Shield-based Axton?

Borderlands 2 Axton the Commando
#1

Disclaimer: I have played almost all characters to level 72 but Axton is the one I played the least.

I might have found a way to make Axton enjoyable for me and i’m wondering if this has been tried before.

I’m looking at some of his skills (particularly Willing and Pressure) and I’m thinking there is a way to make a build around the Bee. Not as a crutch like most people use it, but rather as a centralized strategy: Everything is made to maximize the Bee’s effect, uptime and efficiency.

So, I’m avoiding most of the gun damage and grenade damage skills (as they add almost nothing) and instead focus on delivery (fire rate boosts and unlisted pellets) and survivability (Shield skills and health skills to compensate for the relative absence of a real shield)

I’m thinking of something like this: http://bl2skills.com/commando.html#55055150015005010000055052105051
(this isn’t set in stone, but it’s a start)

Some choices may seem suspect, like forebearance, but I’m thinking that the shorter a DoT last, the sooner I get my Bee back. The whole idea is to use the Turret and singularity grenades to draw enemy fire and stun foes. So Phalanx, double-up and Gemini all help. I picked Onslaught for the movement speed.
The rest is a bit thrown together, I don’t know Axton as much as I would like.

I’m still debating the guns, but going with ARs seem reasonable: they have high fire rate and good accuracy which will be useful since I intend to stay a bit at range to maximize my chances of keeping my Bee up. Bonus points for those with unlisted pellets and/or splash

Parts-wise for the Bee, I’ll be looking for fast delay and recharge and the lowest capacity to maximize the efficiency of the recharge, as well as the most damage of course (So Maliwan or Tediore parts sound good)

Matching elements will be a priority since elemental multipliers are added after amp damage in the equation, same with Crits and Slag.

Since no COM boost Willing, there are a lot of choices possible here, i’m not ruling out anything. At first, the Legendary Ranger looked nice with its shield boost, but the skills are almost all things I don’t care about. The Legendary pointman looks nice too, so does the Gunner and and Chaotic evil Ranger. I don’t know…

What do you guys think ?
What guns would be good with this ?
@johnrr6, @Afro_Samurai, or other Axton gurus. What do you think ?

2 Likes
The Bee with Axton? Nah
General Axton questions
#2

There was a similar build called the “Beefour” on the old forums.

http://oldforums.gearboxsoftware.com/oldforums/20150308233052/http://oldforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=331236

Here’s a snippet. Sounds pretty similar to what you’re planning.

"1. Max investment in shield recharge rate and delay buffs
2. Max investment in health regen rate buffs (equating to 18% health regen every three seconds)
3. Max investment in Action Skill cooldown buffs
4. It features a max or near-max cooldown reduction for your turrets. You can use either the Legendary Engineer OR the Legendary Soldier COM, depending on where you want your healing component (in battle or out of battle), whether you want to run with weapons that have splash components, and whether you want to max out your turret redeployment speed as high as possible. Engineer is the pure min/max form of the build, especially if you run with splash weapons.

These five unique elements synergize to minimize the “glass” portion of the “glass cannon” effect of The Bee. In fact, it minimizes the effect so much that you literally never need a heal gun at the ready for any UVHM situations. Not even for a solo DP8 run. The Bee regens so incredibly fast that if you take damage, just jinking behind LOS cover or even just sprinting laterally away from a hotspot for what seems like a mere couple of seconds is enough to fully recharge the Bee and keep burning things down even if you’re still at 50% health or less. And your health also zips back up to full very fast. In practice, your health is always regenning at 6% per second as long as you are damaging things with guns or grenades (turret damage won’t boost health regen, though). Not killing things: just damaging them."

And here’s a link to a DP run with the build. Should help a bit.
http://youtu.be/CsVYD46-IPA

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#3

That is indeed VERY close to what I had in mind, thanks a lot :smile:

#4

Good Concept and I use two variations of the B4 build.

With Legendary Soldier = http://bl2skills.com/commando.html#55055140015104014000015044105051

With Blue Chaotic Neutral or Chaotic Evil Ranger (Impact and Grit) http://bl2skills.com/commando.html#55055140015005014000005054105051

Quick charge is useless with a Bee as it recharges so quickly anyway.
Weapon swap is not really important if you are slagging with the Turrest and Magic Missiles
Magic Missiles regen so grenades are not an issue.
You WANT Battlefront and Longbow …and a LONG turret out time. This way you can hurl your turrets great distances and "Stand Off with your bee and AR and wail away relatively safe.
Preparation makes the Bee more survivable and builds health. The Bee recharges incredibly quick so great capacity is a non issue.

