Jackster Cogburn 2.0, build thread & video

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Jack the Doppelganger
#1

This is a revamp of a build I put together awhile back. It is conceptually inspired by Rooster Cogburn, from ‘True Grit’. If you’re not familiar, he’s basically a very salty and nasty Marshall, who is stubborn and dangerous.

That idea lead me to fall in love with a generally disregarded skill, and the frequently written off COM that boosts it. I’m talking about Resolute, and the Role Model class mod. Specifically, we’re going for 11/5 Resolute, which gives us +35% damage resistance and +77% gun damage for a few seconds after taking damage. This skill is incredibly easy to keep up, so Jackster is typically running around with a lot of extra durability and punch.

The build I used to record and test the 2.0 version is this:

The right tree is the most variable. We want 5/5 High Frequency Trading, Money is Power, 5/5 Absolute Advantage, and Sponsored By. The rest can move around as desired.

Key skills of note:

  1. 1/5 Persistence becomes 6/5 with a blue mod, and it helps us a lot between uses of our AS.

  2. Sponsored By allows us to throw important effects onto our Jakobs pistols and shotguns. I mostly use cryo, but shock and corrosive are very useful against the raids.

  3. Absolute Advantage helps mitigate ammunition consumption considerably. That is a must with the Flayer.

  4. Just Compensation is quietly amazing. If you throw to empty, it can give you an extra couple of trigger pulls between reloads. That is very cool with the Flayer, often turning it into a 7 shot weapon, without factoring in AA.

  5. Take Their Freedom is underrated. Conventional Wisdom is that TTF and Resolute are counterproductive for a sacrifice build, but that is moot if you move. The digi-Jacks will die, and you will keep getting health re-ups to go with your regen, damage resistance, and shield re-ups.

Most sacrifice builds are pretty tanky. This is especially so.

Gear:
Shield of the Ages
Oz kit can vary by area, but Tranquility is very good
Superstar Role Model, blue, +6 Resolute, +5 Persistence
Quasar

Maggie
Flayer
Various Maliwan guns for Sponsored By

Jackster visiting RedBelly and a little mobbing on the way:

Jackster mobbing through Felicity:

Jackster vs Bosun:

…

3 Likes
#2

I definitely need to buy Jack, I always thought he was just another OP character but he seems to be an awesome one tbh.
Really nice build :smiley:

2 Likes
#3

He’s breakable (11/5 Absolute Advantage + Jakobs shotgun) and has very high survivability, so he can be considered OP. As a class, his skills are incredibly awesome in terms of flavor and function. He might be my favorite overall VH, though I favor BL2.

3 Likes
#4

Yeah but is he as plug’n’play as let’s say, Nisha or Salvador ? There are OP tactics that require skills.

#5

He’s probably the most gear flexible class in the franchise. He only truly breaks with a COM boosting Absolute Advantage, but he’s very strong with basically anything.

1 Like
#6

So he is kind of a Jack-Of-All-Trades ? Kinda like Wilhelm ?

#7

You can break so many guns with jack and he can do any playstyle

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#8

Oh well, I guess i’m not gonna buy him if he is THAT overpowered.

#9

It’s not that hes OP he has so many interesting synergies and play styles.

2 Likes
#10

I’ve heard about the Company Man skill, Money is Power and things like that.
Really, I don’t know if he is really worth it, I hesitate a lot about buying him or no.

#11

If your only fear for purchasing the best designed character in the franchise is the fear that he’ll be OP, then you are missing the point my good sir.

Well designed characters are OP. Heck, every character in this game besides Wilhelm is OP, and many consider TPS to have the best character design in the franchise.

The thing that makes Jack OP isn’t a single skill, it’s the synergy across all of them. Regardless of which build you prefer, all of his skills work perfectly to support it. Sure, things like Company Man, Absolute Advantage, and Money is Power are powerful, but is only in combination with leadership that they become ridiculous. The cohesiveness of his toolkit and the diversity of approaches it allows Jack to take can only be described as the crowning achievement of the GB dev team.

