This is OP8 Melee mobbing build. Its strongly focusing on using Love Thumper and Fastball, to achieve really long Many Must Fall chains even on multi Ultimate Badass enemies or other on their tier.
Skill Tree:
http://bl2skills.com/assassin.html#505001200055050155015500515501
Bloodsheed Tree:
Killing Bll0w 5/5 - Massive Melee damage and it will be active most of time
Ir0n Hand 5/5 - This for a lil bit more for survival to tank DOT damage and some additional melee damage
F0l0owthr0ught 5/5 - very strong kill skill for more Melee damage and movement speed.
Execute 1/1 - powerful melee override and like other melee overrides it does have cooldown even if icon for it not popup, the cooldown is really short, almost not noticeable
Backstab 5/5 - very useful skill for more melee damage and must have for some enemies who sometimes just wont take melee damage from front or even a side, either way always try to position yourself behind enemy so it will be active
Resurgence 5/5 - very good skill for survival and it also will be active most of time
Many Must Fall 1/1 - Must have for maintaining Deception
Cunning Tree :
Fast Hands 5/5 - faster weapon swap speed is very good because it will be used quite often and more reload speed is mostly for Slow Hand and Rapier
C0unter Strike 5/5 - huge melee boost if it will activate
Ambush 5/5 - great skill which gives damage boost to literally everything : melee, gun, grenade etc. damage while in Deception
Death Mark 1/1 - must have for debuff enemies
Unf0rseen 5/5 - after last patch is much stronger and it has very good synergy with Many Must Fall skill
Innervate 5/5 - for more movement speed and survival
Death Bl0ss0m 1/1 - must have for kunai which is counted as melee damage and for Death Mark
Snipping Tree :
Headsh0t 5/5 - for more crit damage
Killer 5/5 - very good kill skill for faster reload speed and crit damage
B0re 1/1 - mostly for see where is crit spot for certain enemies and for B0re shots with support weapons
Vel0city 2/5 - last 2 points for more projectile speed from Slow Hand, because its really slow
Gear :
Love Thumper shield - 2nd highest Riod damage plus explosive nova. Also longest recharge delay, so you don’t have to worry to break it. Most wanted(depends of which map will be played) is either inflammable or alkaline prefix, avoid grounded. Shield almost always will be down so skills like Ir0n Hand, Resurgence and Innervate are really handy to keep health at max value.
Legendary Ninja Class Mod - +64% melee damage and +5 to most important skills : Backstab, Resurgence, Killing Bl0w, Ambush and F0ll0thr0ught
Fastball Grenade - strongest grenade for single target. Comes with all elements, but most wanted are shock, fire and corrosive. Multi applications for it.
Bone of the Ancients relic - highest cooldown rate and highest elemental damage boost. Comes with shock, fire and corrosive. If you gonna use shock version then Unf0rseen skill will be much stronger. Also remember to always match Fastball to this relic with same elemental damage.
Weapons :
Slag Slow Hand - Mostly for slagging and healing. It has 72.1% of slag chance. Wanted parts for it :
- Practicable prefix(vertical grip), for additional 2 orbs per shot, to increase chance for slag
- Hyperion grip - for more magazine size and faster reload speed
- Torgue stock - so the spread of the orbs will be wider and you can cover more enemies with slag
I strongly recommend to use lowest level as possible at start. For some practice to learn how big is splash radius to avoid killing yourself.
Shock Slow Hand - Only for breaking shield. OP4 with Shock Bone of the Ancients and OP7 without it on OP8 difficulty. Both with Restructuring prefix(bladed). Always use lower level than difficulty is, to avoid killing yourself.
Rapier - weapon with highest melee damage. The only what matters with parts for it its grip. Best is Vladof for faster reload speed if you shoot with it to break Deception.
Support weapons, last slot - here I recommend Norfleet or some other strong weapons against flying enemies, like buzzards, rakks and surveyors. All of those can be nightmare if you play melee character. Especially surveyors who can stuck sometimes behind the wall.
General gameplay :
Outside Deception:
Use Slag Slow Hand as much as you can to slag most enemies. Always try to shoot(if situation allows it) on enemies feet and behind, on left or right side of them to have more chance to slag or if distance is too short and you feel you will kill yourself with it. Jump shots are also very useful with Slow Hand in some scenarios.
Breaking shield with shock Slow Hand will be only when you gain second wind. So you need to be careful and remember that F0ll0wthr0ught will be active for a short time so you will have +60% gun damage. To avoid suicide simply just wait until kill skill vanish or if you want to play aggressive then throw Fastball to gain health. In both situations(aggressive or not) you want your health to be above health gate before breaking the shield. And break shield only when Deception is active or close to it.
In Deception :
For trash mobs if they are slagged then don’t waste kunai or Fastball, simply just stab them. If they’re not slagged then 1 set of kunai is enough because it will have Roid damage from Love Thumper.
On stronger ones(Loaders, Bruisers etc) if not slagged then always kunai, Fastball and then Execute - in this order they will be in Killing Bll0w range 90% of time. If slagged then either kunai or Fastball before Execute. Some enemies from this tier required to have matched Fastball. For example you can do MMF chain on Loaders with Shock Fastball but there always can be ION Loader on your way and he will break your chain. Same goes for maps with mixed enemies to always match most neutral element for Fastball to maintain chains.
And finally for Ultimate Badass enemies you want them to be slagged before you enter Deception. Then up to 3 sets of kunai, Fastball and then Execute.
Also I’ve have mention before that there are some enemies who don’t take front melee damage, only Backstab works on them but not always. Those enemies are: Nomads with shields, some skeletons and RPG Loaders(and maybe some other, but I found difficulties on those). For them I recommend always Backstab if possible if not then just finish them with kunai and Fastball.
One last tip is to be much more aware of barrels. Because its more easy to kill yourself when using Thumper(explosive nova) than using Hide of Terramourphous.
Overall this build is to play with Deception active as long as possible on OP8. That’s why Fastball sometimes has to be matched for certain enemies to weaken them as much possible to Killing Bll0w range and with this to maintain Many Must Fall chains. Here is a presentation of it in Bandit Slaughter :
Good luck and have fun.
