Hello, I am kinda new on these forums, but over the past 3-4 years I’ve tinkered around with builds for different classes, here is the tankiest build I’ve come up with yet for Axton.
http://bl2skills.com/commando.html#05054155013242010000052050155051
This build is a min/maxed shield tank build focused on keeping axton in the fight for as long as possible, occasionally dipping for cover.
Guerilla
Not the best tree, but it helps this build to go down into this tree, because Willing is broken and slag never hurts.
We take Ready as a skill over Sentry because reloading faster allows for more damage, which this build needs to actually kill things.
Willing is one of the main points of the build, the faster your shield starts to recharge, the faster you can get back into the fight, and with all the equipment this skill almost provides 100% uptime for your shield.
We max Able out to give even more survivability to the build, and since your out in the fight all the time, you will almost always be regenerating health.
Onslaught is up to you to decide taking over the turret skills, but I prefer it because any damage skills are desperately needed for this build, and we take Scorched Earth because we need some backup damage.
Grenadier is always a welcomed skill, since we are using the “Magic Missile,” in our grenade slot, extra slag never hurts, right?
We skip over Crisis Management because our shield is almost ALWAYS going to be up, we would have no use for a buff while shields are down.
Finally we double down and take Double Up because slag is never a bad thing.
Gunpowder
Anything in this tree is really up to you, but we spec into it to get Overload and Longbow, but the longbow is your preference.
We take Overload because this build will primarily use an Orge, or an assault rifle of your choice, and we take Longbow because I play with a team, and throwing a bubble on them while a teammate revives helps more then you would think.
Survival
Ah, survival, my old friend, having some of the best skills like Grit or Gemini.
We max Healthy because extra health will help the little amount of time when your shield is down, and we only take two in Preparation because having some regen IS nice, but this is a shield-tank build, not an HP sponge like Krieg builds.
We max Pressure for the same reason as Ready; this skill will almost provide 100% uptime of your shield, sadly this is dependent on health, but the extra regen will NEVER hurt.
I take Phananx Shield because I play co-op and my team needs the extra shield, but this is up to you to decide if you need it.
We max Quick Charge because extra shield on kill? Yes please! Albeit we arn’t much of a damage class, but extra shield never hurts. You could also take these points and throw them into Last Ditch Effort to provide a chance at revival, but its up to you on that.
We ace Resourceful to give that extra damage from the turret more chances to shine, and who doesn’t grab this skill?
Ah, Grit do I really need to explain how broken this skill is? 20% chance to feign death and keep on fighting like nothing happened. With some of the HP tank builds, I see my friends using a Legend Pointman COM, but this set uses Ranger, for reasons explained later.
Finnally, to wrap up the skills, we take Gemini, making two slag turrets a thing.
Weaponry
Generally you are gonna be using Rifles of your choice, but two rifles I’d recommend are the Orge, with the reload prefix, and a slag/shock Veruc. Besides those I’d recommed carrying a Florentine around, for it’s slag capabilities, and a strong rocket launcher, namely the Norfleet or a Purple Vlad Rocket.
Equipment
For your shield, its ultimately preference, but I use these:
The Bee for the insane damage it’s able to give weapons, making up for the low damage of the build.
Evolution/Neogenator Either for the insane damage resist or a lower Recharge Delay
Cracked Sash purely because it has the lowest recharge delay, however the others metioned are miles ahead of this in terms of more/less everything.
Your COM is preference between either the Legendary Pointman, or the Legendary Ranger.
The Pointman is better in terms of survival, giving you 20% extra grit chance which is nigh-overpowered in the hands of the lucky, and giving you extra health and non-conditional HP Regen, which while nice, will hurt Pressure in the long run.
While the Ranger mod will increase general skills, it will be used because of the massive buff it gives to your team’s shields (56% rate, 35% delay), as well as your own, and the skills are ok. It comes down to you which you prefer, and if you are used to the 40% Grit that Pointman provides.
Your relic is going to be a Protection Relic, most likely in a shade of purple, its two effects being Recharge Rate, and recharge delay. This relic, combined with the build and COM, can make even a Bee recharge in two seconds.
Your grenade is going to be the Magic Missile acquired in “Assault On Dragon Keep,” if for some reason you don’t own ADK, then your next best bet is going to be a slag singularity, or a slag transfusion. The main point of your grenade is to keep everyone slagged 24/7, otherwise your wasting bullets, and time.
Playstyle
Generally your playstyle is going to be that of an aggressive, because your shield recharges so fast, you can afford to be aggressive, as for bosses, you can be hyper aggressive, just don’t be point-blank in enemies faces.
Unoffical Community Patch Changes
Oh boy, decided to add this onto this build instead of copy-pasting this entire thing, while changing equipment only.
Weaponry
I’d swap out the Florentine with a slag Bearcat, it has AoE slag, and a higher chance at that too!
Another choice weapon now is The CHOPPER, a Bandit weapon with the largest clip in the game, and the fastest firerate aswell, with the patch, it deals something like 4x it’s old damage, only really usefull as a FFYL weapon however, not as a main.
Skills
Spec outta Gemini & Grit, spec into Ranger, enough said, instead of the 10/5 being just 10% on everything, its now 20% at 10/5, and this build actually does really good damage now.
Equipment
Just change out your choice shield with a full-bandit Naught, and change your Protection Relic with a Capacity & Rate one.
Credits
My friends for tinkering with this build while I was leveling my Axton up to OP8, also, lemme just say that the grinding in the OP levels are NOT fun, so much dang grinding out perfect Bees and Verucs.
Gearbox, obvious reasons.
The creator of UCP for reviving this saddly dying game.
I guess you too for taking 10-15 minutes to read this, because I’m out of things to say.