Some of the comments I got on my ElemenTitan Krieg build pretty much applied right to how I had my second OP8 running build designed, the one for slower damaging, higher survivability for a more defensive, tanking approach to combat. I linked the build layout in one of the thread comments, but obviously there’s a lot more to it than that, so here’s the full story on my other OP8 build for Krieg, the Dreadnought. (Subject to further testing upon the new OP10 levels)
The Dreadnought
This build is mainly focused on turning Krieg into a literal tank, able to shrug off most incoming damage at the cost of having slower DPS and instead relying of attacks taking huge chunks out of enemy health at a time via gun damage or melee, with his melee capability here maxed out with his melee associated skills. In comparison to the ElemenTitan build letting you go berserk and hose everything with elemental damage while bashing skulls, this build relies more on a more careful approach for combat, going slower with guns and heavier focus on melee and explosive damage, with a lesser but still present focus on elemental damage.
The Skills
Mania -
Again, everyone should know by now this tree pretty much exists to max Krieg’s melee capability and capstones with Release the Beast, with some skills for Fight for Your Life ability and co-op play. Here you want to buff his melee ability as straightforwardly as you could already mostly guess at for skills.
Empty the Rage: Boosts a solid 20% additional melee damage at 5/5 that adds an additional 50% when magazine is emptied or shields are down, thus used with the Rough Rider shield but also the use of the Rapier assault rifle when the magazine is left empty.
Feed the Meat: 50% boost to total health and an additional 2.5 seconds to shield recharge delay at 5/5, making Krieg healthier for longer and keeping his shields down longer for skill/roid activation. More health for Krieg is always best since he’ll have more to chew through with all the damage reductions.
Strip the Flesh: A nice little 15% boost to all explosive damage, with an additional 15% added during Fight for Your Life for a total of 30% at 5/5. Links with other skills to boost explosive/grenade damage effects through skills, COMs and relics.
Thrill of the Kill: A single point investment with solid returns, at 1/5 it grants up to 50% of any overkill damage on enemies back to Krieg as health, topping off the regenerative potential of Release the Beast during BXR.
Salt the Wound: Another shield depletion skill, this adds a damage boost stack for all incoming damage to health of 7.5% for melee damage and 5% for shotgun damage, up to 20 stacks total at 5/5. With Rough Rider this is also always active, and without can allow for huge jumps in close range melee and shotgun damage to enemies.
Silence the Voices: A massive 250% boost to melee damage at 5/5, but with a 12% chance to attack yourself with every melee attack. Helpfully still applies to thrown buzz axes during BXR without any chance of inflicting self-harm, atop boosts from BX Bombardier and other associated skills.
Release the Beast: Considered Krieg’s biggest game changer skill, it empowers BXR to turn him into a Badass Mutant Pyscho with an additional 100% melee damage boost and 50% damage reduction when activated at 33% or less of health (the “!” warning level indicator is active) and grants a full heal and temporary invulnerability during the transformation and fully recharges BXR after it ends. Pretty much all melee bonuses from skills still apply during Release the Beast and can utilize roid bonuses, but not melee damage boosts from bladed weapons.
Hellborn -
The skill tree revolves around fire elemental damage to trigger effects and deal damage, but it actually has uses that apply to all elemental effects including slag, but excluding explosive damage. For this build it’s only used to maximize use of elemental effects for offense and to keep Krieg on fire as often as possible for the damage reduction buff.
Fuel the Fire: The key skill to Krieg’s effectiveness with all elemental damage types, this kill skill gives an additional 200% to elemental effect activation chance on top of normal percentage capacity, whether it’s fire, shock, corrosive or slag damage with 35% chance to set himself on fire per fire attack.
Numbed Nerves: This skill gives Krieg a flat 50% damage reduction when he’s on fire, making the fire DoT less damaging to him and reducing all other incoming damage for the burn duration. This skill does still apply when in BXR and Release the Beast, making him even tankier as a result and for this build is the main focus of using this skill tree.
