As the game’s premier elementalist, it comes as little surprise that Lilith has a com dedicated to the use of Incendiary weapons. Boasting an impressive +60% Ignite Damage 1st line effect, this class mod does not disappoint when it comes to turning your foes into towering infernos.
The Pros:
-Burn baby, BURN! (Unparalleled Incendiary damage output)
-Buff to Diva helps with durability.
-Com buffed Phoenix will incinerate anything that dares get near you.
The Cons:
-Some enemies refuse to burn to death (and don’t take appreciable damage from incendiary bullet impacts either).
-Class mod buffs skills that are useless while in phasewalk, so phasewalk isn’t all that useful in this build.
-Phoenix can set off explosive barrels that are near you when you least expect it.
The Skill Tree:
http://talent.87bazillion.com/siren.php?505055355000555055550
The Why:
Controller Tree: 23 points
-Diva: It’s buffed by the com and increases our shield capacity by 6%/pt. Why would you not 5/5 this?
-Inner Glow: Although this build isn’t big on staying in Phasewalk, when you’re missing a lot of health because of a close call, the Health regeneration while in Phasewalk is very handy, and since we also have the points for Hit & Run we can take maximum advantage of Inner Glow when we need it.
-Hard To Get: While staying in Phasewalk is suboptimal in light of Phoenix and effectively Spark and Diva not being useful in Phasewalk either, Popping in and out quickly for the Phase Blast damage (incendiary element preferred of course) is plenty effective, so minimizing our Phasewalk cooldown is recommended.
-Girl Power: One of the best defensive skills in the game, and it synergizes well with our com buffed shield capacity increase from Diva. The regeneration does not function while in Phasewalk but any remaining duration when we exit Phasewalk will still be applied, but we don’t typically want to stay in Phasewalk anyways, so we make pretty efficient use of this skill.
-Mind Games (3/5): This is such a excellent 3/5 skill since w/ rapid fire weapons even a small chance to Daze is enough to pretty reliably Daze our target quickly.
Elemental Tree: 20 points
-Quicksilver: An always on 7%/pt. Weapon Fire Rate buff? Of course we want that!
-Spark: It’s buffed by the com and increases tech pool size and regeneration rate, making our elemental weapons proc more often (proc’s cost tech). Since this build is all about using Incendiary weapons, this skill is a obvious must!
-Intuition: On-kill movement speed and team experience increase. This skill is very useful in facilitating moving quickly around the battlefield, and that’s especially useful to us in light of how useful Phoenix is to help us turn our foes into ashes.
-Phoenix: It’s buffed by the com, and gives us on-kill chance to reduce shot ammo cost by 1 and AoE Fire damage around us. The fire damage is very effective at stacking DoT too, and the com’s first line +60% Ignite Damage buff increases all of this fire damage significantly. As a result, this skill is incredibly powerful in this build and a must 5/5.
Assassin Tree: 25 points
-Slayer: Might as well do more damage with our critical hits, this adds 12.5% of non-critical hit damage per skill point to our critical hits.
-Enforcer: On-kill spread reduction and increased bullet damage. So our accuracy will go up noticeably and our damage by a small amount to, win-win.
-Hit & Run: This skill is really basically optional, I took it for the synergy w/ Inner Glow for when we need it, but you could just as well put these points elsewhere. Some good alternatives include: Dramatic Entrance (Phase Blast that Dazes), Resilience (Damage Reduction vrs. Elemental Damage), or Silent Resolve (High Damage Reduction for 5 seconds after exiting Phasewalk).
-High Velocity: Much faster bullets that deal more damage? Sign me up!
-Blackout: On-kill cooldown reduction, applies instantly, so multiple kills in rapid succession will grant full effect. This also helps us have Phasewalk up frequently for Phase Blasting as well as defensive use.
Gear:
Weapons:
The rule here is simple: Incendiary = good, but there are some Incendiary weapons that are so damn good that they deserve special mention, top of that list:
-Hellfire: The legendary Maliwan Hellfire SMG is well known for how incredibly effective it is at burning just about everything that dares to try and attack you, and with good reason: the legendary part is a superior version of the Incendiary accessory for SMGs, giving the Hellfire unmatched performance as an incendiary weapon.
-Firehawk: The legendary Maliwan Firehawk Repeater Pistol is like a pocket Hellfire, and is a similarly standout performer in the category of incendiary weapons.
-Volcano: This legendary repeating sniper, also manufactured by Maliwan, is, like the Firehawk and Hellfire, also a standout for it’s type as an incendiary weapon.
-Draco: This gun was supposed to be S&S’s legendary machine gun, but the part doesn’t cause the associated title and increased rarity that would make it appear as a legendary with the name Draco in game. To identify a Draco, look for an Incendiary Machine Gun of S&S manufacture that has an accessory under the barrel shaped like a popcan. It should have above par damage, magazine size and accuracy for a machine gun with the parts it has. It is an above par incendiary Machine Gun as result of the special Draco accessory.
Different weapon types tend to have somewhat different behavior with their incendiary elemental effects, here’s a rundown of what they each excel at:
-Repeater Pistols: Low tech costs+moderate rates=tech pool lasts a while, surprisingly good for DoT stacking.
-Machine Pistols: Share the low tech costs of Repeaters, but have Stinger SMG level fire rates. Make great buller hoses that will still stack DoT pretty well.
-Revolver Pistols: Slow fire rates, but always proc, so they WILL apply DoT everytime (unless ofc the target is DoT immune, many bosses are). High accuracy make them great for sharpshooting DoT stacking.