1 Like
#5

Addmitedly, I don’t know axton that well either, so you’re on your own for the COMs, but gun wise:

  • the shredder: you mentioned ARs and this one has one of the highest FRs in the game
  • the ogre: similar to the shreader, but less fire rate, though you do get splash damage to make up for it
  • the Bekah: mabye not the best choice, but better crits that the previous 2 ARs, and unlisted projectiles to boot
  • the lady fist: stupid amp*stupid crit=stupid2
  • the teapot/hornet: great fire rate, good spreads from range, and splash damage
  • The Harrold: probably not a great choice becuse the optimal range is a bit close for bee usage, but lots of unlisted pellets and splash
  • the T-ball: mabye not the best choice here, but really nice ratios on the splash
  • the fibber: crit or ricochet, while the crit is just a worse lady fist, the ricochet variant could get some work done
  • the pimp: 5 easy crits and one non-crit, a no brainer
  • the godfinger: unlisted pellets and a crit bonus, major drawback is the range requirement.
  • the sandhawk: the old standby, I’m guessing you want to stay away from this because it’s a bit lame, but it has to be here because of the Bee
  • the bitch: high FR, crit bonus, Hyperion gimic, what’s not to like?

Bonus round: the mongol

I’m not immediatly thinking of any shotguns that would be good with this build, that dosn’t mean they don’t exist, but…

1 Like
#6

The CC has unlisted pellets
The Blockhead has splash :smile:

Definitely

#7

I could see the CC working, but I think you may end up having the same problem with the Blockhead as the harrold, it looks good on paper, but you just have to bee too close for it to really work well with the bee. That said, you might be able to do some cool stuff bouncing projectiles off the floor…

#8

Why Battlefront ?
Seems like the impact is minimal
I would spec into anything that would make the turret more sturdy (as I want it to take all the aggro it can)

I can see the merits of that, i’m altering my spec to include it. Thanks, that’s exactly the kind of things I wanted.

#9

Adds to base gun damage and always has been an easy “go to” and it’s the best use of those 4 points…better than Expertise in this instance.

If you are getting your turrets out for a LONG time…why pass it up??

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#10

I see what you did there :smile:.

#11

Best weapons for this are what Wings listed above but add Hails…DEVASTATING with a Bee and stand off distance (go to scoped mode to tighten the pattern at range)

2 Likes
#12

would you belive me if I told you that was a complete accident and I didn’t notice until you pointed it out?

#13

Here’s what It looks like now, after seeing the Beefour thread and with your advice:

http://bl2skills.com/commando.html#55055150015005010000055052105051

I haven’t included Battlefront …simply because I don’t know which Skill to cut (and if I have less than 5 points left, I might put them in overload if i’m using ARs

#14

Yeah, the hail has everything going for it: Unlisted pellets, splash and crit bonus… the holy grail in Bee synergy… too bad I can’t really use it.

#15

Your build will work…I never spec health unless it’s one point for Legendary Soldier bonus…but many folks do.

Elemental Sanhawks and Shredders with BOA’s to get your turrets back quicker.

Ogre and Explosive Damage Relics are excellent but not quite the Turret cooldown.

Consider Elemental Scorpios with a good scope mixed with corresponding BOA’s…Chaotic Evil Ranger, Bee and head shots at range and you’d be surprised how good they are. Fast bullets “Deep” versions are the ones I like.

Elemental Kitten with a Bee at medium range is the cats meow…and it can rebuild health VERY quickly if you get hit and shield and health go south.

Another kind of niche but GREAT AR with a Bee is a corrosive Veruc used on mechanized stuff like loaders.

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#16

you might be able to pull off a bearcat with this, definately not a top tier choice, but it tosses quite a few child nades per shot granted they don’t get the full amp, but it could work with the right playstyle…mabye

Another weapon that’s severly limited by range though.

#17

Man…if ANYONE can make a Bearcat useful…lemme know…

I have tried…believe me, I’ve tried…LOL

4 Likes
#18

Same here, I think the only person who’s ever succeded is Exo with his backdraft build, and even then the slow hand was a better choice by a pretty wide margin IIRC.

#19

Salvador school of thought :smiley:
I figure, the health regen skills are % based, so the more health I have, the better they are

That does sound good. I always wanted to play more traditional ARs like Dahls, and this build might be the answer.

Actually, this time I have a suggestion for YOU :smile:
Miniguns (Dahl ARs with the Spinigun Barrel) are about on par with the Veruc on almost all aspects, except that they shoot all their shots on target instead of in a line. Try them out. @Derch can also vouch for them.

#20

Forgot about those Dahl miniguns…Excellent choice and as good…maybe better than a Scorpio

Corrosive Veruc is SUPERB at the right range on loaders…3 crits at once. But yep…it’s a niche weapon

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