Tear my build apart, please

Borderlands 2 Gaige the Mechromancer
#1

As promised, I present to you (TA-DAAA!!!) my currently-OP 3 Gaige build for your rip-it-up pleasure…

The build itself…this followed no particular pattern aside from my putting points into things that seemed to make sense as I brought her up to lvl 72. The idea of a shock-based build appealed to me, given that shock is neutral and that it’s obviously well within her potential. Anarchy is a crucial part of it as well but limited to 250 stacks which allows me to ADS with fairly good results without discord. DT is my fallback option when things get too busy and/but not used on a regular basis. I guess I play her in a run-n-gun fashion…I’ll warm up with a little anarchy pre-stacking in the Dust and then go looking for trouble to wade thru. If she goes down and respawns, I usually go right back to the fight, rather than re-stacking anarchy all over again. The only time I will fully pre-stack is before a Peak run. I may swap the Slow Hand for the CC or the TF for the Fibber, depending on what’s coming up, but I usually rely on her main loadout in most situations, rather than pausing in the middle of a fight and swapping stuff around. I rarely discord (the point is there in part to get down the tree), and have deliberately avoided IO…it just doesn’t work well for me.

Main gear includes (no particular order, all guns shock unless otherwise noted)…

  • Gromky Lyuda
  • Severe Hail (the Moxxie healing is a bonus and not the main reason)
  • Practicable Slow Hand, slag (one of her two main slag tools, but I have killed with it more than once; Moxxie healing, same as w/the Hail)
  • Win-Win Fibber
  • Magic Missile (other main slag tool)
  • Antagonist (slag trails are a bonus, not necessarily relied on for slag)
  • Leg. Catalyst COM
  • Shock Bone

Backpack (again, shock unless noted)…

  • Potent Thunderball Fists
  • Practicable Conference Call
  • Neutralizing Hornet (for when corrosive is a help)
  • Impetuous SWORDSPLOSION (same as above, substitute expl. for corr.)
  • Explicit Harold (same again, although I think this is one I just haven’t pulled from inventory yet)
  • Grounded Black Hole
    …and a few other things that she’s really just carrying around, rather that seriously relying on, like a Bee, Sheriff/Deputy Badges, Chain Lightning, a couple of Singularities, a Leg. Anarchist. There are Leg. Mechro and Roboteer COMs in storage as well.

As I said earlier, the build hasn’t followed any set pattern aside from the shock focus, it simply reflects what I’d read about her skills, etc and what I thought would be good choices for what and how I wanted to play her. She’s been a joy to have, but there also have been times where she’s struggled some and that may well be due in part to my occasionally sloppy’ish way of running her. I’d like to get her farther up the OP lvls, but its not a deal-breaker if I can’t get her to OP 8.

I think that covers it pretty well - y’all do yo’ thang now, please…

  • Slightly edited to clarify/expand on a couple of things
#2

Personally, I’m only a bit puzzled as to why you took Fancy Maths instead of The Better Half or Unstoppable Force. After all, you already use Blood Soaked Shields.

2 Likes
#3

This is the one thing I still don’t get : both BSS and Unstoppable Force are kill skills. I understand how UF is desirable toward DOTs, but FM offers constant shield regen buffs. I know I’ve asked about this before, but I’m just not getting it.

That said, The Better Half I agree would be a huge benefit for the Hail, Fibber, Lyuda, et al.

And just one point in IO for the COM? I understand it doesn’t work for some folks, but it would be worth trying the one point I think. You’re welcome to ignore me on that as I max it to make it work properly.

The OC tree is the same as mine - you know I’m a Nth Degree fan - and works well with the Antagonist.

Have a Chain Lightning? That with a Slagga is extremely effective with that build.

3 Likes
#4

I’d say redundancy. Even more so with multiple ways of having health regeneration at hand. UF, as you said, is for countering DOT.

I nearly wanted to say this aswel, but unlike me, the OP actually uses more than one slagging item (in my case the Seraph Dahl grenade who’s name I cant recall). It could stil come in handy by stealing a point from Evil Enchantress however. With the Leg. Catalyst it stil leaves it at 9/5.

2 Likes
#5

I can not properly reply to your build right now, but can already say that there is no reason to have 26 points in LBT and not spec MiS. You can borrow a point from EE, EB or WDT without loss at all.
The damage you give to DT through it is insane. Spec it once and see the difference!

Also, one point I should add: grenades take the most from EB/EE combo due to the higher DoT they have when compared to guns. If you are not using shock grenades, especially the spell grenades, there is no reason to max out both skills. The Necromancer is a better COM for shock builds that focus in gun damage rather than elemental damage as you get WDT multiplicative boost plus a nice card (reload speed, mag size, critical, fire rate).