I strongly suggest you give him a shot. I doubt you be able to play any other character that just works as well as Jack.

2 Likes
#12

I think hes the best work they have ever done

  • Lots of accuracy buffs for wide spread weapons
  • Crit buffs for sniper/crit builds
  • Grenade damage and ammo buffs for greande/splash builds
  • Ammo mitigation skill
  • One big mag skill, and auto reload skill for low mag guns or glitch builds
  • Nova spam builds
  • Fire rate buffs for fire rate builds, and the ammo mitigation to do them
  • Lots healing skills for some of the best survival
  • Multiple shield buff skills if you want to tank that way
  • Ways to get your action skill to last a really long time or reduce the cooldown big time, many ways to play the action skill
  • Great support for cryo builds
  • His legendary com makes all gun have the hyperion effect for really interesting effects (not with jakobs sadly)

He can do it all and do it all so well like no other they have ever made.

Company Man and Money is Power is his boring stuff

3 Likes
#13

Does that mean Wilhelm is badly designed ? Because Wilhelm is actually my favourite, he has the best survivability and he has an awesome damage potential (Siege Howitzer + Fridgia + Kaneda’s Laser = 49 million damage, and I’m not even talking about lasers).
I think I get your point, he is designed in a way to make it really the Jack-Of-All-Trades, and they succeeded as far as I can tell and see, whereas they failed (imo) with Gaige, since her gimmick was really … strange and undefined.

@Derch Yeah, I guess I know where my next 10 euros will go :smiley:
He is indeed well designed. I don’t like OP characters since they make the game easy (Salvador and Nisha are good examples) but he looks different, he is OP the same way as Athena, Claptrap, Zer0 or Krieg are OP, I’ll definitely give him a shot !

#14
  • Like I’ve said before his specialty was suppose to be his survivability, but that is lost because of the fact all the characters preform on the same level or above in all scenarios. The only character that has worse survivability than him is Aurelia, and that’s only during raids.
  • Most of his power comes from a glitch with his skills ‘Laser Guided’ and ‘Vengeance Cannon’. And even then Laser Guided can’t even lock onto certain enemies like EOS, dropping Wilhelm’s potential drastically.
  • His skills seem to be purposely gimped and poorly designed. (there’s a lot)
  • He is 1000% reliant on his action skill for everything; damage, survivability, utility, ect… And you have to build him that way, there is no other option. It also has a bad duration and recall refund. While all other characters have the potential to not even care about their action skills, even Jack.
  • He lacks raid killing power badly. And if the Laser Disker wasn’t introduced, he would never even have the sliver of power he has now. Of which Jack/Claptrap are better at sustained throwing, and Athena is better at one massive throw.
  • He has no “WOW” skill. No ‘One Last Thing’, ‘I Never Miss’, ‘Tombstone’, Leadership/AA, or Athena’s Maelstrom combo.
2 Likes
#15

This is completely incorrect, Divert Power and Saint abilities (not including Overcharge) are outstanding at keeping him alive and outdue every single character in terms of survivability. Wilhelm has some thick skin (like Manny Pardo).

I completely agree with this, but he recharges his Kill Skill really fast (Escalation and Rapid Reinforcement) so it compensates for it. Also, Heatsinks gets boosted when he is on cooldown, so it also compensates for it.

Wilhelm isn’t only about Tediore throws. Lasers are a big part of his DPS. I can wipe out Iwajira within seconds using the Rosie or the Absolute Zero and having Kill-Skills + abilities up.[quote=“khimerakiller, post:14, topic:1549595”]
He has no “WOW” skill. No ‘One Last Thing’, ‘I Never Miss’, ‘Tombstone’, Leadership/AA, or Athena’s Maelstrom combo.
[/quote]

#Overcharge, Laser-Guided.

