So I’m also trying my hand at Krieg, and am still in normal VHM with him. Because it’s not my playstyle (I’m more of a sneaker / sniper) I wanted to try a melee character. So far, medicore luck – I actually still have trouble targeting in crowds! Whatever. I have acquired a Law and an Order, and am wondering
if I JUST stick to melee, the combo seems reasonable, even for higher levels. But I just can’t kill anything at level 29 with my level 16 gun. Is that ok?
Order seems nice, but probably at some point the roid bonus, which is fixed, will get too small once I get into TVHM, and it takes a while until I can get the BFF quest. What to do in the meantime? I need constant healing or else I’m … meat.
Order is a quest item. So that once I complete the quest, that’s it: that’s the object I get for the rest of that playthrough. I was sort of hoping I could get an Inflammable Order, since that would let me try the Hellborn tree without screwing up too much. But if my Order spawns without Inflammable, that’s just tough luck – right? There’s no way to repeat the quest, and Order doesn’t drop anywhere else, right?
By the time you reach TVHM you’ll most likely have enough skillpoints to spec into Release the Beast. RtB along with Empty the Rage means no roid damage needed.
The inflammable prefix prevents you from getting a lot of bonuses from the hellborn tree, wait until you can have some points into Elemental Empathy.
If I’m not mistaken the Order is a rare drop from Lynchwood’s sheriff.
It’s actually the Law that drops from the sheriff, see post below.
If you’re using them strictly for melee the level of either Law or the Rapier doesn’t matter- you use them for the melee damage, not the weapon damage when you shoot them. It’s more a function of Order rather than Law, as you can use a low level Law with a high level Order- again, it’s only the melee damage with Law that you want. While you wait for for the BFF quest to appear in TVHM try any roid shield you come across- they’ll work, you just won’t get the healing that Law & Order give but as has been said- once you get Release the Beast you won’t need them…
I wouldn’t go straight melee at early game to be honest…
Needs upgrade buddy, that may be viable with certain legendary items, but not with uniques.
You may want to stick to a purple Roid shield, or a Rough Rider if you invested into Silence the Voices
Don’t go Hellborn early game. Spec into Bloodlust or Mania after you decide to go to play with fire.
Aside that, Hellborn K bonus are better when meat man is on fire, so an Inflammable shield will ■■■■ all the bonuses that the tree grants.
One can farm quest rewards for desired parts. On PC, alt-tab to desktop and close BL2 from there. That will quit without saving. Then just restart the game, and repeat until you get what you want. This is also a key technique for any character when you get your Pimpernel, Rubi, Sandhawk, SWORDSPLOSION!!! or any other important quest reward. On consoles, the term is “dashboarding” which is clearly functionally similar but may differ in some details. Since there’s an actual term for it, I gather it’s a more commonly used technique over there.
Re: Law & Order, your Law is fine as long as your Order is worth using, assuming you don’t bother actually shooting the Law. Once you ditch Order, the Rapier is the way to go for melee outside of Buzz Axe Rampage. Melee Zeros like having a Slag Evisceration Rubi, since that gives Moxxi healing while you melee, and you can shoot it to apply slag. I don’t think Krieg cares that much though.
For what it’s worth, with my low level Krieg alt I rarely melee outside of Rampage. Mostly I shoot at stuff until my shield drops, then hit f and go nuts until the enemies and/or Krieg are dead. Fun, fast, and often effective!
As I see it, Krieg can just progress between the various melee-friendly shields in the game. Flame of the Firehawk to some roid shields to Love Thumper to Capt. Blade’s Manly Man Shield to Order to Deadly Bloom to Rough Rider, etc. Some of those are much better than others, but they’re all at different levels so even the less ideal ones will still be upgrades when the time comes.
If kills in Rampage aren’t keeping you topped off, Thrill of the Kill can help with healing outside of Rampage. That would be a skill to ditch when you hit 31 and get Release the Beast though. You’ll probably be wanting to reorganize your Mania points for that anyway at that point.
Thanks much. Just a couple of follow-up questions then please:
Worblehat, most of the shields you mention don’t offer any defensive protection, so when you say you shoot at stuff until your shields are depleted, you are using a different shield?
You also say you then hit f and go nuts until enemies and/or Krieg are dead. I do that too, it’s just the Krieg being dead part that sort of keeps me stumbling I’d like to die less!
RoughRider: that video shows a fully decked out Krieg, right? I haven’t hit the first capstone yet, and he obviously has 2. But what pistol is that? (seems explosive) And what sort of relics / mods does that person use?
I take the shield recharge delay increase on Feed the Meat and Embrace the Pain as being Krieg’s way of telling us that shields aren’t meant to be a form of defense for him. Increased delay is great for roid shields and Firehawk, irrelevant for the Rough Rider and Manly Man, and bad for any other kind of shield. The way I look at it, he does most of his damage when rampaging, and skills like Empty the Rage and later Salt the Wound boost damage when your shield is down (not to mention the cooldown reduction from taking damage). So the shields on my list are mostly either nova shields (Firehawk, Deadly Bloom) that will burst extra damage to everyone around you, or roid shields that boost your melee damage by a substantial amount. Either way, the shield needs to be down to do its thing.
