Possible build?: Shocking Fisticuffs!

Borderlands 2 Gaige the Mechromancer
#1

Hey everyone, I recently leveled to OP8 with Gaige so I’ve been tinkering with her skills. I’m still learning how to play her effectively, but I came up with the following build as a fun variant to try. Many thanks to @MidnightNova for the Shocking Anarchist guide, and to @pokapoka for the Gaige Skills post (and to @poisd2strike for porting it).

I wanted to play an LBT Gaige while also buffing up DT via the BFF tree and the Hide of Terramorphous. While shield-switching post-summon isn’t a big deal, I thought, why not keep the Hide and strip the shield with a shock splash Moxxi weapon, and then melee for roid bonus and healing? Slow clap for Slow Hand, voice in me head. Anyway, what follows is a variant of an LBT/BFF build, with focus on melee as secondary + healing option.

The Build (27-26-14)

BFF:

Close Enough*: 5/5
The Better Half: 5/5
Upshot Robot: 1/1
Unstoppable Force: 5/5
Made of Sterner Stuff: 5/5
20% Cooler: 5/5
Sharing is Caring: 1/1

*For use with backup weapons such as the Hail, also don’t think Cooking Up Trouble would be too helpful except for long breaks between fights.

LBT:

More Pep: 6/5
Myelin*: 5/5
Strength of Five Gorillas: 5/5
Electrical Burn: 7/5
Shock and Agh: 1/1
Evil Enchantress: 6/5
Wires Don’t Talk: 10/5
Interspersed Outburst: 10/5
Make It Sparkle: 1/1

*Counterintuitive but maybe it helps manage the shield-stripping, and 10/5 More Pep seems nice with I/O but not required.

OC:

Smaller Lighter Faster: 4/4
Anarchy: 1/1
Preshrunk Cyberpunk: 2/5
Robot Rampage: 1/1
Blood Soaked Shields: 5/5
Discord: 1/1

The Gear

Shock Slow Hand (Practicable): Main weapon for this build, splash damage for close quarter combat and shield stripping, healing with gun and melee damage.

Shock Hail (Skewering?): Back-up/Long-range option, “skewering” prefix may come in handy for tough situations where we don’t need help downing the shield and can pick up the extra melee damage.

Magic Missile: For slagging because we don’t need Chain Lightning.

Hide of Terramorphous

Legendary Catalyst COM

Shock Bone of the Ancients Relic

Misc. weapons: Shock/Slag Pimpernel, Twister, Fibber, Storm, Thunderball Fists*

*Was originally going for Thunderball Fists + Hide + With Claws, but that’s essentially the Shocking Anarchist build.

Could this be a viable OP8 mobbing build? It’s still just a concept right now since I’m still farming for the gear. Plus, I’m not the most dexterous player, so perhaps a more experienced player can handle the Slow Hand - melee - BSS cycle better. Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

(P.S. I’ve only run a cursory search for “Gaige melee with Slow Hand,” so I apologize if I just dumped a wall o’ text on something that’s already been covered.)

#2

Yikes, where’s the delete button!

Just spec’ed into LBT/BFF for the first time and had a horrible time building stacks in solo play. Still haven’t gotten to try the gear set-up here, but seems like pre-stacking might be needed, at least for someone like me who can’t hit crits consistently.

Still hoping that it’s not only good in theory…

#3

yeah, this is a decent build, but I would recomend specing into the stack gen stuff if you dont want to prestack

#4

UF is going to mess with your Roid damage, Im afraid. Also, you should try With Claws and more stacks through PC to increase your damage output.

If you are having trouble with stacking, maybe a Punk or Chaotic Good Necromancer COM can help with that. Also, try TI.

I would avoid the LBT tree if you are going the melee route, as Sharing is Caring is really good for Roid shield setups and With Claws is kinda important too. Maybe stop at So5G or SaA.

Hope it helps!

#5

Unfortunately, according to my experience, Slow Hand will down you before BSS triggers, not mentionning that BSS requires a kill to trigger and you’re not guaranteed to OS everything everytime… :sweat_smile:

edit : assuming that you’re in range of the Slow Hand splash damage when you fire it, of course :wink:

#6

I would go for this melee set up, based on what @l_gabrielcruz posted :
Link
I’m surprised you aren’t mentioning the Rapier, considering you want to go melee. Though, I still doubt the usefullness of Myelin on this set up, but it has more to do with the fact that I’ve been avoiding Splatguns for a year or so now.

#7

Staying in the OP initial idea, I would go this build :
http://bl2skills.com/mechromancer.html#500050151351500052120551414104100000

And instead of stripping my own shield with a Slow Hand (too dangerous IMO), I’ll let mobs strip my shield as I’m running to them with a Grog Noozle in hand to Slag them at will and tank them in melee :slight_smile:
That’s a crazy way to do it melee, but it should work !! :laughing:

#8

Deathtrap is not viable at OP8.

