Forever in Pain- Reverend Pain build

Borderlands 2 Salvador the Gunzerker
#1

The new Sal I played in THC using the Brawn tree made me want to see how successful such a build could be, as such I have made a first attempt at doing so. If it’s good enough I would like to see if it could be included in the Gunzerker Master List Build. In case the link within the doc doesn’t work here it is again:
http://bl2skills.com/gunzerker.html#514000500005055000415153205150401

Type: Misc., Mobbing
Name and link: Reverend Sal- Forever in Pain
Level of build: OP8 (edit date April 2, 2017)
Specific gear needed: yes
Difficulty level/Low/medium

First, thanks for reading this, as it is my first attempt at making a build. All of the info here is based on personal experience playing the game and not any extended dedicated testing of skill synergy- these skills just sem to make sense to me (or I just really like them).The reason for this build is that I wanted to try something different with the new VH I started with THC, and never really going much into the Brawn tree with my first Sal I wanted to see how well a Brawn based build held up the higher levels. The build is still in flux with a lot of testing ahead but as it got me here, here’s how it works…

Reverend Sal- Forever in Pain (the ‘Reverend Sal’ name comes from the fact that- to me- if you say it fast enough it sounds like you’re saying ‘forever in pain’)

http://bl2skills.com/gunzerker.html#514000500005055000415153205150401

Brawn tree
Hard to Kill 5/5- I like self healing skills and hate entering into a fight at less than full health- add to it that it also gets boosted by some of the Titan coms and it’s very useful.

Incite 3/5- reloading some of the slower firing weapons like Torgue shotguns and RL while also avoiding getting hit is a nice combination. This skill could be 5/5 if you don’t like Asbestos. Speaking of which…

Asbestos 2/5- According to Salvador’s Skills for Dummies Asbestos is an average skill; however, I do use tank and Titan coms to boost it so it is still useful in UVHM

Ain’t Got Time to Bleed 5/5- This is the first of two skills that the Salvador’s Skills for Dummies says is bad in UVHM. I took it because I like health skills but if you agree that it doesn’t do it for you go with Bus That Can’t Slow Down instead…

Fistful of Hurt- Gives you some breathing space from all the melee attackers that bum rush you and can kill weakend foes so, nice…

All Out of Bubblegum 5/5- As Sal it’s almost a guarantee that your shields will go down so why not make the most of it?

Just Got Real 4/5- The second skill that the Sal’s Skills for Dummies says is bad at UVHM but as I tend to play Sal as a face fisrt style of combat low health is a given for me- might as well get the most of my particular style of play… :slight_smile:

Come At Me, Bro 1/1- Great for when DOT is about to take you down but in the middle of an overwhelming mob you can go into FFL before the animation is over. Not suggested to be used when surrounded by Heavy Nomads or RL Goliaths…

Rampage tree
Inconceivable 5/5- I don’t know the hard facts behind this but from listening to the Money Shot chains that were occuring this, combined with Ain’t Got Time to Bleed and Just Got real, can really boost your DPS- of course, this means you’re about one shot away from dying but hey, high risk, high reward…

All in the Reflexes 5/5- Increased reload speed is a good thing- the melee damage is a bonus (for Fistful of Pain)…

Last Longer 5/5- A lot of the Brawn skills benefit from a longer gunzerking duration so the skill is a no brainer…

Yippie Ki Ya 4/5- combines with Last Longer- more gunzerk time is a good thing…

Double Your Fun 1/1- used this to cheese Badassasaurus (with an underleveled Lobbed Storm Front at that). Why not?

Get Some- having another Gunzerk at the ready before your current one is finished? Hell yes!

Keep Firing- More fire rate and more reload speed- what’s not to like?

Gunlust tree
Locked and Loaded 5/5- combines with Keep Firing and Incite to boost reload speed even more, which is again a good thing…

Quick Draw 1/5 and I’m Your Huckleberry 4/5- I combined these two skills because I’m not sure I’m Your Huckleberry only works if you dual wield pistols. Since I finished UVHM using a slag Kitten/DPUH combo I was torn as to whether it was needed or not but I think it is. If it turns out I’m wrong or you don’t use pistols then Quick Draw at 5/5 is the way to go…

Money Shot 5/5- Because staying alive is easier if you can kill your enemies quickly…

Gear- this is the area that needs the most testing as I didn’t farm for specific items aside from the DPUH and just tended to use what I found or bought (or what I had stashed on mules from previous characters).