-SMGs: High Fire Rate and good accuracy, but high tech costs, so poor at stacking DoT. Best for mid-range impact DPSing.
-Combat Shotguns: Generally low accuracy, high impact DPS, poor proc rates. Procs are an, all-or-none thing though, so when they do proc, it will stack quite a bit of DoT if all the pellets hit the target.
-Assault Shotguns: Similar to Combat Shotguns, but have higher fire rates and somewhat lower per-shot damage and pellet counts are usually lower (7 versus 7 to 12 depending on type of Combat Shotgun in question)
-Combat Rifles: Burst fire, and highly accurate, poor proc rates, and thus best of impact DPS sharpshooting.
-Machine Guns: Less accurate than SMGs but higher impact DPS, other characteristics are similar.
-Repeating Sniper Rifles: Extreme accuracy, high tech costs make DoT stacking hard, but proc chance is high, so they will proc periodically. Low fire rate. Best for long range sniping.
-Semi-auto Sniper Rifles: Very High accuracy, higher fire rate than Repeating Snipers, procs infrequent as a result. Best for long range impact DPSing.
-Rocket Launchers (also, Carnage Shotguns): Despite not taking advantage of Enforcer, High Velocity, or Spark, Incendiary Rockets are still quite effective with this build, useful for providing excellent AoE damage, and spreading Incendiary DoT around.
Shield:
As is usual with Lilith, the higher the maximum shield capacity the better. This is even more true for this build since our com buffs Diva. As such maximum capacity Pangolin shields are typically ideal, however, if most of the damage coming at us is of a particular type, then using a maximum capacity Extreme Resistance shield of the applicable type (Cationic/Endothermic/Hazmat for Shock/Incendiary/Corrosive respectively) may be more effective.
Grenade Mod:
Since the com gives a massive buff to Incendiary damage, we have a significant natural preference for Incendiary Grenades over other types.
Here’s a rundown of the various types of Incendiary nades and their uses.
-Contact: Basic general purpose explodes on contact grenades that do good damage in a moderate radius.
-Rubberized: These will bounce around like crazy! With some practice however, you can reliably throw them near enough to the enemy that they will explode immediately (their trigger radius a fair bit bigger than Contact grenades). Their blast radius also seems to be bigger than Contact Grenades too.
-Sticky: Stick to objects and people, will detonate after a brief timer. A little harder to land than Rubberized and Contact nades, but they’ll stay with the target and detonate a little later, this is helpful against enemies that hit-and-run (like Rakk) as it means they will get far enough away from you before the Grenade goes off that you won’t be caught in your own Grenade’s blast radius.
-Proximity Mine: Only stick to the ground but they will stay there for quite some time before detonating, unless of course an enemy wanders too close after their brief arming time. These are great against enemies that bum-rush you (skags, psychos), set up a minefield ahead of time, and then start the fight and let them run through the minefield to get to you.
-Longbow: The ultimate sniping Grenades, deliver exploding incendiary death with pinpoint precision over tremendous distances. Aim at the targets feet to make sure it lands next to them so they’ll feel the hurt. Also great for nade-jumping.
-Bouncing Bettie: Great for spreading Incendiary DoT all around, use these to soften up a mob for easy pickings.
-MIRV: Kinda like Bouncing Betties, but smaller blast radius and they take longer to do their thing. The upshot of this is that they deny area better than Betties do, and are somewhat better at getting at enemies in cover too.
-Rain: These Grenades are rather unique, the Grenade pops into the air about 10-15 feet and then rains down fire on anything caught below. These are REALLY good DoT stackers, use em to get a nice big Incendiary DoT stack going on your unfortunate victim(s).
Mat2 or Mat3?:
The mat2 version gives +84% Ignite Resistance, which works out to 84% increased Health and Shields versus Incendiary damage, whereas the mat3 version gives +42% Elemental Effect Chance which works only if the held weapon is incendiary and works out to a 42% increase in tech pool regeneration rate. Unless you are expecting to be mostly taking Incendiary damage or are running Incendiary Carnage Shotguns and Rocket Launchers (which have no tech pool), the mat3 version is generally preferable to the mat2 version.
General tips and other information:
This build is very focused on gunplay with incendiary weapons, getting kills will usually be easy, so your defensive needs will often be taken care of by Girl Power alone. Phasewalk serves two purposes in this build, dealing Incendiary damage in an AoE around you, and escaping from dangerous situations. You should run the Incendiary artifact unless you happen to be fighting enemies that are highly resistant to Incendiary damage (which there are relatively few of) so as to take advantage of the +60% Ignite Damage 1st line effect of the com. Phoenix does VERY good damage in this build in its own right, and can easily kill fleshy enemies entirely on it’s own. As such, it’s often a good idea once you get a kill to quickly run past any nearby enemies to light them on fire with Phoenix. Since many enemies are fleshy (at least once their shield is removed), Incendiary DoT tends to be very effective at finishing off wounded enemies. With practice it becomes fairly easy to judge when you’ve shot an enemy enough that he will burn to death and you can move on to the next target early and let the DoT do the rest.
I’m actually almost never using PW defensively. My strategy is to activate it, charge into a mob, phaseblast them, and either put more bullets into them or PW to the next mob (Hit’n’Run helps!). Silent Resolve helps me with soaking up bullets should the mob stand longer than I want it to. Hm, I guess Mind Games is more effective on single targets, like bosses, then. Anyway, matter of opinion, definitely! I see your point!