Dying - yeah, that can be a problem. I think we kind of have to just deal with it until we get enough skill points for Release the Beast. So far the only situations that proved troublesome were tight spaces with lots of barrels. Bloodshot Stronghold + Flame of the Firehawk killed everything in sight, including Krieg, on several occasions. Other than that, sure, sometimes there will be too many enemies to kill in one Rampage and you’ll die before cooldown ends. But that’s something to work on, both improving your judgement of when you can charge in, and improving your ability to be an evasive target, make what use of cover you can, prioritizing targets, making sure something wimpy is nearby for an easy second wind if you think you’ll enter FFYL. I’m still learning a lot from Krieg taking me out of my normal comfort zone.
The pistol that OP8 Krieg was using in the Bar video is the Double Penetrating Unkempt Harold, which is farmed either from Savege Lee in Three Horns Divide, or from the Torgue vending machines in DLC2. The last 20 seconds of the video go through the equipment screen.
I thought I had written a guide to Krieg for new players, but I guess not. Anyway, you’re better off going with Mania and then either picking up Hellborn or Bloodlust once you reach level 32. For Mania follow these steps in this order.
Max Feed the Meat.
Max Empty the Rage.
Throw a point into Thrill of the Kill.
Max Fuel the Rampage unless you’re playing with others. If you are, skip it completely.
Max Strip the Flesh.
Throw a point into Light the Fuse (it’s not worth the point unless StF is maxed).
Throw a point into Redeem the Soul even if you play solo because the extra FFYL time comes in handy when paired with LtF.
Max Salt the Wound even if you don’t use shotguns because the melee bonus will come in handy when rampaging.
Add three points to Embrace the Pain.
Skip StV and throw a point into Release the Beast and take the point out of Thrill of the Kill and any in Fuel the Rampage.
By now your spec (level 31) should look something like this. From here you should decide if you want to go with Bloodlust (more gun damage, damage reduction while rampaging, and Bloodsplosion!) or Hellborn (light yourself and your enemies on fire). Check out @xmngr’s guide to Hellborn Krieg if you want to go that route. Otherwise:
Max Blood Filled Guns.
Max Taste of Blood.
Max Fuel the Blood.
Throw a point into Buzz Ax Bombardier.
Max Blood Bath.
Max Boiling Blood.
Max Nervous Blood.
Throw a point into Bloodsplosion.
Don’t rampage until you’re at 33% or less health (you get the flashing red exclamation mark). After you make a melee kill while rampaging, switch over to throwing your buzzaxes until FtB expires (7 seconds without a Reaper COM). Rinse and repeat.
This spec really enjoys explosive weaponry so Mr. Torgue will become your new best friend. As for shields and gear, go with the Love Thumper until you find something better or an adaptive shield. Stay away from all Turtle shields because they’re strength is having a high shield capacity, but they take away health, which is what you need to survive. Adaptives are good because they give health, but a Rough Rider is the best since it also provides 20% damage reduction and has no capacity so skills like Empty the Rage and Embrace the Pain are always active. Also, it’s easier to get and maintain StW stacks. It’s also what you need if you spec Silence the Voices because it’ll help mitigate some of the self-inflicted damage from that skill.
Let me know if you need any more help and enjoy the meat man!
Thank you very much, this is most excellent indeed!
So if I understand correctly (and I read the links to which you had linked), after Mania hits 31, I can rely on my Meat much better (currently, I am still running around with a shield and trying to shoot stuff, but it’s ok), and then I have 2 main options (basically – obviously I have more, but this is the main gist):
I spec into Bloodlust (which seems quite popular) which will give me more damage reduction during Rampages, some explosive and rof boosts, and eventually my AoE Bloodsplosion, which apparently is quite nice, especially for mobbing,
I spec into Hellborn (which apparently is the path slightly less travelled), which would give me damage reduction while ignited, healing, and elemental boosts – apparently nice for raiding?
Right?
I’ve really never been able to kill a “raid” boss (not exactly sure I know what that is) on TVHM, so I’d be keen on getting a character that might actually be able to do that (my main is Gaige, and she’s great for mobs, but once DT goes down, the big bosses hurt). And apparently, I need to at least kill a couple of Raid bosses in UVHM, because that’s the only way I can see to get those Seraph crystals (of which I’ve never found any – they’re only in UVHM right?) for the good loot I’ve never seen. Right?
I’d like to die less!
Other than that, sure, sometimes there will be too many enemies to kill in one Rampage and you’ll die before cooldown ends. But that’s something to work on, both improving your judgement of when you can charge in, and improving your ability to be an evasive target, make what use of cover you can, prioritizing targets, making sure something wimpy is nearby for an easy second wind if you think you’ll enter FFYL. I’m still learning a lot from Krieg taking me out of my normal comfort zone.