Delusional Damage: This mid-tier game changer makes all elemental effects capable of setting Krieg on fire, taking from Burn,Baby,Burn and Fuel the Fire for combined activation percentage chance for all element types. Thus allowing Krieg to use and maintain his skill bonuses even when facing enemies who require other elements to damage them.
Fire Fiend: This skill grants a burn effect chance to all of Krieg’s melee attacks, up to 50% at 5/5 with a 50% increase to weapon accuracy and a 35% increase to reload speed when Krieg is on fire. Allows Krieg to ignite enemies at melee range and when throwing buzz axes during BXR and Release the Beast with a chance to ignite them and thus himself during the duration.
Bloodlust -
This tree is crucial to upping Krieg’s damage for melee and grenades/explosive damage sources as well as reinforcing his tanking abilities even more, and is key to letting him use his highly boosted melee damage at range with BX Bombardier and improving it and his gun combat abilities further with Bloodsplosion.
Blood-filled Guns: A 2.5% boost to magazine size for every Bloodlust stack Krieg has, capping at 100 stacks for 250% magazine size at 5/5. This obviously helps greatly for prolonged firefights and lets him get the most out weapons like shotguns and rocket launchers, typically his forte.
Taste of Blood: Krieg’s other damage reduction skill, reducing damage by 0.5% per Bloodlust stack at 5/5 during BXR/Release the Beast, for a total of 50% damage reduction at 100 stacks. Also grants Krieg an additional 50 stacks per kill during BXR/Release the Beast to keep the damage reduction and all other associated boosts going.
Blood Overdrive: A kill skill that grants 2.5% melee damage and -0.02 seconds for grenade fuse time per Bloodlust stack at 5/5, for a total boost of 250% melee damage and -2 seconds off grenade fuse time at 100 stacks. Acts as Krieg’s other significant boost to melee damage as well as making faster use of grenades.
Blood Bath: A huge damage potential multiplier for Krieg in this build, it boosts weapon damage by 2.5% at 5/5 whenever killing an enemy with a grenade or explosion, multiplied by the current number of Bloodlust stacks for a 250% damage boost at full stacks. Also grants up to 75% chance for enemies killed by said grenade or explosion to drop grenade ammo, helping perpetuate further use of the skill.
Buzz Axe Bombardier: Attaches dynamite to Krieg’s buzz axe during BXR and Release the Beast to cause it to explode when thrown, still applying all associated damages from melee capability as well as boosts from explosive and grenade damage from associated skills, COMs and relics, as well as other secondary abilities like Fire Fiend for fire damage/ignition ability.
Fuel the Blood: A kill skill that boosts Krieg’s grenade damage by 2.5% per Bloodlust stack upon a melee kill at 5/5 for 250% damage at 100 stacks, as well as granting 10 additional Bloodlust stacks per kill. Synergizes with other types of explosion damage such as BX Bombardier, boosting its damage even further.
Boiling Blood: Increases time before Bloodlust stack decay by 2 seconds at 4/5, allowing Krieg to maintain his Bloodlust stacks for longer during combat and letting him work to keep his stacks at higher count for longer as well and keep all associated boosts going.
Bloodsplosion: Killing an enemy detonates an Elemental Nova around them of the element used to kill them (explosive for non-elemental and explosive damage) based on damage type from weapons, grenades, melee, etc. Overkill damage is added to subsequent Novas as well as being boosted an additional 5% damage for each Bloodlust stack, at 500% additional damage on top of overkill damage increases. Able to rapidly chain with multiple weak/low health enemies grouped together for significantly high destructive capability, and triggers with all forms of damage output including melee, thus including thrown buzz axes in BXR/Release the Beast for non-elemental/explosive/fire damage Novas with this build.
NOTE: There is some lenience in this build lay out involving moving a point over to Redeem the Soul in the Mania tree to add an additional 50% time duration to Fight for Your Life, adding survivability and making the most of Krieg’s boost to explosive damage with Strip the Flesh and other associated skills. However, due to the already high durability of this build, Fight for Your Life shouldn’t be occurring nearly as much depending on the player’s use of it, thus it is entirely player preference as to whether to reallocate this point or not. In such case I’d recommend from Fire Fiend as all Krieg’s other skills are mostly successive focused, whereas the Hellborn tree stops with that skill.