In conclusion : Wilhelm is skill based. You have to get your Kill-Skills up, deploy Wolf & Saint at the right moment, use Laser-Guided, manage you Kill-Skill to get Overcharge working more often OR just survive and keep Laser-Guided working. The fact that he needs all these conditions to become litterally UNSTOPPABLE make him a well designed character. Of course he has some drawbacks, like the fact that you don’t have Swap Speed boosts, you’re relying on your Action Skill, and he is really based on gear. Building him is also quite tricky since there is a lot of things you don’t want to give up (like Escalation or Divert Power), he is kinda like Salvador in this aspect.
That is of course only my own opinion as a Wilhelm enthusiast.

#16

Running Jack after Wilhelm will make you go full Disney and sing, “A Whole New World” at the top of your lungs.

2 Likes
#17

Does he need skill to be played at his fullest potential ?

#18

A good amount his damage are crit but it depends how you play him

#19

Yes he does have thick skin and personally I really like 10/5 Energized. I’d almost consider it his “WOW” skill for myself, even though it really isn’t one. But everything Wilhelm has in terms of survivability will never beat…

  • Athena’s 16.5 seconds of invincibility granted by her Aspis every other 16 seconds. Or her unlimited, almost conditionless ability to regen her shield mid damage with Conduit, giving her up to 100% shield recharge per second for 2 seconds unboosted. Which she can proc over and over again, plus all the other stuff she has.

  • Jack’s TTF skill regens 12.5% health per kill, his ‘Winning’ skill regens 25% shield per kill, and almost every time ‘Leadership’ procs you get twice this amount and you get it often b/c of ‘Optimism’. Plus unlike Wolf his Digi-Jacks actually reliably aggro the enemies and take hits for him, and the ‘Potential’ nova, ‘Optimism’ nova, and digi-Jack underhand attack can stun enemies. And with Teamwork you can reliably get up to 4 stacks solo, giving you 10% health regen a second. It can all stack and his action skill last amazingly long with BFF and has an unbelievably good recall refund. Plus all his other survivability skills, and that Leadership can revive you once per action skill.

Then you have the rest, which aren’t slackers either.

  • Nisha has a bit lower survivability, but she makes up for it as nothing is alive long enough to kill her.

  • BFG is 2% health regen for 7 seconds, but because she’s Nisha it’s basically always on during combat.

  • Bottled Courage regens 50% of your shield on action skill use, and gives 35% recharge delay and rate on cooldown.

  • Law gives you 20% shield.

  • And the big one ‘Order’ gives you up to a 36% chance to ignore damage, and instead regen health based on twice that damage. Making it IMO a much better version of Axton’s ‘Grit’, and it is very easy to get 30 stacks with a turtle shield.

  • Discipline gives 45% shield recharge delay at 30 stacks.

  • ‘Jurisdiction’ gives 3.2% health regen a second during her action skill in most builds.

  • Her legendary gives 14.5% life steal on all damage in Showdown, which is a lot in terms of the DPS Nisha can achieve. Although I don’t recommend her legendary in the end game, simply b/c there are better options.

  • Claptrap

  • Killbot regens up to 70% of your max health every kill at 10/5 as it’s boosted by his Sapper com.

  • IAR, YAG causes his to ignore and reflect 25% of the projectiles that are shot at him 7 seconds after every kill.

  • Maniacal Laughter regens up to 30% health a second based on how low your health is, though I don’t really use this skill that much.

  • Bunch of max health, shield and damage reduction.

  • Up to 15% health nova on kill.

  • Up to 15% health nova on shield break.

  • HFG gives 3% health regen a second while active.

  • And his other big one ‘Safety First’ gives you either 35% max health and 2.5% health per seconds, or it gives you 35% max shield and it’s glitched to give all of your shields a 0 second recharge delay like the Naught. And either of these are always on if you don’t spec into ‘All the Guns’.

  • And finally activating his action skill regens 100% of your health.

  • Plus if you do go into FFYL he has so much stuff for that, that you’ll basically never bleed out.

  • Aurelia she doesn’t have much solo, as even though all characters can do this, her survivability comes from the fact everything is frozen solid all the time with enough Avalanche stacks.

  • Magic Bullet regens up to 7.5% of her health over ten seconds along with it’s heal nova, and can revive her if she simply gets a crit on an enemy near her with a sniper.

