, and it is really painful using a move action to actually move rather than use an improvisation, so being able to switch weapons as a swift action is very useful.
It is probably worth the soldier dip to get armor and weapon proficiencies, otherwise you're burning 3-4 feats just to be able to use the weapons and armor you need. I hate to keep beating the dead horse that is the Blitz dip, but I've found that more initiative is pretty useful on an Envoy, since you can get your bonuses into play without arguing with your allies over whether they should delay for a Get 'Em.
I'd recommend throwing the Called fusion on your weapons if you plan on being a switch-hitter, so you can start with a ranged weapon and just drop it when you want to switch to melee, and vice versa. I've been playing a Strength-based Envoy through Dead Suns, and it is really painful using a move action to actually move rather than use an improvisation, so being able to switch weapons as a swift action is very useful.
It is probably worth the soldier dip to get armor and weapon proficiencies, otherwise you're burning 3-4 feats just to be able to use the weapons and armor you need. I hate to keep beating the dead horse that is the Blitz dip, but I've found that more initiative is pretty useful on an Envoy, since you can get your bonuses into play without arguing with your allies over whether they should delay for a Get 'Em.