The Weapons:
Krieg’s tendency towards melee damage reflects onto his gunplay, making short to mid range weapons his best options. Shotguns and rocket launchers are his overall forte and he gets good use out of pistols and a fair number of SMGs for elemental effect damage and DPS output, and he’s one of the few Vault Hunters to make very good use of assault rifles, though very little use of sniper rifles by comparison.
Shotguns:
Krieg does best with shotguns overall due to the high damage output and the increased elemental effect chances of all the pellets put out, with his Salt the Wound skill greatly increasing damage for them when he takes direct health damage and supplementing his melee damage for the already close range focus of this build. Blood-filled Guns grants them huge magazine sizes for him to chew through as well.
The Rustler’s Orphan Maker: One of Krieg’s mainstays with this build will be one of the more easily usable Captain Blade’s Cursed weapons, the Jakobs twin barrel non-elemental shotgun. The slug shots have absurdly high damage per slug to make up for only having two slugs per trigger pull, with backlash damage of 5% of the damage rating to shields and then health per shot. However this effect is mitigated by an equally absurd workaround with the Rustler’s prefix adding two additional slugs to the shot total, making for double the already massive overall damage of the gun but without doubling the backlash. With this build having a high focus on Krieg’s shields down for skills/roid bonuses, the backlash helps keep his shields down and induce shield delay for longer, as well as giving moderate damage to his health when shields are down or using the Rough Rider shield to activate Salt the Wound and keep it high, making the shotgun even more powerful as a result. Also with Bloodsplosion, the non-elemental damage results in an explosive Nova detonating when killing an enemy, topping off the high damage even more and at close range further helping Krieg keep his shields down/taking health damage for Salt the Wound.
The Assssult Jolly Roger: Another surprisingly reliable and effective weapon from the Pirate’s Booty DLC, the Jolly Roger is a high pellet per ammo cost Bandit shotgun that heavily takes advantage of their deep magazine size and tops it off with surprisingly good damage per pellet for a Bandit gun, firing in a fixed skull and crossbones pattern. The extra pellets from the Assssult prefix will only add to that, and it comes in all elements except explosive to round out Krieg’s more straightforward shotgun approach for elemental damage, as well as being the easiest to farm and obtain in comparison to most others that would suit him.
The Sledge’s Shotgun: Another such more difficult to obtain sort, it matches and in some cases exceeds the capability of the Jolly Roger as an excellent Bandit shotgun, though the paused double fire mechanic does take some adjustment. It has massive pellet count and third highest pellet damage in the game, though is exceedingly difficult to farm as a result, only one dedicated boss who is a pain to get to and random world drops. Also retains the same name for all models so other than element type, its a toss up as to what accessory modifiers you get. Very much optional due to difficulty to obtain, but very good fit for this build if you can get one.
The SWORDSPLOSION!!!: The only E-Tech Torgue gun in the game, it fires off a spinning sword shaped projectile at reduced speed that explodes and throws off smaller sword shaped grenades upon impact, up to three projectiles and six grenades with the Casual prefix making it technically the strongest explosive shotgun in the game. Most people playing Krieg find it a big risk due to how the explosions can damage him as well, but this build excels at damage reduction and the output to enemies with Krieg’s boosts to explosive, grenade and explosion damage, all of which apply to this gun, the damage levels reach absurd heights. Also the larger than average range on the shotgun coupled with the spread of the child grenades makes it excellent for clearing enemy mobs with Bloodsplosion adding even more explosive damage to the mix.
The Conference Call: A more notable shotgun for its mobbing abilities, elemental versions of this gun with the Practicable prefix allow Krieg to massacre multiple enemies at once to take full advantage of his boosts with Salt the Wound and useful for retaining Bloodlust stacks with the elemental DoTs. Due to the slower nature of this build, having such a wide range on what is usually a close range only weapon type makes it a highly valuable addition to the build to the extent that it drastically changes up some of the gameplay for how to use the build overall when having the gun. Not required as such, but definitely makes the build to have it.
