Volatile Spark Magus Build

Hey all, I was taking a look at the new Volatile Spark Magus and I really like it overall. It has a little bit of clunkiness when it comes to reloading, but I've had a lot of fun trying build around that. Below is my attempt at a fun mid-range gun build that can switch between range and melee as needed, sort of like a halfway point between Starlit Span and Inexorable Iron. I'd love to know if anyone has ideas to punch it up a bit though, so do let me know.

For anyone that doesn't know, u/AAABattery03 recently shared a preview of the upcoming Magus Remaster changes. I won't go over all of the rules text here, so please check that out first if you're interested:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder2e/s/WFRglAKmRc

Weapon

I'm building around a Barricade Buster for the large damage die and 8-round repeating magazine. It could be argued that using a gun that doesn't have Fatal or Consussive is missing out with this hybrid study, but I think the upsides on the BB gun are too good to pass up. A Reinforced Stock also gives you an easy d8 finesse weapon that you always have ready to go.

Ability Scores:

Primary: Dex, Int Secondary: Str, Con (Minimum +2 Str for the Kickback trait)

Necessary General Feats

• Adopted Ancestry (Orc)
• Fleet

Ancestry and Background

Ancestry: Android (anything that gives +Dex, +Int, -Cha)

Heritage: Sylph (for bonus movement speed, below)

Ancestry Feats:

• Level 1: Swift (+5 ft movement speed)
• Level 5: Orc Weapon Familiarity (Gun access)
• Level 9: Orc Weapon Carnage (Crit spec)

Background (Optional): Student of Archery (Increases your effective range to 80ft, but sadly not while spellstriking)

Class Feats:

• Level 2: Archer Dedication
• Level 4: Running Recharge (Stride up to 20ft when recharging Spellstrike, makes melee much more viable)
• Level 6: Point-Blank Stance (negates Volley trait on the BB gun)
• Levels 8-20: Free

By level 7 you can get the Boots of Bounding to get Running Recharge up to 20ft (base speed 40ft) making it more viable to jump in and out of melee as you need. A morning casting of Tailwind is also much more viable now with the increased spells slots in the remaster.

Being in close range of enemies is useful too, as it puts them neatly within the 20ft emanation of the conflux spell, and the large magazine on the BB gun means you won't have any issues firing it for some AOE debuffing.

If you want to fit another archetype in on top of this (like Investigator) you'll have to wait until level 10 or 12 to get everything at once, but it's usuable starting at level 6 once you have both Point-Blank Stance and Running Recharge.

I think Running Recharge is a really exciting addition to the class, it's going to enable a lot of mobile versatile options like this. Starlit Span is still the king of ranged turret gameplay, but the short range conflux spell, the lack of an Arcane Cascade effect, and the higher-level gun feats like Killshot's Report make this feel like a better fit (appropriately enough). I'm choosing to think of it more like Inexorable Iron with a 40ft reach weapon, which allows you to either stand clear of AOE effects safely or wade closer into melee to benefit from and provide flanking with your martial buddies.

Let me know what you all think!