Elemental Explosion Axton

Borderlands 2 Axton the Commando
#1

Explosive Axton builds come a dime a dozen and for good reason! They pack some serious firepower! But after playing Maya I really missed the elemental matching mini-game when I went back to Axton so I did some research, it turns out that Maliwan Pistols pack quite the punch! Now you’re not going to absolutely steamroll through everything but it does harken back to TVHM with how easily enemies drop. This doesn’t necessarily mean an easier playthrough, just a more rewarding one.
Update V1.2

  • Due to lack of effective damage I have removed the Survival build

Pros

  • Maliwan Pistols get 80% splash damage according to grenade damage resources, significantly higher than most other weapons
  • Matching Elements = More Damage
  • Great survivability and Unmatched FFYL potential
  • High Risk/High Reward playstyle
  • Visually appealing

Cons

  • Potential to burn through pistol ammo quickly
  • Requires specific gear to work correctly
  • Farming process can be quite time consuming
  • Last Ditch Effort/Crisis Management are situational
  • Requires more accuracy than a traditional Explosive build

The Build

Calculator Link
http://bl2skills.com/commando.html#55055100515500515012015550000000

First slot - Fire Potent Animosity
Second slot - Storm or Shock Snider
Third slot - Corrosive Potent Animosity
Fourth slot - Grog Nozzle or Rubi
Grenade - Shock/Explosive Fastball
Class Mod - Legendary Soldier Mod
Relic - Pistol Damage Relic (Heart of the Ancients)
Shield - Big Boom Blaster

Updated Decisions
Fortunately Storm is one of the very few snipers that Axton has at his disposal that also benefit from splash damage bonuses. The gun damage from the class mod will ensure that plenty of damage is being done. This also reduces the ammo consumption on this already ammo-hungry build. If you don’t have a Storm then a Shock Snider will suffice.

Rubi
I’m partial to the Grog Nozzle for most of my builds, the “sputter” effect that it randomly causes makes it pretty difficult to aim with this build however. The Rubi looks like an attractive replacement, just not looking forward to farming for a good one again… getting 'Nam flashbacks from the last time… shudder

The Potent Animosity

After what felt like days farming I was unable to get a single purple Animosity, if one dropped it was either White or Green most of the time with the very rare blue which always happened to be Slag element. After my friend generously used his PS3 to gib the guns over to me I finally have some stats that we can see.

OP4 Potent Animosity
Damage 277688
Accuracy 92.6
Fire Rate 2.3
Reload Speed 2.0
Mag Size 13

This gun performs just as well as I thought it would! The accuracy is just high enough that it requires you to ADS in order to make the most of each shot which isn’t a terrible thing. After using it I think I see why purple Maliwans are so infrequent in the loot pool, on OP4 it CHUNKS off HP, we’re talking 3-5 body shots will drop something. It’s pretty ridiculous and unusual in such a high level playthrough when you’re used to everything being such a bullet sponge. I’d have to say the one gripe I have about the gun is the accuracy really comes into play when the AI starts rolling around like crazy

With Onslaught
Turret + Slag Crit = 13507K
Turret + Slag Hit = 8553K

Farming the Gear

The Potent Animosity
Best in Slot: Maliwan Grip

After spending at least 2k Eridium on Butt Stallion, I still have yet to run into a purple Animosity from her or anywhere for that matter. My process includes farming the Dragon Raid opening every single chest, once i hit 500E, go back to BS, spend all of it, then go to Handsome Sorcerer, rinse/repeat…

Big Boom Blaster

Pyro Pete drop, complete Torgue Campaign and farm him til it drops. This lovely shield drops a booster that refills our fastballs so we can keep healing on the move. Just pull out your Nozzle and smack them upside their face.

Fastball

This drops from Boll from the quest In Memoriam, once you complete the quest, you can farm him anytime.

Heart of the Ancients

LLM’s drop these, best way to find them is with Doctor’s Orders in Hyperion Wildlife Preservation

Thank you for reading!

2 Likes
#2

:rofl: That’s gotta be the understatement of the year! Getting not one… not two… but THREE (3) Aquamarine pistols, all with Vladof barrels and in three different elements… I’m guessing that the grip and prefix also matters here. Anyone feeling THAT lucky, should immediately go out and buy a lottery ticket. I think we’ll have seen both BL 3 and BL 4 before we actually manage to get them as a legit drop.

I can almost hear the emergency calls to that NCIS agent. What was his name again? Gub… Gibbs… Gibbed… :rofl: Have fun farming, but I think 500 Eridium is cutting it a bit thin… How about 5 million?

3 Likes
#3

Lol I did manage to get one but it was Slag, go figure… ah well. I now have one for each element but they’re not Umbrage, the splash damage still applies so I’ll give them a go in Digi. I got a Corrosive Phobia and Electric Aegis, can’t wait to see what they can do

1 Like
#4

Mhm. I’m admittedly not a fan of Axton, nor Maliwan.
But what about the Evie? I’m not sure anymore if it is splash or not but perhaps that it could work?
It’s a unique, of course, but it should cut down on the farmign nescecary pretty dramatically.

That said, I’d like to see some gameplay of this. I’m quite curious to see it in practise.

2 Likes
#5

Unfortunately Evie is in the list of weapons that doesn’t receive additional splash damage from Axton’s grenade bonuses. That being said however, I did find an interesting article regarding Maliwan’s splash damage, seemed kinda common sense after I read it but the splash damage scales off the gun’s damage. If that’s the case the gun damage bonus Leg Soldier has would double as splash damage too! Been trying to find a Leg Soldier mod but tubbies are being particularly stingy about their drops. Once I get my hands on one I’ll see what i can do about uploading some gameplay

2 Likes
#6

That’s unfortunate to hear. Stil, I appreciate the quick answer.

2 Likes
#7

For a Leg Soldier, the Snowman chest will be a more reliable source than Tubbies. Leg Soldier is in the world pool and so can also drop from LLM’s too.

2 Likes
#8

Wow I can’t believe I didn’t even think of that as a possibility haha thanks! Hopefully I’ll bag an excellent Pistol damage relic too!

2 Likes
#9

I got a corrosive aquamarine animosity with a torgue grip (no it doesn’t consume four ammo per shot, it’s still only two), and It doesn’t take much of a hit to accuracy either as it still has 92 accuracy.

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#10

That sounds pretty sweet, I’m having a terrible time getting a single one to drop lol if you’re on PS4 would you mind showing me?

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#11

I’m on Ps3, and my system actually froze on me before I got the chance to save the that animosity in my inventory. I remember most of the stats though. It was OP8 with somewhere around 410k damage, 2.3 fire rate, 2.8 reload speed, a mag size of 8, a corrosive DOT of 15.3k (or somewhere around there), and a elemental effect chance of 15.6%.

1 Like
#12

That adds up to the gear calculator’s numbers, especially the reload and mag, that was one impressive drop! Sorry to hear it didn’t save properly for ya.

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#13

I’m not too bummed about it. That’s not even what I was really looking for. I was looking for garnet anarchists for my zero. I just thought I’d post here to let you know that it is possible to get them.

1 Like
#14

Thanks to my pal, I got the guns I needed to work with, currently streaming on Twitch if anyone wants to take a look at the build in Axtion https://www.twitch.tv/pally_ftw

1 Like