The Interfacer: Considered one of the best shotguns in the game, this one is actually optional on Krieg for this build if you can believe it. While the increased pellet damage, pellet count and unlisted pellets and focused spread can make it one of the strongest weapons in the game even compared to the Conference Call and better for solo enemies, Krieg is often either too far or too close to make optimal use of the fixed spread pattern’s convergence, especially with the way this build works. However it is still a viable choice if the player can manage it, what with the massive critical damage bonus as well as keeping Krieg moving at full speed even when sighting the gun.
The Slow Hand: Krieg gets some of the best use out of one of the rarer Moxxi guns and the only E-Tech gun amongst them, a variant Splatgun that has no projectile arc but fires straight like a normal weapon at reduced projectile speed. Most versions are weaker than other typical shotguns, but the sheer power of each projectile at full listed damage and when tripled in number by the Practicable prefix make it more powerful than almost all other shotguns in the game. With the high effect chances and a heal of 3.5% of all outgoing damage dealt, it’s one of the perfect weapons for Krieg in all elements and one of the better guns for slagging enemies. For this build it’s not required, but the pure splash damage the weapon deals also benefits from Krieg’s boosts to grenade/explosion damage and greatly increases the effectiveness as a result. Also would benefit Krieg as one of his few sources of healing with this build.
The Omen: A Tediore Seraph that is a bit of a rare beast due to it only dropping from the Ancient Dragons of Destruction, it fires nine E-Tech projectiles, eight in a circle pattern with one projectile in the center that converges and expands as it travels, making for an unusually firing but fairly powerful shotgun with the trademark Tediore thrown reload that explodes on impact. Also one of the few higher tier shotguns that only uses one round of ammo per shot, even for an E-Tech. The elemental varieties affect the damage of the thrown reload explosion, which can be effective for Krieg on this build with all his boosts to such damage and given it’s within his melee/thrown buzz axe attack range, but with how tough a challenge it is to farm the Dragons this one is highly optional as a choice.
The Twister: The only shock element Jakobs weapon in the game and the second strongest shotgun in terms of per pellet damage with a slow moving tornado shaped spread with a psuedo-B0re effect like the skill Zer0 has, it can be devastating at close range, ie melee range which is where Krieg excels. This is one of the best guns for him to use at melee range for shield stripping and shock damage/DoTs, though the slow projectile speed makes it tough to use on faster moving enemies. Harder to get due to being a rare drop from a single overpowered enemy, but if you can get it, preferably with the Rustler’s prefix, it is a massive boon to the build.
Pistols:
Krieg does pretty well with pistols at close range, boosting magazine size greatly for them and elemental pistols all have typically high effect chances for his ignition skill to keep up damage reduction.
Gwen’s Head: An excellent Dahl gun, rarer to find due to it being more of a scavenger hunt than farming for it, it pops up in one of several set locations around the Dust every time a player enters it. With high fire rate, good damage and another with higher than average bullets for the burst count along with a solid critical damage boost, this gun works well in almost any prefix or element. The elemental chances are a bit lower, but the sheer bullet output can make them some of the better ones for DoTs and elemental damage for pistol choices.
The Unkempt Harold: Double Penetrating prefix, this is Krieg’s explosive go-to since unlike the SWORDSPLOSION!!! it doesn’t damage him from the splash damage and the spread at close range and against clustered enemies combined with his boosts to explosive damage make it even more of a powerhouse. His boost to magazine size with Bloodlust stacks helps keep it firing for much longer.
The Grog Nozzle: The best Moxxi weapon for healing at 65% of all types of damage dealt and the best utility weapon in the game, it slags excellently and has a massive 200% multiplicative critical bonus as well as a random drunk effect that multiples fired projectiles at no extra ammo cost and at reduced accuracy, an effect that can be spread to other weapons. This will Krieg’s main and possibly only healing weapon on this build, and it’s utility as a slagging and damage boosting tool will make it a reliable offensive situations while keeping him healthy at times when even his damage reduction isn’t keeping him in the green.
SMGs:
Good for mid-range damage dealing and inflicting DoTs, they are a reliable fallback for Krieg when needing to hose down enemies at a faster pace than shotguns can keep up with at the cost of damage, but for this build help pick up the slack for some of his slower DPS ability. Only two on this list, but they fit the niche for Krieg perfectly.
