Hey all starting a new toon and since i have never played as brick before i thought id give him a shot i have been thinking maybe blast master ? how should i go about leveling one ? and is there any specific gear i should be on the lookout for ?
Spec:
Before you find a Blast Master COM or solid explosive weapon you like, I’d suggest working your way down the Tank tree first. I’m guessing sometime around when you’re investing in Juggernaut you’ll start finding enough explosive weapons getting into Endowed and the rest of Blaster tree. After that? Work your way to Revenge and that’ll give you enough kill skill DPS(death per shot) to go from there however you want.
See what skills you like over others, but you’re going to want to end up with Revenge, Blast Master, and Endowed maxxed, and a healthy base in Tank tree.
Gear:
For a Blast Master build specifically, the COM itself and any explosive weaponry you can get your hands on. Brick works well with high-capacity shields, and if you can get something that also boosts your health attributes that’ll will end up as one hell of a bonus. Rocket Launchers and Carnages aren’t quite the thing you’re looking for, but they’ll do… I guess. Kinda…not
Pretty much all of the legendaries that are exclusively explosive are great(S&S Crux, Vladof Hammer, Torgue Cobra, Atlas Ogre), and I like revolvers always. So get an explosive revolver. But yeah, guns that put yellow numbers on the bad guys.
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Okay thanks i was not sure if i should start with tank or blaster since originally i was thinking of rushing revenge for the damage ups and then work my way down the tank tree since in pt 1 tanking seems more valuable then dps since things die pretty quick anyways
Whether you start with Tank or Blaster depends on play style. The former, paradoxically, is better suited to aggressive players while the latter makes heavier use of patience and cover.
Start with the Tank tree if you enjoy shotguns, or weapons that are generally very powerful but often inaccurate. Examples include Anarchy SMGs, support machine guns with poor barrels (which is to say most of the ones you will run across). You’ll be able to absorb the beating you take while killing quickly enough due to the high power of your weapons.
The next thing to consider is whether you like shields that recharge quicker (AWE body, and to a lesser extent OS body), which is my personal preference due to their incredible synergy with Unbreakable, or shields with very high capacity that recharge slower (XC body). If you prefer the former, then Payback will have excellent synergy with Unbreakable. If you prefer the latter, then picking up Diehard is very much recommended as obtaining a Second Wind will instantly recharge the shield to full capacity.
Recommended Sequence for a play style that makes limited use of Fight for Your Life: Hardened -> Juggernaut -> Safeguard -> Unbreakable.
Recommended Sequence for a play style that makes heavy use of Fight for Your Life: Hardened -> Safeguard -> Diehard -> Unbreakable.
Now, there is really only one way to level up as a Blaster Master that makes any sense given explosive weapons do not start appearing until around level 15, or at least the single explosive weapon that makes the whole play style consistently work.
That sequence is: Rapid Reload -> Revenge -> Endowed -> Master Blaster
Taking Endowed any earlier makes little sense as only your very limited stockpile of grenades will see any benefit.
The whole key to making the Blast Master class mod tick in the early levels is any explosive sniper rifle with at least a x3 multiplier due to the way sniper rifle tech pools work (Revolvers are an okay alternative, but suffer from their tech pool not forcing the largest possible multiplier possible). This is an exceedingly low expectation, but it is the key to playing what is basically a very squishy class early on. Combined with the class mod the first shot from the sniper rifle will do extremely high damage when the tech pool has had enough time to refill, typically enough to kill any fodder even if you just shoot him in the foot. Keep in mind that any shot after the first will be much weaker, so you need to make sure that first shot counts.
Once the kill skills are active any weapon can be switched to with excellent results. Weapons with good accuracy serve the play style best, but due to the very high damage per second anything will work. Your survivability is bad, so it is important to be able to keep your distance. SMGs often work best as the weapon used to swap to due to their higher fire rate, good accuracy, good magazine size, and Revenge greatly improves their killing power. As a bonus explosive SMGs have only a 20% damage penalty from the explosive accessory (instead of the typical 40% everything else has, excepting legendary weapons), so the weapon class is well suited to complimenting the sniper rifle.
I also recommend staying away from Rocket Launchers and Carnage Shotguns when running Blast Master. Neither benefit from Revenge, and both do better damage with Warmonger (5th line increasing grenade damage) or simply fit best with their respective class mods (Bombardier, Ogre).
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I’ve also found the Mad Jack has worked well for explosive Brick along with explosive longbow grenades.
Thanks for the info about the sniper rifles x3 I’ll keep a eye out for a good one.
I would actually recommend waiting until level 10-15 to go into the Blaster tree. The earlier skills in the Tank and Brawler tree are better. But once you’re able to put a few points into Revenge, respec into the Blaster tree and try it out.
Which tree you start in is all about play style. You can start in the Brawler tree if you’re okay with waiting for Berserk a lot early game and want to melee everything. The Tank tree is flexible in that both melee and gun play benefit, but you will not kill things quickly and in Borderlands the best way to stay alive is often to kill quickly. The Blaster tree shines best early game with accurate explosive weapons like Sniper Rifles and Revolvers due to the way their tech pools work and the fact you can stay at range to avoid taking damage.
As for Tier 1 Skills, Rapid Reload performs just fine compared to what the Tank Tree offers. Hardened into Juggernaut and Rapid Reload into Revenge are both fine starts. Which is chosen is up to which cap stone and class mod you like best.