4 Likes
#6

Worst build ever.
Checks loadout
Not that it matters.

I kid… Other than Fancy Mathematics, I’d use that.

1 Like
#7

I only have a few minutes here, but I can say that the discussion so far is exactly what I’d hoped to get. I’ll be back later, probably tomorrow, to answer what’s been asked so far and see what else folks have to say.

1 Like
#8

Hmm, I don’t use MiS, but it sounds as though I’m missing something. Now, where’s that drawing board?

4 Likes
#9

MiS looks like it shouldn’t do anything, but I can conclusively say that it is an appreciable buff to DT.

On my Peak climb, I had it, then spec’d out and could immediately see the difference.

3 Likes
#10

With MiS, my DT dont even need a Roid shield to not only hold his ground but kill a lot of things. Especially when it bursts with Robot Rampage.

2 Likes
#11

Responding to various questions, comments, etc…

  • Fancy Maths, BSS, UF used, or not; this is one area I was specifically looking for feedback on. All three are good skills, but choosing what to use or not use kinda came down to ‘let’s try this and this, and not this, and see how it goes.’ For me, at least then, using FM and BSS seemed to work well enough that I didn’t notice UF’s missing buff. I know that I tried different combinations of the three at least once. I do remember giving thought to the regen properties of each as well.

  • IO; To me and the way I play her, IO just doesn’t make sense. I did try it for a couple of lvls when I could spec into it, but not shooting a enemy, particularly a rabid or UBA or similar, that’s steaming down on me was harder to do than remembering to not reload. I haven’t tried it with full points, admittedly, but it’s a skill that I feel I can safely overlook since I have other slag options I’m used to using, and I’m aware that by doing so I’m not FULLY utilizing her COM and I’m fine with that.

  • MiS; This is one I admit I had not given enough thought to, since DT isn’t a major part of how I play her. I’m definitely going to try this. EDIT - I’m gonna do that tonight actually…re-spec, stack anarchy and hit the Peak to see what happens.

  • Necromancer COM; This is one I’ve had on my list to at least experiment with…problem is getting my hands on one. At some point soon’ish I’ll send her back in there on a chest-hunt and hope that one with a decent spec shows up.

…did I miss anything?

3 Likes
#12

Gabriel alluded to your choice of MM over a shock grenade being a big loss of DoT damage. I highly recommend trying a damage oriented shock grenade and using another slag source ( or none at all - I’m pretty lax about slag at high stacks ).

That said, Ninja uses MMs and she knows her Gaige far better than me.

Edit - I will say this is a great thread, cuz I’m rethinking my build too. We seem to have a very similar approach to Gaige and DT, so it’s actually helping me too.

3 Likes
#13

Build

  • IMO “More Pep”, “Electrical Burn”, and “Evil Enchantress” are worthless unless you’re specifically building for a shock DoT build.
  • And because of that, there is almost no reason to go down that tree to get “WDT”. Because unless you’re going for a thematic build, there is no reason to use shock weapons besides the Twister. And you aren’t.
  • “The Better Half” is really good for Gaige.
  • “Buck Up” is amazing for solo play. Even if Death-trap screws up sometimes, it’s worth it when he doesn’t.
  • With Moxxi weapons and BSS shields, FM is pretty worthless like everyone is saying.
  • UF is great for the movement speed, but the shield regen is a very strong mechanic, that’s highly praised on the other characters that have it. Even with BSS, it helps to keep you alive for up to 7 seconds between kills.
  • “Explosive Clap” is a great AoE stun that goes underappreciated.
  • “20% Cooler” and a bone lets you keep DT out almost all the time, and not just when things get hairy.
  • “Sharing is Caring” is great to give DT a bit more survivability with the Antagonist or Blockade people tend to use. But you can summon DT with a Hide of Terra on and then change shields, and he still keeps the HoT. Turning him into a pretty effective killer.

This is a very bad weapon for Gaige. It can’t proc CE or the “Nth Degree”, and it has a high chance to kill you with the reduced accuracy from Anarchy.

This com is really only for DoT builds.

And I’m just following orders. :wink:

4 Likes
#14

I’ll add another vote for IO. It’s meant I rarely have to use a slag weapon as it procs reasonably often.

I also get what you mean about Gaige being fun but sometimes struggling. But that all really changed for me after I got three particular weapons: the Thunderball Fists (which, admittedly, you need the patience of a saint to farm), the Storm (the WEP is your friend here. I was very lucky and got it on my first attempt! I also had one which carried me from L67 all the way to L72) and, most definitely, the Twister. Especially with the latter it became “what Rabid Stalkers?” I’ve never gone through the WEP with any character so fast since getting that gun. And with that and IO I’ve 100% gone through the WEP without using any slag weapon at all. Even the massive Loader guarding the compound where the LLMs are goes down in 3-4 clips max (`a clip being two shots!).