The Sandhawk: Considered one of the best SMGs in the game and best for raw damage output at 8 bullets per 3 ammo consumed for each shot, the Flying prefix is king here to make up for the slow speed of the bird shaped bullet spread. The unlisted bullets make it essentially a longer range, tighter spread shotgun, which for Krieg works excellently. The bullet spread and damage output doesn’t work too well for critical damage, but for raw damage potential it does the job. Here you’ll want all elements but slag, though shock is optional for this one.
The Florentine: Another Seraph E-Tech, this one the dual element slag/shock SMG and the much preferable one to the Chulainn. Having the capacity to deal slag and shock simultaneously works very well for Krieg, in this build it weakens enemies rapidly for his melee damage and the dual element type along with increased element chance from Fuel the Fire makes for double the chance to set him on fire for damage reduction.
Assault Rifles:
Krieg actually makes decent use of assault rifles due to how frequently he’s in close to medium range of enemies compared to other Vault Hunters, and his increases to damage and magazine size make them literal bullet hoses, with Fuel the Fire making up for the atrociously low elemental effect chances they possess.
The Ogre: Krieg’s fastest explosive weapon is one of the few good assault rifles in the game, a Torgue gun with a splitter gatling barrel that fires the gyojets at much faster speeds than other explosive weapons typically do, with a chance to fire multiple projectiles, increase reload speed and fire rate, and make the projectiles ricochet. Add the Nasty prefix for higher base damage and it makes for one of the better weapons in the game. Difficult to obtain however, only as a viable drop from a high tier enemy in the last round of arena fights in the Tiny Tina DLC. Boosts to explosive and grenade damage make this even more of a beast and with the magazine size boost combined with it’s reload speed boost ability, Krieg can take out entire mobs with this gun alone.
The Kitten: One of two Moxxi assault rifles, the one typially seen as stronger and with a more easily controlled firing pattern. A Vladof assault rifle with a splitter gatling barrel, it fires three projectiles per shot in a fixed smiley face pattern that typically is terrible for dealing crit damage, but for Krieg that’s hardly an issue and thus the Ferocious prefix for higher damage is the one you want here, especially with the 2% heal. All elements but slag, optional here but very much a plus.
The Bekah: This is another optional one, but the Bekah is always a gun worth having if you can get it, firing one bullet followed by a second slower bullet that splits into three, all unlisted with full damage for a total of four. Add the Boss prefix for higher base damage and even as non-elemental it can kill most enemies. As a Pearlescent however it can be very hard to obtain one, so its all to luck and chance there.
The Rapier: This one is again optional but given how much time Krieg will be in melee range even when not in BXR with this build, using it would be a viable option. Slag element, with the Fuel the Fire skill making it effective for a slag and stab approach to enemies thanks to it’s 200% melee damage boost. It does however make Krieg more vulnerable to melee damage in turn. Another use with it is the aforementioned synergy with Empty the Rage, which adds an additional 50% melee damage on top of the base 20% for the skill when the weapon’s magazine is empty, so even at full shields Krieg could be dealing an additional 270% melee damage with the weapon.
Rocket Launchers:
For this build, rocket launchers are a much more viable main offensive weapon rather than just Fight for Your Life tools. Krieg’s boosts to explosive, grenade, and explosion damage can make them effective carpet bombers for mobs, especially paired with Bloodsplosion, and his magazine boost makes them much more viable for more than one-shot tactics. Combined with his exploding/igniting buzz axes and grenade use, this helps pick up the slack of the slower DPS for the build with blasting away enemies easily and taking huge chunks out of bosses.
The Norfleet: Another typical one, the best rocket launcher in the game for damage and FFYL against mobs. All elements work but shock and possibly slag work best for their viability against all enemy types, and the sheer damage of the weapon offsets the reductions to slag damage in UVHM and OP8. Hard to get but worth it, and the magazine boost offsets some of the ammo consumption.
