[Build] JakobsGaige (A.K.A. Meredith) (lvl 72)

Borderlands 2 Gaige the Mechromancer
#1

As the title already gives away, this build is centered around using Jakobs weapons.
The intention was to gett the Unforgiven to work, and keeping accuracy to allow sniping aswell in most situations.
However, the build still allows for a in your face playstyle with tradational, non-elemental Jakobs weaponry.
The gear that gets used is (relatively) easy to find, except for the shield choice.
Here-in, Discord looping is a thing, but used to go from 100 back to somewhere between 65/70; the more accuracy, the better for most of the loadout.

For a more up to date OP10 version of this build, I high recommend Shedinja’s Meredith Lives.

The build

BFF:

Close Enough 5/5: Used to advance to the third tier of skills, and comes in handy when there’s a moment where accuracy is a non-issue.
Cooking Up Trouble: Taking advantage from Jakobs’ traits, gives more survivability.
The Better Half 1/5: To diminsh the drawback on the Unforgiven, a single point is neough for the COM that will be used.
Upshot Robot 1/1: More DT to help in the field, nice little bonus to melee damage aswell, benefits both DT and WC.
Unstoppable Force 3/5: Excellent shield related skill when BSS doesn’t cut it, nice movement boost aswell. Not as important in this build, unless you go in your face with the enemy.

LBT:

More Pep 5/5: Used to advance more into the tree, but also to give a boost to IO.
Myelin 5/5: By far my personaly favorite defensive skill, shield cap does not do that much but the 30% shock resistance is a help.
Shock Storm 5/5: Since the main intention is to keep accuracy in check, why not go for a AOE skill that got recently patched? Situational, but it does help in stripping nearby enemies’ shields.
Strength Of 5 Gorillas 5/5: To give DT a nice damage boost.
Shock and Agh! 1/1: Act as a Tesla grenade! Initial damage is pitiful, but it gives good dot. With the frequency it goes off on Jakobs shotguns it definetly comes in handy.
Interspersed Outburst 5/5: Free slag, too much RNG behind it but when it kicks it it’ll allow you to hit harder, the reason why MP has 5 points.

OC:

Smaller, Lighter Faster 4/4: Essential to go deeper into this tree, but still something that comes in handy.
Anarchy 1/1: Main damage dealer.
Annoyed Android: 2/5: The skill used to sink a few points in.
Robot Rampage 1/1: New toy for DT, increases his melee damage in bursts.
Blood Soaked Shields 5/5: Another defensive skill, 5% health loss on kill gets easily compensated.
Discord 1/1: Emergency health regen and getting a huge firerate boost when it is nescecary.
Typecast Iconoclast 5/5: Faster anarchy stack gain. Maybe contradicting for this build, so removing 3 points and using them on AA is a choice.
Rational Anarchist 1/1: Bit of a damage boost on our first reload/kill, every bit helps.
Nth Degree 5/5: Hugely beneficial for multi-pellet weapons,and CE in this build.
With Claws 1/1: Only occasionally used, but gives decent damage on slagged enemies, and it provides some health regen. Gets use when using non-Striker shotguns.

The gear:

Unforgiven: Reason why TBH gets used in this build. Could use more crit damage but once you can negate the low firerate it is not a bad weapon.
-Against Loaders: Maggie revolver that wants to be a shotgun, high raw damage and high DPS is why this gets chosen to be used against all kinds of Loaders.
Muckamuck A nice all around rifle that will work just fine. However:
-Alternatives: Hawk Eye, a harder hitting take on the Muck, severe penalties for doign body shots, but with a sniper rifle, no one’s aiming for the limbs anyway. Downside is that it’s only dropped by Voracidious.
Striker: A monster of a shotgun. One of the reasons this build became a thing.
Tidal Wave: Maybe not as traditional, but this shotgun has pseudo-B0re, a ricochet ability (which possibly means no CE penalty) and a spread that screams to be used against Loaders.
-Alternative: Coach Gun or Quad, Coach Gun provides a good balance between damage and ammo per shot, the Quad puts out vastly more damage but it’s also very hungry.

(W.I.P.)

[quote]For OP8, the loadout will change a bit:
Pistols: The original has the Unforgiven, but the fire rate isn’t enough compared to the damage output when you take DR and health regen into account. Stick with the Maggie, or go for the Iron.

Spec: The 1 point in Better Half is to help the Unforgiven and Buffalo, so on OP8 take that point out and put it in Unstoppable Force.

Com: A purple Prodigy is pointless since there is no Better Half now. Go with a blue that is +6 to Cooking Up Trouble.[/quote]

Thanks to @ACNAero for trying it on OP8, and giving me this info.

Optional gear:
Bekah: Used against pesky Constructors, optional on 72, a must on OP8.

Shield: Blockade, the Anshin that takes damage reduction in a diffirent way. Over 30% DR makes sure that Gaige can tank damage. Combined with BSS you will be sure to last long.
Grenade: Your prefered method to slag enemies: Crossfire, Magic Missile, etc.
Class Mod: Prodigy, the extra accuracy is what made this build easier to handle, and the extra reload speed is welcome due to Jakobs’ natural low mag sizes.
Relic:Allegiance relic: recoil reduction and accuracy recovery. Removes some/most of the kick the weapons have, and it is another thing that just plain benefits the Unforgiven.

Usefull links (might happen that more will be added in the future):
List of prefixes, and what grips do
DDD: Min-maxing your gear
-Personal notes:
Due to the accurate nature of this build, on the sniper rifles I recommend the stability prefix, and on the Striker either Huntin’ or Doc’s.

To do:
-Write a better introduction
-Adding exact skill values with the COM that is used.