I’m a recent convert. You can probably tell! :grin:

3 Likes
#15

Except for a few differences your build is what I’m running for Queen Scream (here it is for comparison):
http://bl2skills.com/mechromancer.html#550020110000350025150510413150151050
Main weapons are a shock Vengeful Infinity, DPUH for second winds, GN and depending on my mood either a Rustler’s Quad, elemental plasma castor of choice or Slagga in the fourth slot. Grenade is a x4 MM, shield is a Bee, The Transformer or Blockade while the com is either TN Necromancer or L. Catalyst (with the L. Catalyst I tend to run a shock Fibber with ricochet barrel). I ran her with FM/UF right up to UVHM (no BSS) just to see if it was possible- it was. If you aren’t using BSS I’d go with both FM and UF at 5/5 but since you are I’d suggest going with either CuT or TBH or maybe a split of both. Still, what you have seems pretty workable, maybe add in another corrosive weapon weapon such as a plasma castor SMG (large ammo pool to work with) or a SR (hits very hard and still reasonable accurate up to about 120+ stacks of Anarchy)…

4 Likes
#16

Some questions.

First of all, are you playing with the Unofficial Community Patch?

Secondly, this is just for some confirmation. Are you relying on DoTs to deal damage in your build, or are you just dealing out shock damage in general?

Something i haven’t seen so far is a suggestion for the Zapper Classmod, which boosts WDT and gives a increase in shock damage, which is multiplicative.

#17

Now, let me do it properly as I got about 15 min before starting to work.

First of all, the BFF tree:
I could say that the points in both CuT and FM are kinda wasted because 1) you are using a Moxxi gun in your loadout and 2) BSS. As it seems a mobbing build, BSS covers all your shield needs. UF would be a much better complement because it not only protects you from DoT but also gives you move speed, so you can more easily take cover/close the gap to the next target.
TBH is a no brainer, at least to me. Fire Rate is what better complement the gun damage you get from Anarchy stacks, as they multiply each other. TBH is the only gun dps boost that Gaige has outise of Anarchy/Discord. There is no reason to not get it at all.

Second, your LBT tree.
If you are not using grenades to get most of your DoT damage, there is no reason to waste points maxing EB, EE and MP. By specing out of these skills, you are going to free some skill points.
About WDT, it is not optimal building for Shock damage only but pretty viable I must say. If you like it, go for it. But if you dont really want to use DT to help you killing things as you are doing now, stop filling this skill tree once you get WDT. @khimerakiller pointed out some nice options to spec in this scenario, like giving DT stun power through Explosive Clap.

Your OC tree is pretty straight foward and Nth Degree synergyzes extremely well with almost ALL your gear because of unlisted pellets. Maybe adding a Shock Pimpernel could be good as a backpack gun. The only thing I personally would change, as I said, is the COM. If you are not relying on DoT damage, the Legendary Catalyst is pretty much wasted and you are better with a Necromancer, that focus on Gaige gun damage.

As a note, Shock is a pretty good element to run the Peak with because there is no element matching there outside of the armored bosses that take most from corrosive so WDT actually gives Gaige an Edge for using Shock weaponry.

This is a build I could use to focus on Gaige dps and still give DT some utility: http://bl2skills.com/mechromancer.html#500050141400050052120500412150151050

There are 2 points left, so you can chose between 1) Max out MoSS and UF 2) Raise your stacking ceiling or 3) give DT more utility through Buck Up.

3 Likes
#18

I shall appoint thee … “Saint shure” … Arise! :grin:

2 Likes
#19

1- No, I play on the XBox One so no patch :slight_smile:.

2- Both actually. i use grenades like the Storm Front to both insta-heal with the Grog but to also kill with DOT by tossing out 5-8 at a time, depending on what it is I’m fighting. It was a major factor on her Peak runs when dealing with the more dangerous enemies- Scorch, Black Queen, Doc Mercy, the Assassins, spidertanks and even Saturn and OMGWTH. First, shoot them with the Slagga then toss 6-9 Storm Fronts on them while wearing a shock BotA and the L. Catalyst. Continue to shoot them with other shock weapons like the Fibber, plasma castor or even SR like the Storm or shock Lyudmila while retreating to a ‘safe’ haven and waiting for your grenades to regenerate. Switch to The Transformer shield when dealing with surveyors but for the most part I used the Bee, and for special cases the Blockade.

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#20

Real Life is keeping me from spending too much time on this right now, but I do want to mention that I’m looking at a semi-serious re-spec based on what’s been suggested so far. I’m hoping to try it sometime this weekend.