  • Frigid Touch makes all of her cryo damage have 10% life steal 7 seconds after a kill, and she does a lot of cryo damage.

  • Short Summer gives her 1% shield recharge delay per stack, up to 200%.

  • Polar Vortex stuns enemies in an AoE.

  • Whiteout causes nearby enemies to deal 50% less damage during your action skill.

  • And if you’re in coop, all of her coop stuff.

And most of this stuff isn’t reliant on action skills, where as almost all of Wilhelm’s sustain is. And he simply loses flat out to Jack and Athena in terms of survivability, no contest.

Neither of these come close to the ones I listed. But Laser-Guided is only as good as it is because it’s glitched to give like 87.5% multiplicative damage to marked targets instead of the 25% it says, and it’s reliant on your action skill. And Overcharge is really lack luster for only being 10 seconds once per action skill. If it would have activated again after every kill, then it would have. But as it is now it is no more a “WOW” skill, than the base bonuses you get with Showdown level 3.

Not to beat up on your impression of your favorite character, but I view Wilhelm more like this…

“Wilhelm is micro manage your ass off, in order to not even be half as effective as other characters based.”

I’m just poking fun, but really you have to consciously pour in the effort to just make him somewhat effective. Press f for damage amp, but not for too long or you recall your action skill. Make sure to run to get bonus damage and accuracy. Recall your action skill right before the last kill and make sure you get a crit in order for RR and Escalation to make up for your bad recall refund. Ect…

2 Likes
#20

Before responding : great response dude, debating with you is a real pleasure :slight_smile:

Athena is pretty tanky, but : it is 16,5 seconds before you get cooldown, she kinda struggles when she doesn’t have the Aspis up.
You also can’t skip the fact that she can’t ADS, while Wilhelm has Shock-Absorbant Legs and Vengeance Cannon while Saint protects him, making him both tanky AND flexible.

Other characters have their own survivability options, but Energize, Divert Power, Hard to Kill and Heatsinks (and all the health/shield boosts provided by other skills/COMs) are superior imo, simply because it is constantly active (provided you have Rapid Reinforcement and Escalation). Wilhelm has the ability to instantly recharge his shield multiple times in a really quick succession and even when he really needs it (Divert Power), and that makes him unstoppable with the Shield of Ages (also please note that the Shield of Ages makes Divert Power easier to proc, increasing Wilhelm’s survivability even further).

I don’t really know about Jack, but I definitely know and think that Athena doesn’t beat Wilhelm in terms of survivability imo.

Wilhelm has the survivability, but he has even more : he has a really great mobility on the battlefield. He has awesome Kill-Skills (10/5 Targeting Scope melts everything that can be critted), the best survivability, Laser-Guided, Shock-Absorbant Legs (litterally rewarding you for being on the move) + Vengeance Cannon making him great for hip-firing (not as great as Aimbot COUGH Showdown), Movement Speed bonuses and Overcharge (Ammo Regeneration :heart: :heart:).
Wolf is also a nice boost to Wilhelm’s mobility since he can take aggro, deal really nice damage and take care of enemies while you take care of others (triggering Kill-Skills for even more damage for Wilhelm AND Wolf).

This bonus only applies to Wolf’s Damage, not Wilhelm’s (that would’ve made him the absolute best character, just imagine almost +90% of your actual Gun Damage, that would’ve been insanely overpowered.

Yeah, this is what makes him fun to play to my regard. I prefer this playstyle to LITERALLY having a built-in legit aimbot doing the work for me. Also, the Damage you’re able to pull off is ridiculous, I’ll try to post a Wilhelm vs Iwajira with no Tediore. Overcharge + Targeting Scope + Laser-Guided are outstanding.[quote=“khimerakiller, post:19, topic:1549595”]
make sure you get a crit
[/quote]

When you have 10/5 Targeting Scope active, you want to go for crits, and that is well designed.[quote=“khimerakiller, post:19, topic:1549595”]
somewhat effective
[/quote]

*really effective

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