Might do a second one in the future. Here it is:
5 Likes
Meredith Lives: A tribute to MidnightNova
[Build] Shocking Anarchist (lvl 72 & OP8)
Mechromancer Master List: Build Collection
[GUIDE] To BL2 Allegiance
Short Newbish Gaige questions
[GUIDE] To BL2 Allegiance
#2

Typecast Iconoclast - I wouldn’t hesitate to max this out at the expense of certain other skills, especially if you’re Discord Looping and are already that far down the tree. I’m looking forward to seeing this in combat. I’m pleasantly surprised that you didn’t grab the Twister and a number of her shock-based skills in the Little Big Trouble tree. Are you bringing this to OP8?

#3

I actually avoided using the Twister, to keep this build elemental-less. Purist or something its called.
I dont have much confidence on getting this to OP8, not when I want to keep accuracy in mind without losing DPS too much.

#4

I think you could… the Blockade is a very burly shield, and with Blood Soaked Shields and Unstoppable Force (plus Cooking Up Trouble and Discord Looping for health regeneration), survivability shouldn’t be an issue.

With those high-end Jakobs guns, as long as your enemies are slagged, you should be in good shape for damage too (probably not raiding, and the Hyperion Circle of Slaughter might be rough during the last two rounds without something corrosive, but most everything else should be workable). I am interested to see how the Tidal Wave works in this context (I only very recently learned about its pseudo-B0re capabilities myself).

#5

That’s not it, i use a similar defensive set-up on my OP8 character, just without CuT. And diffirent ways of healing.

What worries me the most is that the accuracy management (Striker, Buffalo, Unforgiven w/ Discord looping) wouldn’t work on OP8 without losing too much DPS.

#6

The Buffalo is going to shine here, I think, because it has insanely high accuracy (so can tolerate more Anarchy), plus, given Anarchy counts that may be high enough to cause issues for other weapons, you may be playing at closer distances to accommodate your other weapons, where the Buffalo will remain viable.

I may enlist the Buffalo for my next gear exchange program, actually; I am curious to see how well it handles a healthy Anarchy stack.

#7

Actually. Doing this run made me rediscover the Buffalo, and how great Gaige can handle that rifle.
When I’m not tired it is my prefered rifle on sniper distances.

May try the Elephant Rifle aswell. But I think the Buffalo works better in her case.
Now, if the Skullmasher could spawn without a scope… drewl

Anyway, one of these days I might decide on working on getting it into the OP levels. Atleast it should work on OP4.

#8

Good stuff! I really like your gear choices. Gaige with a sniper rifle always seems counter-intuitive to me, but Jakobs and Discord looping seem like a natural fit, so I bet the Buffalo is fun as hell with this setup.

I frickin’ love Jakobs generally and the Buffalo in particular, but man, I can’t hit sh*t with the Elephant Gun. And missed shots are very costly with that sucker.

#9

Didn’t expect it to be possible either. Not untill I theorised that Jakobs has diffirent accuracy modifiers when using the sights. But its also partially thanks to the COM choice that makes it possible.

And hey, thanks! I appreciate it that others are enjoying this -what might be considered- counter-intuitive build.

Trying never hurts. Elephant Gun and Cobra are items I still want to try out on this build. Specially the Cobra if Anarchy affects its splash damage.

#10

Hey Nova, have you tried the Hawkeye? It is being discussed in the Axton TG thread and I thought about it with your allegiance setup.

#11

Actually, @Derch brought it up on one of his Top gear video’s for Maya. Which made me ad the Hawk Eye on the list of weapons I want to try (but dont have yet) on this build.

1 Like
#12

Between this and the axton top gear I’m loving the hawkeye love right now

1 Like
#13

I really doubt that Gaige cant gett it to work. The Cobra is the one I’m mostly curious about however.

#14

The main problem with the Hawkeye is farming it. Fcking Vora! :rage:

4 Likes
#15

Can you explain this in more detail? I seem to have been missing something important, and I’d love to, well love, the Buffalo but the ironsights drive me nuts.

The build is looking good, I might even forgive you for not not telling me you posted it :acmtease:

#16

From personal experience atleast, you seemingly can snipe with a Muck/Buffalo/etc at higher stacks (120 compared to 90 on non Jakobs) than lets say a Terror or Snider (though the Snider compensates in its own way by having splash damage). If it is true, then it just follows Jakobs’ ideal more, if not, then I’m just imagining things.

Please forgive me for this travesty. And thank you.

@Adabiviak Going to gett this buld into the OP levels one of these days. Not sure when. But since the Buffalo gets an average on 20 million damage on crit it basically means that I’m currently waltzing through the game.

#17

What COM are you using at the moment?

#18

On this build? I stick to the one noted above.

#19

I agree, but the way you mentioned a different accuracy modifier when using sights/scope had me interested. I wondered if this was something subjective or if there’s a noticeable difference with the crosshairs? Can’t say I’ve thought about it, at least not recently enough to remember.

No worries at all, just yanking your chain :acmwink: I know I visit the forums and Discord too seldom these days.

On a side note, have you tried this with one of the TT COMs? Their skill boosts won’t do much for you, but the variety of text boosts to crit, mag size and fire rate make them some of my favorites in any scenario.
I can only see the fire rate helping the Unforgiven or the unique snipers, mind you, this only occurred to me as I was typing.

#20

Since I mostly use their items while scoped I don’t pay attention to the crosshairs, which is what you want with Jakobs in alot of situations. They dissapear anyway when using the sight.

The Necromancer did came to mind, but the Prodigy just benefits this build more. For the reason you just stated.

It kinda affects the Buffalo aswell. But yeah, TBH is mostly there because Unforgiven.

Oh and before I forget…

It definetly needs a keen eye, not to mention that it does not account for aiming on the vertical axis. But I personally prefer it since it doesn’t interfere with your field of view that much.