The Baddaboom: A solid alternative to the Norfleet or to have for other elements, the Baddaboom comes in all elements as well as being the best straightforward explosive rocket launcher with the highest damage, next to the nigh unusable Ahab. In Krieg’s hands with all his applied damage boosts, and it’s already generous magazine size and low ammo consumption made even better by his magazine boost, this can easily destroy badasses and take massive chunks out of boss enemies with ease, and is easily his most viable rocket launcher with this build.
The Nukem: It’s atrocious ammo consumption, tiny magazine size and terrible reload speed generally offset this rocket launcher’s high damage, but with Krieg’s damage boosts, magazine boost and Fire Fiend adding a nice little boost to reload speed, this launcher paired with Bloodsplosion can easily one-shot entire mobs, including badasses for when you need to clear a room quickly. A much more situational weapon as a result, so considered optional.
Sniper Rifles
Krieg is generally rather poor with sniper rifles, since long range is typically a poorer area of attack for him and he has no real boosts to critical damage to speak of. However there are two solid sniper rifles powerful and effective enough to be considered worthwhile for him to use, given how slow an approach this build can require at times and the generally higher damage ranges for the sniper rifles can be another thing to help close the gap with his slower DPS.
The Pimpernel: Best sniper rifle in the game with all DLC, this is an utterly devastating gun when used properly and to such an extent that it makes up for Krieg’s lackluster use of such weapons by a massive margin. Slag element, with either Gentleman’s prefix for critical damage to make up Krieg’s lack of boosts for it, or Barking for higher base damage, the inital shot hits, jumps upward to hit a second time, then blossoms out five times simultaneously for seven total hits all at full damage along with splash damage. It makes this a guaranteed slagging gun for Krieg even without Fuel the Fire, and the massive damage output makes it a viable killing gun even with the reduction of damage to already slagged enemies, even to being a one-shot killer. Paired with the boost to magazine size for damage output and with Bloodsplosion, this gun can slag entire mobs with ease thanks to the slag Novas and easily sets them up for greater punishment by Krieg’s other weapons, particularly his explosive armaments. Also one of the easiest weapons in the game to obtain, making it a requirement for sheer ease of access alone.
The Lyudmila: The second strongest sniper in the game with all DLC, and the strongest in the base game, this Vladof sniper has massive damage, a huge 125% critical boost and devastating fire rate and accuracy when scoped. Add in that all projectiles split into three at distance for full unlisted damage to each and at the cost of just one ammo per shot, it makes for one of the most powerful guns in the game. Krieg’s magazine size boost paired with already high fire rate and accuracy makes this sniper rifle a perfect stand-in/replacement for pretty much any of his assault rifles except maybe the Bekah, being on par with it as a result. Effective in all elements but slag, even in non-elemental for even higher base damage, and all preferably in Gromky prefix for max damage though Dobby for stability is a good alternative. Due to how difficult it can be to farm this weapon at all, let alone to a desired element and/or prefix, it’s entirely optional to the build but the sheer power at distance and in fire rate alone make it excellent for this build without even adding in its other abilities.
The Gear:
The Dreadnought build does rely a good bit on what shields and COMs are used with it, relics being more of a player preference and grenades making up a good chunk of Krieg’s artillery.
Shields:
Krieg spends even more time in melee range with this build, so the shield use focuses primarily on what enemies he faces and whether the damage is melee or gun oriented to deal with the enemy in question. It does retain some of the adaptive shield use like the ElemenTitan build, though some of the priority use shields are moved around.
The Antagonist: One of the best shields in the game with a slew of potent abilities. It grants up to a 49% all around damage reduction on top of a sizable shield capacity, recharge rate and delay, and has a 50% chance to utilize a bullet deflection ability similar to Maya’s Kinetic Reflection kill skill, only it’s active all the time, even when the shield is depleted. Deflected bullets hit for up to 880% additional damage, while still retaining/activating any of Krieg’s offensive damaging/boosting skills. To round it off, while charged the shield fires off homing slag projectiles, freeing Krieg up to use another elemental weapon and granting him slagging capability during BXR and Release the Beast, a crucial bit of support that makes up for what is usually a huge disadvantage to the action skill. For this build it makes Krieg even tankier and lets him focus on melee damage even more when the bullets are swarming his way, as well as letting him get good use out of other elemental weapons or his explosive arsenal without having to worry about keeping up slag on enemies, and in melee range the damage reduction is still mitigated enough that it allows the shield to still go down often enough for him to utilize shield depletion skills.