#9

low quality troll of the day right here…

In all seriosness does anybody know how with claws works with melee weapons, or other additive melee bonuses i guess, does it add it fully to each attack or does it do something weird so you only get the bonus once? I’m assuming the former, but not 100% sure.

#10

Apologies, but I am not a troll, nor am I trolling, simply because I put forward a view that you do not agree with.

That aside, the topic creator in the second post of this topic basically admitted that the build was unviable…

#11

Have you ever seen a DT with a HoT on him at OP8? it’s pretty silly. I recomend you actually try stuff before declaring it non-viable…

Theres actually nothing wrong with the OP’s build the problem was that he’s trying to use melee with a spec built for guns.

#12

Seen? I’ve tried every which way to make DT work at OP8. It’s not a good investment.

Truthfully I am applauding your effort and the efforts of every other interested person, but you all have a serious uphill battle ahead.

#13

Just throw on the biggest roid sheild you can find with SiC and upshot robot and you’re golden. he keeps scaling into OP levels, so not only does his base melee damage increase but he dosen’t have to deal with the the 65% damage reduction.

#14

Doesn’t seem like you tried hard enough. He scales with the Op levels so I am really wondering why you came up with that statement.

#15

Also, you can try the Skin of Ancients relic to hold Slow Hands self-harm, as you dont really need the Bone and a Shock one would screw you. But I guess that Myelin can hold it, and the Hide nova would fully heal you when you strip your shield. Not to mention the huge AoE.
Being honest, it remembers Exotec Backdraft Maya setup with melee aspect and, of course, DT. Seems like a viable setup.

You can try to use the Kitten instead of the Hail, as it is pretty good at melee range because you can conect all the three bullets

You can try PoeticNova setup above, but I see The Nth Degree as a wasted skill in a melee setup. I could tell you to get more Anarchy stacks, but be careful with the self-harm. Do not take more than you can get, so the best thing is really test this with different stack numbers.

#16

Thank you all for the helpful comments!

It seems the main idea of Slow Hand - Melee - BSS would be really hard to consistently employ on OP8. With how tough the enemies are, it seems difficult to down your shield on your own terms, not downing yourself, while simultaneously dealing enough gun damage for a melee finishing blow to proc BSS. (Bah, I’m spouting sentences with too many syllables again aren’t I? Apologies!)

How does this look for a revised build?: (Build Link)

  1. Switching out L. Catalyst COM for purple Chaotic Good Necromancer, with 5/4/4 (?) in WDT/MoSS/So5G
  2. Losing More PeP / EE / I-O but keeping WDT for shock weapons
  3. Gaining RA/Typecast for stacks
  4. Losing UF for PaP for roid usage
  5. Ditching Slow Hand, running with Hide and Skewering Kitten
  6. Losing slag from I-O but possibly using grog slagging/tanking (thanks @adrion54!)

@MidnightNova: Will definitely give your BFF/OC build a try! Just wanted to go LBT and use shock weapons, but I see that to max melee damage I’d need Rapier + With Claws (with stacks).

Thanks again for all the help! Was definitely feeling stupid yesterday, when I kept dying trying to melee (running UF probably didn’t help). On another note, DT seemed to do pretty well with the Hide, at times taking on some basic bandits to give me several quick Second Winds.

1 Like
#17

DT can handle mobs pretty well with the HoT.
The thing with this setup is that you need Sharing is Caring for DT AND With Claws for Gaige melee output be relevant. There isnt enough points to get both of them and WDT too, so you kinda have to choose who you want to melee. I wish we could get all three capstones like in TPS :pensive:

The Chaotic Good Necromancer is really a good call as it boost the two skills that support Gaige and DT melee play and allows you to stack faster through the card (fire ratrate + reload speed).
One suggestion that I can give is to try Make it Sparkle, match elements and see if the damage is satisfatory to you. This way you can get With Claws and melee with DT by leaving Sharing is Caring aside.

In my experience, DT can kill things with Make it Sparkle as I run it in my LBT focused build.

#18

I’m really glad we can’t get all three capstones in BL2, more than anything else I think that is what killed build divesity in TPS.

Other than that, on some weapons it’s more worthwhile taking neutral on a necromancer COM because a lot of the wapons that get used on her have pretty quick reloads as it is, or don’t scale that well with fire rate. but that really depends on the weapons you’re using.

#19

Hmm, yeah, it seems like I do need to get With Claws and take advantage of the stacks for melee, and then picking either BFF or LBT tree to focus on. With my current revised set-up it’s still not worth it to melee, and I miss having Interspersed Outburst for close quarters slagging without weapon switching or magic missiles.

Anyway, play and learn I guess! :sweat_smile: Thanks again!

#20

Deathtrap scaling with OP8 isn’t the issue.

In any event, my interest in this topic has passed. You’re all free to use whatever builds you want, profoundly inefficient though they may be. Take care.