Guns- Rubi, Kitten, DPUH. Start with just any guns until the point in the game where you can get the Rubi. Once I reached level 60 I had a slag Kitten on a mule that I had never really used on anyone so I put that in his off hand. It still does relatively well as far as damage goes despite being 12 levels under and it can proc Money Shot chains- no doubt if it where on level my DPS would have been even better. The Kitten is a quest reward in the Mr Torgue dlc, which is the best place to get the DPUH as they are sometimes the Item of the Day in Torgue vendors. Since I never tried shotguns, SMG, AR’s, SR or RL there’s a lot of work to do here…

Grenades- slag transfusions are what I started with until I was high enough level to use the Storm Front I had on a mule. During the later stages I tried a Quasar with pretty good results- grouping mobs together made it easier to lay the smackdown on them with the DPUH.

Shields- use the best adaptive shields you can find. Nominally this would be either the Neogenator or Evolution- the Neogenator is aquired by doing the Monster Mash side quest for Doc Zed and creating Spycho or you have a chance to snag it in the Halloween Headhunter pack from the renamed Spycho at the forge. The Evolution is dropped by Hyperious the Invincible in the Capt Scarlett dlc (or you could try trading for them- buyer beware in that case…). The increased health granted by such shields all benefit from most of the Brawn health skills (this is a guess as well as JMO).

Relics- I used the Sheiff’s Badge once I got it; before that cooldown proficency relics or element boosting relics are what I used…

Class mods- Tank and Titan/Grand Titan class mods were the standard class mods except when I needed to regen ammo- for that I used a Hoarder com. The mainstay was a level 50 Grand Titan mod that was +6 Hard to Kill, +5 Out of Bubblegum- I replaced it later with a higher level Grand Titan with the exact same stat boosts to the exact same skills and at level 70 and then level 72 I switched to a Legendary Titan.

That’s pretty much it- this is still a build that needs a lot of testing (especially against raid bosses and the OP levels) with a lot of things so if anyone wants to add their opinions, observations, suggestions or more importantly, actually game play footage, please- feel free to do so!

OFFICIAL UPDATE: based on the recommendations of Chuck80 the Reverend Pain build has been changed to this:

http://bl2skills.com/gunzerker.html#550000500005055000415153205105041
The biggest change to notice in the Brawn tree is that Just Got real and All Out of Bubblegum are replaced with Bus That Can’t Slow Down and Sexual Tyrannosaurus. While I hate giving up the damage boost from AOoB the faster movement speed should help with not getting hit, with should help with NOT losing health :grin: And since Sexual Tyrannosaurus is a healing skill (and I’ve stated that I like healing skills), it now gets it’s chance to shine. I’ll be testing this out shortly to see how it works…

Also, while most of the top rated gear should work for this build I’m willing to try things I’ve passed over with other characters and even my original Sal. As an example I tested the Fire Fire Teeth of Terramorphus I got the other day and found that if you can time it to wear the teeth ‘chomp’ together it can do well against fleshy enemies at up to mid range. However, due to the slow fire rate I would not recommend this against rabid enemies or Goliaths that have lost their helmets…

Official Update No. 2
http://bl2skills.com/gunzerker.html#550000500005055000415153205150041

While the speed boost from BTCSD is nice I missed the DPS boost from AOoB so that came back. Now have a BotA that gives +44.3% health and 60% SR ammo so I paired up the new Slag Kitten with a shock Maliwan SR and tested that and a slag Sledge’s Shotgun with the shock Practicable Slow Hand against Mr. Tinder Snowflake with good results. Also now have an Evolution shield with a 71% element resistance and a 1.67 recharge delay. May be a while before more testing can be done as a real life situation is getting serious. Will continue to test the build and gear as possible…

Official Update No. 2.0
http://bl2skills.com/gunzerker.html#550000501005055000415053205150041
As suggested by @Chuck80 and @artag have moved the point from Keep Firing to Down Not Out. This should help maintain DPS in FFL scenarios (which with the way I play Sal tends to happen more than a few times :wink:) Testing will commence sometime this weekend…

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Gunzerker Master List: Build Collection
Gunzerker Master List: Build Collection
#2

I would personally swap out Just got real for Sexy t-rex.
A 40% gun damage boost that is conditional to your health is really not that good.

Things to think of with brawn:

Usually, Sal relies on guns to heal, and on skills to kill
With brawn, you’re using skills to heal…so you should use guns to kill
That means no underwhelming guns like the Rubi that are there mostly for their special effect, you don’t have as many skill points invested in DPS, and you don’t need as much healing…

I suggest you go toward a more powerful gun instead, and if it really has to be a Moxxi, pick the Kitten or the Slow hand instead. The healing isn’t as great, but the damage is much better.

Consider also mobility as a damage mitigation method: between Bus that can’t slow down and incite, you can almost dodge bullets. Stick to guns with at least passable accuracy and you can take the fight to medium range.