The Rough Rider: The only Jakobs shield, has zero capacity but a huge boost to health and a 20% flat damage reduction ability. This makes the most of Krieg’s shield depletion skills, and with this build it keeps him at near peak melee combat effectiveness at all times as well as granting a massive boost to shotgun damage. Required for this build and the most frequently used for heavier melee combat.
The Hide of Terramorphous: A high capacity, high recharge and lengthy delay roid shield that also has a nova effect and melee spikes, all fire elemental. This shield was made for melee range combat and with this build it works well with Krieg’s increased resilience to damage by keeping him on fire with it’s own fire damage abilities even if he’s not actively using elemental weaponry. Preferably Grounded prefix to negate shock damage if possible, but any version works wonders on this build, with roid damage to boost melee and make the most of his shield depletion skills on top of every form of fire damage in melee range to ignite enemies and himself.
Flame of the Firehawk: An old reliable for Krieg, even next to the Hide of Terramorphous this pulls ahead as the better Nova shield of the two with how it works with Krieg’s shield delays and shield depletion skills. It fires off continuous fire Novas when depleted, and since it can set Krieg ablaze with each Nova it constantly would have his damage resistance engaged with Numbed Nerves and let him take damage to keep his melee and shotgun damage up with Salt the Wound, all while damaging surrounding enemies constantly. With use of a Moxxi weapon this would entirely negate the overall damage intake Krieg receives, and with Salt the Wound active as a result would make it a perfect pairing with a fire or slag Slow Hand to make the most of all the fire damage being put out, or a Slag Rapier for melee combat.
The Blockade: A massive capacity shield with a bugged, constantly active all around damage reduction up to a total of 38% for when you need to tank your way through anything. For this build, the Antagonist is a better option with it’s supplementation to damage dealing thanks to slagging and overpowered bullet reflection, but this shield is excellent for dealing with bosses and powerful melee oriented enemies, so it’s definitely viable, especially with how much damage resistance Krieg has to supplement it with on top of its own.
The Impaler: A variant spiker shield with a solid capacity even at OP8, it reacts to enemy melee attacks with corrosive melee spikes, while it reacts to bullet attacks with homing corrosive projectiles. Combined with the Florentine for slag/shock damage it lets him shred through loaders and other armored/robotic enemies, making it ideal for such enemy filled areas in the game. Though it only fires projectiles to react to bullet attacks, not thrown projectiles or other such attacks, but they are buffed by Krieg’s boosts to grenade damage. Optional here, but again makes excellent damaging ability for proper enemies.
Grenades:
Krieg has a few good options with this build, a few are still more universal however.
Meteor Shower: A Seraph MIRV grenade that throws out ludicrous numbers of child grenades to trap enemies in a minefield at the drop of a hat, and since Bloodsplosion can activate from any damage type kill, it can make turning mobs into tiny bits at any range a breeze.
Magic Missile: Slow grenade regeneration and high damage with two (blue variant) or four (purple variant, preferred) high speed homing projectiles that can kill some enemies outright, though also can damage Krieg at the same time if too close.
Chain Lightning:: An auto aiming, slow grenade regenerating lightning bolt that arcs out to hit multiple enemies, it works well to strip shields but is a bit under-powered as a grenade itself.
Quaser: A more crowd control focused grenade, it acts as a Singularity grenade and Tesla in one, dragging enemies together and shocking them all for a small period. Good for shield stripping but not as good for DoT infliction, with this build it works well to draw enemies together for explosive damage bombings and/or Bloodsplosion chains.
Fastball: Some of the highest grenade damage in the game restricted to a small area and only within throwing distance, these grenades are perfect for Krieg in melee to medium range, able to kill enemies outright by themselves with one or two tosses. All elements including explosive, but excluding slag thanks to the already high damage. For this build they are almost a priority over the other grenades since they are perfect for Krieg to punish enemies up close as well as setting up an enemy at range to weaken it enough that a follow-up with a weapon would result in an overkill Bloodsplosion.
Class Mods:
Krieg has a few more varied options for COMs in this build depending on whether your play style leans more towards melee or explosive damage output, though also allows for a good balance of both.
Legendary Psycho: The most balanced of the COMs for this build, boosting burn damage and magazine size by up to 37% and adding 1.5 seconds to shield recharge delay, on top of adding 5 points to all six of his first tier skills, in the case of this build Blood-filled Guns, Empty the Rage, Feed the Meat, and Fuel the Fire being the significant ones. Grants major boosts to magazine size, health and melee damage with further delayed shield recharges, and pushing self-ignition chance to astounding levels along with an absurd 400% elemental activation chance to enemies.
Legendary Reaper: Grants up to a 99% duration boost to all kill skills, for this build boosting Taste of Blood, Blood Overdrive and Fuel the Fire all by 5 for insanely high damage reduction and gain of Bloodlust stacks per kill, massively increased melee damage per Bloodlust stack and a massive increase to self-ignition chance and elemental effect chances. Makes Krieg an utterly insane tank capable of hacking, burning and exploding his way through enemies no matter what they throw at him. A primary COM for this build for tanking.
Legendary Sickle: Adds up to 56% additional melee damage on top of all other boosts, in this case boosting Taste of Blood, Fuel the Blood, Empty the Rage, and Silence the Voices all by 5, granting Krieg phenomenally destructive melee damage and explosive damaging abilities together on top of greater damage resilience to smash through any enemies in melee range. Primary COM for melee combat on this build.
Tasty/Hot Wound A blue Wound COM that boosts Boiling Blood and Taste of Blood by 6 and 5 for whichever is preferable, granting greater damage resistance or longer Bloodlust stack duration on top of up to a 30% boost to weapon fire rates on kill. This COM is useful for those times when fire rate does matter, and makes Krieg more resilient to damage while keeping his Bloodlust high or maxed out for as long as possible, even to the point of staying maxed in combat.
Tasty/Flesh Crunch: A blue Crunch COM that boosts explosive damage up to 44% and boosts Taste of Blood and Strip the Flesh by 6 and 5 for whichever is preferable, making Krieg deal massive explosive damage while tanking as much incoming damage as possible. Great for grenade focused and BX Bombardier damage runs or focusing on explosive weapons.
Diesel/Driven Blister A blue Blister COM, granting up to 6 additional grenades for total capacity and up to 66% additional kill skill duration while boosting Fuel the Blood and Blood Overdrive by 6 and 5 for whichever is preferable to grant Krieg maximum melee and explosive/grenade based Bloodlust boosted damage for as long as possible, making an excellent synergy between melee attacks and thrown exploding buzz axes.
Salt/Rage Meat: A blue Meat COM that increases Salt the Wound and Empty the Rage by 6 and 5 for whichever is more preferable for the player and adds a flat amount of health regen at up to 1512.8 per second as well as increased shield delay of up to 1.5 seconds. Used when focusing on shield depletion skills in tandem with use of the Rough Rider shield for heavy melee/close shotgun range combat and allowing for better tanking thanks to the addition of flat heath regeneration.
Relics:
Krieg in this build only uses a few relics, but all for express purposes in given scenarios.
Explosive Elemental Relic: Your basic boost to explosive damage, up to 39% on top of all other boosts from skills and COMs to make Krieg wreck anything in his path.
Blood of the Seraphs: A health boost and regeneration relic granting 1% regeneration and up to an additional 39% to total health, this is Krieg’s only form of base regeneration, typically with use the Rough Rider or Blockade shield for the truly overwhelming battles that require excessive use of his shield depletion skills and roid melee damage.
Heart of the Ancients: An E-tech relic that boosts heath and Fight for Your Life Duration plus boosts damage for one weapon type, shotguns in the case of this build as they are Krieg’s most used weapon type.
Stockpile Relic: Three types for this build, Assault Rifle, Shotgun and Pistol ammo respectively.