Tank COM = BAAAAAAD
Stick to the Titan…or the beast if you took Trex

Brawn = Vitality relic…seriously

Overall, it’s a nice start. Keep improving it :slight_smile:

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#3

Thanks. I just dinged level 72 last night and after a slight debate decided to get all the uniques that I had passed up instead of trying the Peak- I really need to test this more before attempting that challenge :grin: Between that and the level 72 stuff I have on mules I think I’m off to a good start- I do have a level 72 shock Practicable Slow Hand and a casual Swordsplosion- I’m tghinking that combo will definately hit hard so I can take the points from I’m Your Huckleberry and put them into Quick Draw. And if I don’t use a Deputy’s badge with that combo how about a Blood of Terra or the seraph item (forget which vendor sells that)? I do have a couple of level 50 Bloods but I’m guessing the level 72 one would have a higher healing rate? With that being the case how about this for an update:
http://bl2skills.com/gunzerker.html#550000500005055000415153200155041

#4

Depends on your base healing rate

If you really want to rely on brawn, don’t skip either of the healing skills (Trex and Agttb) (so this: http://bl2skills.com/gunzerker.html#550000500005055000415153205105041 instead)

If you have both of these working for you, a Vitality relic will actually give you more health regen than either of those other relics, just by virtue of having more health (since the regen is % based, a bigger base value means a bigger regen value) of course, a Blood of the ancient relic with your chosen ammo is even better :slight_smile:

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#5

Arrgh- I usually sell off vitality relics so it might be a while before I can find one- Blood of the Ancients is a different story since I always hold onto those. When I first started this run with this build I had I’m the Juggernaut specced since the Tank com I had hit another skill in the Brawn tree. I dropped it after hitting TVHM and actually did have AGTtB and Sexy T-rexxy at one point but as I’m usually close to dying given my play style I decided to drop Sexy T-rexxy in favor of Just Got Real. Obviously I’m going to have to change my philosophy a bit with this build- it’s not necessarily about doing the max amount of damage in the shortest amount of time but rather staying alive long enough to DO enough damage. Thanks for the advice…

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#6

Exactly how could I link a post in another thread to this thread? I made a comment in this thread

but aside from copy and paste not sure now to do it (actually made a newer comment than this but…)

#7


Might help a bit.

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#8

You should get Down Not Out. Keep Firing is nice, but Down Not Out is more important.

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#9

This was my biggest struggle as well while making my Brawn build: you can’t get both as well as CAMB.

Ultimately, I agree with you: Down not out trumps keep firing for general mobbing.

#10

You gents have been thinking along the same lines as myself on this matter as I’ve been trying to decide which of the capstone skills to give up. I think I’ll make that change and see how it works out, although I think the Kitten might suffer for that (just getting used to finally using one, as I avoided any AR aside from the Kerblaster since I started playing this game- have also started trying to do more with the Bekah and E-tech AR’s…).

#11

Will start rigorous testing of weapon combos shortly- last night did Terra with the main combo being a Slagga/DPUH and the second a match of slag Kitten/Rapid Infinity/Greed/Rustler’s Stryker and some regular blue and green SMG’s and pistols…

#12

Have not done much testing due to real life issues but my mainstay weapons so far have been a redundant shock Bandit pistol and a fire shotgun (forgot to note the manufacturer). With the mag size of the Bandit pistol MS chains are very consistent. A low level slag Bouncing Betty keeps enemies coated in ‘sticky stuff’ as the Goliaths say…

#13

Dusted of the Rev and did some testing while going thru Sawtooth Cauldron on the Lost Treasure map quest. The testing was of my new primary pair consisting of a shock Butcher and shock Blue Light Octo, a shock BotA and switching between a True Neutral Monk class mod with +6 MS, +5 Sexy T-Rex and a purple Neutral Good Monk with 5+ MS, +4 Asbestos and +4 Sexy T-Rex ( forgot to write down the specifics of the class mods and am going from memory but I think that’s correct). Slagging was provided by Longbow Transfusion grenades. At level 72 shock alone was enough to take care of most enemies with only the Goliaths and Heavy Nomads proving problematic. Even armored psychos were dealt with easily enough, as A Fistful of Hurt was enough to keep them out of my face :grinning: A LLM dropped a Gentleman’s Storm, which I added to my second pairing along with a slag Maliwan pistol. I have a shock RL in the backpack, either a Worker’s mongol or a Topneaa, can’t remember which. I might try out the SR/RL combo with this and see what happens… will also be going to Caustic Caverns to see how it deals with the enemies there (and maybe spawn a certain Varkid)…

#14

Did Cult Following with the Rev with the load out being this: Main weapons- slag Sledge’s Shotgun and shock Practicable Slow Hand, secondary weapons were Slagga + fire Unending TMP. MMx2, Antagonist/Transformer (w/Evolution for Scorch), L. Titan and a Blood of the Ancients with +47.6 health and +64.5 shotgun ammo rounded things out. First things first- having not really used the Slow Hand before was really impressed at how it did with the bandits and spiderants in Frostburn Canyon and even the armored manics on the way to Capt Flynt’s ship provided little difficulty. The Transformer helped take the edge off of getting caught in the splash radius of the Slow Hand’s attack when shooting at point blank range. Rarely had to switch to the secondary weapons except for the start when Clayton wants the ashes- the combo there was more than up to the challenge. Have a few more side quests to try different combos of gear with then I can start trying things in the 3 Slaughter Domes…

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#15

More testing, this time it was finishing the Clan Wars quest and Tiny Tina’s Tea Party. Gear was basically the same as before except that I stayed with the Antagonist as the shield and the main weapons this time were a shock Practicable Butcher and a Miss Moxxie’s Heart Breaker.

The results were very good- the slag ricochet was enough to bring down wounded bandits, actually giving me Second Winds on a couple of occasions. The combination of the shock Butcher + Heart Breaker was devastating to fleshy enemies (I did switch to a New & Improved Retcher over the Butcher for the bandit buzzards during the Tea party mission). With both the Butcher and Heart Breaker capable of Money Shot there was little difficulty completing either of these side missions (except for the one or two FFL scenarios :grinning:). Got another Pot o’ Gold and terminated the Hodunks so I can farm for an on level Slagga…

#16

Weapon Update- I’ve been running shotguns on the Rev for runs in the Beatdown and the current duo is a shock Practicable Slow Hand in the main hand while off handing a slag Sledge’s Shotgun. Relic is a shock BotA and The Transformer is the shield. This combo (with MM providing slag) is great from medium to point blank range. Sledge’s Shotgun can crit with brutal efficiency while the Slow Hand can proc Money Shot (although being pure splash damage I’m not sure if it gets any benefit from it). The strategy with this setup is to keep a steady approach and attack from mid range. The splash from the Slow Hand can bring The Transformer back up to full, allowing Sal’s health to regenerate behind a (temporarily) full shield.

Second pairing is a Rustler’s Striker in the main hand with an Ornery Triquerta in the off hand. Relic is the Deputy’s Badge and shield is the Antagonist. Careful pacing of shots is the key here as the damage range of the Striker lets you nail enemies at medium range while the Triquerta takes care of the hard charging melee attackers. Slag is sublimated by use of either slag Bouncing Betties or slag transfusion grenades for extra healing. Neither mag is large enough to consistently proc MS but when it happens it kicks like a mule. Any of these four shotguns should make their way into your backpack…

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#17

Weapon Update- Added a ROM to the Rev’s shotgun collection and paired it with a slag Slow Hand, the L. Titian com to offset the self damage from the ROM and a Deputy’s Badge. Shield is still Antagonist until I can snag a Blockade from the Ancient Dragons to test out. The second weapon pairing is the classic GN/DPUH combo. Went to face Hyperious with this steup and was able to down him with very little difficulty. The only real drawback is that it tends to eat thru the limited shotgun ammo pool pretty fast, which is another reason I always carry a Hoarder/L. Hoarder com. Hitting crit spots with the ROM on a slagged target pretty much ensures a kill by the time you’ve pulled the trigger a second time- only ultimate badass enemies and raid bosses should give you pause. Master Gee is up next and then a return to the Ancient Dragons and a second treasure room run. Will line up more bosses as I do more dlc…

#18

Edit: Reverend Pain is now OP8. While I’m still working with most any weapon I come across i wanted to make sure he could gain OP levels first, so I went with the classics. The gear used for his Peak runs are the following:

Shield- Rough Rider. Update as needed

Class mod: CE Monk- +6 MS, +5 Asbestos and L. Hoarder for ammo regen. Also just picked up an OP8 version of CE Monk that has +5 Sexual Tyrannosaurus instead of Asbestos- the health regen is great against enemies that don’t cause major Dot effects or use elemental attacks like HOT Loaders.

Relic- Sheriff’s Badge. I used an Explosive relic when farming for one of my favorite weapons to use with him, Slow Hands.

Grenades- Chain Lightning and Storm Front. The CL was mainly for quick healing with the GN while the Storm Front was used for Oney, as he resists explosive damage, making the DPUH ineffective (I didn’t want to reset the game just to farm for one specific weapon like a Lady Fist (a farmable grenade is a different story though…).

Weapons- DPUH/GN and shock/slag Slow Hands. I like Slow Hands against Oney as stated before- they can be used w/o switching to a Deputy’s Badge to good effect although if you get a shock Slow Hand a shock BotA should be your relic of choice. Practicable prefixes if you can get them- this is where I used the Casual Swordsplosion+Bee to quickly cheese farm BARex- from start to finish it should be less than 5 minutes, even on OP8.

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